David France: Last News

Producer Rob Reiner and director Dan Partland screened God & Country, a new documentary chronicling the rise of Christian nationalism, on Capitol Hill on Thursday evening.

Addie Morfoot Contributor Distribution platform Gathr and documentary distribution agency Roco Films have teamed to create Roco Voices, a new speakers bureau. Roco Voices, launching Nov.

Brent Lang Executive Editor Oscilloscope Laboratories has acquired U.S. rights to Dan Partland’s “God & Country: The Rise of Christian Nationalism.” The film, which was produced by Rob Reiner, is set for release in early 2024. It features interviews with prominent faith leaders, who share their fears about this movement.

Malina Saval Associate Editor, Features Jewish Story Partners (JSP), a Los Angeles-based nonprofit film funding organization, has announced  its new slate of grants to 19 documentary film projects. The org, which was launched in April 2021 with support from Kate Capshaw and Steven Spielberg’s Righteous Persons Foundation, will distribute $490,000 among these independent films, all of which explore the vast and vibrant terrain of the Jewish storytelling space. The announcement coincides with Jewish American Heritage Month and a commitment from President Joe Biden’s White House administration to develop a national strategy to counter antisemitism and “address increasing awareness and understanding of both antisemitism and Jewish American heritage.” 

Guy Lodge Film CriticA decade ago, when his documentary “How to Survive a Plague” rode a wave of festival acclaim to an Oscar nomination, journalist-turned-filmmaker David France probably didn’t imagine that a similarly titled quasi-sequel was in the cards. A superb overview of the early years of HIV-AIDS activism in the face of political indifference and ineptitude — ultimately leading to game-changing medication and pharmaceutical policy change — that film has given France a solid grounding for another feature-length study of very different if somewhat comparable global health crisis, centered on the COVID-19 pandemic and the extraordinarily accelerated scientific race for a solution.Researched and assembled with his characteristic intelligence and thoroughness, “How to Survive a Pandemic” serves as both a valuable potted history of the last two years of medical tumult and relief, and a critical progress report marking work yet to be done. Hardly the first high-profile documentary on the pandemic, but the most substantial yet to focus specifically on the trajectory of the vaccine, France’s film is assured a receptive audience when it bows on HBO next week, following docfest premiere slots in Thessaloniki and Copenhagen.

Since the beginning of the COVID pandemic, we’ve already seen quite a large number of documentaries tackle the subject. But the upcoming HBO documentary, “How to Survive a Pandemic,” takes a fairly unique angle on the situation.

Christopher Vourlias From the early days of the coronavirus pandemic, Oscar-nominated documentary filmmaker David France (“How to Survive a Plague”) could sense the scale of the threat looming on the horizon. A long-time health reporter who has spent decades documenting the battle against HIV and AIDS, he also knew that it would be up to science to lead the world from the brink of an unprecedented human catastrophe.The race to develop and rollout a COVID-19 vaccine has been the defining story of recent memory, and it was the director’s need to document “the great unseen work” performed in laboratories across the world that led to his latest feature, “How to Survive a Pandemic.” “This is the largest scientific undertaking of our lifetimes,” France tells Variety, “and it deserved to be chronicled.” “How to Survive a Pandemic,” which world premieres this week at the Thessaloniki Documentary Festival, is a kaleidoscopic portrait of the world’s response to COVID-19 told through the eyes of leading scientists, lawmakers, activists, healthcare workers, and everyday figures on the pandemic’s frontlines.

Manori Ravindran International EditorA new film about the development, regulation and roll-out of COVID-19 vaccines from “How to Survive a Plague” director David France has scored a raft of international sales.Documentary specialists Dogwoof have sold the film — which will debut on HBO and HBO Max in 2022 — into Sky in the U.K., Germany and Italy; NRK for Norway; DR for Denmark; SVT for Sweden; Channel 8 and YesDocu for Israel; and HBO and HBO Max in Latin America.Filming on the documentary, which is still untitled, began in April 2020 and wrapped in October. The project is now in post-production.“COVID-19 has proved one of the most challenging and deadly diseases for vaccine scientists,” said France in a statement.

Emmy nominations in the doc categories are giving films passed over by the Oscars a shot at some trophies of their own.

In 2017, Russia’s Chechen Republic declared open season on LGBTQ people, launching what Human Rights Watch has called a “vicious large-scale anti-gay purge.” David France, director of the HBO documentary Welcome to Chechnya, says there’s another word for it.

For LGBTQ people in Chechnya, life has become a nightmare.

On Welcome to Chechnya, VFX producer Ryan Laney introduced game-changing tools with huge implications for the future of documentary filmmaking.

In early 2017, reports began to emerge out of Chechnya that authorities were detaining gay men and subjecting them to torture and humiliation. Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov immediately repudiated the claims (he maintains that there are no LGBTQ individuals in Chechnya), but the documentary evidence of abuse is impossible to deny.

Eli Countryman Documentary and docuseries creators have found themselves amidst a rapidly expanding market for their work.During the FYC Fest documentary roundtable, Variety‘s Matt Donnelley discussed the state of documentary filmmaking with panelists including “Time” director Garrett Bradley, “Boys State” director Amanda McBaine, “Rebuilding Paradise” director Ron Howard, “The Dissident” director Bryan Fogle, “Welcome to Chechnya” director David France and “Crip Camp” director Nicole Newnham.“So much of filmmaking, regardless of the genre, is about us understanding ourselves as human beings and as a culture,” Bradley said. “Filmmaking and the camera is an investigation of what happens when that occurs.

LONG BEACH — Due to COVID-19, Long Beach’s QFilm Festival will be virtual this year.

cleansing” has threatened the survival of LGBTQ people living inside the Chechen Republic. The nation’s Putin-supported leader, Ramzan Kadyrov, proudly denies the purge, despite reports from victims, survivors, and their families of brutal atrocities.

By Greg Evans

For David France, the chaos surrounding the coronavirus pandemic is depressingly familiar.

Oscar-nominated director David France has been at the helm of some of the most noted LGBTQ-themed documentaries ever made. His “How To Survive a Plague” looked at the AIDS crisis, and his “The Death and Life of Marsha P. Johnson” chronicled the late trans activist. France’s latest film—“Welcome to Chechnya,” which debuted at Sundance earlier this year and is now airing on HBO—is a powerful examination of the thousands of LGBTQ individuals dealing with the anti-gay leadership of the southern Russian republic of Chechnya.

When the embrace of one’s true self becomes a protest, and when protest is treated by the state as tantamount to treason, small acts of humanity can carry the weight of the world. Director David France wades into this awful reality with his newest documentary, “Welcome to Chechnya,” which tracks a group of activists in Russia and Chechnya who operate an LGBTQ+ Underground Railroad of sorts.

Marc Malkin Senior Film Awards, Events & Lifestyle EditorWithin two weeks of David France reading an article in The New Yorker about the persecution of LGTBQ people in Chechnya, he was on a plane headed to Moscow.It’s there that he first met the men and women who are featured in his new documentary “Welcome to Chechnya,” which premieres Tuesday on HBO. Ramzan Kadyrov, the president of the autonomous region of Russia, enacted a campaign in 2017 to find, imprison, torture and sometimes kill LGBTQ Chechens.