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Tag: Documentary

  • How to Watch The Brandy Melville Documentary to Hear From Former Employees & Executives

    How to Watch The Brandy Melville Documentary to Hear From Former Employees & Executives

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    If you were active on Tumblr in the 2010s, you likely scrolled past a bunch of photos of Brandy Melville models. The signature white brick wall background is hard to miss and so is the new Brandy Hellville & The Cult of Fast Fashion documentary. If you’re wondering how to watch the Brandy Melville documentary to go behind the scenes on discriminatory work practices and fast fashion, we’ve got the 4-1-1 on how to stream it online.

    Brandy Hellville & The Cult of Fast Fashion documentary is directed by Academy Award-winning filmmaker Eva Orner and produced by double Emmy Award-winning Jonathan Chinn and double Academy Award-winning Simon Chinn of Lightbox. The Brandy Melville documentary releases on Tuesday, April 9, 2024 and will let viewers in on how the nostalgic clothing brand’s unique social media presence set off unrealistic beauty standards. Through interviews with former employees and executives as well as fashion insiders, viewers will get to hear first-hand accounts about Brandy Melville’s toxic work environment and discriminatory recruiting practices, too.

    Behind the “one size fits most” clothes and impossible-to-reach beauty standards created on social media, there’s a whole story of exploitation within fast fashion and the fashion industry at large. More specifically, viewers will get to learn about the consequences of the increase in consumption and production of cheap clothing. The documentary takes the audience to Ghana to see the mass amounts of textile waste that’s polluting landfills and waters. There’s a lot more to Brandy Hellville & The Cult of Fast Fashion than “Brandy girls” (employees who doubled as models) posing in front of white brick walls.

    If you’re curious about how the brand gained and preyed on its cult following and the repurcussions of it all, then keep reading to learn how to watch the Brandy Melville documentary online.

    Brandy Melville Documentary Fast Fashion
    Courtesy of HBO.

    When does the Brandy Melville Documentary air?

    The Brandy Melville Documentary airs on Tuesday, April 9 at 9 p.m. ET on Max.

    How to watch the Brandy Melville Documentary online

    The Brandy Melville Documentary is available to stream on Max, which offers three plans: a With Ads plan for $9.99 per month or $69.99 per year for the first year; an Ad-Free plan for $15.99 per month or $110.99 per year for the first year; and an Ultimate Ad-Free plan for $19.99 per month or $139.99 per year for the first year. All three of the yearly plans save users 42 percent on the monthly rates.

    Max With Ads comes with limited ads and allows users to stream on two devices at once. Max Ad-Free comes with no ads, allows users to stream on two devices at once and includes 30 downloads to watch on the go. Max Ultimate Ad-Free comes with no ads, allows users to stream on four devices at once, includes 100 downloads to watch on the go, and features the best video quality with 4K Ultra HD and immersive audio with Dolby Atmos.

    Read on for step-by-step instructions on how to subscribe to Max.

    1. Visit Max.com
    2. Click “Sign Up Now”
    3. Select your plan and click “Continue”
    4. Enter your information and payment method
    5. Start watching the Brandy Melville documentary

    How to watch the Brandy Melville Documentary at home online for free

    How can one watch the Brandy Melville Documentary online for free? Read on for our tips and tricks to stream the Brandy Melville Documentary at no cost.

    Watch The Brandy Melville Documentary With Prime Video’s Max Free Trial

    Here’s how to watch the Brandy Melville Documentary for free. Max does not offer a free trial on its main site. However, Amazon offers a seven-day free trial for Prime and Prime Video subscribers. MAX With Prime Video starts at $15.99 per month for its ad-free plan after the trial ends. Prime Video offers a 30-day free trial and costs $8.99 per month after the free trial ends. Prime costs $14.99 per month or $139 per year and comes with Prime Video, as well as the benefits of Prime, which include same-day, one-day and two-day delivery on millions of items, Prime member discounts and free shipping at Amazon Fresh Stores and free access to services like Prime Gaming, Prime Reading, and Prime Try.

    Read on for step-by-step instructions on how to sign up for Max’s free trial with Prime Video.

    1. Visit Prime Video’s Max page
    2. Click “Get Started”
    3. Create or sign into your Amazon account
    4. Confirm your information and payment method
    5. Start watching Max with Prime Video’s free trial

    Watch The Brandy Melville Documentary With AT&T’s Free HBO Max Subscription

    If you’re an AT&T customer (or know someone who is), you may be eligible for a free Max subscription. The first step is to check if your AT&T plans include a free Max subscription. Eligible plans include AT&T Unlimited Elite, AT&T Unlimited Plus, AT&T Unlimited Plus Enhanced, AT&T Unlimited Choice, AT&T Unlimited Choice II, AT&T Unlimited Choice Enhanced and AT&T Unlimited & More Premium. If you have one of these plans, you’re eligible for a complimentary Max account. There are FAQs with instructions on how to claim your free Max subscription here and here.

    Brandy Melville Store
    Courtesy of HBO.

    Who’s in the Brandy Melville documentary?

    • Kate Taylor, investigative journalist
    • Alyssa Hardy, former Teen Vogue fashion editor
    • Liz Ricketts, The Or Foundation
    • Sammy Oteng, The Or Foundation
    • Chloe Asaam, The Or Foundation
    • Ayesha Barenblat, CEO of Remake Advocacy Group
    • Matteo Biffoni, mayor of Prato, Italy
    • Claire Bergkamp, CEO of Textile Exchange
    • Matteo Mantellassi, Manteco s.p.a. executive
    • Marco Mantellassi, Manteco s.p.a. executive
    • Franco Mantellassi, Manteco s.p.a. executive

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    Katie Decker-Jacoby

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  • Best Documentaries On HBO Max

    Best Documentaries On HBO Max

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    At the end of the workday, I like to shut my laptop screen and transition to my other screen times. Yes, as embarrassing as it is to say that, we all do it. You spend all day staring hard at your computer, just to end up looking at your phone and TV all night.

    It’s not the healthiest way of living, but if I’m being honest it’s what we do. While we should aim to minimize our screen time as much as humanly possible, it’s tough when the entire planet is run by Apple. Suddenly, we’ve all developed an emotional attachment to our screens.

    During the pandemic, documentaries soared in popularity. We’d run out of shows to watch, tired of the endless reality television loop, and turned to true crime. Podcasts like Serial, Morbid, and Crime Junkie all followed famous cases of serial killers, thieves, and grotesque examples of inhumanity.

    And, as someone with FOMO who’s fallen victim to the grip of pop culture and constantly needs to stay in the know, I’ve done my due diligence, my field research. I’ve combed through days worth of documentaries searching for the best of the best.

    A good documentary contains at least one of these elements: shock factor, eye-witness testimony, and at least one moment worthy of a viral clip. Take Netflix’s Fyre: The Greatest Party That Never Happened…which became an overnight meme thanks to Fyre Fest producer Andy King detailing how he was willing to offer oral sex in exchange for Evian Water to save the festival.

    What’s The Best Streaming Service For Documentaries?

    It’s about getting the people talking, and no streaming service makes a better documentary than HBO Max (more recently known as just “Max.”). Max somehow knows exactly what the people want to see and that’s…drama.

    Since there are so many documentaries out there, you’ve got to find a way to keep people interested. We already know many of the infamous serial killers like Ted Bundy and Jeffrey Dahmer, so it takes true storytelling to get our attention.

    HBO Max does something special: finding lesser known stories, nabbing exclusive interviews, and catching the story at the right time. Sure, Netflix shows you what’s already happened, but somehow Max gets ahead of the story every time.

    The most shocking and relevant docus are on HBO Max, so if you’re ready to binge watch something that will have your jaw on the floor…I’ve got you covered.

    Here are my top 4 documentaries on HBO Max that you can stream right now!

    Love Has Won: The Cult Of Mother God 

    Have you ever witnessed such ludicrous, outlandish behavior that it almost makes you laugh? Welcome to Love Has Won, a cult led by the late Amy Carlson known as “Mother God,” “Mother” for short.

    Mother claimed she’d been reincarnated 534 times as notable figures like Jesus, Marilyn Monroe, and Cleopatra. She promised to lead 144,000 people into the 5th dimension. Not only that, but Donald Trump was her father in a past life and she frequently speaks to Robin Williams…who’s no longer present in the “physical.”

    In May 2021 Amy Carlson died due to: anorexia, chronic colloidal silver ingestion, and acute alcohol abuse. But the cult believed she had finally ascended. Even pushing colloidal silver as the magic elixir, this documentary truly has everything.

    BS High 

    This documentary answers the question: “What if you went to high school and it wasn’t real?” From 2019-2021, Bishop Sycamore High School advertised themselves as a sports training academy that would forge young men into 5-star D1 recruits for football.

    The team went on to play some of the best high school football teams. But after mounting hype around their players…people soon realized that these boys were far from D1 recruits. During the 2021 season, they somehow landed the fourth toughest schedule in the nation…and none of the teams they played were in Ohio.

    Led by coach and BS High founder Roy Johnson, BS High was slated to play the best: IMG Academy. After facing odd scheduling and huge blowouts, IMG romped BS, 58-0. From there, Roy Johnson was exposed for hundreds of lies: essentially creating a fake high school and none of the players received even a GED.

    Featuring first-hand interviews from Roy Johnson and the players themselves, this docu is both crazy and sad.

    The Jinx: The Life and Deaths Of Robert Durst 

    If you’re going to watch one documentary on this list, make it this one. Robert Durst is a real estate heir who had never cooperated with a journalist before. Durst was so enamored with director of The Jinx Andrew Jarecki’s work that he offered to sit down and do an interview with Andrew.

    Durst’s story is intriguing because he was surrounded by death. His wife, Kathie, had been missing since 1982. His friend, writer Susan Berman, was killed execution-style in 2000. His neighbor, Morris Black, was found dismembered in 2001. The one common denominator? Robert Durst.

    As Durst is interviewed over the years, you see the conniving mega-millionaire evade any consequence as evidence piles up against him. Clearly this guy is guilty…which was solidified when he was arrested a day before the finale came out. But the final twist will have shocked to the core.

    Plus, The Jinx part two comes out April 21.

    Quiet On Set: The Dark Side Of Kids TV  

    One of the most recent viral documentaries hits close to home. Growing up, I was a devout Nickelodeon viewer. My nights ended with The Amanda Show, Drake & Josh, iCarly, and more. Over the years, fans have closely watched as many former beloved child actors have had very public breakdowns. And it’s all being explained now by HBO.

    Quiet On Set exposes Nickelodeon producer Dan Schneider’s treatment of employees and cast members throughout his tenure at the network. It includes horrifying accounts from cast members such as Drake Bell, who details the sexual abuse he encountered from dialogue coach, Brian Peck.

    Dan Schneider’s downfall has been building since the glory days of Nickelodeon, and it all peaks with this documentary.

