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In April 2010, Cathy Terkanian received a letter that would change her life forever. It was written by a social worker, who explained that the daughter Terkanian had given up for adoption 35 years prior had disappeared from her adoptive home in 1989. Driven by a need for answers, Terkanian enlisted the help of an amateur sleuth and local authorities and embarked on a 10-year quest to uncover what happened to her child.

Into the Fire: The Lost Daughterchronicles that quest, diving into the shadowy depths of a chilling true-crime story that feels almost impossible to believe. At the center of this labyrinthine tale, however, is the unbreakable bond between mother and child — and the power of maternal instinct across space and time.

Directed and produced by Ryan White, Into the Fire: The Lost Daughter is also produced by Jessica Hargrave, Matt Maher,...

On “The Umbrella Academy,” it was always about the end of the world. From the very first episode of the Netflix based on the comic by Gerard Way and Gabriel Bá, the superpowered siblings at the center were tasked with saving the world from themselves — again, and again, and again.

So it was only fitting that the series finale — aptly titled “End of the Beginning” — would tackle this problem head on, forcing Viktor (Elliot Page), Luther (Tom Hopper), Diego (David Castañeda), Alison (Emmy Raver-Lampman), Klaus (Robert Sheehan), Ben (Justin H. Min), and Five (Aidan Gallagher) to reckon with their own role in all the catastrophes they’ve witnessed and how they can set it all right once and for all. They broke the timeline just by being born, and the only way to stop infinite timelines and world-ending debacles is to remove themselves from the equation.

The truncated 6-episode season...

Number Five falling in love with his brother’s wife might be one of the cringiest things that you might have witnessed in The Umbrella Academy’s finale. I mean, their love story arc literally overshadowed the disgusting vomit scene in the second episode. But yes, the creators gave us some logic to make us feel better about it. They were trapped in the multiverse of madness for more than seven years, and developing such feelings for one another was nothing but natural. But before coming to their complicated relationship, we first need to understand why they were attracted to each other in the first place.

For Lila, it was pretty simple. She was going through a midlife crisis and had lost her identity while trying to raise kids and listening to the blabbering of her grumpy husband, Diego, all day long. She had always been a fun-loving lass who loved going on dangerous missions,...

Note: This story contains spoilers from “The Umbrella Academy” Season 4.

“The Umbrella Academy” came to a close with its Season 4 finale this week, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t a few last threads worth explaining.

The shortened final season still jammed quite a bit into just six episodes and the finale, in particular, was fit to burst. The story followed the Hargreeves siblings facing off once and for all with The Keepers in order to stop The Cleanse from ending the universe. The Keepers’ hope was that The Cleanse would end the many broken timelines once and for all, ensuring the main one was restored.

Five (Aidan Gallagher) learns in the finale — in a diner full of his variants, no less — that the marigold that arrived on Earth with Reginald (Colm Feore) and granted the Hargreeves siblings their powers branched the main timeline into the multiverse. Five is...

This post contains detailed spoilers for the final season of "The Umbrella Academy."

"The Umbrella Academy" is over, and the Netflix sci-fi series managed to take down countless timelines and a whole family of superheroes with it. The show ended this week with a six-episode arc that messily, confusingly, and –- somehow –- satisfyingly closed the book on the story of the Hargreeves family once and for all. Along the way, unlikely pairings fell in love, long-suffering characters were redeemed, and Nick Offerman and Megan Mullally did a funky little dance.

But what does it all mean? Try to explain the emotional conclusion to "The Umbrella Academy" and you'll find yourself in need of a whiteboard to chart out the show's many alternate universe offshoots and vague scientific theories. As heartfelt as the end of the show is, it's not exactly logically airtight, and since season 4 has outpaced Gerard Way's comic books,...

Plot: The Hargreeves siblings have scattered after the climactic showdown at the Hotel Oblivion, which completely reset their timeline. Stripped of their powers, each is left to fend for themselves and find a new normal — with wildly varying degrees of success. Yet the trappings of their uncanny new world prove too hard to ignore for very long. Their father, Reginald, alive and well, has stepped out of the shadows and into the public eye, overseeing a powerful and nefarious business empire. A mysterious association known as The Keepers holds clandestine meetings believing the reality they’re living in is a lie and a great reckoning is coming. As these strange new forces conspire around them, the Umbrella Academy must come together one last time — and risk upsetting the shaky peace they’ve all endured so much to secure — to finally set things right.

Review: The Netflix comic book series The Umbrella Academy...

Picking up where we left off in episode 2, The Umbrella Academy season 4 episode 3 gives us a little background on Jennifer, though it creates more questions than answers. The Hargreeves go to Reginald for an explanation, while Klaus navigates life with powers again. We break down the biggest moments from "The Squid and the Girl" right here!

Warning: Major spoilers for The Umbrella Academy season 4 episode 3 are below.

The opening of the third episode of season 4 shows us a news broadcast, where two fishermen have caught a huge squid. As they talk to an interviewer about their catch, they realize there's something inside of it trying to get out. When they cut open the squid, they're all completely shocked to find a little girl inside. When they ask her if she knows what's happened, all she says is: "The Cleanse." Creepy! A quick shot of Reginald is seen in the background.

