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White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany said that she “naively” believed some of CNN’s headlines in 2015 when she called out Donald Trump’s comments about Mexican immigrants as “racist.”

In a press briefing on Friday, PBS Newshour’s Yamiche Alcindor asked McEnany about her prior disparaging remarks about Trump, made as he was starting his presidential campaign.

“For about the first four weeks of the election, I was watching CNN and I was naively believing some of the headlines I saw on CNN,” McEnany said.

She said that she was not going to read the headlines, but added, “I very quickly came around to supporting the president. CNN hired me. I was on many eight one one panels where I proudly supported this president, who I think is one of the best presidents, if not the best president this country will ever have.”

On Thursday, CNN’s K File aired her prior comments.

There was a time in America when an immigrant was allowed to hold a key position in U.S. foreign policy, a time when another woman—wearing a hijab—was granted daily access to classified information in the White House.

That time was two years ago.

Just how dramatically American political norms have changed since President Obama left office becomes apparent in the HBO documentary The Final Year, directed by Greg Barker. The film, now in contention for Emmy nominations, tracks the last 12 months of Obama’s term.

“Personally it was extraordinary to see the government at work at that level, up close,” Barker tells Deadline. “I don’t think I’ll ever have a professional experience that parallels what it was like to make that film.”

Barker persuaded some key players in the administration to participate in The Final Year: Secretary of State John Kerry; National Security Advisor Susan Rice; Samantha Power,...

Feel free to take a seat, because Shaq and Joe Biden are here to read you some poems. In honor of National Poetry Month, PBS member station Wgbh and American Public Television will be premiering a 12-part television event that celebrates poetry through special readings and in-depth conversations. The series, which is called “Poetry in America,” will be hosted by Harvard University professor Elisa New and features individuals like U2 lead vocalist Bono, shoe designer Stuart Weitzman, former United Nations Ambassador Samantha Power, U.S. Senator John McCain, hip-hop artist Nas, singer/songwriter Regina Spektor, former President Bill Clinton, and “The New York Times” opinion columnist David Brooks.

Each episode will focus on a different poem and will feature various individuals reflecting on its history, social relevance, artistic value, and personal meanings. Scheduled poems include Carl Sandburg’s “Skyscraper,” Emily Dickinson’s “I Cannot Dance Opon My Toes,” and Langston Hughes’ “Harlem.

The Final Year Magnolia Pictures/HBO Documentary Films Director: Greg Baker Screenwriter: Greg Baker Cast: Barack Obama, John Kerry, Samantha Power, Ben Rhodes Screened at: Review 1, NYC, 1/4/18 Opens: January 19, 2018 The choice made by Greg Baker, who handles the direction of “The Final Year,” to end this film with the Bob Dylan song […]

The post The Final Year Movie Review appeared first on Shockya.com.

The former Us ambassador and Obama adviser on life after the Oval Office, Hillary’s ‘victory party’, and her role in new documentary The Final Year

Samantha Power, 47, was a special adviser to President Obama on foreign affairs and human rights before becoming Us ambassador to the Un in 2013. Prior to her frontline involvement in politics she had been a war reporter, Pulitzer prize-winning author, and professor of global leadership and foreign policy at Harvard. She has a lead role in The Final Year, a forthcoming fly-on-the-wall film documentary about the last 12 months of Obama’s administration.

It was quite emotional for me as an outsider to watch The Final Year – I can’t imagine how it must feel for you. When did you first get to see it?

I saw versions of it as early as last spring. But then, I was more looking at it with an eye to “Oh my God,...

Remember January – that traditional time in the movigoing calendar when all the studios seize on the post-holiday, post-awards-deadline lull to unload their least-desirable properties? Still, that does not mean there isn't some wheat among the waves of chaff – for example, a Cannes-approved award-winner, an all-business thriller from a cult favorite, a blaxploitation throwback and a glimpse into Russian insanity that sets the Weirdest Documentary of the Year bar high. Here's what you'll be seeing at a theater near you this month.

A Ciambra (Jan. 26th)

In the Calabria region in the south of Italy,...

