Joseph M. Schroeder

Letterboxd to Launch New ‘Video’ Store in a Clever Take on TVOD Letterboxd will next month launch its Video Store offering digital rentals of movies.

Anyone who knows me knows I'm a huge fan of both @letterboxd.social and a fan of taking your film straight to its audience. This is a gamechanger if it truly takes off. www.indiewire.com/news/general...

Interview: Matt Wolf On 'Pee-wee As Himself' The director talks about the challenges of making a documentary about a guarded subject who also unfortunately died before filming could be finished.

Yet another fascinating interview on @nonfics.bsky.social from @thefilmcynic.bsky.social with Matt Wolf on the state of celebrity documentary, amongst other things. Great read. www.nonfics.com/p/matt-wolf-...

One of Our Greatest Art Forms Is Entering a Grim New Era The golden age of the documentary is over.

"The hard time that No Other Land and Union have had getting distribution because of their subject matter feels absolutely in line with the way that so much of the documentary landscape has been ceded to streaming and the pressures those platforms exert on what gets made and promoted."

Netflix Is Telling Writers to Dumb Down Shows Since Viewers Are on Their Phones Amid a push to perfect 'casual viewing,' creatives say streaming execs are requiring them to remove nuance and visual cues, and do things like announce when characters enter a room.

"Is the golden age of TV writing over, steadily being replaced with a never-ending stream of forgettable, premium background content?" Uh, kinda looks that way from over here. 😐

Better late than never! The tradition returns! Here's my ten favorite documentary features and shorts I came across in 2024 (you'll notice a few older ones that very much deserve a mention). Happy New Year, all!

Documentaries Ripped From the Headlines Are Becoming Harder to See Films about Israel and a union drive at Amazon are acclaimed Oscar hopefuls. But they are largely unavailable to American audiences.

"It could perhaps be explained by the thought that this topic is sensitive, and, ‘Why touch it? Why take the risk?’” 😬

Will Trump and Musk Destroy Public Media and Independent Documentary? It'll Be Close. Ever since I began covering the independent film industry, I’ve been writing about the death of film companies and faltering industry trends.

"The available pot of funding that has existed in the past for public media and important investigative and social-issue documentaries... won’t be there because philanthropists and donors will be too busy trying to buttress basic human rights with their money." Great point and great read.