The director of Sergio and many docs talks about docs and movies taken from true stories.
Show Notes: Movies Referenced In This Episode
Sergio (2009)
Sergio (2020)
Reds (1981)
The Two Popes (2019)
Rules Don’t Apply (2016)
Bulworth (1998)
Dick Tracy (1990)
Gremlins 2: The New Batch (1990)
Innerspace (1987)
Ishtar (1987)
The Thin Blue Line (1988)
Man On Wire (2008)
The Fog of War (2003)
American Dharma (2018)
Tony Robbins: I Am Not Your Guru (2016)
The Killing Fields (1984)
The Year of Living Dangerously (1983)
Under Fire (1983)
Salvador (1986)
The Quiet American (2002)
The Quiet American (1958)
A Private War (2018)
The War Room (1993)
The Final Year (2017)
Independence Day (1996)
Citizen Kane (1941)
Bloodsport (1988)
Bloodsport II: The Next Kumite (1996)
When We Were Kings (1996)
Soul Power (2008)
High School (1968)
Hospital (1970)
Titicut Follies (1967)
The Diving Bell And The Butterfly (2007)
Before Night Falls (2000)
At Eternity’s Gate (2018)
American Factory (2019)
Dina (2017)
Honeyland (2019)
The Act of Killing (2012)
The English Patient (1996)
Truly, Madly, Deeply (1990)
The Talented Mr. Ripley (1999)
Purple Noon (1960)
Other Notable Items
Sergio Aragonés
Wagner Moura
Narcos TV...
Show Notes: Movies Referenced In This Episode
Sergio (2009)
Sergio (2020)
Reds (1981)
The Two Popes (2019)
Rules Don’t Apply (2016)
Bulworth (1998)
Dick Tracy (1990)
Gremlins 2: The New Batch (1990)
Innerspace (1987)
Ishtar (1987)
The Thin Blue Line (1988)
Man On Wire (2008)
The Fog of War (2003)
American Dharma (2018)
Tony Robbins: I Am Not Your Guru (2016)
The Killing Fields (1984)
The Year of Living Dangerously (1983)
Under Fire (1983)
Salvador (1986)
The Quiet American (2002)
The Quiet American (1958)
A Private War (2018)
The War Room (1993)
The Final Year (2017)
Independence Day (1996)
Citizen Kane (1941)
Bloodsport (1988)
Bloodsport II: The Next Kumite (1996)
When We Were Kings (1996)
Soul Power (2008)
High School (1968)
Hospital (1970)
Titicut Follies (1967)
The Diving Bell And The Butterfly (2007)
Before Night Falls (2000)
At Eternity’s Gate (2018)
American Factory (2019)
Dina (2017)
Honeyland (2019)
The Act of Killing (2012)
The English Patient (1996)
Truly, Madly, Deeply (1990)
The Talented Mr. Ripley (1999)
Purple Noon (1960)
Other Notable Items
Sergio Aragonés
Wagner Moura
Narcos TV...
- 7/14/2020
- by Kris Millsap
- Trailers from Hell
Whoopi Goldberg has followed in the footsteps of Joaquin Phoenix and collaborated with environmental movement Extinction Rebellion on a short film.
The Gigantic Change is a three-minute animation — voiced by Goldberg — that looks back from the year 2050 to show how people came together to save Earth from the climate crisis. The film goes live across Extinction Rebellion's social media platforms June 5 to mark World Environment Day.
The team behind The Gigantic Change — together with Passion Pictures, the London-based animation and documentary specialists whose credits include The Imposter and The Final Year — said they knew Goldberg's ...
The Gigantic Change is a three-minute animation — voiced by Goldberg — that looks back from the year 2050 to show how people came together to save Earth from the climate crisis. The film goes live across Extinction Rebellion's social media platforms June 5 to mark World Environment Day.
The team behind The Gigantic Change — together with Passion Pictures, the London-based animation and documentary specialists whose credits include The Imposter and The Final Year — said they knew Goldberg's ...
Whoopi Goldberg has followed in the footsteps of Joaquin Phoenix and collaborated with environmental movement Extinction Rebellion on a short film.
The Gigantic Change is a three-minute animation — voiced by Goldberg — that looks back from the year 2050 to show how people came together to save Earth from the climate crisis. The film goes live across Extinction Rebellion's social media platforms June 5 to mark World Environment Day.
The team behind The Gigantic Change — together with Passion Pictures, the London-based animation and documentary specialists whose credits include The Imposter and The Final Year — said they knew Goldberg's ...
The Gigantic Change is a three-minute animation — voiced by Goldberg — that looks back from the year 2050 to show how people came together to save Earth from the climate crisis. The film goes live across Extinction Rebellion's social media platforms June 5 to mark World Environment Day.
The team behind The Gigantic Change — together with Passion Pictures, the London-based animation and documentary specialists whose credits include The Imposter and The Final Year — said they knew Goldberg's ...
Director Greg Barker doesn’t quite have the track record or the mystique of Werner Herzog, but he enters Herzogian territory with “Sergio,” his drama about United Nations diplomat Sergio Vieira de Mello that premieres on Netflix on Friday.
Barker’s new “Sergio,” which stars “Narcos” star Wagner Moura as the celebrated Brazilian who worked for peace around the world for more than 30 years, is the second “Sergio” that the director has made, the first being his 2009 documentary. That puts Barker in the company of a small group of directors who’ve made a documentary about a subject, and then later adapted the same story into a narrative feature – among them Herzog with his 1997 documentary “Little Dieter Needs to Fly,” about Vietnam War Pow Dieter Dengler, and his 2006 feature “Rescue Dawn, which starred Christian Bale as Dengler; Dan Krauss with the 2013 doc and 2019 narrative features “The Kill Team”; and Fenton Bailey...
Barker’s new “Sergio,” which stars “Narcos” star Wagner Moura as the celebrated Brazilian who worked for peace around the world for more than 30 years, is the second “Sergio” that the director has made, the first being his 2009 documentary. That puts Barker in the company of a small group of directors who’ve made a documentary about a subject, and then later adapted the same story into a narrative feature – among them Herzog with his 1997 documentary “Little Dieter Needs to Fly,” about Vietnam War Pow Dieter Dengler, and his 2006 feature “Rescue Dawn, which starred Christian Bale as Dengler; Dan Krauss with the 2013 doc and 2019 narrative features “The Kill Team”; and Fenton Bailey...
- 4/15/2020
- by Steve Pond
- The Wrap
If you’re looking for some old-fashioned nonpartisan outrage, where anger or sadness isn’t dependent on political leanings or party affiliation, you can find it in “The Longest War,” the sobering Afghanistan documentary by Greg Barker that premieres Sunday on Showtime.
The film is a dissection of U.S. military involvement in Afghanistan, the longest running war in U.S. history and a morass with enough blame to go around to leaders of all affiliations. That much is made clear in the first few minutes of the film, when a reverse timeline shows the last seven presidents – Trump, Obama, Bush, Clinton, Bush, Reagan and Carter – all promising things that didn’t happen.
Comprehensive and clear, the film tells a story of U.S. involvement that is infuriating at times, befuddling at others and mostly just sad. “My heart hurts for these people,” says CIA “targeter” Lisa Maddox of the Afghans at one point,...
The film is a dissection of U.S. military involvement in Afghanistan, the longest running war in U.S. history and a morass with enough blame to go around to leaders of all affiliations. That much is made clear in the first few minutes of the film, when a reverse timeline shows the last seven presidents – Trump, Obama, Bush, Clinton, Bush, Reagan and Carter – all promising things that didn’t happen.
