Home » Learn

Documentary

10 Filmmakers to Watch in 2013

The Independent's annual selection of 10 filmmakers to keep an eye on in 2013.

April 30th, 2013 | Maddy Kadish
Posted in
We're turning up the volume on 10 Filmmakers to Watch. Photo by Gudlyf.

10 to Watch is an annual series that honors filmmakers who stand out as exceptional talents and leaders in the field of independent storytelling. This story has our complete list.

This year’s 10 to Watch represents filmmakers who we think are on to something in 2013. The Independent’s 10 to Watch list draws from narratives and documentaries, seasoned and newcomers, shorts and features, Sundance and SXSW favorites, and other parts of the film community.

10 Filmmakers to Watch in 2013: Errol Webber

Errol Webber makes our 10 to Watch list in 2013 with "American Promise" and other films.

May 12th, 2013 | Stacey Main
Posted in
Errol Webber uses narrative shooting techniques on documentary sets. Photo by Earl Neikirk for the Bristol Herald Courier.

Errol Webber has been behind the camera on some of this year's most influential and touted documentaries, including American Promise, Remote Area Medical, and 12 O'Clock Boys. Here he explains why it's AOK to watch Gossip Girl as cinematography "homework," and how he's making time for a childhood passion...

Errol Webber caught our attention at Sundance in January 2013 when he attended as one of the cinematographers on American Promise, which won the US documentary special jury award for achievement in filmmaking.

10 Filmmakers to Watch in 2013: Jason DaSilva

Jason DaSilva is on our 10 to Watch list in 2013 for “When I Walk.”

May 8th, 2013 | Stacey Main
Posted in
Jason DaSilva merges animation and doc storytelling in "When I Walk."

Doc-maker, animator, app-entrepreneur... it seems that Jason DaSilva can do it all. In a revealing personal doc released at Sundance earlier this year, DaSilva shares what happens when he loses the ability to walk. Read here about what other projects he has planned for 2013.

“It was kind of like an art project”, says writer/director Jason DaSilva as he recollects the beginnings of his feature documentary, When I Walk.

10 Filmmakers to Watch in 2013: Andrew James and Team

Director Andrew James, producers Sara Archambault and Katie Tibaldi, and editor Jason Tippet make our first ever 10 to Watch "team" with "Street Fighting Man."

May 6th, 2013 | Mike Sullivan
Posted in
James "Jack Rabbit" Jackson used to be a Detroit police officer.

We know every film is a collaboration and we know the buck stops with someone on every project. That said, the doc feature Street Fighting Man has one brilliant team. That's why Andrew James, Sara Archambault, Katie Tibaldi, and Jason Tippet together make our 10 to Watch in 2013 list.

Filmmaking is a collaborative art form. And although we, at The Independent, recognize that all the filmmakers on our list work collaboratively, we decided to highlight one filmmaking team in this year’s 10 to Watch. (Full disclosure, members of our team have met or worked with several members of this team and as a result have had first-had experience with their savvy and dedication.

10 Filmmakers to Watch in 2013: Tom Bean and Luke Poling

Filmmakers Tom Bean and Luke Poling make our 10 to Watch list in 2013 with their documentary "Plimpton! Starring George Plimpton as Himself."

May 4th, 2013 | David Pierotti
Posted in
Luke Poling and Tom Bean interview Hugh Heffner for their Plimpton doc.

Tom Bean and Luke Poling’s much-anticipated documentary about the ever-varied life of writer and journalist (among other careers), George Plimpton puts them on our 10 to Watch list for 2013. Their documentary has its theatrical premiere at the end of May. Here’s why this duo makes 10 to Watch.

There’s a short clip from The Simpsons in the new documentary Plimpton!

10 Filmmakers to Watch in 2013: Dawn Porter

Dawn Porter makes our 10 to Watch list in 2013 with her documentary "Gideon’s Army."

May 2nd, 2013 | Mike Sullivan
Posted in
Brandy Alexander is one of the public defenders featured in "Gideon's Army." Photo by Dawn Porter.

Since her Sundance premiere, Dawn Porter has been turning heads and hearts with Gideon's Army, her first feature documentary about the tough but vital role of public defenders in the US justice system. Here's why The Independent has an eye on her in 2013.

The odds may be long, but it is possible to see your first film be accepted by Sundance, win a Sundance award, and be bought by HBO. All you need is talent, passion, drive, determination, discipline, great collaborators, support, luck, perspective, intelligence and a killer idea at the perfect time. Do you have all that?

10 Filmmakers to Watch in 2013: Chiemi Karasawa

Chiemi Karasawa makes our 10 to Watch list in 2013 with "Elaine Stritch: Shoot Me" which premiered at Tribeca Film Festival.

April 30th, 2013 | Rebecca Reynolds
Posted in
10 to Watch Chiemi Karasawa and her "hurricane" of a doc subject, Elaine Stritch.

Several years passed between when Chiemi Karasawa, one of our 10 to Watch in 2013, met and then started filming the inimitable Elaine Stritch. Karasawa thought her doc project may need "someone famous" to direct it. But Stritch had already decided Karasawa was the right woman for the job.

Acclaimed producer, CEO, and now first time director with a Tribeca premiere for her documentary, Elaine Stritch: Shoot Me – that’s why Chiemi Karasawa is one of our 10 to Watch in 2013.

Why Edginess Counts in Doc Distribution

Distributors Cinema Guild and Drafthouse explain the appeal of two unconventional docs, "Leviathan" and "Act of Killing."

April 22nd, 2013 | Courtney Sheehan
Posted in
The birds of "Leviathan."

Not easily summarized or described, docs Leviathan and Act of Killing have been praised--and picked up for theatrical distribution--because of their beyond-the-norm approach to cinematic storytelling.

What do documentaries about the commercial fishing industry and a 1960s Indonesian genocide have in common?

Sundance 2013: Documentaries Depict Life, Raw and Unplugged

Neil Kendricks on three award-winning documentary features at Sundance.

February 4th, 2013 | Neil Kendricks
Posted in
"Boxing" painter Ushio Shinohara in "Cutie and the Boxer." Photo by Patrick Burns.

Neil Kendricks sizes up three award-winning documentaries from the Sundance line-up: Pussy Riot – A Punk Prayer, Cutie and the Boxer, and American Promise. The latter two, he writes, "deliver life-affirming and memorable stories without surrendering to sentimentality or phony uplift."

PARK CITY, Utah – It’s a safe bet that most documentaries won’t make the leap from the film-festival circuit to a multiplex near you.

Sundance 2013: Memorable Characters

Erin Trahan met several striking on- and off-screen characters at her first Sundance.

February 4th, 2013 | Erin Trahan
Posted in
Though not part of Sundance, Salt Lake City's inversion made a lasting impression. Photo by skabat 169.

Maybe you're drawn to character-driven stories, maybe you're just drawn to characters as The Independent's Erin Trahan was on her first trip to Sundance. Here's a sketch of her mostly but not exclusively human encounters.

Park City, UTAH—When you go to Sundance for the first time, after having written about it from afar for years, there’s an unavoidable collision of what you imagine or want the festival to be and what it is.

123456789…next ›last »
Syndicate content