Kenneth Turan

Ekchart Schmidt examines the machinery behind the dream factory; the Hollywood myth is unmasked. How does the studio industry work? What role does marketing and the hype surrounding the stars play?

On the 35th anniversary of the release of the landmark film "The Godfather," (March 15, 1972) we look back at the time and place of the film's conception and shooting.

A documentary film about three generations of female Jewish comedians and the complexity and challenges of their relationship to comedy, Judaism, and gender. The film profiles Molly Picon, Fanny Brice, Sophie Tucker, Joan Rivers, Gilda Radner, and Wendy Wasserstein, as well as contemporary comedians Judy Gold and Jackie Hoffman.

ONLY IN THEATERS, a film by actor/director Raphael Sbarge, is an intimate and moving journey taken with the Laemmle family, spanning nearly three years of challenges, losses, and personal triumphs. Laemmle Theatres, the beloved 84-year-old arthouse cinema chain 3rd generation family business in Los Angeles, is facing seismic change and financial pressure. Yet the family behind this multigenerational business – whose sole mission has been to support the art of film – is determined to survive.

The fall of 2021 marked the 50th anniversary of Fiddler on the Roof, the film Pauline Kael (The New Yorker) called "the most powerful movie musical ever made." Narrated by Jeff Goldblum, FIDDLER'S JOURNEY TO THE BIG SCREEN captures the humor and drama of director Norman Jewison's quest to recreate the lost world of Jewish life in Tsarist Russia and re-envision the beloved stage hit as a wide-screen epic. Oscar-nominated filmmaker Daniel Raim puts us in the director's chair and in Jewison's heart and mind, drawing on behind-the-scenes footage and never-before-seen stills as well as original interviews with Jewison, Topol (Tevye), composer John Williams, production designer Robert F. Boyle, film critic Kenneth Turan, lyricist Sheldon Harnick, and actresses Rosalind Harris, Michele Marsh, and Neva Small (Tevye’s daughters). The film explores how the experience of making Fiddler deepened Jewison as an artist and revived his soul.

The story of American film criticism.

Patty Duke portrays herself in this made-for-tv biopic about her struggles as a child star growing into adulthood.

The outrageous insider's look at the creation of a cult classic.

Join Harrison Ford, Tommy Lee Jones, Joe Pantoliano, director Andrew Davis and their collaborators in this stirring look at the creation of one of Hollywood's seminal thrillers.

This documentary, based on author Jack Mathew's book "The Battle of Brazil," reunites the players involved in the struggle over the film's U.S. release. This take on one of the noisiest, most unusual, and most instructive behind-the-scenes controversies in Hollywood history features Mathews, director Terry Gilliam, producer Arnon Milchan, and studio executives Frank Price, Marvin Antonowsky, Bob Rehme, and Sidney Sheinberg.