A new WikiLeaks documentary shows what happens when a filmmaker gets too close to her subject

Carl Court/Getty Images Risk, Laura Poitras’ documentary about WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, is what happens when an artist-activist invests her passions in a ravaged cause. The ravaging, in this case, was inflicted by Assange himself, who proved steadily less heroic over the six years in which Poitras filmed him. As she recounts in her occasional, […]

VOTD: What Do Martin Scorsese’s Movie Cameos Reveal About The Filmmaker?

Much like Alfred Hitchcock, director Martin Scorsese likes to make cameos in the movies he makes. They’re not always as overt as those that Hitchcock made, and there are probably some that weren’t even aware of, but they always have some kind of larger significance. Whether it’s revealing his own hand guiding his characters acting […]

A documentary filmmaker explains how infamous actress Paz de la Huerta hijacked his Scientology movie

Magnolia Pictures In Louis Theroux’s first feature film, “My Scientology Movie” (in theaters Friday), the acclaimed British documentarian travels to Hollywood in the hopes of better understanding the Church of Scientology by investigating its most infamous moments with former members. But, as it typically goes with a Theroux project, the unknown creates the most compelling […]

The Filmmaker Who Documented Gawker's Demise

Most directors had wrapped, edited, polished and finalized their films when they arrived at Sundance this year. But not all. Some, like Brian Knappenberger, waited until the eleventh hour. While most of Hollywood made their way to Park City, Utah, for the year’s grandest cinematic shebang, director Knappenberger’s team was adding a key piece to […]

Second Oscar for Iranian filmmaker who boycotted ceremony over Trump’s travel ban

Published time: 27 Feb, 2017 09:20 ‘The Salesman’ by Iranian director Asghar Farhadi has won the Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film. The director, who earlier blasted Trump’s travel ban, did not attend the ceremony. His speech was read by Iranian-American engineer Anousheh Ansari – the first Iranian ever to travel to space – who […]