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As its nonsensical title might imply, Elaine Epstein’s Arrest the Midwife centers on the plight of three certified professional midwives who, after the death of a newborn, find themselves in the crosshairs of their local authorities in upstate New York, one of only 11 states where midwifery is either illegal or highly restricted. (NYC midwives might consider moving to progressive Alabama.) And while the tale is quite harrowing, it’s also unexpectedly empowering. For what the (male) police and prosecutors didn’t quite bargain for […]

The post “… The Visual Approach of the Documentary is Deeply Influenced by Amish and Mennonite Norms”: Elaine Epstein on her SXSW-Premiering Arrest the Midwife first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.

As its nonsensical title might imply, Elaine Epstein’s Arrest the Midwife centers on the plight of three certified professional midwives who, after the death of a newborn, find themselves in the crosshairs of their local authorities in upstate New York, one of only 11 states where midwifery is either illegal or highly restricted. (NYC midwives might consider moving to progressive Alabama.) And while the tale is quite harrowing, it’s also unexpectedly empowering. For what the (male) police and prosecutors didn’t quite bargain for […]

The post “… The Visual Approach of the Documentary is Deeply Influenced by Amish and Mennonite Norms”: Elaine Epstein on her SXSW-Premiering Arrest the Midwife first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.

Canada’s Hot Docs documentary festival has wrapped its 31st edition in Toronto (May 5) and named Yintah the winner of its Rogers Audience Award for Best Canadian Documentary.

The award, whose winner is determined by an audience poll, comes with a cash prize of Cad 50,000.

Directed by Jennifer Wickham, Brenda Michell and Michael Toledano, Yintah is about the efforts of the Canadian First Nation Wet’suwet’en people to resist the construction of pipelines across their territory.

On Friday evening (May 3) Hot Docs announced the prize winners from its official competition line-up (full list below).

The festival’s Best Canadian Feature Documentary Award,...

Elaine Epstein says that winning Hot Docs Forum’s top First Look prize of Can $20,000 cash for her film “Arrest the Midwife” is a “game changer.”

The project, which has been on a close to year-long hiatus, will now finally be able to resume due to the award.

“The last money we raised was 10 months ago,” Epstein said. “So it’s been a while. We raised money and then things stopped.”

“Arrest the Midwife” was one of 20 projects presented to key funders and decision-makers as well as filmmakers, producers and other observers at the 25th edition of the two-day Forum pitch event.

Produced through Epstein’s Underdog Films (U.S.), with producer Robin Hessman and executive producer Ruth Ann Harnisch, the doc chronicles the arrest of three midwives serving Amish and Mennonite communities. When a Mennonite baby died after being attended to by a homebirth midwife, an unprecedented legal drama ensued.

Elaine Epstein’s Arrest The Midwife won the top prize at 25th edition of Hot Docs Forum after decision-makers, funders and filmmakers considered 20 pitches in the two-day event in Toronto.

The project, which looks at how the arrest of three midwives serving Amish and Mennonite communities encourages an unlikely group of activists to join the fight for reproductive rights, won Cad 20,000.

In total Hot Docs said more than Cad 47,000 was handed out at the festival’s international co-financing market event, including Cad 35,000 in first look Pitch Prizes, and the Cad 10,000 Cmf-Hot Docs Forum Canadian Pitch Prize, presented in partnership with the Canada Media Fund.

The Hot Docs Forum, the festival’s industry centerpiece, wrapped Wednesday with its most lively awards announcements in recent memory—complete with flamenco guitar, song and dance courtesy of Spain, this year’s country in focus—as hundreds of industry delegates assembled under the sun in the courtyard of Toronto’s Hart House.

Elaine Epstein’s “Arrest the Midwife”—one of 20 projects presented to key funders and decision-makers as well as filmmakers, producers and other observers at the two-day Forum pitch event—won the First Look first prize of Can $20,000 cash. Produced through Epstein’s Underdog Films (U.S.), with producers Robin Hessman and Ruth Ann Harnisch, the film follows the arrest of three midwives serving Amish and Mennonite communities, which spurs an unlikely group of activists to join the fight for reproductive rights.

First Look is a curated access program for philanthropic supporters of and investors in documentary film.

Eleven documentary projects from six countries have been selected for the Intl. Documentary Assn.’s annual Enterprise Documentary Fund Production Grant.

Selected from 248 applicants, the 15 directors behind the 11 docus will receive a total of 600,000 in production grants.

Established in 2017, the IDA Enterprise Documentary Fund supports in-depth explorations of original, contemporary stories that integrate journalistic practice into the filmmaking process. The fund is financially supported by John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, with additional support from the Jonathan Logan Family Foundation. In its six-year history, the fund has given over 4.5 million in grant money to nonfiction filmmakers.

The 11 selected projects are currently in production in six countries: Armenia, Ethiopia, India, Japan, Russia and the United States. Of the 15 directors behind the docs, 70 are filmmakers of color, 70 are women or gender-non-conforming filmmakers, and 40 identify as members of the LGBTQ community.

The docus explore various topics, including the climate crisis, Japan’s antiquated rape laws and institutions,...

U.S. filmmaker Paul Devlin's Power Trip has picked up the award for best international feature-length documentary at the Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Festival, which wrapped Sunday after a 10-day run. The documentary about efforts by a U.S. power company to keep the lights on in the Republic of Georgia amid the rubble of the Soviet collapse grabbed the jury prize at the Berlin Film Festival. The Hot Docs jury also gave a special award to State of Denial, U.S. filmmaker Elaine Epstein's portrayal of South Africans living with the AIDS epidemic amid confusion and neglect by their government. The jury prize for best Canadian feature documentary went to John Kastner's Rage Against the Darkness.

Director Ben Coccio's Zero Day took the Grand Jury prize for best narrative feature, worth $100,000 in goods and services, at the Orlando-based Florida Film Festival, which concluded Sunday. The audience award for best narrative feature went to Never Get Outta the Boat, directed by Paul Quinn. The Grand Jury prize for best documentary was presented to Paul Devlin's Power Trip, while Elaine Epstein's State of Deniel took home the audience award for best documentary. Among narrative shorts, Paul Gutrecht's The Vest won both the Grand Jury award and the Audience Award. Vance Malone's Ocularist earned the Grand Jury award for best documentary short, while Alex Budovsky's Bathtime in Clerkenwell won the Grand Jury award for animated short. Special jury awards were also presented to Greg Pak's Robot Stories, Jonathan Karsh's My Flesh and Blood, PES's Roofsex, and Shane Sauer's Voyage of the Kitty Kuku. The narrative features jury was comprised of Raymond De Felitta, Dave Karger, and Diana Williams. The documentary competition jurors were Alan Berliner, Mary Litkovich, and Kelly M. DeVine. The shorts jury was comprised of Michael Ellenbogen, Laura Levine, and Stephen Schaefer. The student works jurors were Tracy Frenkel, Leslie Halpern, and Katrinka VanDeventer.