June 27, 2016
Announcing the AFI DOCS 2016 Audience Award Winners
The American Film Institute has revealed the AFI DOCS 2016 Audience Award winners, concluding the five-day festival in Washington, DC, and Silver Spring, MD. This year’s Audience Award for Best Feature went to MAYA ANGELOU: AND STILL I RISE, directed by Rita Coburn Whack and Bob Hercules (U.S.). This year’s Audience Award for Best Short went to…
June 23, 2016
The AFI DOCS Interview: SEVEN DAYS A WEEK Director Tal Amiran
In SEVEN DAYS A WEEK, Paul Saxton reflects on a long life behind the counter of his North London newspaper stand, 365 days a year at 4:40 a.m. for the last 36 years. The film won the Londonist Award for Best London Short Film at the London Short Film Festival. Ahead of the film's AFI DOCS...
June 22, 2016
The AFI Interview: CONTEMPORARY COLOR Directors Bill and Turner Ross
Bill and Turner Ross are AFI FEST alumni with their film TCHOUPITOULAS (AFI FEST 2012). We caught up with them to talk about their latest documentary, CONTEMPORARY COLOR, which premiered at the 2016 Tribeca Film Festival and will be screening this week at AFI DOCS. The film documents the Contemporary Color concerts organized by David Byrne, pairing a…
June 21, 2016
The AFI DOCS Interview: TRAIN SURFERS Director Adrien Cothier
In Adrien Cothier’s short film TRAIN SURFERS, thrill-seeking young men tempt fate doing stunts on Mumbai’s high-speed trains. AFI spoke to director Adrien Cothier ahead of the film’s AFI DOCS premiere. He is a New York-based filmmaker who cut his teeth working on the set of Wes Anderson’s FANTASTIC MR. FOX. What led you to documentary…
June 21, 2016
The AFI DOCS Interview: FAREWELL FERRIS WHEEL Directors Jamie Sisley & Miguel “M.i.G.” Martinez
There are many parallels between the lives of a migrant laborer and a carnival worker. FAREWELL FERRIS WHEEL is a year in the life of men who are both. Allotted controversial H-2B visas, the workers are grateful for the opportunity to provide for their families in Mexico, but also subject to little wage and labor…
June 21, 2016
The AFI DOCS Interview: SOLITARY Director Kristi Jacobson
In SOLITARY, director Kristi Jacobson takes viewers deep into Virginia’s Red Onion State Prison for a yearlong submersion in one of the most controversial aspects of America’s modern prison-industrial-complex: solitary confinement. Red Onion is just one of 40-plus supermax prisons, which force prisoners to spend 23 hours of every day alone. The film focuses on…
June 20, 2016
The AFI DOCS Interview: CHECK IT Directors Dana Flor & Toby Oppenheimer
In the heart of the nation’s capital, the Check It is a street gang comprised of gay and transgender teens who support each other in the face of outside bullying, attacks and discrimination. The group struggles with an existence underscored by violence, poverty and prostitution, but when a young mentor comes into their lives, he…
June 16, 2016
The AFI DOCS Interview: CHICKEN PEOPLE Director Nicole Lucas Haimes
Purebred dogs have Westminster; purebred chickens have the Ohio National Poultry Show. In this competition, some 10,000 prime specimens from all over the U.S. battle for the title of Super Grand Champion. The often-eccentric bird breeders share a passion for fostering feathered finery, discovering in their chickens a salve for life’s challenges and traumas. Full…
June 15, 2016
AFI Conservatory: Tradition and Change
At the opening of the AFI Conservatory in September 1969, founding director George Stevens, Jr., inspired the very first class of artists with remarks that ended, “Let us work to assure that we grow and change as film itself does.” Those words were echoed at Commencement on Wednesday, June 15, 2016 as 116 new storytellers...
June 13, 2016
The AFI DOCS Interview: CARE Director Deirdre Fishel
Millions of elderly Americans depend on compassionate caregivers to provide the support they need to age in place. Every day, these health care workers offer love and kindness to the elderly, but often don’t earn enough to keep a roof over their own heads. With compelling stories of caregivers and those in need, CARE opens…
June 8, 2016
The AFI DOCS Interview: THE MAN WHO SAW TOO MUCH Director Trisha Ziff
For more than five decades, photojournalist Enrique Metinides risked his life to photograph tragedy — and the human emotion that accompanies it — in Mexico City. From crime scenes shot in black and white to explosions captured in full color, Metinides’ hauntingly beautiful pictures reveal the drama of disaster in a single frame as captured…
June 6, 2016
The AFI DOCS Interview: A FAMILY AFFAIR Director Tom Fassaert
In the intimate documentary A FAMILY AFFAIR, Dutch filmmaker Tom Fassaert probes the dark corners of his family history in an attempt to understand his glamorous and enigmatic grandmother and the strange hold she has over her children even while living on the other side of the world. An invitation to visit her in South…
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