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    Jai Phillips

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  • ‘Ryuichi Sakamoto: Opus’ Review: An Exquisite and Stirring Farewell From a Renowned Composer

    ‘Ryuichi Sakamoto: Opus’ Review: An Exquisite and Stirring Farewell From a Renowned Composer

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    To call Ryuichi Sakamoto: Opus a concert film would be correct and also drastically inadequate. What unfolds onscreen is no mere performance, no mere gesture, but a face-to-face between presence and absence. Beginning its theatrical run just before the one-year anniversary of Sakamoto’s death from cancer, at 71, the handsome film is a testament to the artistic spirit and, above all, an act of love — by the performer, who was facing mortality and thinking of legacy, and by the director, Nero Sora, who is Ryuichi Sakamoto’s son.

    The performances captured in Opus were filmed over a week in September 2022, at a studio in Tokyo’s NHK Broadcasting Center that Sakamoto believed offers the finest acoustics in Japan. He and Sora embarked on this project while Sakamoto was still well enough to perform. Other than the unseen filmmakers, there is no audience. Alone at a Yamaha grand, a bright lamp burning above him like a moon, the composer makes his way through 20 pieces he curated from his lifetime of music-making.

    Ryuichi Sakamoto: Opus

    The Bottom Line

    Magnificent minimalism.

    Release date: Friday, March 15
    Director: Neo Sora

    1 hour 43 minutes

    The selections include his famous movie scores — The Sheltering Sky, Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence and his Oscar-winning work, with David Byrne and Cong Su, for The Last Emperor — as well as his solo recordings and the influential electropop of Yellow Magic Orchestra, the trio he formed in 1978 with Yukihiro Takahashi and Haruomi Hosono. (Drummer Takahashi died in January 2023, a couple of months before Sakamoto.)

    Reconfiguring some of the compositions, a few of which he’d never before performed publicly on solo piano, Sakamoto travels through a varied musical terrain: quiet passages, melodic lyricism, bursts of thunderous churning. For one number, he creates a so-called prepared piano by placing screws and bolts on the strings to produce an un-piano-like sound. The fine recording, mixing and mastering, credited to ZAK, misses nothing, not even a brief instance of muttering when Sakamoto regroups between selections. Other than that, the piano does the talking.

    In the music’s subtle interplay of tradition and modernism, the selections are distinct and connected, quoting and commenting on one another with a quickening intensity as the film proceeds. Sakamoto is not just revisiting his compositions but rediscovering them. Searching, communion and occasional delight play upon his face; he’s still creating, still profoundly invested in the work.

    Nero builds this wordless drama with silvered black-and-white imagery and shifts in light that suggest a movement toward night. Bill Kirstein’s attentive camerawork finds a rich variety of angles and perspectives within the limited setting, and editor Takuya Kawakami intercuts Sakamoto’s performance with shots of the empty keyboard, the studio’s unused microphone stands, and the musician’s shadow on the unvarnished wood floor — visuals that heighten the sense of departure that infuses the film no less than the stirring music.

    Opus begins with a view of the composer from behind, seated at the piano, looking small and vulnerable with his boyishly artsy shock of snow-white hair. As this unhurried emotional journey proceeds, Sakamoto’s passion and precision are inseparable from the gift he offers, and the film feels more and more like a balm in a world of device overload and music-biz grandiosity. Sora has made a work of magnificent minimalism. Its vision of immortality might be most stirring in the moments when Sakamoto’s elegant hands hover above the keyboard at the end of a piece. It’s as though he’s coaxing the final chords to resonate just a bit longer before they fade into something like silence but now, after his conjuring, much richer.

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    Sheri Linden

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  • How Documentary Orgs Serving People of Color Are Coming Together to Survive and Thrive

    How Documentary Orgs Serving People of Color Are Coming Together to Survive and Thrive

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    Two years ago, documentary impact strategists Sahar Driver and Sonya Childress launched Color Congress to build a coalition among doc organizations that serve filmmakers and/or audiences of color.

    Today, Color Congress has published a new report that lays out how solidarity among these groups has impacted the field for them all. “The People of Color Documentary Ecosystem: Engines for a New American Narrative” notes that in 2023, the 100-plus organizations collectively served 15,000 filmmakers and more than 10,000 doc film professionals and reached more than 20 million audience members – even though 24 percent of the groups operated on less than $50,000 annually and 17 percent had no staff, full- or part-time, at all.

    The impact of such organizations has been seen all the way at the very top – all five Oscar-nominated documentary shorts this year came from directors who had passed through Color Congress member groups. Going forward, the coalition will continue to amplify their impact through solidarity via in-person gatherings (such as its inaugural National Convening in Atlanta last fall), financial support (Color Congress is looking to raise $300,000 annually for its Field Building Fund) and creative ways to meet each other’s needs.

    The top need, as identified by the members, is distribution for their independent docs. As such, Color Congress is planning to use Field Building Fund dollars to build an infrastructure that supports collective marketing and distribution, step one of a multiphase initiative to support a slate of films from the coalition in 2024-25.

    “Behind every documentary that transforms our understanding of the world is a talented filmmaker – and behind them, an ecosystem that supports their creative vision,” Driver and Childress said in a joint statement. “Color Congress members play a pivotal yet often-invisible role providing culturally-rooted spaces where filmmakers of color can nurture and sharpen their stories and reach diverse audiences. After two years of growing and deepening this incredible network of POC-led filmmaker- and audience-supporting organizations, we are so thrilled to share this report about who Color Congress members are, and the collective vision and bold solutions they are leading with.”

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    Rebecca Sun

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  • Dealing with This Feeling

    Dealing with This Feeling

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    From doomsday tourism to eco-anxiety therapy and preppers, a look at how coping in the 'end times' is developing.

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  • Dads (2019) Streaming: Watch & Stream Online via Apple TV Plus

    Dads (2019) Streaming: Watch & Stream Online via Apple TV Plus

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    Dads (2019) is a heartwarming documentary directed by Bryce Dallas Howard, that celebrates modern fatherhood in a captivating and humorous journey through the lives of extraordinary dads.

    Here’s how you can watch and stream Dads (2019) via streaming services such as Apple TV Plus.

    Is Dads (2019) available to watch via streaming?

    Yes, Dads (2019) is available to watch via streaming on Apple TV Plus.

    From celebrity insights to everyday heroes, this film explores the joys and challenges of fatherhood, touching on parenting, love, and the evolving roles of dads in today’s society.

    It features celebrity fathers including Ron Howard, Jimmy Fallon, Judd Apatow, Jimmy Kimmel, Will Smith, Hasan Minhaj, Ken Jeong, and Kenan Thompson.

    Watch Dads (2019) streaming via Apple TV Plus

    Dads (2019) is available to watch on Apple TV Plus. Apple’s in-house streaming service was launched in 2019 and quickly became a fan-favorite due to the variety of content it harbors. Apple TV Plus is especially known for producing and releasing several critically acclaimed original movies and TV shows that are collectively known as Apple Originals.

    You can watch via Apple TV Plus by following these steps:

    1. Open the Apple TV app on your device.
    2. Select the Apple TV Plus Originals tab.
    3. Select ‘Sign In’ and then ‘Start Free Trial.’
    4. Sign in with your Apple ID and password, or Create New Apple ID if you don’t have one.
    5. Confirm your billing and payment information.

    Users may be eligible for discounts and promotions if the device they’re using is eligible. Users can also share Apple TV Plus with their family, as up to five family members can be added to their subscription.

    The synopsis of Dads (2019) is as follows:

    “Director Bryce Dallas Howard teams up with her father, Ron Howard, to explore contemporary fatherhood through anecdotes and wisdom from famous funnymen such as Will Smith, Jimmy Fallon, Neil Patrick Harris, and more.”

    NOTE: The streaming services listed above are subject to change. The information provided was correct at the time of writing.

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    Pragya Chowdhury

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  • This is Not a Drill

    This is Not a Drill

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    Hawaiians respond to a threat of nuclear attack and a survivor tells of coping with the Hiroshima bombing.

    It is 41 minutes and 40 seconds to midnight in Honolulu. Heat rises from the asphalt in Hawaii’s capital. It is a beautiful day and people are out for strolls and running errands. Suddenly, sounds of sirens cut through the air. TV broadcasts, radio shows, and mobile phones are flooded with the following message: “Ballistic missile threat inbound to Hawaii. Seek immediate shelter. This is not a drill.” Panic descends throughout the island. Thousands of goodbye messages to loved ones are sent – even ones containing dramatic declarations or confessions. It took authorities almost one hour to let people know this was an error. We hear from people who tell us how they coped with the frightening events of this day in 2018.

    We also hear of the harrowing experience of surviving an actual nuclear attack. Toshiko Tanaka was six years old when the United States dropped an atomic bomb on her city of Hiroshima. “I remember the horror of that day: blinding light like thousands of strobe lights, my body thrown to the ground.” The atomic bombings of the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945 were the only time nuclear weapons have been used. Today, about 120,000 Hibakusha – survivors of the bombings – are still alive. Tanaka tells us of her life as one of these survivors, and of the work those bombings inspired her to do. She is 84 years old now and has dedicated her life to fighting against nuclear proliferation.

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  • ‘Porcelain War’ Review: Intimate Reflection on Making Art in Wartime Ukraine Is Beautiful but Frustrating

    ‘Porcelain War’ Review: Intimate Reflection on Making Art in Wartime Ukraine Is Beautiful but Frustrating

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    Watching Brendan Bellomo and Slava Leontyev’s visually confident, intellectually insecure documentary Porcelain War is like listening to a recitation from a brilliant poet while somebody sitting next to you is whispering what the poems are actually about. And the person sitting next to you explaining what the poet is trying to say is… twist… also the poet!

    There’s a great deal of beauty in Porcelain War and there’s a potent artistry behind it, but I’ve never watched a documentary with so many running visual metaphors and so little faith that the audience will be able to grasp them. It’s a bit stunning and a bit insulting all at once. That it often tends more toward the former explains its top award in the U.S. Documentary Competition at this year’s Sundance Film Festival.

    Porcelain War

    The Bottom Line

    Visually confident but intellectually insecure.

    Venue: Sundance Film Festival (U.S. Documentary Competition)
    Directors: Brendan Bellomo, Slava Leontyev

    1 hour 28 minutes

    The documentary is the story of Slava (the co-director) and Anya, partners in life and in art. He makes porcelain objects — snails, reptiles, owls — and she covers their white surfaces with intricate and whimsical paintings. They live in Crimea, surrounded by artists and friends, but when the Russians attack, rather than fleeing their homeland, they go from the country into Kharkiv, a city just 25 miles from the Russian border.

    In Kharkiv, Anya and Slava continue to make their art, placing their porcelain figures amid the rubble, while Slava is simultaneously serving as a weapons instructor for a military squad of civilians now forced to take up arms against the invading Russians. The artist couple is also accompanied by their bouncy dog Frodo, a terrier of some sort, and A VERY GOOD DOG.

    The third (or fourth, if you count Frodo, which you truly must) member of their little society of artists in extremis is their longtime friend Andrey Stefanov, a painter who has turned his attentions to photography during the war, when he isn’t lost in thought about his wife and daughters, who fled to Lithuania.

    The responsibility of the artist to continue to produce art in the darkest moments and the capacity of art to add beauty and levity in that darkness are just a few of the undercurrents in Porcelain War.

