Documentary Films and Programs

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      A Filmmaker Focuses on Climate and Democracy

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      In his next documentary, Michael P. Nash takes on A.I. and how it might be used to address environmental issues.The Athens Democracy Forum last week featured an array of speakers from countries worldwide: politicians, leaders of nonprofits, youths dedicated to promoting democracy. Michael P. Nash was the only filmmaker to speak.Mr. Nash, who resides in Nashville and Los Angeles, is behind more than a dozen documentaries and psychological thrillers. His most well-known work is “Climate Refugees,” a documentary that debuted at the 2010 Sundance Film Festival and portrays the stories of people from 48 countries who were affected by climate change.Mr. Nash’s other notable films include “Fuel” (2017), which focuses on alternative energy, and “Saving the Roar” (2021), an inspirational sports documentary about Penn State University’s football culture.Mr. Nash is directing and producing “Chasing Truth,” a documentary examining whether artificial intelligence can solve environmental issues such as climate change and food security. The film is a collaboration with the actor Leonardo DiCaprio and his father, George DiCaprio, who are executive producers. It is expected to be released in 2026.George DiCaprio said he and his son got to know Mr. Nash more than a decade ago, at a screening of “Climate Refugees” at their home. “It was clear that we all shared a passion for addressing the world’s most pressing issues, and now, more than ever, that commitment has deepened,” he said in an email. After the forum, Mr. Nash was interviewed by email and phone about his interest in democracy advocacy; the connection between climate change and democracy; and what he had learned in Athens. The conversation has been edited and condensed.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Bitcoin Documentary ‘Money Electric’ Reopens Search for Satoshi Nakamoto

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      The identity of the pseudonymous Bitcoin creator has eluded sleuths for years. But does finding the real Mr. Nakamoto really matter?There are two ambitious missions behind “Money Electric: The Bitcoin Mystery,” a new documentary by the filmmaker Cullen Hoback that was released Tuesday by HBO.The first is to solve one of the internet’s great mysteries by revealing, at long last, the identity of Satoshi Nakamoto, the pseudonymous programmer who created Bitcoin in 2008.The film’s second mission is to make the case that the identity of Bitcoin’s creator actually matters — that Bitcoin, for all its flaws, represents an important technological breakthrough with far-reaching implications, and that there are good reasons, aside from prurience, to care who created it.Let’s start with the first part. Among Bitcoin buffs and cryptocurrency journalists, the mystery of Mr. Nakamoto’s identity has been the subject of fierce debate and painstaking investigation for more than a decade. But nothing has been proved conclusively, and a handful of bungled attempts to crack the case — most notoriously a 2014 Newsweek cover story that put the blame on a physicist, Dorian Nakamoto, who turned out to have nothing to do with Bitcoin at all — have only muddied the waters.(My former colleague Nathaniel Popper suggested that Nick Szabo, who created a digital currency with similarities to Bitcoin, was most likely Satoshi Nakamoto back in 2015, but Mr. Szabo has denied it, and no conclusive evidence has emerged.)Mr. Hoback, who spent years diving down the rabbit hole of the QAnon conspiracy theory for his last film, “Q: Into the Storm,” took a similarly exhaustive approach this time. He and a camera crew spent three years flying around the world interviewing early Bitcoin contributors, following digital breadcrumbs buried in ancient message board posts and piecing together the evidence.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Telluride Film Festival Embraces a Political Lineup

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      The films partly reflect the business realities of Hollywood, which is still grappling with the aftereffects of the writers’ and actors’ strikes last year.As luck would have it, the documentary filmmaker Matt Tyrnauer was recording a conversation with James Carville, the longtime political analyst and subject of Mr. Tyrnauer’s new movie, in May 2023 when a national poll revealed that likely voters favored former President Donald J. Trump over President Biden by seven percentage points.“It knocked me right off my horse,” Mr. Carville said in the film. That moment set in motion his contentious 18-month campaign to encourage Mr. Biden to drop out of the race.“I was old. I knew a little bit about what the job entailed, and I had a platform,” Mr. Carville, 79, said in a recent interview. “I felt like I didn’t have another choice.”Mr. Tyrnauer didn’t have much of a choice, either: He needed to change his film, initially about Mr. Carville’s 30-year career as a very public political consultant, into a more immediate chronicle of Mr. Carville’s effort to alter the course of the presidential election and Mr. Biden’s decision to drop out of the race.On Friday, the final result — “Carville: Winning Is Everything, Stupid!” — will debut at the Telluride Film Festival. It is one of 15 documentary films, many about current events, at the Labor Day weekend festival, a four-day confab in the San Juan Mountains of Colorado that caters to Hollywood’s cognoscenti and is often a harbinger for the fall awards season.Others include “Zurawski v Texas,” from the directors Maisie Crow and Abbie Perrault, which tracks the efforts of Molly Duane, a lawyer with the Center for Reproductive Rights, to fight a Texas law that limits health care options for pregnant women. (The lead plaintiff in the case, Amanda Zurawski, and her husband, Josh, appeared onstage at the Democratic National Convention last week to share their story.) “Separated,” from the famed director Errol Morris (“The Fog of War”), examines the U.S. border family-separation policy enacted by the Trump administration. “No Other Land,” a joint project by a Palestinian activist and an Israeli journalist, details daily life for a West Bank village under Israeli occupation.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      The New York Times Presents: ‘Lie to Fly,’ the Story of Pilot Joseph Emerson

