Oscilloscope Laboratories announced today that it will release Academy Award-nominated director Dan Krauss’ “powerful and incendiary” documentary THE KILL TEAM in 2014. THE KILL TEAM premiered at this year’s Tribeca Film Festival where it won the festival’s Grand Jury Prize for Best Documentary. The film has also screened at HotDocs, AFI Docs, and the San Francisco International Film Festival, where it picked up yet another jury prize.
With the cost of movie-quality cameras becoming affordable in recent years, there’s hardly anything stopping somebody from picking up a camera and making a documentary about just about anything. In many ways, the last decade or so has really been the golden age of documentaries. With audiences paying more attention to big screen documentaries than ever, the quality of what is coming out from documentary filmmakers is astounding. Of course, that also means that more and more documentaries are being released to theaters than ever before – often unfortunately in limited release – and that means you’ve likely missed some great ones.
THE RUGBY PLAYER, which explores the unique bond between Mark Bingham, one of the passengers of United Flight 93 on 9/11, and his mother, Alice Hoagland, a former United Airlines flight attendant, makes its New York premiere at the 25th anniversary of NewFest, the NY LGBT Film Festival.
The rock and roll documentary “MUSCLE SHOALS” which premiered earlier this year at the 2013 Sundance Film Festival will open September 27, 2013 at the IFC Center in NY and nationwide on VOD, and October 11th in LA. At the heart of the story is Rick Hall who managed to convince musical superstars like Bob Dylan, Aretha Franklin, and Etta James to come to Alabama and record their hit albums. He is responsible for creating the “Muscle Shoals sound” and The Swampers, the house band at FAME that eventually left to start their own successful studio
The documentary “ANITA,” which recently screened as part of the Human Rights Watch Film Festival following its Sundance Film Festival debut earlier this year will be released this Fall by Samuel Goldwyn Films.
THE MUSLIMS ARE COMING!, directed by comedians Negin Farsad and Dean Obeidallah will open in theaters in September, with New York on September 20 at the Quad Cinema. The film follows a band of Muslim-American comedians – “Muzzies” – lead by Farsad and Obeidallah as they visit big cities, small towns, rural villages, and everything in between to combat Islamophobia with the only weapons they have: jokes!
Sundance Selects will release John Maloof and Charlie Siskel’s feature documentary FINDING VIVIAN MAIER, which will have its world premiere in the Documentary section at the 2013 Toronto International Film Festival.
Jonathan Holiff’s award winning documentary MY FATHER AND THE MAN IN BLACK which explores the relationship between Johnny Cash and his longtime manager Saul Holiff (the director’s father who committed suicide after being estranged for 20 years) will open in New York City and Los Angeles on September 6, 2013.
New trailer was released for Martha Shane’s and Lana Wilson’s directorial debut AFTER TILLER which premiered earlier this year at the Sundance Film Festival. The film title refers to Dr. George Tiller, a Kansas doctor who provided late-term abortions and was assassinated by anti-abortion activist Scott Roeder in 2009. AFTER TILLER will be released in theaters September 20, 2013.
Bill Siegel’s documentary THE TRIALS OF MUHAMMAD ALI, that premiered earlier this year at the 2013 Tribeca Film Festival will be released in the US by Kino Lorber. The documentary film opens in New York at the IFC Center on August 23rd with a national rollout planned through the summer and fall.
Alex Gibney’s Lance Armstrong documentary, THE ARMSTRONG LIE which tells the unfolding story of Armstrong’s life and career over the last four years.will be released by Sony Pictures Classics. No exact release date was announced.
The documentary “I AM BREATHING” which played at many prestigious international film festivals will make its U.S. theatrical premiere in New York Sept. 6-12 at IFC Center and in Los Angeles Sept. 13-19 at Laemmle Music Hall with additional national screenings to follow. In I AM BREATHING, filmmakers Emma Davie and Morag McKinnon craft a life-affirming portrait of the last months of Neil Platt, a 34-year-old architect and father from England diagnosed with Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) or Lou Gehrig’s Disease also known as Motor Neuron Disease (MND) in the UK.
