News

PBS led all networks in nominations for the 42nd annual News and Documentary Emmy Awards, landing 52 overall — thanks to the strength of signature series “Frontline,” “Independent Lens,” “Pov,” “Nova,” “PBS News Hour” and “Nature.”

The National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences announced this year’s nominees on Tuesday morning, noting that more than 2,200 submissions were entered, from content that premiered in calendar year 2020. CNN was next with 41 nods, including five each for “AC360,” CNN Films and “The Situation Room with Wolf Blitzer.” CNN Films docs earning nominations included three for “John Lewis: Good Trouble.”

When combined with various partnerships, “Frontline” landed the most nominations overall, with 19. Next in line, with 16 each, were CBS’ “60 Minutes” and Vice’s “Vice News Tonight.”

Best documentary nominations included three for PBS: Frontline’s “Once Upon A Time In Iraq,” Independent Lens’ “Belly of the Beast” and Pov’s “Advocate.” They’re up against Netflix’s “Athlete A,...

The 73rd Writers Guild Awards is underway in a virtual ceremony, honoring the best in original and adapted screenplay and documentary, TV, new media, news, radio/audio and promotional writing.

For the first time, in recent history, the awards ceremonies for both WGA West and WGA East will be in lock step as both have been merged tonight in one live stream. Typically, two ceremonies are held separately in both L.A. and NYC at the same time, with both reading off winners at separate times. Quite often, the NY awards ceremony will get ahead of LA’s and announce winners, completely spoiling the suspense for anyone in the Beverly Hilton ballroom.

Tonight’s host Kal Penn, clad in a satin purple tux jacket, was live from what looked to be his home. The Harold & Kumar actor mentioned that he just became a WGA member.

“When I joined SAG they just gave me a pin,...

“Bigotry and insanity are different,” Psychiatrist Dr. Dorothy Otnow Lewis says at the beginning of HBO’s documentary Crazy, Not Insane. The idea that someone can kill for perfectly sane, yet irrational reasons goes to the heart of the controversial doctor’s work. Her mother seemed to be able to name every famous anti-Semite. Henry Ford, Richard Wagner, Joe Kennedy and “even Walt Disney,” Lewis lists. The man who made Bambi, which made Lewis cry as a little girl, hated Jews, she bemoans as the film unfolds. You never know what lies underneath even the most innocent appearing exteriors, director Alex Gibney’s documentary, highlights.

The documentary then cuts to one of Dr. Lewis’ earliest cases, the serial killer Joseph Paul Franklin. He preferred to be called a multiple slayer. While Lewis explains how she hoped, at the time of her interviews, she would not be prejudiced, the documentary explores...

Alex Gibney is setting his sights on serial killers in “Crazy, Not Insane,” the latest documentary from the high-profile filmmaker.

Per HBO, the documentary profiles Dorothy Otnow Lewis, a veteran psychiatrist who has studied various infamous murderers. Her research includes videotaped death row interviews and examines the formative experiences and neurological dysfunction of such infamous murderers as Arthur Shawcross and Ted Bundy. Her work challenges the very notion of evil, proposing that murderers are made, not born.

The film also explores the death penalty itself, highlighting research that indicates states with the death penalty tend to have higher murder rates than those without, questioning the theory of the death penalty as a deterrent to violence. The film asks an important question: Once dangerous killers are locked away and the public is protected, why is society so determined to execute these human beings?

“Crazy, Not Insane,” which was recently showcased at Doc NYC,...

Psychiatrist Dr. Dorothy Otnow Lewis is an influential and controversial figure. She interviewed Ted Bundy four times in 1986 at the request of the defense. Dr. Lewis pioneered psychiatric legal avenues by exploring trauma as root causes of horrific crimes in many cases. HBO’s upcoming Crazy, Not Insane will explore Dr. Lewis’ “lifelong attempts to look beyond the grisly details of homicides into the hearts and minds of the killers themselves,” according to the advance press. The documentary debuts Wednesday, Nov. 18 at 9 pm.

Directed and produced by Oscar-winner Alex Gibney, Crazy, Not Insane seeks to challenge “the very notion of evil and proposing that murderers are made not born,” according to the press statement. The documentary, which includes videotaped death row interviews, examines formative experiences and neurological dysfunction as contributing factors in crimes of serial killers such as Bundy and Arthur Shawcross.

