News

Exclusive: EverWonder Studio, the company that produced Netflix’s Jake Paul vs. Mike Tyson fight, is making some big-name hires.

The business, which was founded by former Time exec Ian Orefice and backed by Jeff Zucker’s RedBird Imi, has hired a slew of key execs including former ABC unscripted exec Tiffany Faigus and MSNBC’s Amanda Spain.

Faigus has been named EVP and Executive Producer of the company. She was previously SVP, Unscripted and Alternative Entertainment, ABC Entertainment and Walt Disney Television Alternative, where she was one of Rob Mills’ key lieutenants. She left last year as Disney merged ABC and Hulu’s unscripted programming teams and underwent layoffs.

Faigus had been with ABC since 2015. She was promoted in 2021, having previously been VP Alternative Series and Specials, taking on a new role that encompassed both the network and the unscripted studio side of the business at Walt Disney Television Alternative.

Cinetic Media has signed documentary filmmaker Carla Gutiérrez. It will represent Gutiérrez across all media. The news comes as Gutiérrez’s directorial debut”Frida” premieres this week at Sundance. Cinetic has been ramping up management additions of late having also recently signed Betsy West and Julie Cohen (“Rbg”) of Storyville Films, both of whom executive produced Gutiérrez’s directorial debut.

Carla Gutiérrez is an Emmy- and Eddie-nominated documentary editor. She edited the Oscar-nominated films “Rbg” and “La Corona.” Her latest film as an editor, “Julia,” about renowned chef, and television personality Julia Child, premiered at Telluride and was an official selection of the Toronto Film Festival. Gutiérrez also edited the Emmy-nominated “Pray Away.” Her work has received awards at Sundance, Tribeca, Berlinale, Outfest, the Critic’s Choice Awards, the National Board of Review Awards, and the DuPont Columbia Awards. She has been a creative adviser for the Sundance Edit Lab,...

In a resurfaced audio clip from 2008, newly elected House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-Louisiana) blamed the fall of the Roman Empire on same-sex relationships.

Johnson told a radio host, “Many historians, those who are objective, would look back and recognize and give some credit to the fall of Rome to, not only the deprivation of the society and the loss of morals but also to the rampant homosexual behavior that was condoned by the society.”

Johnson previously had “closely collaborated” with a now-defunct group, Exodus International, which promoted LGBTQ conversion therapy.

The highly controversial group was featured in the Netflix documentary Pray Away.

It was shut down in 2013 after 37 years when its president, Alan Chambers, issued an apology for causing “pain and hurt” to the Lgtbq community.

While Johnson was an attorney for the conservative legal advocacy group Alliance Defense Fund, currently known as Alliance Defending Freedom (Adf), between the years...

Exclusive: Screamfest Horror Film Festival has unveiled the first-wave lineup for its 23rd edition, taking place at the Tcl Chinese Theatre from October 10-19, announcing that it will kick off with a screening of Eddie Alcazar’s much-discussed Sundance 2023 mind-bender Divinity.

Tickets to the fest go on sale soon.

Set in an otherworldly human existence, Divinity follows scientist Sterling Pierce (Scott Bakula), who has dedicated his life to the quest for immortality, as he slowly creates the building blocks of a groundbreaking serum named Divinity. Jaxxon Pierce (Stephen Dorff), his son, then comes to control and manufacture his father’s once-benevolent dream. When two mysterious brothers (Moises Arias and Jason Genao) arrive with a plan to abduct the mogul, with the help of a seductive woman named Nikita (Karrueche Tran), they will be set on a path hurtling toward true immortality. Also starring Bella Thorne, Michael O’Hearn and Emily Willis,...

Super-producer Ryan Murphy is set to make Disney his new home as his five-year, $300 million Netflix deal comes to a close.

According to reports, Murphy has been negotiating his new deal for the past year, and most of the details were finished before the WGA strike started in May.

Once dubbed “TV’s First $300 Million Man,” Murphy is responsible for creating hits such as “Dahmer: Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story” and “The Watcher” for the streaming service.

