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"Call Me Miss Cleo" is a new documentary feature chronicling the rise, fall and reinvention of 1990's 'infomercial' TV psychic 'Miss Cleo', directed by Celia Aniskovich and Jennifer Brea, with comment from actresses Raven-Symoné and Debra Wilson, now streaming on HBO Max:

"...'Miss Cleo' aka Youree Dell Harris, made a name for herself back in the 1990's for her larger-than-life persona while working for the 'Psychic Readers Network', a popular phone hotline.

"'Call Me Miss Cleo' takes a close look at the story behind the iconic infomercials and unravels the investigations that ensued..."

Click the images to enlarge...

On December 15, HBO Max released “‘Call Me Miss Cleo,” an eye-opening documentary chronicling the rise, fall, and reinvention of revered and reviled ’90s TV psychic Miss Cleo. Featuring interviews with celebrities and those closest to the self-proclaimed voodoo priestess, the film explores the many layers behind a complicated and charismatic figure.

See ‘White House Plumbers’ trailer: Woody Harrelson and Justin Theroux star in HBO Watergate series

Jennifer Brea and Celia Aniskovich co-direct the film about the controversial figure. Known for her larger-than-life persona and memorable accent, Miss Cleo, born Youree Dell Harris, garnered a nationwide cult following on the Psychic Readers Network, a popular telephone hotline that later came under fire for its alleged deceptive practices. She died of cancer at the age of 53 in 2016. Below is a roundup of some early reviews.

Nick Schager of The Daily Beast writes, “Eventually, every piece of pop culture minutia will receive an...

An overwhelmingly vast number of psychic claims should be taken with a healthy dose of salt, and Call Me Miss Cleo aims to be sodium-free. HBO Max’s original documentary does, however, throw a little bit of corn syrup into the mix. It promises viewers an in-depth study on a complicated con game, Psychic Readers Network (Prn), a call-in service which took in billions of dollars from the desperately lonely, and pours out a VH1 Behind the Music-style tale of a fallen celebrity who couldn’t see her fate in the stars.

Call Me Miss Cleo is co-directed by Jennifer Brea and Celia Aniskovich, and they come at it with great empathy, which undercuts the accusations against the prime suspect, and makes the prosecuting investigators look like true believers. Neither is the case, but the ambiguity is only skimmed in the dark pond of corporate malfeasance and community standards. The late middle section,...

Hulu’s “Wu-Tang: An American Saga” will return for its third and final season with three episodes Feb. 15, the streamer announced Wednesday. New episodes will follow every Wednesday, with the finale set for on April 5.

In the final season, the group is fresh off the release of their debut album and their continued rise to fame, with each of the members beginning to go on separate journeys to figure out where they fit in the music world. RZA struggles to stay on top of things in order to fulfill the promise he made to his Wu brothers to cement their legacy.

Ashton Sanders returns as Bobby Diggs, later known as the RZA, Shameik Moore plays Raekwon, Siddiq Saunderson portrays Ghostface Killah with additional cast including Julian Elijah Martinez, Marcus Callender, Zolee Griggs, T.J. Atoms, Dave East, Johnell Young, Uyoata Udi and Damani Sease. Alex Tse, the RZA, Method Man and...

Image Source: YouTube user HBO Max

You don't need to predict the future to know that HBO Max is releasing a documentary about the infamous television psychic Miss Cleo. The streamer announced the news on Dec. 1 by dropping the trailer for "Call Me Miss Cleo," an "eye-opening film" produced by Gunpowder & Sky that chronicles the "rise, fall, and reinvention" of the controversial and revered '90s figure.

For those not familiar, Miss Cleo, born Youree Dell Harris, made a name for herself back in the '90s for her larger-than-life persona and thick Jamaican accent while working for the Psychic Readers Network, a popular phone hotline that later came under fire for its alleged deceptive practices. Miss Cleo garnered a nationwide cult following, and the upcoming documentary will ultimately peel back the truth behind the "ever-enigmatic woman who took TV by storm, only to abruptly disappear from public consciousness.

Every media personality from the ’90s needs a streaming documentary, and Miss Cleo has conjured up her own. The first trailer for “Call Me Miss Cleo,” an HBO Max original documentary, was released on Thursday.

Born Youree Dell Harris, Miss Cleo was the main spokesperson for Psychic Readers Network, a pay-per-call service for people seeking the advice of psychics. Through television infomercials, Harris built up a cult following from 1997 to 2003 across the United States, before the company was charged by the Federal Trade Commission with deceptive advertising, billing, and collection practices. Harris left Psychic Readers Network and continued to play the character of Cleo intermittently in advertisements for used car dealerships and French Toast Crunch cereal, before developing colorectal cancer and passing away in 2016.

