We’re deep into the week before Christmas and still cutting a swath through our Best/Worst/It’s Complicated Year-End coverage, most of which we hope you’ve all read and enjoyed, or at least been engaged by (it’s okay, you can disagree). This year, a few documentaries made it onto our collective 25 Best Films of the Year list; in 2016, it seems that many of the achievements in non-fiction cinema have rendered moot the notion of keeping narrative and documentary separate for evaluation.

Continue reading The 22 Best Documentaries Of 2016 at The Playlist.

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announced the field of 15 for the 2017 Documentary Feature Academy Award and while there were some notable snubs the only one that is cringeworthy is the absence of “Miss Sharon Jones!”

“O.J.: Made In America,” which has taken almost every major critics prize so far, made the cut as did 2016 Sundance Grand Jury prize winner “Weiner.”  The notable omissions are actually mostly from Park City debuts and include “Newtown,” “Jim” (the Audience Award winner), “Trapped,”Tickled” and “Audrie & Daisy.”

Other docs that didn’t make the list include “Bright Lights: Starring Carrie Fisher and Debbie Reynolds,” Werner Herzog’s “Into The Inferno” and “Amanda Knox.”

105 documentaries were submitted this year and the Academy’s Documentary branch will now pick the final five nominees from the following 15 films.

Continue reading ‘O.J.: Made In America’ And ‘Weiner’ Make The 2017 Documentary Feature Oscars Cut at The Playlist.

Kitty Genovese‘s 1964 murder in the wee hours of the morning in New York City solicited an unprecedented amount of press. The New York Times reported that Kitty was stabbed to death in front of 38 witnesses, and her story became the face of urban apathy. The incident has been studied extensively since then, leading to the creation of the term “Genovese syndrome,” more colloquially known as “the bystander effect.” It has also become the obsession of her brother Bill Genovese, who has been pursuing the whole truth about what happened on that night, so that he can finally have peace of mind about a case that’s been haunting him for nearly five decades.

Continue reading ‘The Witness’ Details The Obsessive Hunt For The Truth Behind The Murder Of Kitty Genovese [Review] at The Playlist.

It says something that five decades later, the horrific murder of Kitty Genovese — witnessed by 38 people, all of whom failed to intervene — continues to resonate. Those who might not have heard about the case may have seen it referenced on this season of “Girls,” but if you want to know the full story, the upcoming documentary “The Witness” will do just that.

READ MORE: 14 Films To See In June

Directed by James Solomon, the film follows the efforts of Bill Genovese, Kitty’s brother, to uncover the full truth of what happened on March 13, 1964, when his sister was brutally attacked, raped, and killed on a street in Kew Gardens, Queens, New York City.

Continue reading Exclusive: The Tragedy Lives On In Clip From Documentary ‘The Witness’ at The Playlist.