Documentary
Top 25 TV Shows of 2020
Our Annual Report continues as we reveal the Top 25 TV Shows of 2020. Stay tuned for more awards, lists, and articles in the days and weeks to come about the best music, film, and TV of the year. If you’ve missed any part of our Annual Report, you can check out all the coverage here. It feels strange to say, but television has never felt more important than it did in 2020. With the ensuing COVID-19 pandemic all but trapping us in our homes, the medium has served as an essential, if not comprehensive, escape for viewers worldwide. This notion became clear with Tiger King, a show that nabbed record eyes (or so Netflix says) in the budding days of lockdown. The world became so scary, we looked to a bizarre tale of over-the-top zoo owners and assassination attempts for comfort. With...
Sundance Film Festival Announces 2021 Virtual Lineup
The Sundance Film Festival will continue in 2021 and returns with a new upgrade amidst the ensuing pandemic. For the first time ever, the entire festival will take place digitally through “a feature-rich, Sundance-built online platform” in conjunction with in-person festivities that will air through Satellite Screens across the country from January 28th to February 3rd, 2021 “Togetherness has been an animating principle here at the Sundance Institute as we’ve worked to reimagine the Festival for 2021, because there is no Sundance without our community,” said Sundance Institute Founder and President Robert Redford. “Under Tabitha’s leadership, we’ve forged a new collective vision: one that honors the spirit and tradition of these invigorating yearly gatherings in Utah, while making roo...
Top 25 Films of 2020
Our Annual Report continues as we reveal the Top 25 Films of 2020. Stay tuned for more awards, lists, and articles in the days and weeks to come about the best music, film, and TV of the year. If you’ve missed any part of our Annual Report, you can check out all the coverage here. Going to the movies ain’t like it used to be, right? What an understatement. With theaters shuttered up and movie chains filing for bankruptcy, one might argue it’s been a pretty crap year for cinema. Financially speaking, they’re not wrong. But, art is a funny thing. It has a way of enduring even the most arduous obstacles — you know, that whole Ian Malcolm, Jurassic Park, “life finds a way” bit — and this year was a testament to that truth. Art had no issue finding a proper stage. That stage, as fate...
TikTok to hide graphic videos behind warning screens
TikTok has unveiled a newly updated set of community guidelines and tools, which include new warning screens on graphic videos, a new text-to-voice accessibility feature, and updated health resources. The update brings new vaccine information which will be added to TikTok’s coronavirus resource hub as well as resources to be shown if people search for certain terms, like those related to self-harm. According to TikTok, the graphic content warning screens are meant to prevent the accidental viewing of content that some might find disturbing. The screen gives two options, letting users either view the clip or skip it entirely. More extreme content is removed from the service entirely, but the new warning labels cover clips that might be allowed for “documentary reasons,” scenes from horror m...
How Can You Mend a Broken Heart Is the Bee Gees Doc You’ve Been Waiting For: Review
The Pitch: Three Australian brothers Barry, Robin, and Maurice Gibb formed the most formidable musical and songwriter trio this side of Holland-Dozier-Holland when they became the Bee Gees. Musical chameleons, they rose to fame during the late-staged British Invasion of the 1960s, recalibrated for the singer-songwriter era of the early-1970s, and rose to a level of fame during the height of disco not seen since The Beatles. Director Frank Marshall captures it all in his new HBO documentary, The Bee Gees: How Can You Mend a Broken Heart, mixing spine-tingling isolation tracks and archival interviews with the brothers Gibb to tell a captivating story of a sibling trio who, despite their differences, thrived due to their deep love. To Love Somebody: How Can You Mend a Broken Heart finds the B...
PJ Harvey’s A Dog Called Money Documentary to Premiere Online
PJ Harvey has spent the better part of this year brushing off her catalog with an in-depth reissue series. It looks like the alt-rock icon’s canonizing won’t stop there. Earlier today, she announced the 2019 documentary PJ Harvey – A Dog Called Money will finally receive its North American premiere on December 7th. Watch the official trailer below. PJ Harvey – A Dog Called Money chronicles the making of her 2016 album The Hope Six Demolition Project. For it, Harvey accompanied photojournalist Seamus Murphy on his reporting trips to Kosovo, Afghanistan, and Washington, D.C. Along the way, he wound up capturing a larger story about the experiences that inspired her album and the complicated process she went through to create it, later turning those filmed segments into a proper document...