    Art is, as the documentary makes clear and then repeats, in and of itself a rebellious act and an act of creation to ward off destruction. It’s hard to dispute this contention, and the directors and Stefanov, the documentary’s primary cinematographer, do a moving job of capturing the contrasts between the bucolic countryside and the rubble left in urban centers by Russian bombing.

    The documentary shifts back and forth, often in hard cuts, from activities like a mushroom-hunting trip in the forest (or just Frodo leaping through sun-drenched fields) to the harsher realities of war. Except that both are reality, as we can see when one of their porcelain owls is placed on a decimated city wall or when Frodo very nearly happens upon a mine on one of their walks.

    But can war — at least from a defensive posture when what you’re protecting is your generational homeland and all you hold dear — be an act of creation and art? This is the complicated thesis that Porcelain War dances around while never necessarily committing to it.

    The necessity of fighting back against the Russians is never in doubt for the furniture salesmen and dairy farmers Slava is training. And once rebellion is happening anyway, we see Anya painting one of their bomb-equipped drones.

    That drones have become a crucial piece of documentary vernacular in the past decade is made clear in several shots in which the filmmaking drone is filming the war-making drones in action. That one is making art and the other is contributing to carnage (however righteous) is a conversation Porcelain War instigates without directly addressing. Perhaps the filmmakers are hoping to avoid questions of whether or not they explicitly view this as Ukrainian propaganda or just as a story.

    And you know that if the filmmakers felt comfortable making the topic explicit, they would, because the documentary is so very explicit in spelling things out at so many points. Like if you, dear reader, hear porcelain described as “fragile, yet everlasting” in a documentary about Ukraine, I’m betting there’s a connection you would be able to make without Slava’s voiceover coming out and saying, “Ukraine is like porcelain, easy to break, but impossible to destroy.”

    Everything in Porcelain War is a metaphor, including little Frodo, of whom Slava says, “Everyone says that he is gentle, but courageous,” before Anya adds, “a small embodiment of the Ukrainian spirit.” Over and over again, the documentary does this, planting a seed that might be perceptive or poignant or just witty and then denying the viewer the chance to make a not-too-large leap.

    Comparably to another Sundance prize winner, Angela Patton and Natalie Rae’s Daughters, Porcelain War suggests that having a co-director who is also a featured subject in your documentary may be good for intimacy, but isn’t always ideal for dramatic clarity. Expecting Slava Leontyev the Director to agree that probably 75 percent of Slava Leontyev the Subject’s voiceover — thoroughly poetic and thoroughly duplicative — could be cut is a big ask.

    It’s my sense that in the absence of that voiceover, none of the documentary’s themes would be lost or weakened. It would be so much easier to marvel at Stefanov’s photography, to have your heart break at the tragic juxtapositions made by the editors, to celebrate the animation that flows out of Anya’s tiny paintings, to wait breathlessly through a harrowing sequence shot on a military body-cam. Or just to get carried along by the score from Ukrainian quartet DakhaBrakha as Frodo frolics obliviously on the edge of war.

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    Daniel Fienberg

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  • Will Ferrell and Trans Comedy Writer Harper Steele’s Documentary Has Sundance Audience Applauding

    Will Ferrell and Trans Comedy Writer Harper Steele’s Documentary Has Sundance Audience Applauding

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    Will Ferrell, best known for some of his blockbuster roles in Elf, Anchor Man, and most recently, Barbie, has created the documentary Will & Harper with his longtime friend Harper Steele as they discuss their friendship in light of Steele’s transition at the age of 61.

    The response at Sundance was overwhelmingly positive, and we can’t wait to have access to it, too. Ferrell and Steele have been close friends for 30 years, having both cut their teeth working at Saturday Night Live as they made their grand entrance into the world of comedic entertainment. At the age of 61, Steele came out as a trans woman, thrusting Ferrell into a world he had “zero knowledge” about but wanted to explore.

    “I had met trans people, but I didn’t have anyone personally in my life. So this was all new territory for me, which is why I think this film is so exciting for us to kind of put out there in the world. It’s a chance all of us in the cis community to be able to ask questions and also just to listen and be there as a friend to discuss this journey.”

    Not wanting to exploit his friend, but feeling that this conversation would make for a great documentary, Ferrell brought it up with Steele to see if she would be open to it. Steele saw this as a great opportunity to simply watch two friends discuss the topic together, but also have Ferrell’s support and star power behind her. She spoke to The Hollywood Reporter on the decision, saying,

    “It was only my second year of transition, and I thought this would help me dissipate some of the nervousness around it. Walking around with a big shot like Will was gonna be helpful to me.”

    The film received a standing ovation, more than once, at the Eccles Theatre at its Sundance premiere.

    What to expect

    The film’s official synopsis reads:

    “When Will Ferrell finds out his close friend of 30 years is coming out as a trans woman, the two decide to embark on a cross-country road trip to process this new stage of their relationship in an intimate portrait of friendship, transition, and America.”

    The documentary sees the two of them take a 17-day road trip from New York to California, making stops along the way at various locations that Steele would like to feel comfortable in after she came out. These included baseball games, dive bars, and classy restaurants.

    It isn’t just the where that is important in this documentary but the who. Having met while working at SNL, the show and the people who have worked on it are incredibly important to both Ferrell and Steele. At various locations, they are joined by veterans of the show such as Tina Fey, Kristen Wiig, and Molly Shannon. Of their impact and the reason they are a part of this documentary, Steele stated, “They were important to my transition; they’re my family.”

    Will & Harper still mainly focuses on Ferrell and Steele and their friendship, with Ferrell wanting to be as authentic as possible. The actor breaks down in tears at certain moments during his conversations with Steele. For Steele, the opportunity to tell her story and share her experience at this precise time is invaluable, given how LGBTQ+ rights have been treated in recent years.

    The documentary was directed by Josh Greenbaum, known for comedic series such as New Girl and Fresh Off the Boat, as well as comedy films like Strays and Barb and Star Go to Vista Del Mar. Though this film deals with some heavy topics, it still has several humorous moments. (How could it not, with a comedic duo at the center?)

    Will we be able to watch it?

    Will and Harper does not yet have a home to move to but is reportedly seeking distribution after it premiered at Sundance. Given its standing ovation response at the festival, it feels safe to say that it will likely find a way to our screens at some point in the future, hopefully later this year.

    At a time when much of the world is so divided on issues such as those involving the LGBTQ+ community, having an allyship documentary like this, is an extremely positive thing.

    (featured image: Dia Dipasupil/Getty Images)

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    Laura Pollacco

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  • A Disturbance in the Force finally reveals how The Star Wars Holiday Special went so wrong

    A Disturbance in the Force finally reveals how The Star Wars Holiday Special went so wrong

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    This breakdown of the documentary A Disturbance in the Force was originally published when the movie debuted at the 2023 SXSW Conference. It has been updated for the movie’s digital release.

    For a couple of decades after its one-time-only broadcast on Nov. 17, 1978, The Star Wars Holiday Special was a secret handshake among nerds. “Weird Al” Yankovic’s “White & Nerdy” video contains a scene where Al buys a bootleg VHS of the special in an alley next to a dumpster, winking at how much currency this infamous televised fiasco had among fans in the days before YouTube. Now, a quick search on that particular site will pull up multiple full-length uploads of the special — much to the presumed angst of George Lucas, who has publicly expressed his desire to destroy every copy of Star Wars’ first big misstep himself.

    Just because The Star Wars Holiday Special is easier to find in 2023 doesn’t make it any less baffling, however. Once a fan discovers its existence and watches it, however they’re able to access it — Lucasfilm has never officially released The Star Wars Holiday Special, and probably never will — a series of questions inevitably follow. “What?!” comes first, followed by “Why?” and “How?” The documentary A Disturbance in the Force seeks to answer these queries.

    The film kicks off with the “WTF?” of it all, in a montage that includes sound bites from pop culture talking heads like Seth Green and Kevin Smith, both of whom have inextricably tied their personas to their love of Star Wars. These are intercut with legacy clips of Star Wars actors, including Harrison Ford and Carrie Fisher, refusing to discuss the special, setting it up as a holy grail and appealing mystery: “The Star Wars oddity they don’t want you to see!”

    This part of the film is fine. It’s fun and it’s lively, but it doesn’t really add anything to the legend. Then the film brings in people who can answer the questions raised by the special, rather than simply restating them in colorful ways, and A Disturbance in the Force becomes something far richer and more interesting.

    Photo: Lucasfilm

    The most surprising thing A Disturbance in the Force reveals about The Star Wars Holiday Special is the caliber of talent involved. The crew was the best 1978 television had to offer, and CBS called in its top stars to make appearances on the show. And yet, somewhere, somehow, everything went to hell. Here are a few questions that are actually addressed in A Disturbance in the Force:

    Why does The Star Wars Holiday Special exist?

    In short, because of a combination of conventional wisdom about movie promotion in the late ’70s and George Lucas’ spite toward 20th Century Fox. At the time, Star Wars was not embedded in our cultural consciousness the way it is now, and studio executives thought the enthusiasm about the movie would be temporary, in spite of its box-office success. An executive told Lucas that in a meeting in the summer of 1977, and Lucas began pushing to get Star Wars characters on TV as much as possible, to prove that exec wrong. (The fact that Star Wars toys were still being rolled out a year after the movie first hit theaters, and that Lucas had a personal financial stake in the sales of those toys, didn’t hurt.)

    Why the song and dance numbers, though?

    At the time, variety specials were TV staples — more common than rollicking sci-fi adventures told in the style of old-fashioned serials, which meant that Lucas’ new movie model got stuffed in an old box to sell it to the masses. A Disturbance in the Force argues that The Star Wars Holiday Special was not the worst of Star Wars’ late-’70s TV appearances: That honor goes to a 1977 episode of Donny & Marie in which Donny Osmond played Luke, Marie Osmond played Leia (who was, at the time, still Luke’s love interest, not his sister), and Kris Kristofferson played Han. The clips shown in the doc support this thesis.

    Why does The Star Wars Holiday Special feel so disjointed?

    A combination of factors comes into play here. First, the original director, David Acomba, was fired after three days for spending most of the show’s budget within those 72 hours. Steve Binder, a pro who had also directed the Elvis ’68 comeback special, stepped in to finish the job. But Binder had another commitment that prevented him from being involved with the editing of the special, so that job fell to a pair of producers named Ken and Mitzie Welch, who had made plenty of variety shows, but knew nothing about editing, Star Wars, or sci-fi in general.

    Who designed all those wild costumes?

    Bob Mackie, who was RuPaul’s and Whitney Houston’s favorite fashion designer, and the premiere costumer for film and TV in the late 1970s. Mackie, now 84, has a great sense of humor about the whole thing, and his interviews are a highlight of the film.

    Art Carney and Bea Arthur sit together in their Star Wars costumes, looking at the camera, in a posed publicity photo for 1978’s The Star Wars Holiday Special

    Photo: Lucasfilm

    Why does Bea Arthur nuzzle up with a rat in the cantina?

    Like the rest of the masks used in The Star Wars Holiday Special’s cantina scene — and the original Mos Eisley Cantina in Star Wars, for that matter — the rat was a leftover from another production that effects artist Rick Baker had worked on in the past. The rat was also featured in the 1976 creature feature The Food of the Gods.

