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The Power Of The DogImage: Netflix

Netflix’s line-up of Original movies vary wildly in quality, ranging from Oscar-worthy work from some of our finest filmmakers to rom-coms one wouldn’t wish upon their worst enemy. But taken together, along with the streaming service’s passable library, Netflix has one...

Exclusive: Burning Man made national headlines last weekend as shocking weather ravaged the desert campout arts festival and sent thousands searching for ways out of the playa.

From Chris Rock and Diplo hitching a ride out with a fan to a slew of Hollywood types and tech bros sludging through the mud after their private planes couldn’t reach them, it was a crazy year for the event, which has been running since 1986.

So, it’s apt that there’s a docuseries – The Man Will Burn – in the works about the event.

Double Agent, a joint venture between Black Bear and New Regency that is behind Asif Kapadia’s next feature film 2073, Noujaim Films, which was behind Egyptian revolution doc The Square, and The Othrs, the production company behind HBO’s The Vow, are behind the series.

But it’s not just about 2023’s wild Burning Man.

The series will...

Exclusive: Harriet Walter, Avi Nash and Chinaza Uche will round out the cast of Wool, Apple’s world-building drama series based on the New York Times bestselling trilogy of dystopian novels by Hugh Howey.

They’ll appear alongside previously announced cast members Rebecca Ferguson, Tim Robbins, Common, Rashida Jones and David Oyelowo.

Written by Graham Yost and directed by Academy Award nominee Morten Tyldum, Wool is a set in a ruined and toxic future where a community exists in a giant silo underground, hundreds of stories deep. There, men and women live in a society full of regulations they believe are meant to protect them.

Walter will play Martha Walker, a veteran engineer who works in Mechanical, with Nash as Lukas Kyle, an It worker who rises to prominence after meeting independent...

With weird, Herzogian moments and steeped in NYC terroir, this portrait of rapper 6ix9ine has much to offer even non-fans

Independent film-maker Vikram Gandhi tells a truly all-American rags-to-riches-to-documentary-fodder story, one intensely grounded in the terroir of New York City, about his Bushwick neighbour Tekashi69, Aka 6ix9ine, Aka Danny Hernandez.

Those over the age of 30 who are not au fait with what the kids are into these days may be less familiar with Hernandez’s story, and thus why he might be deserving of a documentary, so here are the key facts. Raised in poverty in Brooklyn’s not-yet-gentrified Bushwick, he went from working in a bodega to becoming a rap superstar notorious for his facial tattoos, rainbow-coloured hair, sexually explicit videos and gangster attitude. After several earlier brushes with the law, including pleading guilty to using a child in a sexual performance, he was arrested in 2018 on a number of charges including racketeering,...

69: The Saga of Daniel Hernandez, the latest documentary from Vikram Gandhi, is a cute title but it hardly fits the bill. What felt like a promising premise and a deserved look into the life of a music superstar turns into an unnecessary story of how Daniel Hernandez successfully marketed his fake personas as a vessel for fame, and trolled the hip-hop world.

To a fault, the film at times moves like a Vice TV special––even giving each section a chapter name like “Soundcloud Rap” and “The Villain.” It’s an easy device to highlight what the director is taking us through. It also glorifies his early-day marketing techniques like he’s some kind of genius for featuring sex in his music videos when he started his crew “Scum Gang,” which then later on escalated to gang violence. There is intrigue when 6ix9ine gets caught up with the FBI,...

Many working artists have exploited the tools of social media to craft their fame, but Tekashi 6ix9ine — aka Danny Hernandez — exists inside them. The Bushwick-born 24-year-old rapper and Instagram celebrity spent the last five years eking out the most provocative and disturbing career in modern music, though more people can recognize his aggressive face tattoos and rainbow-colored hair than any of his compositions. A convicted felon who flaunts his criminality in record-breaking Instagram Lives, grotesque sexual deviance, and pretty much anything else it takes to grab maximum eyeballs, Hernandez may be a lost cause buried under angry posturing and a blaring soundtrack. Even some of his hip hop fans think he’s a traitor who snitched to the FBI to avoid additional jail time. But all that noise has kept him in the public eye. In the process of eluding the justice system and upsetting the bulk of the...