“The Final Year” Director Greg Barker and star/Ambassador Samantha Power “Each individual (watching “The Final Year”) seems to have a different ratio of depressed-nostalgic on the one hand and inspired-activated on the other ” former U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Ambassador Power said at a screening of the much-anticipated doc at Neuehouse on Monday night. The doc covers President Obama’s foreign policy team’s globe-trotting race to the finish of their administration, mainly before the shock election result. Power flew in from Boston to address an intimate audience who got an early look at the film. , producer Julie Goldman,...

There was really only one rule filmmaker Greg Barker had to follow while shadowing the Obama administration’s senior officials for “The Final Year”: no classified material.

That was actually pretty easy to follow, considering neither he nor his crew had the clearance to be in the room when classified information was being discussed.

“The rules were actually pretty straightforward,” Barker said at a Q&A following a screening of his film at the International Documentary Association’s annual screening series. “The rules were you can’t show classified material, but it’s not really a problem because they’re not allowed to — none of us have security clearance, so they can’t really bring it into a room…it was never really an issue. And that was basically it, because they knew it had to feel authentic.”

For “The Final Year,” Barker followed Secretary of State John Kerry, Ambassador to the United Nations Samantha Power, and Deputy National Security advisor/senior staffer Ben Rhodes beginning in September 2015 as they embarked on their final year of work for President Obama (who also appears frequently throughout the film). And yes — most of the people involved, including Kerry, Power, Rhodes, and Obama himself, have seen the film.

In fact, Power and Rhodes were present when “The Final Year” debuted at the Toronto International Film Festival, and Barker said the crowd’s reaction was very emotional to watch.

“They have not spoken much publicly, so seeing the reaction when they came out afterwards was just incredibly emotional, very emotional,” he said. “So I think it’s very gratifying for them to see it with a public audience in particular.”

The film would play very differently if Hillary Clinton had been elected president instead of Donald Trump, but the fact that much of the work the team completes during the final year of their tenure would wind up undone a year later adds another layer to the film. There’s what audiences see play out in the film, and there’s what they know will play out a year later.

“I’ve never made a film that plays like this plays. It seems to me like there’s two narratives going on. There’s the narrative of the film, and then every week there’s a new scene that resonates in a different way for me,” he says, adding, “It speaks to the moment that we’re living in.”...

Bill Cunningham's last interview is in Antonio Lopez 1970: Sex Fashion & Disco Photo: Anne-Katrin Titze

Greg Barker's The Final Year (documenting members of Barack Obama's administration, including Ambassador to the United Nations Samantha Power, Secretary of State John Kerry and speechwriter Ben Rhodes in 2016) opened Doc NYC last night. Tiffany Bartok's Larger Than Life: The Kevyn Aucoin Story (with Paulina Porizkova, Kate Moss, Brooke Shields, Cher, Isabella Rossellini, Naomi Campbell, Isaac Mizrahi, Tori Amos, Christy Turlington, Linda Evangelista, Linda Wells); James Crump's Antonio Lopez 1970: Sex Fashion & Disco (Jessica Lange, Grace Jones, Jerry Hall, Juan Ramos, Yves Saint Laurent, Donna Jordan, Karl Lagerfeld, Grace Coddington, Bob Colacello, Bill Cunningham); Bobbi Jo Hart's Rebels on Pointe, and Samuel D Pollard's Sammy Davis, Jr.: I've Gotta Be Me are four more of this year's Doc NYC highlights.

Larger Than Life: The Kevyn Aucoin Story

Larger Than Life: The Kevyn Aucoin Story...

Opening this edition’s Doc NYC on November 9th is Greg Barker’s The Final Year, a truly up-close-and-personal, behind-the-scenes look at the Obama administration and its foreign policy team during its last 12 months. To say that Barker gained unprecedented access to the president’s men (and one woman) during that period is an understatement. The veteran documentarian (Homegrown: The Counter-Terror Dilemma, Manhunt: The Inside Story of the Hunt for Bin Laden, etc.) managed to shadow three heavyweight insiders — Secretary of State John Kerry, Ambassador to the United Nations Samantha Power, and “Assistant to the President and Deputy National Security Advisor […]...