The new documentary features interviews with the people closest to Harris, as well as prominent celebrities during her heyday like Raven-Symoné and Debra Wilson, exploring her shadowy and convoluted real-life story.

The Max Original documentary Call Me Miss Cleo, debuts Thursday, December 15 on HBO Max. This eye-opening film, produced by Gunpowder & Sky, chronicles the rise, fall, and reinvention of controversial and revered ‘90s television psychic Miss Cleo and features testimonials with those closest to her, as well as actresses Raven-Symoné and Debra Wilson.

Synopsis: Known for her larger-than-life persona and memorable accent, Miss Cleo, born Youree Dell Harris, garnered a nationwide cult following on the Psychic Readers Network, a popular telephone hotline that later came under fire for its alleged deceptive practices. Featuring interviews with celebrities and those closest to the self-proclaimed voodoo priestess, the film explores the many layers behind a complicated and charismatic figure. Revisiting an era of corded phones and 1-900-numbers, Call Me Miss Cleo ultimately reveals the truth behind the ever-enigmatic woman who took TV by storm, only to abruptly disappear from public consciousness.

Joanna Zwickel,...

Lindsay Dryden is producer of Oscar-shortlisted documentary ‘Unrest’.

UK filmmaker Lindsey Dryden has been awarded Creative England’s second annual Simon Relph memorial bursary of £15,000.

Dryden is a writer, director and producer of short-and feature-length films. She founded Gloucestershire-based production company Little By Little Films in 2011,specialising in projects led by Lgbtq+ people and women.

Her credits include producing Jennifer Brea’s documentary Unrest, the director’s own story of fighting chronic fatigue syndrome. It won the special jury prize for documentary editing at Sundance 2017. She also won an Emmy for outstanding short documentary for verité short documentary series Trans...

The International Documentary Association has announced the keynote speakers for the biennial Getting Real ’18 conference which takes place Sept. 25-27 in Los Angeles.

The three-day conference will welcome acclaimed curator and film scholar Chi-hui Yang, award-winning filmmaker and human rights attorney Michèle Stephenson, and Executive Producer and founder of A&E IndieFilms Molly Thompson.

Getting Real is the largest conference in North America focused on documentary storytelling. It will feature a 10-year anniversary screening of Robert Kenner’s Food Inc. and a Masterclass with acclaimed filmmaker Frederick Wiseman. The conference will also host the first-ever convening of filmmakers with disabilities and a panel discussion with Jennifer Brea, Lawrence Carter-Long, Day Al-Mohamed, and James Lebrecht.

Three-day conference to run in Los Angeles in September.

Documentarian Frederick Wiseman will take part in a masterclass and A&E IndieFilms founder and head Molly Thompson will deliver a keynote at the International Documentary Association’s (Ida) three-day Getting Real ’18 conference in Los Angeles in September.

The event, held in partnership with the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, is a biennial conference on documentary media and takes place from September 25-27.

Getting Real ‘18 will kick off with a pre-conference screening to mark the 10th anniversary of Robert Kenner’s Food, Inc., presented by the Academy, Participant Media and River Road Entertainment.

Unrest, directed by Jennifer Brea, screens Friday April 13th through Sunday April 15th at Webster University’s Moore Auditorium (470 East Lockwood). The movie starts at 7:30pm on Friday and Sunday and at 8:30 on Saturday.

Dismissed as the “yuppie flu” by some in the media and often misdiagnosed as a symptom of stress, Myalgic Encephalomyelitis (a.k.a. Chronic Fatigue Syndrome) is no figment of the imagination. This is something Jennifer Brea, a journalist and Harvard Phd candidate, learned when she was suddenly struck with the disease. One of 17 million worldwide who now find themselves bedridden and in desperate need of a cure, Brea decided to film her experiences to raise awareness of the seriousness of the illness.

Documenting the daily physical and emotional impact Chronic Fatigue Syndrome Unrest is a moving examination of pain and isolation. Combining interviews with others alongside her own soul-baring testimonials, Brea gives an...

Sundance Institute’s Creative Distribution Initiative released today a case study for one of its inaugural films that premiered at Sundance last year: Columbus, from :: kogonada, who appeared on Filmmaker’s 25 New Faces of Independent Film list. Opening to strong critical acclaim and grossing over $1 million at the U.S. box office, the film is centered around a Korean-born man who finds himself stuck in Columbus, Indiana, where his father is in a coma. In two weeks, an additional case study for Jennifer Brea’s Oscar short-listed doc Unrest will be released. Established in May 2017, the initiative is aimed at […]...

