Piece by Piece is an upcoming animated biographical musical film directed by Morgan Neville. It tells the story of the life of American musician Pharrell Williams in the style of Lego animation, making it the fifth theatrical Lego film and the first following the end of Warner Bros. Pictures' run of the film series. Williams was not interested in making a "traditional" biopic, but rather convey the story in a more imaginative way and genre-defining, where audiences would immerse in a world where the possibilities are endless.

Edited by: Oscar Vazquez, Jason Zeldes ACE, and Aaron Wickenden ACE

Coming to theaters in Oct 11th 2024

For more info click here.

8 Episode HBO Documentary Series starting on March 29th 2024

Episode 1 edited by: Eli Despres, Kim Roberts, and Aaron Wickenden

Episodes 2-8 edited by: James Atkinson, Delaney Lynch, and Aaron Wickenden

For more info, click here

A film by Sam Green (32 Sounds, The Measure of All Things)

THE OLDEST PERSON IN THE WORLD continuously documents each individual who becomes the oldest living person.

As characters inevitably pass away and the title moves from one person to the next, our project becomes a poignant meditation on time, love, loss, and the profound human experience of being alive.

As you might imagine, the record is passed down frequently from one super old person to one slightly younger super old person. We started filming with these people in 2015, and intend to film every one of them from here on out. This will be a life work.

After the initial version of the film premieres (covering one decade), every few years we will have the footage to edit a new version incorporating a new set of oldest people mixed in with footage from the earlier films. In this way, it will become an ever-evolving “living film,” with characters coming and going just as they do in life.

The form will mirror the fleeting and provisional nature of our lives.

Version one coming soon! Click here for more info

In 2018, a shocking event made headlines around the world: a young American missionary, John Chau, was killed by arrows while attempting to contact one of the world’s most isolated Indigenous peoples on remote North Sentinel Island. From EmmyⓇ-winning directors Amanda McBaine and Jesse Moss (“Boys State”) with OscarⓇ-winning producer Simon Chinn and Emmy-winning producer Jonathan Chinn of Lightbox, comes National Geographic Documentary Films’ THE MISSION, which uncovers the gripping story beyond the headlines. Through exclusive interviews and with unprecedented access to Chau’s secret plans, personal diaries, and video archives, THE MISSION examines the mythology of exploration that inspired him, the evangelical community that supported his quest, and reveals his own father’s heartbreak as Chau’s youthful thirst for adventure became a fatal obsession.

World Premiere: Telluride 2023

The 14 Best Movies From the Fall Film Festivals - Vanity Fair: This searing new film…deserves a spotlight as one of the best documentaries of the year.

Mickey Mouse is one of the most enduring symbols in our history. Those three simple circles take on meaning for virtually everyone on the planet. So ubiquitous in our lives that he can seem invisible, Mickey is something we all share, with unique memories and feelings. Over the course of his nearly century-long history, Mickey functions like a mirror, reflecting our personal and cultural values back at us. "Mickey: The Story of a Mouse" explores Mickey's significance, getting to the core of what Mickey's cultural impact says about each of us and about our world.

Directed by: Jeff Malmberg (Marwencol, Spettacolo, Shangri-La)

Edited by: Jake Hostetter + Aaron Wickenden

WORLD PREMIERE - SxSW 2022

Watch now on Disney+

In 1969, bankrupt pizzeria owner Richard Davis invented the modern-day bulletproof vest. To prove that it worked, he shot himself — point-blank — 192 times.

Acclaimed filmmaker Ramin Bahrani’s feature-length documentary debut continues his fascination with the perilous pursuit of the American dream as seen through a uniquely individual lens.

Ramin Bahrani’s Documentary ‘2nd Chance’ Copes with a National ‘Wholesale Loss of Truth’: Bahrani and EP Joshua Oppenheimer (The Act of Killing, The Look of Silence) discuss the film

“We Wanted to Craft a Film That Wasn’t So Tightly Hewn to a Narrative Arc”: Editor Aaron Wickenden on 2nd Chance - Filmmaker Magazine Interview

World Premiere at SUNDANCE 2022 !

An emotionally raw and respectful portrait of Anthony Bourdain, ROADRUNNER marks another unflinchingly honest documentary from director Morgan Neville (20 Feet From Stardom, Won’t You be My Neighbor?). The film premiered at the Tribecca film festival and then went on to be the highest grossing documentary film of 2021 by a factor of more than 2x.