At the San Francisco Film Society’s Doc Stories, Samantha Power — aka President Barack Obama’s U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations — is a true star. “What a crowd,” she tweeted after a rousing standing ovation for Greg Barker’s HBO documentary “The Final Year,” which features her as part of Obama’s foreign policy team. “Huge thanks to SFFilm Doc Stories & to an incredibly engaged San Francisco audience who saw @thefinalyeardoc not as a retrospective, but as a call to action.”

The third annual Doc Stories (Nov. 2-5) was a rich weekend of nonfiction features and shorts that launched with the world premiere of Alex Gibney’s “Rolling Stone: Stories from the Edge, Part I” (HBO) and closed with Chris Smith’s “Jim & Andy: The Great Beyond – Featuring a Very Special, Contractually Obligated Mention of Tony Clifton” (Netflix).

It’s part of Sffilm executive director Noah Cowan’s...

At the San Francisco Film Society’s Doc Stories, Samantha Power — aka President Barack Obama’s U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations — is a true star. “What a crowd,” she tweeted after a rousing standing ovation for Greg Barker’s HBO documentary “The Final Year,” which features her as part of Obama’s foreign policy team. “Huge thanks to SFFilm Doc Stories & to an incredibly engaged San Francisco audience who saw @thefinalyeardoc not as a retrospective, but as a call to action.”

The third annual Doc Stories (Nov. 2-5) was a rich weekend of nonfiction features and shorts that launched with the world premiere of Alex Gibney’s “Rolling Stone: Stories from the Edge, Part I” (HBO) and closed with Chris Smith’s “Jim & Andy: The Great Beyond – Featuring a Very Special, Contractually Obligated Mention of Tony Clifton” (Netflix).

It’s part of Sffilm executive director Noah Cowan’s...

Steve Bannon once got top billing within Donald Trump‘s administration and served at the embattled president’s side during the early days of his leadership. Now, Bannon is saying goodbye to the White House.

“White House Chief of Staff John Kelly and Steve Bannon have mutually agreed today would be Steve’s last day,” Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders confirmed in a statement on Friday. “We are grateful for his service and wish him the best.”

The news came as a shock to some considering the former Breitbart News executive chairman had served as the White House Chief Strategist and Trump’s senior counselor.

Many on Twitter rejoiced on Friday as multiple news outlets reported that Donald Trump‘s chief strategist, Steve Bannon, was out of the White House in the wake of the president’s disastrous response to the violence at a white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, over the weekend.

White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said in a statement: “White House Chief of Staff John Kelly and Steve Bannon have mutually agreed today would be Steve’s last day. We are grateful for his service and wish him the best.”

ABC News reported that Bannon, the former executive chairman of Breitbart News,...

The race always begins at Sundance, but the Toronto International Film Festival documentary lineup will impact the list of Oscar contenders — and this year, without clear frontrunners, Tiff’s influence will be greater than ever.

Every year, Thom Powers leads the Tiff documentary programmers through an enormous number of submissions to cull 22 selections. “It never gets any easier to make those decisions,” said Powers, who also programs influential November festival Doc NYC. “This year we’re going to see a greater range of different documentaries spread across the fall festivals, instead of a cluster of films that moves from festival to festival. More films will get more opportunities at the festivals this fall.”

Here’s a list of 10 must-sees for Tiff 2017 with potential to shake up the awards race.

1. “Super Size Me 2: Holy Chicken!”: Morgan Spurlock’s under-the-radar sequel to his 2005 Oscar nominee focuses on the new craze...

The race always begins at Sundance, but the Toronto International Film Festival documentary lineup will impact the list of Oscar contenders — and this year, without clear frontrunners, Tiff’s influence will be greater than ever.

Every year, Thom Powers leads the Tiff documentary programmers through an enormous number of submissions to cull 22 selections. “It never gets any easier to make those decisions,” said Powers, who also programs influential November festival Doc NYC. “This year we’re going to see a greater range of different documentaries spread across the fall festivals, instead of a cluster of films that moves from festival to festival. More films will get more opportunities at the festivals this fall.”

Here’s a list of 10 must-sees for Tiff 2017 with potential to shake up the awards race.

1. “Super Size Me 2: Holy Chicken!”: Morgan Spurlock’s under-the-radar sequel to his 2005 Oscar nominee focuses on the new craze...