The entertainment space is going “to be transformed by analytics”, claimed a panelist.

The importance of the independent film industry harnessing data was in the spotlight during day two of International Film Festival Rotterdam’s distribution conference Reality Check.

Source: Iffr

Matt Mueller (Screen International), René Bastian (Cinelytic), Liz Manashil (Sundance Institute), Greg Detre (Channel 4), Isabelle Glachant (Chinese Shadows)

The subject of data had been regularly alluded to during day one – with panellists often at loggerheads about the influence of an algorithmic approach to filmmaking – and yesterday (Jan 29) the topic was addressed head-on during a panel that explored the future of data in the film business.

Screen’s editor Matt Mueller, hosting the discussion, pointed out that data has typically “been the preserve of the studios and online players” to-date, asking his panellists to highlight ways in which the indie industry could harness it.

Rene Bastian from data company Cinelytic – which launched in Cannes last year – claimed...

It's unlikely any of the directors who made this year's Oscar documentary shortlist would describe their filmmaking experience as a breeze. But for Jennifer Brea, making Unrest posed a unique set of challenges. It's a story of her journey, and others like her, who live with Me—Myalgic Encephalomyelitis—often referred to as Chronic Fatigue Syndrome. "Yes, I directed from bed," she tells Deadline. "We found technological ways to make filmmaking accessible to me given those…...

When “Machines” director Rahul Jain was growing up in India, he spent plenty of time as a child in his grandfather’s small textile factory. When Jain started making what would become his first film during his breaks from Cal Arts many years later, he knew he wanted to capture some of those mesmerizing sounds and visuals.

“There was a big sensory soup in my consciousness I was chasing,” he told IndieWire Special Projects Editor Steve Greene following a showing of his film about the goings on of a massive textile factory in Gujarat, India, at the International Documentary Association’s annual screening series.

Of course, it took some time to figure out how to do that.

Read More:How ‘La 92’ Directors Sorted Through 1,700 Hours of Footage for Their Sobering Film

“When you’re in such a sensorially rich and stimulating environment, as a director you kind of feel like you should get everything,...

When filmmaker Brian Knappenberger began working on what would eventually become his film “Nobody Speak: Trials of the Free Press,” he didn’t actually realize the scope of what he would capture. At first, he took an interest in Hulk Hogan’s lawsuit against Gawker Media (for publishing a sex tape of the wrestler with his friend’s wife) simply because he was interested in the case’s battle between the free press and privacy.

“I was really fascinated by this whole Hulk Hogan-Gawker trial, and I was interested in it before it started taking the radical twists and turns that it took later,” he said in a Q&A following a showing of the film at the International Documentary Association’s annual screening series. “There’s a really interesting battle between freedom of speech and privacy. These are two things that some of my other work [revolves around], so I...

Jane Goodall with Jane director Brett Morgen Photo: Anne-Katrin Titze

Abacus: Small Enough To Jail, directed by Steve James; Jeff Orlowski's Chasing Coral; Matthew Heineman's City Of Ghosts; Frederick Wiseman's Ex Libris: New York Public Library; Agnès Varda and Jr's Faces Places; Ai Weiwei's Human Flow; Bonni Cohen and Jon Shenk's An Inconvenient Sequel: Truth To Power; Brett Morgen's Jane; Daniel Lindsay and Tj Martin's La 92; Firas Fayyad and Steen Johannessen's Last Men In Aleppo; Amir Bar-Lev's Long Strange Trip; Heidi Ewing and Rachel Grady's One Of Us; Yance Ford's Strong Island, and Jennifer Brea's Unrest are another step closer to garnering a Best Documentary Oscar nomination.

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences' Documentary Branch determined the shortlist in a preliminary round of voting on the 170 submitted titles. Documentary Branch members will now select...

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences today announced that 15 films in the Documentary Feature category will advance in the voting process for the 90th Academy Awards®. One hundred seventy films were originally submitted in the category.

The 15 films are listed below in alphabetical order by title, with their production companies:

Abacus: Small Enough to Jail, Mitten Media, Motto Pictures, Kartemquin Educational Films and Wgbh/Frontline.

Director Steve James

A small financial institution called Abacus becomes the only company criminally indicted in the wake of the United States’ 2008 mortgage crisis.

Chasing Coral, Exposure Labs in partnership with The Ocean Agency & View Into the Blue in association with Argent Pictures & The Kendeda Fund. Directed by Jeff Orlowski

Coral reefs around the world are vanishing at an unprecedented rate. A team of divers, photographers and scientists set out on a thrilling ocean adventure to discover why and to reveal the underwater mystery to the world.