Murphy signed the five-year exclusive development deal with Netflix in 2018. To date this partnership has produced two miniseries (“Hollywood” and “Hanson”), three ongoing dramas, three movies, three documentaries and one docuseries (“The Andy Warhol Diaries”). “Ratched” and “The Watcher” have been renewed through Season 2,while the “Monster” anthology series has been renewed through three installments. (Note: Seasons 1 and 2 of “The Politician” were ordered by Netflix prior to the deal.)

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Making a...

Prime Video’s new docuseries Shiny Happy People: Duggar Family Secrets takes a critical look at the family that starred in TLC’s hit reality series 19 Kids and Counting. Over four episodes, the show explores the disturbing truth about what was going on behind the scenes in the Duggar home. It also looks at how the family used their TV show to promote an ultra-conservative ideology linked to controversial Christian leader Bill Gothard and his Institute in Basic Life Principles.

‘Shiny Happy People: Duggar Family Secrets’ | Amazon Studios

Were you fascinated by Shiny Happy People’s look at the dark underbelly of conservative Christianity? Then stream these seven documentaries that explore the relationship between faith, abuse, and political power.

‘The Secrets of Hillsong’

In the mid-2010s, Hillsong took the world by storm. The Australian megachurch blended pop music with worship and welcomed celebrities like Justin Bieber and Selena Gomez at its services.

The Gotham Film & Media Institute on Monday has selected the films and series for its Project Market, a slate which IndieWire can exclusively reveal. Taking place during September’s Gotham Week at the Brooklyn Navy Yard, the annual sales and development forum connects creators to distributors, financiers, and other industry decision-makers. It offers a look ahead at what could become the next buzzy films; “Moonlight” and “American Factory” are recent Oscar winners that were launched at past Project Market events.

This year’s lineup includes 65 fiction features and series, 60 nonfiction features and series, and 17 audio projects in various stages of development or production, including new projects from the producers of “Dopesick,” “Pose,” and “Sorry to Bother You.” For the first time since the pandemic, the annual event will include both in-person and virtual participation. In-person meetings run September 17-23, while virtual meetings will be held September 22-23.

“Being able...

GLAAD today announced the nominees in 30 categories for its 33rd Annual Media Awards.

In a flip-flip of last year’s top leaders, the combined HBO/HBO Max scored the most nominations of any network with 19, followed by Netflix with 17. That’s a lot closer than last year, when Netflix ran away with 26 noms, while HBO was a distant second with nine.

Streaming services saw a total of 63 nominations, with cable receiving 39 and broadcast networks receiving 17. Hulu received seven nominations, while ABC, MSNBC and Peacock all saw four. In the Spanish-language categories, Univision and Telemundo both received two nominations.

The GLAAD Media Awards honor media for fair, accurate and inclusive representations of LGBTQ people and issues.

During a year when anti-transgender violence rose and lawmakers across the U.S. introduced an unprecedented number of bills attempting to stop transgender youth from participating in sports and accessing gender-affirming healthcare, many of the...

Chicago – Are we there yet? Another pandemic year, 2021, somewhat affected the cinema world, but many films that had been delayed finally saw the light of screen, and one true blockbuster was had for the industry (kudos to Spidey). Around mid-year, the critics and public went back to the theaters, and this 10 Best list is a hybrid of in-person and online viewings.

So begins my* list of the 10 Best Films Of 2021, on a hopeful note. Hoping that this current viral surge will be our last, and we will come back fully and in person moving forward, as a wish for the world. *The Über Critic, Patrick McDonald of HollywoodChicago.com, Wbgr-FM & Wssr-fm

I’m formatting this 10 Best differently this year, to reflect the on-air reviews I do weekly on Wbgr-fm and Wssr-fm. Each of the 10 Best will be in the on-air or audio format for your listening pleasure.

I begin...

The Critics Choice Association awarded “Summer of Soul” the top prize at the sixth annual Critics Choice Documentary Awards, which honors the best achievements in nonfiction released in theaters, on TV, or on major digital platforms. Ahmir “Questlove” Thompson’s look at the 1969 Harlem Cultural Festival took home the most awards of any film, with five in total.