The videotapes of her interviews reveal the way...

Alex Gibney is driving from his home in New Jersey to Philadelphia Stadium for Neon’s drive-in premiere of “Totally Under Control,” his hard-hitting exposé about how President Donald Trump and his administration’s response to Covid-19 cost the lives of over 210,000 Americans. Eight months ago, this movie wasn’t even a notion; now it’s one of three non-fiction projects from the Oscar-winning documentarian (“Taxi to the Dark Side”) on multiple platforms this fall. “Totally Under Control” is available On Demand October 13 and hits Hulu October 20.

The pandemic has done little to slow down Gibney and his prolific Jigsaw Prods. His HBO documentary “Crazy, Not Insane” was supposed to debut at SXSW; instead, his intimate profile of forensic psychiatrist Dorothy Otnow Lewis who diagnosed high-profile killers with multiple personality disorders debuted at Venice and will finally reach HBO in November.

Gibney also completed “Agents of Chaos,” his two-part, four-hour...

Alex Gibney is driving from his home in New Jersey to Philadelphia Stadium for Neon’s drive-in premiere of “Totally Under Control,” his hard-hitting exposé about how President Donald Trump and his administration’s response to Covid-19 cost the lives of over 210,000 Americans. Eight months ago, this movie wasn’t even a notion; now it’s one of three non-fiction projects from the Oscar-winning documentarian (“Taxi to the Dark Side”) on multiple platforms this fall. “Totally Under Control” is available On Demand October 13 and hits Hulu October 20.

The pandemic has done little to slow down Gibney and his prolific Jigsaw Prods. His HBO documentary “Crazy, Not Insane” was supposed to debut at SXSW; instead, his intimate profile of forensic psychiatrist Dorothy Otnow Lewis who diagnosed high-profile killers with multiple personality disorders debuted at Venice and will finally reach HBO in November.

Gibney also completed “Agents of Chaos,” his two-part, four-hour...

Absolutely no in the world of documentaries moves as fast as Oscar-winning filmmaker Alex Gibney. Known for award-winning docs like “Taxi to the Dark Side,” “Going Clear: Scientology and the Prison of Belief,” “We Steal Secrets: The Story of WikiLeaks,” (his CV is outrageously long) Gibney already unveiled “Agents Of Chaos” this fall, on September 23 on HBO, a timely and revealing look at Russia’s interference into the 2016 election.

Continue reading ‘Totally Under Control’ Trailer: Alex Gibney’s New Documentary Is A Damning Look At Trump’s Botched Covid-19 Response at The Playlist.

Contrary to president Donald Trump’s repeated declarations, the coronavirus pandemic was not — and still isn’t — totally under control. That lie is central to “Totally Under Control,” the latest documentary from Alex Gibney. Neon, which will distribute the documentary this fall, released a trailer for the upcoming film on Friday morning.

“Totally Under Control” was filmed in secret over five months earlier in the year and focuses on the Trump administration’s ongoing failures to adequately respond to the coronavirus pandemic, which has infected over 7 million Americans, 200,000 of which have died from the virus. The documentary includes a variety of interviews with scientists, medical professionals, and government officials to discern how and why the country’s leadership failed to deal with the pandemic.

Per Neon, the documentary’s synopsis reads: “Where did we go wrong? As the presidential election nears, Americans are increasingly enraged by a lack of clear leadership,...

If there is a presidential election on the horizon, it means its documentary time. There are many pertaining to the last four years of the current inhabitant of the White House. An era that is captured in Liz Garbus’ “All In: The Fight For Democracy” which tackles modern-day voter suppression, currently available on Prime Video, or “Agents of Chaos,” a doc series on HBO centered on Russian interference in the 2016 election.

Continue reading ‘The Way I See It’ Exclusive Clip: Pete Souza On Chronicling Barack Obama As A “Human Being” at The Playlist.

