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Celebrating women directors and their incredible contributions to filmmaking, the new book “Cinema Her Way: Visionary Female Directors in Their Own Words” includes a brief history about groundbreaking trailblazers, in-depth interviews with singular female directors, and a comprehensive list of noteworthy talents and their films from author, critic, and IndieWire contributor Marya E. Gates.

The filmmakers interviewed for the upcoming book are: Allison Anders, Gillian Armstrong, Lizzie Borden, Jane Campion, Martha Coolidge, Julie Dash, Josephine Decker, Cheryl Dunne, Bette Gordon, Marielle Heller, Miranda July, Karyn Kusama, Mary Lambert, Mira Nair, Sally Potter, Gina Prince-Bythewood, Isabel Sandoval, Susan Seidelman, and Katt Shea.

IndieWire shares an exclusive excerpt from Gates’ introduction below.

I first became aware that women could direct films when I was eight years old and my mother took me to see Gillian Armstrong’s “Little Women.” That movie affected me deeply and has remained my favorite film ever since.

I consider myself something like a student, autodidact or otherwise, of cinema and––even still, must confess––had not ever grasped the concept of Argentine noir. Credit to Criterion Channel, who’ll expand my horizons with February’s program (concisely titled “Argentine Noir”) that includes one known title––Pierre Chenal’s Native Son, an Argentine film from a French director adapting an American novel about the African-American experience in Chicago––and five I look forward to discovering. Retrospective-wise, their wide-reaching Claudette Colbert program could double as a lesson in Old Hollywood, between Capra, Stahl, DeMille, Lubitsch, Sirk, and Sturges. February, of course, brings Black History Month and Valentine’s Day: the former engenders a series featuring films such as Nothing but a Man, Portrait of Jason, and Losing Ground; the latter brings “New York Love Stories,” from Carol to Crossing Delancey to, curiously, Annie Hall, which likely would not have...

Belgian artist and filmmaker Johan Grimonprez, whose “Soundtrack to a Coup d’Etat” won an award at this year’s Sundance, will be the guest of honor at the 37th edition of IDFA.

The documentary festival, which will take place from Nov. 14 to 24, has also unveiled curated program Dead Angle and Spotlight on Cuba, which focuses on the island’s cinema, alongside live cinema section IDFA on Stage and new media program IDFA DocLab.

IDFA will highlight Grimonprez’s “uncompromising approach to challenging narratives and reinterpreting historical events through a critical, contemporary lens,” the festival said.

Grimonprez first gained international acclaim with his 1997 film “Dial H-i-s-t-o-r-y,” which examined the history of airplane hijackings and the media’s role in shaping public perception. His most recent film, “Soundtrack to a Coup d’Etat,” unravels the decolonization of Congo, using jazz as a “means of protest” in the examination of the international context behind...

Belgian artist and filmmaker Johan Grimonprez, whose latest documentary Soundtrack To a Coup D’Etat is expected to be an Oscar contender, has been named Guest of Honor at the upcoming International Documentary Festival Amsterdam.

The honor recognizes a distinguished career that includes Blue Orchids, and his debut feature film, the 1997 documentary dial H-i-s-t-o-r-y. IDFA, which runs from Nov. 14-24, will be highlighting the filmmaker’s “uncompromising approach to challenging narratives and reinterpreting historical events through a critical, contemporary lens,” the festival said in a statement.

‘dial H-i-s-t-o-r-y‘

“Grimonprez first gained international acclaim with his 1997 film dial H-i-s-t-o-r-y, which examined the history of airplane hijackings and the media’s role in shaping public perception,” IDFA noted in a release. “His most recent award-winning film, Soundtrack to a Coup d’Etat, unravels the decolonization of Congo, using jazz as a smokescreen and means of protest in the examination of the international context behind...

The International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam — or IDFA — has unveiled its first wave of programming and named its guest of honor for 2024. The edition, the festival’s 37th, runs November 14 through 24.

Belgian artist and filmmaker Johan Grimonprez will be IDFA’s guest of honor. Grimonprez first gained international acclaim for his 1997 film “Dial H-i-s-t-o-r-y,” about the media’s part in shaping the public perception of airplane hijackings. His latest film, “Soundtrack to a Coup d’Etat,” looks at Congo’s decolonization through the smokescreen of jazz as protest. Other films screening as part of the Grimonprez retrospective will include “Double Take” (2009), “Shadow World” (2016), and “Blue Orchids” (2017). The program will include an extended talk with Grimonprez.

This edition of IDFA will also introduce the multi-year curated program titled Dead Angle, which uses documentary storytelling to illuminate cultural blind spots past and present. This year, the program looks at borders of both the metaphoric and physical varieties.