HBO will premiere Vice Special Report: A World in Disarray, a documentary that examines the past, present and future of American foreign policy, at 10 Pm Friday, July 21. In the exclusive HBO presentation, Vice founder Suroosh Alvi and other Vice correspondents examine the foreign policies that have shaped the modern world and meet people living through today's major conflicts. It features interviews with Condoleezza Rice, Tony Blair, Samantha Power, Ash Carter and…...

Producers Fox TheatricalsandBarbara Whitmanhave announced that Fun Home, the groundbreaking and Tony Award-winning Best Musical, has teamed up with Ambassador Samantha Power and a group of Un ambassadors representing countries from acrossthe world for a special evening of theater on Tuesday, March 1. The group of ambassadors will attend the show and participate in a post-show talkback with the show's creators, Tony Award-winners Lisa Kron and Jeanine Tesori, along with members of the cast. The discussion, hosted by Lgbt activist Cynthia Nixon, will take place on stage after the 700Pm performance at the Circle in the Square Theatre 235 West 50th St.

"A conversation with Caitlyn Jenner

Today is International Human Rights Day. At the United Nations, we’re working to integrate Lgbt rights into every discussion on human rights, but there is still so much more we can do so that everyone has the freedom to live as they are without fear. It was good to talk to Caitlyn Jenner recently about the important work we can do at home, at the Un, and internationally. Around the world - and here in the Us - transgender people face bullying, abuse, and even fatal violence simply for who they are. The threat...

On Thursday evening, The New York Women's Foundation Nywf held its annual Fall Gala in The Grand Ballroom of The Plaza Hotel in New York City. The evening's honorees included Ambassador Samantha Power, U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Lisa Kron and Jeanine Tesori, creators of the Tony Award-winning musical, Fun Home, and corporate honoree Citi. Today's Hoda Kotb served as the evening's Mistress of Ceremony. The event raised 680,000 which will help to support Nywf's more than 70 women-led, community grantee-partner organizations. Scroll down for photos from the gala...

No sibling rivalry for Savannah Guthrie.

The Today show co-anchor says her older sister, Annie Guthrie, "has always been my biggest cheerleader." And on Thursday night, Savannah got to return the favor with a star-studded cocktail party celebrating the publication of The Good Dark, a collection of Annie's poetry 15 years in the making.

The Today family turned out in force – Matt Lauer, Natalie Morales, Tamron Hall, Willie Geist and Megan Kopf Stackhouse – at Little Owl the Venue in New York City's West Village.

Jon Bon Jovi and his wife, Dorothea, who are personal friends of Savannah and her husband Mike Feldman,...

We've been preemptively mourning this moment for a while, but on Thursday night, it finally arrived: Stephen Colbert gave his last sign-off on Comedy Central's The Colbert Report. The good news is he didn't have to do it alone. In a farewell to top all farewells, a classy Colbert sang Ross Parker and Hughie Charles's "We'll Meet Again," inviting Jon Stewart, Randy Newman, Bryan Cranston, Patrick Stewart, Michael Stipe, James Franco, Samantha Power, Big Bird, and many, many other famous friends to stand by his side and help. Roll the clip below to catch a seemingly endless number of cameos, and then check back with Vulture tomorrow morning for a full take on Colbert's final Report.

It’s always fun to see our favorite females gather to honor each other and last night (November 10) the Glamour 2014 Women of the Year event was filled with love and encouragement.

Lupita Nyong'o, Karlie Kloss and Chelsea Clinton all showed up at New York City’s Carnegie Hall for the big affair, also joined by Freida Pinto, Doutzen Kroes and Mindy Kaling.

Glamour Editor-in-Chief Cindi Leive told press, “One of the privileges of my job is the front-row seat it gives me to watch some of the most amazing women in the world in action.”

“Glamour’s annual tribute to female ‘doers and darers’ honors those trailblazers: ten winners who have made history in 2014.”

And among the honorees were Lupita Nyong'o (The Breakthrough), Sarah Burton of Alexander McQueen (The Visionary), Chelsea Clinton (The Women’s Champion), Laverne Cox (The Advocate), Mindy Kaling (The Lady Boss), Samantha Power (The Ambassador), Robin Roberts...

