Nonfictionfilm.com covers special event at Cinerama Dome with Jakob Dylan, Ringo Starr, Stephen Stills, director Andrew Slater and more Andrew Slater's film shows how The Byrds, The Mamas and the Papas, The Beach Boys and more fed off each other, and changed rock n' roll More than 50 years ago a creative flowering germinated in the hills of Laurel Canyon, changing the course of rock n' roll. Some of the greatest bands and greatest musicians of the 1960s congregated in the Los Angeles neighborhood nestled above Sunset Boulevard, feeding off each other's creative energy and artistic ambitions. The story of how that music scene came together, and how it ultimately dissolved, is told in the new documentary Echo in the Canyon, directed by Andrew Slater. Slater joined forces with musician Jakob Dylan (son of Bob), who interviewed many of the key figures from that heady time, including David Crosby (The Byrds), Stephen Stills (Buffalo Springfield), Roger McGuinn (The Byrds), Michelle Phillips (The Mamas and the Papas), plus musicians who came slightly later like Jackson Browne and Tom Petty, in his final filmed interview. Dylan also spoke with Graham Nash, Eric Clapton of Cream, Brian Wilson of The Beach Boys and ex-Beatle Ringo Starr about the remarkable musical cross-pollination that took place inside and outside the Southern California rock nexus. The documentary is now playing in Los Angeles (it opens in New York May 31, with a national rollout to follow). At the Cinerama Dome in Hollywood, the 8:30pm screening on Saturday and Sunday, and the 7pm screening on Monday will be followed by a Q&A with the director and a musical performance by Dylan and the Echo in the Canyon Band, along with vocalists Cat Power and Jade Castrinos, playing songs from The Mamas and the Papas, The Byrds, The Beach Boys and Buffalo Springfield. At the Landmark Theaters in West Los Angeles, the 7pm screening on Saturday and Sunday and the 4:50pm screening on Monday will be followed by a Q&A with Slater and Dylan. Nonfictionfilm.com spoke with Slater on the red carpet at a special screening of the film at the Cinerama Dome on Thursday night. Watch it here: International array of films, 84-percent directed and/or produced by women, to get financial boost The Sundance Institute on Friday announced more than three quarters of a million dollars in grants to 25 documentary projects in various stages of development. The films and series originate from 12 countries, ranging from Estonia to Iran, South Africa, Kenya and Chile, as well as the United States.
Seven of the 25 films are listed as being in development, nine are in production and one -- Sunless Shadows from Iranian director Mehrdad Oskouei -- is in post-production. Two documentaries, including Cody Lucich's Akicita -- about the 2016 Standing Rock protests against the Dakota Access Pipeline -- will receive "audience engagement" grants. “This slate of grantees comprises many languages,” Tabitha Jackson, director of the Sundance Institute's Documentary Film Program, noted in a statement. “The languages of the 12 countries from which they come, but even more excitingly to us, the different cinematic languages being deployed to express and grapple with the world in which we find ourselves.” A number of previous grant recipients premiered at the 2019 Sundance Film Festival in January, among them Jawline, American Factory, Midnight Traveler, The Edge of Democracy, Hail Satan? and One Child Nation, which went on to win the Grand Jury Prize for U.S. Documentary. Here is the full list of this year's grantees, as provided by the Sundance Institute: DEVELOPMENT Ancestors in the Archives (United States) Dir. Zack Khalil, Adam Khalil Prod. Steve Holmgren, Franny Alfano Ancestors in the Archives follows the fight to return and rebury indigenous human remains which have been imprisoned in the sterile archives of settler-colonial museums and universities. The film lays bare the history of indigenous collections, and takes a critical look at the reasoning that justified unearthing and collecting them in the first place. Blood Peach (United States) Dir. Zuri Obi Prod. Zuri Obi Wild peaches grow lush along the Mississippi River yet remain untouched by the people of Natchez— they know the bloody past that feeds this strange fruit. blood peach is an experimental documentary unearthing an oral history that took root in the collective memory of a small Southern town. Light of the Setting Sun (United States) Dir. Vicky Du Prod. Vicky Du In Light of the Setting Sun, the filmmaker investigates how trauma has proliferated throughout her family since the Chinese Communist Revolution of 1949 to the present, from the East to the West. Little Ethiopia (United Kingdom / United States) Dir. Maya Hawke, Joe Bini Prod. Mara Adina Maya Hawke and Joe Bini co-direct an autobiographical hybrid feature film centred around one of the most significant days in their relationship. Masterfully jumping through time, we are guided through the deepest, darkest parts of their lives together and apart, The story is uniquely told through two highly personal, independent and subjective perspectives, touching on themes of love, sexuality