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Nicole Avant spent much of her childhood summers in holiday enclaves like Oak Bluffs in Martha’s Vineyard and Sag Harbor in Long Island, vacation havens created by the Black middle-class elites as they were often denied entry elsewhere.

“My parents took me there, and it was great for me growing up to see Black doctors, Black lawyers, Black professionals, Black people who own their businesses,” the producer, author and former U.S. ambassador to the Bahamas recalled of her parents Clarence Avant, the late legendary musical executive known as The Black Godfather, and her mother, philanthropist Jacqueline Avant. “And it made a huge difference in my life.”

So when Avant was asked to come back to Martha’s Vineyard to attend an event designed to bolster community in Oak Bluffs while spotlighting her recent book Think You’ll Be Happy with her two close friends and fellow authors, Michelle Norris...

The Producers Guild of America (PGA) has set the producers and producing teams invited to join the PGA Create lab for emerging and mid-career creative producers.

“As Chairs of the One Guild initiative committed to supporting inclusive membership, employment, content, and authentic depictions, we are thrilled for this year’s PGA Create and the program’s continued evolution and growth over the years,” said Producers Guild members Tonya Lewis Lee, Lori McCreary, and Shelby Stone. “Uplifting the next generation of producers by providing them the tools, resources, and connections they need for this profession is life-changing. We are proud of PGA Create for its intentional work to ensure the next generation of producers includes diverse creators with unique perspectives.”

PGA Create, which runs from Monday, June 3 through June 6, offers fellows the opportunity to hone their pitches, attend master classes led by experienced producers, and expand their network of fellow producers.

The makers of National Geographic’s The Territory are celebrating their win at the Creative Arts Emmy Awards for Exceptional Merit in Documentary Filmmaking, one of the most prestigious awards in nonfiction.

The prize, voted on by a special jury, was shared by director-producer Alex Pritz, producers Darren Aronofsky, Sigrid Dyekjær, Will N. Miller, Gabriel Uchida, and Lizzie Gillett, and executive producer Txai Suruí. Their film centers on the Indigenous Uru-eu-wau-wau people, who face constant assault as they try to protect their territory within Brazil’s Amazon rainforest from invasion by outsiders. As Deadline previously wrote about the film, those invaders are “engaged in burning down great swaths of the rainforest for mining, logging, clearing land for cattle and homesteading.”

The film also underscores what’s at stake with each acre of Brazilian rainforest that goes up in smoke — it is the ecological health of the Earth that hangs in the balance.

Exclusive: Management and production company 2Am is bolstering its finance and sales division with the hire of former Sundance Catalyst executive Julia Nelson.

Nelson will report to former WME & Endeavor Content exec Christine D’Souza Gelb who oversees the sales arm of 2Am.

2Am will be launching sales on two titles at the upcoming Sundance Film Festival: Sam and Andy Zuchero’s Love Me starring Kristen Stewart and Steven Yeun, and produced by 2Am, ShivHans, and AgX; and Haley Elizabeth Anderson’s Tendaberry, produced by Dweck and Flies Collective. 2Am is co-repping worldwide rights on both projects with WME, where the filmmakers are also represented.

The company, which is a producer on Celine Song’s Golden Globe nominee Past Lives, has previously repped Sing J. Lee’s Accidental Getaway Driver, Andrew Semans’ Resurrection, and Christopher Makoto Yogi’s I Was A Simple Man.

Nelson joins the company after six years at...

Exclusive: Following the continued success of the PGA Create program, the Producers Guild of America announced the six documentary producers and producing teams invited to take part in the PGA Create lab for emerging and mid-career producers. Now entering its third year, the program’s focus is on supporting producers from underrepresented backgrounds. PGA Create is sponsored by Google, the lead underwriter of the program.

PGA Create’s documentary cycle will be held December 4-7. The program is an immersive lab for documentary producers and producing teams actively developing, financing and packaging nonfiction projects. Participants will have opportunities to hone their project pitches, attend master classes with

experienced producers and build their network of fellow producers.

PGA Create is designed to provide touch points over the span of one year, including an invitation for participants of its Scripted and Documentary cycles to re-convene during the PGA Create Forum, a day-long...

Veteran documentary producer Lauren Haber has been appointed to the newly created role of Head of Documentary at Amplify Pictures, the award-winning studio announced on Wednesday.

In her new position, Haber will be responsible for overseeing the company’s current slate of documentary projects and expanding its doc portfolio of globally commercial, filmmaker-driven projects with an emphasis on ongoing series and IP creation. The hiring comes at a dynamic time for Amplify, which has continued to build out its team and slate of global content following an infusion of private equity capital.

Haber comes to the company after serving as VP of Production at Impact Partners, where she curated and supported their slate of independent documentary projects including 32 Sounds directed by Sam Green, Another Body directed by Sophie Compton and Reuben Hamlyn, Peabody winner Aftershock directed by Paula Eiselt & Tonya Lewis Lee, Paper & Glue directed by Jr, and the three-part HBO series Nuclear Family,...

Pedro Almodóvar, Spike Lee and Patricia Arquette were among those accepting honors at the Toronto International Film Festival Tribute awards Sunday night: George Pimentel photographed the red carpet and inside the show for TheWrap.