    Why do Chewbacca and his family speak in unsubtitled Shyriiwook for nine minutes?

    More misguided conventional wisdom: CBS executives thought viewers would change the channel if they saw subtitles.

    Why is Jefferson Starship in The Star Wars Holiday Special?

    Because they had a song called “Hyperdrive,” and the band had “Starship” in its name. Really.

    Was Lucasfilm embarrassed by the special after it aired?

    Not really. TV was more ephemeral in the days before VCRs became commonplace, and interviewees in the doc who saw The Star Wars Holiday Special as kids say that they and their peers thought it was awesome — mostly because of its Boba Fett cartoon, which marks Fett’s first official appearance in the universe. Jon Favreau and Dave Filoni were two of those kids, which is why Mando’s rifle on The Mandalorian is modeled after Fett’s on the holiday special.

    Is Disney embarrassed by the special now?

    The company has started selling Life Day merchandise, and has declared Nov. 17 — the day the special aired on CBS — as an official Star Wars holiday in its theme parks. So, as always with Disney: It’s fine with any ancillary product, so long as the company can make money off of it.

    Why does Chewie’s dad Itchy celebrate Life Day by watching Wookiee porn?

    Some mysteries are best left unsolved. All we know is that Cher was supposed to play the Diahann Carroll role, but dropped out at the last minute.

    A Disturbance in the Force is now available for digital rental via Amazon, Vudu, and Apple.

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    Katie Rife

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  • B.C. documentarians secure original ‘ReBoot’ master tapes, but need help to play them | Globalnews.ca

    B.C. documentarians secure original ‘ReBoot’ master tapes, but need help to play them | Globalnews.ca

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    If you are a Canadian child of the ’90s, chances are you’ve logged a number of hours watching the computer animated television show ReBoot.

    The pioneering program was the first full-length 3D animated show on TV, predating even Toy Story.

    Produced in Vancouver by Mainframe Entertainment, it aired on YTV between 1994 and 2001, and decades later still has a committed fan base.


    Click to play video: 'This is BC: Film grads stage Indigenous horror series'


    This is BC: Film grads stage Indigenous horror series


    Among those super fans are Jacob Weldon and Raquel Lin, a B.C. duo now crafting a documentary about the creation of the show and its impact in the film and TV world.

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    Weldon said he wants to see ReBoot recognized for its place in the evolution of computer animation — recognition he said it rarely gets.

    “Even on Wikipedia I think there’s maybe one line that is like, oh yeah, ReBoot came out in 1994, but that one line encapsulates this 16-year colourful insane history that’s like a Wild West pioneering story of CGI, so I just wanted to see that story told,” he said.

    “We know so many people that DM us, comment on our Facebook, Instagram, everything, that are just like, ‘Yeah, oh my God I love that show and that’s why I got into animation,’ or That’s why I came to Vancouver for school,’” Lin added.


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    “It’s this ripple effect that has kind of created waves that no one really knows about.”

    When ReBoot was finally cancelled — cut short in its fourth and final season — its protagonists were left in peril and the show ended on a cliffhanger.


    Click to play video: 'This is BC: Recently re-released NFB production shows early start by two B.C. filmmakers'


    This is BC: Recently re-released NFB production shows early start by two B.C. filmmakers


    It’s another factor that Lin and Weldon say has helped immortalize the show and has helped fans hoping for a revival that might finally explain the characters’ fate.

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    Earlier this month, the documentary also got a potential major boost.

    Mainframe allowed Lin and Weldon to come to the studio to look for the show’s original master tapes, recordings some believed might have been permanently lost.

    They struck gold.

    Trending Now

    “They had boxes upon boxes upon boxes, hundreds of tapes,” Lin said.

    “It’s original resolution, original frame rate, uncompressed. If we could get a deck to play these, they would look beautiful,” Weldon said.

    Finding that deck, however, is the pair’s next major challenge.

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    The recordings are on a rare digital tape format called D1, a technology that Weldon said was cutting edge and rare when Mainframe was using it.

    It’s even harder to find today, and even Mainframe doesn’t have the equipment to play the tapes back.


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    This is BC: Short film about growing up Chinese in Metro Vancouver up for U.S. national award


    Weldon and Lin have since put out a call on social media for a working Bosch BTS D1 deck that would allow them to play the tapes, and incorporate them into their documentary.

    “I can’t tell you how many people have called us, DM’d us, emailed us — people from all over the world,” Lin said.

    While the pair still haven’t secured the deck, they’re aiming to release their documentary by next summer.

    They’re hoping it will help renew interest in the show, introduce it to new generations and perhaps see it get new life on a streaming platform.

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    “Talking to a lot of the alumni today, it’s just so much heart was put into it, and it shows on screen and it shows in the writing and it shows to the generations that it touched,” Lin said.

    “We know what a crazy story is behind that show and most people don’t know about it,” added Weldon.

    &copy 2023 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.

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    Simon Little

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  • IDA Documentary Awards: ‘Bobi Wine: The People’s President’ Wins Best Feature

    IDA Documentary Awards: ‘Bobi Wine: The People’s President’ Wins Best Feature

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    Bobi Wine: The People’s President won the top prize of best feature documentary at the 2023 International Documentary Awards on Tuesday night.

    The film follows music star, activist and opposition leader Bobi Wine amid Uganda’s 2021 presidential election.

    Accepting the award during the International Documentary Association‘s virtual awards show, co-director Moses Bwayo said, “The awareness this film has brought to world audiences has arguably kept Bobi Wine alive and out of prison for now.”

    Asmae El Moudir won best director for The Mother of All Lies, in which El Moudir creates a replica of the Casablanca neighborhood where she grew up, allowing her to reconnect with her past.

    The Mother of All Lies was nominated for three awards, along with Milisuthando, while Apolonia, Apolonia had a leading four nominations.

    Incident, which reconstructs a Chicago police shooting in 2018 from numerous viewpoints, won best short documentary award. POV and POV Shorts won best curated series and best short-form series, respectively, both for the second year in a row.

    Other noteworthy winners include Smoke Sauna Sisterhood‘s Ants Tammik (best cinematography), Anselm‘s Leonard Küssner (best original music score), Four Daughters‘ Kaouther Ben Hania (best writing), Our Planet II (best episodic series) and Dear Mama (best multi-part documentary).

    In addition to the award winners listed below, the IDA awarded the Pare Lorentz Award to In the Rearview, and the ABC News VideoSource Award went to Storming Caesars Palace.

    The 39th IDA Documentary Awards, hosted by KCRW DJs Tyler Boudreaux and Raul Campos, saw winners accept their awards from cities around the world.

    “While we are speaking from Los Angeles, our thoughts are with the people living in the midst of war around the globe,” IDA board co-presidents Grace Lee and Chris Perez said at the top of the show. “The loss of lives, friendships and the inability to listen has been heartbreaking. And yet, as a community, we are storytellers of the world we live in and know that our work can not only capture history but change minds. To the thousands of IDA members who live in 76 countries and voted for the winners of the best feature and best short documentary categories, thank you for investing your time and for your inspired choices!”

    In announcing this year’s IDA nominations, interim executive director Ken Ikeda said the organization would be skipping an in-person event.

    “In the wake of devastating events unfolding in the world and the grief our staff, board, community, and humanity at large are experiencing, we have decided to forego an in-person party,” IDA interim executive director Ken Ikeda said in a statement. “We know that stories have the power to encourage compassion, understanding and peace. We are committed to preserving space for stories to be shared. Our wish is to recognize and celebrate the nominees and winners together, as a global documentary community.”

    The IDA’s new executive director, as of Jan. 8, Dominic Asmall Willsdon, delivered the closing remarks.

    “In the coming years, across all that IDA does, our task is to become as international as we can be,” Willsdon said. “You see it already. Look at this year’s award nominees, who works at IDA, who’s on the board now, this year’s grant recipients, and who’s contributing to the magazine.”

    A complete list of this year’s International Documentary Awards winners follows.

    Best Feature Documentary Nominees
    Against the Tide (India | BBC Storyville | Director: Sarvnik Kaur | Producers: Koval Bhatia, Sarvnik Kaur)
    ANHELL69 (Colombia | Square Eyes | Director: Theo Montoya | Producers: Bianca Oana, David Hurst, Theo Montoya, Juan Pablo Castrillon, Balthasar Busmann, Maximilian Haslberger)
    Apolonia, Apolonia (Denmark | HBO Max | Director: Lea Glob | Producer: Sidsel Lønvig Siersted)
    Bobi Wine: The People’s President (Uganda | National Geographic Documentary Films | Directors: Moses Bwayo, Christopher Sharp | Producers: Christopher Sharp, John Battsek) (WINNER)
    Going to Mars: The Nikki Giovanni Project (United States | HBO Documentary Films | Directors: Michèle Stephenson, Joe Brewster | Producers: Michèle Stephenson, Joe Brewster, Tommy Oliver)
    In the Rearview (Poland | Cinephil | Director: Maciek Hamela | Producers: Maciek Hamela, Piotr Grawender)
    Milisuthando (South Africa | Director: Milisuthando Bongela | Producers: Marion Isaacs, Viviana Gomez, Sonia Barrera, Milisuthando Bongela, Hankyeol Lee)
    Q (United States | Chehab Films | Director: Jude Chehab | Producers: Jude Chehab, Fahd Ahmed)
    The Mother of All Lies (Morocco | Arizona Distribution | Director/Producer: Asmae El Moudir)
    While We Watched (United Kingdom, India | POV, BRITDOC Films | Director: Vinay Shukla | Producers: Vinay Shukla, Khushboo Ranka, Luke W Moody)

    Best Short Documentary Nominees
    How to Carry Water (United States | Multitude Films | Director: Sasha Wortzel | Producers: Colleen Cassingham, Jess Devaney, Anya Rous)
    Incident (United States | Hypnotic Pictures | Director: Bill Morrison | Producers: Bill Morrison, Jamie Kalven) (WINNER)
    Liturgy of Anti-Tank Obstacles (United States | The New Yorker, Condé Nast Entertainment | Director: Dmytro Sukholytkyy Sobchuk | Producer: Daniel Lombroso)
    Marungka Tjalatjunu (Dipped in Black) (Australia | Other Pictures | Directors: Derik Lynch, Matthew Thorne | Producers: Matthew Thorne, Patrick Graham)
    Nǎi Nai & Wài Pó (Grandma & Grandma) (United States | Director: Sean Wang | Producers: Sean Wang, Sam Davis)
    Neighbour Abdi (The Netherlands | The New York Times Op-Docs | Director: Douwe Dijkstra | Producer: Richard Valk)
    Raat: Night Time in Small Town India (India | The Third Eye Learning Lab | Directors: Arti Ahirwar, Ashraf Hussain, Rajkumari Ahirwar, Vikas Khatri, Tabassum Ansari, Kulsum Khatoon, Khushi Bano, Parmeshwar Mandrawaliya, Santra Chaurthiya, Rajkumari Prajapati, Manisha Chanda, Anita Sen, Rani Devi, Ajfarul Shaikh | Producers: Ruchika Negi, Dipta Bhog, Shabani Hassanwalia, Shivam Rastogi)
    Suddenly TV (Sudan | Gisa Productions | Director/Producer: Roopa Gogineni)
    The Unicorn in Snowpants Suddenly Ran Off (Germany | The New Yorker, Filmakademie Baden-Württemberg | Director: Philipp Schaeffer | Producer: Fabian Leonhardt)
    The Veiled City (United Kingdom | JSH Films | Director: Natalie Cubides-Brady | Producer: Jacob Swan Hyam)