Comprehensive and clear, the film tells a story of U.S. involvement that is infuriating at times, befuddling at others and mostly just sad. “My heart hurts for these people,” says CIA “targeter” Lisa Maddox of the Afghans at one point,...
- 4/13/2020
- by Steve Pond
- The Wrap
Exclusive: Oscar-winning producer John Battsek (One Day In September) is exiting Passion Pictures after a stellar 20-year run to launch La and London-based company Ventureland with Kerstin Emhoff, Ali Brown, and director Paul Hunter of U.S. production and commercials firm Prettybird.
Ventureland will produce a range of content across the documentary and scripted spaces but will also work in branded content, technology, music and original IP.
Battsek and Emhoff have previously teamed up to produce Emmy-winning projects Manhunt: The Inside Story Of The Hunt For Bin Laden and The Tillman Story, as well as The Final Year, Sergio and Legion Of Brothers. The duo have worked together on-and-off for more than a decade and the majority of Passion’s U.S. productions have been based out of Prettybird’s La facilities.
Battsek co-founded Passion Pictures Films in 1999 with Andrew Ruhemann and won the company’s first Oscar with One Day In September,...
Ventureland will produce a range of content across the documentary and scripted spaces but will also work in branded content, technology, music and original IP.
Battsek and Emhoff have previously teamed up to produce Emmy-winning projects Manhunt: The Inside Story Of The Hunt For Bin Laden and The Tillman Story, as well as The Final Year, Sergio and Legion Of Brothers. The duo have worked together on-and-off for more than a decade and the majority of Passion’s U.S. productions have been based out of Prettybird’s La facilities.
Battsek co-founded Passion Pictures Films in 1999 with Andrew Ruhemann and won the company’s first Oscar with One Day In September,...
- 1/21/2020
- by Andreas Wiseman
- Deadline Film + TV
Netflix is taking over the world. They had 24 Oscar nominations this year, the most of any film studio or streaming outlet, and their domination is not stopping anytime soon. Up next: Sundance domination. The streaming service has many, many major films making world premieres at the Sundance Film Festival next week. One of them is “Sergio,” filmmaker Greg Barker’s first narrative film and essentially dramatic remake of his own 2009 documentary also called “Sergio.”
Read More: The 100 Best Films Of The Decade [2010s]
A sweeping drama set in the chaotic aftermath of the Us invasion of Iraq, “Sergio” centers on top Un diplomat Sergio Vieira de Mello whose life hangs in the balance during the most treacherous mission of his career.
Continue reading ‘Sergio’ Trailer: Ana de Armas & Wagner Moura Star In A Iraq War Un Biopic Coming To Sundance at The Playlist.
Read More: The 100 Best Films Of The Decade [2010s]
A sweeping drama set in the chaotic aftermath of the Us invasion of Iraq, “Sergio” centers on top Un diplomat Sergio Vieira de Mello whose life hangs in the balance during the most treacherous mission of his career.
Continue reading ‘Sergio’ Trailer: Ana de Armas & Wagner Moura Star In A Iraq War Un Biopic Coming To Sundance at The Playlist.
- 1/15/2020
- by Edward Davis
- The Playlist
With the release from prison today of John Walker Lindh, Showtime Documentary Films announced the two-years-in-production Detainee 001, director Greg Barker’s account of the case.
Barker will draw on “unique access to the world of intelligence and special operations,” Showtime says, with Detainee 001 “piecing together the defining yet almost-forgotten origin story of post-9/11 America.”
“From the battlefield to the courtroom, Barker’s film confronts the unresolved issues at the heart of Lindh’s case, including his role in the uprising that led to the first casualty of the war in Afghanistan, CIA officer Johnny Micheal Spann,” according to Showtime. “Even after nearly 20 years, clarity on justice remains elusive, leaving a nagging open sore at the heart of the American soul.”
The film has been in production since 2017, and is being trumpeted by the premium cable channel as the definitive account of Lindh’s story,...
Barker will draw on “unique access to the world of intelligence and special operations,” Showtime says, with Detainee 001 “piecing together the defining yet almost-forgotten origin story of post-9/11 America.”
“From the battlefield to the courtroom, Barker’s film confronts the unresolved issues at the heart of Lindh’s case, including his role in the uprising that led to the first casualty of the war in Afghanistan, CIA officer Johnny Micheal Spann,” according to Showtime. “Even after nearly 20 years, clarity on justice remains elusive, leaving a nagging open sore at the heart of the American soul.”
The film has been in production since 2017, and is being trumpeted by the premium cable channel as the definitive account of Lindh’s story,...
- 5/23/2019
- by Greg Evans
- Deadline Film + TV
Bing Liu’s “Minding the Gap,” an look at small-town American life through the lens of a group of skateboarder friends, led the 2018 Cinema Eye Honors nominations for nonfiction filmmaking Thursday.
The film, a Hulu original documentary, landed seven bids, for direction, editing, cinematography, original score, debut feature and the audience award, in addition to outstanding achievement in nonfiction feature filmmaking, the organization’s top prize. It was also mentioned in the “Unforgettables” sidebar honoring the subjects of many of this year’s documentaries.
The seven-nomination haul was enough to match Cinema Eye’s record, held by Louie Psihoyos’ “The Cove,” Lixin Fan’s “Last Train Home” and Ari Folman’s “Waltz With Bashir.”
The other nominees for outstanding achievement in nonfiction feature filmmaking were “Bisbee ’17” (five nominations), “Hale County This Morning, This Evening” (five nominations), “Of Fathers and Sons” (three nominations), “Three Identical Strangers” (three nominations) and “Won’t You Be My Neighbor?...
The film, a Hulu original documentary, landed seven bids, for direction, editing, cinematography, original score, debut feature and the audience award, in addition to outstanding achievement in nonfiction feature filmmaking, the organization’s top prize. It was also mentioned in the “Unforgettables” sidebar honoring the subjects of many of this year’s documentaries.
The seven-nomination haul was enough to match Cinema Eye’s record, held by Louie Psihoyos’ “The Cove,” Lixin Fan’s “Last Train Home” and Ari Folman’s “Waltz With Bashir.”
The other nominees for outstanding achievement in nonfiction feature filmmaking were “Bisbee ’17” (five nominations), “Hale County This Morning, This Evening” (five nominations), “Of Fathers and Sons” (three nominations), “Three Identical Strangers” (three nominations) and “Won’t You Be My Neighbor?...
- 11/8/2018
- by Kristopher Tapley
- Variety Film + TV
“Free Solo,” “Quincy,” “Minding the Gap,” “Rbg,” “Three identical Strangers” and “Won’t You Be My Neighbor?” are among the films nominated for the Audience Choice Prize at the 2018 Cinema Eye Honors, an awards show devoted to all facts of nonfiction filmmaking.
“Bathtubs Over Broadway,” “Matangi/Maya/M.I.A.,” “On Her Shoulders” and “Shirkers” were also nominated in the Audience Choice category, which can be voted on by members of the public at the Cinema Eye website.
The bulk of the Cinema Eye Honors nominees will be announced on Thursday, Nov. 8, and the winners will be announced on Thursday, Jan. 10 at the Museum of the Moving Image in New York City.
Also Read: 'Free Solo,' 'Minding the Gap,' 'Won't You Be My Neighbor?' Land Ida Documentary Nominations
In the Broadcast Film category, the nominees were four docs from HBO – “Baltimore Rising,” “Believer,” “The Final Year” and...
“Bathtubs Over Broadway,” “Matangi/Maya/M.I.A.,” “On Her Shoulders” and “Shirkers” were also nominated in the Audience Choice category, which can be voted on by members of the public at the Cinema Eye website.
