Amazing Grace continues hot streak; Hail Satan? opens strongly in limited release Penguins may be flightless birds, but they soared in movie theaters this weekend. Disneynature's family-friendly documentary about the two-toned waterfowl opened with an impressive $2.3 million over the holiday frame, according to audience measurement firm comScore. Its cume stands at $3,234,350. Actor Ed Helms narrates the film about Adélie penguins of Antarctica, with a focus on one member of the colony in particular. According to Disneynature, Penguins' protagonist is "Steve who joins millions of fellow males in the icy Antarctic spring on a quest to build a suitable nest, find a life partner and start a family. None of it comes easily for him, especially considering he's targeted by everything from killer whales to leopard seals, who unapologetically threaten his happily ever after." The birds have proven box office dynamite in the past. March of the Penguins, released in 2005, remains one of the most popular documentaries ever, with an astonishing $77 million in ticket sales that year in North America alone. Penguins, directed by Alastair Fothergill and Jeff Wilson, played on 1,815 screens -- very wide for a documentary release. Its weekend total works out to $1,258 per screen. Amazing Grace, meanwhile, came in second place among documentaries over the weekend, continuing a robust run in theaters. The film that documents Aretha Franklin's recording of a live gospel album in 1972 made $603,302, comScore reported, upping its three-week total to $1,348,118. The film was assembled from footage originally shot by director Sydney Pollack over two days at the New Temple Missionary Baptist Church in Los Angeles. Unfortunately for Pollack, his attempt to capture Aretha's mesmerizing performance ran afoul of audio synching issues. Producer Alan Elliott, an associate of Pollack's, stepped in at the director's behest decades later to rescue the priceless material and make a nonfiction narrative out of it. Spike Lee, an admirer of the finished work, has called it "one of the greatest concerts ever put to film." Aretha Franklin enters the New Temple Missionary Baptist Church in Los Angeles for the recording of her gospel album Amazing Grace. Video courtesy NEON Third place at the doc box office over the weekend went to Apollo 11, Todd Douglas Miller's film about NASA's moon landing mission in 1969. After eight weeks of release it has made just under $8.5 million. They Shall Not Grow Old, Peter Jackson's World War I documentary, took fourth place, nearing the $18 million mark in total earnings. It's the second most successful documentary released in 2018, behind only Won't You Be My Neighbor?, which made $22.8 million. Coming in fifth place with an impressive per-screen average was Penny Lane's new documentary Hail Satan? It made an average of $8,332 at three locations, far and away the highest per-screen total of any documentary in theaters. The film poses questions about religious freedom by examining a group known as The Satanic Temple.
Combined, the top 10 documentaries in release made over $3 million over the Easter weekend.
Tamara Shogaolu's film centers on two women forced to flee Egypt in midst of fiercely anti-gay climate
In 2017 the UN High Commissioner for Refugees reported more than 68 million people worldwide fell into the category of those "forcibly displaced" from their homes. The causes included "persecution, conflict or generalized violence."
Within that staggering number are an untold group of LGBTQ refugees who have been driven from their homes because of hostility to their sexuality. The new VR film Another Dream, which will make its world premiere at the Tribeca Film Festival this week, focuses on two women in Egypt whose love made them pariahs in their homeland, forcing them to flee. The documentary project, directed by Tamara Shogaolu, marks the second installment of a series called Queer in a Time of Forced Migration from production company Ado Ato Pictures, which reveals stories from Egypt, Sudan and Saudi Arabia, "from the 2011 Revolutions in the Middle East and North Africa region to the world today." Audiences take part in their unforgettable journey through firsthand audio accounts, breathtaking visuals, and groundbreaking uses of interactive VR technology.
Another Dream invites viewers into an immersive experience as the couple at the heart of the film escape Cairo and seek safety and acceptance in the Netherlands.
"Audiences take part in their unforgettable journey through firsthand audio accounts, breathtaking visuals, and groundbreaking uses of interactive VR technology," according to Ado Ato. "Traditional 2D and 3D animation is combined with animation hand painted in the virtual space. A hybrid between a film and a VR game, Another Dream enhances traditional storytelling by requiring players to interact in order to move forward, allowing them to move around and personally explore the world of the story." Another Dream is part of Tribeca's Immersive's Storyscapes competition. The 20-minute VR film debuts Friday, April 26, with multiple screening opportunities in the following days. Watch the trailer here: Film by Hassan Fazili tells story of director and his family who fled Afghanistan under threat from Taliban Sympathy for asylum-seekers is in short supply around much of the world of late. But a new documentary is helping people understand what it's like for a family driven from their home, harried by an uncertain fate. Midnight Traveler, directed by Afghan filmmaker Hassan Fazili, won the McBaine Documentary Feature Award Sunday night at the San Francisco International Film Festival's Golden Gate Awards ceremony, a testament to the film's power to generate empathy among viewers. Fazili faced death after the Taliban reacted with violent fury to his previous documentary, Peace, assassinating the subject of the film and putting a bounty on Fazili's head. He was forced to flee Afghanistan with his wife, also a filmmaker, and their two young daughters. The film documents their struggle to find refuge in Europe. ...Beautiful and compelling. A true achievement of filmmaking and parenting. The jury called Midnight Traveler “an incredible document that is beautiful and compelling. A true achievement of filmmaking and parenting.” Jurors included Gina Duncan of the Brooklyn Academy of Music, Violet Lucca of Harper's Magazine and film programmer Sudeep Sharma. The award comes with a $10,000 prize. Oscilloscope Laboratories, which acquired North American rights to Midnight Traveler, plans a theatrical release later in the year. The McBaine Bay Area Documentary Feature Award went to The Seer and the Unseen, directed by Sara Dosa. SFFilm describes the film as a "magically real fable," adding, "The volcanic rock that covers most of Iceland is not just beautiful and protected in the Nature Conservation register, it is also purportedly the home to elves, trolls, and other hidden people. When a new road is set to be built through a lava field, environmentalists including Ragnhildur 'Ragga' Jónsdóttir—a 'seer' who can communicate with the elves—must fight to preserve the sacred rock while combating Iceland’s push to grow economically." The Seer and the Unseen won a $5,000 prize. A $2,000 prize went to Where Chaos Reigns, winner of the Documentary Short award. Braulio Jatar and Anaïs Michel directed the film which jurors hailed “for its audacity, its haunting images and its ability to bring us closer to the crisis in Venezuela than anything we’ve seen thus far in America.”