This year’s nominees were led by “Ascension” and “Summer of Soul,” two films by first-time documentarians. Each had six nominations. But “Ascension,” Jessica Kingdon’s look at the pursuit of the Chinese dream, failed to score any prizes November 14.

“Summer of Soul,” which won the top documentary prize and an Audience Award following its Sundance premiere earlier this year, won five of the six awards it was nominated for at the critics awards: Best Documentary Feature, Best First Documentary Feature, Best Editing, Best Archival Documentary, and Best Director, a prize Thompson...

The Critics Choice Association has announced nominees for the sixth annual Critics Choice Documentary Awards.

The awards cover documentaries released in theaters, on TV and on major digital platforms. The awards gala takes place Nov. 14 in Brooklyn, N.Y.

“Ascension” and “Summer of Soul, both from first-time documentarians, led the nominations with six each. “Becoming Cousteau” and “The Rescue” both received five nods each.

“This has been and continues to be a fantastic year for documentary storytelling. And the number of first-time feature documentarians in the mix of nominees, alongside proven veterans, shows that nonfiction cinema continues to have a very bright future,” said Christopher Campbell, President of the Critics Choice Association Documentary Branch. “Our world, from its most amazing wonders to its greatest challenges, is being reflected back on the screen so immediately and creatively by today’s filmmakers, and it’s a tremendous honor for us to recognize all of their achievements.

Notably leading the pack of nominees revealed Monday for the sixth annual Critics Choice Documentary Awards are a pair of films from directors making their debut as documentarians. Ascension’s Jessica Kingdon and Summer of Soul’s Ahmir “Questlove” Thompson pulled off the impressive feat, with both films receiving six nods apiece. On their tails however are a pair of docus from Nat Geo with five nods each: The Rescue. whose directors Jimmy Chin and Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi took the Oscar for their previous effort Free Solo; and Becoming Cousteau, whose director Liz Garbus is also a docu veteran with two Oscar nominations and two Emmys to her credit.

All will compete in the Best Documentary Feature and Best Director categories, with Thompson and Kingdon also facing off for Best First Documentary Feature along with such indie film giants as Todd Haynes and Edgar Wright.

The Critics Choice Association (Cca) has announced the nominees for the sixth annual Critics Choice Documentary Awards (Ccda). This year’s winners will be revealed at a gala on Sunday, November 14, 2021, in Brooklyn, NY. The awards honor the best achievements in nonfiction released in theaters, on TV, or on major digital platforms.

Both films by first-time documentarians, “Ascension” and “Summer of Soul” lead this year’s nominations with six each. “Ascension,” a look at the Chinese dream across social classes, is also up for Documentary Feature, Director (Jessica Kingdon), First Feature, Cinematography, Editing, and Score. Meanwhile, “Summer of Soul” is up for Documentary Feature, Best Director (Ahmir “Questlove’ Thompson), First Documentary, Editing, Archival Documentary, and Music Documentary.

“Becoming Cousteau” and “The Rescue” also picked up five nominations each.

Last year, “Dick Johnson Is Dead” took home the Cca’s top award for Best Documentary as well as the Best Director award for Kirsten Johnson.

Netflix’s awards hopefuls Robert Greene’s “Procession” and Alonso Ruizpalacios’ “A Cop Movie” are heading to Manhattan’s Paris Theater as part of its “New Directions in Documentary” series.

Both hybrid features, which are vying for a spot on this year’s Academy Award doc shortlist, will screen alongside previously celebrated form-bending docus in the upcoming series beginning Oct. 15.

Since 2019 Netflix has operated the 571-seat venue, which the streaming company uses year-round for exclusive theatrical engagements, premieres, special events, retrospectives, and filmmaker appearances.

Curated by Paris Theater programmer David Schwartz, the five-day public event will highlight and celebrate docus that combine elements of fiction and non-fiction into the fabric of their storytelling.