Nominated for BEST EDITING by Cinema Eye Honors

Editors Eileen Meyer and Aaron Wickenden were interviewed for the following podcasts:

• Cutting Class - Season 1 Episode 8: Listen here on APPLE, or on SPOTIFY

• Art of the Cut - Episode 149: Read (along with visual references!) or listen here on APPLE

BECOMING is an intimate look into the life of former First Lady Michelle Obama during a moment of profound change, not only for her personally but for the country she and her husband served over eight impactful years in the White House. The film offers a rare and up-close look at her life, taking viewers behind the scenes as she embarks on a 34-city tour that highlights the power of community to bridge our divides and the spirit of connection that comes when we openly and honestly share our stories.

Watch now: https://linktr.ee/feelsgoodmanfilm

As in many of the weirdest fairy tales, it all starts with a frog. This story, however, is all too real. In November 2016, a barbaric election cycle had exposed a seismic cultural rift, and the country suddenly felt like a much different place. For underground cartoonist Matt Furie, that sensation was even more surreal. His innocent creation, Pepe the frog, had become co-opted by agents of chaos.

“The most urgent and poignant political documentary of the year.” - Polygon

“You’ve just got to see it. It is chilling, hopeful, terrible, and wonderful—and made with care, gorgeous animation, and perfect pacing.” - Los Angeles Magazine

"Feels Good Man links the hijacking of one cartoonist's intellectual property with the hijacking of a nation's norms, laws, and institutions: a systematic process of subversion, perversion, theft, and distortion, happening mostly out of sight for a long time, then finally emerging into daylight…” - Roger Ebert.com

“The stellar film… can best be described as the epitome of a labor of love.” - VOX

“An incredibly insightful picture.. edited together with seamless precision.” - We Are Movie Geeks

https://www.feelsgoodmanfilm.com/press

FESTIVAL SCREENINGS:

• SUNDANCE FILM FESTIVAL 2020 - World Premiere

• Big Sky Film Festival

• True/False Film Festival

• Thessaloniki Film Festival - canceled due to COVID-19

• SxSW (Best of the Fest) - canceled due to COVID-19

• Full Frame - canceled due to COVID-19

• Doc10 - canceled due to COVID-19

• Wisconsin Film Festival - canceled due to COVID-19

• Salem Film Festival - canceled due to COVID-19

• Minneapolis IFF - canceled due to COVID-19

• Cleveland IFF - canceled due to COVID-19

• Hot Docs - canceled due to COVID-19

WORLD PREMIERE in NOVEMBER at DOC NYC. Tickets here!

Official Selection of TRIBECA 2020 (canceled due to Covid-19)!

On November 20, 1983, ABC-TV broadcast The Day After, a chilling fictional account of the aftermath of a nuclear war on a small Kansas town. More than 100 million viewers turned in, making it the highest-rated made-for-TV film in history. This came after weeks of buildup and, behind-the-scenes, intense controversy extending all the way to a White House in the midst of a nuclear arms race with the Soviet Union.

With irreverent humor and sobering apocalyptic vision, this film reveals how a commercial broadcaster seized a moment of unprecedented television viewership and forced an urgent conversation on how to collectively confront and resolve the most pressing issue of the time - nuclear proliferation.

For more information

Hail Satan? - Official Selection of Sundance 2019, in theaters NOW. Find a theater and showtime near you - HERE.

Director: Penny Lane + Producer: Gabriel Sedgwick

A look at the intersection of religion and activism, tracing the rise of The Satanic Temple: only six years old and already one of the most controversial religious movements in American history. The Temple is calling for a Satanic revolution to save the nation’s soul. But are they for real?

NEWS & REVIEWS:

NY TIMES - CRITIC PICK: Pitchforks, Black Clothes, and Good Deeds

SOJOURNERS (a major Christian Publication): “Hail Satan?” Digs Beneath Religious Freedom Debates

VARIETY: Fantastic doc argues that the Satanic Temple isn't the Antichrist — they're American patriots

THE VERGE: “Hail Satan?” puts the fun in Satanic fundamentalism

INDIEWIRE: A Devilishly Fun Documentary About Faith in America 

POLYGON: A film about Satanists so compelling that you may want to become one

The provocative story of legendary director Orson Welles during the final 15 years of his life. No longer the “boy wonder” behind Citizen Kane, Welles in 1970 was an artist in exile looking for his Hollywood comeback with a project called The Other Side of the Wind. For years, Welles worked on the film about an aging film director trying to finish his last great movie. Welles shot the picture guerrilla-style in chaotic circumstances with a devoted crew of young dreamers, all the while struggling with financiers and fate. In 1985, Welles died, leaving as his final testament the most famous unfinished film in movie history. The negative stayed in a vault for decades until now. They'll Love Me When I'm Dead is the untold final chapter of one of the greatest careers in film history: brilliant, innovative, defiant and unbowed.

