News

Border towns can be strange places to grow up, and that’s especially true of Laredo. Situated on the divide between Texas and Mexico, this transient place is defined by change as thousands of immigrants try to pass through in search of something better. Yet there’s also an unyielding rigidity to the river that splits these two worlds. To cross would be a one-way ticket, something that 21-year-old Estefanía ’Beba’ Contreras and 18-year-old Silvia Del Carmen Castaños know firsthand.

Shared fears for their families and their future in America bind the pair (Sylvia was born to undocumented parents while Beba waits for her citizenship application), yet these anxieties don’t define them or their connection. In fact, they’re doggedly determined to live lives free of constraint in every aspect, a desire expressed by how fluidly they switch between Spanish and English, by their sexual and gender identities, and of course by “Hummingbirds,...

Silvia Del Carmen Castaños and Estefanía “Beba” Contreras, the directors and subjects of the playful and poetic Hummingbirds, like to sing and dance, take selfies and goof around. It would be easy, at quick glance, to dismiss their mischief as youthful self-absorption. It’s youthful self-absorption, to be sure, but something serious, vibrant and compelling courses through the levity. Silvia and Beba are, respectively, a powerful writer and a gifted musician. They were 18 and 21 when they began making the film, and it catches them in that singular in-between state on the edge of full-fledged adulthood. They’re also intimately acquainted with another in-between, one that’s not as ephemeral: As Mexican immigrants in Laredo, a city on the Texas side of the Rio Grande, they live in an actual borderland.

Shot mostly in the summer of 2019, Hummingbirds, which received a jury award upon its Berlin premiere and took its North American bow at True/False,...

The Intl. Documentary Association (IDA) has announced three 25,000 grants for upcoming films through its Pare Lorentz Documentary Fund.

The three documentaries are: Adamu Chan’s “What These Walls Won’t Hold”; Jalena Keane-Lee’s “Standing Above the Clouds”; and Silvia Del Carmen Castaños and Estefanía “Beba” Contreras’s “Hummingbirds,” which will have its world premiere at the 2023 Berlin Intl. Film Festival.

Organizers of the fund, created in 2011 with support from the New York Community Trust, received more than 19 applications in 2021. Named in honor of American documentary filmmaker Pare Lorentz, who was known for films including “The Plow That Broke The Plains” (1936), “The River” (1938) and “The Fight for Life” (1940), the fund provides production and post-production grants to be used in the creation of original, independent documentary films that illuminate issues in the United States.

“This year, we tried to consider broadly what Pare Lorentz’s legacy is for the 21st century,...

35 international documentary projects include 11 first-time feature directors.

New works from Mark Cousins and Cow producer Kat Mansoor are among 35 documentary projects selected for Sheffield DocFest’s MeetMarket pitching forum, which returns as an in-person event for 2022 from June 27-28.

The event will run in-person for the first time since 2019; and will continue online in the days following the festival. The selected titles are a mixture of theatrical features, and projects being made for television.

Scroll down for the full list of projects

Cousins is presenting UK title A Sudden Glimpse To Deeper Things, produced by Adam Dawtrey and Mary Bell.

35 international documentary projects include 11 first-time feature directors.

New works from Mark Cousins and Cow producer Kat Mansoor are among 35 documentary projects selected for Sheffield DocFest’s MeetMarket pitching forum, which returns as an in-person event for 2022 from June 27-28.

The event will run in-person for the first time since 2019; and will continue online in the days following the festival. The selected titles are a mixture of theatrical features, and projects being made for television.

Scroll down for the full list of projects

Northern Irish filmmaker Cousins is presenting UK title A Sudden Glimpse To Deeper Things, produced by Adam Dawtrey and Mary Bell.

The Sffilm Documentary Film Fund (Dff) officially has deemed the 2021 winners.

Now in its 10th year, Dff awarded a total of $60,000 in grant funding to four documentary projects, in $15,000 increments each. The funding will support feature-length documentaries in post-production.

Per the official Sffilm announcement, the Dff supports “non-fiction films that are distinguished by compelling stories, intriguing characters, and an innovative visual approach.” The 2021 winners include “Against the Tide,” “Driver,” “Hummingbirds,” and “Weed Dreams.”

“In an incredibly competitive slate of submissions, we are thrilled with the winning selections,” Masashi Niwano, Sffilm Director of Artist Development, said. “All of these films explore the human experience in new and powerful ways that truly moved our jury to tears.”

Since its founding in 2011, the Sffilm Documentary Film Fund has distributed nearly $1 million to filmmakers across the nation. The 2021 Dff is made possible by support from Jennifer Hymes Battat and the Jenerosity Foundation.

The 2021 panelists...

It’s been a couple months since the last edition of What’s Up Doc? placed Michael Moore’s surprise world premiere of Where To Invade Next at the top of this list and in the meantime much shuffling has taken place and much time has been spent on various new endeavors (namely my Buffalo-based film series, Cultivate Cinema Circle). Finally taking its rightful place at the top, D.A. Pennebaker and Chris Hagedus’ Unlocking the Cage is in the midst of being scored by composer James Lavino, according to Lavino’s own personal site. Though the project has been taking shape at its own leisurely pace, I’d expect to see the film making its festival debut in early 2016.

Right behind, the American direct cinema masters is a Texan soon to make his non-fiction debut with Voyage of Time. Just two weeks ago indieWIRE reported that Ennio Morricone, who scored...

Here's your daily dose of an indie film in progress; at the end of the week, you'll have the chance to vote for your favorite. In the meantime: Is this a movie you’d want to see? Tell us in the comments. "The Way the Crow Flies" Tweetable Logline: A new film about young adults returning to the Midwest. "Home is not as far as you remember." Elevator Pitch: A woman inherits her family farm at a young age so she and her significant other decide to take over the farm instead of their previous plans to move to the city. The empty farm becomes a magnet for friends and neighbors. A story that explores the blurred relationships of people in their twenties along with the power of place and how it affects our actions. Production Team: Director: Shane Jensen Writers: Shane Jensen, Tyler McClain Producer: Matthew Yeager Director of...