“ ‘Procession’ and ‘A Cop Movie’ are exciting and inventive movies that heighten the documentary form,” says Schwartz. “They find innovative ways to explore truth through deeply personal and dramatic subjects. Their work transcends the formulaic with rigorous fidelity to vision,...

LGBTQ rights organization Born Perfect has released a short film called “Bobby’s Big Problem” to educate the public about the dangers of conversion therapy.

Told through puppets, “Bobby’s Big Problem” takes a comedic look at conversion therapy, satirizing the outdated ideas of gender and sexuality held by the people in charge of such programs. In the film, a young boy named Bobby (Rb Butcher) is taken to a therapist (Patton Oswalt) by his mother (D’Arcy Carden), who claims she “just wants what’s best” for her son as he begins to experience same-sex attraction. Though the therapist swears he’s not practicing conversion therapy, what follows is a series of scenes where Bobby and a cute fellow patient must assert their masculinity in order to “become straight” — something the therapist achieves by beating up pillows with tennis rackets and lobbing footballs straight at Bobby’s eyes. Bobby explains...

While last summer’s racial reckoning and the #MeToo movement forced many in the entertainment business to take diversity and inclusiveness seriously — or at least a lot more seriously — Multitude Films founder and president Jess Devaney was already dug in. She bowed the LGBTQ-led shingle in 2016 with a focus on giving underrepresented voices a storytelling platform.

With films including “Pray Away,” which deals with the trauma of gay conversion therapy; “Call Center Blues,” a look at U.S. deportees in Tijuana; the upcoming Indigo Girls doc; and HBO Max series “Through Our Eyes: Apart,” which follows the children of incarcerated parents, Multitude works with like-minded producers, such as Chicken & Egg, Ryan Murphy and Jason Blum. The shingle also helps implement social-justice campaigns on certain projects.

“Most recently with ‘Pray Away,’ we really want to release the film commercially. So getting to work with Jason Blum and Ryan Murphy and Netflix was a dream,...

Ryan Murphy may have a rich Netflix overall deal but he’s not done building his American Story franchise for Disney and FX.

The prolific showrunner has set two American Story spinoffs — anthologies American Sports Story and American Love Story — at FX as the John Landgraf-led cable network is already working with Murphy on a potential fourth season of American Crime Story that will focus on Studio 54.

American Sports Story will expand the franchise to re-examine a prominent event involving a sports figure through the prism of today’s world and will tell the story from multiple perspectives. The first season will be based on the Boston Globe and Wondery podcast Gladiator: Aaron Hernandez and Football Inc. It will chart the rise and fall of the former New England Patriots tight end who was convicted for murder and ultimately took his own life. Thematically, it will explore the disparate strands of his identity,...

Chicago – Patrick McDonald of HollywoodChicago.com appears on “The Morning Mess” with Scott Thompson on Wbgr-fm on August 5th, 2021, reviewing the new Kristine Stolakis documentary “Pray Away,” now streaming on Netflix..

Rating: 5.0/5.0

It’s surprising how many people are unfamiliar with “conversion” therapy (also known as the more Orwellian “restorative” therapy), in which gay men and woman (as well as transgender and fluid people) are subjected to either religious or pseudo-psychology to become “straight.” Kristine Stolakis sensitively allows the survivors of this abusive practice to tell their stories – including former “Living Hope” spokesperson Julie Rodgers – and although there is hopeful redemption, the pain of the process to get there is devastating. And religion, unfortunately, leads the way by using a belief in deities as a smokescreen for what nature has intended. Not so much an exposé as a primer for pain and suffering that is totally unnecessary, if only relatives...

Ryan Murphy is tackling a very important and serious topic with his new Netflix documentary, Pray Away. The film, which originally premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival in June, follows survivors of gay conversion therapy as they shine a light on the harmful effects and abuse caused by organizations like Exodus International, which targeted LGBTQ+ youth with the goal of changing their sexual and gender identities. While gay conversion therapy is currently banned in 20 US states, there are still organizations like Exodus that exist today, and the negative repercussions are still incredibly prevalent within the LGBTQ+ community. In July 2020, stars like Dua Lipa, Elton John, and more banded together to sign an open letter to the UK government calling for a ban of the practice. As you tune into the documentary, which is streaming on Netflix now, read ahead for more celebrities who have publicly spoken out against the inhumane practice.