The bulk of the Cinema Eye Honors nominees will be announced on Thursday, Nov. 8, and the winners will be announced on Thursday, Jan. 10 at the Museum of the Moving Image in New York City.
Also Read: 'Free Solo,' 'Minding the Gap,' 'Won't You Be My Neighbor?' Land Ida Documentary Nominations
In the Broadcast Film category, the nominees were four docs from HBO – “Baltimore Rising,” “Believer,” “The Final Year” and...
- 10/25/2018
- by Steve Pond
- The Wrap
At their inaugural Fall Lunch in held in Los Angeles on Thursday, Cinema Eye Honors unveiled their first round of awards, including their annual list of significant nonfiction film subjects and a list of the year’s ten top Nonfiction Short Films. They also released nominees in four categories: Broadcast Film; a new award for Broadcast Series; the Heterodox Award, which recognizes fiction films that blur the line between fiction and documentary; and the annual Audience Choice Prize, voted on by documentary lovers around the world.
Netflix, Focus Features, and Hulu hosted the event at Casita Hollywood with many of the year’s top filmmakers on hand, including Kirby Dick, Morgan Neville, Matt Tyrnauer, Jimmy Chin, Rj Cutler, Lauren Greenfield, Alan Hicks, Laura Nix, and Brett Morgen. The full list of nonfiction film and craft nominees, including the five nominees for Outstanding Nonfiction Short Film, will be revealed on Thursday,...
Netflix, Focus Features, and Hulu hosted the event at Casita Hollywood with many of the year’s top filmmakers on hand, including Kirby Dick, Morgan Neville, Matt Tyrnauer, Jimmy Chin, Rj Cutler, Lauren Greenfield, Alan Hicks, Laura Nix, and Brett Morgen. The full list of nonfiction film and craft nominees, including the five nominees for Outstanding Nonfiction Short Film, will be revealed on Thursday,...
- 10/25/2018
- by Anne Thompson and Kate Erbland
- Indiewire
Cinema Eye Honors revealed the first awards announcements for the organization’s 12th annual awards on Thursday.
Audience choice nominees include recent documentary awards-circuit players such as “Free Solo,” “Minding the Gap,” “Quincy,” “Rbg,” and “Won’t You Be My Neighbor?”
The group also unveiled its list of “The Unforgettables,” honoring notable and significant nonfiction film subjects, such as rock climber Alex Honnold (“Free Solo”), recording artist M.I.A. (“Matangi/Maya/M.I.A.”), Supreme Court justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg (“Rbg”), and television legend Fred Rogers (“Won’t You Be My Neighbor?”).
Joining the broadcast film category is a new field this year, broadcast series, which features contenders such as Netflix’s “Evil Genius” and “Wild Wild Country,” and Showtime’s “The Fourth Estate.”
In the Heterodox category, recognizing fiction films that actively blur the line between fiction and documentary, The Orchard and MoviePass’ “American Animals,” Magnolia’s “Skate Kitchen,” and...
Audience choice nominees include recent documentary awards-circuit players such as “Free Solo,” “Minding the Gap,” “Quincy,” “Rbg,” and “Won’t You Be My Neighbor?”
The group also unveiled its list of “The Unforgettables,” honoring notable and significant nonfiction film subjects, such as rock climber Alex Honnold (“Free Solo”), recording artist M.I.A. (“Matangi/Maya/M.I.A.”), Supreme Court justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg (“Rbg”), and television legend Fred Rogers (“Won’t You Be My Neighbor?”).
Joining the broadcast film category is a new field this year, broadcast series, which features contenders such as Netflix’s “Evil Genius” and “Wild Wild Country,” and Showtime’s “The Fourth Estate.”
In the Heterodox category, recognizing fiction films that actively blur the line between fiction and documentary, The Orchard and MoviePass’ “American Animals,” Magnolia’s “Skate Kitchen,” and...
- 10/25/2018
- by Kristopher Tapley
- Variety Film + TV
DNA Films and Passion Pictures are partnering for a feature-length documentary about legendary Manchester United manager Alex Ferguson, the two companies announced Tuesday. The British production companies, whose credits include Oscar-winning narrative features “The Last King of Scotland” and “Ex Machina” and Oscar-winning documentaries “One Day in September” and “Searching for Sugarman,” will co-produce the new project, which is directed by the soccer legend’s son, Jason Ferguson.
The documentary will have exclusive and unrestricted access to Alex Ferguson, his family and friends, offering fans a deeply personal and revealing account of Ferguson’s life from his working-class roots in Glasgow through to his 26-year tenure as the longest-serving manager of world-renowned British soccer team Manchester United. It is scheduled to begin production in October.
“I don’t see this as a [soccer] film,” said Jason Ferguson. “What really appeals to me is to approach the story from a uniquely intimate...
The documentary will have exclusive and unrestricted access to Alex Ferguson, his family and friends, offering fans a deeply personal and revealing account of Ferguson’s life from his working-class roots in Glasgow through to his 26-year tenure as the longest-serving manager of world-renowned British soccer team Manchester United. It is scheduled to begin production in October.
“I don’t see this as a [soccer] film,” said Jason Ferguson. “What really appeals to me is to approach the story from a uniquely intimate...
- 8/28/2018
- by Robert Mitchell
- Variety Film + TV
There was a time in America when an immigrant was allowed to hold a key position in U.S. foreign policy, a time when another woman—wearing a hijab—was granted daily access to classified information in the White House.
That time was two years ago.
Just how dramatically American political norms have changed since President Obama left office becomes apparent in the HBO documentary The Final Year, directed by Greg Barker. The film, now in contention for Emmy nominations, tracks the last 12 months of Obama’s term.
“Personally it was extraordinary to see the government at work at that level, up close,” Barker tells Deadline. “I don’t think I’ll ever have a professional experience that parallels what it was like to make that film.”
Barker persuaded some key players in the administration to participate in The Final Year: Secretary of State John Kerry; National Security Advisor Susan Rice; Samantha Power,...
That time was two years ago.
Just how dramatically American political norms have changed since President Obama left office becomes apparent in the HBO documentary The Final Year, directed by Greg Barker. The film, now in contention for Emmy nominations, tracks the last 12 months of Obama’s term.
“Personally it was extraordinary to see the government at work at that level, up close,” Barker tells Deadline. “I don’t think I’ll ever have a professional experience that parallels what it was like to make that film.”
Barker persuaded some key players in the administration to participate in The Final Year: Secretary of State John Kerry; National Security Advisor Susan Rice; Samantha Power,...
- 6/1/2018
- by Matthew Carey
- Deadline Film + TV
Faithful readers, is the year again moving a bit quicker than expected or is it just still me? Maybe it’s me? It’s probably me. I can deal with that. Anyway, on to the point of this whole thing. With it now being the first days of the month of May, we’ve officially finished up with the first third of the calendar. As such, I wanted to once again highlight the best of the year so far, consisting of my top ten and various awards for 2018 to date. Much like last time around, when I did the first quarter of the year at the start of April, I’m mostly limiting it to things that have already hit theaters. My only exception is that I’m again including eligible titles from the recently concluded Tribeca Film Festival. There are some others from the year that I’m fond...
- 5/4/2018
- by Joey Magidson
- Hollywoodnews.com
As we move closer to a world of telecommuting and online collaboration, film editors are jumping on the bandwagon. As a group they’ve been traditionally somewhat removed from the day-to-day moviemaking process, working in dark suites far from the set. But it’s one thing to work across town and quite another to work on a different continent.