The documentary THE WAITING ROOM, directed by Emmy Award-winning documentary filmmaker Peter Nicks, that goes behind the doors of Oakland’s Highland Hospital, a safety-net hospital fighting for survival while weathering the storm of a persistent economic downturn, premieres on Independent Lens on Monday, October 21, 2013 as part of the first PBS Independent Film Showcase.
The documentary “DEAR MR. WATTERSON,” directed by Joel Allen Schroeder, which explores the phenomenon of Bill Watterson’s popular 1980s and 1990s comic strip Calvin & Hobbes, will be released in theaters and VOD on November 15, 2013 by Gravitas Ventures.
ZIPPER a documentary about “greed, politics, land use and public policy’ and the battle over the Coney Island amusement district in New York City will be in theaters this Summer. The film will open at the IFC Center in New York City on August 9th, 2013.
THE ROMEOWS (Retired Old Men Eating Out Wednesdays), a feature documentary directed by Kevin Raman and Robert Sarnoff about a “Band of Brooklyn Buddies” who break bread, and each other’s chops, every Wednesday evening, will open in theaters on July 19, 2013.
The documentary LEWD & LASCIVIOUS had its sold out World Premiere at the 2013 FRAMELINE LGBT Film Festival in San Francisco. LEWD & LASCIVIOUS directed by Dr. Jallen Rix documents police harassment and public abuse on New Year’s Day 1965 of a gay and lesbian Mardi Gras Costume Ball attendees and how it changed the Gay civil rights landscape in San Francisco.
The punk roc documentary THE PUNK SINGER directed by Sini Anderson will be released in the Fall 2013 by Sundance Selects. The Punk Singer: The Documentary about Kathleen Hanna focuses on Kathleen Hanna credited as a founder of the third wave of feminism and Riot Grrrl movement.
Sundance Selects will release in the U.S., Hilla Medalia’s dance documentary “DANCING IN JAFFA,” which premiered earlier this year at the 2013 Tribeca Film Festival. Sundance Selects did not announce a release date, but a Fall 2013 date is expected.
MISS YOU CAN DO IT directed by award-winning documentary director Ron Davis will premeire on HBO on June 24th. MISS YOU CAN DO IT chronicles Abbey Curran, Miss Iowa USA 2008 and the first woman with a disability to compete at the Miss USA Pageant, and eight girls with various physical and intellectual disabilities as the girls participate in Abbey’s Miss You Can Do It Pageant. Abbey founded the annual Miss You Can Do It Pageant in 2004 and girls and their families travel from all around the country to participate in this one night where their inner beauty and abilities reign.
The filmmakers of a documentary about Venus and Serena Williams face a lawsuit filed by the U.S. Tennis Association. In the lawsuit filed Friday, the USTA claims copyright infringement after the filmmakers of VENUS AND SERENA allegedly used unlicensed video footage from the U.S. Open without permission.
The Weinstein Company released the trailer for the upcoming documentary “SALINGER,” about the notoriously reclusive “Catcher in the Rye” author J.D. Salinger.
Sean Dunne makes his feature-film-directing debut with the documentary, OXYANA which looks at the OxyContin epidemic in the West Virginia town of Oceana. OXYANA had it’s world premiere earlier this year at the 2013 Tribeca Film Festival, where the film received a Special Jury Mention in the World Documentary Competition, as well as a nod for Best New Documentary Director for filmmaker Sean Dunne. OXYANA will be released by the filmmakers for sale starting July 1, 2013.
ENZO AVITABILE MUSIC LIFE, directed by Jonathan Demme will open theatrically at Lincoln Plaza and a downtown theater in New York on October 18, and at the Royal and other Los Angeles area Laemmle theaters on October 25. A national release will follow.