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Reiner Holzemer’s captivating Thom Browne: The Man Who Tailors Dreams (a highlight of the 15th edition of Doc NYC) presents the designer as a sartorial caster of spells who changed the proportions of one ubiquitous garment, the gray suit, and thus shifted persuasively ideas of masculinity, femininity, and power in a puckish way. Suddenly the length of trousers that seemed stately not so long ago, feels gangly and sloppy, and while associations with Gregory Peck in Nunnally Johnson’s 1956 post-war drama The Man In The Gray Flannel Suit still match, so do the short pants of children of an earlier era, with the demands of adulthood suspended.

Browne’s partner, Andrew Bolton, the curator in charge of the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Costume Institute, comments in connection with the February 2022 fashion show centered on The Little Prince, how the work is “poised on the bridge...

Documentaries centered around the fashion world — in particular, the often-enigmatic designers that power it — have become a powerful subgenre in the nonfiction space for a decade and more.

Designer Thom Browne has long been admired as an American classic, but has more recently become a red carpet fixture and the object of obsession of Hollywood’s A-list. Two-plus decades after his very short pants suit provided a menswear companion to the iconic Dvf wrap dress, Browne is seemingly everywhere — from the kitchens of “The Bear” to the ubiquitous stairs of the Met Gala.

This year marks his own turn in the doc seat with “Thom Browne: The Man Who Tailors Dreams,” which premiered as a special presentation for last week’s DocNYC film festival. The film, currently seeking distribution, is directed by Reiner Holzemer. No stranger to the high fashion world, Holzemer has turned in nonfiction projects on designers Dries Van Noten and Martin Margiela.

The proliferation of documentaries, television series and feature movies about fashion brands and designers is a testimony of the powerful omnipresence that fashion has asserted in contemporary culture. It is a blessing and a curse.

Fashion has never been so dangerously popular and ubiquitous in our lives; that is not a surprise, considering that the richest people in the world are members of fashion elites — the Arnault, the Pinault, the Prada, to say a few — and that fashion designers like Marc Jacobs and Kim Kardashian live the well-documented life of princes and princesses, in golden cages and ivory towers. Everybody wants to be a designer, a stylist, a celebrity dressed in fashionable clothes who gets a ticket into the Met Gala.

It was not always like that. For centuries, a career in fashion was not the most popular choice, in particular growing up 50 years ago in the American province, in...

Cinematographer Michael Crommett (a Doc NYC 40 Under 40 honoree) with music producer and 99 Records founder Ed Bahlman and Anne-Katrin Titze on photographer Dan Winters: “Dan was a central part of this Nat Geo [Photographer] series that I shot.”

2024 Doc NYC early highlights include the Opening Night World Premiere of Sinead O’Shea’s impassioned Blue Road: The Edna O’Brien Story, plus world premieres of Dorenna Newton’s insightful Watching Frank (with Gay Talese on Frank Sinatra); Reiner Holzemer’s spellbinding Thom Browne: The Man Who Tailors Dreams; Rex Miller’s unrelenting Harley Flanagan: Wired For Chaos, and the New York première of Dori Berinstein’s socially relevant A Man With Sole: The Impact Of Kenneth Cole.

Gay Talese (at home with Anne-Katrin Titze) on Frank Sinatra in Dorenna Newton’s Watching Frank: "Even if I had reservations, as I did about Sinatra, I certainly had great respect for Sinatra.

In Thom Browne: The Man Who Tailors Dreams, German documentarian Reiner Holzemer, whose recent work has included films on the fashion houses of Dries Van Noten and Martin Margiela, tackles a designer with an instantly recognizable aesthetic but an aversion to introspection. That makes Browne a somewhat distant subject, an enigma, as one friend and colleague describes him. He prefers to keep the creative spark tucked away inside his head and let his garments speak for themselves.

But wow, can those clothes talk. In workrooms and especially in extensive footage of runway shows that freely mix the oneiric with the whimsical — all of it coordinated down to the most minute detail — this great-looking doc spotlights collections that fuse impeccable construction with eccentricity and cheeky humor to beguiling effect.