Netflix documentary Pray Away, exec-produced by Ryan Murphy, traces the history of conversion therapy with regretful leaders of the “ex-gay” movement

Julie Rodgers was 16 years old when her mother introduced her to Ricky Chelette, the “singles minister” at a Baptist church in Arlington, Texas, who coached LGBTQ+ youth on how to “change” their sexuality. The high school junior had recently come out to her parents; Chelette, a man with “same-sex attractions” married to a woman, was brought in to fix what was seen as a problem. As Rodgers recounts in Pray Away, a new Netflix documentary on the “ex-gay” movement within western Christianity, and her book Outlove: A Queer Christian Survival Story, Chelette preached an enticing, insidious gospel of change: that Rodgers’ attraction to women was due to an insufficient bond with her mother as a child, that such attractions could be neurologically altered by committed study, that to do...

Image Source: YouTube user Netflix

Netflix's latest documentary, Pray Away, sheds light on the harmful effects and abuse caused by gay conversion therapy organizations, specifically Exodus International. The Christian group was formed in 1976 and claimed it could "cure" same-sex attraction through faith, prayer, and therapy. Exodus International was one of the nation's largest conversion therapy networks before it officially shut down in 2013, so what happened?

After 37 years, the Christian ministry announced its closure by issuing a public apology admitting it was wrong. "We're not negating the ways God used Exodus to positively affect thousands of people, but a new generation of Christians is looking for change - and they want to be heard," Exodus board member Tony Moore said in a statement. The group also apologized to the LGBTQ+ community for "years of undue judgment by the organization and the Christian Church as a whole."

The organization's disbandment came after...

This review of “Pray Away” was first published on June 16, 2021 after its premiere at the Tribeca Festival.

John Paulk and his wife Anne appeared on the cover of Newsweek magazine in 1998 as the face of Christian ex-gay therapy. In “Pray Away,” a wide-ranging documentary from director Kristine Stolakis, Paulk is interviewed today, and he is unrecognizable as the man on that cover. Even though he was much younger when he posed with his wife, the contemporary Paulk looks so relaxed and comfortable with himself that it really is like looking at a totally different and much more appealing person.

Such visual reenforcement is constant in “Pray Away,” as we see footage of Paulk and many other so-called “ex-ex-gays” when they were being tortured by their ministries alongside footage of them looking far happier after they escaped. Stolakis carefully and patiently charts the rise and fall of Exodus, an ex-gay ministry...

Chicago – One of the crueler uses of psychology or religion is as a “cure” for gay or transgender or even fluid orientations to “become” heterosexual. Although this conversion therapy should never exist, the new doc “Pray Away” has filmmaker Kristine Stolakis providing the background and continued use of the therapies. The film premieres August 3rd, 2021, on Netflix.

It’s surprising how many people are unfamiliar with “conversion” therapy (also known as the more Orwellian “restorative” therapy), in which gay men and woman (as well as transgender and fluid people) are subjected to either religious or pseudo-psychology to become “straight.” Kristine Stolakis sensitively allows the survivors of this abusive practice to tell their stories – including former “Living Hope” spokesperson Julie Rodgers – and although there is hopeful redemption, the pain of the process to get there is devastating. And religion, unfortunately, leads the way by using a belief in deities as a...

We’re deep into the dog days of summer, but Netflix’s list of new releases for August 2021 feels like fall.

That is to say that Netflix has some really good library TV titles this month that harken back to the glory days of the fall TV network calendar. August 1 sees the arrival of two of the best NBC shows of all time: Tina Fey comedy 30 Rock, and life-affirming (American) football drama Friday Night Lights. If you’ve not seen either, catch up with them both. That’s an order.