Thanks to SAG-AFTRA strike waivers, several actors including Willem Dafoe and Ethan Hawke, were also on hand. “Sing Sing” and “Rustin” actor Colman Domingo was also able to collect his Tribute Performer Award in person, as was “The Dead Don’t Die” star Vicky Krieps.

Enjoy these shots of Lee, who was there to receive the Ebert Director Award, and more awards recipients and presenters.

Photo by George Pimentel

Willem Dafoe plays a Hunter S. Thompson-esque writer in “Gonzo Girl” from director Patricia Arquette.

Photo by George Pimentel

“Daisy Jones & the Six” actress Camila Morrone co-stars with Willem Dafoe in “Gonzo Girl,” the directorial debut of Patricia Arquette.

Photo by George Pimentel

Patricia Arquette went...

For only the second time in the 19-year existence of the Best Documentary Filmmaking Emmy category, HBO (which has clinched the gold 10 times) doesn’t have a horse in the race. The same is true of Netflix, which achieved its 2018 victory for “Strong Island” in HBO’s absence. As a result, there is a great deal of pressure on two of the 2023 entries: “The Accused: Damned or Devoted?,” which could bring PBS its second consecutive and sixth overall filmmaking win, and “The Territory,” which would be the third National Geographic property to prevail here.

The documentary filmmaking award differs from most other Emmys in that it is juried, meaning that after each entry is exclusively reviewed by members of the TV academy’s documentary peer group, it must obtain unanimous support from them in order to officially be deemed worthy of a win. This also means that the four programs...

Do The Right Thing filmmaker Spike Lee received a lengthy standing ovation as he cruised on stage at the BFI Southbank in London to receive the BFI’s Fellowship award Monday evening.

Lee was presented the award by his Inside Man leading man Clive Owen, who described the New Yorker as a “true trailblazer” who will go down in history as “one of the most important directors of his generation.”

Accepting the award, Lee thanked his wife, Tonya Lewis Lee, who was in the audience as well as the artists he has collaborated with throughout his career, emphasizing that his decades-long career is the result of intense collaboration.

“I’ve said it before in many interviews: It’s not just me — there are many, many people, who you don’t see on this stage,” he said. “It takes a team effort. It takes a gang effort.”

Concluding his speech, Lee...

From a sharp comedy reboot to an erotic political thriller, Guardian writers pick the hidden films of the year that people should know more about

Aftershock takes a sprawling, urgent, widely publicized yet still under-addressed national crisis – the shameful maternal mortality rate among Black women in the US – and grounds it in its more personal and galling form. The film, directed by Tonya Lewis Lee and Paula Eiselt, examines the roots and manifestations of dire statistics through the advocacy journeys of two grieving families. Two Black mothers whose concerns were downplayed or dismissed, who died in New York hospitals months apart, who would be caring for their children if not for an extremely preventable combination of medical racism, financial pressure to perform C-sections and inadequate senses of urgency. I was crying within three minutes. The film, available to stream on Hulu, should be essential viewing as a window into the...

The documentary form continued to flex its power in 2022, delivering stories and perspectives of astonishing breadth and sometimes granular artistry. What stood out were the movies that didn’t take their issues or subjects at face value, but rather sought something more resonant about the workings of the world, or even told us more about ourselves and what’s possible. Across these brilliant films, the mysterious is interrogated, the accepted is challenged, and the past is reckoned with, but what we’re always left with is the human heart’s resilience to do all that necessary interrogating, challenging and reckoning.

Also Read:

The 10 Best Films of 2022, from ‘Eo’ to ‘Rrr’ All That Breathes Rise Films

The year’s most artful documentary operates on two layers: introducing us to the modest hawk-repairing operation of two Muslim brothers in pollution-choked Delhi, where the birds just fall out of the sky, and showing...

The Black Reel Awards has revealed its nominations for their 23rd Annual ceremony.

Gina Prince-Bythewood’s The Woman King, about the warrior women of the country of Dahomey, and Ryan Coogler’s Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, about a superhero from the fictional African nation of Wakanda and a memorial to Chadwick Boseman, are tied at 14 nominations.

Two other films joined the ranks of double-digit nominations: MGM’s Till and A24’s The Inspection.

Independent studio A24 garnered 11 nominations across all categories. However, Amazon Studios landed a record three nominations in the Outstanding Independent Film category for Master, Nanny, and Emergency. Perennial powerhouse, Disney Studios nabbed the most nominations for a studio with 15.

Viola Davis landed her sixth Outstanding Actress nomination for her work in The Woman King, becoming the most recognized individual in the Actress category in Black Reel Award (Bolts) history. At the same time, director Elegance Bratton received...

“Little America” showrunner Sian Heder — who’s part of the Hollywood group led by women creators advocating for reproductive health care rights, along with “The Dropout” executive producer Elizabeth Meriwhether and “Welcome to Chippendales” co-showrunner Jenni Konner, and others — discussed the necessity of forming advocacy groups to support those working in states hostile to abortion rights.

“After Roe, we took a group of women in the business and panicked and gathered and started talking about what can we do? And how are we going to address this? And how are we going to make it safe for women?” Heder said.

In addition to Heder, Meriwhether and Konner, TheWrap’s Power Women Summit panel “The Power of Storytelling: Producers Roundtable” also featured Sarah Finn, co-producer of “Everything Everywhere All at Once”; Sarah Michelle Gellar, star and executive producer of the upcoming Paramount+ show “Wolf Pack”; Stefani Robinson, writer and executive producer...