    Best Director
    Asmae El Moudir, The Mother of All Lies (Arizona Distribution | Morocco) (WINNER)
    Milisuthando Bongela, Milisuthando (South Africa)
    Sarvnik Kaur, Against the Tide (BBC Storyville | India)
    Theo Montoya, ANHELL69 (Square Eyes | Colombia)
    Lea Glob, Apolonia, Apolonia (HBO Max | Denmark, Poland, USA)

    Best Cinematography
    Andrew H. Brown, Between the Rains (Journeyman Pictures | Kenya, USA)
    Ants Tammik, Smoke Sauna Sisterhood (Greenwich Entertainment | Estonia, France, Iceland) (WINNER)
    Curren Sheldon, King Coal (Fourth Act Film | USA)
    Franz Lustig, Anselm (Sideshow Pictures | Germany)
    Lars Erlend Tubaas Oymo, Songs of Earth (SWC/Arte, BBC Storyville | Norway)

    Best Editing
    Andreas Bøggild Monies, Thor Ochsner, Apolonia, Apolonia (HBO Max | Denmark, Poland, USA)
    Carolina Siraqyan, The Eternal Memory (MTV Documentary Films | Chile, USA) (WINNER)
    Fahd Ahmed, Q (Chehab Films | USA, Lebanon)
    Hendrik Mägar, Tushar Prakash, Smoke Sauna Sisterhood (Greenwich Entertainment | Estonia, France, Iceland)

    Best Original Music Score
    Jonathan Goldsmith, To Kill a Tiger (National Film Board of Canada | Canada, India)
    Leonard Küssner, Anselm (Sideshow Pictures | Germany) (WINNER)
    Rebekka Karijord, Songs of Earth (SWR/Arte, BBC Storyville | Norway)
    Samora Pinderhughes, Chris Pattishall, Going To Mars: The Nikki Giovanni Project (HBO Documentary Films | USA)
    Will Epstein, Nam June Paik: Moon is the Oldest TV (Greenwich Entertainment | USA)

    Best Writing
    Asmae El Moudir, The Mother of All Lies (Arizona Distribution | Morocco)
    Kaouther Ben Hania, Four Daughters (Kino Lorber | France, Tunisia, Germany) (WINNER)
    Lea Glob, Andreas Bøggild Monies, Apolonia, Apolonia (HBO Max | Denmark, Poland, USA)
    Milisuthando Bongela, Milisuthando (South Africa)
    Nisha Pahuja, To Kill a Tiger (National Film Board of Canada | Canada, India)

    Best TV Feature or Mini-Series
    Great Photo, Lovely Life (HBO Max | USA | Directors: Amanda Mustard, Rachel Beth Anderson | EP: Rachel Dretzin, Producers: Amanda Mustard, Rachel Beth Anderson, Luke Malone)
    How to Come Alive with Norman Mailer (Showtime | USA | Director: Jeff Zimbalist | EP: Vinnie Malhotra, Stu Schreiberg, John Buffalo Mailer, Producers: Victoria Marquette, Jeff Zimbalist)
    Mariupol: The People’s Story (BBC | UK | Director: Robin Barnwell | EP: Darren Kemp, Tom Stone | Producer: Hilary Andersson) (WINNER)
    Reggie (Prime Video | USA | Director: Alexandria Stapleton | EP: Brenda Gilbert, Aaron L. Gilbert, Josh Miller, Kim Carsten, Zoë Morrison, Jason Cloth, Suraj Maraboyina, Producers: Alexandria Stapleton, Christopher Leggett, Rafael Marmor, Daniel Crown, Yoni Liebling)
    The U.S. and the Holocaust (PBS | USA | Directors: Ken Burns, Lynn Novick, Sarah Botstein | EP: Ken Burns, Producers: Sarah Botstein, Lynn Novick, Mike Welt)

    Best Curated Series
    American Masters (PBS | USA | EP: Michael Kantor)
    America ReFramed (American Documentary, Inc, WORLD Channel | USA | EP: Erika Dilday, Chris White, Christopher Hastings)
    Independent Lens (PBS, Independent Lens | USA | EP: Sally Jo Fifer, Lois Vossen)
    POV (PBS | USA, Denmark, Brazil | EP: Erika Dilday; Chris White) (WINNER)
    Reel South (PBS, WORLD Channel | USA, South Korea, UK | EP: Rachel Raney, Don Godish, Donald Washington, Linda Midgett)

    Best Episodic Series
    Frozen Planet II (BBC America | USA | Producer: Mark Brownlow)
    Our Planet II (Netflix | USA, UK | Producers: Alastair Fothergill, Keith Scholey) (WINNER)
    Telemarketers (HBO Max | USA | Producers: Benny Safdie, Josh Safdie, Dani Bernfeld, David Gordon Green, Jody Hill, Danny McBride, Greg Stewart, Brandon James, Adam Bhala Lough, Sam Lipman-Stern, Nancy Abraham, Lisa Heller, Tina Nguyen)
    The Hair Tales (Hulu | USA | Producers: Oprah Winfrey, Tracee Ellis Ross, Michaela Angela Davis, Tara Duncan, Raeshem Nijhon, Carri Twigg, Kisah Imani Cameron, Kadine Anckle, Nicole Galovski)
    VICE (Showtime | USA | Producers: Beverly Johnson, Subrata De)

    Best Music Documentary
    Keeping the Music Alive (France, Singapore, UK | TVF International | Directors: Sarah El Younsi, Mandakini Gahlot | Producers: Bable Doc, CNA)
    Little Richard: I Am Everything (Magnolia Pictures, CNN Film, HBO Max | USA, UK | Director: Lisa Cortés | Producers: Lisa Cortés, Robert Friedman, Liz Yale Marsh, Caryn Capotosto)
    Max Roach: The Drum Also Waltzes (PBS, American Masters | USA | Directors/Producers: Ben Shapiro, Sam Pollard) (WINNER)
    Milli Vanilli (USA | Paramount+ | Director: Luke Korem | Producers: Luke Korem, Bradley Jackson)
    Pianoforte (Poland, Germany | Greenwich Entertainment | Director: Jakub Piatek | Producer: Maciej Kubicki)

    Best Multi-Part Documentary
    Algiers, America (Hulu | USA | Director: Jackson Fager | Producers: Jackson Fager, Jeffrey Fager, David Rohde, Connor Schell, Libby Geist, Raina Kelley, Joseph Langford, Durado Brookes)
    Burden of Proof (HBO Max | USA | Director: Cynthia Hill | Producers: Charlotte Cook, Rahdi Taylor, Davis Guggenheim, Nancy Abraham, Lisa Heller)
    Deadlocked: How America Shaped the Supreme Court (Showtime | USA | Director: Dawn Porter | Producers: Vinnie Malhotra, Aaron Saidman, Eli Holzman, Dawn Porter)
    Dear Mama (FX | USA | Director: Allen Hughes | EP: Lasse Järvi, Quincy “QD3” Jones III, Staci Robinson, Nelson George, Charles King, Peter Nelson, Adel “Future” Nur, Jamal Soseph, Ted Skillman, Allen Hughes, Steve Berman, Marc Cimino, Jody Gerson, John Nanick, Nicholas Ferrall, Nigel Sinclair) (WINNER)
    Ladies First: The Story of Women in Hip-Hop (Netflix | USA | Directors: Hannah Beachler, Raeshem Nijhon, Dream Hampton | Producers: Dream Hampton, Troy Carter, Raeshem Nijhon, Carri Twigg, MC Lyte, Nicole Galovski, Justin Simien, Jennifer Ryan)

    Best Short-Form Series
    99: True Stories From Your Fellow Humans (99 | USA, India, UK | Producer: Jérôme Plan)
    Couples Therapy (Showtime | USA | Producers: Eli Despres, Josh Kriegman, Elyse Steinberg, Vinnie Malhotra)
    Equals (Anahad Foundation | USA | Producers: Shuchi Roy, Mudit Chaturvedi)
    POV Shorts (American Documentary | USA | Producers: Erika Dilday, Chris White) (WINNER)
    Queer Futures (Multitude Films | USA | Producers: Jess Devaney, Anya Rous, J Wortham)

    Best Standalone Audio Documentary
    K-Pop Dreaming, Episode 3 – “Trot” (USA | LAist Studios | Host: Vivian Yoon | Producers: Fiona Ng, Antonia Cereijido)
    Les gardiennes du temple (The Guardians of the Temple) (France | SMAC Le Florida, Théâtre des Quatre Saisons, RTBF, RTS Culture SRG SSR | Hosts: Aurélien Caillaux, Benoit Bores | Producers: Faïdos Sonore, Les Voix de Traverse, SMAC Le Florida, Théâtre des Quatre Saisons)
    Melanie Speaks (USA | SiriusXM Podcast Network | Host: Sarah Esocoff | Producers: Kameel Stanley, Jen Derwin, Bill Crandal, Mike Spinella, Sarah Bentley, Sarah Esocoff)
    NPR’s Invisibilia: Freedom Diving (USA | NPR | Host: Kia Miakka Natisse | Producers: Phoebe Wang, Ariana Gharib Lee)
    This Coal Life (South Africa | Host: Lesedi Mogoatlhe | Reporter: Siyabonga Mokoena | Producer: Dhashen Moodley) (WINNER)
    Toughie (USA | BBC’s Short Cuts | Host: Josie Long | Reporter/Producer: Sarah Craig)

    Best Multi-Part Audio Documentary or Series
    Foretold (USA | Los Angeles Times | Host: Faith E. Pinho | Producers: Asal Ehsanipour, Alex Higgins, Heba Elorbany, Jazmin Aguilera, Lauren Raab, Avery Trufelman, Sue Horton)
    Into America presents: Street Disciples (USA | MSNBC | Host: Trymaine Lee | Producers: Aisha Turner, Isabel Angell, Max Jacobs, Allison Bailey, Mike Brown, Janmaris Perez)
    Operation Morning Light (USA, Canada | Imperative Entertainment, Vespucci | Host: Dëneze Nakehk’o | Producers: Michael LaPointe, Aliya Pabani)
    Scamanda (USA | Lionsgate Sound | Host: Charlie Webster | Producer: Jaxson McLennan | EP: Craig Piligian, Charlie Webster, Nancy Moscatiello)
    The Greatest Menace: Inside The Gay Prison Experiment (Australia | Audible | Host/Producer: Patrick Abboud | Producer: Simon Cunich)
    You Didn’t See Nothin (USA | The Invisible Institute, USG Audio | Host: Yohance Lacour | Producers: Bill Healy, Erisa Apantaku, Dana Brozost-Kelleher, Sarah Geis) (WINNER)

    David L. Wolper Student Documentary
    El Bastón (The City College of New York | USA, Colombia | Director: ​​Nemo Allen | Producers: Aditi Natasha Kini, Juan Blanco García)
    Hungry for Freedom (National Film and Television School | UK, Thailand | Director/Producer: Rachata Thongruay | Producer: Athena Vlachos)
    Lettre à Elie (Letter to Elie) (National Film and Television School | UK | Director/Producer: Alexis Grigorieff) (WINNER)
    PromisedLand™ (National Film and Television School | UK | Director/Producer: Frank Eli Martin | Producer: Tal Elkayam)
    With Woman (National Film and Television School | UK | Director/Producer: Mia Harvey)

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    Hilary Lewis

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  • 4 Japanese Concepts That Will Improve Your Well-Being

    4 Japanese Concepts That Will Improve Your Well-Being

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    Embark on a journey to well-being with these four profound Japanese concepts: Ikigai for purpose, Moai for community, Hara Hachi Bu for mindful eating, and Kintsugi for resilience. Discover insights to a healthier and happier life in the modern world by embracing the ancient wisdom of Japanese culture.