Take Langdon Page, who has edited feature documentaries “Salinger” (2013), “Mapplethorpe: Look at the Pictures” (2016) and this year’s “Inventing Tomorrow” from Chile, the South American country to which he relocated in 2011 for family reasons. (He did have to travel to Los Angeles to edit 2017’s “The Final Year,” about President Obama’s last year in office, because it was “politically sensitive.”)
“Between 2012 and now I’ve cut six documentaries remotely,” says Page, who received a grant from the Chilean government to start a production company. “At that point, the technology was...
Take Langdon Page, who has edited feature documentaries “Salinger” (2013), “Mapplethorpe: Look at the Pictures” (2016) and this year’s “Inventing Tomorrow” from Chile, the South American country to which he relocated in 2011 for family reasons. (He did have to travel to Los Angeles to edit 2017’s “The Final Year,” about President Obama’s last year in office, because it was “politically sensitive.”)
“Between 2012 and now I’ve cut six documentaries remotely,” says Page, who received a grant from the Chilean government to start a production company. “At that point, the technology was...
- 4/4/2018
- by Daniel Zender
- Variety Film + TV
Ladies and gentlemen, as I seem to find myself saying around this point each and every single year…time really does fly. Believe it or not, we’re now a full three months into the 2018 movie calendar, which means we’re literally a quarter of the way through the film slate for the year. Wow. That got me thinking about what the best of the bunch so far this year has been. Since now is the time when the film slate begins to transition into summer releases and counter programming independent fare ramps up, I thought it was the perfect time to praise the best of 2018 so far. Basically, anything that hit screens between January 1st and March 31st will be up for grabs here for my personal honors. Once again, here goes nothing! So far, 2018 has actually been on the stronger side of things, at least in my humble opinion.
- 3/30/2018
- by Joey Magidson
- Hollywoodnews.com
Author: Competitions
To mark the release of The Final Year on 5th March, we’ve been given 3 copies to give away on DVD.
Directed by Greg Barker, The Final Year is a unique insiders’ account of President Barack Obama’s foreign policy team during their last year in office. Featuring unprecedented access inside the White House and State Department, The Final Year offers an uncompromising view of the inner workings of the Obama Administration as they prepare to leave power after eight years. The film revolves around a foreign policy team assembled by Barack Obama nearly a decade ago, during his first presidential campaign: Secretary of State John Kerry, Un Ambassador Samantha Power, Deputy National Security Advisor and presidential confidant Ben Rhodes, as well National Security Advisor Susan Rice and President Obama himself. The film tracks this team over the course of 2016, as they travel the world attempting to solidify...
To mark the release of The Final Year on 5th March, we’ve been given 3 copies to give away on DVD.
Directed by Greg Barker, The Final Year is a unique insiders’ account of President Barack Obama’s foreign policy team during their last year in office. Featuring unprecedented access inside the White House and State Department, The Final Year offers an uncompromising view of the inner workings of the Obama Administration as they prepare to leave power after eight years. The film revolves around a foreign policy team assembled by Barack Obama nearly a decade ago, during his first presidential campaign: Secretary of State John Kerry, Un Ambassador Samantha Power, Deputy National Security Advisor and presidential confidant Ben Rhodes, as well National Security Advisor Susan Rice and President Obama himself. The film tracks this team over the course of 2016, as they travel the world attempting to solidify...
- 2/26/2018
- by Competitions
- HeyUGuys.co.uk
Chronicling the making of the United Nation’s first Goodwill Ambassador for the Dignity of Surviving Victims of Human Trafficking, Alexandria Bombach’s On Her Shoulders is the story of Nadia Murad, a Yazidi activist and former Isis captive working to share her story. The film is a stirring call to action as Nadia’s story is rehearsed, strategized, and packaged by allies, including human rights attorney Amal Clooney who works to hold the Islamic State accountable for their crimes against the Yazidi.
Bombach’s approach to the material keeps its distance. It’s not an aggressive fly on the wall documentary chronicling Murad’s struggles. Rather than have Murad recount her painful story on screen – her family murdered, she forced into sex slavery as a teen – director-editor Bombach intercuts the telling of this story as Murad is cruelly forced to recount the pain in interview after interview.
On Her...
Bombach’s approach to the material keeps its distance. It’s not an aggressive fly on the wall documentary chronicling Murad’s struggles. Rather than have Murad recount her painful story on screen – her family murdered, she forced into sex slavery as a teen – director-editor Bombach intercuts the telling of this story as Murad is cruelly forced to recount the pain in interview after interview.
On Her...
- 1/29/2018
- by John Fink
- The Film Stage
The Final Year Magnolia Pictures/HBO Documentary Films Director: Greg Baker Screenwriter: Greg Baker Cast: Barack Obama, John Kerry, Samantha Power, Ben Rhodes Screened at: Review 1, NYC, 1/4/18 Opens: January 19, 2018 The choice made by Greg Baker, who handles the direction of “The Final Year,” to end this film with the Bob Dylan song […]
The post The Final Year Movie Review appeared first on Shockya.com.
The post The Final Year Movie Review appeared first on Shockya.com.
- 1/15/2018
- by Harvey Karten
- ShockYa
The former Us ambassador and Obama adviser on life after the Oval Office, Hillary’s ‘victory party’, and her role in new documentary The Final Year
Samantha Power, 47, was a special adviser to President Obama on foreign affairs and human rights before becoming Us ambassador to the Un in 2013. Prior to her frontline involvement in politics she had been a war reporter, Pulitzer prize-winning author, and professor of global leadership and foreign policy at Harvard. She has a lead role in The Final Year, a forthcoming fly-on-the-wall film documentary about the last 12 months of Obama’s administration.
It was quite emotional for me as an outsider to watch The Final Year – I can’t imagine how it must feel for you. When did you first get to see it?
I saw versions of it as early as last spring. But then, I was more looking at it with an eye to “Oh my God,...
Samantha Power, 47, was a special adviser to President Obama on foreign affairs and human rights before becoming Us ambassador to the Un in 2013. Prior to her frontline involvement in politics she had been a war reporter, Pulitzer prize-winning author, and professor of global leadership and foreign policy at Harvard. She has a lead role in The Final Year, a forthcoming fly-on-the-wall film documentary about the last 12 months of Obama’s administration.
It was quite emotional for me as an outsider to watch The Final Year – I can’t imagine how it must feel for you. When did you first get to see it?
I saw versions of it as early as last spring. But then, I was more looking at it with an eye to “Oh my God,...
- 1/7/2018
- by Tim Adams
- The Guardian - Film News
As you make your way through the best films of 2017, January not only brings wide releases of two of our top picks–Phantom Thread and Call Me by Your Name—but a handful of worthwhile 2018 titles as well. The month is also defined by Sundance Film Festival 2018, where an early look at some of the year’s finest films will debut, and we’ll be there once again to cover.
Matinees to See: Django (1/5), The Insult (1/12), Vazante (1/12), The Polka King (1/12), The Final Year (1/19), Mom & Dad (1/19)
10. Blame (Quinn Shephard; Jan. 5)
Synopsis: A substitute drama teacher at a suburban high school develops a taboo relationship with an unstable student, sparking a trail of jealous sabotage from the student’s peers.
Trailer
Why You Should See It: Written, directed, edited, and starring 22-year-old Quinn Shephard, Blame premiered at Tribeca Film Festival last spring. We said in our review, “It’s an impressive debut...
Matinees to See: Django (1/5), The Insult (1/12), Vazante (1/12), The Polka King (1/12), The Final Year (1/19), Mom & Dad (1/19)
10. Blame (Quinn Shephard; Jan. 5)
Synopsis: A substitute drama teacher at a suburban high school develops a taboo relationship with an unstable student, sparking a trail of jealous sabotage from the student’s peers.