Get ready for a gripping episode of “Law & Order: Special Victims Unit” as Season 25 Episode 13, titled “Duty to Hope,” airs on NBC at 9:00 Pm on Thursday, May 16, 2024. In this intense installment, the Svu team is on a race against time to track down a pattern assailant before his crimes escalate to murder.

As the search for the assailant intensifies, tensions run high within the team. Detective Fin finds himself grappling with the emotional fallout when he must contend with the suspect’s aggrieved son, adding an extra layer of complexity to the investigation.

Meanwhile, Ada Carisi feels the pressure to close the case quickly in order to ease public concern, but the stakes are higher than ever as the clock ticks down. With each passing moment, the urgency to apprehend the assailant mounts, leaving no room for error.

Join the Svu team as they navigate the twists and turns of this high-stakes case,...

Law & Order: Special Victims Unit fans, we’ve got a fresh off the press preview for the new Season 25 Episode 13 episode titled Duty to Hope!

Find out everything you need to know about the Duty to Hope episode of Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, including a full preview, videos, release date, cast information and how to watch!

Law & Order: Special Victims Unit Duty to Hope Season 25 Episode 13 Preview

Get ready for an intense and gripping episode of “Law & Order: Special Victims Unit” airing on NBC at 9:00 Pm on May 16, 2024. In “Duty to Hope,” the Svu team is on a race against time to track down a pattern assailant before his crimes escalate to murder. With lives on the line, the pressure is on to stop the perpetrator before it’s too late.

Meanwhile, Fin finds himself navigating a delicate situation when he must contend with...

While promoting Killers of the Flower Moon, writer/director Martin Scorsese expressed astonishment at how, even at his age, cinema could still surprise him in such profound ways. "The visual image could be done by anything by anybody anytime anywhere. The possibilities are infinite on all levels. And that’s exciting,” he explained in awe over a medium he’d dedicated his life to. Meanwhile, in the final interview she ever participated in, legendary filmmaker Agnes Varda recalled that the very act of making cinema and the everyday lives she connects to through that medium are what "convinces me that it's worth being alive." Let's also not forget how, in a 2020 interview, Daughters of the Dust director Julie Dash recalled how just seeing photographs of the works of director Sara Gómez inspired her to pursue a career in the world of cinema. Films can truly accomplish anything, including bringing people...

Programme includes ‘top 10’ films selected by director Wang Bing and selection of Peter Greenaway films.

The International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam (IDFA) has revealed the first 50 titles for this year’s edition, running Nov 8 to Nov 19.

As part of a previously announced Wang Bing retrospective, the director has been invited to programme his “top 10”. The films he has selected are all Chinese and all date from 1999 or later.

They are: Before the Flood (2005) directed by Yifan Li, Yu YanBing’ai (2007) by Yan Feng; Born in Beijing (2011) by Li Ma; Last Train Home (2009) by Lixin Fan; The Next Life (2011) by Jian Fan...

Documentary festival IDFA, which runs Nov. 8 to 19 in Amsterdam, has revealed its first 50 titles, including the top 10 Chinese films selected by Chinese filmmaker Wang Bing, IDFA’s Guest of Honor.

The festival has also revealed the films playing in two of the three Focus programs: Fabrications, which probes the difference between reality and realism, and 16 Worlds on 16, an homage to 16mm film.

Wang’s selection will take the viewer “on a contemplative journey into contemporary Chinese cinema,” according to the festival. “The films and their politics are subtle in their film language, representing a wave of filmmaking rarely shown internationally.”

The selection (see below), which covers films produced since 1999, includes Lixin Fan’s 2009 film “Last Train Home,” which was supported by IDFA’s Bertha Fund. The film documents the millions of migrant factory workers that travel home for Spring Festival each year.

Fabrications explores the relationship of trust between documentary film and audiences,...

Les rendez-vous d'Anna (1978).“The Levites shall then proclaim in a loud voice to all the people of Israel: Cursed be anyone who makes a sculptured or molten image, abhorred by the Eternal, a craftsman’s handiwork, and sets it up in secret.”My grandfather would have found an entry point in an observation about my height. “If only I’d been as tall as you,” he might have said from the head of the table while I helped my grandmother clear a plate. “Then I coulda had it easier.” That was a common refrain of his, one that, as my siblings and cousins and I grew older and bigger, allowed him to list with increasing starkness the atrocities he suffered but could’ve avoided—if he had not been so tiny. I probably learned about my family’s annihilation on one of these Friday nights, after the sun went down...