When a woman dies from complications of childbirth, she leaves behind loved ones struggling to deal with the loss. Aftershock, a documentary from Disney’s Onyx Collective, brings attention to the U.S. maternal mortality crisis by focusing on the deaths of two women and the family members they left behind.

“Often people hear about an issue like maternal mortality and morbidity, and they just see numbers,” filmmaker Tonya Lewis Lee said during a panel at Deadline’s Contenders Film: Documentary awards-season event.

Related: The Contenders Documentary – Deadline’s Full Coverage

Lewis Lee co-directed and co-produced the film with Paula Eiselt. After deciding to make the documentary together, they looked for a way to humanize the story, with the aim to change the way we look at the issue.

“We both felt that it was important to tell this story through people’s lived experiences,” Lewis Lee said.

Aftershock centers on Shamony Gibson,...

Deadline’s Contenders Film: Documentary awards-season event kicks off Sunday at 8 a.m. Pt and promises to open up distant lands and even a distant planet—no passport required.

Click her to register for and watch today’s Contenders livestream.

The terrain covered by the cast and creatives from our 20 participating films astonishes with its variety and range: an enclave of Delhi, India in All That Breathes, a remote section of Paraguay in Eami, and possibly an even more remote outpost of the Brazilian rainforest in Wildcat. Moscow is the ultimate destination of Navalny, the documentary about Russia’s imprisoned and poisoned opposition leader, and Descendant takes us to a neighborhood of Mobile, Alabama settled by survivors of the last slave ship known to have navigated U.S. waters.

About 5,600 miles separate Moscow from Mobile, mere inches apart compared to the far-flung rendezvous point of Good Night Oppy, about NASA...

Subject Matter, a recently-launched nonprofit organization that supports social issue documentary films and other nonprofits that work on its featured topics, announced their inaugural grantees, awarding a total of 120,000 to four feature-length documentaries and four of the films’ coinciding nonprofits. Subject Matter launched in July, spearheaded by former Tribeca Film Institute leaders Amy Hobby, David Earls, and Colleen Hammond.

The inaugural grantees were determined by a selection committee that included Subject Matter board members actor Jeffrey Wright, entrepreneur Lily Band, Picture Motion and Kinema founder Christie Marchese, documentary director and producer Ferne Pearlstein and social justice and public health grant maker Julia Greenberg, along with guest jurors filmmaker Shola Lynch and film programmer José Rodriguez.

“All of the films the jury considered were formidable,” Wright said. “But we were especially moved by the handling of the stories in the four selected projects and felt that they are intimate, powerful and...

“It’s such an important topic and so personal to the families. I felt like I wanted to and needed to really put my stamp on it,” says Tonya Lewis Lee, the co-director and co-producer of the Hulu documentary “Aftershock.” Following the deaths of two young women due to childbirth complications, two bereaved families galvanize activists, birth workers, and physicians to reckon with one of the most pressing American crises today: the US maternal health crisis. Watch our exclusive video interview above.

See dozens of interviews with 2022/2023 awards contenders

“Shamony Gibson passed away in October of 2019 and in December of 2019, her mother, Shawnee Benton Gibson, and her partner, Omari Maynard, put out an invitation to a celebration of Shamony’s life on Instagram,” the director reveals. “We saw that invitation and [co-director, co-producer Paula Eiselt] reached out to Shawnee and said, ‘We see that you are having this celebration and conversation about the US maternal mortality crisis.

The 7th annual Critics Choice Documentary Awards unveiled its winners in a gala event that was live-streamed from New York City. It was Amazon Studios’ Good Night Oppy that was the biggest winner of the night taking home five trophies including the top accolade of the night — winning Gold for Best Documentary Feature.

Good Night Oppy also made Ryan White a winner for Best Director, Best Score went to Blake Neely, Best Narration and Best Science/Nature Documentary.

The Critics Choice Documentary Awards recognize the year’s finest achievements in documentaries released in theaters, on TV and on major digital platforms, as determined by the voting of qualified Critics Choice Association (Cca) members.

Christopher Campbell, Co-President of the Critics Choice Association’s Documentary Branch said, “Tonight was a whole new Doc Awards – hosting the ceremony in a new, bigger...

ABC is turning “Good Morning America” co-anchor Robin Roberts’ sitdown with former first lady Michelle Obama into a primetime special. ABC News’ “Michelle Obama: The Light We Carry, A Conversation with Robin Roberts” will air Sunday, Nov. 13 at 10 p.m. Et; scroll down for an exclusive first look.

“The Light We Carry” is the title of Michelle Obama’s new book, the follow-up to her critically acclaimed bestseller memoir “Becoming.” The book, published by Crown/Penguin Random House, will be released on Tuesday, Nov. 15.

According to ABC News, Roberts chats with Michelle Obama about “her marriage and her husband, the pandemic, revealing her low-grade depression, the new hobby she picked up to overcome this trying time and Joe Biden’s presidency.”

Besides the former first lady, Roberts also talks to Michelle Obama’s mother, Marian Robinson, as well as Dr. Sharon Malone, journalist Michelle Norris, Sandy Matthews, and film producer and author,...

Tonya Lewis Lee, co-director and producer of the buzzy documentary “Aftershock,” has signed with Artists First.