Trailer
Why You Should See It: Written, directed, edited, and starring 22-year-old Quinn Shephard, Blame premiered at Tribeca Film Festival last spring. We said in our review, “It’s an impressive debut...
- 1/3/2018
- by Jordan Raup
- The Film Stage
307 movies later (an above average lot for me), my year is complete. It’s now time to put a nice little bow on 2017, ladies and gentlemen! New Year’s Eve is only two short days away, but before that party commences, today will be a festivity of sorts. Yes, it’s time to reveal my picks for the year’s best films and performances. From early year releases that held on all the way to a few late breaking players, my lists have a whole range of titles found within. The year has been another volatile one, both in terms of world events and also when it comes to cinema. 2016 was the year where things kind of got nuts politically and with celebrity deaths, and 2017 continued that troubling trend, but it was also the year wear some truly incredible movies came out. Plenty of people will continue to focus on the former (rightly so,...
- 12/29/2017
- by Joey Magidson
- Hollywoodnews.com
The storied bromance between Barack Obama and Joe Biden reached new heights last week when 44 tweeted a happy-birthday message to his veep in meme form. It’ll soon get even more serious courtesy of “Barry & Joe: The Animated Series,” a new show in development that counts Conan O’Brien among its executive producers.
Read More:‘The Final Year’ Documentary Crew Only Had One Rule While Filming Obama’s White House
Creator Adam Reid describes the project as a “bromantic comedy” and raised more than $100,000 on Kickstarter to finance the pilot. Here’s the premise for the show, which finds the two world leaders “bromancing the multiverse as they try and save us from ourselves”:
Read More:Keegan-Michael Key Resurrects Obama’s Anger Translator Luther to Rant About Trumpcare
“Moments after the inauguration of the forty-fifth President, Barack Obama and his best friend Joe Biden were escorted to a secret lab,...
Read More:‘The Final Year’ Documentary Crew Only Had One Rule While Filming Obama’s White House
Creator Adam Reid describes the project as a “bromantic comedy” and raised more than $100,000 on Kickstarter to finance the pilot. Here’s the premise for the show, which finds the two world leaders “bromancing the multiverse as they try and save us from ourselves”:
Read More:Keegan-Michael Key Resurrects Obama’s Anger Translator Luther to Rant About Trumpcare
“Moments after the inauguration of the forty-fifth President, Barack Obama and his best friend Joe Biden were escorted to a secret lab,...
- 12/2/2017
- by Michael Nordine
- Indiewire
“The Final Year” Director Greg Barker and star/Ambassador Samantha Power “Each individual (watching “The Final Year”) seems to have a different ratio of depressed-nostalgic on the one hand and inspired-activated on the other ” former U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Ambassador Power said at a screening of the much-anticipated doc at Neuehouse on Monday night. The doc covers President Obama’s foreign policy team’s globe-trotting race to the finish of their administration, mainly before the shock election result. Power flew in from Boston to address an intimate audience who got an early look at the film. , producer Julie Goldman,...
- 12/1/2017
- by Mikey Glazer
- The Wrap
There was really only one rule filmmaker Greg Barker had to follow while shadowing the Obama administration’s senior officials for “The Final Year”: no classified material.
That was actually pretty easy to follow, considering neither he nor his crew had the clearance to be in the room when classified information was being discussed.
“The rules were actually pretty straightforward,” Barker said at a Q&A following a screening of his film at the International Documentary Association’s annual screening series. “The rules were you can’t show classified material, but it’s not really a problem because they’re not allowed to — none of us have security clearance, so they can’t really bring it into a room…it was never really an issue. And that was basically it, because they knew it had to feel authentic.”
For “The Final Year,” Barker followed Secretary of State John Kerry, Ambassador to the United Nations Samantha Power, and Deputy National Security advisor/senior staffer Ben Rhodes beginning in September 2015 as they embarked on their final year of work for President Obama (who also appears frequently throughout the film). And yes — most of the people involved, including Kerry, Power, Rhodes, and Obama himself, have seen the film.
In fact, Power and Rhodes were present when “The Final Year” debuted at the Toronto International Film Festival, and Barker said the crowd’s reaction was very emotional to watch.
“They have not spoken much publicly, so seeing the reaction when they came out afterwards was just incredibly emotional, very emotional,” he said. “So I think it’s very gratifying for them to see it with a public audience in particular.”
The film would play very differently if Hillary Clinton had been elected president instead of Donald Trump, but the fact that much of the work the team completes during the final year of their tenure would wind up undone a year later adds another layer to the film. There’s what audiences see play out in the film, and there’s what they know will play out a year later.
“I’ve never made a film that plays like this plays. It seems to me like there’s two narratives going on. There’s the narrative of the film, and then every week there’s a new scene that resonates in a different way for me,” he says, adding, “It speaks to the moment that we’re living in.”...
That was actually pretty easy to follow, considering neither he nor his crew had the clearance to be in the room when classified information was being discussed.
“The rules were actually pretty straightforward,” Barker said at a Q&A following a screening of his film at the International Documentary Association’s annual screening series. “The rules were you can’t show classified material, but it’s not really a problem because they’re not allowed to — none of us have security clearance, so they can’t really bring it into a room…it was never really an issue. And that was basically it, because they knew it had to feel authentic.”
For “The Final Year,” Barker followed Secretary of State John Kerry, Ambassador to the United Nations Samantha Power, and Deputy National Security advisor/senior staffer Ben Rhodes beginning in September 2015 as they embarked on their final year of work for President Obama (who also appears frequently throughout the film). And yes — most of the people involved, including Kerry, Power, Rhodes, and Obama himself, have seen the film.
In fact, Power and Rhodes were present when “The Final Year” debuted at the Toronto International Film Festival, and Barker said the crowd’s reaction was very emotional to watch.
“They have not spoken much publicly, so seeing the reaction when they came out afterwards was just incredibly emotional, very emotional,” he said. “So I think it’s very gratifying for them to see it with a public audience in particular.”
The film would play very differently if Hillary Clinton had been elected president instead of Donald Trump, but the fact that much of the work the team completes during the final year of their tenure would wind up undone a year later adds another layer to the film. There’s what audiences see play out in the film, and there’s what they know will play out a year later.
“I’ve never made a film that plays like this plays. It seems to me like there’s two narratives going on. There’s the narrative of the film, and then every week there’s a new scene that resonates in a different way for me,” he says, adding, “It speaks to the moment that we’re living in.”...
- 11/30/2017
- by Jean Bentley
- Indiewire
If there’s one rule at the dinner table we can all agree on at Thanksgiving, it’s that politics are a verboten topic of discussion. However, Donald Trump makes it almost impossible to avoid the subject, and has made many long for the calm steady hand of Barack Obama in the White House. Well, an upcoming documentary will take you back to those more level-headed days.
Greg Barker‘s documentary “The Final Year” does exactly what the title implies, taking audiences inside the Obama administration during the final twelve months of his time in the Oval Office.
Continue reading ‘The Final Year’ Trailer: Explore The Inner Workings Of The Obama Administration at The Playlist.
Greg Barker‘s documentary “The Final Year” does exactly what the title implies, taking audiences inside the Obama administration during the final twelve months of his time in the Oval Office.
Continue reading ‘The Final Year’ Trailer: Explore The Inner Workings Of The Obama Administration at The Playlist.