Holzemer seems aware of the potential imbalance between personal and professional access, which makes it a smart strategy to begin by blitzing...

Exclusive: Doc NYC today unveiled its main slate for the 15th anniversary of America’s biggest documentary festival, a lineup that includes 31 world premieres and 24 U.S. premieres.

The festival, running from November 13-21 in Manhattan (and continuing online until Dec. 1) will open with the U.S. premiere of Blue Road – The Edna O’Brien Story, directed by Sinead O’Shea, a portrait of the acclaimed Irish writer who died in July at the age of 93. Closing the festival on Nov. 21 will be the world premiere of Drop Dead City – New York on the Brink in 1975, directed by Peter Yost and Michael Rohatyn, “a look back at the circumstances and players involved in NYC’s mid-70s financial crisis.” (The film’s title refers to a legendary headline in the New York Daily News reporting on then-Pres. Ford’s promise in October 1975 to veto any federal bailout of the Big Apple...

Dogwoof has boarded international sales for “Thom Browne: The Man Who Fell to Earth,” the first feature documentary about the fashion designer. Dogwoof will present the film to buyers in Cannes this month.

“Thom Browne: The Man Who Fell to Earth,” a working title, marks Dogwoof’s third collaboration with director Reiner Holzemer and producer Aminata Sambe following 2016’s “Dries,” an intimate portrait of the fashion designer Dries Van Noten, and 2019’s “Martin Margiela: In His Own Words,” about one of the most revolutionary and influential fashion designers of his time.

“Thom Browne: The Man Who Fell to Earth” follows the ascent to fashion stardom of Browne, whose career is based on the unconventional single concept of the tailored gray suit. His fashion line has garnered A-list collaborators and fans on the way such as Michelle Obama, Billie Eilish, Zendaya, Cardi B and David Bowie, who famously wore Browne’s...

Mubi has announced its lineup of streaming offerings for next month, including a series on first films featuring David Cronenberg’s Stereo, Kelly Reichardt’s River of Grass, Jerzy Skolimowski’s Identification Marks: None, Fatih Akın’s Short Sharp Shock, Panos Cosmatos’ Beyond the Black Rainbow, and, with Mubi’s theatrical release of her new film Alcarràs, Carla Simón’s Summer 1993.

Additional highlights include Mathieu Amalric’s Hold Me Tight starring Vicky Krieps, Sundance favorites with films from Sean Baker, Lynn Shelton, Tom Noonan, and Andrew Bujalski, plus works from Nicolas Roeg, Claude Chabrol, and Aftersun director Charlotte Wells.

Check out the lineup below and get 30 days free here.

January 1 – Stereo, directed by David Cronenberg | First Films First

January 2 – Short Sharp Shock, directed by Fatih Akın | First Films First

January 3 – River of Grass, directed by Kelly Reichardt | First Films First

January 4 – Identification Marks: None, directed by Jerzy Skolimowski | First Films...

Though their “’80s Horror” lineup would constitute enough of a Halloween push, the Criterion Channel enter October all guns blazing. The month’s lineup also includes a 19-movie vampire series running from 1931’s Dracula (English and Spanish both) to 2014’s A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night, the collection in-between including Herzog’s Nosferatu, Near Dark, and Let the Right One In. Last year’s “Universal Horror” collection returns, a 17-title Ishirō Honda retrospective has been set, and a few genre titles stand alone: Hush…Hush, Sweet Charlotte, The House of the Devil, and Island of Lost Souls.

Streaming premieres include restorations of Tsai Ming-liang’s Vive L’amour and Ed Lachman’s Lou Reed / John Cale concert film Songs for Drella; October’s Criterion editions are Samuel Fuller’s Forty Guns, Bill Duke’s Deep Cover, Haxan, and My Own Private Idaho. Meanwhile, Ari Aster has curated an “Adventures...