Hulu’s Tekashi 6ix9ine Struggle Documentary Is Low Quality Just Like His Bars
Source: PYMCA / Getty To many a Hip-Hop head, Tekashi 6ix9ine has always been considered a “struggle rapper” regardless of how many times he topped the Billboard charts or how much money he earned with his mediocre records. His lyrical content has always been linked to the struggle and now he has a documentary to match. According to Yahoo, Hulu quietly released their Tekashi 6ix9ine documentary, ’69: The Saga of Danny Hernandez is the kind of mess you’d expect from a rapper who’s seemingly been all over the place in his young and short career. Directed by Vikram Gandhi, the documentary delves deep into the somewhat public life of the 24-year-old Brooklyn rapper and though it seems to be informative, it also lacks the kind of inside information that would make ...
Bruce Springsteen’s Letter to You Documentary Sheds Light on What Drives The Boss: Review
The Pitch: It’s not every day that you record the 20th studio album of your half-century career in music. When that time does come, it’s worth memorializing. Such is the case with Bruce Springsteen’s Letter to You, the new making-of documentary now streaming on Apple TV+. Shot last November at Springsteen’s home studio in New Jersey during a four-day recording session with the E Street Band, the film does more than simply capture a veteran band making a hard job look easy. It also gives Springsteen a chance to expand upon and espouse the thoughts on legacy, time, and the creative process that animate the new record’s material. New Jersey in Winter: While it’s unlikely that Springsteen and his crew opted for a late fall recording date to maximize the potential for cinematic poignancy, that ...
Totally Under Control Is a COVID-19 Horror Movie for the History Books: Review
The Pitch: COVID-19. Sorry, but there really are no breaks from this fucker until we have actual, steady control over this present strain of novel coronavirus. When the culture is illness, you don’t hide under coats until the whole thing blows over. You deal head-on. And this review for this particular movie will treat the issue in that way. Despite President Trump’s assertions that COVID-19 is “totally under control,” no, it’s not. And that, in a dish served cold and fast, is the case of the new documentary Totally Under Control. With 210,000 dead in the United States and rising, millions infected, and a president unwilling to acknowledge the hubris of his actions while himself testing positive for the disease, we’re far away from anything remotely resembling “control” at this present mom...
Paul McCartney on Finally Reconciling with John Lennon: It Would Have Been a “Heartache” If We Hadn’t
In honor of what would have been John Lennon’s 80th birthday, BBC Radio 2 is set to air a new documentary dedicated to The Beatles legend. Dubbed simply John Lennon at 80, the special tribute is comprised of interviews Sean Lennon conducted with his father’s close friends, family, and colleagues, including Paul McCartney. One of the topics McCartney discussed is how he and John finally set aside their differences and reconciled before the “Imagine” songwriter’s tragic death. Discord between the two musicians was well known, especially after The Beatles broke up in 1970. As The Independent notes, in an interview the following year, John said he could never see himself working with Macca again. The bad blood continued later in 1971, when McCartney revealed that his song “Too Many People” fea...
John Belushi’s Legendary Career Chronicled in New Showtime Documentary: Watch Trailer
John Belushi’s lasting influence hasn’t faded even as we approach the 40th anniversary of his passing. This fall, his legacy will be further cemented and celebrated in R.J. Cutler’s new Showtime documentary, Belushi. The film’s first trailer presents a candid portrait of the comedian and actor via unheard audiotapes, career-spanning clips, and interviews with his friends and family. The doc covers Belushi’s early years growing up in Wheaton, Illinois through his continued impact on the comedy world long after his tragic 1982 death at the age of 33. To help recount Belushi’s life story, audio from the late star is interspersed with interviews from his wife, Judy Belushi; fellow Blues Brother Dan Aykroyd; actual brother Jim Belushi; and Saturday Night Live head Lorne Michaels. Other collabor...
US Republican senators confront Netflix over Chinese sci-fi show
Five Republican US senators have confronted Netflix over the streaming giant’s plan to adapt a Chinese sci-fi book trilogy, expressing concern over the original author’s comments about claims of forced labor in Xinjiang. Liu Cixin’s bestselling “The Three-Body Problem,” which tells the story of humanity’s first contact with aliens, is set to become a major Netflix series co-written by the creators of “Game of Thrones.” In a letter to content boss Ted Sarandos, the senators accused Liu of “parroting dangerous [Communist Party] propaganda” and suggested Netflix was “providing a platform to Mr Liu in producing this project.” They highlighted a New Yorker article from last year in which Liu is quoted defending mass internment in China’s northwestern Xinjiang region, where activists say more th...