The lame-duck days of America’s reality-tv presidency are an appropriate time for a documentary about Tekashi69, the rainbow-haired rapper willing to say or do any stupid thing in order to keep the world’s eyes on him. In the view of Vikram Gandhi’s 69: The Saga of Danny Hernandez, music is nearly entirely beside the point: Those who don’t know the songs that drew millions of YouTube streams will barely hear them here, and that’s probably just as well. What they’ll get instead is a clear-eyed take on a chaotic life, in which some of those closest ...

The lame-duck days of America’s reality-tv presidency are an appropriate time for a documentary about Tekashi69, the rainbow-haired rapper willing to say or do any stupid thing in order to keep the world’s eyes on him. In the view of Vikram Gandhi’s 69: The Saga of Danny Hernandez, music is nearly entirely beside the point: Those who don’t know the songs that drew millions of YouTube streams will barely hear them here, and that’s probably just as well. What they’ll get instead is a clear-eyed take on a chaotic life, in which some of those closest ...

A documentary made in secret about the life and career of rapper Tekashi69 has dropped on Hulu Monday, and the first look at the film “69: The Saga of Danny Hernandez” shows how a “cool Hispanic kid from the ghettos” became someone completely different and one of the more controversial figures in pop culture today.

Hulu surprised released its own documentary film Monday ahead of another Tekashi69 documentary series called “Supervillain” that’s meant to debut in early 2021. This one though sits down with people who knew the kid Danny Hernandez before he became 6ix9ine.

“There were two separate people at the beginning, but that morphed into one,” one of his friends says in the trailer.

Vikram Gandhi, best known for his film “Kumaré,” directs “69: The Saga of Danny Hernandez,” and this is not one of your typical glossy rock documentaries on the latest pop star of the day.

Hulu has dropped a trailer for under-the-radar Original documentary 69: The Saga Of Danny Hernandez about the rapper known as Tekashi69.

The film will chart the story of the polarizing rapper from Brooklyn who has garnered online attention for his music videos, social media beefs and various run-ins with the law which led to him testifying against Brooklyn gang the Nine Trey Gangsta Bloods.

Director Vikram Gandhi (Barry) speaks to the neighborhood locals who knew the rapper when he was still just Danny Hernandez — before the hard-core persona and face tattoos—to chronicle his rise to celebrity.

Producers are Vikram Gandhi of Prophets, Jeremy Falson and Jude Harris. Executive producers are Van Toffler, Floris Bauer and David Gale of Gunpowder & Sky.

This time last year Showtime announced a Tekashi69 documentary series with Imagine Documentaries, Rolling Stone and Lightbox.

Hulu’s original documentary about what the announcement describes as “the rise and fall” of controversial rapper Tekashi69 is streaming now exclusively on Hulu.

Titled “69: The Saga of Danny Hernandez,” after the Brooklyn-born rapper’s real name, the doc is tagged “part investigative documentary, part real-life gangster movie” and details how the rapper “repeatedly broke the internet with his sensationalist music videos and social media beefs before infamously testifying against Brooklyn gang the Nine Trey Gangsta Bloods in a landmark trial.” Director Vikram Gandhi spoke with neighborhood locals who knew him “before the hard-core persona and the face tattoos” and examines “the harsh extremes of addiction to fame in the digital era.”

Judging by the description, the bulk of the work on the documentary would seem to have been done before 6ix9ine’s release from prison due to coronavirus concerns earlier this year. Following his release to house arrest in April,...

IFC Films has acquired the U.S. rights to “Ottolenghi and the Cakes of Versailles,” the latest documentary film from “City of Gold” Laura Gabbert.

“Cakes of Versailles” follows the London-based Israeli chef and cookbook author Yotam Ottolenghi as he preps to organize a food gala for the Met exhibit “Visitors to Versailles.” In preparation, he travels to the actual Palace of Versailles and is possessed by a child-like curiosity as he gets a glimpse of the French monarchy’s decadence.

IFC Films plans to release “Ottolenghi and the Cakes of Versailles” in September 2020.

Also Read: The New Look of Documentary Film in a Coronavirus World

The documentary was produced by Steve Robillard and Mohamed AlRafi and executive produced by Paula Manzanedo-Schmit and Original Productions’ Jeff Hasler, Ernie Avila, and Brian Lovett.

Also appearing in the documentary is the mastermind of the “cronut” Dominique Ansel, and together he and Ottolenghi...

Vikram Gandhi, the filmmaker and journalist who posed as a false prophet and spiritual guide in his 2011 documentary “Kumaré,” will reprise his character for a new comedy series called “The Guru Inside You” to air on First Look Media’s streaming service Topic, TheWrap has learned exclusively.