The second episode of The Umbrella Academy season 4 takes place the morning after the Hargreeves siblings' dinner together, and they're feeling serious effects of those marigold shots.

Warning: Major spoilers for The Umbrella Academy season 4 episode 2 are below.

Luther wakes up, feeling incredibly hungover, and when he goes to work his boss suspects he's on drugs. He begins a performance and realizes he somehow has impressive strength, dancing with women in the audience and picking them up. His powers are coming back, of course, but he doesn't realize it yet. Diego delivers packages and is also amused by his strength, finding the ability to throw mail into mailboxes perfectly without having to get out of the truck. Five accidentally blinks (a.k.a. teleports) and takes a sick day from the CIA office, unsure of what's going on.

The Hargreeves' powers have returned!

At the strip club, Luther begins taking...

Finally, The Umbrella Academy is back! The Netflix fan-favorite has returned for a fourth and final season and all six episodes are now available to stream. The premiere, "The Unbearable Tragedy of Getting What You Want," introduces us to the Hargreeves now that they've settled into their new realities: the reset timeline where they no longer have powers. Remember when Reginald reset everything at the end of season 3? Yeah, the siblings have all but accepted they aren't superheroes anymore.

But all of that might just change in The Umbrella Academy season 4! The premiere episode is a great reminder of why we love this Netflix Original so much.

Warning: Major spoilers for The Umbrella Academy season 4 episode 1 are below.

It's been six years since the events of the season 3 finale, and the season 4 premiere opens up by introducing us to two new characters who will be very important in this installment.

Stars: James Hong, Michelle Mao, Dante Basco, Dave Sheridan, Bai Ling, Anna Harr, Matthew Sato, Zac Albright, Gedde Watanabe, George Takei | Written by Zack Ward, Ace Underhill | Directed by Zack Ward

The Keepers of the 5 Kingdoms is the latest film in James Hong’s impressive career. It’s a career that goes back to the 1950s, and between then, and now he’s racked up over 450 credits as an actor, including Big Trouble in Little China, Kung Fu Panda, Batman: Soul of the Dragon and Everything Everywhere All at Once. He’s also written and directed a handful of films, most notably the 1989 horror film The Vineyard.

Here he provided the story the script is based on as well as playing Chuck Lee, the grandfather of the film’s heroine Patsy Lee. Patsy is a studious young woman who just wants to get a scholarship so she can go...

When the first season of “The Jinx” concluded in 2015, it did so with a bang. That March, Robert Durst’s mumbled confession — “Killed them all, of course” — became the catchphrase of news broadcasts, late night shows and everyday conversations. It also sparked a trend in the larger television landscape. After years of being sidelined as a niche interest or confined to low-budget endeavors, true crime documentaries were at the forefront of pop culture.

“The Jinx” was followed by other buzzy, critically-acclaimed installments in the genre such as “Making a Murderer,” “Amanda Knox” and “The Keepers” on Netflix and “Mommy Dead and Dearest,” “I’ll Be Gone in the Dark” and “The Vow” on HBO. But the man who unintentionally sparked this boom doesn’t necessarily see it as a good thing.

“When people say true crime, I think there might be a misnomer,” Andrew Jarecki, the director behind both seasons of “The Jinx,...

Nearly ten year after the Emmy Award-winning first season, “The Jinx” is remarkably back on HBO. Andrew Jarecki, Marc Smerling, and Zac Stuart-Pontier’s engrossing docuseries about the string of murders connected to Robert Durst built to a now-infamous climax, and will return with more story to tell April 21.

Before that, it’s worth revisiting the 2015 series and decades of headlines it interrogates. “The Jinx” gripped its audience with mounting evidence against Durst and a scintillating narrative structure, but also quickly came under fire for manipulating the timeline and even Durst’s hot mic recordings for dramatic effect. In 2015, IndieWire’s Matt Brennan pointed out that “The Jinx” set an impossible standard for documentary drama — one that the series itself had arguably not cleared in the first place. Jessica Kiang wrote that “This is not Jarecki’s gotcha so much as it is a self-initiated, cloudily motivated performance piece of Durst’s,...

Baywatch star? Canadian icon? Animal rights activist? Playboy model? Nineties tabloid staple? Forget what you think you know about Pamela Anderson. A new Netflix documentary attempts to explore every facet of a woman who’s been in the spotlight — for better or worse – for over 30 years.

Directed by Ryan White, the as-of-yet untitled movie promises “an intimate portrait embedded in the life of Pamela Anderson as she looks back at her professional and personal path and prepares for the next steps on her journey.” White’s past credits include The Keepers, a Netflix docuseries investigating the cold case of murdered nun Catherine Cesnik in 1969.

Along with exclusive interviews with Anderson herself, viewers will have access to never-before-seen archival footage and personal journals to unpack her experience in Hollywood and beyond — in her own words this time.