Connecting the seemingly infinite threads of online trolling, Russian subterfuge and the astonishing evolution of American politics has become a favorite past-time of impassioned intellectuals raging against the Trump administration. In trying to pinpoint all the significant factors that led to Trump’s 2016 presidential election victory, some have identified Russia’s interest in American affairs as the key to understanding how we got to where we are today. As Alex Gibney lays out in his new HBO docuseries “Agents of Chaos,” that’s not a specious argument; there is ample evidence that the combination of Russian motivation to campaign against Hillary Clinton combined with Trump’s personal interest in forging Russian relations merged at the right time to catastrophic ends. And yet, “Agents of Chaos” runs into the same problem as most attempts to explain this perfect storm of interests, namely: it is extremely difficult to explain every connection of...

This weekly feature is in addition to TVLine’s daily What to Watch listings and monthly guide to What’s on Streaming.

With more than 530 scripted shows now airing across broadcast, cable and streaming, it’s easy to forget that a favorite comedy is returning, or that the new “prestige drama” you anticipated is about to debut. So consider this our reminder to set your DVR, order a Season Pass, pop a fresh Memorex into the Vcr… however it is you roll.

More from TVLineFall TV 2020: Your Handy Calendar of 80+ Season and Series Premiere DatesWhat's New on Netflix in September — Plus: Amazon,...

Oscar-winning documentary filmmaker Alex Gibney had some choice words about the Trump administration today as he Zoomed into the Venice Film Festival to discuss Crazy Not Insane, his out of competition title that’s playing here. It focuses on Dr. Dorothy Otnow Lewis, a psychiatrist who assesses the sanity of people on death row before they are to be executed and examines what makes someone a serial killer. Gibney came across her as part of research for a scripted project he’s working on with Laura Dern, he said. Dern narrates Crazy, Not Insane.

Lewis, who’s examined numerous serial killers, including Ted Bundy, shared research videotapes of interviewees which show evidence of multiple personalities formed from childhood trauma. She is described as a different kind of homicide detective, less interested in what happened than why and “practices a kind of radical empathy, but within a scientific context,” Gibney explained.

As film and TV try their best to get back into production amidst the constraints of a global pandemic, Oscar-winning filmmaker Alex Gibney has been quietly filming a documentary for the past four months with Ophelia Harutyunyan and Suzanne Hillinger. The project, titled Totally Under Control puts a spotlight on the White House’s failed response to the global pandemic and how it could have been prevented. Neon announced today that they will be releasing the docu in October.

Gibney, Harutyunyan and Hillinger dive deep into how this happened and the pandemic’s devastating impact. The film gives damning testimony from public health officials and hard investigative reporting, Gibney exposes a system-wide collapse caused by a profound dereliction of Presidential leadership.

“With an extraordinary team of collaborators, I was compelled to mount this production when I saw the scale of incompetence and political corruption by the Trump Administration in the face of a global pandemic,...

In a surprise announcement, boutique distributor Neon revealed Thursday that Oscar winner Alex Gibney and his collaborators have been hard at work over the last four months filming a documentary about the White House’s failed response to the pandemic. “Totally Under Control” will be released be Neon in October, with the final date yet to be announced.

The distributor says the doc has a bombshell premise: The film will show that most of the United States’ coronavirus-associated deaths — totaling 190,000 this week — the lockdowns, and most of the economic damage could have been prevented if the federal government had done its job properly.

“The carelessly designed lockdowns and their long-lasting economic effects have led to massive job losses (23 million/14.7 percent in April), widespread hunger, dislocation and a runaway federal deficit. Had the federal government done its job properly — by following clear guidelines in place based on past pandemics — most of...

Alex Gibney has a new documentary film called “Totally Under Control” aimed at President Trump’s response to the coronavirus pandemic. Neon will release the movie this October ahead of the general election, the distributor announced Thursday.

Gibney, an Oscar winner for “Taxi to the Dark Side,” has been quietly filming the documentary alongside co-directors Ophelia Harutyunyan and Suzanne Hillinger for the past four months. In “Totally Under Control” they ask the simple question as deaths — which currently number 190,000 in the U.S. — have continued to rise, “How did this happen?”

Gibney criticizes carelessly designed lockdowns and how the economic effects of those lockdowns have led to 23 million job losses, not to mention widespread hunger, dislocation and a runaway federal deficit. The documentary asserts that much of this destruction could have been avoided if the federal government had followed guidelines and acted properly, even as the Trump administration makes a...