Agency co-president Brian Dobbins will represent her as a producer, director, writer, entrepreneur and women’s health advocate. A storyteller whose work has resonated with marginalized communities for over two decades, Lee intends to expand her advocacy and offer Black and Brown communities access to platforms that will share overlooked and undervalued stories.

“Aftershock” premiered in July on Hulu through the label Onyx Collective, a unit devoted to creators of color which was set up by Disney General Entertainment. It examined the maternal mortality crisis plaguing Black and Brown women in America, won the 2022 Sundance Film Festival special jury award for Impact for Change and is nominated for best documentary feature and best political documentary at this year’s Critics’ Choice Documentary Awards.

Lee’s film and TV work spans from nonfiction to family-friendly...

Exclusive: The Producers Guild of America has named the producers chosen for its second annual PGA Create lab, designed to support emerging and mid-career creative producers from underrepresented backgrounds.

The program’s fall Scripted cycle will feature the participation of feature producers Rui Xu (72), Nerissa Williams Scott (Dill), Robbie Daw & Tyler Steele (Double Wide Dreams), Maya S. Patel & Neeraj Jain (Further to Fly), Ali Salem & Ioana Uricaru (The Swim Lesson), Carolyn Mao & Allison Jordan (Time Away), and Chad Shields (We Were Born Dead). The TV producers taking part are Kathryn Lo (Our Dark Lady), Linhan Zhang (The Black Lotus) and Winnie Yuan Kemp (The Dragon Lady).

All of the above producers and teams are in active development, financing or packaging of their feature or series. The lab, taking place from October 31 through November 3, will offer them the chance to hone their project pitches, attend master classes with experienced producers and...

Click here to read the full article.

Veteran documentary director and producer Paula Eiselt has signed with CAA for representation.

Eiselt and Tonya Lewis Lee most recently directed Aftershock, a film about the crisis of Black maternal mortality in the U.S. due to childbirth complications. The film had a world premiere at Sundance in the U.S. Documentary competition and was awarded the Special Jury Award: Impact for Change.

The film also won the Full Frame Film Festival’s Kathleen Bryan Edwards Award for Human Rights and screened at SXSW. Aftershock was acquired out of Sundance by Disney’s Onyx Collective and ABC News Studios and had a release on Hulu in the U.S. and on Disney+ worldwide.

The Sundance Institute is helping finance her next project, an untitled documentary short film about abortion inspired by the lawsuits filed in Florida challenging the state’s abortion ban on the basis of religious freedom.

[Editor’s note: This list was originally published on June 30, 2022. It was updated on October 6, 2022 to reflect new inclusions.]

Googly eyes. High-flying fighter jets. Terrifying aliens. Genies in bottles (and beyond). Lovable robots and wild red pandas. Medieval tweens. Meat. Romance. Dancing. Incredibly bad vacations. Farts. Freedom. The first nine months (and change) of 2022 have already gifted film fans with a wide array of incredible cinematic offerings, and there’s still plenty of titles yet to arrive on a screen near you.

Some of our favorite filmmakers have returned to the cinema with fresh visions, including everyone from Kogonada to Andrea Arnold, David Cronenberg to Daniels, Terence Davies to Peter Strickland, Lena Dunham to George Miller. And there have been plenty of new names to admire, too, including Audrey Diwan, Panah Panahi, Mimi Cave, John Patton Ford, Owen Kline, Adamma Ebo, and Jerrod Carmichael, all of whom have bowed debuts that make us feel hopeful for the future of film.

A handful of the films that have already earned...

Exclusive: Key programming continues for the 20th annual Martha’s Vineyard African American Film Festival (Mvaaff) taking place August 5th – 13th.

The festival continues its slate of programming with featured content celebrating Black voices, with documentaries and the signature Q&a series, Color of Conversation from Run & Shoot Filmworks, and Festival Co-Founders Floyd and Stephanie Rance.

“Prime Video hosts Visionary Women: A Conversation with the New Wave of Filmmaking Voices,” featuring writer/director Nikyatu Jusu (Nanny) and writer/director Mariama Diallo (Master) at the Martha’s Vineyard Performing Arts Center. The moderated discussion will be led by acclaimed actress, producer and 2022 Harvard graduate, Yara Shahidi. Through the lens of horror, the conversation between these three remarkable women will dive deep into Nikyatu Jusu and Mariama Diallo’s journey to the director’s chair, pushing genre boundaries, and the cultural discourse illustrated in their storytelling.

Disney’s Onyx Collective continues...

A new Hulu documentary called “Aftershock” was released on July 19, following two bereaved fathers who rouse activists, birth-workers and physicians after their spouses pass away due to preventable childbirth complications. Directed and produced by Paula Eiselt and Tonya Lewis Lee, “Aftershock” boasts an incredible 100 freshness rating on Rotten Tomatoes as of this writing. Watch the trailer above and find out what critics are saying below.

Per the film synopses from Hulu, we witness two families become ardent activists in the maternal health space, seeking justice through legislation, medical accountability, community, and the power of art. Their work introduces us to a myriad of people including a growing brotherhood of surviving Black fathers, along with the work of midwives and physicians on the ground fighting for institutional reform. Through their collective journeys, we find ourselves on the front lines of the growing birth justice movement that is demanding systemic change within our medical system and government.

Each week we highlight the noteworthy titles that have recently hit streaming platforms in the United States. Check out this week’s selections below and past round-ups here.