There is no dearth of true crime documentaries on Netflix. Most of these documentaries cover the ways in which the subject targeted women until the authorities finally tracked them down. Tinder Swindler, Night Stalker: The Hunt for a Serial Killer, The Keepers, and The Ripper are some examples of true crime documentaries released by Netflix, and the streaming giant has somehow aced this form of content. Yet another addition to this genre is Liza Williams’ Can I Tell You a Secret, which chronicles the story of a man who cyberbullied countless women in his vicinity. This two-part documentary miniseries was released on February 21, 2024.

The documentary begins with Zoe, Abby, and Lia, the victims of the stalker, discussing in detail how a random stranger contacted them on their phone through Snapchat and Instagram and began to bully them. It began as a normal conversation, which turned into a nightmare for the...

It might seem contradictory that the rise of short video clip popularity coincided with the popularity of long form journalism, but Netflix may be the common factor. The streaming network didn’t invent true crime documentation, but it helped shape the style, and keeps a vast repository of the hottest cold cases.

Real-life crime stories are riveting, whether the watcher is concerned about avoiding such events or solving them. There is something for every taste, from feature-length documentaries to full series. Not all crimes are equal under the laws of public opinion, but these are some of the most dangerously addictive true crime offerings currently available on Netflix.

Making a Murderer (2015)

Moira Demos and Laura Ricciardi’s 10-part documentary on Steven Avery catapulted Netflix to the top of the True Crime streaming game. Making a Murderer spurred the fascination with the genre more than any other series. Avery served 18 years...

Before working on “Pamela, a love story,” director Ryan White admits that there was no one more skeptical about making a Pamela Anderson documentary than him. “I think that’s because, like a lot of people, I had all of these preconceived notions about who Pamela Anderson is or who she would be today and I wasn’t really interested in being a part of that story,” he tells Gold Derby during our recent Meet the Experts: TV Documentary panel (watch the exclusive video interview above). All of that changed for White when he got the chance to have a Zoom session with Anderson. “I was so fascinated with who she appeared to be in this little box in front of me and I thought, ‘Wow. If I’m this surprised right now, if we could show an audience who this woman really is, that could be the recipe for a great documentary.

Five documentary filmmakers will reveal secrets behind their projects when they join Gold Derby’s special “Meet the Experts” Q&a event with 2023 Emmy Awards nominees. They will participate in two video discussions to premiere on Thursday, August 10, at 6:00 p.m. Pt; 9:00 p.m. Et. We’ll have a one-on-one with our senior editor Charles Bright and a roundtable chat with all of the group together.

RSVP today to our entire ongoing contenders panel series by clicking here to book your free reservation. We’ll send you a reminder a few minutes before the start of the show.

Judy Blume Forever (Amazon Prime)

Synopsis: Judy Blume and the generations of readers who have sparked to her work. It will examine her impact on pop culture and the occasional controversies over her frankness about puberty and sex.

Bio: Leah Wolchok is an Emmy nominee for “Judy Blume Forever.” Her...

Six TV documentarians will reveal secrets behind their projects when they join Gold Derby’s special “Meet the Experts” Q&a event with 2023 Emmy Awards contenders. They will participate in two video discussions to premiere on Tuesday, May 16, at 6:00 p.m. Pt; 9:00 p.m. Et. We’ll have a one-on-one with our senior editor Denton Davidson and a roundtable chat with all of the group together.

RSVP today to our entire ongoing contenders panel series by clicking here to book your free reservation. We’ll send you a reminder a few minutes before the start of the show.

This “Meet the Experts” panel welcomes the following Emmy contenders:

Dear Mama (FX)

Synopsis: It follows the life and legacy of Tupac Shakur and his mother, the Black Panther activist Afeni Shakur.

Bio: Allen Hughes is an Emmy nominee for “The Defiant Ones.” His career has included “Menace II Society,...

On January 31, 2023, Netflix released “Pamela, a Love Story,” a documentary telling the story of Pamela Anderson in her own words. It is described as “an intimate and humanizing portrait of one of the world’s most famous blonde bombshells. ‘Pamela, a Love Story’ follows the trajectory of Anderson’s life and career from small town girl to international sex symbol, actress, activist and doting mother.”

Early reviews are stellar for the film from Emmy-nominated director Ryan White. It currently holds a perfect 100 freshness rating on Rotten Tomatoes, with an audience score of 88. Read our review roundup of “Pamela, a Love Story” below.

See Rian Johnson on planting ‘Glass Onion’ clues in plain sight and his ‘pretty cool’ Oscar nomination [Exclusive Video Interview]

Peter Bradshaw of The Guardian praises the star, writing, “Pamela Anderson is an authentically likable screen presence in this intimate, if somehow elusive, documentary portrait from Ryan White; it is about...

In recent years, the documentary realm has been the place for cultural reappraisals of famous women torn asunder by the invisible hands of misogyny. A series of documentaries and investigative pieces surrounding Britney Spears, coupled with the fan-initiated #FreeBritney movement, led to the end of the pop superstar’s cruel conservatorship. A doc on Janet Jackson reassessed her unconscionable castigation in the wake of that Super Bowl wardrobe mishap, while a two-part docuseries at this year’s Sundance examined the nauseating child sexualization and commodification of Brooke Shields.