New German titles, festival favourites and a Ukrainian competition,

Ruben Östlund’s Palme d’Or winner Triangle Of Sadness heads the festival favourites that will screen at the 30th anniversary edition of Filmfest Hamburg later this month.

It will be joined by Cannes title Cristian Mungiu’s R.M.N., as well as local Hamburg filmmaker Helena Wittmann’s Human Flowers Of Flesh , Kilian Riedhof’s You Will Not Have My Hate and Ann Oren’s Piaffe, which all premiered at Locarno, and Venice titles Martin McDonagh’s The Banshees Of Inisherin, Jafar Panahi’s No Bears, Houman Seyedi’s World War III,...

Hans-Christian Schmid’s ’We Are Next of Kin’ to open German festival.

Filmfest Hamburg has lined up world premieres of films by Fatih Akin, Hans-Christian Schmid and Alrun Goette for its 30th anniversary edition, which runs from September 29 to October 8.

Golden Bear-winner Akin’s biopic of the German rapper and label boss Xatar, Rheingold, starring this year’s European Shooting Star Emilio Sakraya, will have its first screening on the director’s home turf in Hamburg.

Schmid’s adaptation of Johann Scheerer’s autobiographical novel We Are Next Of Kin, which chronicles the kidnapping of Scheerer’s literary scholar and...

Cinema numbers are shrinking again as Covid-19 cases rise across Europe.

France, opening Wednesday October 14

It has been a complicated few days for French distributors and exhibitors following the introduction of a night-time curfew from Saturday night in Paris and eight other major cities, as part of measures to slow the spread of Covid-19.

The measure, which obliges people to return home by 9pm, effectively wipes out key evening screening slots although exhibitors are lobbying the government for a special dispensation for cinemagoers. A final decision was expected late Friday or over the weekend, but if the answer is ‘no...

Martin Margiela has built an empire out of mystery, both in terms of his work as an iconoclastic fashion designer and his reclusive identity as an artist. Instead, Margiela, whose face is not publicly known, has let his bracing collections do the talking. Since the 1980s, through his couture house Maison Margiela, he has turned out wearable avant-garde pieces made from unconventional materials with a legacy of deconstructing the basic grammar of fashion to make outspoken art. Reiner Holzemer’s new documentary, “Martin Margiela: In His Own Words,” doesn’t reveal Margiela’s identity, nor does it break the mold for nonfiction filmmaking. While Margiela’s visions likely deserve a more radical treatment onscreen,

Margiela technically left the fashion house he founded in 2009, but his vision has been carried on by his successors in occasional runway appearances and around the world in the brick-and-mortars housing the ready-to-wear Margiela line. The documentary shows how Margiela,...

An industry as overtly image-based as fashion design is always going to produce instantly recognizable stars. But as proven by Reiner Holzemer’s intelligent, enjoyable if uncritical “Martin Margiela: In His Own Words,” in those cases, the figure of the designer can eclipse the design. Think of Vivienne Westwood, and we think of her Elizabeth-i-safety-pinned-to-Sid-Vicious vibe; of Tom Ford and it’s how his immaculate stubble often outguns his doubtless terrifyingly suave suit. But Martin Margiela, whose legacy, the film will convince you, is next to unparalleled, has never publicly shown his face. It gives Holzemer’s talking-head-based approach its most inspired creative limitation.

After an apprenticeship with Jean Paul Gaultier in the late ’80s, the Belgian-born Margiela co-founded his atelier, Maison Martin Margiela, in 1988 with business partner Jenny Meirens. Very quickly, their controversial shows, staged in parking lots, under bridges and in Salvation Army stores, showcasing Margiela’s brilliantly eccentric design ethos,...

You may have heard his name uttered by Kanye West or Migos in songs but Martin Margiela isn’t necessarily a household name when it comes to fashion — but it should be. One of the most elusive designers in the fashion industry, there are barely any photos of him on the internet, but his work speaks for itself. In the Oscilloscope documentary, Martin Margiela: In His Own Words, filmmaker Reiner Holzemer takes us behind the scenes of the career of the titular avant-garde.