Aftershock (Tonya Lewis Lee and Paula Eiselt)

A work of deep pain and fervent justice, Tonya Lewis Lee and Paula Eiselt’s Sundance winner Aftershock examines the failings of maternal health support particularly as it relates to Black mothers. Centering on two NYC families forever torn apart after maternal deaths due to childbirth-related complications, the film takes an intimate look at the widowers and family left behind as they pick up the pieces to fight for change in a prejudiced system. Amongst its most interesting passages, the filmmakers also go back decades and beyond, filling in the historical foundation for how we ended up with our current, faltering maternal health system and setting the stage for how it can be changed.

Where...

There’s nary a mention of abortion in “Aftershock,” the Sundance award-winning documentary that premieres on Hulu this week. But co-directors Paula Eiselt and Tonya Lewis Lee say their film, which unpacks the disproportionate rate at which American Black women die in or after childbirth, delivers an important message that’s underscored by the recent overturning of Roe v. Wade.

“It’s all one conversation — material health is abortion care, is health care. They’re all the same and we need to be talking about it together as a full spectrum of reproductive rights,” Eiselt told IndieWire. “In ‘Aftershock,’ we really show choice. In the same way that you need the fundamental right to choose whether or not to carry a pregnancy, if you do choose to carry that pregnancy, then it’s a human right to have dignified and safe care, and at the very least survive the pregnancy...

Click here to read the full article.

Here’s a look at this week’s biggest premieres, parties and openings in Los Angeles and New York, including red carpets for The Gray Man, Rap Sh!t, Where the Crawdads Sing and DC League of Pets.

Where the Crawdads Sing premiere

The novel adaptation, produced by Reese Witherspoon, premiered at MoMA in NYC on Monday with stars Daisy Edgar-Jones, Harris Dickinson and Taylor John Smith.

The Gray Man premiere

Netflix’s high-powered action flick — its biggest budget project ever — was unveiled in Hollywood on Wednesday, alongside stars Ryan Gosling, Chris Evans, Ana de Armas, Regé-Jean Page, Alfre Woodard, Billy Bob Thornton and directors Joe and Anthony Russo.

Rap Sh!t premiere

Issa Rae’s latest project, which follows the rise of two female rappers in Miami, premiered at L.A.’s Hammer Museum on Wednesday with stars KaMillion and Ada Osman.

The Producers Guild of America has announced that applications are now open for a new scripted cycle of PGA Create, a multi-day lab for emerging and mid-career creative producers from underrepresented backgrounds, which launched in 2021.

PGA Create was conceived for producers with film or TV projects in active development, financing or packaging. The upcoming scripted cycle of the program will take place in November, with a documentary cycle to follow next spring.

Each PGA Create Fellow participates in a multi-day, immersive lab during which they hear from subject experts on topics of relevance to advancing their specific projects, also receiving an opportunity to present themselves and their projects to an invited industry audience, including a range of PGA’s established creative producers, who serve as advisors and mentors. All Scripted and Documentary Fellows will be invited to participate in an in-person joint PGA Create Forum held during PGA’s annual Produced By Conference next summer.

BAMcinemaFest, which is returning with an in-person event June 23 – 30 at the Brooklyn Academy of Music, announced today the complete 2022 edition slate. The film opens with Paula Eiselt and Tonya Lewis Lee’s Aftershock, a documentary about the the ways in which the US maternal health system fails Black women and families, and it closes with Ramin Bahrani’s Sundance premiere, 2nd Chance, a portrait of Richard Davis, who invented the modern bulletproof vest while being something of an independent filmmaker and fabulist. Among the restorations are Ayoka Chenzira’s 1993 first feature film, the coming-of-age dramatic comedy Alma’s Rainbow, about […]

The post BAMcinemaFest Announces 2022 Program first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.

BAMcinemaFest, which is returning with an in-person event June 23 – 30 at the Brooklyn Academy of Music, announced today the complete 2022 edition slate. The film opens with Paula Eiselt and Tonya Lewis Lee’s Aftershock, a documentary about the the ways in which the US maternal health system fails Black women and families, and it closes with Ramin Bahrani’s Sundance premiere, 2nd Chance, a portrait of Richard Davis, who invented the modern bulletproof vest while being something of an independent filmmaker and fabulist. Among the restorations are Ayoka Chenzira’s 1993 first feature film, the coming-of-age dramatic comedy Alma’s Rainbow, about […]

The post BAMcinemaFest Announces 2022 Program first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.

One of the most well-curated festivals spotlighting indie filmmaking comes courtesy of Bam and their annual BAMcinemaFest, which takes place in person at Bam Rose Cinemas on June 23-30 this year. The lineup has now been announced, which includes some of our recent festival favorites: the Lily Gladstone-led The Unknown Country, Free Chol Soo Lee from Julie Ha & Eugene Yi, Tyler Taormina’s Happer’s Comet, and Ramin Bahrani’s 2nd Chance.

“I’m thrilled to have BAMcinemaFest back in person and to spotlight this incredible lineup of filmmakers,” said Jesse Trussell, festival programmer and senior programmer for film at Bam. “As we close in on a year since Bam Rose Cinemas reopened, it’s a joy to be able to gather and celebrate this art form as a collective experience.”

See the lineup below and learn more here.

Aftershock (2022) Dirs. Paula Eiselt & Tonya Lewis Lee. Shamony Gibson and...