Netflix is...

by Nathaniel R

Director Ryan White and his new film "Good Night Oppy"

In October I had the pleasure of introducing director Ryan White to a warmly receptive audience at the 10th annual Middleburg Film Festival. They'd just screened his buzzy documentary Good Night Oppy and there was lots of love in the room. That's been a through line with the film wherever it's shown. The space exploration documentary has since received glowing notices and several awards including five wins at the Critics Choice Documentary Awards. The charming doc about two sister robots on Mars, "Opportunity" and "Spirit", who wildly surpassed initial expectations, also represents a change of pace for the director. He's always had range. His previous lauded projects have included films as varied as the Oscar finalist short Coded (2021) about the gay golden age illustrator J.C. Leyendecker, the Emmy-nominated political doc The Case Against 8 (2014), the Emmy nominated...

The first official photos for Pamela, a love story, the upcoming Netflix documentary, have arrived to take you down memory lane. In addition to the images, Netflix’s Pamela, a love story documentary will be released on the streaming platform on January 31, 2023. Unlike Hulu’s Pam & Tommy scripted TV series, which profited off of one of the most traumatic events of Anderson’s career, Netflix’s documentary is an intimate and humanizing portrait of one of the world’s most famous blonde bombshells. Pamela, a love story follows Pamela Anderson’s life and career trajectory from small-town girl to international sex symbol, actress, activist, and doting mother.

In Netflix’s Pamela, a love story documentary, the fair-haired icon reveals her thoughts about Hulu’s Pam & Tommy, the devastating events concerning the stolen tape, marriages, and misconceptions about who she is in the grand scheme we call life. The...

Netflix’s The State of Alabama vs Brittany Smith, a taut true-crime documentary from The Keepers director Ryan White, follows the distressing story of an Alabama mother who was charged with murdering a man she said raped her.

Smith’s case became the focus of an attention-grabbing New Yorker investigation, in part because Smith invoked a “stand your ground” defence. In over 30 US states, including Alabama, state law makes it legal to use lethal force to defend oneself against threats or even perceived threats. In this case, Smith was cornered in her own home by her assailant – an old acquaintance called Todd Smith – who told Smith he’d kill her if she called the police.

But her stand your ground defence failed. In fact, as journalist Elizabeth Flock, who serves as executive producer on the Netflix series, found, women are much less likely than men to successfully invoke “stand your...

Four top film documentary filmmakers will reveal secrets behind their projects when they join Gold Derby’s special “Meet the Experts” Q&a event with 2022/2023 awards contenders. They will participate in two video discussions to premiere on Wednesday, November 16, at 6:00 p.m. Pt; 9:00 p.m. Et. We’ll have a one-on-one with our contributing editor Charles Bright and a roundtable chat with all of the group together.

RSVP today to our entire ongoing contenders panel series by clicking here to book your free reservation. We’ll send you a reminder a few minutes before the start of the show.

This “Meet the Experts” panel welcomes the following Oscar and guild contenders:

Good Night Oppy (Amazon Prime)

Synopsis: The film follows Opportunity, the Mars Exploration Rover affectionately dubbed Oppy by her creators and scientists at NASA. Oppy was originally expected to live for only 90 days but she ultimately explored Mars for nearly 15 years.

Click here to read the full article.

NASA missions and movie productions have more in common than you might think, according to Steve Squyres, a scientist who was the principal investigator of the Mars Exploration Rover Mission.

“There are way, way more good ideas for movies than there are movies that actually get made,” Squyres tells The Hollywood Reporter. “And there are way, way more good ideas for space missions than there are missions that actually get selected to fly. With space missions there’s even more money on the line. The time that it takes to make the thing is comparable or maybe longer. And if you fail, you fail big.”

Squyres has a unique perspective on the similarities between the space exploration and entertainment businesses, because both his brother and daughter work as film editors. But that perspective is deepening lately thanks to a new role the scientist...

Pamela Anderson is telling her story, her way, with a new documentary set at Netflix.

Anderson announced the news on social media with a handwritten note on Netflix letterhead, which reads: “My life/ A thousand imperfections/ A million misperceptions/ Wicked, wild and lost/ Nothing to live up to /I can only surprise you /Not a victim, but a survivor /And alive to tell the real story.”

Anderson’s son Brandon Thomas Lee, who serves as a producer on the project, reposted the note on his Instagram story emphasizing the phrase, “The real story,” as did her younger son Dylan Jagger Lee.

Dubbed the “definitive documentary about the pop culture icon,” the film has been in the making for several years before landing at the streamer. Directed by Ryan White, the yet-to-be-titled documentary will feature exclusive access to Anderson, as well as archival footage and her personal journals.

The film’s...

They’re after you, and your wives and children! This Corman/VeSota/Ed Nelson shocker with the excellent poster is a Robert Heinlein knockoff that can’t quite sustain the paranoid pitch of other ‘parasitic possession’ sci-fi horror epics. One of the cheapest of the drive-in cheapies, it remains a must-see title just for the audacity of its ad campaign, and a random moment or two of spooky serendipity. Don’t get your hopes up if you’re coming to see Leonard Nimoy’s performance — unless his voice is enough to satisfy.

