Venice Film Festival lineup announced: Errol Morris, Frederick Wiseman, Morgan Neville docs on tap7/25/2018 Morris film focuses on Trump campaign manager and ousted presidential adviser Stephen Bannon Steve Bannon could be joining the likes of Bradley Cooper, Ryan Gosling and Natalie Portman at the glittering venues of the Venice Film Festival. Donald Trump's campaign manager and former top aide is the subject of the Errol Morris documentary American Dharma, one of the most intriguing nonfiction titles revealed Wednesday as the Venice lineup was announced. Little is known about the film at this point, beyond Bannon's participation, but it appears to fit neatly into the Morris canon, which includes documentaries on controversial political figures like former defense secretaries Robert McNamara (The Fog of War) and Donald Rumsfeld (The Unknown Known). Morris' friend and fellow Cambridge, Mass. resident Frederick Wiseman will also be heading to Venice with new work. His documentary Monrovia, Indiana marks approximately the 43rd feature length documentary of Wiseman's incredible career, which began with Titicut Follies in 1967. Like many of Wiseman's films, Monrovia boasts an impressive running time of 223 minutes. Monrovia, Indiana is a small town (population roughly 1,063) outside of Indianapolis. If his latest film tracks with Wiseman's earlier work, the documentary will focus on institutions and civic life in the Midwestern community. Another cinematic legend -- Orson Welles -- is the subject of Morgan Neville's documentary They'll Love Me When I'm Dead, which originally was slated to premiere at the Cannes Film Festival in May. Netflix pulled all of its titles from Cannes, including Neville's doc, in a dispute between the streaming giant and that festival's organizers. They'll Love Me When I'm Dead focuses on Welles' uncompleted movie The Other Side of the Wind, which also will screen at Venice (like the documentary, the Welles film was pulled from Cannes). Neville, an Academy Award winner for 20 Feet From Stardom, is enjoying huge success this summer with his documentary Won't You Be My Neighbor? about children's television pioneer Fred Rogers. That film has made more than $18 mil. at the box office to date.
The Venice Film Festival runs from August 29-September 8. These are the documentaries on the program, as announced in Rome on Wednesday:
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AuthorMatthew Carey is a documentary filmmaker and journalist. His work has appeared on Deadline.com, CNN, CNN.com, TheWrap.com, NBCNews.com and in Documentary magazine. |