The 2022 BAMcinemaFest has officially unveiled its lineup. IndieWire can exclusively announce that Sundance breakout documentary “Aftershock” will make its New York Premiere on the opening night of the festival, which kicks off June 23 and runs through June 30.

The fully in-person event will begin with Paula Eiselt and Tonya Lewis Lee’s critically acclaimed documentary. The film exposes the failures of the maternal healthcare system that have led to a disproportionate amount of Black women dying in childbirth. “Aftershock” won the U.S. Documentary Special Jury Award: Impact for Change at the 2022 Sundance Film Festival.

Fellow Sundance selection “2nd Chance” is set to make its New York Premiere, as well as breakthrough filmmaker Andrew Infante’s “Ferny and Luca,” a fresh take on the ebbs and flows of a young Brooklyn relationship.

BAMcinemaFest will also mark the world premiere of Amber Bemak’s performative documentary “100 Ways to Touch the Border,” which...

The Scene 2 Seen Podcast took a bit of a hiatus–but we’re back! And this week, features a very special discussion surrounding a pressing topic. The Aftershock documentary premiered at Sundance 2022, where it won the Impact For Change award, and then made its way to SXSW 2022.

Although, I spoke to Eiselt and Lee on March 13th on the main stage at SXSW, I would be remiss if I didn’t share this conversation with you all as there is lots to learn from talking with the directors. I must say that this film is a primer on maternal health that should be required viewing in every medical school and birthing center in America. The level of paternity deaths is a medical and public health crisis that isn’t being addressed fast enough. Directors and producers of the Paula Eiselt and Tonya Lewis Lee’s chronicle life in the aftermath...

SXSW is still on-going with the music portion at the center of attention, but the films at this years festival were unforgettable. Because SXSW champions independent cinema, it gives move lovers like me the chance to discover movies I wouldn’t have heard of outside of traveling to Austin. Below I provide some quick cut capsule reviews for Aftershock, Woman on the Outside, Slash/Back, and Bitch Ass, which are a few of the films that made an impression on me. Be sure to put these on your radar!

Aftershock

Directors and producers Paula Eiselt and Tonya Lewis Lee’s documentary Aftershock chronicles life in the aftermath of the skyrocketing maternal deaths among Black women in the United States. Black maternal death includes numerous factors regarding race, sex, income, and preventable. Shamony Gibson and Amber Rose Issacs are two Black women with tragic backstories as both women died from medical negligence in hospitals.

Below is a constantly updated list and tally of acquisitions, beginning with the most recent deals.

Acquisitions during Sundance and immediately before the festival: 29

Earlier acquisitions: 16

Title: “Nanny”

Section: U.S. Dramatic Competition

Buyer: Blumhouse and Amazon Prime Video

Writer-director Nikyatu Jusu’s feature debut follows an undocumented Senegalese immigrant (Anna Diop) whose work as a nanny finds her cast as a pawn in her employers’ troubled marriage while a supernatural presence invades. It won the festival’s U.S. dramatic Grand Jury Prize.

“With ‘Nanny,’ Nikaytu Jusu has crafted a film that is as haunting as it is powerful. From the exceptional performances to its strong visual language, we can’t wait to share Nanny with our global audience and to continue our longstanding collaboration with Blumhouse,” said Julie Rapaport, Amazon Studios’ head of movies.

Blumhouse and Amazon together announced they had acquired worldwide rights to the film on...

In-person fest runs April 28-May 8 in Toronto.

Hot Docs on Tuesday (15) announced the first wave of Special Presentation films for its 2022 iteration running April 28-May 8 in Toronto, a list that includes world premieres of The Talented Mr. Rosenberg and Million Dollar Pigeons.

This year’s festival returns to the in-person format and in addition selections will stream to audiences across Canada on Hot Docs At Home.

The Talented Mr. Rosenberg directed by Barry Avrich takes a lurid look into the story of infamous Toronto conman Albert Rosenberg aka the Yorkville Swindler. World premieres include Gavin Fitzgerald’s Million Dollar Pigeons...

The Canadian Intl. Documentary Festival, better known as Hot Docs, has revealed its first slate of Special Presentation films for this year’s festival, running April 28 to May 8 in Toronto and streaming online.

World premieres include “The Talented Mr. Rosenberg,” a lurid look into the story of infamous Toronto con man Albert Rosenberg, a.k.a. the Yorkville Swindler; “Million Dollar Pigeons,” a charming introduction to the competitive world of pigeon racing; and “The Quiet Epidemic,” an investigation into Lyme disease dating back to 1975 that reveals why ticks, and the diseases they carry, have been allowed to spread globally.

The Special Presentations will also include the international premieres of “Aftershock,” the story of two bereaved Black fathers seeking justice, legislation and medical accountability in an unspoken U.S. crisis: maternal health care; “The American Dream and Other Fairy Tales,” an exploration by Abigail Disney, Walt Disney’s great-niece, of the...

The heartbreaking and shocking reality of inequalities surrounding childbirth in the US healthcare system for Black women are brought vividly home by the opening minutes of Paula Eiselt and Tonya Lewis Lee's Sundance Grand Jury Prize-winning documentary. Home videos show Shamony Gibson and Amber Rose Isaac as the vibrant, expectant young women they were before they lost their lives shortly after giving birth.

Every loss of life is a tragedy, but that both these women's deaths could easily have been avoided, is damning as is the bald fact that, in America, Black women are four times more likely to die in or as a result of childbirth than their white counterparts.  .