With the docu, Margiela breaks his no-interview policy and aversion to being in the public eye as Holzemer puts the spotlight on the “Banksy of fashion”. He worked as Jean Paul Gaultier’s assistant and was the creative director at Hermès before he started his own fashion house. For the first time, Margiela reveals his drawings, notes, and personal items in this intimate profile of his vision...

Selection includes Sundance, Berlinale and Rotterdam award-winners.

The Sarajevo Film Festival (August 14-21) has revealed the 15 features selected for its Kinoscope strand, including award-winners from Sundance, the Berlinale and Rotterdam.

Scroll down for full lineup

Titles include South Korea’s The Woman Who Ran, which won the Silver Bear in Berlin for director Hong Sangsoo, and Shirley, starring Elisabeth Moss, which won the Auteur Filmmaking award at Sundance for director Josephine Decker.

Cannes 2020 label title Garagine, which proved one of the buzziest arthouse titles at the virtual Marche du Film, has also been selected as well as South Korea’s Beasts Clawing At Straws,...

As Oscilloscope Laboratories’ Dan Berger says, “Documentary….but make it fashion.” O-scope is set to send innovative fashion designer Martin Margiela down the cinematic runway. The company founded by Beastie Boys member Adam Yauch has acquired the North American rights to the documentary Martin Margiela: In His Own Words which puts the spotlight on the elusive Belgian designer. O-scope will release the feature later this year.

Directed by Reiner Holzemer, the docu premiered at 2019 Doc NYC. The film features interviews with Margiela — a man who almost never appeared in public let alone talked to press. From Jean Paul Gaultier’s assistant to creative director at Hermes to leading his own brand, stayed considerably hidden as he reinvented fashion with his radical style for over twenty years through 41 provocative collections. His pieces are defined by a tag that features a grid of numbers and he has been dubbed the “Banksy of...

Oscilloscope has swooped for U.S. rights to a feature documentary on mysterious fashion designer Martin Margiela from doc specialist Dogwoof.

The elusive Belgian designer, considered the “Banksy of fashion” because he never appears in public, is known for rising in the ranks from Jean Paul Gaultier’s assistant to creative director at Hermes and ultimately to an independent designer with a fashion house of his own.

In the film, Margiela unveils drawings, notes and personal items, providing a glimpse into his vision and career.

In addition to Oscilloscope, the Reiner Holzemer-directed “Martin Margiela: In His Own Worlds” has been sold into Non Stop (Scandinavia), Dalton (Benelux) and Hajunsa (South Korea) for theatrical and home entertainment. Previously announced sales include Uplink (Japan), Pioneer (Cis) and DDDream (China).

Elsewhere, the London-based distributor has also sold “The Queen of Versailles” director Lauren Greenfield’s feature doc “Kingmaker” into German-speaking Europe with...

Director Reiner Holzemer’s new documentary, Martin Margiela: In His Own Words, is the third film chronicling the 62-year-old Belgian designer who made his name by turning fashion’s tide from overt glamour to a dark, rough-hewn aesthetic — a gentler interpretation of the deconstructed method fashion designer Rei Kawakubo pioneered with her avant-garde brand, Comme des Garçons. That all happened back in the mid-nineties when, amidst pre-stylist Hollywood (when celebrities actually bought their own clothes), Margiela generated a genuine following. Cher, Gwyneth Paltrow, Amanda Peet and photographer-director Floria Sigismondi were among the designer’s high-profile fans, as cutting-edge Los ...

Director Reiner Holzemer’s new documentary, Martin Margiela: In His Own Words, is the third film chronicling the 62-year-old Belgian designer who made his name by turning fashion’s tide from overt glamour to a dark, rough-hewn aesthetic — a gentler interpretation of the deconstructed method fashion designer Rei Kawakubo pioneered with her avant-garde brand, Comme des Garçons. That all happened back in the mid-nineties when, amidst pre-stylist Hollywood (when celebrities actually bought their own clothes), Margiela generated a genuine following. Cher, Gwyneth Paltrow, Amanda Peet and photographer-director Floria Sigismondi were among the designer’s high-profile fans, as cutting-edge Los ...

