Festival Recap
Last week, ASK. E JEAN and REMAKE celebrated their world premieres. Congratulations to both film teams!
Ask E. Jean
Ivy Meeropol’s ASK E. JEAN premiered on Labor Day weekend at the Telluride Film Festival, with main participant E. Jean Carroll in attendance at the festival. The press reaction has been strong, with great interviews in Variety and The New York Times, and wonderful reviews. Here are some of our favorite quotes:
“With the sharply structured documentary ASK E. JEAN, director Ivy Meeropol accomplishes the near-impossible, telling the story of Carroll in a manner as consistently enthralling and unapologetic as its subject…to Carroll, it was always her name and reputation that mattered the most…Watching her defiantly claim both is what makes ASK E. JEAN a most rewarding experience.” – Tomris Laffly, Variety
“The kaleidoscopic assortment of everything from intimate interviews and absolutely gobsmacking archival footage is informative and rich, allowing us to get to know Carroll as we also learn the worst bits of her life story…These contradictions are what make ASK E. JEAN really spark.” – Kate Erbland, Indiewire
“Meeropol and her all-female crew are methodical and calculated in the recounting of Carroll’s life…because this story is handled with a great amount of care, it balances eliciting a plethora of scoffs and laughter from its viewers, a perfect mirror of Carroll’s habit of countering conflict with comedy.” – Cortlyn Kelly, RogerEbert.com
On Monday, The New York Times reported that an appeals court upheld the $83 million judgment Donald Trump owes to E. Jean. We’re incredibly proud of the impact E. Jean continues to have and look forward to continuing to share her story with festival audiences and beyond.
Remake
Ross McElwee returned to the Venice Film Festival for the premiere of his newest film, REMAKE. The film received rave reviews from film critics and took home the Golden Globes Impact Prize for Documentary. This award honors a documentary that calls attention to a key social issue with journalistic and creative prowess. Read more about the prize in Variety.
Here are some of our favorite reviews:
“Heartbreaking study of movies and memory…Ross McElwee’s latest documentary continues in the vein of the filmmaker’s best work, albeit with more emotional weight than ever before…The most courageous thing McElwee does in this latest, heartbreaking work is to keep on filming even during the worst of times, not to make them stop but to make us remember. A profound and piercing portrait of loss.” – Jordan Mintzer, The Hollywood Reporter
A-, Critics Pick. “Strikes a raw nerve…REMAKE, like all of McElwee’s personal cinema, embodies the passage of time itself.” – Vikram Murthi, Indiewire
Five Stars. “A tear-stained, deeply personal and utterly singular documentary… A funny as well as brutally honest film…Lovelorn, thoughtful and deeply moving, this is a film you’ll really want to talk about.” – Phil de Semlyen, Time Out
Best of the 2025 Venice Film Festival “McElwee confronts his late son’s life and death in this heart-wrenching film that asks what part the director himself might have played in Adrian’s long slide downwards…an unforgiving and beautiful picture…a communion of sorts.” – Bilge Ebiri, New York Magazine / Vulture
Mistress Dispeller
DOC NYC announced the honorees for its Visionaries Tribute, and we’re so excited to share that MISTRESS DISPELLER director Elizabeth Lo will receive the Robert and Anne Drew Award for Documentary Excellence. You can learn more about the full list of honorees through the exclusive announcement in Deadline. Congrats Elizabeth on this well deserved honor!
For more MISTRESS DISPELLER updates, visit the film’s website or Instagram.
Move Ya Body
Elegance Bratton’s MOVE YA BODY: THE BIRTH OF HOUSE returns to New York City on Saturday, September 20 as a part of Rooftop Films’ Summer Series. This free screening takes place at 8:30pm (doors at 7pm) in Brooklyn’s Brower Park. To reserve your spot and for more info, visit the Rooftop Films website.
Songs from the Hole
Last week on Pure Nonfiction, Thom Powers interviewed SONGS FROM THE HOLE director Contessa Gayles about her career path from working inside CNN to going independent. You can listen to the full interview here. SONGS FROM THE HOLE is currently streaming on Netflix. For more updates, visit the film’s website or Instagram.