THE WRAP: “After the rollercoaster journey [the film] details, it’s enough to make one contemplate: Could Neville’s documentary be, in a sense, what Welles wanted “The Other Side of the Wind” to be all along? Someone else’s movie about Orson Welles’s movie about a fictional director’s movie which is inside another movie that’s ultimately about all movies?”

VARIETY: “Could “They’ll Love Me When I’m Dead” be the real “Other Side of the Wind”?”

*In theaters now! Find a showtime near you here: https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/wont_you_be_my_neighbor

With his gentle voice and heartfelt words of wisdom, Fred Rogers served as a compassionate surrogate father for generations of American children who tuned in to public television. He believed in love as the essential ingredient in life and was able to assist kids through difficult situations armed merely with handmade puppets suggesting tolerance and acceptance. An ordained Presbyterian minister, Mr. Rogers made speaking directly and openly to children his life’s work, both on and off his long-running show. He was at the forefront of a movement devoted to meeting the specific needs of children and was considered a radical back then for saying, “I like you just the way you are.”

Animated sequences are peppered between archival footage of Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood and interviews with Fred Rogers’s family, friends, and colleagues. Examining Rogers’s legacy, Academy Award–winning director Morgan Neville (20 Feet from Stardom) offers a deliberate and beautiful tribute to an authentic human being and provides a much-needed salve for these often-fraught times.

http://mrrogersmovie.com

*In theaters July 20th*

Errol Morris: "If Mark Twain said that the lack of money is the root of all evil, what is the presence of money? An excess, overabundance, surfeit of money? Money leaking out of every pore? Grotesque, effulgent amounts of money? When I think of money, I think of the possibility of being left alone with my own thoughts and dwindling abilities to concentrate on something. I don’t necessarily think of throne rooms, peacock feathers, gilded Corinthian columns, barstools covered with whale scrota. Lauren Greenfield’s new magnum opus, Generation Wealth, takes us into a new Dantesque version of hell. Not the devil frozen in his own tears. But perhaps something worse.” 

Over the past 25 years, Lauren Greenfield's documentary photography and film projects have explored youth culture, gender, body image, and affluence. In this fascinating meld of career retrospective and film essay, Greenfield offers a meditation on her extensive body of work, structuring it through the lens of materialism and its increasing sway on culture and society in America and throughout the world. Underscoring the ever-increasing gap between the haves and the have-nots, her portraits reveal a focus on cultivating image over substance, where subjects unable to attain actual wealth instead settle for its trappings, no matter their ability to pay for it.

From her earliest photo studies on the seemingly privileged lives of Los Angeles high school students, through her look at the pitfalls of extreme wealth in The Queen of Versailles (Directing Award: U.S. Documentary, 2012 Sundance Film Festival), to more recent images of conspicuous consumption in Russia and China, Greenfield's work becomes a cautionary morality tale about our unquenchable desire for more.

http://www.generation-wealth.com

(Coming in 2018)

WORLD PREMIERE @ SxSW 2016

DIRECTOR: Jesse Moss (The Overnighters, Speedo)

EDITOR: Aaron Wickenden, ACE

As the biggest star in the world, Burt Reynolds wanted the best stunt double in the world. This film tells the story of Burt Reynolds and his best friend, roommate, and stunt-double Hal Needham. Together they conquered the heights of Hollywood and made one of the most successful films of the 1970s, Smokey and the Bandit. But beneath the swaggering machismo, mustache, and hair-raising stunts is a more complex story. 

Featuring Burt Reynolds himself, and extraordinary archive material, including photographs, scrapbooks and footage drawn from Burt’s personal archive, as well as candid interviews with Hal Needham, and other close friends and key players, the film offers a kaleidoscopic perspective on their relationship, and tells an exhilarating and moving story about loyalty, friendship and creative risk.