Carnegie Hall will be overflowing with powerful females this evening (November 10) as Glamour Magazine holds its 2014 Women of the Year Awards.

And among the honorees are Lupita Nyong'o (The Breakthrough), Sarah Burton of Alexander McQueen (The Visionary), Chelsea Clinton (The Women’s Champion), Laverne Cox (The Advocate), Mindy Kaling (The Lady Boss), Samantha Power (The Ambassador), Robin Roberts (The Survivor), Natalia Vodianova (The Voice for Children) and Sylvia Earle (The Explorer; Lifetime Achievement Winner).

Editor-in-Chief Cindi Leive explained, “One of the privileges of my job is the front-row seat it gives me to watch some of the most amazing women in the world in action.”

“Glamour’s annual tribute to female ‘doers and darers’ honors those trailblazers: ten winners who have made history in 2014.”

English comedian James Corden is slated to open the evening, and there will be plenty of top-shelf style to be seen.

Laverne Cox will receive the advocate prize.

Laverne Cox is having the best year ever!

The Orange Is the New Black actress is being with a Glamour Woman of the Year award — an award that honors celebrities, politicians, local leaders and athletes for their powerful roles in influencing women everywhere.

Cox, 30, has already made history this year. Her portrayal of Sophia Burset on Orange is the New Black made her the first transgender woman to ever be nominated for an Emmy, and she was also the first transgender woman to ever make the cover of Time.

News: Laverne Cox Strips Off Her Makeup in John Legend's "You and I" Video

Before landing the role of Sophia, she tells Glamour, "I played hookers a lot. That was the scope of what was available for trans actors. When I got the [Oitnb] script, I was like, Ok, this is what I’ve waited for my whole career--i need to...

Luis Moreno Ocampo told Anne-Katrin Titze that Watchers Of The Sky director Edet Belzberg and Us Ambassador to the United Nations Samantha Power are the "new Raphael Lemkins." Photo: Susan Norget

Luis Moreno Ocampo was appointed the first Chief Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court at the Hague in 2003. During his nine-year term he was responsible for "investigating and prosecuting massive atrocities" and gathering evidence to build a consensus with the member States in order to "enforce the rules".

In New York, a relaxed Luis Moreno Ocampo told me about the day Raphael Lemkin came into his life, the insight Nuremberg prosecutor Benjamin Ferencz gave him, the need for a protocol in the global system, why Star Wars is incredibly smart and how much he enjoys Woody Allen, Visconti and the Coen brothers.

Luis Moreno Ocampo prosecuting at the Argentine 1987 Junta trials: "I had 1600 suspects. I cannot do a case...

"The Good Lie" opened on October 3 in limited release following a September bow at the Toronto Film Festival. It features Reese Witherspoon as an American woman who helps four Sudanese refugees – among more than 20,000 children known as the Lost Boys of Sudan – adjust to life in the United States, but the real stars of the film are the Lost Boys themselves. Actors Emmanuel Jal, Ger Duany, and Kuoth Wiel were among the real Lost Boys, and Arnold Oceng, in a noteworthy breakthrough performance, is a British-raised son of a Sudanese man. -Break- Oscars: Black Performers--Filmmakers After a screening on September 30, the Us ambassador to the United Nations, Samantha Power, made sure to remind the audience that the violence and displacement that plagued the nation aren't finished. South Sudan broke off from Sudan in 2011 after a long fight for independence, but it erupted into another civil war in 2013. Of the film,...

The Good Lie discussion moderated by Pen American Center president Peter Godwin Photo: Anne-Katrin Titze

Joanna Coles, Peter Godwin, Dr. Amanda Foreman, Gayle King, Diane Sawyer, Mike Nichols, George Stephanopoulos, Fareed Zakaria, Tina Brown and Sir Harold Evans with the Us Fund for Unicef, and Samantha Power, Us Ambassador to the United Nations, hosted a special screening of Philippe Falardeau's The Good Lie starring Reese Witherspoon, Arnold Oceng, Ger Duany, Emmanuel Jal and Kuoth Wiel with a screenplay by Margaret Nagle.