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      ‘Lie to Fly’Producer/Director Carmen García DurazoCo-Producer Leah HarariProducer/Reporter Mike BakerWatch our new documentary on FX and Hulu starting Friday, Aug. 23, at 10 p.m. Eastern.Minutes before boarding an Alaska Airlines flight home in 2023, Joseph Emerson, a pilot, sent a text to his wife, eager to reunite with their two young children and longing to be by her side.The flight was full, and Emerson, who was off duty, took the cockpit jump seat. What should have been a routine trip quickly turned dramatic and dangerous. During the two-hour journey from Everett, Wash., to San Francisco, Emerson reached up and pulled the plane’s two fire-suppression handles, designed to cut the fuel supply and shut down both engines. Two days earlier, Emerson had consumed psychedelic mushrooms. He had long harbored fears that seeking mental health treatment could jeopardize his career.With 83 other passengers and crew members on board, he was initially arrested on charges of attempted murder for each of them. Now, he’s charged with one count of endangering an aircraft and 83 counts of recklessly endangering another person.“Lie to Fly” explores the story of Emerson, and the reasons he and many other pilots fear seeking mental health treatment. The film follows a growing movement calling for reform of the Federal Aviation Administration’s strict rules around pilot mental health, which some insiders say leaves the public at risk. “Lie to Fly” also documents the consequences that Emerson faces both personally and professionally since his shocking actions in the jump seat.“There was never a question in my mind that this is what I want to do for my career,” Emerson said about becoming a pilot.Left Right Productions/The New York Times/Hulu Originals/FX NetworksEmerson recalled his experience using mushrooms: “One of the things that was said to me several times was, ‘It’s all going to be OK when the sun comes up.’ And then the sun started rising and it wasn’t all OK.”Left Right Productions/The New York Times/Hulu Originals/FX NetworksSupervising Producer Liz HodesDirector Of Photography Jaron BermanVideo Editor Geoff O’Brien“The New York Times Presents” is a series of documentaries representing the unparalleled journalism and insight of The New York Times, bringing viewers close to the essential stories of our time. More

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      Morgan Spurlock, Documentarian Known for ‘Super Size Me,’ Dies at 53

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      His 2004 film, which was nominated for an Oscar, followed Mr. Spurlock as he ate nothing but McDonald’s for a month.Morgan Spurlock, a documentary filmmaker best known for the Oscar-nominated 2004 film “Super Size Me,” which followed him as he ate nothing but McDonald’s for 30 days, died on Thursday. He was 53.His brother Craig Spurlock confirmed the death in a statement to The Associated Press, and said the cause was complications from cancer. The statement did not say where he died.In “Super Size Me,” Mr. Spurlock tested the broadly held idea that fast food is unhealthy by gorging on McDonald’s Super Size meals, hamburgers, fries, soda and more for weeks, as he steadily gained weight. The film, which grossed more than $22 million on a $65,000 budget, contributed to a sweeping backlash against the fast food industry.A full obituary will follow. More

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      From Majesty to Frailty: Why Are So Many Horses Breaking Down?