When Jennifer Brea began documenting the symptoms of her mysterious illness on her phone, it wasn’t because she set out to make a film. It was because the documentarian, who wound up including the footage in “Unrest,” about her own struggle and the international community struggling with M.E. (a.k.a. Chronic Fatigue Syndrome), wanted a way to capture her experiences.

The Harvard PhD student normally would have written about her experience, but the disease zapped all the energy from her body.

“My whole life I had been a writer, so normally I would have picked up a pen and started journaling. I’ve kept journals my whole life, but I reached a point where I was so limited in terms of my cognitive exertion that if I would write a sentence or two of an email I would pass out for the next four hours,” she explained...

Jennifer Brea uses her own experience and others to build up a multifaceted portrait of the condition and the toll it takes

Jennifer Brea, the director of this powerful documentary about chronic fatigue syndrome or Me (the condition’s many names is a subplot here), was a bubbly, intelligent young woman pursuing a postgraduate degree at an American ivy league school. It all went terribly wrong when she developed a very high fever and found herself completely depleted of energy, barely able to get out of bed on most days. Luckily for her, she could call on just enough inner strength to work on this filmic inquiry into the condition that affects millions worldwide.

Related: ‘It was like being buried alive’: battle to recover from chronic fatigue syndrome

Continue reading...

The nonfiction organization Cinema Eye and its nominations committee of top international documentary film programmers, curators, and filmmakers has picked their annual list of “Unforgettables” who helped to define documentary cinema in 2017. They selected 30 individuals from 15 different films to be in the running for this year’s Cinema Eye awards. Like the Doc NYC shortlist, many of the films on this curated list are in the running for the year’s top awards, including the Oscar. “Jane,” “Faces Places,” “City of Ghosts,” and “Strong Island” continue to lead the documentary awards pack.

The full slate of Cinema Eye nominations for nonfiction feature, short, and broadcast films/series will be be announced on Friday, November 3 in San Francisco at Sffilm’s Doc Stories event. Awards will be presented in New York City at the Museum of the Moving Image on Thursday, January 11, 2018.

Read More:doc NYC Announces Its Awards Short List, Including ‘Icarus,...

The nonfiction organization Cinema Eye and its nominations committee of top international documentary film programmers, curators, and filmmakers has picked their annual list of “Unforgettables” who helped to define documentary cinema in 2017. They selected 30 individuals from 15 different films to be in the running for this year’s Cinema Eye awards. Like the Doc NYC shortlist, many of the films on this curated list are in the running for the year’s top awards, including the Oscar. “Jane,” “Faces Places,” “City of Ghosts,” and “Strong Island” continue to lead the documentary awards pack.

The full slate of Cinema Eye nominations for nonfiction feature, short, and broadcast films/series will be be announced on Friday, November 3 in San Francisco at Sffilm’s Doc Stories event. Awards will be presented in New York City at the Museum of the Moving Image on Thursday, January 11, 2018.

Read More:doc NYC Announces Its Awards Short List, Including ‘Icarus,...

Exclusive: Unrest, a movie about Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (known as Me) which debuted at Sundance this year, is using an unconventional distribution method to make sure that it is seen by one of its target audiences: homebound sufferers of the disease. The film is opening in Los Angeles and San Francisco today theatrically, however, for those affected by Me who might not be able to attend a theatrical screening, the filmmaker Jennifer Brea and her film team have come up…...

Unrest Sundance Selects Director: Jennifer Brea Written by: Jennifer Brea, Kim Roberts Cast: Jennifer Brea, Omar Wasow, Jessica Taylor, Leeray Denton, Karina Handsen, Ron Davis, Nancy Klimas, Paul Cheney Screened at: Critics’ link, NYC, Opens: September 22, 2017 Millennials should be the first to see this documentary. Ironically, for the most part they will skip […]

The post Unrest Movie Review: Millennials Should See This Documentary appeared first on Shockya.com.

The fall specialized season ratcheted up with a group of top festival releases starting their theatrical release with later awards in their sights. As expected, well-reviewed “The Battle of the Sexes” (Fox Searchlight) stood out as the top performer in a week without much other signs of life from holdovers (IFC’s “The Viceroy’s House” is the best of a weak bunch).

In two initial cities, Judi Dench showed her royal form in Stephen Frears’ “Victoria & Abdul” (Focus) with the weekend’s best per theater average, while “Stronger” (Roadside Attractions) saw some success in a much wider limited release.

The upstart was “Loving Vincent” (Good Deed), which unexpectedly came up with a $24,000 exclusive New York opening. This rare animated arthouse release (using Van Gogh “painted” animation to tell its narrative) could be a sleeper success within this uber-competitive period.