Soon-Yi Previn, Molly Smith, Trent Luckinbill, Karen Sherwood, Nile Rodgers, Lynn Stratford, John Prendergast, Chuck Scarborough, Ed Lloyd, Angelina Jacob, Jennifer Duneier, Felicia Taylor, Jill Martin, Bill Blakemore and Phyllis Lee were among those joining in with our hosts for the Warner Bros. screening at Time Warner Center on Columbus Circle near Central Park.

Screenwriter Margaret Nagle with The Good Lie star Kuoth Wiel: "And suddenly I hear,...

The United States began building a case Friday that would pin the blame for the downing of the passenger jet over Ukraine on separatist forces supported by Russia, in a disaster that could dramatically escalate the crisis in Ukraine. President Barack Obama said one American was among the nearly 300 killed and called for an immediate cease-fire to allow for an unfettered investigation. Evidence indicates that Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 was shot down by a surface-to-air missile from an area controlled by Russian-backed separatists, Obama said at the White House. He warned that the incident showed the crisis in Ukraine won't be...

The United States began building a case Friday that would pin the blame for the downing of the passenger jet over Ukraine on separatist forces supported by Russia, in a disaster that could dramatically escalate the crisis in Ukraine. President Barack Obama said one American was among the nearly 300 killed and called for an immediate cease-fire to allow for an unfettered investigation. Evidence indicates that Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 was shot down by a surface-to-air missile from an area controlled by Russian-backed separatists, Obama said at the White House. He warned that the incident showed the crisis in Ukraine won't be...

Politics may make strange bedfellows, but Washington D.C.'s most star-studded night always makes for some interesting table talk. At the 100th annual White House Correspondents Association dinner, emceed this year by Joel McHale, expect to see the usual oddball mix of celebrities seated with politicians seated with media folk, who host tables in a massive ballroom under the Washington Hilton. To the uninitiated, watching the A-listers make their way to their seats seems a bit like Harry Potter's Hogwarts "sorting hat" is at work sending each boldface name to the right place. Where's Anna Kendrick headed? She'll be at the Huffington Post's table,...

ABC World News With Diane Sawyer ranked as the No. 1 evening newscast in the news demo for the week of April 7 — its first weekly demo win this season. Sawyer beat NBC Nightly News With Brian Williams by 12,000 Adults 25-54 (1.882 million vs. 1.870 million). It was ABC evening newscasts first demo win since the week of July 22, 2013. Last July — one year after ABC’s Good Morning America snapped NBC’s Today show weekly winning streak, ABC’s evening newscast outstripped NBC’s in the news demo by 38,000 demo viewers, ending NBC’s newscast’s ratings winning streak of nearly five years. During the week of April 7, Sawyer’s newscast covered breaking news – high school stabbings in Pennsylvania, California bus crash, Terry Moran in Central African Republic with Un Ambassador Samantha Power covering refugees and violence — but the newscast also featured a broadcast exclusive with Mad Men stars and creator as they debuted the AMC series’ final season.

I know that the Sundance Film Festival ended over a week ago, but in the six days I was at Sundance (and on screeners in the days before), I saw 25 movies.    I wrote full reviews for 13 of them.    My Full Sundance reviews: 'The Internet's Own Boy: The Story of Aaron Swartz' "The Overnighters" "Rudderless" "Fed Up" "Marmato" "Love Child" "Land Ho!" "The Voices" "Happy Valley" "My Prairie Home" "Life Itself" "Mitt" "Web Junkie"   But that left 12 movies that I just didn't have the time to write my usual 1000-to-1750 words on. Since getting back from Park City, I've been slowly working my way through capsule reviews for those 12 movies. These are roughly the length of my Take Me To The Pilots entries, which means that in this format, people are going to complain about all of the text and the lack of paragraphs.   Sorry.   Because I'm just one part of HitFix's awesome Sundance team,...

Filmmaker: Why this movie? Why did you decide to do it? Belzberg: I read Samantha Power’s book A Problem From Hell when it came out and was just pulled towards the story of Raphael Lemkin in it. It didn’t feel like a choice — I had to tell his story. Filmmaker: How much of your crew was female? Was hiring women a consideration for you? Belzberg: Most of my crew on this film were women. It wasn’t intentional, but that is how it worked out. There are a few notable exceptions, but the vast majority of the people who worked on the […]...