A Special Jury Mention went to the short documentary Edgecombe, directed by Crystal Kayiza. Jurors in the shorts competition included film programmers Emily Doe and Jacqueline Lyanga and filmmaker Trevor Jimenez. SFFilm, now in its 62nd year, opened April 10 and wraps on Tuesday, April 23. 'We wanted to help amplify' message of David Charles Rodrigues film, accommodation-sharing company tells NFF Airbnb, the accommodations-sharing giant that has put a roof over the head of millions of travelers worldwide, is entering the documentary field. Nonfictionfilm.com can report Airbnb developed and produced Gay Chorus Deep South, a film about a groundbreaking tour of Southern states by the San Francisco Gay Men's Chorus, which will hold its world premiere April 29 at the Tribeca Film Festival. "This is Airbnb’s first documentary feature film," the San Francisco-based company tells Nonfictionfilm.com exclusively. We believe that every person - regardless of sexual orientation or gender identity - should not only be treated with dignity and respect, but should be celebrated. David Charles Rodrigues directed the documentary that follows 300 members of the chorus, led by conductor Tim Seelig, on a 10-day tour of Mississippi, Alabama, Tennessee and the Carolinas. "The film depicts the challenges the Chorus faced as they took their music inside of people's homes, churches and concert halls to inspire conversation around inclusivity and use the power of song to unite local communities," according to a press release provided to NFF. "The journey also challenges Tim and other Chorus members who fled the South to confront their own fears, pain and prejudices on a journey towards reconciliation." In a statement to Nonfictionfilm.com, Airbnb Head of Creative James Goode noted, “We believe that every person - regardless of sexual orientation or gender identity - should not only be treated with dignity and respect, but should be celebrated. When we heard the San Francisco Gay Men’s Chorus was touring to sing about those values, we wanted to help amplify this shared mission.” “Making this film with Airbnb and the Chorus has been an experience of a lifetime,” Rodrigues commented. “When we learned about the tour, I immediately saw a rare chance of telling an emotional story in divisive times. What we saw up close, was a positive movement of acceptance and belonging. It’s a humbling opportunity to premiere at Tribeca and most importantly to spread the Chorus’s message to the world.” It's unclear what future plans Airbnb may have to fund and produce additional films -- either fiction or nonfiction. IMDBpro.com does not list any upcoming cinematic projects from the company. The San Francisco Gay Men's Chorus will perform live after the world premiere of the documentary at the Marriott Bonvoy Boundless Theater in Manhattan. Watch the film's exclusive trailer below. The 18th annual edition of the festival runs April 24-May 5 When it comes to awarding prizes at film festivals around the world, the unwritten rule states that doc people judge documentaries and narrative/fiction people judge narrative/fiction films. But Tribeca doesn't roll like that. They prefer to mix it up. That was clear on Tuesday as Tribeca revealed an eclectic group to serve as jurors in the documentary categories for the 18th edition of the festival, including comedic actor David Cross and future NFL Hall of Fame quarterback Aaron Rodgers. Cross, known for his work on the TV series Arrested Development, will join fellow comedic performer Tig Notaro on the panel judging the Best New Documentary Director Competition. Also serving on that jury are actress Kathrine Narducci (The Sopranos) and actor Gbenga Akinnagbe (The Wire). The only juror in that section with a more traditional nonfiction film resume is Orlando von Einsiedel, the Oscar-winning director of The White Helmets. A handful of well-established doc figures, meanwhile, will serve on the jury for Documentary Feature Competition. They include Oscar-nominated producer Julie Goldman (Life, Animated), director Robert Greene (Bisbee '17) and filmmaker Cheryl McDonough (America Inside Out). Green Bay Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers is among those who will serve on the jury judging the Short Documentary and Student Visionary competitions. He will be joined by (among others) Buster Scher, founder of Hoops Nation, actress Kathy Najimy, actor David Krumholtz, and Sheila Nevins, the former longtime head of HBO Documentary Films.
Below is the full list of jurors across the Tribeca categories. The jurors for the 2019 Documentary Feature Competition section are:
The jurors for the 2019 Short Documentary and Student Visionary Competitions section are:
The jurors for the 2019 U.S. Narrative Feature Competition section are:
The jurors for the 2019 International Narrative Feature Competition section are:
The jurors for the 2019 Best New Narrative Director Competition section are:
The jurors for the 2019 Narrative Short Competition section are:
The jurors for the 2018 Storyscapes Competition are:
The jurors for the 2019 Nora Ephron Award are:
The jurors for the 2018 Tribeca X Award are:
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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. |