Read more TV 30 Rock’s Best Running Jokes By Louisa Mellor TV The Witcher Season 2 Trailer Showcases Ciri’s Training By Michael Ahr

As for original offerings, Netflix has plenty of those this month as well. Intriguing TV series such as Top Secret UFO Projects: Declassified (Aug. 3), Brand New Cherry Flavor (Aug. 13), The Chair (Aug. 20), and Clickbait (Aug.

"I've spent a lot of time thinking 'how did I believe that?'" Netflix has unveiled an official trailer for a film titled Pray Away, marking the feature directorial debut of award-winning doc filmmaker Kristine Stolakis. It's also executive produced by iconic producers Ryan Murphy and Jason Blum and many others. The doc dives into the horrible and frightening world of conversion therapy, the religious practice of sending people to camps and "therapy" centers to "pray the gay away" (there's been a few feature films about this including The Miseducation of Cameron Post and Boy Erased). After years as Christian superstars in the religious right, many of these men and women have come out as LGBTQ, disavowing the very movement they helped start. Focusing on the dramatic journeys of former conversion therapy leaders, current members, and a survivor, Pray Away chronicles the "ex gay" movement’s rise to power, persistent influence,...

Netflix has released the trailer for Pray Away, a new documentary that investigates the abuse brought on by gay conversion therapy programs — featuring interviews with the program leaders themselves.

The film centers on Exodus International, an Evangelical gay conversion program that began as a Bible study group between five gay men who wished to help each other leave the “homosexual lifestyle.” Shortly after its inception in the Seventies, the group received 25,000 letters from LGBTQ people asking for help, leading Exodus International to rapidly grow into the largest gay conversion therapy program in the world.

Thankfully, over recent years, there has been a large outcry against conversion therapy tactics used by churches to “pray the gay away,” so to speak. And if you’re someone that is still unfamiliar with the harrowing stories of LGBTQ youth that have endured these schemes, you can see the effects first hand in the new doc, “Pray Away.”

Read More: ‘Pray Away’: Kristine Stolakis’ Doc Is One Of The Most Important Films Of The Year [Tribeca Review]

As seen in the trailer for “Pray Away,” the documentary from director Kristine Stolakis puts a spotlight on the gay conversion therapy that is utilized by various churches and Christian leaders as a way to somehow convince LGBTQ kids that they can somehow pray enough that they will become straight.

Continue reading ‘Pray Away’ Trailer: Acclaimed Tribeca Doc Targets The Evils Of Conversion Therapy at The Playlist.

Netflix has released the first trailer for “Pray Away,” the Ryan Murphy- and Jason Blum/Blumhouse Television-produced documentary about the so-called “ex-gay” movement.

The Kristine Stolakis-directed film, which will premiere Aug. 3 on the streamer, chronicles the rise and fall of Exodus International, a group founded in the 1970s by five members of an evangelical church that claimed gay people could become straight if they “pray away” their homosexuality. Since then, many of the group’s most well-known and outspoken members have come out as Lgtbq and have gone public with how harmful conversion therapy is. Conversion therapy is discredited by the World Health Organization and LGBTQ activists have forged legislative and legal battles across the world to ban the therapies.

The 2:35-minute trailer shows Exodus members disavowing the practice after touting they’d been converted on various talk shows and news programs. A new poster features...

A group of filmmakers including director Kimberly Townes-Gethers, producer-writer-actor Theo Perkins and executive Kirk Moore have launched Audacity Division, a banner that aims to amplify non-dominant narratives in the Bipoc space.

Its debut project is 14 Days, a short film that follows two ex-lovers (Diarra Kilpatrick and Perkins) who find reconciliation over Zoom conversations at the height of the Covid-19 pandemic. The film reinforces the power of therapy and challenges the stigma associated with mental health with Bipoc communities. (See the trailer below.)

Kilpatrick’s credits include writing on The Last O.G. and a role on HBO’s Perry Mason, and is up next in USA Network’s Nash Bridges revival. She also earned an Emmy nomination for the ABC Digital Studios short-form series American Koko. Perkins’ acting credits include Lie to Me, NCIS and Raising the Bar.