The original series, which will debut on Topic July 2, is a comedic wellness show that will star Gandhi as the Indian guru Sri Kumaré as he provides his spiritual wisdom and guidance for audiences still stuck at home during the coronavirus.

Episodes will begin in Kumaré’s mythical compound, where he addresses his followers and reports on world events, and feature interviews with self-proclaimed experts and special guests. He will talk about the power of the mind to help us cope with issues of modern living through Kumaré’s teachings.

Also Read: First Look's Michael Bloom and Topic's Maria Zuckerman Talk 'Homegrown Success'...

Gunpowder & Sky is seeing some major growth. They are expanding their unscripted game with their newly announced Anne Loder the VP of Unscripted Development. Jason Goldberg has also been named as Director of Scripted Development. The company have also inked three major deals. Prophets Films, founded by Vikram Gandhi, and Geoffrey James Clark, formerly president of Futurism Studios, have each signed production deals. Meanwhile, Donny Tourette, former BBC and Sky Vision executive has signed a development deal for Unscripted and Music programming.

“So far, our business has been able to push forward during uncertain times, and as our slate has grown exponentially since we launched a few years ago, now is the perfect time to add some more restless creatives to the team who will keep pushing us to innovate and elevate our game,” said Van Toffler, Gunpowder & Sky CEO. “We are also stoked to have production deals with...

Comedy Central has greenlighted a new comedic documentary from Peabody Award-winning comedian-activist D.L. Hughley. How Not to Get Shot and Other Advice from White People is based on his New York Times bestseller of the same name.

The hourlong docu-comedy, which Hughley also will executive produce, follows him into the field to explore the state of race in America. By following behavioral advice given to African Americans, will Hughley make all the problems of race in America disappear, or will he bring systemic prejudice to light?

“I look forward to working with Comedy Central on this documentary, where we’ll get to explore deeper into the state of race as I see it today — and then, leave it to me to point out the absurd,” Hughley said. “I dig how Comedy Central saw How Not to Get Shot as I did, knowing the conversation would extend far beyond the length of a book.

11/8/16 The Orchard Directors: Duane Andersen, Yung Chang, Garth Donovan, Vikram Gandhi, Raul Gasteazoro, Andrew Beck Grace, Jamie Goncalves, Alma Har’el, Daniel Junge, Alison Klayman, Martha Shane, Ciara Lacy, Elaine McMillion Sheldon, Bassam Tariq, Don Argott, Sheena M. Joyce, Petra Epperlein, Michael Tucker Screened at: Critics’ link, NYC, 10/24/17 Opens: November 3, 2017 If we […]

The post 11/8/16 Movie Review appeared first on Shockya.com.

One of the most effective — and simply best — scores of the year thus far is for the Safdies’ Good Time, from Oneohtrix Point Never (aka Daniel Lopatin). A frenzied, pulsating work that consumes much of the film, it’s perfectly attuned with the non-stop energy of the crime drama. With the film hitting theaters today (our rave review), the full score is now streaming, including the closing track featuring Iggy Pop.

“When we were working on the film, Josh and Ben would remind me to go harder and more out, because it’s very easy to mimetically revert back to [Tangerine Dream founder] Edgar Froese—it’s just in my DNA,” Lopatin tells Pitchfork. “Then Josh is in the room being like, “No, make it more fucked up.” His expression was, “Get micro,’ because he’s the exact same way.”

Check out the score below, along with a Vikram Gandhi-directed short starring and written by Robert Pattinson,...

Fresh off of what we at IndieWire affectionately dubbed “Dog-Gate,” “Good Time” star Robert Pattinson has devoted an entire short film to a healthier kind of dog obsession: The New York City hot dog. Released by GQ, the wacky and short comedy was written by Pattinson himself, and clearly takes some inspiration from his time spent shooting with New York filmmaking brothers Josh and Benny Safdie.

Read More:Robert Pattinson Responds to Late Night Gaffe Promoting ‘Good Time’

Beginning with the former “Twilight” star speaking to himself as he paces around The Bowery Hotel, he angrily tosses a salami wrapper out of the mini-bar before sparking at the sight of a man eating a hot dog on the sidewalk. “This city is a labyrinth designed to mock me,” he says. Foregoing all fears about the outside world, Pattinson dons sunglasses and a baseball cap to brave the maze (and potential...