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      ‘Broken Horses’Producers/Reporters Joe Drape and Melissa HoppertSupervising Producer Liz HodesWatch our new documentary on FX and Hulu starting Friday, April 26, at 10 p.m. Eastern.When horse racing fans arrive at Churchill Downs in Louisville, Ky., next week for the 150th running of the Kentucky Derby, some might be watching with unease. On the same track last year, seven horses died before the showpiece event even started. In the days after, five more died.Two other events in the sport’s Triple Crown series — the Preakness Stakes in May and the Belmont Stakes in June — and the signature meet at the historic Saratoga Race Course were also marred by deaths, horrifying spectators and intensifying pressure on racing officials to, finally, reckon with the problem.“Horses dying in clusters is not a new phenomenon,” Joe Drape, a New York Times reporter, says in the new documentary “Broken Horses.” “It’s just now people are paying attention and want to know why.”Drape and Melissa Hoppert, who have covered the horse racing industry for decades, were part of a team that investigated the fateful period last year that threw the sport into crisis and left fans wondering why so many horses, supposedly in peak physical condition, were breaking down so frequently. Horses racing at Churchill Downs in 2023.Left Right Productions/The New York Times/Hulu Originals/FX NetworksWith confidential documents, recordings and exclusive interviews, “Broken Horses” provides a vivid tour of the business and political forces that control the Sport of Kings and resist measures to implement changes that could decrease horse deaths. It is a story of reckless breeding and doping, of compromised veterinarians and trainers, and of fans who are drawn to the sport’s beauty and pageantry but increasingly wonder how long one of America’s oldest sports can continue to have its social license renewed.“A racehorse is the only animal that can take a thousand people for a ride at once,” Hoppert says in the film, quoting a saying among the sport’s devotees. In 2023, a troubling number of those rides ended calamitously. “Broken Horses” attempts to show viewers the underbelly of the sport, so they can begin to understand why.Producer Luke KoremCo-Producer Leah VarjacquesProducers/Reporters Liz Day and Rachel AbramsStory Producer Alexander BaertlDirector of Photography Jarred AltermanVideo Editors Patrick Berry and Charlotte Stobbs“The New York Times Presents” is a series of documentaries representing the unparalleled journalism and insight of The New York Times, bringing viewers close to the essential stories of our time. More

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      Lourdes Portillo, Oscar-Nominated Documentary Filmmaker, Dies at 80

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      Her films centered on Latin American experiences and received wide acclaim.Lourdes Portillo, the Oscar-nominated Mexican-born documentary filmmaker whose work explored Latin American social issues through spellbinding narratives, has died. She was 80.Ms. Portillo died Saturday at her home in San Francisco. Her death was confirmed by her friend Soco Aguilar. No cause was given.One of Ms. Portillo’s best-known works is her 1994 documentary “The Devil Never Sleeps,” a murder-mystery in which Ms. Portillo investigates the strange death of her multimillionaire uncle, whose widow claimed he had died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound. In 2020, the Library of Congress selected the film for preservation at the National Film Registry.“Using vintage snapshots, old home movies and interviews, the film builds a biographical portrait of Oscar Ruiz Almeida, a Mexican rancher who amassed a fortune exporting vegetables to the United States and went on to become a powerful politician and businessman,” Stephen Holden, a Times movie critic, wrote in a 1995 review of the film.The documentary had the tenor of a telenovela and presented open questions about Mr. Ruiz Almeida’s mysterious life and death and the people who could have had a motive for the murder.“The more Oscar is discussed, the more enigmatic he seems,” Mr. Holden wrote.Ms. Portillo crafted the film’s story line from the information her mother relayed over the phone while Ms. Portillo was living in New York, she said in a talk at the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures in Los Angeles last year.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      2024 Tribeca Festival Event Lineup Released

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      Organizers released the event lineup for the annual New York event, set for June. It includes films that trace the lives of Linda Perry and Avicii.The 2024 Tribeca Festival will offer the world premieres of a Brat Pack documentary, a movie starring Lily Gladstone and films that trace the lives of the music world figures Linda Perry and Avicii, organizers said Wednesday as they announced the event lineup.Also on the schedule will be a feature starring Jenna Ortega, a buddy comedy with Michael Cera, Maya Erskine and Kristen Stewart and a documentary that looks at the world of queer stand-up comedy.This year’s festival, which will run in Lower Manhattan from June 5-16, will open with the documentary “Diane von Furstenberg: Woman in Charge” and will include 103 features from 114 filmmakers in 48 countries. The festival will offer 86 world premieres and 30 movies directed by first-time filmmakers.Officials said their final selections were chosen from more than 13,000 submissions — a record high.“We feel really lucky that there was such enthusiasm, particularly with all of the challenges that the industry had this year,” Cara Cusumano, the Tribeca Festival’s director, said in a phone interview. “It made me feel really optimistic about the future of independent film and about the resiliency of the creative community,”The documentary “Brats” will follow Andrew McCarthy as he crisscrosses the country reconnecting with fellow actors Rob Lowe, Demi Moore, Ally Sheedy, Emilio Estevez and others who in the 1980s and ’90s became collectively known as the Brat Pack. A panel featuring McCarthy, who directed the documentary, and other members of the cast will follow the premiere.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More