The short is helmed by Ad co-founder Townes-Gethers. Perkins and Brandon Scotland are producers and Moore is executive producer. Christian Epps is the Dp. The short was shot on iPhones during the pandemic, and all the cast and crew worked remotely.

The plan is to develop 14 Days into a potential TV series. Audacity Division’s next short is Hands to the Sky, which will highlight the rising epidemic of autism in Bipoc communities in New Jersey, with an eye on developing it into a feature-length film.

“My belief is that in order to transform, change, and liberate, we can not stay still,” said Perkins, also founder and artistic director of the nonprofit Elizabeth Youth Theater Ensemble. “What we accomplished during the filming of 14 Days, the audacity that we had as artists, led to the birth of the collective.”

Here’s the 14 Days trailer:

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Multitude Films, the LGBTQ-led independent production company dedicated to telling nonfiction stories by and about underrepresented communities, has hired veteran producer Sweta Vohra and promoted Ameena Din to VP Finance. The news comes after the company founded and led by Jessica Devaney signed with ICM Partners.

The company produced the Peabody-nominated Roll Red Roll and last year’s Oscar-shortlisted documentary short Call Center Blues, and its latest projects include Netflix’s upcoming Pray Away in partnership with Ryan Murphy and Blumhouse, and “Apart,” an installment of the HBO Max and Sesame Workshop series Through Our Eyes.

Vohra, a three-time News & Documentary Emmy nominees, is a New York City-based journalist, filmmaker, and producer who previously was a producer-director on the first season of New York Times series The Weekly on FX and Hulu. Din also consults on Netflix projects including the recent Lenox Hill and works with Fork Films, HBO, Conde Nast Entertainment, Itvs, Hoff Productions and more.

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Gravitas Ventures has acquired North American distribution rights to Lone Wolf, an Australian thriller directed by Jonathan Ogilvie. Tilda Cobham-Hervey, Hugo Weaving, Diana Glenn, Josh McConville and Chris Bunton star in the pic, a product of the Melbourne International Film Festival Premiere Fund. It will no get a U.S. release in theaters and on-demand on September 24.

Set in contemporary Melbourne, the plot center on Winnie (Cobham-Hervey), a young woman who runs a struggling political bookshop with her boyfriend Conrad (McConville) and takes care of her disabled brother. But Winnie’s efforts to hold everything together get thwarted when Conrad becomes entangled in an act of terrorism.

“Filmmaker Jonathan Ogilvie skillfully blends issues of surveillance and big government and how they intersect with radical political groups, resulting in a highly topical and tense film that leaves the viewer thinking about who is watching, and why,” said Megan Huggins, Gravitas’ Acquisitions Coordinator.

Huggins negotiated the deal with Denmark-based LevelK.

Blumhouse Television alternative chief Mary Lisio has left the company.

Lisio, who was EVP Alternative and Non-Scripted programming, is exiting to pursue other opportunities. The company will start a search for her replacement.

She has spent over three years at the company and has been involved in projects such as upcoming docuseries Worst Roommate Ever, Epix’s Fall River, CNN’s The People v. The Klan and HBO Max’s Brittany Murphy docuseries.

Other projects included Pray Away, the feature-length documentary from director Kristine Stolakis and executive producer Ryan Murphy, A Wilderness of Error for FX, A Secret Love, Relentless, for Discovery+ and This is Home.

She was also involved in the partnership with NBC News Studios that yielded NBC series The Thing About Pam with Renee Zellweger.

Her departure comes after Blumhouse struck an overall deal with ITV America to develop and produce unscripted formats.

Prior to joining Blumhouse,...

Blumhouse Television’s Mary Lisio is resigning her post.

Named executive vice president of alternative and non-scripted programming at Jason Blum’s division in 2018, Lisio is departing the company amicably to pursue other opportunities.

Her departure comes as a result of Blumhouse TV’s recent exclusive, multi-year unscripted overall deal with ITV America. The pact was designed to pivot the division closer to the core Blumhouse brand, leaning into provocative horror, paranormal reality and suspense-driven series. The division will also work with producers across ITV America’s six vertical labels — ITV Entertainment, Leftfield Pictures, Sirens Media, Thinkfactory Media, High Noon Entertainment and Good Caper Content — to develop new concepts and IP.