Last week, in response to the news that Netflix had finally cracked the Cannes competition lineup (a breakthrough that inspired the Federation of French Cinemas to question if a movie that skips theaters should even be considered “a cinematographic work”), I wrote about the streaming giant and how they’ve performed as a distributor. My conclusions were, uh, not super favorable. Criticizing the company’s penchant for pricing out the competition, hoarding the hottest indies on the festival circuit, and burying them on their site without the benefit of a proper release, I argued that Netflix isn’t a distributor so much as “a graveyard with unlimited viewing hours,” and that “it doesn’t release movies, it inters them.” It’s a problem that extends to the well-funded features that Netflix produces themselves, a problem that’s only going to get worse as those titles continue to get better.

See MoreNetflix Keeps Buying Great Movies,...

Barry Obama (Devon Terrell) reads Ralph Ellison's 1952 sociopolitical novel 'Invisible Man' – not to be confused with H.G. Wells' 1897 sci-fi novel 'The Invisible Man.' 'Barry' & me: Finding common ground between this reviewer and U.S. President Barack Obama While thinking about Barry, Vikram Gandhi's 1981-set film about a young Barack Obama as he arrived in New York City to attend Columbia University, I found myself thinking about me in 1981, as I arrived in New York City to attend Columbia University. To be frank, I've been thinking about President Obama in juxtaposition to myself for years, ever since his keynote address at the 2004 Democratic National Convention. Like many Black folks that evening, I looked up the tall, handsome, well-spoken brotha from Chi-town. Tall and handsome notwithstanding, I found that I had a lot in common with the biracial son of a Kenyan scholar and an American white lady from Kansas.

Anya Taylor-Joy is clearly the new genre it-girl. Since making her feature debut in 2015’s critically lauded The Witch, Taylor-Joy has starred in Luke Scott’s sci-fi actioner Morgan and now in M. Night Shyamalan’s upcoming thriller Split. With two more efforts in the genre set for release in 2017, she seems to have taken a liking to the darker side of cinema. It’s no wonder her name keeps popping up in casting rumors for the X-Men spinoff New Mutants, which has been described as a “Stephen King meets John Hughes” style horror film.

As for Split, it stars Taylor-Joy as one of three young women who are abducted by Kevin (James McAvoy), a man who suffers from a multiple personality disorder. If they hope to escape, the women must navigate his 24 personalities before they fall prey to “the beast.”

Last week at the film’s press day, we...

Author: David Sztypuljak

Every year, Ee sponsor the BAFTA Rising Star Award at the British Academy of Film and Television Awards here in London town. The award is always a fascinating one since it’s voted for by the public.

Star Wars’ John Boyega won the 2016 BAFTA Rising Star Award

The nominations have just been announced from BAFTA HQ are in the running for the 2017 spot are all listed below. It’s going to be very interesting to see who takes the win this year with the likes of Tom Holland as Spider-Man being so mainstream and Anya Taylor-Joy appearing in the likes of The Witch.

Previous winners of the award include James McAvoy, Eva Green, Shia Labeouf, Noel Clarke, Tom Hardy, Juno Temple, Will Poulter, Jack O’Connell and last year the award was taken by Star Wars star John Boyega.

This year the nominations are as strong as every with Laia Costa,...

In 2015, when Vikram Gandhi was making a movie about Barack Obama’s college years in New York, the filmmaker knew the finished product would arrive at a bigger sweet moment. “We didn’t have the same optimism that much of the country had when he was running,” said Gandhi.

Yet the result, a lively take on the actor’s experiences at Colombia in the early eighties now available on Netflix, speaks to the zeitgeist even more than Gandhi could have anticipated. In “Barry,” a disillusioned Obama (Devon Terrell) grapples with his racial identity while dating a white classmate (Anya Taylor-Joy) and examining the country’s economic disparities at the height of Ronald Reagan’s conservative government.

With Terrell’s subtle performance as its guide, “Barry” provides a keen window into the national mood among many young progressive Americans some 30 years ago, but it also picks up on echoes of those...

With a seemingly endless amount of streaming options — not only the titles at our disposal, but services themselves — we’ve taken it upon ourselves to highlight the titles that have recently hit platforms. Every week, one will be able to see the cream of the crop (or perhaps some simply interesting picks) of streaming titles (new and old) across platforms such as Netflix, iTunes, Amazon, and more (note: U.S. only). Check out our rundown for this week’s selections below.