- 11/24/2017
- by Kevin Jagernauth
- The Playlist
"People need to be the center of our foreign policy thinking." Magnolia Pictures has unveiled an official trailer for Greg Barker's new documentary The Final Year, which profiles the last year of Obama's two-term presidency. The documentary team follows Obama's foreign policy team as thy coordinate and discuss global politics with the President, attempting to achieve some major goals in the last year (before it all gets undone ugh). This is an outstanding documentary (in many ways) that I recently saw at the Idfa Documentary Film Festival in Amsterdam, and I kind of loved it. There's some great editing and music, but it's also just a refreshing look at extremely passionate, determined, hard-working people who just want to make the world a more peaceful, better, safer, healthier place and gave everything to do that. Don't skip this. Here's the first official trailer (+ poster) for Greg Barker's documentary The Final Year,...
- 11/22/2017
- by Alex Billington
- firstshowing.net
Bill Cunningham's last interview is in Antonio Lopez 1970: Sex Fashion & Disco Photo: Anne-Katrin Titze
Greg Barker's The Final Year (documenting members of Barack Obama's administration, including Ambassador to the United Nations Samantha Power, Secretary of State John Kerry and speechwriter Ben Rhodes in 2016) opened Doc NYC last night. Tiffany Bartok's Larger Than Life: The Kevyn Aucoin Story (with Paulina Porizkova, Kate Moss, Brooke Shields, Cher, Isabella Rossellini, Naomi Campbell, Isaac Mizrahi, Tori Amos, Christy Turlington, Linda Evangelista, Linda Wells); James Crump's Antonio Lopez 1970: Sex Fashion & Disco (Jessica Lange, Grace Jones, Jerry Hall, Juan Ramos, Yves Saint Laurent, Donna Jordan, Karl Lagerfeld, Grace Coddington, Bob Colacello, Bill Cunningham); Bobbi Jo Hart's Rebels on Pointe, and Samuel D Pollard's Sammy Davis, Jr.: I've Gotta Be Me are four more of this year's Doc NYC highlights.
Larger Than Life: The Kevyn Aucoin Story
Larger Than Life: The Kevyn Aucoin Story...
Greg Barker's The Final Year (documenting members of Barack Obama's administration, including Ambassador to the United Nations Samantha Power, Secretary of State John Kerry and speechwriter Ben Rhodes in 2016) opened Doc NYC last night. Tiffany Bartok's Larger Than Life: The Kevyn Aucoin Story (with Paulina Porizkova, Kate Moss, Brooke Shields, Cher, Isabella Rossellini, Naomi Campbell, Isaac Mizrahi, Tori Amos, Christy Turlington, Linda Evangelista, Linda Wells); James Crump's Antonio Lopez 1970: Sex Fashion & Disco (Jessica Lange, Grace Jones, Jerry Hall, Juan Ramos, Yves Saint Laurent, Donna Jordan, Karl Lagerfeld, Grace Coddington, Bob Colacello, Bill Cunningham); Bobbi Jo Hart's Rebels on Pointe, and Samuel D Pollard's Sammy Davis, Jr.: I've Gotta Be Me are four more of this year's Doc NYC highlights.
Larger Than Life: The Kevyn Aucoin Story
Larger Than Life: The Kevyn Aucoin Story...
- 11/10/2017
- by Anne-Katrin Titze
- eyeforfilm.co.uk
Doc NYC, the largest documentary featival in the Us, returns for its 8th edition, running from November 9-16, and screening at IFC Center, Sva Theatre, and Cinepolis Chelsea. This year's slate includes well over 100 features, and includes new works by veterans such as Errol Morris, Barbara Kopple, and Sam Pollard, as well as newer talents. The festival opens with The Final Year, Greg Barker's document of the last few months of the Obama administration, and closes with Eric Clapton: Life in 12 Bars, Lili Fini Zanuck's look at the life of the rock legend, who will appear at the screening. New sections have been added to the lineup, adding to the wide range of featured subject matter, ranging from current political and social issues, to music,...
[Read the whole post on screenanarchy.com...]...
[Read the whole post on screenanarchy.com...]...
- 11/10/2017
- Screen Anarchy
Opening this edition’s Doc NYC on November 9th is Greg Barker’s The Final Year, a truly up-close-and-personal, behind-the-scenes look at the Obama administration and its foreign policy team during its last 12 months. To say that Barker gained unprecedented access to the president’s men (and one woman) during that period is an understatement. The veteran documentarian (Homegrown: The Counter-Terror Dilemma, Manhunt: The Inside Story of the Hunt for Bin Laden, etc.) managed to shadow three heavyweight insiders — Secretary of State John Kerry, Ambassador to the United Nations Samantha Power, and “Assistant to the President and Deputy National Security Advisor […]...
- 11/8/2017
- by Lauren Wissot
- Filmmaker Magazine - Blog
The 2016 presidential election was a surreal period, with a November 8 outcome that unfolded with the intensity of a horror movie — you know, the kind where the monster that supposedly died a few minutes earlier springs back to life to launch a whole new franchise. Of course, some members of the electorate felt differently. Depending on your point of view, the Trump victory was either a traumatizing jolt or a happy ending, and as the one year anniversary looms we’ve got movies that wrestle with both sides of the equation.
One them is a sequel. In 2008, film distribution executive Jeff Deutchman launched the crowdsourced “11/4/08,” gathering footage from countless filmmakers who captured the highlights of a historic voting day. The result was a rah-rah celebration of the Obama victory on a personal scale, with intimate bonding scenes at voting stations and giddy faces generating a kind of utopian fever. In retrospect,...
One them is a sequel. In 2008, film distribution executive Jeff Deutchman launched the crowdsourced “11/4/08,” gathering footage from countless filmmakers who captured the highlights of a historic voting day. The result was a rah-rah celebration of the Obama victory on a personal scale, with intimate bonding scenes at voting stations and giddy faces generating a kind of utopian fever. In retrospect,...
- 11/8/2017
- by Eric Kohn
- Indiewire
At the San Francisco Film Society’s Doc Stories, Samantha Power — aka President Barack Obama’s U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations — is a true star. “What a crowd,” she tweeted after a rousing standing ovation for Greg Barker’s HBO documentary “The Final Year,” which features her as part of Obama’s foreign policy team. “Huge thanks to SFFilm Doc Stories & to an incredibly engaged San Francisco audience who saw @thefinalyeardoc not as a retrospective, but as a call to action.”
The third annual Doc Stories (Nov. 2-5) was a rich weekend of nonfiction features and shorts that launched with the world premiere of Alex Gibney’s “Rolling Stone: Stories from the Edge, Part I” (HBO) and closed with Chris Smith’s “Jim & Andy: The Great Beyond – Featuring a Very Special, Contractually Obligated Mention of Tony Clifton” (Netflix).
It’s part of Sffilm executive director Noah Cowan’s...
The third annual Doc Stories (Nov. 2-5) was a rich weekend of nonfiction features and shorts that launched with the world premiere of Alex Gibney’s “Rolling Stone: Stories from the Edge, Part I” (HBO) and closed with Chris Smith’s “Jim & Andy: The Great Beyond – Featuring a Very Special, Contractually Obligated Mention of Tony Clifton” (Netflix).
It’s part of Sffilm executive director Noah Cowan’s...
- 11/6/2017
- by Anne Thompson
- Thompson on Hollywood
At the San Francisco Film Society’s Doc Stories, Samantha Power — aka President Barack Obama’s U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations — is a true star. “What a crowd,” she tweeted after a rousing standing ovation for Greg Barker’s HBO documentary “The Final Year,” which features her as part of Obama’s foreign policy team. “Huge thanks to SFFilm Doc Stories & to an incredibly engaged San Francisco audience who saw @thefinalyeardoc not as a retrospective, but as a call to action.”