Thom Powers on Daniel Roher’s Once Were Brothers: Robbie Robertson and the Band; Eva Orner’s Bikram: Yogi, Guru, Predator, and Ebs Burnough’s The Capote Tapes on Truman Capote via George Plimpton: “The films that we choose for Opening Night, Centerpiece, and Closing Night, are films that we want to give a big bright spotlight to.” Photo: Anne-Katrin Titze

In the second part of my conversation at Cinépolis Chelsea with Doc NYC Artistic Director Thom Powers, we discussed juxtapositions such as Reiner Holzemer’s Martin Margiela: In His Own Words, Todd Hughes and P David Ebersole’s House of Cardin with the Pierre Cardin: Future Fashion exhibition at the Brooklyn Museum; nature in the Short List programme with John Chester’s The Biggest Little Farm, Ljubomir Stefanov and Tamara Kotevska’s Honeyland, and Mark Deebles and Victoria Stone’s The Elephant Queen; identity with Elegance Bratton...

The story of Martin Margiela will be traced in “Without Compromise,” a new feature doc that is being made with the cooperation of the influential Belgian fashion designer. Margiela changed the fashion world. He was part of the avante-garde Antwerp movement and founded the Maison Margiela fashion house.

Film-meets-fashion project “Without Compromise” is in production for a 2019 release. It will be the first doc on the complete career of Margiela, a man so elusive and private that no official photograph has ever been released and who has been dubbed “the fashion world’s answer to Banksy.”

The feature comes from Reiner Holzemer, whose previous work includes “Dries,” the film about designer Dries Van Noten. That was sold by Dogwoof, which has also boarded “Without Compromise.” It will present the project to buyers at Cannes.

Aminata Sambe is producing the Margiela film. “Dogwoof has an incomparable slate of world-class quality documentaries...

Drama deals from day one and two.

Keeping Up With The Kardashians producers plot Pele scripted series

Us outfit Bunim/Murray Productions, the company behind reality show Keeping Up With The Kardashians, is plotting a limited series based on the life of Brazilian football icon Pelé.

Read more Miptv: First Cannes TV festival named ‘Cannes Series’

Mbc Group, Image Nation partner on Hwjn feature, series

Middle East-based companies O3 Productions (part of Mbc Group) and Image Nation are partnering on a series of adaptations of Ibraheem Abbas’ novel Hwjn.

The two companies will co-produce and co-finance an Arabic-language feature film, a TV spin-off title The Delusionists, and are plotting two further TV series based on the novel, details of which will be announced at a later date.

Former Sony boss launches drama outfit with UK’s Drg

Howard Stringer

Former Sony CEO Howard Stringer is teaming with British television group Drg to launch a company focused on high-end...

Exclusive: Documentary company closes sales on 78/52, Dries, and Citizen Jane: Battle For The City.

UK documentary specialists Dogwoof has racked up a series of deals on its European Film Market slate.

Alexandre O. Phillippe’s 78/52, which Dogwoof acquired in Sundance, has gone to Scandinavia (Non Stop Entertainment) and Spain (A Contracorriente). The film is a close-up look at Alfred Hitchock’s iconic shower scene from Psycho and had its Efm market premiere on Friday (Feb 10).

Reiner Holzemer’s Dries, an intimate portrait of the fashion designer Dries Van Noten, has gone to: Japan (New Select), Hong Kong (Edo), Belgium (Dalton); Australia and New Zealand (Madman); with an in-flight world deal (excluding United Kingdom and Australia) signed with Jaguar.

Matt Tynauer’s Citizen Jane: Battle For The City, the story of journalist and activist Jane Jacobs and her battles with New York town planner Robert Moses, has sold to: Hong Kong (Edko); Commonwealth of Independent States (Beat Films); Italy...