and the distrust between women and men in the #metoo era. Return to Oaxacalifornia (Mexico / United States) Dir. Trisha Ziff Prod. Vangie Griego, Isabel del Río Meet the Mejia family, twenty-one years later. Who are they today? Explore their worlds, dreams and contradictions; Fresno to Oaxaca. A road trip crossing three generations, two cultures and one border. River of Grass (United States) Dir. Sasha Wortzel A time traveling guide channeled by the land recounts the Everglades’ violent past and warns of Florida's precarious future. Told through Miami journalist Marjory Stoneman Douglas's The Everglades: River of Grass (1947), the film explores how Florida’s vulnerability to climate change is historically rooted in the Everglades’ ongoing legacies of colonization. Seeds (United States) Dir. Brittany Shyne Seeds is an ethnographic portrait of a centennial African American farm in Thomasville, Georgia. Using lyrical black and white imagery this meditative film examines the decline of generational black farmers and the significance of owning land. PRODUCTION 499 Years (Mexico / United States / Germany) Dir. Rodrigo Reyes Prod. Inti Cordera, Andrew Houchens 499 Years explores the brutal legacy of colonialism in Mexico nearly five centuries after Cortez arrived in the Aztec Empire. Bold, unique, and strikingly cinematic, the film confronts how past traumas continue to affect contemporary reality, challenging us to seek ways to forgive, heal and overcome our shared histories of violence. Los árboles nos cuentan (The Trees Tell Us) (Chile) Dir. Carlos Sepúlveda Prod. Macarena Monrós, Karin Cuyul María (73) is a farmer afflicted by a lung cancer caused by chemical pollution of the surrounding factories in a town of Ventanas, Chile. She will try to save her fields, leading us to magical spaces where the trees and their past come to life. El compromiso de las sombras (Mexico) Dir. Sandra Luz Lopez Barroso Prod. Maricarmen Merino Mora, Karla Bukantz Lizbeth orchestrates the funerary rituals in her Afro-Mexican community, where the toll for victims of violence and organized crime continuously increases. She will guide us through this reality and help us reflect on the importance of saying goodbye to our loved ones. The Inventory (Mexico / United States) Dir. Ilana Coleman Prod. Jamie Gonçalves, Makena Buchanan Families seek justice for their forcibly disappeared relatives in México, while a fictionalized committee of linguists perform an inventory of the dictionary. The Last Relic (Estonia / Poland) Dir. Marianna Kaat A spirited Left Block activist and Yekaterinburg University student battles to find common ground among Russian political activists and opposition groups. Meanwhile, political turmoil brews in the divided country, as it prepares for the end of President Putin’s final constitutional term. Milisuthando (working title) (South Africa) Dir. Milisuthando Bongela Prod. Marion Isaacs Milisuthando explores the story of South Africa’s Model C generation –– the first generation of black kids integrated into Whites Only schools immediately after apartheid –– told from the personal perspective of Milisuthando, a black South African born and raised during apartheid, but who was unaware of it until it ended. Singing in the Wilderness (China) Dir. Dongnan Chen Prod. Violet Feng After hiding in the mountains for a century, a Miao ethnic Christian choir is discovered and becomes a national sensation. This is an intimate story about two young Miaos and how their faith, identity and love are challenged when they step into the real world of China. Tobias (Hungary) Dir. Alexa Bakony Prod. Gábor Osváth, Ildikó Szűcs In a Hungarian village lives a teenager transgender boy trapped in a girl's body. His unusually supportive mother and his family step up to help him throughout his journey. Untitled PRC Project (United States) Dir. Jessica Kingdon Prod. Kira Simon-Kennedy, Nathan Truesdell Untitled PRC Project is a portrait of China's industrial supply chain through its accelerated economy. With an observational lens, the feature documentary examines megatrends of today’s China, revealing paradoxes born from prosperity of the world’s emergent superpower through the flow of production, consumption, and waste. POST-PRODUCTION Sunless Shadows (Iran) Dir. Mehrdad Oskouei Prod. Mehrdad Oskouei Patricide in Tehran: 5 girls are in a youth correctional facility for murder; 3 of them conspired with their mothers to kill their fathers. The 3 mothers await execution in women's prison. The Kendeda Fund PRODUCTION Hollow Tree (United States) Dir. Kira Akerman Prod. Jolene Pinder, Chachi Hauser, Monique Walton Hollow Tree tells the stories of three teenagers coming of age in Southeast Louisiana; a parable of climate adaptation. The House I Never Knew (United States) Dir. Randall Dottin Prod. Angela Tucker The House I Never Knew is a six-part documentary series that chronicles the lives of people struggling to fight against the negative effects of housing segregation policy. The doc-series will showcase how these government policies have specifically affected the eco-systems of three cities: Chicago, Houston and Boston. Housing segregation