The third annual Doc Stories (Nov. 2-5) was a rich weekend of nonfiction features and shorts that launched with the world premiere of Alex Gibney’s “Rolling Stone: Stories from the Edge, Part I” (HBO) and closed with Chris Smith’s “Jim & Andy: The Great Beyond – Featuring a Very Special, Contractually Obligated Mention of Tony Clifton” (Netflix).
It’s part of Sffilm executive director Noah Cowan’s...
The third annual Doc Stories (Nov. 2-5) was a rich weekend of nonfiction features and shorts that launched with the world premiere of Alex Gibney’s “Rolling Stone: Stories from the Edge, Part I” (HBO) and closed with Chris Smith’s “Jim & Andy: The Great Beyond – Featuring a Very Special, Contractually Obligated Mention of Tony Clifton” (Netflix).
It’s part of Sffilm executive director Noah Cowan’s...
- 11/6/2017
- by Anne Thompson
- Indiewire
On Friday night, CAA hosted a screening of The Final Year, a documentary which takes an intimate look at the last year of the Obama's presidency, with a focus on his foreign policy team.
The film showcases Ben Rhodes, who served as a deputy national security advisor to the president, and Samantha Powers, who was the United States ambassador to the United Nations, as they fly around the globe and strive to solve problems as diverse as the Syrian Civil War, the kidnapping of girls by Boko Haram and border and trade disputes with China.
They were both present for...
The film showcases Ben Rhodes, who served as a deputy national security advisor to the president, and Samantha Powers, who was the United States ambassador to the United Nations, as they fly around the globe and strive to solve problems as diverse as the Syrian Civil War, the kidnapping of girls by Boko Haram and border and trade disputes with China.
They were both present for...
- 11/4/2017
- by Alex Cramer
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Magnolia Pictures has acquired worldwide rights to the HBO documentary “The Final Year,” which chronicles President Barack Obama’s foreign policy team during their last year in office.
Directed by Greg Barker, “The Final Year” was produced by Julie Goldman and John Battsek and premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival last month.
It will next screen as the Opening Night Selection of Doc NYC on November 9. Magnolia will then launch a multi-city theatrical release on Jan. 19, nearly one year after President Donald Trump’s inauguration.
Directed by Greg Barker, “The Final Year” was produced by Julie Goldman and John Battsek and premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival last month.
It will next screen as the Opening Night Selection of Doc NYC on November 9. Magnolia will then launch a multi-city theatrical release on Jan. 19, nearly one year after President Donald Trump’s inauguration.
- 10/18/2017
- by Beatrice Verhoeven
- The Wrap
The Final Year Photo: Courtesy of Doc NYC
The line-up for the eighth Doc NYC film festival has been announced. The festival, which runs from November 9 to 16 in Manhattan, will feature 23 world premieres, with more than 350 filmmakers and special guests expected in person to present their films or participate on panels.
The festival will open with The Final Year - Greg Barker's documentary about the final year of president Barack Obama's foreign policy administration - and close with musical profile Eric Clapton: Life In 12 Bars, with the guitarist and songwriter in attendance.
The Centerpiece Film, will be the world premiere of Far From the Tree, director Rachel Dretzin’s adaptation of Andrew Solomon’s bestselling book about parental love in many forms.
World premieres at the festival include A Murder in Mansfield, by Barbara Kopple (Miss Sharon Jones!), which explores the impact of a 1989 murder on a family; Maynard,...
The line-up for the eighth Doc NYC film festival has been announced. The festival, which runs from November 9 to 16 in Manhattan, will feature 23 world premieres, with more than 350 filmmakers and special guests expected in person to present their films or participate on panels.
The festival will open with The Final Year - Greg Barker's documentary about the final year of president Barack Obama's foreign policy administration - and close with musical profile Eric Clapton: Life In 12 Bars, with the guitarist and songwriter in attendance.
The Centerpiece Film, will be the world premiere of Far From the Tree, director Rachel Dretzin’s adaptation of Andrew Solomon’s bestselling book about parental love in many forms.
World premieres at the festival include A Murder in Mansfield, by Barbara Kopple (Miss Sharon Jones!), which explores the impact of a 1989 murder on a family; Maynard,...
- 10/12/2017
- by Amber Wilkinson
- eyeforfilm.co.uk
by Glenn Dunks
Every year the mammoth New York based documentary film festival Doc NYC announces a program of films titled the “Short List”. These are films they describe as "[feeling] like worthy contenders for the Oscar short list based on festival accolades, reviews, box office”, culled from a longer list by means of “evaluating what titles appear to have momentum.”
The Doc NYC festival casts a very wide net for their selections with an annual line-up including films that have already screened in theatrical release or on television. Because of this, they’re able to claim to have played the last six winners of the Best Documentary Oscar. And in the four years since they began the Short List, the only Oscar nominee to not feature in the Short List program is Virunga. It’s an impressive statistic if not a somewhat deflating one knowing that this year’s nominees...
Every year the mammoth New York based documentary film festival Doc NYC announces a program of films titled the “Short List”. These are films they describe as "[feeling] like worthy contenders for the Oscar short list based on festival accolades, reviews, box office”, culled from a longer list by means of “evaluating what titles appear to have momentum.”
The Doc NYC festival casts a very wide net for their selections with an annual line-up including films that have already screened in theatrical release or on television. Because of this, they’re able to claim to have played the last six winners of the Best Documentary Oscar. And in the four years since they began the Short List, the only Oscar nominee to not feature in the Short List program is Virunga. It’s an impressive statistic if not a somewhat deflating one knowing that this year’s nominees...
- 10/5/2017
- by Glenn Dunks
- FilmExperience
In The Final Year, filmmaker Greg Barker followed former White House staffers on President Obama’s foreign policy team as they attempted to shape international policy in the last year of his presidency. While the film follows the team across multiple continents to Greenland, Japan, and Nigeria, a good portion of the…
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- 10/4/2017
- by Baraka Kaseko and Marah Eakin
- avclub.com
In The Final Year, filmmaker Greg Barker followed President Barack Obama’s foreign policy team as it attempted to shape international policy in the last year of his presidency. But in just nine months since his inauguration, Donald Trump has tried to undo the work done by the Obama administration, for example, …
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- 10/3/2017
- by Baraka Kaseko and Marah Eakin
- avclub.com
In The Final Year, filmmaker Greg Barker followed President Barack Obama’s foreign policy team as it attempted to shape international policy in the final year of his presidency. Although the documentary was filmed just last year, the United States’ position in the world has changed dramatically, with Trump dismantling…
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- 10/2/2017
- by Baraka Kaseko and Marah Eakin
- avclub.com
Doc NYC, America’s largest documentary festival, has announced its 15-film Short List of Oscar contenders along with its opening-night selection, “The Final Year,” in which Greg Barker follows key members of Barack Obama’s administration during their last year in office. The festival runs November 9-16.
Thom Powers, Doc NYC’s artistic director as well as documentary programmer for Tiff, oversees curation of the Short List of films that may be in the running for the Academy Award for Best Documentary feature. This year contains a spectrum of funders and distributors, including four from Netflix — and none from HBO.
Historically, most Doc NYC picks do land on the Academy’s official 15-film Oscar Short List. For the past four years, the Short List had nine to 10 titles overlap, with four or five titles going on to Oscar nominations. For the last six years, Doc NYC screened the documentary that...
Thom Powers, Doc NYC’s artistic director as well as documentary programmer for Tiff, oversees curation of the Short List of films that may be in the running for the Academy Award for Best Documentary feature. This year contains a spectrum of funders and distributors, including four from Netflix — and none from HBO.