Opening

The Battle of the Sexes (Fox Searchlight) – Metacritic: 73; Festivals...

Documentary festival announces winners.

Matthew Heineman’s City Of Ghosts has won the grand jury award at Sheffield Doc/Fest (June 9-14).

The award, supported by Screen International and Broadcast, comes with a cash prize of £2,000 ($2,800).

The film covers covert citizen journalist group Rbss (Raqqa Is Being Slaughtered Silently), who are exposing the horrors of life under Isis rule via the media. Amazon have picked up worldwide rights to the film.

On behalf of the jury, Paul Mason said, “City of Ghosts is a passionate portrayal of people who took their lives in their hands to fight an evil that looms over the world. In our discussions we wanted the film makers to answer: who created Isis and who sustains it today? A compelling and vital film.”

The jury also included Andrea Arnold and Anand Pathwardan.

There was also special mentions for The Death And The Life of Marsha P. Johnson, [link...

The Cannes Film Festival — impossibly glamorous, unapologetically auteurist — is the world’s most aspirational film festival. And this week, it’s hosting filmmakers like Bong Joon Ho and Noah Baumbach as they premiere films that will skip theaters entirely in favor of a Netflix premiere. So, for those up-and-coming filmmakers who aspire: Is it time to exchange dreams of the big screen in favor of the red logo?

It’s not a simple question; to pose it suggests cinephile disloyalty. However, the increasing artistic acceptance of Netflix, along with its overwhelming ubiquity, means that independent filmmakers owe it to themselves to consider the facts on all sides.

Read More: Cannes 2017 – Will Smith Clashes With Pedro Almodóvar Over Netflix

How Are Netflix and Amazon Affecting My Distribution Options?

Even if a filmmaker swears undying loyalty to theatrical distribution, subscription-based VOD like Netflix, Amazon, and Hulu already control the game. While Svod platforms may offer equal access,...

In a world where TV networks fight for the opportunity to showcase the best nonfiction content that will keep viewers on their couches, the Toronto-based Hot Docs Canadian International Film Festival (April 27 – May 7) is a very, very good place to be.

What began 24 years ago as a modest showcase for Canadian documentaries is now a sprawling international program that screens 230 titles from 58 countries. The festival still favors homegrown product, but also amplifies movies from Sundance (“Chasing Coral,” “Long Strange Trip,” “City of Ghosts”) and Tribeca (“The Departure,” “A River Below”), as well as some international (Joe Berlinger’s “Intent to Destroy”) and world premieres (“A Moon of Nickel and Ice”).

“Hot Docs creates an environment where you can meet with the best in the documentary world,” said director Cullen Hoback, who brought his sharp pollution whodunit “What Lies Upstream” first to Slamdance, then to Hot Docs (Preferred Content is seeking...

In a world where TV networks fight for the opportunity to showcase the best nonfiction content that will keep viewers on their couches, the Toronto-based Hot Docs Canadian International Film Festival (April 27 – May 7) is a very, very good place to be.

What began 24 years ago as a modest showcase for Canadian documentaries is now a sprawling international program that screens 230 titles from 58 countries. The festival still favors homegrown product, but also amplifies movies from Sundance (“Chasing Coral,” “Long Strange Trip,” “City of Ghosts”) and Tribeca (“The Departure,” “A River Below”), as well as some international (Joe Berlinger’s “Intent to Destroy”) and world premieres (“A Moon of Nickel and Ice”).

“Hot Docs creates an environment where you can meet with the best in the documentary world,” said director Cullen Hoback, who brought his sharp pollution whodunit “What Lies Upstream” first to Slamdance, then to Hot Docs (Preferred Content is seeking...

Kickstarter campaign in support of filmmakers seeking entrepreneurial ways to connect with audiences.

Sundance Institute on Tuesday announced the first fellows under its inaugural Creative Distribution Fellowship.

Sundance Film Festival 2017 selections Columbus by writer-director Kogonada and the Chronic Fatigue Syndrome documentary Unrest by Jennifer Brea will receive grants to fund marketing and distribution as the Institute works with the film teams to help them connect with audiences.

The filmmakers will serve as their own distributors, partnering with a network of professional vendors and digital retailers.

All theatrical and digital revenue flows back to the filmmakers, who have agreed to share lessons learned from the process to create a best-practice guide for others.

The Institute has launched a Kickstarter campaign through June 1 to raise funds and build audiences for Columbus and Unrest.

“Columbus and Unrest are perfect examples of the creative spirit of independent filmmaking, and this new Fellowship will provide them with resources, mentorship and tactical...

