Doc Stars of the Month: Ernie Stevens and Joe Smarro, 'Ernie & Joe: Crisis Cops'

Though "Doc Star of the Month" has spotlit cops in the past (the NYPD's Sergeant Edwin Raymond of Stephen Maing's Crime + Punishment; Oakland Police Department Deputy Chief LeRonne Armstrong of Peter Nicks' The Force), this is the first time Documentary has showcased men in uniform who are breaking every conventional policing rule as part of the job.

Partners in fighting crime in the San Antonio Police Department Mental Health Unit, Ernie Stevens and Joe Smarro don't wear a uniform to work and are slow to draw a gun. The subjects of Jennifer McShane's mesmerizing (and SXSW Special Jury Prize-winning) Ernie & Joe: Crisis Cops, the macho duo are tasked to deal with folks in mental distress — from a schizophrenic man who refuses to leave a public building to a drug-addicted woman intent on leaping from a bridge. They do so not through any aggressive tactics but through far more radical means — by treating those suffering "perpetrators" with a potent mix of empathy and dignity. 

And because this counterintuitive method, far more thrilling to witness than any Cops-style takedown, actually works, Documentary is honored to highlight both Ernie and Joe as November's Doc Stars of the Month.

To read my interview with the titular heroes visit Documentary magazine.

Danish Doc-Making Legend Jørgen Leth Has No Plans to Retire

As a longtime fan of CPH:DOX I was thrilled to be back in Copenhagen at the end of October for the annual Danish Film Institute’s DokDag conference. And while there (where I had the honor of delivering the international keynote address to the Danish doc industry crowd) I received the added bonus of having coffee with none other than veteran nonfiction provocateur Jørgen Leth. Leth, who looks and acts much younger than his 82 years, will be attending IDFA this month to screen his most recent film I Walk, which deals with the physical aftermath of his having survived an earthquake in Haiti, and also to receive a Lifetime Achievement Award. Perhaps too soon, as Leth certainly has no plans to retire.

Indeed, far from it. And after Leth ordered a croissant and lamented the political catastrophe unfolding in his adopted Caribbean homeland, he eagerly and forthrightly answered my question, “So what are you working on next?” (And then some.) So here's what I learned.

Conflict Resolution: Jennifer McShane on Her HBO Doc about Policing and Mental Health, Ernie & Joe: Crisis Cops

Winner of the Special Jury Prize at this year’s SXSW, Jennifer McShane’s Ernie & Joe: Crisis Cops is an eye-opening look at the game-changing San Antonio Police Department’s Mental Health Unit through the daily activities of two of its humble leaders. It’s also a master class in policing done right.

At first glance the partners-in-fighting-crime protagonists of the film’s title seem straight from Cops central casting — hetero white macho males, one a military vet. But McShane swiftly disabuses us of any preconceived notions we might have with her very first, quite shocking scene, one in which the unassuming heroes respond to a call to escort a distressed schizophrenic man from a government building. Rather than go in with guns blazing the crisis cops do the exact opposite — casually chat with the man while calmly hanging back, ask him what’s wrong rather than telling him what he must do. In short order the two plain-clothed strangers have managed to firmly gain the hallucinating guy’s trust — enough that he just simply walks out the door with them. No handcuffs, let alone tasers, required.

For Ernie and Joe are he-man poster boys for the radical idea that empathy is not only compatible, but necessary, when it comes to law enforcement. (Or at least radical to me. Racial profiling is indeed very real, and because of this a lot of us who only know police officers through cellphone video images have admittedly developed blue profiling in response.) McShane (Mothers of Bedford, A Leap of Faith) found the time to fill us in on her doc, and its place in the larger criminal reform conversation, prior to the film’s November 19th HBO debut.

To read my interview visit Filmmaker magazine.

'I wanted to celebrate a life not having to look like an ordinary life': Eva Marie Rødbro's I Love You I Miss You I Hope I See You Before I Die

Eva Marie Rødbro is not your typical documentarian. The director of several provocatively-titled shorts – including 2008’s 'Fuck You, Kiss Me' (2008) and 2010’s 'I Touched Her Legs' (2010) – Rødbro makes the leap to feature-length work with 'I Love You I Miss You I Hope I See You Before I Die’.

Read all about the experimental director - and her world-premiering IDFA debut - in my interview over at the Danish Film Institute.

A collaborative closeness: Toni Morrison: The Pieces I Am

BIOGRAPHY: A dense journey encompassing the life on Toni Morrison and her place in history.

Toni Morrison: The Pieces I Am is an intimate look at the life of the titular American icon by famed photographer/documentarian – and Morrison’s friend of over three-and-a-half decades – Timothy Greenfield-Sanders. This collaborative closeness between the filmmaker and his Nobel and Pulitzer Prize-winning subject proves critical, beyond merely allowing for unguarded access. In a swift-moving two hours Greenfield-Sanders (The Black List, Lou Reed: Rock and Roll Heart) manages to painstakingly and lovingly pack every «piece» of his dear friend that the Morrison fan and uninitiated alike would ever need in order to grasp her transformative effect on literature – redefining who gets to tell whose story – around the globe.

To read the rest of my IDFA critique visit Modern Times Review.

Think Locally Rather Than React Globally: A Manifesto for 21st Century Doc-Making

"And while the Scandinavian film scene continues to excite me, filmmakers around the world are quickly catching up. Where once I would have thrilled to get a glimpse of the goings-on in a far-flung war zone through a Danish lens, today equally talented native filmmakers are providing me with a striking insider’s take from those frontlines. In recent years, as Danish documentarians teach me more and more about the world around me, I learn less and less about the Nordic region itself. I know a lot about patriarchal systems in developing countries. I know next to nothing about sexual harassment at Zentropa. I'd love to learn more. Unfortunately, important local stories are often sacrificed when filmmakers export their gaze."