Filmmaker: Why this movie? Why did you decide to do it? Belzberg: I read Samantha Power’s book A Problem From Hell when it came out and was just pulled towards the story of Raphael Lemkin in it. It didn’t feel like a choice — I had to tell his story. Filmmaker: How much of your crew was female? Was hiring women a consideration for you? Belzberg: Most of my crew on this film were women. It wasn’t intentional, but that is how it worked out. There are a few notable exceptions, but the vast majority of the people who worked on the […]...

Park City - Even with four critics reviewing movies it's hard to catch everything at a festival as big as Sundance. One movie that we'll be reviewing over the next few days is Edet Belzberg's new documentary "Watchers of the Sky."  The film debuted last weekend in the U.S. documentary competition and follows four modern day humanitarians who all owe something to the legendary Raphael Lemkin, the man who first termed the word genocide (and that was just the beginning of his legacy). In an exclusive clip provided to HitFix, U.S. Ambassador Samantha Power talks about how Lemkin came up with...

The horror of genocide simply can't be put into words. An unspeakable act, it leaves its mark across generations, reverberating through history as a stamp of supreme evil. But can justice be found for those marked by such brutal acts of violence? One lawyer thought so and forever laid the groundwork that would allow the Nuremberg trials to happen, along with the formation of the International Criminal Court. Oscar nominated director Edet Belzberg ("Children Underground") brings her latest documentary "Watchers Of The Sky" to the Sundance Film Festival this week, and it will shine light on lawyer Raphael Lemkin. Through reminisces and insight from Samantha Power, U.S. ambassador to the U.N.; Luis Moreno Ocampo, Icc chief prosecutor; Benjamin Ferencz, Nuremberg prosecutor; and Emmanuel Uwurukundo, U.N. refugee officer, the doc explores how Lemkin created the legal framework that enabled prosecutors to bring crimes of massacre into a courtroom,...

America’s newly confirmed Ambassador to the United Nations, Samantha Power, did not attend an emergency meeting of the U.N. Security Council held to address the allegations of a wide-scale chemical weapon attack in Syria this week. Reporters pressed the State Department and the United Nations to learn where Power was at the time, but received no answers. On Friday, sources told Fox News that Power was on vacation in her native Ireland.

Yesterday President Obama nominated Samantha Power to replace Susan Rice as the next Un ambassador for the United States. As a leading human rights expert and former White House adviser, Power has been known to spark a bit of controversy - in 2008, she had to resign from Obama's campaign after she called Hillary Clinton a monster. This nomination marks a major opportunity for Power, as the position is currently considered a cabinet-level role, and in the past, it's been held by influential people like Madeleine Albright and George H.W. Bush. If the Senate approves Power's nomination, then she will be a key player in international affairs, so consider this your cheat sheet to learn more about the potential Un ambassador:...

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Pictures, Columbia Pictures, Passion Pictures and Red Box Films are proud to announce their new feature documentary Everything Or Nothing: The Untold Story Of 007 directed by Stevan Riley (Fire In Babylon), produced by John Battsek (One Day In September, The Tillman Story) and Simon Chinn (Man On Wire, Project Nim) to coincide with the 50th anniversary of James Bond films on October 5. Country specific release plans to be announced shortly.

Everything Or Nothing focuses on three men with a shared dream . Bond producers Albert R. Broccoli, Harry Saltzman and author Ian Fleming. It’s the thrilling and inspiring narrative behind the longest running film franchise in cinema history which began in 1962. With unprecedented access both to the key players involved and to Eon Productions’ extensive archive, this is the first time the inside story of the franchise has ever been told on screen in this way. Director Stevan Riley...

Maureen Dowd's column yesterday suggested that Obama's decision to involve the U.S. military in Libya came primarily from senior female advisers (namely Sec. of State Hillary Clinton, U.N. Ambassador Susan Rice and National Security Adviser Samantha Power.) This spawned an interesting discussion on Morning Joe, which lead Pat Buchanan to suggest that women in the administration were making an emotional argument in their advice to get the U.S. involved. Hoo boy!