American Honey (Andrea Arnold)

European directors have often faltered when crossing the Atlantic. Billy Wilder and Wim Wenders found things to say where Paolo Sorrentino could not. American Honey is certainly the former. Based on a 2007 article from the New York Times, it’s a backwater American road movie directed by an Englishwoman, Andrea Arnold, and shot by Irishman Robbie Ryan. We spot a few cowboys and gas stations and even the Grand Canyon,...

When The A.V. Club spoke to Vikram Gandhi about his film Barry—centered on a college-age Barack Obama—back at the Toronto International Film Festival earlier this year, Gandhi spoke about “Obama nostalgia.” He said, “I just never imagined that we would miss him so much because I never imagined a man named Trump would ever be possibly elected.” Now Barry is being released on Netflix December 16 with a Trump presidency about a month away.

Barry looks at Barack Obama (Devon Terrell) as a newcomer to New York after transferring to Columbia University. Against the landscape of uptown Manhattan—marked by the stark divides between the campus and surrounding areas—he reckons with his own identity. While the movie has affection for Obama, it’s not a simple love letter, but rather an examination of the future president’s perspective.

The A.V. Club: This is your first ...

The name Obama is never once uttered in Barry, Vikram Gandhi’s minor-key presidential origin story. Only in the film’s final few minutes does the title character even call himself Barack—and then only in his head, reading a letter to his absent father. Dramatically announcing that some sprightly figure is actually a famous person before they were famous is an especially hackneyed biopic convention, but Barry doesn’t avoid it just to stay out of Walk Hard’s sphere of parody. It also does so because the young man we’re watching here—a smart, lonely college kid new to New York, and originally from “Hawaii, Indonesia, Kenya—you name it”—is decades and miles removed from the commander-in-chief he’ll one day become. He’s not President Barack Obama yet. For the modest moments chronicled, he’s just Barry.

This isn’t the first tiny American drama...

Before he became the Commander-in-Chief, Barack Obama was a New York college student named Barry. As his second term draws to a close, Netflix is readying Vikram Gandhi’s timely biopic for release on December 16, and today brings forth a closer look at Gandhi’s portrait of the outgoing president.

Whereas Southside With You chronicled the formative years of Obama’s relationship with Michelle Robinson, Barry rolls back the years to 1981, at a time when the would-be Potus enrolled in Columbia University. A budding junior with lofty ambitions, this latest Netflix original chronicles Obama’s formative relationships and friendships, with many unfolding within a “crime-ridden and racially charged environment.”

Indeed, we’ve already caught a glimpse of Aussie actor Devon Terrell in the title role via previous teasers but here, Terrell commands the screen, delivering a performance that captures the rousing voice and even mannerisms of Barack Obama remarkably well.

As the Us president prepares to leave office on 20 January, Netflix has delved into his past for a biopic based around his life as a student at Columbia University. The Australian actor Devon Terrell plays the 20-year-old Obama in the film, which is directed by Vice on HBO host and documentarian Vikram Gandhi. Barry depicts Obama navigating questions of race and identity in America in the early 1980s.

• When Barack met Michelle: the presidential biopic as love story

Continue reading...

With the clock winding down on Barack Obama’s presidency, a new film promises to look back at where it all began. Vikram Gandhi‘s Barry is a portrait of Obama in his college years, with Devon Terrell playing the future Potus as a fresh-faced young man still figuring out his place in the world. Also starring are Anya Taylor-Joy (The […]

The post ‘Barry’ Trailer: A Portrait of the President as a Young Man appeared first on /Film.

"You a whole different type of brotha - you do realize that, right?" Netflix has unveiled the full trailer for the indie film Barry, telling another story about the early years of President Barack Obama. Barry is about "Barry" Obama during his college years, with an afro and everything, as played by Devon Terrell. Most of it takes place around New York City, as Obama was studying at Columbia University at the time. The cast includes Anya Taylor-Joy, Ashley Judd, Jenna Elfman, Ellar Coltrane, Jason Mitchell and John Benjamin Hickey. From the first teaser trailer, I mentioned that I didn't need to see anything else to be sold. This new trailer shows quite a bit, but I'm still into it - I really want to see this right away. Take a look. Here's the full official trailer (+ poster) for Vikram Gandhi's Barry, direct from Netflix's YouTube: A young Barack Obama,...

A young President Barack Obama battles racial profiling in the gripping first trailer for upcoming Netflix biopic Barry. The scene begins in 1981, when Obama is a junior at Columbia University. He gets targeted by a police officer on the streets of New York City. "You got some ID?" the cop asks, prompting the college student to stand up for himself: "I don't see you IDing them," he responds. "So what's so special about me, huh?"