PRESS:

"A sentimental bromance between lifelong scoundrel Reynolds and borderline maniac Needham. The Bandit is an intimate portrait of two good old boys, one badass automobile, and a $4.3 million-budgeted dark horse that ended up netting $300 million and counting. Now that’s some serious banditry right there." - Austin Chronicle

"Like a bootlegging run with the Bandit himself, The Bandit at times can be an exhilarating ride down a well-worn country road in your dad's old sports car he only takes out on special occasions these days: you've done it a million times, sure, but there's always a smile on your face when it's over." - KEYE TV

"Tough guy jock cowboys aren’t generally my speed. But there’s a purity to Needham’s underdog story of farmer to stuntman to top-grossing Hollywood director which, when edited together with superstar Reynolds’ ongoing struggles to be perceived as a legitimate actor, makes for hugely compelling documentary cinema. Visually dynamic, brimming with a machismo that’s somehow never off putting or patronising, and affirming the values of loyalty, friendship, and the quiet contributions of stunt people in Hollywood, The Bandit was among the very best screening experiences of SXSW 2016." - Cinapse

"Crashing cars, Southern babes, country roads, and Burt Reynolds in his iconic prime. Filmmaker Jesse Moss is on a lark after his depressing documentary masterpiece, The Overnighters. And a shout-out to editor Aaron Wickenden for figuring out how to piece together Smoky movie scenes, vintage interviews with the late Needham, and all varieties of video memorabilia stored in Reynolds’s Florida home." - The Arts Fuse

"With The Bandit, director Jesse Moss follows up his brilliant and weighty documentary The Overnighters with something a little lighter, but no less brilliant. We learn that Burt, who thought actors were "candy asses," really wanted to be Hal, and that Hal, who craved stardom and respect, wanted to be Burt, but neither man was as good as they were together." - Birth. Movies. Death.  

"Even those who remain immune to the yee-haw appeal of the earlier film — which, it should be noted, still commands a loyal following of repeat viewers on both sides of the Mason-Dixon line — may be drawn to this gently probing documentary. The Bandit is so craftily constructed that, whatever your feelings about Reynolds’ trademark turn as the wisecracking showoff who keeps his pedal to the metal in his Trans-Am, you likely will find yourself appreciating the actor’s self-deprecating humor, and might even be tempted to take another (or a first) look at Smokey and the Bandit." - VARIETY

"It packs a meaty double whammy for anyone interested in mainstream Hollywood in the 1970s and 1980s." - Screen Daily 

"A compelling portrait of one the most intriguing artists of his generation" - Edinburgh Film Festival

WORLD PREMIERE @ 2016 Tribeca Film Festival

Editors: Aaron Wickenden, ACE & Michael Aaglund

Producers for Submarine Entertainment : Josh Braun & David Koh

Directors: Tim Marrinan & Richard Dewey

In the early 1970s, rumors quickly spread about artist Chris Burden and the work he was doing in Los Angeles. As a forerunner of the Performance Art movement - he had himself shot, crawled through a field of broken glass, and attempted to breathe water. He was dubbed by the press "The Evel Knievel of the art world" and this label would follow him for the rest of his career. Using unprecedented access to Burden's archive as well as candid footage filmed with the artist in the final years of his life, this film documents Burden's shifting motivations and his transition away from the spotlight of performance towards a quieter and more civic minded art-making practice.

Best of Enemies reveals the moment TV’s political ambition shifted from narrative to spectacle, forever altering the way the media — and Americans — talked about politics. Dead last in the ratings, ABC hired Gore Vidal and William F. Buckley to debate each other during the 1968 Democratic and Republican national conventions. Buckley, who founded National Review magazine in 1955, was a leading light of the new conservative movement. Gore Vidal, lifelong Democrat and cousin to Jackie Onassis, was a leftist, taboo-smashing novelist and polemicist. Both believed each others political ideologies were dangerous for America. Like rounds in a heavyweight boxing bout, they pummeled each other with exchanges that devolved into personal attacks. These live and unscripted quarrels riveted viewers, and the television industry took notice.

Directed by Oscar winner Morgan Neville (20 Feet From Stardom) and Grammy-winning author and filmmaker Robert Gordon (Respect Yourself), the film would go on to be nominated for an Independent Spirit Award, shortlisted for the 2016 Documentary Academy Award, and earn a Cinema EyeHonors nomination for BEST EDITING.

