A documentary, more than two years in the making, about President-elect Barack Obama’s campaign is gathering significant interest from international distributors just days after being picked up in the United States by HBO. A team of directors and editors backed by the actorEdward Norton is furiously editing the untitled project.

Given the historic nature of Mr. Obama’s victory and worldwide interest in the presidential race, the film is drawing attention from the BBC and other foreign broadcasters. Since the HBO acquisition was announced, “we’ve had an enormous number of incoming calls from territories all over the world,” said Andrew Hurwitz, an entertainment lawyer who is representing the film along with the talent agency Endeavor.

Behind-the-scenes snapshots of campaigns have become a documentary staple, with “The War Room,” about President Bill Clinton’s 1992 run, and “Journeys With George,” about President Bush’s 2000 race, being two recent examples. The film about Mr. Obama’s 21-month campaign may prove to be an especially big draw overseas.

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Remember Chicago, 1968? Tens of thousands of anti-war protesters stormed the Democratic convention, setting off a chain of explosive and violent confrontations with the police. Well, now history has a new look.

In the season premiere of Independent Lens, Chicago 10, director Brett Morgen recreates the wild antics of the infamous Chicago Conspiracy Trial through original animation mixed with archival footage and a powerful soundtrack. The characters are the stuff of legend: Black Panther leader Bobby Seale; exasperated Judge Julius Hoffman; defense attorney William Kuntsler; defendant Tom Hayden; and Yippies Jerry Rubin and Abbie Hoffman. Vividly bringing them to life are the vocal talents of Hank Azaria, Mark Ruffalo, James Urbaniak, Jeffrey Wright, Liev Schreiber, Nick Nolte and the late Roy Scheider, among others.

In a sit-down interview, Morgen discusses the film, the use of animation and why and why he’s excited about its broadcast on PBS.

(WGU TV)

ReelzChannel’s Nando Velasquez sat down with Larry Charles and Bill Maher to talk about their documentary, Religulous. Charles directed the movie, in which Maher travels around the globe interviewing people about God and religion.

(Reelz Channel)

In March of 1977, about 14 months before shooting began on The Shining, Jack Nicholson took a vacation to Colorado, apparently leaving his palace on Mulholland Drive in the care of Anjelica Huston, Marlon Brando’s maid, and Chinatown director Roman Polanski. Polanski, 44, owed the French edition of Vogue a photo story and had decided that the best place for a second sitting with subject Samantha Geimer, who was from the Valley and who was 13, would be Nicholson’s hot tub. The photographer and the model shared drinks and chemical treats. They retired early, and the rest is infamy.

The unprecedented carnival of Polanski’s trial—it seems quaint, almost alien, in our post-O.J. universe—led to his conviction of charges of unlawful sexual intercourse with a minor, his flight from justice to Paris via LAX, and the peculiar spectacle of his 2002 Academy Award, which he won for The Pianist. Roman Polanski: Wanted and Desired, HBO’s artfully tawdry documentary about this affair, features a nice Oscar-clip moment near its end: The other four nominees sit electrified in their evening suits. Polanski stands behind a bullhorn in a still photo. Hazy Harrison Ford manages to get his name out. Martin Scorsese forces a big smile. This is what professional redemption looks like in Hollywood.

(Slate)

“Notes on the Making of ‘Apocalypse Now,’ ” Eleanor Coppola’s 1979 production diary of husband Francis’ audacious, flawed film released that year, remains one of the best accounts ever written of the insane difficulties involved in shooting a big-budget movie on location. Nearly 30 years later, she brings the same scrupulous honesty and lucid, thoughtful prose to her memoir “Notes on a Life.”

Ranging episodically over several decades, Coppola offers a poignant self-portrait of middle age — she’s just turned 50 as her text begins in 1986 — thinking about the choices she’s made. “I am an observer at heart,” she writes, and we see her mingled admiration and envy of those who fling themselves into action. Francis and daughter Sofia direct movies while Eleanor shoots “making of” documentaries about them.

(LA Times)

Film festivals can be a rollercoaster of highs and lows.

A premiere can be an ecstatic experience, but there’s a bit of a hangover the next day. Now what? Will the movie get in more festivals or is this it? Is this movie going to sell? Will we make our money back?

Similarly a documentary film festival celebrates and elevates our work. This is a common vibe here, one that I heard at the Conference Session “How Online Platforms Will Save Creative Documentary”.

(Independent Magazine)

Ask Academy Award-winning director Errol Morris how he makes movies, and his answer has a disarmingly goofy, gee-whiz quality: “I like to think of myself as a conceptual vacuum cleaner, an Electrolux,” he told an audience in New York City at a recent screening of his latest documentary, “Standard Operating Procedure.”

“I try to make friends with people I’m talking to. Gradually, a movie emerges.”

He stopped, and shrugged. “Go figure.”

Go figure indeed. “Standard Operating Procedure,” which opens Friday, is a damning indictment of U.S. policy in Iraq. The film’s starting point is the infamous photographs taken at the Abu Ghraib prison, which shocked the world when they were released in spring 2004.

(ABC News)

Morgan Spurlock is a curious guy who’s dedicated his career to answering some pretty crazy questions via his documentary films and television show.

What would a month-long McDonald’s diet do to the human body (”Super Size Me”)? Can two people live for a month solely on minimum wage (season one of “30 Days”)? What would it be like to spend time locked up as an inmate (season two of “30 Days”)?

To make his work stand out, Spurlock uses himself as a human guinea pig. He ate all that fast food, faced minimum wage and went to jail. In his latest film, “Where in the World Is Osama bin Laden?,” opening Friday, the filmmaker tries to do what the CIA, FBI and U.S. military have all failed to do: find the world’s most wanted man.

(Chicago Sun Times)

Martin Scorsese is at a point in his career when he has it all: respect, an Oscar, mainstream fame, the ability to do whatever he wants. This week, what he wants to do is show you his new Rolling Stones concert film, then get back to making another Boston movie.

It all comes back to the image. Start the director talking about “Shine a Light” - it opened in theaters Friday - and he waxes eloquently on how the early Stones hits beamed sonic movies right into the young Scorsese’s head. (Already he was cutting to the beat.) Ask him about what it was like to capture the last rock legends still standing as a unit, filmed in two nights in the fall of 2006 at New York’s Beacon Theatre, and you’ll hear gory, fascinating details of the all-star camera logistics.

And float a query about the new movie Scorsese’s shooting in Boston - “Ashecliffe,” based on Dennis Lehane’s “Shutter Island” - and you get a wonderful mental picture of Leonardo DiCaprio going to film school with Professor Marty, watching the 1947 film noir classic “Out of the Past” in a private screening at the Coolidge Corner Theatre. (Can we audit?)

(Boston.com)

 

At the BFI Southbank, Silence of the Lambs director Jonathan Demme talks about capturing the tears and dignity of the former US president in his Jimmy Carter: Man from Plains.

(The Guardian UK)