Activism

Julia Bacha's follow up to Budrus is My Neighborhood, which follows a young boy who comes of age in East Jerusalem through eviction, protests, and unexpected allegiances. She told The Independent that "the story of My Neighborhood isn’t over. We wanted to get the film out as soon as possible, because we didn’t want the window to close while there was still time to try and stop the settlements there."

"I think every doc director is an activist, their army is visual images," says director Seung-Jun Yi. His film, Planet of Snail, about the blind and deaf poet Young-Chan, just won the best feature-length documentary award at IDFA. Seung-Jun Yi has made documentaries for Korean television and is among a growing movement of filmmakers to break out and expand the form.

From the long walk between work and home to squeezing water from the desert dust, The Fruit of Our Labor depicts daily life in post-9/11 Afghanistan, as told by 10 Afghan filmmakers trained by Community Supported Film.

If you thought the electric car died a slow, tragic death, you're right. And if you're like filmmaker Chris Paine, who helped document its demise in Who Killed the Electric Car? or the inventors and advocates in his new film, Revenge of the Electric Car then you believe, beyond a shadow of the doubt, electric can and will power vehicles of the future. Read what Paine told the The Independent's Katherine Brodsky after his film premiered.

We'll be announcing our annual list of 10 of the most talented filmmakers we think you should keep your eye on by posting exclusive content daily on our Facebook page.

For six years now Ben Fowlie has been luring the documentary world north to the Camden International Film Festival. They come for pitch opportunities, a seminar for film professionals, a semester-long partnership with the University Maine, and for docs that embrace an activist edge.

"You could argue that there's plenty of fiction on PBS. Strictly speaking, that’s true. My complaint is that it all comes with an accent," writes David Pierotti. Why can't his most beloved source of TV programming, PBS, bring the same charisma to its American-made fiction as it does its nonfiction?

Prompted by Miranda Bailey's recent documentary, Greenlit, The Independent's Steven Abrams asks two eco-experts for tips on simple, environmentally conscious filmmaking methods.

Led by two French filmmakers, the web doc Prison Valley addresses prison reform in the US with an interactive online format, making a splash in the world of digital journalism and securing distribution with Arte TV in France.

You'll likely be surprised when you find out exactly what types of films the Playboy Foundation is passionate about making. A hint? Nudity is not a requirement.