By Anjelica Oswald
Managing Editor
After narrowing the Oscar documentary feature shortlist to five at the 87th Academy Award nominations Jan. 15, a number of notable exclusions were featured, particularly Al Hicks‘ Keep on Keepin’ On, which documents the mentorship and friendship of a jazz legend and a blind piano prodigy, and Steve James‘ Life Itself, about the life and career of famed film critic Roger Ebert. (James is no stranger to snubs and the exclusion of his 1994 film Hoop Dreams led to rule reform within the documentary category.) Both films hold 97 percent positive ratings on Rotten Tomatoes.
Some films surprised when they didn’t even land a spot on the shortlist, such as Red Army, which examines the rise and fall of the Soviet Union’s hockey team from the perspective of its coach. That film holds a 100 percent positive rating on Rotten Tomatoes.
In light of these best documentary feature snubs,...
Managing Editor
After narrowing the Oscar documentary feature shortlist to five at the 87th Academy Award nominations Jan. 15, a number of notable exclusions were featured, particularly Al Hicks‘ Keep on Keepin’ On, which documents the mentorship and friendship of a jazz legend and a blind piano prodigy, and Steve James‘ Life Itself, about the life and career of famed film critic Roger Ebert. (James is no stranger to snubs and the exclusion of his 1994 film Hoop Dreams led to rule reform within the documentary category.) Both films hold 97 percent positive ratings on Rotten Tomatoes.
Some films surprised when they didn’t even land a spot on the shortlist, such as Red Army, which examines the rise and fall of the Soviet Union’s hockey team from the perspective of its coach. That film holds a 100 percent positive rating on Rotten Tomatoes.
In light of these best documentary feature snubs,...
- 1/23/2015
- by Anjelica Oswald
- Scott Feinberg
With Sundance 2012 beginning to wind down, let’s briefly rewind back to the 2011 film festival where Yoav Patash’s “Crime After Crime” premiered to a great reception a year ago. The documentary went on to win a slew of awards at festivals around the country, before being picked up by Oprah’s Own Documentary Club and receiving its television premiere last November. The doc follows the legal appeal process of Deborah Peagler, the victim of domestic abuse who was sentenced to 25-years-to-life in 1983 for her connection to the murder of her boyfriend. Teaming up with two attorneys who believe they have incontrovertible evidence that could free her, and along the way they encounter an atmosphere of corruption and politically driven resistance against her fight for justice and freedom. We were very impressed when the doc aired on Own, calling it “a devastating portrait of the power of the human spirit,...
- 1/26/2012
- The Playlist
Gulabi (India / Norway) to be directed by Nishtha Jain has received a $25,000 grant from the Sundance Documentary Film Program. The documentary traces Sampat Pal and the fiery women of her Gulabi Gang who take up the fight against gender violence, caste oppression and widespread corruption in Bundelkhand.
Gulabi is one among the 29 feature-length documentary films that will receive the grant.
The Documentary Film Program celebrates its 10th anniversary in 2012 and since its inception has awarded grants to more than 300 documentary filmmakers in 61 countries.
Complete list:
Development
The Bill (U.S. / Philippines)
Director: Ramona Diaz
A political firestorm hits the Philippines when “The Bill,” a reproductive health bill that could legalize birth control in the world’s 12th most populous nation, pits tradition against reform and brings the culture war into the streets and churches.
Dirty Wars: The World is a Battlefield (U.S.)
Director: Richard Rowley
Reporting from the battlefields of the war on terror,...
Gulabi is one among the 29 feature-length documentary films that will receive the grant.
The Documentary Film Program celebrates its 10th anniversary in 2012 and since its inception has awarded grants to more than 300 documentary filmmakers in 61 countries.
Complete list:
Development
The Bill (U.S. / Philippines)
Director: Ramona Diaz
A political firestorm hits the Philippines when “The Bill,” a reproductive health bill that could legalize birth control in the world’s 12th most populous nation, pits tradition against reform and brings the culture war into the streets and churches.
Dirty Wars: The World is a Battlefield (U.S.)
Director: Richard Rowley
Reporting from the battlefields of the war on terror,...