Lisio is an Emmy winner who oversaw several of the company’s acclaimed, premium non-fiction series and documentary films, and she was also involved in the development of scripted fare including the deal with NBC News Studios to develop...

Chicago – At the recent Doc 10 screening of “Pray Away,” a new documentary by Kristine Stolakis, Illinois State Representative Kelly Cassidy and Evanston (Illinois) Mayor Daniel Biss made introductory remarks regarding their role in establishing laws against “Conversion Therapy” … the industry that promises to “cure” gay or trans orientation.

Cassidy was on the State Representative side (House) and Biss was an Illinois State Senator (Senate) when they sponsored Anti-Conversion Therapy legislation that featured the survivors of these “techniques” sharing their stories, and how religion and pseudo-psychology act as con artists cashing in on these therapies. Currently, no medical or psychological associations back any conversion therapies, yet they are still legal in 30 states in the U.S. It was the efforts of Cassidy and Biss that made Illinois a state where it is illegal.

Ilinois State Rep Kelly Cassidy & Evanston Mayor Daniel Biss

Photo credit: Patrick McDonald for HollywoodChicago.com

Capsule review...

Exclusive: ICM Partners has signed Multitude Films, the LGBTQ-led nonfiction production company founded by Jessica Devaney and dedicated to telling nonfiction stories by and about underrepresented communities. The move comes as it has upcoming Netflix’s Pray Away in partnership with Ryan Murphy and Blumhouse, and “Apart,” an installment of the HBO Max and Sesame Workshop series Through Our Eyes.

The company, launched in 2016 by Brooklyn-based producer Devaney, has produced films including this past season’s Oscar-shortlisted documentary short Call Center Blues from Geeta Gandbhir, Sundance award winner Always in Season from Jacqueline Olive, and Peabody-nominated Roll Red Roll directed by Nancy Schwartzman which bowed at Tribeca in 2018.

Multitude has won the Cinereach Producers Award, the Sima Vital Voices Award, and Doc NYC’s 40 under 40 Award. The team is led by Deveany, VP Production Anya Rous; and Head of Finance Ameena Din.

“We’re thrilled to partner with ICM and...

Chicago – That’s a wrap! The 2021 Tribeca Film Festival – a hybrid mix of New York City in-person events and online access – has its last day on Sunday, June 20th. It’s also the last day for Tribeca At Home, click Tribeca2021.

The 2021 Tribeca Festival was presented by AT&T, bringing artists and diverse audiences together to celebrate storytelling in all its forms, including film, TV, VR, gaming, music, and online work. With strong roots in independent film, Tribeca is a platform for creative expression and immersive entertainment. This year’s celebration of storytelling can be enjoyed virtually through the “Tribeca At Home” program. Many of the most anticipated features and short films will be made available only as part of our Tribeca Online Premieres lineup … a diverse range of dramas, comedies and documentaries.

Bernstein’s Wall

Photo credit: TribecaFilm.com

Four Films Of Tribeca Fest: Capsule Reviews

Click the title for...

Chicago –The City of Chicago’s influence as a Film Town is one of its greatest strengths. Doc10, a ten documentary film fest mostly at the Northside’s Davis Theater, opens Thursday, June 17th, 2021. For information on the line-up and tickets, click here.

The opening film will be at the ChiTown drive-in, and will be the Sundance Festival sensation “The Summer of Soul” (capsule review below). Click on any title, either in the capsules or in this paragraph, for ticket and description information. The line up includes ”In the Same Breath”, ”Ailey”, ”My Name is Pauli Murray”, ”Pray Away”, ”Sabaya” and the Closing Night film, ”Roadrunner: A Film About Anthony Bourdain”.

Summer of Soul

Photo credit: Doc10.org

The Doc10 Film Festival launched in 2016 to bring premieres of ten highly curated documentary films to Chicago in a neighborhood setting, as an extension of the work of Chicago Media Project (Cmp...