The Sundance Institute launched a new program to help its festival films score theatrical and platform releases — and allow filmmakers to remain fully in control of their rights. The Creative Distribution Fellowship was announced Tuesday, with two inaugural winners in “Columbus,” from director and screenwriter Kogonada, and Jennifer Brea’s “Unrest.” “Many films that premiere at the Festival are never seen again,” a statement from Sundance reads on a Kickstarter page, which will supplement resources and mentorship form the institute in helping the films get to viewers. Also Read: A24, DirecTV Acquire Logan Lerman Sundance Mystery 'Sidney Hall'...

The Sundance Institute announced today a new initiative aimed at filmmakers going the Diy distribution route. The inaugural projects supported by the Creative Distribution Fellowship are two recommended independent films that premiered this past January at Sundance: Columbus, by Filmmaker 25 New Face :: kogonada, and Unrest, a documentary by director and subject Jennifer Brea. In the press release, Keri Putnam, Executive Director of Sundance Institute, said, “Columbus and Unrest are perfect examples of the creative spirit of independent filmmaking, and this new Fellowship will provide them with resources, mentorship and tactical support to pioneer independent pathways to audiences. This […]...

The 16th annual Tribeca Film Festival announced today its lineup of immersive films, including 29 Vr and interactive projects in its Storyscapes and Virtual Arcade exhibits. Tribeca was one of the first U.S. festivals to showcase experimental storytelling projects, and as such the festival attracts world premieres from some of the vastly growing industry’s leading creators and studios.

Highlights include a virtual reality tour of the White House led by Barack and Michelle Obama; a new Vr collaboration from Chris Milk and by Pharell Williams; a mystery starring Emily Mortimer and Alessandro Nivola from interactive studio Eko; and a multidisciplinary exploration of women of color’s experience through the lens of technology, society and culture, titled “NeuroSpeculative AfroFeminism.”

Read More: Tribeca 2017 Lineup: New Films From Alex Gibney, Azazel Jacobs and Laurie Simmons Lead the Eclectic Mix

“As Vr has continued to evolve technologically, so has the storytelling. Our mission...

by Peter Belsito

Sundance Ff 2017 Wins the Special Jury Award for Editing and according to our writer Peter Belsito, “This film was the best documentary I saw in Sundance recently.”

I reviewed the film previously here but Jennifer Brea is an interesting person so I wanted to speak with her as well.

We met in her Park City condo. She is bright and energetic despite the disease she has which her film is about, her affliction with chronic fatigue syndrome.

Besides the intensely personal nature of her illness and its effects on her family life, which are depicted in the film, she also covers the international implications and political as well. By that I mean the medical profession not recognizing or treating / curing this widespread deadly disease.

Her film makes clear the international effects of this disease. I felt it broadened the film and its important message.

Jennifer Brea

‘Why go outside the Us?...

PBS has acquired the U.S. broadcast rights to the documentary “Unrest,” which premiered in the Sundance Film Festival’s U.S. Documentary Competition section. The film won the festival’s U.S. Documentary Special Jury Award for Editing.

Read More: ‘Unrest’ Review: A Personal Look at Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, With Powerful Results — Sundance 2017

Directed by first time filmmaker Jennifer Brea, “Unrest” tells the director’s personal story of how she was struck by a fever that left her bedridden while pursuing a PhD at Harvard. Months before her wedding, Brea became increasingly ill, ultimately losing the ability to sit in a wheelchair. After doctors tell her the illness is “all in her head,” she learns about millions of other people who are confined to their homes due to chronic fatigue syndrome, also known as Me.

“Unrest” will premiere on the PBS series Independent Lens during the first quarter of 2018, following a national theatrical distribution.

Chadwick Boseman stars as the legendary attorney and Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall.

Open Road will distribute Marshall nationwide on October 13. Reginald Hudlin directs and Paula Wagner is producing through her Chestnut Ridge Productions along with Jonathan Sanger and Hudlin.

Star Light Media, Hero Film and Sky Legend are financing and Sony Pictures Worldwide Acquisitions handles international distribution.

Shout! Factory has snapped up North American rights to London-based Animatsu Entertainment’s feature’s In This Corner Of The World, a manga book adaptation about a young woman in Hiroshima coping with the aftermath of the atomic bomb.PBS has acquired Us broadcast rights to Jennifer Brea’s recent Sundance world premiere Unrest. The series will premiere on series Independent Lens in the first quarter of 2018 following a nationwide theatrical run. Submarine and Preferred Content represented the filmmakers.FilmRise has acquired worldwide rights to Swedish director Kasper Collin’s I Called Him Morgan, about jazz musician...