    Culture is a powerful force that influences the type of person we become. In the pursuit of well-being, different cultures can often teach us different lessons on what it means to live a good life.

    First, what is culture? The American anthropologist Edward T. Hall created the “Cultural Iceberg” framework to help us analyze the many factors that determine what a culture is. The theory illustrates that only 10% of culture is what we see (language, diet, music, fashion), while 90% of culture is hidden from us (beliefs, values, norms, and expectations).

    Here’s what the “Cultural Iceberg” looks like:

    cultural iceberg

    Generally we see the culture we grew up in as the default mode of being. This includes how people dress, what people eat, and what music they listen to, but also deeper aspects of life such as beliefs, values, morality, and how people approach life from a broader perspective.

    Culture, tradition, and social norms shape our map of reality, the choices we make, and how we navigate our world. If you’re raised in a society that only values materialistic goals like money, fame, or popularity, you’re naturally going to live a life in accordance with those values, especially if they go unquestioned.

    When we explore new cultures through traveling, reading, or meeting new people, we learn that there are many different ways we can approach life and the way we were raised isn’t necessarily the only way to live.

    One simplified but general way we can categorize different types of culture is Western vs. Eastern ways of thinking. Western cultures tend to be more individualistic, rational, and materialistic, while Eastern cultures tend to be more collectivist, holistic, and spiritual.

    Keep in mind, these are broad categorizations. Every country and culture is different. This also isn’t a judgment of “right” or “wrong” ways of thinking, but rather observing different personality types on a cultural scale.

    My experience from a Western perspective is that learning about various aspects of Eastern culture and philosophy (such as Buddhism, Taoism, or Confucianism) gave me a taste for different ways to look at the world and different perspectives on life that I otherwise wouldn’t have been exposed to.

    One popular country to look at is Japan which has a rich history, deep cultural roots, and long-held traditions that have been passed down over multiple generations. In this article, we’re going to cover four powerful Japanese concepts that provide universal lessons on how to live a healthier and happier life. Each concept reveals core values and beliefs that shape the way many Japanese people live.

    These powerful ideas include: Ikigai (“a reason for being”), Moai (“meeting for a common purpose”), Hara Hachi Bu (“belly 80% full”), and Kintsugi (“golden repair”). Now let’s dive deeper into each one!

    Ikigai

    a reason for being

    The Japanese concept of “Ikigai” is about finding a purpose in life. It directly translates to “a reason for being,” and it’s often described as the intersection between what you love, what you are good at, and what the world needs.

    Ikigai is a combination between intrinsic motivation (an activity you enjoy doing) and extrinsic rewards (an activity that creates value in the world and improves people’s lives). Psychology research has shown that ikigai is associated with elevated feelings of dedication, accomplishment, meaning, and fulfillment.

    This is in contrast to a lot of other cultures that just see work as a means to a paycheck or higher income, rather than reframing work as something that serves a higher purpose, both to yourself and society as a whole.

    Ikigai has been shown to benefit both physical and mental health. It can reduce stress and anxiety, which contributes to longer lives and less risk of cardiovascular disease and other ailments. In addition, ikigai is associated with greater resilience in the face of negative events. One interesting study found that ikigai helped people better cope with stress after an earthquake or natural disaster.

    Here’s a visual of what constitutes ikigai:

    ikigai

    If you can find activities that meet all of these requirements, then you’ve found your ikigai.

    Discovering your ikigai can take time and patience though. It involves careful introspection, understanding your strengths, passions, and talents, and finding ways to use those powers to fulfill the needs of the world.

    Once you find your ikigai, it’s important to align your daily activities with it if you want to build a more purposeful and meaningful life.

    Moai

    meeting for a common purpose

    Human connection is vital for our well-being, and the Japanese practice of “Moai” emphasizes the strength of communal bonds.

    Moai refers to a group of people who come together for a shared purpose, providing emotional, social, and even financial support. Often a moai includes family, friends, and neighbors within a local community. They will see each other frequently, talk and catch up on each other’s lives, and organize group activities such as game nights, fitness groups, music performances, or dance parties.

    This tight sense of community provides an important sense of belonging. It also comes with physical benefits like healthier lifestyles, exercise, social connection, and financial support if someone finds themselves in a tough situation.

    In today’s world, many people are suffering from loneliness and depression. One major cause of this is hyper individualism and atomistic lifestyles that no longer promote community values. Many Americans report having zero close friends and only 38% say they have “5 friends or more.” This is in stark contrast to the moai way of life which can often include 10-12+ lifelong friends.

    While there’s plenty of research showing the physical and mental benefits of social support, one of the most common examples of moai can be found in Okinawa, Japan, which has been identified as a “blue zone.”

    Blue zones are places around the world that are associated with better health and longevity. Often there are high numbers of centenarians in them (or people who have lived over 100). The recent Netflix documentary Live to 100: Secrets of the Blue Zones by public health researcher Dan Buettner has a great episode dedicated to Okinawa that shows how the moais work there.

    Many health professionals and experts are now claiming we are in a “loneliness epidemic,” with over 1 in 4 adults saying they feel socially isolated. This can have serious health consequences such as increased risk of anxiety, depression, heart disease, stroke, dementia, and overall shorter lifespans. The negative effects of loneliness have been compared to the effects of daily cigarette smoking.

    As communities continue to decline and feelings of social alienation increase, the moai mentality is needed now more than ever.

    Hara Hachi Bu

    belly 80% full

    In a culture often associated with healthy living and longevity, the Japanese concept of “Hara Hachi Bu” teaches us the art of mindful eating. Translated as “belly 80% full,” this practice encourages moderation in our meals.

    Obesity is a growing problem around the entire world. Recent reports show that 39% of the global population in 2023 is obese or overweight, and this is a sharp increase from 23.9% in 2008. If this trend continues, researchers predict that over half of the global population will have obesity by 2035.

    One factor in this rise in obesity is having abundant access to ultraprocessed foods, including the convenience of fast food and junk food. The modern diet is filled with supernormal foods that hijack our natural instincts for sugar, salts, and rich flavor, which is why many people end up over-eating during meals or late night binging.

    The lesson of Hara Hachi Bu is more relevant now than ever. By reminding ourselves to only eat until we are 80% full, we encourage slower and more mindful eating. This lets you enjoy your meal more by paying attention to each bite and savoring it, rather than quickly moving from one bite to the next without fully appreciating it.

    Many people eat unconsciously. Often it’s eating while watching TV/movies, checking their phones, scrolling social media, or socializing with friends. Their main focus is on one thing, while eating is just something happening in the background. These distractions can lead you to eat more than you otherwise would.

    Slowing down your eating will lead to less consumption, better digestion, and improved body awareness of how you respond to certain foods, the best times of the day to eat (or not), and what it feels like to be “50% full” → “80% full” → “100% full” → “110% full.”

    Adopting Hara Hachi Bu not only contributes to physical well-being by maintaining a healthy weight but also cultivates a mindful approach to eating that can lead to a stronger connection with the food we consume.

    Kintsugi

    golden repair

    Derived from the Japanese words “kin” (golden) and “tsugi” (repair), Kintsugi is the art of repairing broken pottery with lacquer mixed with powdered gold, silver, or platinum.

    Here’s what it looks like:

    kintsugi

    Instead of hiding the cracks and flaws, the practice of kintsugi embraces the broken parts by highlighting them in gold. It celebrates its imperfections, while at the same time making them stronger and more beautiful.

    Many find inspiration when applying this concept to their personal lives. It helps them to accept the challenges and obstacles they’ve had to face over the years – the physical, mental, and emotional battle scars – and see them as jumping points for growth and improvement.

    No one’s life is perfect. We all suffer from weaknesses, flaws, insecurities, and vulnerabilities. Our instinct is to hide them, ignore them, or deny them, but the paradox is that when we accept them is when we actually become stronger.

    Kintsugi promotes resilience, growth, and grit. It shows that no matter how many times you get broken, you can always repair yourself in gold.

    Conclusion

    Each of these Japanese concepts – Ikigai, Moai, Hara Hachi Bu, and Kintsugi – offers a kernel of wisdom that we can all apply to our daily lives.

    While these ideas are ancient, they are more relevant to modern living than ever before. Ikigai teaches us meaning and purpose, Moai teaches us social connection, Hara Hachi Bu teaches us mindful eating, and Kintsugi teaches us growth and resilience.

    Which concept do you need to embrace the most right now?


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    Steven Handel

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  • Sheryl Lee Ralph's New Film Challenges the Image of a Person Living With AIDS

    Sheryl Lee Ralph's New Film Challenges the Image of a Person Living With AIDS

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    Actress and singer Sheryl Lee Ralph has produced a short documentary, Unexpected, which focuses on a group less associated with (yet still suffering from) the epidemic of HIV—straight Black women.

    Ralph, currently best known for her Emmy award-winning role on Abbott Elementary, produced the documentary, which was released for streaming on Hulu on World AIDs Day, December 1. Unexpected gives viewers an insight into the issues facing Black women with HIV and why they are disproportionately affected. Black women are 11 times more likely to catch HIV than White women and four times more likely than Latina women, according to the CDC.

    Director Zeberiah Newman was shocked when he found out about these statistics while working on his first documentary, Right to Try, which also focused on HIV. As reported in People, Newman said,

    “I was shocked and alarmed to see that HIV is a very real and active crisis in the South, specifically with Black women. I started asking questions. In my humble opinion, we need to collectively help these women combat the stigma and health disparities around HIV.”

    As a gay man, Newman feels it is his moral obligation to share and inform people of this new wave, adding, “We must continue the fight and help our sisters through this crisis.” To get this project off the ground he reached out to those who could support his work, finding Ralph in the process.

    The actress has been actively working to combat the disease starting the DIVA Foundation in the ’90s “as a memorial and life-long pledge to the many friends she lost to AIDS while originating her iconic role in Dreamgirls on Broadway.” The organization has since gone on to raise $3.5 million for charity. The actress said of Unexpected,

    “So many people around the world have moved away from the conversation around HIV and AIDS. In 40 years, I have seen this narrative around this disease go from that they wanted to call a ‘gay white man’s disease’ to a ‘Black woman’s disease,’ especially the Black woman in the south of the United States. It has become the burden of this group of women to continue to do the work of raising awareness, and that’s exactly what this film does.”