- 11/23/2011
- by NewsDesk
- DearCinema.com
In 2005, I set out to document the saga of Deborah Peagler, for what would eventually become my first full-length feature film, “Crime After Crime,” now playing in theaters and set for broadcast on Oprah’s Own network in November. Deborah was a victim of domestic violence sentenced to life behind bars for her role in the murder of her abuser. But Deborah was incarcerated at the Central California Women’s Facility in Chowchilla, California, the largest women’s prison in the United States and one that adheres to a statewide ban prohibiting “face-to-face...
- 7/14/2011
- by Yoav Potash
- The Wrap
In Yoav Potash’s first full-length feature documentary, “Crime After Crime,” the filmmaker went to great lengths to follow the epic legal battle to free Deborah Peagler. To gain access to the maximum-security prison in Chowchilla, California where Peagler was incarcerated, he used a two-pronged approach; first he embedded himself with Peagler’s pro-bono attorneys as her official legal videographer, and second, he made an entirely separate documentary about the rehabilitative programs ...
- 6/30/2011
- indieWIRE - People
In Yoav Potash’s first full-length feature documentary, “Crime After Crime,” the filmmaker went to great lengths to follow the epic legal battle to free Deborah Peagler. To gain access to the maximum-security prison in Chowchilla, California where Peagler was incarcerated, he used a two-pronged approach; first he embedded himself with Peagler’s pro-bono attorneys as her official legal videographer, and second, he made an entirely separate documentary about the rehabilitative programs ...
- 6/30/2011
- Indiewire
Title: Crime After Crime Director: Yoav Potash Featuring: Deborah Peagler, Nadia Costa, Joshua Safran, others When has justice been served, and a criminal debt paid? When a victim’s family announces its forgiveness, and lobbies for the release of imprisoned? When new evidence casts a pall over a guilty plea? When an inmate is diagnosed with a terminal illness? These and other questions are at the heart of ‘Crime After Crime’, a documentary that spotlights the extraordinarily heartrending case of Deborah Peagler, a woman convicted in 1983, under a variety of extenuating circumstances, in the death of her abusive spouse, who it turns out pimped her out while she was still...
- 6/29/2011
- by bsimon
- ShockYa
By John Esther
(April 2011)
As some film festivals diminish in size or structure during these woeful economic times, the San Francisco International Film Festival (Sfiff), the longest-running film festival in the Americas, launched its 54th version April 21 with a screening of writer-director Mike Mills’ “Beginners,” starring Mélanie Laurent, Ewan McGregor, Christopher Plummer and Goran Visnjic.
The next day, Sfiff was in full force, screening films from around the world in several different venues in San Francisco and beyond, and will continue until May 5.
Some of the European highlights in the festival are writer-director Athina Rachel Tsangari’s delightfully quirky film “Attenberg,” about a 23-year-old Greek woman, Marina (Ariane Labed), coming to terms with sex, death and decay in its various forms, and Régis Sauder’s “Children of teh Princess of Cleves,” a rather fascinating documentary about a group of working-class French teenagers who find value in themselves, literature and art...
(April 2011)
As some film festivals diminish in size or structure during these woeful economic times, the San Francisco International Film Festival (Sfiff), the longest-running film festival in the Americas, launched its 54th version April 21 with a screening of writer-director Mike Mills’ “Beginners,” starring Mélanie Laurent, Ewan McGregor, Christopher Plummer and Goran Visnjic.
The next day, Sfiff was in full force, screening films from around the world in several different venues in San Francisco and beyond, and will continue until May 5.
Some of the European highlights in the festival are writer-director Athina Rachel Tsangari’s delightfully quirky film “Attenberg,” about a 23-year-old Greek woman, Marina (Ariane Labed), coming to terms with sex, death and decay in its various forms, and Régis Sauder’s “Children of teh Princess of Cleves,” a rather fascinating documentary about a group of working-class French teenagers who find value in themselves, literature and art...
- 4/28/2011
- by admin
- Moving Pictures Magazine
By John Esther
(April 2011)
As some film festivals diminish in size or structure during these woeful economic times, the San Francisco International Film Festival (Sfiff), the longest-running film festival in the Americas, launched its 54th version April 21 with a screening of writer-director Mike Mills’ “Beginners,” starring Mélanie Laurent, Ewan McGregor, Christopher Plummer and Goran Visnjic.