This posting is jointly written with Lauren Young A dashing Brazilian man who keeps a flakjacket in his midtown Manhattan office, two firefighters from New York and Miami, a terrorist attack, and an attempted rescue using nothing but a curtain cord and a ladies handbag. Would you believe that this is a film about the United Nations? Sergio, which premiered on HBO this month, is the story of Sergio Vieira de Mello, an extraordinary public servant who died in the 2003 bombing of the Un headquarters in Iraq. The film (based on the book by Pulitzer-prize winning author Samantha Power) is a tribute to his leadership and service in the world's worst trouble spots. Sergio Vieira de Mello began his career with the United Nations in Bangladesh, at the age of 23, and continued to mediate conflicts for the next three decades...

HBO brings 'Sergio" to the network on May 6. Charismatic Sergio Vieira de Mello was the U.N..s .go-to. guy. He could descend into the most dangerous places, charm the worst war criminals and somehow protect the lives of the ordinary people to whom he devoted his life. Debuting Thursday May 6 (8:00-9:45 p.m. Et/Pt), the HBO documentary "Sergio" tells the story of Vieira de Mello.s most treacherous mission, to Iraq in 2003, when his life ended. Based on Pulitzer Prize winner Samantha Power.s biography .Sergio: One Man.s Fight to Save the World,. this film is the story of the dashing U.N. diplomat who served in the United Nations for more than 30 years, and was considered by...

This week I wrote about our latest Book Club pick, Shadow Elite, which documents the poisonous effect the rise of a "transnational" class of elites has had on our democracy. Today I want to give you an antidote: Sergio is a powerful and deeply moving documentary I recently saw that tracks the remarkable life -- and tragic death in Iraq at the hands of a suicide bomber -- of Un envoy Sergio de Mello, one of the greatest (albeit least heralded) peacemakers of the 20th century. Described as "a cross between James Bond and Bobby Kennedy," he spent his life trying to end conflicts in the world's most dangerous places. Based on a book by Samantha Power, the film has been short-listed for the Best Documentary Oscar. So add it to your Netflix queue. And if...

While I've yet to see the doc myself (I reference Claire Denis' White Material when I think of what the film might hold narratively), when the Cinema Eye Honor Noms were released I was surprised to see that, despite the positive buzz, Lucy Bailey and Andrew Thompson's Mugabe and the White African only manage to grab one nomination. Clearly the film is a favorite for the 2009 edition of the Ida Awards - it picked up three nominations in the Feature Documentary, ABCNews VideoSource Award an the Pare Lorentz Award categories. - While I've yet to see the doc myself (I reference Claire Denis' White Material when I think of what the film might hold narratively), when the Cinema Eye Honor Noms were released I was surprised to see that, despite the positive buzz, Lucy Bailey and Andrew Thompson's Mugabe and the White African only manage to grab one nomination.

Sadly, the Squash Blog is to be no more. It was fun while it lasted. In about a year and a half, Jim Zug—America's best squash writer, by far -- and I covered some unusual stories: the Bikini Open in the Cayman Islands; the New Yorker’s legendary squash ladder; the Senator who displaced Arlen Specter atop the Capitol Hill ladder, and torture memo/squash celebrity John Yoo's distinguished involvement with the game. We regret not posting more about the sport’s reigning power couple, Obama advisers Samantha Power and Cass Sunstein, whom we have seen play from time to time. She doesn't wear eye protection—does Glenn Beck know about this?...

"Sergio" review by Steve Ramos Sundance '09: Its tale of heroism makes "Sergio" a different kind of biography film Meeting United Nations worker Sergio Vieira de Mello for the first time, likely the case for many audiences watching director Greg Barker's fascinating documentary "Sergio," is an uplifting experience. Seldom does one person come off so heroic, good meaning and intelligent regarding the workings of the international community. As an added bonus, the Brazilian-born Vieira de Mello is also movie star handsome, a fact Barker emphasizes throughout his film. Based on Samantha Power's 2008 biography "Chasing the Flame," "Sergio" is a matter-of-fact retelling of Vieira de Mello's life, combining archival footage from past U.N. triumphs such as his peace negotiations with the Khmer Rouge and his post-conflict management in East Timor with interviews from co-workers, family and friends including former U.S. National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice. Powers'...