The clip, set to Anthony Hamilton's surging "Soul's On Fire," portrays Obama as a frustrated student,...

Love it or hate it, we do have a new President-Elect. And with that comes a sad moment for Americans everywhere as they say good-bye to President Barack Obama. As Obama's presidency draws to a close, experience the inspired story of where it all began with the debut of the Netflix original film Barry on December 16, 2016. We have the full-length trailer, which debuted today.

Debuting at the 2016 Toronto Film Festival to critical acclaim, Barry is a nuanced, artistic exploration of a pivotal year in the life of the 44th President of the United States. A young Barack Obama, known to his friends as "Barry," arrives in New York City in the fall of 1981 to begin his junior year at Columbia University. His experiences over that pivotal school year lay the foundation for his views on race, government, and what it means to be an American.

Director Vikram Gandhi (Kumar&#233, HBO's Vice), a Columbia University alumni,...

Rest assured there will be many films to come about the current (and immediate future) political climate, but before they arrive, next month brings one about our current president. Following this summer’s Southside With You, Vikram Gandhi‘s Barry follows Barack Obama’s college days in New York City. With Devon Terrell taking the lead role, we now have a new trailer from Netflix which sells a promising, authentic drama.

We said in our review, “The racial tension in Adam Mansbach and Gandhi’s script is voyeuristic by simply, and smartly, showing us more than is explicitly said. Barry wants to be accepted, but he fears the path to acceptance will not come without major change in his country. He sees his brothers and sisters suffering daily, but is frustrated that he can’t do anything about it. A major decision for him would be to live outside of campus on West 109th,...

Step aside, “Southside With You,” there’s another fictionalized feature film about the life and times of young, pre-presidency Barack Obama on the way. Vikram Gandhi’s “Barry” takes place a few years before Richard Tanne’s recent release, which focused on the budding romance between twenty-something Barack and his future wife Michelle, but looks to dig into a just as essential time period in the eventual leader of the free world’s life.

“Barry” is set during the fall of 1981, when Obama — “Barry” to his friends — arrived in New York City to begin his junior year at Columbia University. Billed as a “nuanced, artistic exploration of a pivotal year in the life” of Obama, the film follows young Obama as he begins to grow into the person and politician he was meant to be, all set against the backdrop of a vibrant city and culture.

Read More: Watch Obama...

If, like many of us, you plan to stress about the election all day long, here’s a unique way to do it: live on Periscope, as the documentary “11/8/16” is made simultaneously by more than 40 filmmakers throughout the country. David Lowery, Eugene Jarecki and Yung Chang are among the many directors participating; watch their live-streaming efforts in real time here.

Read More: The Orchard’s ’11/8/16′ Is the Most Ambitious Election Day Documentary in History

“11/8/16” is a follow-up of sorts to “11/4/12,” which was likewise produced by Jeff Deutchman. “It’s a counter-programming to what everyone is going to be very anxiously following Tuesday,” said Deutchman in an interview held yesterday. “People are going to be checking the news all day and checking their social feeds, and I really like this idea of providing a third stream of content that that is more human and gives people the opportunity to step into other people’s shoes.

The election will be over in six days, but this cycle has been unprecedented in so many ways — most of them bad — that it’s likely to take years of hindsight and any number of books and movies to fully understand. Jeff Deutchman will start that process with “11/8/16,” a documentary he’s producing that will be directed by a huge group of directors that includes David Lowery, Lena Dunham and Yung Chang. The Orchard will both fund and produce the project, which is being executive produced by Dana O’Keefe, Brad Navin, Paul Davidson and Danielle Digiacomo.

Read More: Career Moves: Jeff Deutchman Leaves Alchemy, Bob Pilon Goes to Participant and More

More than 30 filmmakers total will document Election Day, from early morning until the polls close and the results are announced, in a follow-up to Deutchman’s earlier “11/4/08.” “This election has started to feel like it is testing the...

Two months ago, Richard Tanne’s poignant drama Southside With You chronicled the formative years of Barack Obama and his relationship with budding lawyer Michelle Robinson, who would later go on to become the First Lady of the United States. With Barry, Netflix is primed to turn back the clock further still, focusing on Obama’s life at Columbia University circa 1981.