The Brain Eaters

Blu-ray

1958 / B&w / 1:85 widescreen / 61 min. / Street Date January, 2022

Starring: Ed Nelson, Alan Frost, Jack Hill, Joanna Lee, Jody Fair, David Hughes, Robert Ball, Greigh Phillips, Orville Sherman, Leonard Nemoy (Nimoy),, Doug Banks, Saul Bronson, Hampton Fancher.

Cinematography: Larry Raimond

Art Director: Burt Shonberg

Film Editor: Carlo Lodato

Written by Gordon Urquhart

Uncredited Executive Producer:...

Nonfiction filmmaker Ryan White has explored queer American life in the past, with the HBO documentary “The Case Against 8” and the Apple TV docuseries “Visible: Out on Television.” He turns the clock farther back with the documentary short “Coded: The Hidden Love of J.C. Leyendecker.” Could it be his Oscar breakthrough?

J.C. Leyendecker was an artist in the early 20th century who created illustrations for advertisements and magazine covers. He was also a gay man who snuck homoeroticism into his male imagery, and while he enjoyed great success during his life, he isn’t as well remembered now as Norman Rockwell, who came after him. White tells his story with a combination of animation, interviews, and archival materials, with Neil Patrick Harris narrating in the voice of Leyendecker.

SEEFilm documentary roundtable panel: ‘Becoming Cousteau,’ ‘A Cop Movie,’ ‘My Name is Pauli Murray,’ ‘Simple as Water,’ ‘The Velvet Underground...

Jewish Story Partners, the non-profit film fund that launched six months ago, announced its second round of grant recipients on Monday. The winners came after an open submissions call that saw a 226% increase in participation from the first round.

An additional $280,000 has been awarded this year, bringing Jsp’s 2021 spend to $500,000 as they identify nonfiction work telling diverse Jewish stories. International filmmakers and fiction projects will be sought in the future. The group anticipates to hand out $800,000 in 2022 and $1 million by 2023.

New funders include the Lynn and Jules Kroll Fund for Jewish Documentary Films, Charles and Lynn Schusterman Family Philanthropies, Kronhill Pletka Foundation and Koret Foundation.

Monday’s grants will fund noted documentary filmmakers including: Kate Amend, Marilyn Ness, Pratibha Parmar, Dan Sturman and Ondi Timoner.

“Jewish documentary films are a window into the richness and complexity of the arc of Jewish history and Jewish lives today,” said Lynn and...

MTV Documentary Films has acquired Imagine Documentaries and Delirio Films’ documentary short “Coded: The Hidden Love of J.C. Leyendecker.”

Directed by Ryan White, “Coded” tells the story of early 20th century gay illustrator J.C. Leyendecker, whose advertising work was often coded with LGBTQ imagery. Despite Leyendecker’s success — he had more Saturday Evening Post covers than Norman Rockwell — his legacy has largely gone unnoticed.

The film, narrated by Neil Patrick Harris, won the best documentary short award at the 2021 Tribeca Film Festival.

MTV announced the acquisition on Thursday morning.

“I’m thrilled to partner with [executive producer, MTV Documentary Films] Sheila Nevins and the team at MTV Documentary Films to bring ‘Coded: The Hidden Love of J. C. Leyendecker’ to a global audience,” White said in a statement. “The personal story of J.C. Leyendecker has been in many ways lost to history, so I hope ‘Coded: The Hidden Love of J. C.

Peter Berg’s Film 44 production company has secured a first-look deal with Netflix to produce and direct live-action films and series, they announced jointly Monday.

“For me, in this moment, Netflix is the perfect creative fit,” Berg said in a statement. “I could not be more excited to get to work!”

“Pete Berg has created iconic television. Authentic, visceral and kinetic, Berg’s style has elevated storytelling for years and we are proud to welcome him to Netflix,” Brian Wright, head of overall deals at Netflix, said.

Tendo Nagenda, vice president of Netflix Film, added, “Pete makes movies that captivate and thrill us…We’re thrilled to have him and Film 44 officially at Netflix.” Berg and Netflix film chief Scott Stuber have worked together in the past, including on the films “Patriot’s Day” and “Kingdom.”

Berg, a director, producer and actor, is the founder of Film Forties, a...

Amazon Studios, Film 45, Amblin Television and Tripod Media are co-producing the upcoming feature documentary “Good Night Oppy” from director Ryan White.

With the support of NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory and Industrial Light & Magic, the film recounts the true story of Mars exploration rover Opportunity and the bond forged between the robot and the humans that created her. Opportunity, nicknamed “Oppy,” was originally expected to live for only 90 days, but ended up exploring the Red Planet for nearly 15 years.

“We are so thrilled to be working with these extraordinary partners to bring Oppy’s story to our global customers,” said Jennifer Salke, head of Amazon Studios. “The innovation and determination that made Oppy’s journey possible, and the spirit of discovery that drives the team at Jpl, are an inspiration. As we celebrate their achievements, we are delighted to also be working with the extremely talented filmmaker Ryan White, and...