policy concentrates poverty and exacerbates social ills like gun violence and educational failure. Untitled Alaska Film (United States) Dir. Andrew Burton, Michael Kirby Smith When the environment destroys a native community, placed in harm's way by the U.S. government, who decides their future and how to pay for it? AUDIENCE ENGAGEMENT Akicita (United States) Dir. Cody Lucich Prod. Heather Rae, Gingger Shankar Standing Rock, 2016: the largest Native American occupation since Wounded Knee, thousands of activists, environmentalists, and militarized police descend on the Dakota Access Pipeline, in a standoff between Big Oil and a new generation of native warriors. Embedded in the movement, native filmmaker Cody Lucich chronicles the sweeping struggle in stunning clarity, as the forces battle through summer to bitter winter, capturing the spirit and havoc of an uprising. Silas (Canada / South Africa / Kenya) Dir. Anjali Nayar, Hawa Essuman Prod. Steven Markovitz, Anjali Nayar With a network of dedicated citizen reporters by his side, seasoned Liberian activist Silas Siakor challenges the corrupt and nepotistic status quo in his fight for local communities. Stories of Change Fund Across (Kenya) Dir. Judy Kibinge Prod. Emily Wanja Two boys occupy very different worlds within Nairobi during a cholera outbreak. Then their lives intersect in an unexpected way. Dead Sea Guardians (Israel) Dir. Ido Glass and Yoav Kleinman An unlikely group joins forces to stop an environmental catastrophe -- the death of the Dead Sea. Three heroes – a Jordanian, a Palestinian, and an Israeli – together with 20 others from around the world swim across the endangered body of water to call on their governments to adopt a viable solution. The Widow Champion (Kenya) Dir. Zippy Kimundu Prod. Heather Courtney Evicted from their land and homes by their in-laws, young widows in Kenya often live destitute in market stalls, working day and night to keep their children fed. But now, with the help of unlikely community champions, they are fighting for their land and their children's futures. Coming soon: Life and legacy of renowned CBS newsman investigated in 'Mike Wallace Is Here'5/22/2019 Avi Belkin's documentary about 60 Minutes legend, who began career as an actor and pitchman, opens in theaters July 26 Who is the best interviewer on television today? Ask that question and you might get some votes for Oprah Winfrey, Diane Sawyer, David Letterman or Howard Stern (if you consider that many of Howard's radio interviews are also televised). In the political realm, some might tip their cap to Chris Wallace of Fox News. It's Chris Wallace's father, Mike Wallace, who must rank as the foremost interviewer of a slightly earlier era. The elder Wallace, who died in 2012, did celebrity interviews earlier in his career. But it was his political interviews with world leaders and other newsmakers that put him in a class by himself. Wallace's talents and personal travails come under scrutiny in the upcoming documentary Mike Wallace Is Here, directed by Avi Belkin. The film, which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival, opens in theaters July 26. Belkin clearly holds Wallace in high esteem, but wonders if his showmanship and outsize personality did not push TV journalism in a worrisome direction, opening the door, for instance, to a blowhard like Bill O'Reilly. I spoke with Belkin and Chris Wallace at the world premiere of Mike Wallace Is Here at Sundance. Filmmaker-turned-farmer John Chester turned camera on his adventure in organic agriculture A film co-starring a pig and a rooster rules the roost at the documentary box office. The Biggest Little Farm, directed by John Chester, took the number one spot over the weekend, collecting $276,446, according to audience measurement firm comScore. In two weeks of release the film from distributor NEON has earned more than $400,000. The documentary "chronicles the eight-year quest of John and Molly Chester as they trade city living for 200 acres of barren farmland and a dream to harvest in harmony with nature," according to the film's website. "Featuring breathtaking cinematography, captivating animals, and an urgent message to heed Mother Nature’s call, The Biggest Little Farm provides us all a vital blueprint for better living and a healthier planet." The film earned an impressive $6,143 per screen, the highest average of any documentary in the top 10. Amazing Grace, last weekend's number one film, fell to number two. The documentary about Aretha Franklin's recording of her 1972 gospel album has spent seven weeks in theaters now, making a total of $3.7 million, according to comScore. Third place over the weekend went to Penguins, the latest from The Walt Disney Company's Disneynature division. In five weeks of release it has made just under $7.3 million.
Rounding out the top five were Hail Satan? from director Penny Lane and Ask Dr. Ruth, the documentary about sex therapist Dr. Ruth Westheimer, directed by Ryan White. |
AuthorMatthew Carey is a documentary filmmaker and journalist. His work has appeared on Deadline.com, CNN, CNN.com, TheWrap.com, NBCNews.com and in Documentary magazine. |