Following a premiere at Tiff earlier in the year, the online streamer has now rolled out the first trailer for the upcoming biopic, placing Devon Terrell in the role of the future Potus. Vikram Gandhi is the director behind the lens, and this simple, stylish teaser captures the spirit of Obama’s college years without so much as a single line of dialogue. All in all, it’s a provocative peek into the archives, as Barry tackles issues of crime, a fractured nuclear family and racial discrimination just as...

Meet Barry. Netflix has unveiled an impressive 30-second teaser trailer for the other young Barack Obama film out this year, this one titled Barry. The other one is titled Southside with You, and profiles Barack's very first date with Michelle in Chicago. Barry is about "Barry" Obama during his college years, with an afro and everything, as played by newcomer Devon Terrell in the film. The cast includes Anya Taylor-Joy, Ashley Judd, Jenna Elfman, Ellar Coltrane, Jason Mitchell and John Benjamin Hickey. This sells me on the film completely and it's only 30 seconds and barely has any shots of Obama's face, just him walking around campus and New York, and I love it. Simple, sleek, good vibes, nice work Netflix. Check it. Here's the first teaser trailer for Vikram Gandhi's Barry, direct from Netflix's YouTube: A young Barack Obama, known to his friends as “Barry,” arrives in New York...

A young President Barack Obama explores New York City in the short, enticing teaser for Netflix's upcoming biopic titled Barry. The film is set in 1981 during Obama's junior year of college and follows him in various social spheres while also trying to maintain relationships with his Kansas-born mother and Kenyan father.

Set to Copywrite's soulful cut "Trouble," the clip shows Obama waiting for a graffiti-covered subway car, ascending the steps of Columbia University, walking around Harlem and Morningside Heights and entering a smoky club. While much of the Barry teaser...

Barry—the movie about a young Barack Obama that premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival earlier this year—has gotten its first teaser from Netflix. In this very brief look, we see the future president (played by newcomer Devon Terrell) walking through New York. Until the final moments, the footage comprises shots where only the back of his head is visible. As the accompanying text implies, the film follows pre-politician Obama when he was a new student at Columbia and going by Barry.

At Tiff, director Vikram Gandhi talked with The A.V. Club about “Obama nostalgia,” explaining: “There’s a feeling of, this is a decent human, like a good person being before being a great person.” The movie will be available to watch before the man in question leaves office. It will begin streaming December 16.

Earlier this year, Richard Tanne’s “Southside with You” premiered at the Sundance Film Festival to general acclaim. The film followed a young Barack Obama and a young Michelle Robinson in 1989 on their very first date. Now, the second film about Barack Obama’s younger life will soon be upon us: “Barry,” which follows Obama in his junior year at Columbia University in 1981, a pivotal year in the life of the future president when he developed his opinions about race, government and America. The film stars Devon Terrell as Obama in his debut acting performance. It co-stars Ashley Judd (“Double Jeopardy”), Jenna Elfman (“Friends With Benefits”, Anya Taylor-Joy (“The Witch”), Jason Mitchell (“Straight Outta Compton”), Ellar Coltrane (“Boyhood”) and more. Watch a teaser trailer for the film below.

Read More: ‘Barry’ Review: The Best Obama Biopic Yet, But Not the Whole Story — Toronto Review

The film is written by Adam Mansbach...

It took until his two terms were nearly up, but Barack Obama is finally getting the big-screen treatment. While the standard life-spanning biopic likely won’t arrive until there’s some perspective, in 2016, we’ve seen two films that take a specific look at a crucial part of his formative years. Southside With You, which was released this past August, is a surprisingly moving look at his first date with Michelle, then at Tiff, Vikram Gandhi‘s Barry premiered. Following his college days in New York City, Devon Terrell takes the lead role and now the first brief teaser has arrived ahead of a Netflix debut in December.

We said in our review, “The racial tension in Adam Mansbach and Gandhi’s script is voyeuristic by simply, and smartly, showing us more than is explicitly said. Barry wants to be accepted, but he fears the path to acceptance will not...

Netflix’s buying spree that started at the Toronto International Film Festival isn’t over yet. The streaming giant picked up another Tiff entry this week by acquiring worldwide rights to the romance-heist movie “Tramps” for a reported $2 million. The film had its world premiere on September 10 at Tiff, which wrapped on September 18.

