Documentaries

James Marsh (director) and Simon Chinn (producer) "Man on Wire" "Man on Wire," part thriller, part existential mood piece, told the story of how French acrobat Philippe Petit walked on a tightrope between the two towers of the World Trade Center in 1974. Director Marsh called Petit to the stage while accepting the award, and Petit duly sprinted up. After remarks by Marsh and producer Chinn, Petit announced "the shortest speech in Oscar history -- yes!"

Documentary filmmaker Tadashi Nakamura first heard about Chris Iijima while listening to his parents talk about "the movement." That movement was something that had happened eons ago, in the 1970s, a time when young Asian Americans were uncovering hidden histories, creating their own art and music and theater, and forming groups with names like the Yellow Brotherhood and Asian Americans for Action. Iijima had been a part of all of that.

In terms of sheer scope, there are few artists who can compete with Christo and Jeanne-Claude. Over the last 40 years, they have wrapped the Reichstag in fabric and strung a 24-mile-long fence through Sonoma and Marin counties, incorporating tons of steel, millions of square feet of fabric and untold thousands of man-hours. The six documentaries Albert Maysles has made about the couple's projects are modest by comparison, running a mere six hours in all.

"A Walk to Beautiful," a new documentary opening Friday, focuses on five poor Ethiopian women who have suffered traumatic childbirth injuries. After enduring sometimes more than a week in labor, these women delivered stillborn babies that left them with obstetric fistula, a hole in the birth canal that causes incontinence. Abandoned by their husbands, shunned by their families and villages, they live in shame and in hiding.

Location. Location. Location. A few years back, Hart Bochner was making a movie in Bakersfield. The production moved to the desert town of Trona for two night shoots. The experience there proved so overwhelming that he was compelled to write and direct a movie about it. "Just Add Water," which opens Friday, is set in the town on the edge of Death Valley.

The Weinstein Co., the studio that bought the movie rights to the autobiography of reggae legend Bob Marley's wife, may have to make the film without his music. The family of Bob Marley, which is co-producing a documentary of the singer by Martin Scorsese, said in a statement Monday that it won't license his music for the Weinstein movie based on Rita Marley's book, "No Woman No Cry: My Life With Bob Marley."

A campaign of harassment by nationalists has led several cinemas to cancel screenings of an award-winning movie about Yasukuni Shrine, the controversial memorial that venerates Japan's war dead and war criminals alike. Five cinemas in Tokyo and Osaka have dropped plans to show the documentary "Yasukuni" beginning April 12, saying they feared for the safety of staff and patrons if they showed the film by Chinese director Li Ying.

Officials at KCET-TV pulled its planned broadcast of "Unnatural Causes: Is Inequality Making Us Sick?," which was to begin airing Sunday, after concerns arose at the public-TV station this week about possible fines from the Federal Communications Commission.

Madonna's new film on the impoverished nation of Malawi has wowed another maker of documentaries: Michael Moore. Moore says that Madonna, like himself a Michigan native, will appear for a screening of "I Am Because We Are" during the state's Traverse City Film Festival on Aug. 2. Moore helped establish the festival in 2005. "She's sort of entered my realm," Moore said. "When I saw it, I thought, 'Wow, it's like she's been making these films for years.' "

Blair Underwood, who has costarred in two series this season ("Dirty Sexy Money" and "In Treatment"), will serve as executive producer for a documentary detailing the saga of black artists in the entertainment industry. The project, which will be produced by Associated Television International, will focus on several veteran artists relating their victories and struggles within the industry, said ATI President David McKenzie.