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It’s clear that meme culture has strangely seeped into the real world over the past decade, and boy, are we still facing its consequences today. How did the culture stir from wholesome trolling like getting Rickrolled to the catastrophic spiral into the Jan. 6 insurrection? The latest Netflix doc, The Antisocial Network: Memes to Mayhem, sees co-directors Giorgio Angelini and Arthur Jones of Feels Good Man—the Pepe the Frog doc— draw the timeline and try to pinpoint the moment(s) when the Agent Smiths of the far right took control of the Matrix and seeped into our daily lives. Yet their approach looks too wistfully toward the early internet days of meme culture, detracting the doc from striking any actual meaning.

Building upon the narrative of the team’s previous meme-centric project, Memes to Mayhem plays as a spiritual sequel—or supplement—as it traces the thesis back to...

“Independent Lens” is unveiling its winter lineup, which highlights a collection of award-winning documentary films that tackle everything from economic inequality and immigration to gun violence and gentrification.

The PBS documentary anthology series is presented by Itvs, a San Francisco-based nonprofit organization, and the films being showcased will make their broadcast debut beginning Jan. 17. The upcoming slate will open with James Rutenbeck’s “A Reckoning in Boston,” which looks at racial and economic inequity in cities, through the perspective of low-income students of color enrolled in a Boston night school. Next up is “Missing in Brooks County,” from co-directors Jeff Bemiss and Lisa Molomot, which takes viewers to Brooks County, Texas, where more migrants go missing than anywhere else in the U.S., tracking the journeys of families searching for loved ones. The film is a Critics Choice Doc Awards nominee for political documentary.

Kicking off the month of February...

Sharon Van Etten has released a new song, “Let Go,” which will be featured in the upcoming documentary, Feels Good Man, about the history behind the internet meme Pepe the Frog.

As anyone who was too online during the 2016 election knows, Pepe the Frog, originally created by artist Matt Furie, began as a peaceful, stoner-related meme before being co-opted by alt-right and Neo-Nazi communities on websites such as 4chan. As documented in Feels Good Man, Furie has spent much of the past few years trying to regain artistic control of...

As the world seems like it is aflame with a pandemic, divisive rhetoric from an oppressive administration and the unjust killing of Black lives at the hands of police officers, hope seems dim. However, there are voices and role models in the world that are fighting for change and on the frontlines fighting against 45, his henchmen and ardent supporters. Enter Stacey Abrams who is essentially the star of the Liz Garbus and Lisa Cortés documentary All In: The Fight For Democracy, which debuts in theaters on September 9 and then on September 18 on Amazon Prime Video — just four days before National Voter Registration Day.

The docu comes as the 2020 presidential is just around the corner and puts a glaring spotlight on the wildly overlooked issue of voter suppression in the country. Through personal experiences, activism and historical All In rips the band-aid off of a problem that has corrupted our democracy...

When you think about Pepe the Frog, what comes to mind? In all likelihood, it’s either something tied to an internet meme, or more recently, the alt-right political movement. For many, that’s the only thing that they’ve been exposed to, in regards to the cartoon frog. However, the drawing began far more harmlessly, which is detailed in the new documentary Feels Good Man. A look not just at how Pepe was co-opted, but how his creator is fighting to reclaim his creation and give it back a purer identity, this is really interesting stuff. An unusual topic for a doc, it winds up being a reasonably thorough dive into both the danger and power of internet culture. The documentary follows underground cartoonist Matt Furie, who created Pepe the Frog, both as we learn about how the cartoon character came to be, as well as how he became an internet meme.

Features: Matt Furie | Written by Giorgio Angelini, Arthur Jones, Aaron Wickenden | Directed by Arthur Jones

Pepe the Frog… a cartoon frog. He’s just a frog. Nothing more, right? Just a simplistic, somewhat ugly cartoon creation in the guise of a frog. A meme, a silly meme, that’s all he was. Well… he’s much more than that now. This documentary film looks into the creation of Pepe by cartoonist Matt Furie. Pepe was created in the early ’00s as a character that depicted life after college as a laid back fella. That was it. It wasn’t a big deal. Then, in the most surprising and destructive of ways, the alt right and white nationalist movement took Pepe and made him into a symbol of hatred for their own racist, prejudice and mind-bogglingly ignorant ideals.

Feels Good Man takes that frog and looks at how this all happened,...

Ryan Kampe screening all three in the market.

Visit Films heads to the Efm in Berlin this week with a slate bolstered by Sundance acquisitions The Last Shift and Feels Good Man, and Berlin Panorama selection Minyan.

Ryan Kampe and his team will screen all three in Berlin, alongside previously announced punk rock documentary and Generations selection White Riot, Park City premieres Summer White and Dinner In America, and Toronto title Hearts And Bones starring Hugo Weaving.

The Last Shift stars Richard Jenkins and Shane Paul McGhie and screened in the Premieres section. Jenkins plays a fast food worker about...

Altitude handles international sales. Altitude Film Distribution to release in UK.

FilmRise has acquired North American rights to Marc Meyers’ My Friend Dahmer. The Ibid Filmworks and Aperture Entertainment production is slated for an autumn release.

Altitude Films Sales is handling international sales, and Altitude Film Distribution has taken UK rights with plans for a theatrical release.

The film premiered in Tribeca last month and tells the true story of serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer during his time in high school, based on real-life classmate Derf Backderf’s graphic novel.

Dahmer is portrayed as an awkward teenager who collects roadkill and has an unstable family life. He fixates on a neighbourhood jogger who routinely passes by his house. By the start of senior year, he acts out, throwing epileptic-like fits in the halls.

His goofball antics win over a group of nerds who form The Dahmer Fan Club headed by Backderf. This camaraderie...