Shortly after NASA landed its Curiosity and Perseverance rovers on Mars, a new documentary is in the works about another little robot that first captured hearts and minds: Opportunity, the Mars Exploration Rover.

The film about this “real-life Wall-e” is called “Good Night Oppy” and will be directed by “Assassins” filmmaker Ryan White. The heartwarming film shows how a robot that was only expected to be active for 90 days managed to explore Mars for nearly 15 years before making its final contact in June 2018. It’s about a robot traveling a planet on her own, but also about the literal connection and bond formed between human and machine.

Amazon Studios, Film 45, Amblin Television and Tripod Media are co-producing “Good Night Oppy,” which is currently in production and has the support of NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory (Jpl) and Industrial Light & Magic (Ilm). The documentary was even part of an intense bidding...

Filmmaker Ryan White says his documentary feature “Assassins” one of the hardest documentaries he’s made. White’s credits include: “Visible: Out on Television” and “The Keepers.”

The road to “Assassins,” now streaming on virtual cinema took White down into the underbelly of Malaysia, dark alleys, taxis and a dive into the North Korean regime. Kim Jong-nam — half-brother of North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un — was assassinated as he was preparing to board a flight. Doan Thi Huong and Siti Aisyah stood trial for the murder and assassination. However, they told their lawyer they believed they had been recruited for a reality TV show. On hearing that, White was interested in following the trail and trial.

As White told his story and discusses the film’s distribution, he says the release plan in the U.S. was a “bumpier road” because, “I think that feeling from corporations could be hacked in...

Were two young women responsible for the assassination of Kim Jong-nam, the half-brother of North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un? That’s the question director Ryan White tries to explore in his bonkers documentary “Assassins.”

“Assassins” premiered at Sundance earlier this year and examines what pundits have called one of the wildest murder cases of the 21st Century. In 2017, Kim Jong-nam was assassinated at Malaysia’s international airport, with the entire act captured on security cameras in broad daylight. Two teenage girls could be seen grabbing Jong-nam from behind and covering his eyes with their hands.

What the movie hopes to determine is whether the girls knew that their hands were covered with Vx, a lethal nerve gas that left him dead within an hour. What at first appears to be a cut and dry case soon reveals that the girls supposedly believed they were participating in a video prank show for easy money.

John Le Carre or the late Ian Fleming could have come up with the plot of the new Greenwich Entertainment documentary “Assassins”: Two young women are accused of the 2017 assassination of Kim Jong-Nam, the half-brother of North Korea’s dictator Kim Jong-Un, in broad daylight at the Kuala Lumpur Airport by spreading Vx nerve agent on this face. Were they pawns of the ruthless Supreme Leader of North Korea, who in a Shakespearean move, wanted to cement his power or were the women working alone? Not surprisingly, North Korea denied any involvement in the murder.

Directed by Ryan White and produced by his longtime collaborator Jessica Hargrave, “Assassins” earned strong reviews at the Sundance Film Festival; it’s currently at 100% fresh on Rotten Tomatoes. Variety’s Owen Gleiberman called it “a terrific true-crime story, but also a documentary thriller about the new world order. We’re shown photos and videos of the young women,...

When documentary filmmaker Ryan White made “Assassins,” he needed his adopted grandmother Dr. Ruth’s support to tell the harrowing and jaw-dropping story of the two sex workers who were on trial in Malaysia for assassinating Kim Jong-un’s half-brother. “She hated that I was doing it, worried for me the entire time,” said White, who received a 2017 Emmy nomination for his film about the death of a beloved Catholic nun in “The Keepers.” “She knew by the end I was compelled to get out the truth about these two women.”

Bryan Fogel won an 2018 Best Documentary Oscar for “Icarus,” which led the Olympic Committee to ban Russia from the 2018 Winter Olympic Games. For “The Dissident,” he took on the assassination of Saudi Arabian journalist Jamal Khashoggi and obtained Turkish intelligence transcripts and audio of Khashoggi’s murder that reveal mind-numbing violence. “This is a fight for freedom of speech,...

When documentary filmmaker Ryan White made “Assassins,” he needed his adopted grandmother Dr. Ruth’s support to tell the harrowing and jaw-dropping story of the two sex workers who were on trial in Malaysia for assassinating Kim Jong-un’s half-brother. “She hated that I was doing it, worried for me the entire time,” said White, who received a 2017 Emmy nomination for his film about the death of a beloved Catholic nun in “The Keepers.” “She knew by the end I was compelled to get out the truth about these two women.”

Bryan Fogel won an 2018 Best Documentary Oscar for “Icarus,” which led the Olympic Committee to ban Russia from the 2018 Winter Olympic Games. For “The Dissident,” he took on the assassination of Saudi Arabian journalist Jamal Khashoggi and obtained Turkish intelligence transcripts and audio of Khashoggi’s murder that reveal mind-numbing violence. “This is a fight for freedom of speech,...

Netflix have played a huge part in the resurgence of the true crime genre over the last few years thanks to the success of shows like Making a Murderer, The Keepers, Evil Genius, Conversations with a Killer: The Ted Bundy Tapes and even Tiger King, which was a crime story at its core. Fans can’t seem to get enough of them, and they’re regularly among the most popular titles on the platform.