Read more of my international keynote address for this year's Danish Film Institute DokDag conference. (Yes, it's in English.)

Shatterbox Shorts-Makers Channing Godfrey Peoples, Veronica Rodriguez, and Tiffany Johnson Talk “Refinery29 + Level Forward Present Shatterbox” at the SCAD Savannah Film Festival

Moderated by Amy Emmerich, President & Chief Content Officer at Refinery29, the SCAD Savannah Film Festival’s “Refinery29 + Level Forward Present Shatterbox,” a program of seven quite diverse shorts followed by a post-screening discussion, was presented at the comfy SCAD Museum of Art theater on an industry-heavy Monday afternoon.

The event featured Parisa Barani (Human Terrain), Tiffany J. Johnson and Adrienne Childress (Girl Callin), Kantú Lentz (Jack and Jo Don’t Want to Die), Channing Godfrey Peoples (Doretha’s Blues), and Lizzie Nastro (the Chloë Sevigny-directed White Echo) onstage to discuss their work – as well as working with Refinery29 and Level Forward’s female filmmaking incubator. And because the talk made me eager to learn even more about the Shatterbox selection-to-distribution pipeline I decided to follow up with some of the inspirational participants. Luckily for Filmmaker, three talented women — Channing Godfrey Peoples (one of 2018’s “25 New Faces of Independent Film”), Veronica Rodriguez (Shoot), and Tiffany Johnson — kindly agreed to answer a handful of questions via email.

To find out more visit Filmmaker magazine.

“Redefining Identity, Imagination, and Storytelling Through the Female Lens”: Refinery29 + Level Forward Present Shatterbox at the SCAD Savannah Film Festival

“Come for the glitz. Stay for the substance,” really should be the tagline on my SCAD Savannah Film Festival T-shirt, I thought to myself during this year’s 22nd edition of the US’s largest university-run film festival. Along with the twice Oscar-nominated Alan Silvestri, attending to receive a Lifetime Achievement Award for Composing, the fest invited a dozen high-profile and up-and-coming actors (Aldis Hodge, Daniel Kaluuya, Danielle Macdonald, Samantha Morton, Elisabeth Moss, Valerie Pachner, Olivia Wilde, Kaitlyn Dever, Beanie Feldstein, Jharrel Jerome, Mena Massoud, and Camila Morrone) to accept an array of accolades. (It also hosted decidedly not-famous journos like myself at the Savannah-charming Perry Lane Hotel.)

But scratch below the Hollywood-tinged surface and you’ll find an event equally concerned with giving its mostly young, genuinely hungry-for-knowledge attendees with a behind-the-scenes education in the business of bringing dreams to the screen. And the festival’s refreshing focus on female empowerment was something to be lauded as well. For in addition to screening over 50 women-helmed films this year, not to mention showcasing the third edition of the always informative Wonder Women Panel series, the SCAD Savannah Film Festival highlighted a program titled “Refinery29 + Level Forward Present Shatterbox.” For those not in the know, Shatterbox launched back in 2016 (birthed by Refinery29 and Level Forward) in order to provide female shorts-makers with the means to tell the wide-ranging stories they’re fighting to tell.

To read the rest visit Filmmaker magazine.

“Amy Heckerling Should be Thought of as a John Hughes!”: Words of Wisdom from the SCAD Savannah Film Festival’s Wonder Women Directors Panel

Once again, this year’s not-to-be-missed event at the 22nd edition of the SCAD Savannah Film Festival (October 26-November 2), the nation’s largest university-run film fest, was the Wonder Women Panel Series. Now in its third year, these always informative discussions highlight female power in the cinematic arts, from directing, to producing, to writing, to the below-the-line crafts. And for me one of the standouts was Wonder Women: Directors, featuring seven ladies behind the lens currently upending every preconceived notion about chick flicks in impressively eclectic ways.

Taking place on a laidback, late Tuesday morning at a packed Gutstein Gallery, and moderated by Variety’s Pat Saperstein, the panel included Gail Mancuso (Modern Family, A Dog’s Journey), Jocelyn DeBoer and Dawn Lueebe (Greener Grass), Annabelle Attanasio (Mickey and the Bear), Laure de Clermont-Tonnerre (The Mustang), Kaila York (Never See Her Again, Home Is Where the Killer Is), and Olivia Wilde (Booksmart).

To read all about it visit Filmmaker magazine.

Dictators, Predators and Magical Thinkers (and Some Combination Thereof): Doubling Up at DOC NYC

Now in its 10th year (though still in November, AKA doc-tsunami festival month) the upcoming DOC NYC is celebrating the anniversary with a wealth of nonfiction riches. Boasting a whopping 300-plus films and events — including 28 world premieres and 27 US premieres — this year’s edition will also be hosting an eclectic array of guests. On hand will be everyone from musician Robbie Robertson — star of Daniel Roher’s Once Were Brothers: Robbie Robertson and The Band, which opens the fest — to fashion force-of-nature André Leon Talley (who starred in Kate Novack’s The Gospel According to André just last year), slated to do a Q&A with first-time director Ebs Burnough. The duo will be discussing Burnough’s closing night doc The Capote Tapes, which is centered around never-before-heard audio recordings of the infamous author (and which just premiered at TIFF).

Indeed, there’s so much to choose from it’s hard to know where to begin. Which is why I’ve decided to pair up just six of my top film picks — all female-helmed — to perhaps inspire some outside-the-box selections (and double-feature attendance).

To read all about them visit Filmmaker magazine.