The next day, Sfiff was in full force, screening films from around the world in several different venues in San Francisco and beyond, and will continue until May 5.
Some of the European highlights in the festival are writer-director Athina Rachel Tsangari’s delightfully quirky film “Attenberg,” about a 23-year-old Greek woman, Marina (Ariane Labed), coming to terms with sex, death and decay in its various forms, and Régis Sauder’s “Children of teh Princess of Cleves,” a rather fascinating documentary about a group of working-class French teenagers who find value in themselves, literature and art...
(April 2011)
As some film festivals diminish in size or structure during these woeful economic times, the San Francisco International Film Festival (Sfiff), the longest-running film festival in the Americas, launched its 54th version April 21 with a screening of writer-director Mike Mills’ “Beginners,” starring Mélanie Laurent, Ewan McGregor, Christopher Plummer and Goran Visnjic.
The next day, Sfiff was in full force, screening films from around the world in several different venues in San Francisco and beyond, and will continue until May 5.
Some of the European highlights in the festival are writer-director Athina Rachel Tsangari’s delightfully quirky film “Attenberg,” about a 23-year-old Greek woman, Marina (Ariane Labed), coming to terms with sex, death and decay in its various forms, and Régis Sauder’s “Children of teh Princess of Cleves,” a rather fascinating documentary about a group of working-class French teenagers who find value in themselves, literature and art...
- 4/28/2011
- by admin
- Moving Pictures Network
So Sundance is over. Weary buyers are returning home, harried critics are catching up on email and much-needed rest and the sleepy ski resort has finally been freed from the hordes until next year. But there are still a few more loose ends to tie up, including a few more acquisitions that were made as the festival headed to a close. --Oprah Winfrey's Own network snagged the documentary "Crime After Crime" in a six-figure deal. Directed by Yoav Potash, the film "is about Deborah Peagler, an abused woman who struck back at the boyfriend who beat her. She was sentenced…...
- 2/1/2011
- The Playlist
Exclusive: Oprah Winfrey's upstart cable network Own continued its aggressive buying at the 2011 Sundance Film Festival by acquiring North American rights to Crime After Crime, the Yoav Potash-directed documentary. I'm told the deal was six figures, and that Own will afford the film a qualifying Oscar run before it airs on Oprah's new network. Own chief creative officer Lisa Erspamer made the deal with Submarine's Josh Braun and David Koh. The doc is about Deborah Peagler, an abused woman who struck back at the boyfriend who beat her. She was sentenced to 25 years to life for his murder. Some 20 years into her sentence, California passed a law permitting domestic violence survivors to have their case reopened. A pair of real estate lawyers took on Peagler's case, and what seemed an easy effort turned into a politically-driven nightmare to free her. The film debuted January 23 at the Temple Theatre,...
- 1/31/2011
- by MIKE FLEMING
- Deadline
[Premiere Screening: Sunday, Jan. 23, 9:00 pm -- Temple Theatre]
Making Crime After Crime was full of surprises — which in a way is not so surprising because at least on the surface the film is a legal thriller, a genre that is built on suspense, intrigue and discovery. These aspects of the genre were made all the more unpredictable because the film is a vérité documentary: I was tracking the battle to free Deborah Peagler from prison as her case unfolded so no one knew exactly how it would turn out. Sure enough, clues, twists and turns emerged that Debbie, her lawyers and I could not have foreseen. These developments in turn led to the biggest surprise for me as a filmmaker — the film took much longer than expected to make. Rather than spending a year with the case as I had initially planned, I ended up following this story for five and a half years until it finally resolved.
Making Crime After Crime was full of surprises — which in a way is not so surprising because at least on the surface the film is a legal thriller, a genre that is built on suspense, intrigue and discovery. These aspects of the genre were made all the more unpredictable because the film is a vérité documentary: I was tracking the battle to free Deborah Peagler from prison as her case unfolded so no one knew exactly how it would turn out. Sure enough, clues, twists and turns emerged that Debbie, her lawyers and I could not have foreseen. These developments in turn led to the biggest surprise for me as a filmmaker — the film took much longer than expected to make. Rather than spending a year with the case as I had initially planned, I ended up following this story for five and a half years until it finally resolved.
- 1/19/2011
- by Filmmaker Staff
- Filmmaker Magazine - Blog
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