    People Magazine

    The documentary focuses on Cici Covin, who was a 20-year-old university student when she discovered she was HIV positive. While doing her research into the disease she would now carry with her, she found that the stereotypes that surrounded the illness meant that she didn’t even know she was at risk.

    After initially worrying that her life was over and that she would not be able to have kids, Covin is now a thriving mother of two working as a program manager for the Well Project, a non-profit for women living with or vulnerable to the disease.

    The documentary premiered at the 2023 Essence Film Festival and went on to win an Award of Excellence at both The Accolade Global Film Competition and The IMPACT Docs Awards. It is now Oscar-qualified in the Documentary Short category.

    There are now many days around the year to focus on and discuss the topic of HIV/AIDS, such as the film’s premiere on December 1. There is also National Black HIV/AIDS Awareness Day on February 7 and National Women and Girls HIV/AIDS Awareness Day on March 10. We can only hope that, through these days and documentaries like these, more awareness can be raised on the issue. It’s important to know that gay men are not the only community at risk, and it’s possible to live a fulfilling and rich life even with this disease.

    (via People Magazine, featured image: Rodin Eckenroth/Getty Images)

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    Laura Pollacco

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  • Weapon of Choice Streaming: Watch & Stream Online via Netflix

    Weapon of Choice Streaming: Watch & Stream Online via Netflix

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    Weapon of Choice is a 2018 documentary film that examines the rise of the Glock pistol, the most sought-after service and murder weapon worldwide.

    Here’s how you can watch and stream Weapon of Choice via streaming services such as Netflix.

    Is Weapon of Choice available to watch via streaming?

    Yes, Weapon of Choice is available to watch via streaming on Netflix.

    Weapon of Choice is a 2018 documentary film by Austrian filmmakers Fritz Ofner and Eva Hausberger. It delves into the fascinating and often controversial story of the Glock pistol, a weapon that has become synonymous with both safety and violence worldwide.

    Watch Weapon of Choice streaming via Netflix

    Weapon of Choice is available to watch on Netflix. Netflix is a subscription-based streaming service offering a vast library of TV shows, movies, documentaries, anime, and more. Available on a wide range of devices, Netflix allows you to watch instantly on your phone, tablet, smart TV, laptop, or game console. With multiple subscription plans and personalized recommendations, Netflix aims to provide a convenient and enjoyable entertainment experience.

    You can watch the series via Netflix by following these steps:

    1. Visit netflix.com/signup
    2. Choose a payment plan from the following:
      • $6.99 per month (standard with Ads)
      • $15.49 per month (Standard)
      • $22.99 per month (Premium)
    3. Enter your email address and password to create an account
    4. Enter your chosen payment method

    The cheapest Netflix Standard with Ads Plan provides all but a few of its movies and TV shows. However, it will show ads before or during most of its content. You can watch in Full HD and on two supported devices at a time.

    Its Standard Plan provides the same but is completely ad-free while also allowing users to download content on two supported devices with an additional option to add one extra member who doesn’t live in the same household.

    The Premium Plan provides the same as above, though for four supported devices at a time, with content displaying in Ultra HD. Users get to download content on up to six supported devices at a time and have the option to add up to two extra members who don’t live in the same household. Netflix spatial audio is also supported.

    Weapon of Choice synopsis is as follows:

    “”They never fail.” The Glock pistol has been fetishized in films and the arts and is a regular top seller in the international arms market. For the first time, the filmmaking duo Fritz Ofner and Eva Hausberger tell the story of the rise of the Glock: An Austrian design that became the most sought-after service and murder weapon worldwide. Tracing the web of power, money, violence, and politics, the film masterfully portrays the dark sides of globalization and not least an Austrian tale of willful ignorance.“

    NOTE: The streaming services listed above are subject to change. The information provided was correct at the time of writing.

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    Fizzakhan

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  • The Perfect Weapon (2020) Streaming: Watch & Stream Online via HBO Max

    The Perfect Weapon (2020) Streaming: Watch & Stream Online via HBO Max

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    The Perfect Weapon (2020) is a documentary film that explores the rise of cyberwarfare and cyber espionage as the primary way that nations now compete and sabotage each other.

    Here’s how you can watch and stream The Perfect Weapon (2020) via streaming services such as HBO Max.

    Is The Perfect Weapon (2020) available to watch via streaming?

    Yes, The Perfect Weapon (2020) is available to watch via streaming on HBO Max.

    The Perfect Weapon (2020) is a gripping documentary film that delves into the chilling reality of cyberwarfare and its impact on our world. Directed by John Maggio and based on the book of the same name by acclaimed New York Times journalist David E. Sanger, the film paints a stark picture of a global landscape where nations are increasingly turning to cyberattacks as their primary choice of attack.

    Watch The Perfect Weapon (2020) streaming via HBO Max

    The Perfect Weapon (2020) is available to watch on HBO Max. HBO Max, now known simply as Max, is a streaming service that offers a vast library of content.

    You can watch the movie via Max, formerly known as HBO Max, by following these steps:

    1. Go to HBOMax.com/subscribe
    2. Click ‘Sign Up Now’
    3. Choose your plan:
      • $9.99 per month or $99.99 per year (with ads)
      • $15.99 per month or $149.99 per year (ad-free)
      • $19.99 per month or $199.99 per year (ultimate ad-free)
    4. Enter your personal information and password
    5. Select ‘Create Account’

    Max With Ads provides the service’s streaming library at a Full HD resolution, allowing users to stream on up to two supported devices at once. Max Ad-Free removes the service’s commercials and allows streaming on two devices at once in Full HD. It also allows for 30 downloads at a time to allow users to watch content offline. On the other hand, Max Ultimate Ad-Free allows users to stream on four devices at once in a 4K Ultra HD resolution and provides Dolby Atmos audio and 100 downloads.

    The Perfect Weapon (2020) synopsis is as follows:

    “Explore the rise of cyber conflict as the primary way nations now compete with and sabotage one another. As fear mounts about how potential cyberattacks will affect 2020 elections in the U.S., the film features interviews with top military, intelligence, and political officials and includes on-the-ground reporting from the frontlines of the cyber wars.“

    NOTE: The streaming services listed above are subject to change. The information provided was correct at the time of writing.

    Thirty-five years ago, David Zucker unveiled his comedy classic The Naked Gun: From the Files of Police Squad! to audiences.…

    ComingSoon had the opportunity to speak with composer Mark Orton about his fantastic score for Alexander Payne’s equally fantastic The…

    It’s not even a mouse…It’s much spinier.

    Legendary screenwriter and director Paul Schrader recently doubled down on his defense of Kevin Spacey, noting that he would work…

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    Fizzakhan

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  • Review: How to live to 100

    Review: How to live to 100

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    Living for a century is not as easy as Netflix’s new docuseries Live to 100: Secrets of the Blue Zones makes it seem. The show looks at places such as Sardinia, Italy, and Okinawa, Japan, where the residents are unusually long-lived. While naturally noting that diet, exercise, and having a purpose in life seem to contribute to longevity, the series undervalues the importance of choosing your environment. That personal choice not only involves what you eat and how active you are, but also who you choose to spend your time with.

    Silicon Valley entrepreneurs, such as Kernel CEO and biohacker Bryan Johnson, are investing billions into trying to find the tech hack to live longer. There is not yet a foolproof plan to make it to 100 years old, but many clues in Italy, Costa Rica, and even California suggest that thoughtfully selecting good company may add a few extra years.

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    Natalie Dowzicky

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  • ‘The Choice Is Yours’ Exclusive: Black Sheep Rapper Dres Opens Up About New Documentary

    ‘The Choice Is Yours’ Exclusive: Black Sheep Rapper Dres Opens Up About New Documentary

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    Black Sheep’s hit “The Choice Is Yours” popularized the phrase “you can get with this or you can get with that” when it was released in the early ’90’s and now the spotlight is choosing to shine on the legacy of that colossal song as well as one of the performers behind it.

    Source: Courtesy / Paramount +

    This Tuesday, November 21st Paramount+ premieres the new feature-length documentary THE CHOICE IS YOURS in the U.S. and Canada. On Wednesday, November 22 the film becomes available in the U.K., Australia, Latin America, Italy, France, Germany, Switzerland and Austria.

    Directed and edited by Clark Slater (DMX: Don’t Try And Understand), THE CHOICE IS YOURS reunites viewers with former Black Sheep rapper and artist Dres, born Andres Vargas-Titus, as he balances his music career with fatherhood and the everyday challenges of life. The film gives us an unflinching look at what it means to be a middle-aged rapper with hopes and dreams of continuing to create and follow his passion. The project dives head first into the success of Black Sheep and the hit song that Dres continues to perform all across the globe — but it also offers a look at Dres’ current project, bolstered by unreleased beats that Dilla’s mom, Maureen Yancey, aka Ma Dukes, has given him the blessing to use. Determined to honor this gift to the fullest, Dres goes on a quest to learn more about Dilla, only to find himself in the midst of a controversy that threatens to prevent him from fulfilling what he believes is the next step in his legacy.

    Check out the trailer for the documentary below:

    When BOSSIP’s Sr. Content Director Janeé Bolden chatted with Dres ahead of the release of THE CHOICE IS YOURS, he spoke about allowing cameras into his life for the project.

    “That very much was something that had to be thought about and I guess to a degree, embrace but… there were definite parameters within it — you don’t find out everything about me but you do find out more than you knew and that had to be something that I had to be cool with and even give some thought to,” Dres told BOSSIP. “One of the things that happens as an artist is that you wind up having to share things of yourself regardless and sometimes not even things that you anticipated, so to a certain degree it was there already… There were things that I probably wouldn’t have been necessarily comfortable bringing in, so it didn’t dive that deeply into the underbelly of me as a person, but as an artist I was able to kind of be freely who I am, which was cool because I’d like to think that as an artist who you see on the street is exactly who I am.

    Some of the best moments in the documentary happen when cameras find at home with his son, and viewers can easily witness the strong bond between father and son.

    “One of my most important relationships in my life, definitely,” Dres says, adding that his child was completely unbothered by the documentary film crew. “My youngest son Sidney, he’s actually done a lot of commercial work his entire life, so just the notion of being on film, he doesn’t give much thought to it, to the degree that I don’t think he even cares. He’s grown up with cameras around him to the degree that he doesn’t look at as an oddity. Even when Chi [Ali] was filming his documentary, me and my son would kick it with the film crew while they were filming Chi, so he even knew some of the fellas before we were doing our project. He had met them already, so to that accord it was very easy and easy to be just natural.”

    “He’s had so many experiences through my eyes, we have this relationship where I can just talk to him,” Dres continued. “He’s a senior in high school right now, which is insane to me, but he’s literally someone that I can share my experiences with him and I can see in his eyes whether or not he gets it. We’re that close. So for him to come up and see this going on, it wasn’t something that was farfetched for him. We had a good time with it.