Shamony died from a pulmonary embolism a fortnight after giving birth, with days of concern about her symptoms raised with and dismissed by doctors. Amber Rose's medics, meanwhile, failed to notice her blood platelet count was dangerously low,...

Filmmakers Paula Eiselt and Tonya Lewis Lee’s Sundance award-winning documentary “Aftershock” has been acquired by Disney’s Onyx Collective and ABC News.

News of the joint acquisition comes after the feature won the U.S. Documentary special jury award for impact for change at the 2022 Sundance Film Festival, where it made its debut as an official selection last month. The documentary will stream as an original film from Onyx Collective on Hulu in the U.S., on Star Plus in Latin America and on Disney Plus in all other territories.

Directed and produced by Eiselt and Lee, “Aftershock” explores America’s maternal health care crisis through the lives of Shamony Gibson and Amber Rose Isaac, described as “vibrant, excited mothers-to-be whose deaths due to childbirth complications were preventable.”

“We are thrilled to partner with Disney’s Onyx Collective and ABC News to honor and uplift the lives of Shamony Gibson and Amber Rose Isaac,...

Disney’s Onyx Collective and ABC News have jointly acquired Aftershock, which picked up the Sundance Film Festival’s U.S. Documentary Special Jury Award for Impact for Change upon its debut there last month. The latest from directors Paula Eiselt and Tonya Lewis Lee will stream as an original film from Onyx Collective on Hulu in the U.S., on Star+ in Latin America, and on Disney+ in all other territories.

Aftershock spotlights the alarmingly disproportionate number of Black women that are failed every year by the U.S. maternal health system. Shamony Gibson and Amber Rose Isaac were vibrant, excited mothers-to-be whose deaths due to childbirth complications were preventable. Now, their partners and families are determined to sound a rallying cry around this chilling yet largely ignored crisis.

Eiselt and Lee follow Gibson’s and Isaac’s bereaved partners, Omari Maynard and Bruce McIntyre, respectively, as they fight...

Award-winning documentary “Aftershock” has been jointly acquired by Disney’s Onyx Collective and ABC News, the companies announced on Tuesday.

The documentary premiered as part of the U.S. Documentary Competition at the 2022 Sundance Film Festival, and the film went on to win the U.S. Documentary Special Jury Award for Impact for Change.

“Aftershock” will stream on Hulu in the U.S., on Star+ in Latin America, and on Disney+ in all other territories.

“Aftershock” grapples with an epidemic of America’s Black maternal health crisis by following two fathers who have become widowers after their partners died of preventable childbirth complications. Paula Eiselt and Tonya Lewis Lee (Spike Lee’s wife) direct and produce the film that is not just timely but is a subject that’s of dire importance to Vice President Kamala Harris.

“We are thrilled to partner with Disney’s Onyx Collective and ABC News...

Directed by Paula Eislet and Tonya Lewis Lee (Spike Lee’s producer and partner), the documentary “Aftershock” chronicles the dismal maternal mortality rate that women of color face in the United States medical system. The statistics are shameful, pointing to a systemic racist indifference, and the documentary chronicles the staggering number of times that expectant mothers entering into hospitals simply do not come out alive due to a lack of care and sensitivity.

Continue reading ‘Aftershock’ Review: A Heartbreaking Look At The Grim Maternal Mortality Rate Black Women Face In America’s Hospitals [Sundance] at The Playlist.

Every January, the Sundance Film Festival launches a slew of documentary Oscar contenders, and 2022 was no different. While there are exceptions, most eventual documentary Oscar nominees launch at Sundance. It’s the festival of choice for non-fiction films to be seen and discovered.

You can see why: Making the Oscar shortlist for 2022 were Sundance 2021 debuts from Nanfu Wang (HBO’s China Covid exposé “In the Same Breath”), Danish filmmaker Jonas Poher Rasmussen (Neon’s animated immigration saga “Flee”), self-taught Jessica Beshir (Janus’ dive into Ethiopia’s khat industry “Faya Dayi”), Camilla Nielsson (Greenwich Entertainment’s Zimbabwe expose “President”); and rookie filmmaker Ahmir “Questlove” Thompson (Searchlight/Hulu’s 1969 concert film “Summer of Soul”).

This year’s new pandemic era Sundance crop is just as impressive.

Documentary award winners get a boost

The jury prizes didn’t go to the buzziest titles: those films nabbed the audience awards. But Sundance award-winners got...

Every January, the Sundance Film Festival launches a slew of documentary Oscar contenders, and 2022 was no different. While there are exceptions, most eventual documentary Oscar nominees launch at Sundance. It’s the festival of choice for non-fiction films to be seen and discovered.

You can see why: Making the Oscar shortlist for 2022 were Sundance 2021 debuts from Nanfu Wang (HBO’s China Covid exposé “In the Same Breath”), Danish filmmaker Jonas Poher Rasmussen (Neon’s animated immigration saga “Flee”), self-taught Jessica Beshir (Janus’ dive into Ethiopia’s khat industry “Faya Dayi”), Camilla Nielsson (Greenwich Entertainment’s Zimbabwe expose “President”); and rookie filmmaker Ahmir “Questlove” Thompson (Searchlight/Hulu’s 1969 concert film “Summer of Soul”).