The streaming service has also gotten into the Ryan Murphy business in a big way, with the prolific American Horror Story creator signing a huge first-look deal that’s already brought TV shows The Politician, Hollywood and Ratched, documentary A Secret Love and feature film The Boys in the Band since last year alone. Put the two together and success is virtually guaranteed, and that’s exactly what looks to be happening again following the announcement...

Greenwich Entertainment has picked up Assassins, the Ryan White-directed documentary exposé about the assassination of Kim Jong-nam, North Korean leader Kim Jong-un’s half-brother. The doc had its premiere earlier this year at Sundance Film Festival and will be released in theaters on December 4.

In 2017, Kim Jong-nam was assassinated in broad daylight at a crowded Malaysian airport. The brazen murder was caught entirely by security cameras with footage showing two young women approaching Jong-nam from behind and covering his eyes with their hands. He stumbled away and was dead within an hour. The two women, who had never met and claimed they had been hired for a video prank show and had no idea what they were actually doing, were arrested and charged with murder. Imprisoned in a foreign land and facing execution, the young women begged for authorities to believe their outlandish tale.

Assassins made waves at Sundance...

Greenwich Entertainment has picked up North American rights to director Ryan White’s Sundance documentary “Assassins.”

The film is a jaw-dropping exposé of the assassination of Kim Jong-nam, the half-brother of North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un. Given unprecedented access to the key players and previously undisclosed evidence, the film questions every angle of this murder, from human trafficking to high-level political espionage to the inner dynamics of the North Korean royal family.

“Assassins” made its world premiere to rave reviews during the 2020 Sundance Film Festival. Greenwich Entertainment plans to release the film in theaters on December 4.

“Like most people, we had seen the headlines of this brazen political murder. But in making ‘Assassins,’ we were repeatedly shocked to find how bizarre, deep and twisted the truth really is,” White said in a statement. “We’re thrilled to partner with Greenwich in bringing this unbelievable story to audiences.”

In 2017, Kim Jong-nam...

Josh Braun, producer of some of the best documentaries in the world, joins Josh and Joe to discuss the movies that have influenced him throughout his life.

Show Notes: Movies Referenced In This Episode

Man On Wire (2008)

The Cove (2009)

Cave of Forgotten Dreams (2010)

Encounters At The End of the World (2007)

Winnebago Man (2009)

Spellbound (2002)

Supersize Me (2004)

Tell Me Who I Am (2019)

Apollo 11 (2019)

The Edge of Democracy (2019)

Finding Vivian Maier (2013)

Searching For Sugarman (2012)

Dear Zachary: A Letter to a Son About His Father (2008)

A History Of Violence (2005)

Frat House (1998)

Easy Riders, Raging Bulls: How the Sex, Drugs and Rock ‘N’ Roll Generation Saved Hollywood (2003)

The Exorcist (1973)

Go West (1940)

A Night In Casablanca (1946)

Hello Down There (1974)

What’s Up Doc? (1972)

El Topo (1970)

Pink Flamingos (1972)

Female Trouble (1974)

The Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975)

Bambi Meets Godzilla (1969)

Gimme Shelter (1970)

Monterey Pop (1968)

Grey Gardens (1975)

Grey Gardens (2009)

Titicut Follies (1967)

To Have And Have Not (1944)

All About Eve...

Ryan White had a daunting task when he joined Apple TV ’s “Visible: Out on Television.” The five-part documentary series chronicles the complicated evolution of LGBTQ representation on TV, spanning 80 years, and had already been in the works for a decade before producers David Permut and David Bender recruited White to direct.

“They finally talked to Apple before Apple TV had even launched and Apple loved the idea and bought the idea from them, and they brought myself on board to direct the project,” White told Gold Derby during our Meet the Experts: Documentary panel (watch above). “It was covering 80-plus years of television history that luckily Apple gave us a complete open real estate and said, ‘We don’t have a mandate on how short or long it needs to be. Just deliver us a project that you think is the appropriate time,’ so it ended up being a five-hour series.

Four of TV’s top documentary filmmakers will reveal the details behind their gritty and true life programs when they join Gold Derby’s special “Meet the Experts” Q&a event with key 2020 Emmy contenders this month. Each person will participate in two video discussions to be published soon: one-on-one with our senior editor Joyce Eng and a group chat with Joyce and all of the directors together.

SEEalmost 300 interviews with 2020 Emmy contenders

This “Meet the Experts” panel welcomes the following 2020 Emmy contenders:

Nanette Burstein represents Hulu for “Hillary”

Burstein received an Oscar nomination and Directors Guild win for “On the Ropes.” Other projects have included “The Creators,” “Going the Distance” and “The Kid Stays in the Picture.”

James Hernandez represents HBO for “McMillion$”

Hernandez has also directed “Stick Together,” “Phantom,” “Four Chaplains,” “Unnatural Selection,” “Happenstance” and “The Sixth Minute.”

Reginald Hudlin represents Netflix for “The Black Godfather”

Hudlin received...

This The Innocence Files review contains no spoilers.

