Cameraperson (2016) Photo : Courtesy Cinematographer Kirsten Johnson weaves together biographical details with questions of documentary ethics and raw outtake from some of her more harrowing shoots. Cameraperson is a nuanced meditation on what the act of photographing does to the person in front of the camera, as well as the person behind it. Share this:

Hearts of Darkness: A Filmmaker’s Apocalypse (1991) Photo : Courtesy Everett Collection Director Francis Ford Coppola himself admits that those involved in making his 1979 masterpiece, Apocalypse Now, went insane “little by little.” A landmark documentary, Hearts of Darkness uses behind-the-scenes footage shot by Eleanor Coppola, the filmmaker’s wife, who was present on the turbulent set for […]

Eschewing the usual reliance on experts and character witnesses, this study of Brian De Palma assembled by Noah Baumbach and Jake Paltrow allows the famed filmmaker to speak for himself in intimate detail.

This affectionate yet poignant look at a true Hollywood eccentric traces Hal Ashby’s unlikely showbiz career, first as an editor (In the Heat of the Night) and then a director.

This 2002 “unmaking-of” behind-the-scenes documentary by Keith Fulton and Louis Pepe captures the derailing of Gilliam’s dream project “The Man Who Killed Don Quixote” with Johnny Depp and Jean Rochefort, where everything that could go wrong on location, actually did go wrong–and worse.