Read More: Reports of a Weak Market Are Greatly Exaggerated: Tiff Acquisition Market Heats Up as Distributors Claim Hot Titles

Netflix’s acquisition of writer-director Adam Leon’s (“Gimme the Loot”) second film comes following the company’s purchase of worldwide rights to director Vikram Gandhi’s Barack Obama movie “Barry” for a reported $4.5 million last weekend. The company also bought U.S. and select international rights to the post-apocalyptic sci-fi movie “What Happened to Monday?” from director Tommy Wirkola. The streaming giant is expected to add additional Tiff titles in the coming weeks.

Netflix ended up...

During his college days in New York, Barack Obama used to be called “Barry.” At that point in time he hadn’t fully embraced his African American roots yet, but was headed towards a journey of self-discovery that would change him forever. That is at least what writer-director Vikram Gandhi tries to show us in compelling drama Barry, which captures the tumultuous first few college days of the future U.S. president at Columbia University.

This is the second film about Obama to arrive this year after the Sundance hit Southside With You, which took place around 10 years later in Chicago. In Barry, Devon Terrell – an uncanny lookalike delivering a great performance — plays Obama with all the features and characteristics that we have come to know of the 44th U.S. president. He doesn’t just deliver a good impersonation of a 22-year-old Obama, but gets the humanity right as well.

Netflix has acquired the worldwide rights to “Barry,” a film that stars Devon Terrell as young Barack Obama. The film, set in 1981 New York City, follows the future president as he navigates through college in a new city where he is faced with questions about race, culture and identity. “Barry” premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival on Sept. 10. It is produced and directed by Vikram Gandhi. Terrell previously starred in Steve McQueen‘s HBO pilot “Codes of Conduct.” See Video: Barack Obama Takes Hilarious Jab at Donald Trump on 'Tonight Show' “Barry” is a joint production between Black Bear Pictures and Cinetic.

Exclusive: Netflix has landed worldwide rights to Barry, the Vikram Gandhi-directed film that drew high praise at the Toronto Film Festival for actor Devon Terrell in his role as a young Barack Obama. This was a hot property and I’d heard several distributors chased it and Netflix went out in front with an initial bid said to be in the $4.5 million range, though I’m not sure what the final price is. Set in 1981 in New York City, the fact-inspired pic revolves around a…...

Barry premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival this past weekend, putting forth a Barack Obama we’re not quite used to seeing. For one, as the title indicates, he goes by “Barry” rather than “Barack.” And while he’s still a charmer, he lacks self-assuredness. That’s because Vikram Gandhi’s film checks in on its hero (Devon Terrell) when he is newly arrived in New York and starting at Columbia, trying to figure out just where he fits in the school, the city, and the world at large. It’s not an explanation of how he became the president; instead, it’s an exploration of race and identity using one young man with a white mother from Kansas and a black Kenyan father as an entry point for those discussions.

Barry happens to be the second young Barack Obama movie that’s premiered at a festival this year...

Vikram Gandhi’s college years biopic is a plotless yet compelling look at a nascent power, with a startling good central performance

“Where are you from?” is usually a simple question to answer. For Columbia University transfer student Barry, it means a deep breath followed by a lot of explaining. Mostly Honolulu, he’ll say, but also some years in Indonesia, where his white mother from Kansas still lives while the black father he barely knows is over in Kenya. New to New York, Barry (the film) is about Barry the man figuring out just who exactly he wants to be.

There’s the commonly cited cinematic theory from Alfred Hitchcock, which differentiates surprise from suspense. An unseen bomb under a table explodes brings surprise, but if the audience knows it is there and watches it tick, it creates the setting for suspense. We in the audience know this good...

In one of the last scenes of director Vikram Gandhi’s “Barry,” the title character (played by Devon Terrell) sits in a sand trap at the ritzy country club where his girlfriend’s family is hosting a wedding. Barry’s still in shock from the news he’s just gotten about his absentee father, who has died unexpectedly in […]

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There are so many reasons for the movies’ recent fascination with Barack Obama’s formative years — this summer saw the release of “Southside With You,” a chintzy rom-com that chronicled Obama’s idyllic first date with his future wife — but chief among them is the feeling that he’s the first modern President who feels like a real person. Which is not to say that Bill Clinton is an android or that George W. Bush is (necessarily) a stack of hay that’s been stuffed into a business suit and enchanted by a vengeful wizard, but that Obama came to lead America in large part because he is America, a one-man melting pot whose vagabond life was driven towards a singular destiny. He knows what it means to be an outsider in this country, to be rejected for attempting to make good on the promise of his homeland. He did drugs.