Elroy Simmons and Dr. Sarah Bowen lead a team of Northern Film School students at Leeds Beckett University to create classic UPA-inspired visuals for the new documentary feature ‘Mansfield 66/67.’
Editor Langdon F. Page and co-editor Francy Kachler used Avid Media Composer to assemble ‘Mapplethorpe: Look at the Pictures,’ the documentary feature from directors Fenton Bailey & Randy Barbato.
Beloved documentary filmmaker Albert Maysles passed away in his home in New York on March 5, at the age of 88, prompting an outpouring of mourning and affection from filmmakers around the world. Shortly before his death, Digital Video spoke with Maysles and his daughter, painter and photographer Rebekah Maysles, about his final project, ‘Iris,’ which followed nonagenarian textile designer and fashion icon Iris Apfel.
Tomas Leach’s documentary “In No Great Hurry: 13 Lessons In Life With Saul Leiter” is a tender and intimate portrait of the photographer and painter considered to be a pioneer of the New York School era of photography of the 1940s and 50s.
for MTVu’s new MTV World documentary series, “Rebel Music,” director of photography Mikhail Galustov employs the Canon C300 digital cinema camera for hand-held shooting and low-light situations.
With virtually no budget, production of “The Punk Singer” was achieved largely through donations of equipment and expertise. Interviews and b-roll footage were captured using a combination of Panasonic AG HVX200 and HPX170 cameras outfitted with Letus adapters and a set of Zeiss compact prime lenses.
Shot by director Alex Gibney’s longtime collaborator, cinematographer Maryse Alberti, ‘We Steal Secrets’ is comprised of formal interviews and stunning outdoor scenery intercut with news footage, stock footage, photographs and graphic overlays, all smartly edited by Andy Grieve.
Documentary feature “Gut Renovation,” by independent filmmaker Su Friedrich and co-writer Cathy Quinlan, records Williamsburg, New York’s transformation from an artists’ refuge to the sleek and moneyed hipster paradise it has become today.
In a deconstruction of Kubrick’s still-controversial Stephen King adaptation, director Rodney Ascher’s conspiracy documentary “Room 237” evokes the Kuleshov Effect, exploring five of the most widely-addressed theories via interviews with cultists and scholars alike juxtaposed with footage from “The Shining” and other Kubrick classics, along with maps, diagrams and floorplans.
Shot over the past decade by director and cinematographer Ben Shapiro, “Gregory Crewdson: Brief Encounters” is a methodically rendered portrait of the acclaimed photographer’s work and process.
A punk pastiche, “Pussy Riot — A Punk Prayer” incorporates footage from Russian news agencies along with material captured with mobile phones and handheld cameras as well as stabilized DSLR rigs.
One of the forerunners of cinéma vérité’s North American cousin, direct cinema, Albert Maysles was first drawn to film Iris Apfel by a close-up photo that ran as a full page in the weekly New York Observer. “That face is really something special,” he says.
Cinematographer Giles Dunning chose RED Epic cameras outfitted with Canon L-Series and Angenieux Optimo zoom lenses to capture live concert footage for “The Road to Red Rocks” concert film for British folk rock band Mumford & Sons.
Produced by filmmaking team Peter Jackson and Fran Walsh, and directed by documentary filmmaker Amy Berg, “West of Memphis” was shot by DPs Maryse Alberti and Ronan Kileen with a combination of Sony PMW-EX3 and PMW-F3 camcorders supplemented with Canon EOS 5D and 7D digital cameras.
Leading up to her celebrated 2010 retrospective at the New York Museum of Modern Art, first-time director Matthew Akers followed Abramović for 10 months, documenting her life relentlessly.
Director and cinematographer Alison Klayman gained an incredible level of access for “Ai Weiwei: Never Sorry,” documenting the celebrated artist’s activities over the past several years, during which time government authorities shut down his blog, beat him, bulldozed his newly-built studio, and, in 2011, held him in secret detention for 81 days, making him China’s most famous missing person.
“Shut Up and Play the Hits” documents the once-in-a-lifetime performance and an intimate portrait of LCD Soundsystem frontman James Murphy as he navigates the personal and professional ramifications of his decision to disband one of the most celebrated and influential groups of its generation at the peak of its popularity.
Award-winning documentary film director Bruno Wollheim’s acclaimed 2009 documentary, “David Hockney: A Bigger Picture,” is an intimate portrait of one of Britain’s greatest living artists as he returns at the age of 68 to his native Yorkshire to paint its landscape.
CatCam: The Movie charmed audiences at this year’s SXSW Film Festival, where it received the Short Film Jury prize for documentary shorts before moving on to screenings at the Aspen Shortsfest, Full Frame, Sarasota and Tribeca.
Watching “In Tahrir Square” is to become immersed in the world of the protestors, from the peaceful first days of the uprising through the deadly battles between pro-Mubarak forces and anti-Mubarak demonstrators. The film shadows Sharif Abdel Kouddous, a young Egyptian-American journalist who leads cameras into Tahrir Square and provides insightful accounts of those tense days, his tweets and live reporting attracting international attention.
Picking up the story where “Dogtown” left off, Filmmaker and legendary skateboarder Stacy Peralta chronicles the personal histories of the Z-Boys and the origins of the Bones Brigade.