A couple of months ago, I blogged about great documentaries streaming on Netflix.  Since then, Netflix has added a few more of my favorite non-fiction flicks: October Country: October Country is a beautifully rendered portrait of an American family struggling for stability while haunted by the ghosts of war, teen […]

This week we had two new toys to play with:  the Kessler Crane Phillip Bloom signature pocket dolly and the PMD 661 Marantz audio recorder.  While it’s always exciting for us to try out a new piece of technology, it’s tricky to figure out how to integrate the tools into […]

It took over 300 hours of video filmed over the course of a year to produce The Interrupters, Steve James‘ latest documentary study of urban America. While James’ celebrated Hoop Dreams captures the rise of inner-city kids to college basketball fame, his latest flick studies the pervasive violence that plagues […]

It doesn’t matter if you don’t know who Bob Forrest is, or recognize his alt-rock band Thelonious Monster. His is the story of ’80s and ’90s rock in America. Silverdocs selection Bob & The Monster is a throwback to that time, including both the sublime and the ugly, and it’s all […]

During a vintage store shopping trip down U Street this Sunday, I came across this “Gagged Washington” on the side of a building owned by DC Vote founder and board member Daniel Solomon.

We’re regulars at DC’s Basecamp, a local printing and shipping shop.  It’s where we buy reams of recycled paper, drop off left over shipping boxes to be reused and send hundreds of DVD screeners to film festivals and distributors.  But the main reason we frequent Basecamp is the owner Raj, […]

It’s that time of year again.  It’s hot and sticky and the best relief in town is to sit in a beautiful air conditioned movie theater watching documentary films. That’s right, it’s time for Silverdocs, the annual week-long documentary festival sponsored by AFI & Discovery. As a contributor to the […]

Have you seen Boston Globe’s Big Picture photo blog? If not, you should.  It’s a series of photos organized by recent news subject: immigration, conflict in the Middle East, natural disasters.  The photography needs no caption; the stories are told instead through powerful images.  A lot of people can take […]

Our latest project is a cinema verite short about a local men’s fashion store in a gentrifying DC neighborhood. We’ve spent almost two full days in the store filming the salesmen chatting with each other and interacting with customers. We’ve asked a few questions, but nearly of our filming time […]

Last night we documented Regina Holliday‘s Walking Gallery of health care stories and advocacy at Kaiser Permanente’s new Center for Total Health.  Above is the “micro doc” we put together about the event.  We’ve been filming Regina since she lost her beloved husband Fred to kidney cancer in 2009. Since […]

Even the wordiest of magazine publications, The New Yorker, uses some form of art. Yet instead of glossy photographs, the prestigious zine uses illustration. I recently discovered the video below on Drawn, a blog featuring illustration, animation and cartoons. It details the artistic process of New Yorker illustrator Tom Bachtell: [brightcove […]