April 07, 2021
“Nobody Was Listening”: Finding Light in a Dark Stairwell
Craig Phillips in Behind the Films
Filmmaker Ursula Liang's previous documentary 9-Man was about the fascinating titular sport that originated among Chinese immigrant communities in the United States and Canada, and was set in mostly Boston,…...
February 05, 2021
Telling the Story of Gender, Politics, and Violence in America Through the Eyes of Women Police Officers
Craig Phillips in Behind the Films
In addition to her documentaries Still Doing It: The Intimate Lives of Women Over 65, and Suicide On Campus, a web documentary produced in conjunction with The New York Times…...
January 13, 2021
The Story of 9to5: A Movement that Changed the American Workplace
Craig Phillips in Interviews
Julia Reichert and her filmmaking partner and life partner Steve Bognar, have been making documentaries for a long while. Most recently, in 2020, the team won the Academy Award for…...
December 28, 2020
Battling a Male-Dominated World for Recognition and a Raise
Craig Phillips in
Filmmaker Yu Gu was born in Chongqing, China, raised in Vancouver, Canada, and found her way to the University of Southern California film program. Her films, like the feature documentary…...
October 20, 2020
How Three Passionate Candidates Represent Women Shaping the Future
Craig Phillips in Interviews
What does "representation" mean in the midst of a historically tense election year? In her film Represent, filmmaker Hillary Bachelder sought to show the universal struggle to redefine repressive expectations…...
October 02, 2020
How a Cartoon Frog Became a Symbol for a “Confounding Moment in Our History”
Craig Phillips in Behind the Films
Filmmakers Arthur Jones and Giorgio Angelini both bring very unique artistic backgrounds to the drawing table that led to the fruitful collaboration for Feels Good Man, which is Jones' feature…...
June 09, 2020
How Do You Sort Through 70,000 Videotapes?
Craig Phillips in Behind the Films
The San Jose (CA) native, New York City-based filmmaker Matt Wolf is no stranger to having to comb through archival footage for his documentaries. His film Wild Combination, about the…...
May 01, 2020
Sasha Joseph Neulinger Confronts Family Trauma Head-On
Craig Phillips in Behind the Films
It's been a pretty impressive run for what was someone's very first feature documentary. But then again, Rewind is no ordinary first film. After Sasha Joseph Neulinger finished film school…...
April 08, 2020
“My Family’s Tragedy Is an American Tragedy”: Bedlam Filmmaker’s Journey to Depict Mental Health Crisis
Craig Phillips in Beyond the Films
In his film Bedlam, Kenneth Paul Rosenberg, MD follows the lives of three patients who find themselves with a chronic lack of institutional support, while he also weaves in his…...
March 25, 2020
Nanfu Wang’s Riveting Personal Story Probes Impact of One-Child Policy
Craig Phillips in Behind the Films
Taking risks is nothing new for Chinese filmmaker Nanfu Wang. Her previous documentary I Am Another You, which was a SXSW Jury Award-winner and aired on Independent Lens, involved her…...
February 05, 2020
Filmmakers Follow Women in China Trying to Overcome Stigma of Being Single
Craig Phillips in Behind the Films
Israeli filmmakers Shosh Shlam and Hilla Medalia have had films air on international television as well as here in the U.S. on HBO, MTV, Sundance, and PBS (Medalia has received…...
January 22, 2020
Finding Common Ground: The Story of an Unlikely Chicago Alliance
Craig Phillips in Interviews
It takes an incredible amount of tenacity and belief in a project to stick with it for 14 years, but that's just how long it took for Ray Santisteban to…...