Historically, most Doc NYC picks do land on the Academy’s official 15-film Oscar Short List. For the past four years, the Short List had nine to 10 titles overlap, with four or five titles going on to Oscar nominations. For the last six years, Doc NYC screened the documentary that...
- 9/28/2017
- by Anne Thompson
- Thompson on Hollywood
Doc NYC, America’s largest documentary festival, has announced its 15-film Short List of Oscar contenders along with its opening-night selection, “The Final Year,” in which Greg Barker follows key members of Barack Obama’s administration during their last year in office. The festival runs November 9-16.
Thom Powers, Doc NYC’s artistic director as well as documentary programmer for Tiff, oversees curation of the Short List of films that may be in the running for the Academy Award for Best Documentary feature. This year contains a spectrum of funders and distributors, including four from Netflix — and none from HBO.
Historically, most Doc NYC picks do land on the Academy’s official 15-film Oscar Short List. For the past four years, the Short List had nine to 10 titles overlap, with four or five titles going on to Oscar nominations. For the last six years, Doc NYC screened the documentary that...
Thom Powers, Doc NYC’s artistic director as well as documentary programmer for Tiff, oversees curation of the Short List of films that may be in the running for the Academy Award for Best Documentary feature. This year contains a spectrum of funders and distributors, including four from Netflix — and none from HBO.
Historically, most Doc NYC picks do land on the Academy’s official 15-film Oscar Short List. For the past four years, the Short List had nine to 10 titles overlap, with four or five titles going on to Oscar nominations. For the last six years, Doc NYC screened the documentary that...
- 9/28/2017
- by Anne Thompson
- Indiewire
It’s hard, even impossible, not to get political when discussing “The Final Year,” the latest documentary from journalist filmmaker Greg Barker (“Manhunt: The Inside Story of the Hunt for Bin Laden“), which explores the tumultuous year of 2016 from the viewpoint of President Barack Obama and his foreign policy team. Through intimate access, personalized interviews and mostly sympathetic portrayals of select people inside the White House, Barker isn’t trying to be objective.
Continue reading ‘The Final Year’ Takes A Look Inside Obama’s Administration [Tiff Review] at The Playlist.
Continue reading ‘The Final Year’ Takes A Look Inside Obama’s Administration [Tiff Review] at The Playlist.
- 9/18/2017
- by Will Ashton
- The Playlist
Ben Rhodes, the longtime aide to former President Barack Obama, ripped President Donald Trump for under-cutting American diplomacy and foreign aid overseas on Saturday at the Toronto International Film Festival.
"I don't think we're showing up anymore ... if we're not showing up, no one else is," he said during a Q&A after a screening of The Final Year, Greg Barker's fly-on-the-wall documentary on Obama's foreign policy team during their last year in office.
"It does make me upset that I don't think the government representing my country is doing that anymore," continued Rhodes, as Barker and former...
"I don't think we're showing up anymore ... if we're not showing up, no one else is," he said during a Q&A after a screening of The Final Year, Greg Barker's fly-on-the-wall documentary on Obama's foreign policy team during their last year in office.
"It does make me upset that I don't think the government representing my country is doing that anymore," continued Rhodes, as Barker and former...
- 9/10/2017
- by Etan Vlessing
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
It’s hard not to watch Greg Barker’s film about President Barack Obama’s foreign policy team during the final year of his administration without feeling a twinge of nostalgia. Indeed, for most viewers inclined to check out a film about the subject, it will be hard not to cry. This compelling documentary receiving its world premiere at the Toronto Film Festival should prove irresistible to anyone interested in politics, and thanks to a certain businessman elected president, that number has definitely swelled in recent years.
The Final Year provides a fly-on-the-wall perspective of its principal figures: Secretary of State John Kerry,...
The Final Year provides a fly-on-the-wall perspective of its principal figures: Secretary of State John Kerry,...
- 9/8/2017
- by Frank Scheck
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
As the whirlpool of fall film festivals continue to press on, the onslaught of film news, reviews and promotion will continue. It’s an exciting time for film enthusiasts (albeit hectic) with gems seemingly being dropped every moment of the day. This excitement includes the debut poster for the film “The Final Year,” directed by Greg Barker. Not only an intriguing looking documentary on subject matter alone, it’s also a striking release amid all of the political tension (to put in lightly) taking place in the country today.
Continue reading Tiff Exclusive: Poster For Greg Barker’s Obama Doc ‘The Final Year’ at The Playlist.
Continue reading Tiff Exclusive: Poster For Greg Barker’s Obama Doc ‘The Final Year’ at The Playlist.
- 9/2/2017
- by Ally Johnson
- The Playlist
ThelmaA selection of films from the 2017 edition of the Toronto International Film Festival has been unveiled, with new films by Sebastián Lelio, Deniz Gamze Ergüven, Darren Aronofsky, Greta Gerwig, Guillermo Del Toro, Joachim Trier, Wim Wenders, and many more.Special PRESENTATIONSOpening Night: Ladybird (Greta Gerwig)Closing Night: Sheikh Jackson (Amr Salama)Battle of the Sexes (Valerie Faris & Jonathan Dayton)Bpm (Beats Per Minute) (Robin Campillo)The Brawler (Anurag Kashyap)The Breadwinner (Nora Twomey)Call Me By Your Name (Luca Guadagnino)Catch the Wind (Gaël Morel)The Children Act (Richard Eyre)The Current War (Alfonso Gomez-Rejon)Disobedience (Sebastián Lelio)Downsizing (Alexander Payne)A Fantastic Woman (Sebastián Lelio)First They Killed My Father (Angelina Jolie)The Guardians (Xavier Beauvois)Hostiles (Scott Cooper)The Hungry (Bornila Chatterjee)I, Tonya (Craig Gillespie)Mother! (Darren Aronofsky)Novitiate (Maggie Betts)Omerta (Hansal Mehta)Plonger (Mélanie Laurent)The Price of Success (Teddy Lussi-Modeste)Professor Marston & the Wonder Women...
- 8/3/2017
- MUBI
The race always begins at Sundance, but the Toronto International Film Festival documentary lineup will impact the list of Oscar contenders — and this year, without clear frontrunners, Tiff’s influence will be greater than ever.
Every year, Thom Powers leads the Tiff documentary programmers through an enormous number of submissions to cull 22 selections. “It never gets any easier to make those decisions,” said Powers, who also programs influential November festival Doc NYC. “This year we’re going to see a greater range of different documentaries spread across the fall festivals, instead of a cluster of films that moves from festival to festival. More films will get more opportunities at the festivals this fall.”
Here’s a list of 10 must-sees for Tiff 2017 with potential to shake up the awards race.
1. “Super Size Me 2: Holy Chicken!”: Morgan Spurlock’s under-the-radar sequel to his 2005 Oscar nominee focuses on the new craze...
Every year, Thom Powers leads the Tiff documentary programmers through an enormous number of submissions to cull 22 selections. “It never gets any easier to make those decisions,” said Powers, who also programs influential November festival Doc NYC. “This year we’re going to see a greater range of different documentaries spread across the fall festivals, instead of a cluster of films that moves from festival to festival. More films will get more opportunities at the festivals this fall.”
Here’s a list of 10 must-sees for Tiff 2017 with potential to shake up the awards race.
1. “Super Size Me 2: Holy Chicken!”: Morgan Spurlock’s under-the-radar sequel to his 2005 Oscar nominee focuses on the new craze...
- 8/1/2017
- by Anne Thompson
- Thompson on Hollywood
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