The Innocence Files opens with attorney Peter Neufeld explaining how The Innocence Project gets thousands of letters pleading for an attempt at new pleas. The “court of last resort” has exonerated nearly 200 wrongfully convicted prisoners since it was founded in 1992. The Innocence Project uses DNA to free the wrongfully-convicted and pushes for stronger science in the criminal justice system.

The goal of the project sets this apart from Netflix’s other justice projects, like Making a Murderer, The Keepers and Evil Genius: The True Story of America’s Most Diabolical Bank Heist. While the project is integral to the telling, it is the soul of the story, the documentary focuses on the cases. The episodes present the cases in three phases. After the crime itself is established, they sift through The Evidence, The Witness and The Prosecution. Then they tear apart what is fundamentally wrong in each phase.

There are a lot of true-crime documentaries on Hulu, Netflix and HBO right now. Click through the gallery to find your next binge-worthy doc.

“The Keepers” (Netflix)

Ryan White’s documentary series debuted in 2017, and explores murder of Sister Catherine Cesnik, who disappeared in November 1969 and whose body was discovered in January of 1970. The documentary investigates whether Father Joseph Maskell had Sister Cathy killed because she was about to expose him and others for sexual abusing teenage students at Archbishop Keough High School.

“Abducted in Plain Sight” (Netflix)

In maybe one of the craziest stories ever, Jane Broberg is kidnapped by her neighbor, a family friend, on two separate occasions, and how he was able to infiltrate a family.

“The Staircase” (Netflix)

“The Staircase” follows the trial of Michael Peterson in the case after he reported in December 2001 that his wife had fallen down the stairs and died. However, there...

After working together on the Netflix docuseries “The Keepers,” editors Kate Amend, Rejh Cabrera and Mark Harrison established a creative shorthand that came in handy when collaborating again on another docuseries: Apple TV Plus’ “Visible: Out on Television.”

“We had constant conversations as a team to make sure whatever we were working on tied in with the bigger themes,” Harrison explains.

The five-part series traces Lgbtq representation on television over the past 80 years. Rachel Maddow, Lena Waithe, Raven Symone, Oprah Winfrey, Anderson Cooper and Billy Porter are just a few of the celebrities who share their personal stories and experiences in the series.

Amend explains that most of the interviews were already done by the time they came on board. “They were so powerful because people were so honest,” Amend says, crediting director Ryan White. “You get this glimpse into a person’s very personal life story because Ryan creates...

Netflix has ordered a docuseries titled “The Innocence Files,” Variety has learned exclusively.

The hour-long episodes detail the personal stories behind eight cases of wrongful conviction that the Innocence Project and organizations within the Innocence Network have worked to highlight and overturn. The series is broken down into three parts — The Evidence, The Witness, and The Prosecution. The subjects of the series will be Chester Hollman III, Kenneth Wyniemko, Alfred Dewayne Brown, Thomas Haynesworth, Franky Carrillo, Levon Brooks, Kennedy Brewer, and Keith Harward.

The entire nine-episode season will debut on Netflix on April 15.

“We are thrilled to be part of the groundbreaking Netflix series, ‘The Innocence Files,'” said Peter Neufeld and Barry Scheck, Innocence Project co-founders and special counsel of the Innocence Project. “This is truly important television. Each episode reveals–step by step–how the American criminal justice system gets it wrong. These stories feature people whose freedom...

Exclusive: Pete Berg and Matt Tyrnauer will use the inner workings of a lingerie empire as the fabric for a limited documentary series. Tyrnauer, who helmed the 2009 documentary Valentino: The Last Emperor, will direct The Rise and Fall of Victoria’s Secret, with Film 45’s Berg, Matthew Goldberg, Brandon Carroll, and Elizabeth Rogers exec producing with Tyrnauer and his Altimeter partner Corey Reeser. The three part limited series will be a co-production between Film 45 and Altimeter.

The docu-series will shed light on the inner workings of a once-powerful sector of the world of fashion, adding context to both the positive and negative aspects of a rapidly transforming industry with global impact, and exploring the extensive connection between fashion and culture and what happens when a brand hits the cultural zeitgeist.

Victoria’s Secret rose from a small mail order brand to a global juggernaut featuring retail stores, commercials with gorgeous supermodels donning the product,...

Netflix and Un Women have launched the “Because She Watched” collection of series, documentaries, and films created for the upcoming International Women’s Day.

The collection, which will be available all year, is curated by female creators from behind and in front of the camera, including Sophia Loren, Salma Hayek, Yalitza Aparicio, Millie Bobby Brown, Laurie Nunn, Lana Condor, Petra Costa and Ava DuVernay. It includes “Orange Is the New Black,” “Marriage Story,” “Bird Box,” “Silence of the Lambs,” “House of Cards,” “Queer Eye,” “The Crown,” “Gravity,” “Roma” and “Paris Is Burning.”

“This collaboration is about taking on the challenge of telling women’s stories and showing women in all their diversity. It’s about making visible the invisible, and proving that only by fully representing and including women on screen, behind-the-camera and in our narratives overall, society will truly flourish,” said Anita Bhatia, Un Women Deputy Executive Director.

International...