Documentary

Martin Scorsese has found his next film subject: Bill Clinton. The Oscar winner will produce and direct a documentary on the former president for HBO, the network announced Monday. The documentary will explore the 42nd president's perspective on history, politics and the like during his time in office and the years since -- with Clinton offering his full cooperation. “President Clinton is one of the most compelling figures of our time, whose world view and perspective, combined with his uncommon intelligence, make him a singular voice on the world stage.

I feel I have to respond to some of the Feb. 18 letters about the movie "Roger & Me." Only a fool (or a member of the motion picture academy's documentary board) defines documentary as objective nonfiction. From "Nanook of the North" to "The Thin Blue Line," documentary has inhabited a region between fiction and journalism. Documentary is a form designed for filmic essays, and it encourages partiality and bias. I don't know anybody who walked into "Roger & Me" expecting an impartial overview of the situation in Flint, Mich.

My experience over the years is that Nolan Bushnell, the guy who founded Atari  and once hired Steve Jobs, doesn't talk to the press much. So when the opportunity to talk to him came up, I jumped at it. "I basically look at PR as something you do if there's an object in mind," Bushnell said during a phone interview this week. "But my ego doesn't need it. " Fair enough. But Bushnell does have an object in mind. In fact, two of them.  The first is a documentary that's going to be airing on various PBS stations over the next few weeks called, "Something Ventured: Risk, Reward And The Original Venture Capitalists.

'The Oscar Nominated Short Films 2011: Documentary' No MPAA rating Running time: 3 hours, 17 minutes Playing at: Laemmle's Sunset 5, West Hollywood

Documentaries come in every shape and size -- political, historical, nature and even comedic. Three documentaries making their DVD debuts today illustrate that diversity. The exquisite "March of the Penguins" (Warner, $29) was a surprise box office hit this summer, grossing $77.3 million. French filmmaker Luc Jacquet and his crew spent a year under extreme weather conditions in Antarctica to chronicle the incredible journey of the emperor penguins.

TORONTO--If the Toronto International Film Festival is known for works of grand cinematic scope like "The Master" and "Cloud Atlas," it also has another filmic side: the one where true stories are told about colorful personalities. Perhaps none comes more colorful than Iceberg Slim, the late pimp-turned-bestselling-author who helped create the genre known as street lit and had a profound effect on hip-hop and its artists. One of those artists is the musician and actor Ice-T, who credits his career and his life to the street scribe.

The Directors Guild of America nominated two female documentarians, Lauren Greenfield ("The Queen of Versailles") and Alison Klayman ("Ai Weiwei: Never Sorry"), among three male directors for outstanding directorial achievement in documentaries for 2012. Both women were left off the Academy Awards' nomination list for feature documentaries. Greenfield, whose film about a billionaire couple who lose it all in the real estate crisis, and Klayman, who explores Chinese artist and activist Ai, will compete against Kirby Dick ("The Invisible War")

Whitney Houston's death last year couldn't have been a more perfect storm. Just 24 hours before the Grammy Awards were set to go live, news that the pop icon had passed stunned the world. And the Recording Academy and show producers were faced with an unfathomable challenge of delicately paying homage as the music industry gathered to recognize their peers and mourn the passing of one of their own. Those 11th-hour alterations to the telecast are documented in a new documentary, “The Grammys Will Go On: A Death in the Family.” PHOTOS: Whitney Houston, 1963-2011 Set to air, befittingly enough, Saturday on CBS on the eve of the Grammys, the one-hour special documents how the show's producers, host and performers scrambled to honor Houston, appropriately, in a moments notice.

CAIRO - The battle between censors and filmmakers over "Jews of Egypt" ended this week when authorities granted permission for the documentary to be shown despite fears it may agitate Egypt's anti-Israeli hatred amid months of political unrest and nationwide protests. The film by director Amir Ramses raised a dilemma over security versus artistic freedom at a time when the rise of conservative Islamist voices has sharpened religious and cultural differences. The documentary explores the life of Egypt's Jewish community before the second Arab-Israeli war in 1956.

Oscilloscope Laboratories announced today that they have picked up the documentary “After Tiller” for distribution in North America. Directed by Martha Shane and Lana Wilson, the film is an intimate, close look at the four doctors in the United States who perform third-trimester abortions in the wake of the 2009 assassination of practitioner Dr. George Tiller. Oscilloscope announced plans for a nationwide release followed by VOD, digital and home video platforms. The film recently premiered at the Sundance Film Festival and will soon screen at the doc-oriented True/False Film Festival.  In a statement, the filmmakers said, “We made 'After Tiller' to shed more light, rather than more heat, on this issue, and know that Oscilloscope's smart, sensitive approach will get it out to the widest audience possible.” Oscilloscope announced earlier this week that it had acquired the drama “A Teacher,” which also premiered at Sundance.