    Dilla’s mom Maureen Yancey, aka Ma Dukes also makes multiple appearances in the doc, so we had to ask Dres about their initial interaction and how it led to the project we see him working on in the film.

    “Very cool,” Dres recalls. “My initial meeting with Ma, I believe I was in Chicago. Let me preface it by saying I didn’t have the relationship with Dilla that all of the Native Tongue crew had. I met Dilla once in passing. I didn’t know him like that. Was I a fan of his? Definitely. Did I see his talent? Truly. Definitely and I was even a little jealous of the songs that my peers have with him, you know. But I didn’t know him like that, so when I was given the opportunity, I was asked would I like to meet Dilla’s mom. I had a show I believe in Chicago. I’m in the dressing room and they’re like, ‘Would you like to meet Dilla’s mom?’ And I’m like, ‘Hell yeah!’ Just on GP. Just out of love. So they her bring her back with her husband Tony, so I meet both of them. So we share a couple of quick words, it wasn’t anything big or anything like that, just a very genuine, ‘Nice to meet you, I think the world of your son’s abilities. It’s a pleasure.’ Just respect.

    “A month later I had a show in Puerto Rico for a charity event,” Dres continued. “I’m on stage rocking and I just happen to turn to the right and who do I see by the side of the stage but Dilla’s mom and her husband. After I rock, I literally go straight to them and we just start chopping it up. They’re like, ‘What are you about to get into after this?’ I’m like, ‘There’s an after party.’ They’re like ‘If you don’t wanna go to that, mom’s gonna cook at the house, come on over. We got some DJ’s coming through, we’re gonna play some music in the yard.’ So I dip on the afterparty, I go hang out with them, some DJ’s came through. We’re all talking, she’s cooking. I’m getting these stories — it was just the coolest experience. Hours go by and the sun’s about to come up. We had this amazing experience.”

    “They’re like, ‘You know, we’ve just got back some of the some of the rights under the umbrella of the estate, we’re looking at various things to do with the music, would you be interested in putting something together?’” Dres recalled. “I’m literally picking my jaw up. In my mind I’m like, I would be glad with a track and permission, but for you to offer me the opportunity to put together a project, my mind just started racing. I’m like, ‘Well first of all, thank you and hell yes I would love to!’”

    After their experience in Puerto Rico, Dres said he felt like he owed the situation due diligence. Since he hadn’t known Dilla before his passing Dres started online, looking at every Dilla interview he could find.

    “I asked my friends, everyone from Large Pro to Q-Tip, ‘What’s your favorite Dilla record?’” Dres remembered. “I start quizzing everybody I know about anything they know about Dilla. Once the opportunity for us to film this comes into play, I feel like it’s important that we gotta go to Detroit. I need to see about the stories I’m hearing from people. I need to go meet these people and I need to know who this kid is. This is my word, by the end of this project I feel like this is one of my closest friends. I literally, I’ve been able to you know turn to Frank and be like, ‘Yo, you know when he did this that he probably was being funny wasn’t he? And he’d be like, ‘Yeah he was trying to be funny.’ I’d be like,’I knew it!’ because I’ve just immersed myself so much in the world of who this man was.”

    You have to watch THE CHOICE IS YOURS to find out what happens with Dres’ Dilla project. While the film spends a good amount of time on Dres’ experience in Detroit and the resistance he meets while creating using the unreleased Dilla beats, the doc also delves into the fractured fellowship of Dres and former Black Sheep member William “Mista Lawnge” McLean who parted ways in 1995. Again, we don’t want to give too much away, but we had to ask Dres about the onscreen time he shared with his former partner in rhyme.

    Portrait Of Black Sheep At The Riviera Theater

    Source: Paul Natkin / Getty

    “I was open to the notion — but I didn’t think that there was going to be an actual us in the same room,” Dres told BOSSIP. “It happened very organically.”

    “Your family is always gonna be your family,” he continued. “You’re not always going to get along with your family. But your family always has a seat at the table, it’s just whether or not they choose to sit down. We had got to a space where two grown men sat down at the table. A lot of times that’s all it takes. Just be grown in how you proceed. Sometimes there is no winner or loser. Sometimes it just is what it is. Don’t get it twisted, I’m not saying that someone gets an automatic excuse to be something wrong but when family is right, family is right, and you just give family the opportunity to coexist with you. It’s not hard to to coexist with someone that you consider family. It just has to be something that’s mutually respected.

    We’re excited for other hip-hop heads to see this project! We’re so grateful the 50 year milestone has created an avenue for the artists we grew up with to tell their stories.

    “I think it’s important that we acknowledge at 50 years how far we’ve come,” Dres told BOSSIP, reflecting on hip-hop’s anniversary. “I remember when we only got hip-hop on the weekends at night and we put our cassette tapes by the radio, we’d press record and go outside and come back inside 45 minutes later and turn it over and press record. That was our hip-hop for the week. So to see where we are today is mind-boggling. But this is my word, I know for a fact when I was young I knew this was life-altering music. I knew we weren’t going anywhere. I knew it wasn’t a fad. I just knew we loved it.

    THE CHOICE IS YOURS is streaming now on Paramount +

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    Janeé Bolden

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  • Review: ‘Trump: Triumph of the MAGA Will’ – Bill Tope, Humor Times

    Review: ‘Trump: Triumph of the MAGA Will’ – Bill Tope, Humor Times

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    Trump: Triumph of the MAGA Will — a movie review by Llib Epot, Conservative Capitol Correspondent.

    A new documentary promoting the candidacy of former President Donald J Trump for reelection will be released to media outlets on Friday. Our Capitol correspondent previewed the 20-minute film; following is his exclusive review of “Trump: Triumph of the MAGA Will.”

    Triumph of the MAGA Will poster
    Adapted from original poster by Erich Ludwig Stahl (1887–1943), Public Domain.

    The film opens with a vast audience — bigger than any audience ever before assembled — gathered before the Capitol at the eastern end of the National Mall. Soon-to-be-elected President Donald J. Trump is onstage and shaking a clenched fist at the crowd. The camera moves in and catches the noble president up close and in all his orange glory. Audio now comes up:

    “I am,” thunders Trump, “your retribution!” At least three million crazed citizens cheer wildly.

    The onlookers begin chanting, “Trump, Trump, Trump!”

    Trump lifts his chin, looking for all the world like an orange Mussolini, another law & order paragon from the past. He lifts a finger and the huge crowd grows instantly silent.

    “This nation,” says Trump gravely, “is infected, infested, and overrun with vermin from shithole countries.”

    The screen then shows thousands of shrieking rodents scurrying through ratholes in an unidentified ghetto housing project. African American babies sit on the wood plank floor, eating gruel with their fingers. Hypodermic syringes and lines of dubious-looking powder litter the floor.

    Focus back on Trump. “Shithole countries,” repeats the president. “Rapists, killers, miscreants, thieves, bent on poisoning our blood line and replacing us in society and at the polls. Caravans marching over our open-borders, pillaging, raping and voting…” He shakes his head sadly. “I will close the borders, shoot the immigrants in the leg, build a 50-foot wall,” he continues in a sing-song voice. “And,” he goes on, “Mexico and Western Europe and NATO will pay for it.” The crowd roars.

    The crowd magically splits in two, allowing a magnificent military parade to pass through its ranks. Tanks, cannon, missiles, are proudly displayed by losers, suckers, and other military types.

    Abruptly the gigantic crowd starts chanting, “Hang Mike Pence, Hang MIke Pence, Hang Mike…” On stage, Trump grins broadly and nods his head in approval.

    Closeup on the crowd: they are all clad in brown shirts, with Trumpian extra-long red silk ties, and jackboots, and are clutching AR-15s. As a group, they spontaneously lift their right arms in salute.

    Next, the camera pans over the national landmarks,: the Trump Monument, the Trump Ellipse, the Trump Memorial, the Trumpsonian Institution, the Trump National Cathedral, the Trump Museum, and Trump’s Theater.

    Across the crowded grounds, vendors sell signature Trump merchandise, including Trump t-shirts, slabs of Trump BBQ ribs, Trump lemonade, and on and on. A good time is had by all.

    Toward the end of the film, the camera flashes on a cluster of scaffolds, with corpses slowly twisting in the wind. One of the victims wears a military uniform and another a dress. Emerging on the screen in large red letters is the phrase, “Retribution: Count on it!”
    The film ends with a closeup of the now and future president, lifting his fist and shaking it again. A web site appears on-screen to provide access for making a love offering to the Trump PAC.

    Screen fades to black.

    Credits roll, indicating that “Trump: Triumph of the MAGA Will” was produced by the Heritage Foundation and directed by acclaimed director 121-year-old Leni Riefenstahl.

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  • The Two Bills: 30 for 30: Where to Watch & Stream Online

    The Two Bills: 30 for 30: Where to Watch & Stream Online

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    If you’re looking to watch and stream The Two Bills: 30 for 30, look no further, as we have all the details right here for you. The movie documents the story of the relationship between legendary NFL coaches Bill Parcells and Bill Belichick. It revolves around their friendship, their Super Bowl successes, and standing opposite each other.

    Here’s where you can watch The Two Bills: 30 for 30 online.

    Where can you watch and stream The Two Bills: 30 for 30?

    You can watch and stream The Two Bills: 30 for 30 on Disney Plus. The movie is available to watch on the streaming platform through a subscription. It was released on February 1, 2018.

    Ken Rodgers serves as the director of the movie, with Bill Parcels and Bill Belichick being featured as themselves.

    How to watch The Two Bills: 30 for 30 and stream online

    You will have to get a subscription to Disney Plus to watch and stream The Two Bills: 30 for 30.

    You can watch the show via Disney Plus by following these steps:

    1. Visit DisneyPlus.com
    2. Select ‘Sign Up Now’
    3. Enter your email and password
    4. Select a subscription plan
      • $7.99 per month (Basic)
      • $13.99 per month or $139.99 per year (Premium)
    5. Enter your payment information

    The Disney Plus Basic plan allows users to stream the service’s content with ads, while the Premium plan lets users stream with no ads and download content to supported devices. There are also a variety of bundle packages, scaling from Bundle Duo Basic, which pairs Disney Plus with Hulu for $9.99 per month, to the Disney Bundle Trio Premium for $19.99 per month, which bundles Disney Plus, Hulu, and ESPN Plus.

    The official synopsis for The Two Bills: 30 for 30 reads:

    “Bill Belichick will one day join Bill Parcells in the Pro Football Hall of Fame. When the time comes, they’ll have far more in common than a place in Canton-or a first name. The Two Bills, directed by Ken Rodgers and produced by NFL Films, traces the four-decade relationship between these two coaching masters. They first met when Belichick was a teenager and his father was coaching for Navy while Parcells was coaching at Army. On the same day in 1979, they became assistants with the New York Giants, and after Parcells took over as head coach, they won two Super Bowls together. Buttressed by what he learned from Parcells, Belichick would go on to win five Super Bowls of his own with the Patriots. Through all the ups and downs of their careers, including some memorable games when they were on opposite sides of the field, they forged a bond that few men of their stature have ever experienced. Two Bills, but one epic story.”

    NOTE: The streaming services listed above are subject to change. The information provided was correct at the time of writing.

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    Varsha Narayanan

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