This year’s new pandemic era Sundance crop is just as impressive.

Documentary award winners get a boost

The jury prizes didn’t go to the buzziest titles: those films nabbed the audience awards. But Sundance award-winners got...

Chicago – The 2022 Sundance Film Festival announced their Grand Jury Prizes on January 28th, and the top films were “Nanny” (U.S. Dramatic), “The Exiles” (U.S. Documentary), “Utama” (World Cinema Dramatic) and “All That Breathes” (World Cinema Documentary).

After nine days, 84 feature films and 59 Short Films, honors were also given for Audience Awards, Festival Favorite Award, Jury Awards for Directing, Screenwriting & Editing and Special Jury Awards.

The list of all award winners are below.

Grand Jury Prize

‘Nanny’

Photo credit: Sundance Film Festival

U.S. Dramatic: “Nanny” directed by Nikyatu Jusu

U.S. Documentary: “The Exiles,” directed by Ben Klein & Violet Columbus

World Cinema Dramatic:: “Utama” (Bolivia/Uraguay/France) directed by Alejandro Loayza Grisi

World Cinema Documentary: “All That Breathes” (India/UK) directed by Shaunak Sen

Audience Awards

Cha Cha Real Smooth

Photo credit: Sundance Film Festival

U.S. Dramatic: “Cha Cha Real Smooth” directed by Cooper Raif

U.S.

NannyU.S. – DRAMATICGrand Jury PrizeNanny (Nikyatu Jusu)Directing PrizeJamie Dack (Palm Trees and Power Lines)Audience Award Cha Cha Real Smooth (Cooper Raiff)Special Jury Award: Uncompromising Artistic Visionblood (Bradley Rust Gray)Special Jury Award: Ensemble CastJohn Boyega, Michael Kenneth Williams, Nicole Beharie, Connie Britton, Olivia Washington, and Selenis Leyva (892)Waldo Salt Screenwriting AwardKD Dávila (Emergency)Descendant U.S. – DOCUMENTARYGrand Jury Prize The Exiles (Ben Klein, Violet Columbus)Directing Prize Reid Davenport (I Didn’t See You There) Audience Award Navalny (Daniel Roher)Jonathan Oppenheim Editing AwardErin Casper and Jocelyne Chaput (Fire Of Love)Special Jury Award: Creative VisionDescendant (Margaret Brown)Special Jury Award: Impact for ChangeAftershock (Paula Eiselt, Tonya Lewis Lee)Utama World Cinema – DRAMATICGrand Jury Prize Utama (Alejandro Loayza Grisi)Directing Prize Maryna Er Gorbach (Klondike)Audience AwardGirl Picture (Alli Haapasalo)Special Jury Award for ActingTeresa Sánchez (Dos Estaciones)Special Jury Award for Innovative SpiritLeonor Will Never Die (Martika Ramirez Escobar...

“Nanny” was the big winner at the 2022 Sundance Film Festival, picking up the Grand Jury Prize in the U.S. Dramatic Competition in a virtual awards ceremony Friday.

Cooper Raiff’s “Cha Cha Real Smooth” was also a winner, nabbing the Audience Award in the U.S. Dramatic category, while “Navalny,” a late addition to the festival, won the U.S. Documentary Audience Award. The Sundance jury also recognized “The Exiles” in the documentary category and “Utama” in the World Cinematic category.

This year’s Best of the Fest announcement caps off the second year in a row in which the festival was forced to go virtual amid the pandemic.

Although the awards were announced virtually, the emotion was palpable when juror Chelsea Bernard announced that “Nanny” director and screenwriter Nikyatu Jusu had won for her harrowing story of an undocumented nanny working for a privileged couple in New York...

The tried and true way to break viewers’ hearts is to make them care deeply. “Aftershock” wastes no time in doing just that. Filmmaking duo Paula Eiselt and Tonya Lewis Lee begin their emotionally resonant, statistically chilling documentary about the dramatically increased numbers of maternal death and morbidity among Black women in the U.S. with montages of two lives. Shamony Gibson and Amber Rose Isaac were two young, healthy women who went to hospitals to have their babies and died. Starting with life-affirming scenes of the two vibrant, engaging young women is a decidedly “say her name” salvo.

Who was lost and who they left behind is one of the most powerful ways for storytellers to connect us to tragedies that result from systemic failures. “Aftershock” is the word Shamony’s mother, Shawnee Benton Gibson, used to describe what her feelings were after the unexpected death of her daughter.

This year at the Sundance Film Festival, three feature documentaries — Paula Eiselt and Tonya Lewis Lee’s “Aftershock,” Reid Davenport’s “I Didn’t See You There” and Isabel Castro’s “Mija” — share in common a $10,000 grant provided by the Points North Institute and CNN Films’ American Stories Documentary Fund.

Launched in 2020, the fund underwritten by CNN has dispensed a total of $100,000 in grants to emerging U.S. filmmakers working on 10 documentary projects that highlight pivotal moments in America. Eiselt and Lewis Lee’s “Aftershock,” and Davenport’s “I Didn’t See You There” are two of nine films in the Sundance U.S. Documentary Competition program, while Castro’s “Mija” is featured in the festival’s Next program. “Aftershock” addresses the U.S. maternal health crisis, “I Didn’t See You There” examines the discrimination people with disabilities face throughout the country, and “Mija” explores America’s immigration issues via music manager Doris Muñoz.