The 2017 Sundance Film Festival is coming to a close with tonight’s awards ceremony. While we’ll have our personal favorites coming early this week, the jury and audience have responded with theirs, topped by Macon Blair‘s I don’t feel at home in this world anymore., which will arrive on Netflix in late February, and the documentary Dina. Check out the full list of winners below see our complete coverage here.

The U.S. Grand Jury Prize: Documentary was presented by Larry Wilmore to:

Dina / U.S.A. (Directors: Dan Sickles, Antonio Santini) — An eccentric suburban woman and a Walmart door-greeter navigate their evolving relationship in this unconventional love story.

The U.S. Grand Jury Prize: Dramatic was presented by Peter Dinklage to:

I don’t feel at home in this world anymore. / U.S.A. (Director and screenwriter: Macon Blair) — When a depressed woman is burglarized, she...

by Peter Belsito

This is a very important and well done film. It is a documentary exposing our society’s and Especially the medical professions’ almost criminal failure to recognize, treat and develop cures for a too common illness of the human immune system which is commonly known as “Chronic Fatigue Syndrome”. Sufferers number in the millions and the rate of women infected is very high.

The Director Jennifer Brea while suffering from this debilitating disease uses her camera via social media to connect with victims around the world, to discuss treatment and ideas for coping. And to comfort one another who understand their pain and trauma while often they are passed over by society and their own doctors. This while many of them are literally dying in their youth.

Jennifer, a Harvard PhD student, was signing a check at a restaurant when she found she could not write her own name.

Chronic Fatigue Syndrome — otherwise known as Myalgic Encephalomyelitis — receives little exposure in the media and often goes misdiagnosed, even as it afflicts tens of thousands of people worldwide. Jennifer Brea’s stirring documentary “Unrest” goes a long way toward explaining the nature of the disease and the devastating impact it can have on family life, deriving much of its power from her own encounter with it.

Brea’s diaristic approach combines a snapshot of her own struggles as she grows increasingly weak and wheelchair-bound while leaning on her husband for support. There’s nothing particularly groundbreaking about this approach, which has the rough, collage-like structure of a first feature. But “Unrest” works particularly well once Brea looks beyond the limitations of her own bedridden experiences to document other cases worldwide, providing a stirring collage of stories to illustrate the destructive impact of the disease and why it remains widely neglected by the medical community.

Jennifer Brea had a challenge: to make a film from bed. Brea was a PhD student at Harvard when a sudden illness left her bedridden. She sought to create a documentary portrait of her experience and found support from labs at Sundance, Ifp and elsewhere. She premiered Unrest, her debut film, in competition at the 2017 Sundance Film Festival. Kim Roberts, an editor and writer on the film, spoke with Filmmaker about what drew her to the project and finding the right tone for a story this personal. Filmmaker: How and why did you wind up being the editor of your film? What […]...

The medical mystery documentary Unrest has been solved by PBS. The network has acquired U.S. broadcast rights for its Emmy Award-winning series Independent Lens.

The series will broadcast the film during the first quarter of 2018, following a national theatrical release.

“Since I first picked up my camera and began documenting the unseen world of homebound patients, it's been my dream to share the story of my community with a public audience,” director Jennifer Brea said Tuesday in a statement. “I am so thrilled and humbled to bring Unrest to Independent Lens and have it reach the widest audience possible.”

...

Late in Jennifer Brea's Unrest, a doctor informs us that Multiple Sclerosis, the devastating nervous system disorder, was viewed by doctors as a "hysterical" illness — one essentially invented in the sufferer's own mind — right up until the Cat scan was introduced, allowing previously dismissive doctors to see what was going on inside their patients' bodies. Unrest finds a similar difficulty facing people with Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, a debilitating but controversial disorder that is barely understood and in some quarters denied entirely. Using her own experience with the syndrome as a springboard, Brea offers an affecting film that, when...

“I don’t have religion, but if I did it would be probably be the Sundance labs,” said “Patti Cake$”writer/director Geremy Jasper.

“Patti Cake$” is one 20 films premiering this week at the Sundance Film Festival that got their start, at least in part, at the Sundance Institute. (In Jasper’s case, he participated in both the Feature Film Screenwriting and Directing labs.)

The labs are the highest-profile aspect of the Institute. Filmmakers find it invaluable to be in Utah for two to three weeks, removed from their day to day concerns and immersed in their films while getting advice from some of the most talented instructors and filmmakers in the world. In Jasper’s case, the first person he sat down with to discuss the problems in his script’s second act was none other than his hero Quentin Tarantino, who workshopped “Reservoir Dogs” at the Sundance Labs 25 years ago.

