Nonfiction Unlimited, the commercial production company that works with accomplished documentary filmmakers, has signed Abby Fuller, who directs for the award-winning Netflix documentary series Chef’s Table created by David Gelb, another Nonfiction roster director. Fuller is the youngest filmmaker and the only woman on the Netflix Original series. The documentary director got her start producing the Emmy Award-winning series True Life for MTV and since then has directed, produced and edited documentaries for: Ron Howard’s Imagine Entertainment, Sundance Channel, MTV, Food Network, Travel Channel, Netflix and National Geographic.
“I’m happy that David introduced her to us,” said Loretta Jeneski, executive producer at Nonfiction Unlimited. “She’s insightful and smart and knows how to weave a beautiful story; for example, her Chef’s Table episode about Ana Ros, the Slovenian chef who’s spent 16 years revolutionizing her country’s food. Abby sets the table for Ana in such a way that you not only smell and taste what the great chef is cooking, but you feel and embrace her down-to-earth personality. Abby brings a fresh face and perspective to Nonfiction and we love that.”
Fuller’s feature documentary Do You Dream In Color? examines the injustices in the education system suffered by blind students. It has won awards at festivals across the nation and was screened at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in NYC. Fuller is currently directing a documentary featuring heroic woman athletes from around the globe. In June 2017 these women will climb Mount Kilimanjaro to set the world record for the highest altitude soccer match ever played in an effort to inspire unprecedented awareness in the fight for gender equality.
With Fuller’s addition, half of the directors at Nonfiction Unlimited are now women. The roster includes Barbara Kopple, Rory Kennedy, Tracy Droz Tragos, Chai Vasarhelyi and Jessica Yu. The 22-year old company is also woman-founded and owned.
“It’s not that I set out to hire women specifically,” said Jeneski. “I was just looking for great directors, and what do you know? Half of them turned out to be women. Interesting what can happen when you aren’t wearing blinders. Great talent is great talent.”
Review: Director Morgan Neville’s “Piece by Piece”
A movie documentary that uses only Lego pieces might seem an unconventional choice. When that documentary is about renowned musician-producer Pharrell Williams, it's actually sort of on-brand.
"Piece by Piece" is a bright, clever song-filled biopic that pretends it's a behind-the-scenes documentary using small plastic bricks, angles and curves to celebrate an artist known for his quirky soul. It is deep and surreal and often adorable. Is it high concept or low? Like Williams, it's a bit of both.
Director Morgan Neville — who has gotten more and more experimental exploring other celebrity lives like Fred Rogers in "Won't You Be My Neighbor?,""Roadrunner: A Film About Anthony Bourdain" and "Steve! (Martin): A Documentary in Two Pieces" — this time uses real interviews but masks them under little Lego figurines with animated faces. Call this one a documentary in a million pieces.
The filmmakers try to explain their device — "What if nothing is real? What if life is like a Lego set?" Williams says at the beginning — but it's very tenuous. Just submit and enjoy the ride of a poor kid from Virginia Beach, Virginia, who rose to dominate music and become a creative director at Louis Vuitton.
Williams, by his own admission, is a little detached, a little odd. Music triggers colors in his brain — he has synesthesia, beautifully portrayed here — and it's his forward-looking musical brain that will make him a star, first as part of the producing team The Neptunes and then as an in-demand solo producer and songwriter.
There are highs and lows and then highs again. A verse Williams wrote for "Rump Shaker" by Wreckx-N-Effect when he was making a living selling beats would lead to superstars demanding to work with him and partner... Read More