Entering its 33rd year, Sundance Film Festival has unveiled its official competition and Next line-ups for the 2017 edition of the festival. At first glance, initial highlights include Alex Ross Perry’s Queen of Earth follow-up Golden Exits and two David Lowery projects (his small-budget A Ghost Story starring Casey Affleck and Rooney Mara as well as The Yellow Birds, which he co-wrote).

There’s also Beach Rats, the latest film from It Felt Like Love director Eliza Hittman, Obvious Child director Gillian Robespierre‘s Landline, and Blue Ruin and Green Room star Macon Blair‘s directorial debut I Don’t Feel at Home in This World Anymore.

Check out the line-up below and images as they become available.

U.S. Dramatic Competition

The 16 films in this section are all world premieres.

“Band Aid” (Director and screenwriter: Zoe Lister-Jones) — A couple who can’t stop fighting embark on a last-ditch effort...

Keep up with the glitzy awards world with our weekly Awards Roundup column.

– The Austin Film Society has announced three 2017 honorees of the Texas Film Hall of Fame, including “Loving” director Jeff Nichols, documentary filmmaker Hector Galan and actor Tye Sheridan. Galan will be the first ever documentarian to be inducted into the Hall of Fame. The honors will be presented at the 2017 Texas Film Awards on March 9, 2017, at Austin Studios.

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“We have watched as the Texas film scene has grown from a small group of creative, underground filmmakers to a bonafide artist hub,” Rebecca Campbell, Austin Film Society CEO said in a statement. “These three honorees couldn’t be more representative of the Texas film scene of today, and why we are so proud of it.”

– Irwin Winkler will be honored with the...

Plus: Land Of Mine triumphs at AFI Fest; Warner Bros confirms Machinima acquisition; Tooley Productions, Square One sign German deal; and more.

Women In Film has announced the recipients of its 31st annual Film Finishing Fund grant programme in support of films by, for or about women.

The narrative winners are: Solace by Tchaiko Omawale; Band Aid by Zoe Lister-Jones; Miracle by Egle Vertelyte; and The Darkest Days Of Us by Astrid Rondero.

Documentary recipients are: Amor Puro Y Duro by Catherine Gund and Daresha Kyi; Canary In A Coal Mine by Jennifer Brea; Farida And Gulnaz by Clementine Malpas; Mudflow by Cynthia Wade and Sasha Friedlander; Tribe by Jordan Bryon; and When A Girl Is Born by Sarita Khurana and Smriti Mundhra.

Martin Zandvliet’s Danish Oscar submission Land Of Mine won AFI Fest 2016’s World Cinema Audience Award, while Divines took the Breathrough Audience Award. The Future Perfect took New Auteurs Grand Jury Award. For the...

Women In Film has announced the recipients of its 31st annual Film Finishing Fund grant programme in support of films by, for or about women.

The narrative winners are: Solace by Tchaiko Omawale; Band Aid by Zoe Lister-Jones; Miracle by Egle Vertelyte; and The Darkest Days Of Us by Astrid Rondero.

Documentary recipients are: Amor Puro Y Duro by Catherine Gund and Daresha Kyi; Canary In A Coal Mine by Jennifer Brea; Farida And Gulnaz

by Clementine Malpas; Mudflow by Cynthia Wade and Sasha Friedlander; Tribe by Jordan Bryon; and When A Girl Is Born by Sarita Khurana and Smriti Mundhra.

Sundance Institute has announced its fifth class of Women at Sundance Fellows to receive mid-career support. Each fellow is paired with a mentor and will receive a stipend to attend the 2017 Sundance Film Festival. The fellows are: Elyse Steinberg (Weiner producer) and Elizabeth Wood (White Girl writer-director), Cecilia Aldarondo (Memories Of A Penitent Heart director), [link...

The premiere post-tiff destination (September 20-25th) in the film community and a major leg up for narrative and non-fiction films in development, the Independent Filmmaker Project (Ifp) announced a whopping 140 projects selected for the Project Forum at the upcoming Ifp Independent Film Week. Made up of several sections (Rbc’s Emerging Storytellers program, No Borders International Co-Production Market and Spotlight on Documentaries), we find latest updates from the likes of docu-helmers Doug Block (112 Weddings) and Lana Wilson (After Tiller), and among the narrative items we find headliners in Andrew Haigh (coming off the well received 45 Years), Sophie Barthes (Cold Souls and Madame Bovary), Terence Nance (An Oversimplification of Her Beauty), Lawrence Michael Levine (Wild Canaries), Jorge Michel Grau (We Are What We Are), Eleanor Burke and Ron Eyal (Stranger Things) and new faces in Sundance’s large family in Charles Poekel (Christmas, Again) and Olivia Newman (First Match). Here...