SUNDANCE 2015 - US Documentary Competition

SOUTH BY SOUTHWEST 2015 - Festival Favorites

http://www.bestofenemiesfilm.com/

Rolling Stone's list of top 10 films of Sundance 2015

Time Out New York's top 10 films of Sundance 2015

"For American viewers of an intellectual/historical persuasion, there could scarcely be any documentary more enticing, scintillating and downright fascinating than Best of Enemies. A sort of brainy equivalent of the Ali-Frazier boxing matches of the same general era." - Todd McCarthy, The Hollywood Reporter

"Best of Enemies provides the best of what documentary can do, not only bringing to light a story that may have slipped away from general discourse, but providing critical illumination in a way that's extremely vital to the here and now. It's a fascinating tale that's exhilarating and engaging, an entirely fitting and vital showcase for the film's iconoclastic subjects." - Twitch Film

"...the documentary artfully entwines insightful commentaries by interviewees (including intimates and critics of both subjects) and vintage footage of the actual “debates” to cogently indicate the dire ripple effects of the Buckley-Vidal faceoffs. Even as they give their audience several good laughs, they also provide generous servings of food for thought." - Variety

"If you like witty repartee among intellectuals, it’s hard to see how you could have more fun than watching this movie." - WIRED

"...a juicy and thrilling documentary about two intellectual titans who truly loathed one another." - The Guardian

"This might have been both the most entertaining and the saddest film of this year’s Sundance: a riveting gabfest that slowly becomes a lament for the Republic." - Vulture

"The genius of Best of Enemies is that it is not political at all, in the sense that it isn't arguing for a political position. In fact, it's remarkably even-handed in how it treats its subjects' politics." - Christianity Today

"Through a mixture of archival footage and select readings of both men’s writing on the event, as interpreted by John Lithgow as Vidal and Kelsey Grammer as Buckley, Best of Enemies is effective as both a chronicle of a fraught era in American history and an origin story of the modern state of American televised news journalism." - Consequence of Sound

"It’s an enormously entertaining documentary that speaks volumes about contemporary journalism and the tumultuous political climate that gave birth to this unforgettable intellectual cage match." - Crave

"On its face, Best of Enemies would not seem to be the film to generate a riveting, edge-of-your seat experience. However, the connection between the two men and mutual desire to destroy the other man was so strong between Buckley and Gore that you can’t help but get caught up in the escalating back and forth. I don’t think I was alone in the audience of critics I viewed the film with in feeling I would have been fine with another 30 minutes of movie – I was enjoying it so much." - Film Threat

"Best of Enemies is a madcap intellectual romp. What could have been a dull retread of U.S. political history is instead a lively and fascinating tale of two bitter enemies who had more in common than they cared to admit." - KCRW

"At the end of the movie, Buckley is heard in voiceover bemoaning what became of political coverage: “There is an implicit conflict of interest between that which is highly viewable and that which is highly illuminating.” One of the chief pleasures of “Best of Enemies” is that it manages to be both." - The Wrap

EDITOR / ADDITIONAL CINEMATOGRAPHY

Finding Vivian Maier is the Oscar / Emmy nominated & critically acclaimed documentary about a mysterious nanny, who secretly took over 100,000 photographs that were hidden in storage lockers and, discovered decades later, is now among the 20th century’s greatest photographers. Maier’s strange and riveting life and art are revealed through never before seen photographs, films, and interviews with dozens who thought they knew her.

AWARDS and DISTINCTIONS:

- World Premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival 2013

- US Premiere at DocNYC 2013 and the additional honor of being 1 of the 3 festival's "Centerpiece" screenings.

- BEST DOCUMENTARY / BEST DIRECTOR: Portland International Film Festival 2014

- BEST DOCUMENTARY: Miami International Film Festival 2014

- JOHN SCHLESINGER AWARD: Palm Springs Film Festival 2014

- BEST DOCUMENTARY: Traverse City Film Festival 2014

- ACE Eddie Award nomination for Aaron Wickenden 2015

- BAFTA, OSCAR, & DGA nominations 2015

- BEST DOCUMENTARY Emmy Nomination 2016

CO-DIRECTOR / PRODUCER / EDITOR / CINEMATOGRAPHER

"A fascinating, complex tale of art, madness, redemption, and assorted, almost bewildering acts of human kindness." - William Todd Schultz, author of "An Emergency in Slow Motion" on Diane Arbus

What pops into your mind’s eye when you think of growing old? A bingo card? The beige hallways of an old folks home? For many, Peter Anton's house embodies an end-of-life nightmare: the utility companies long ago shut off the heat and electricity, the floorboards are rotting, and the detritus of a chaotic life is precariously stacked to the ceiling. But for the filmmakers, Anton's home is a treasure trove, a startling collection of unseen and fascinating paintings, drawings and notebooks; not to mention Anton himself, a funny and utterly resilient character worthy of his own reality TV show. Determined to form a coherent future out of a fractured past, they set out together to host an exhibition of the old art. Filmed over 8 years, Almost There is an epic coming-of-(old)-age story about what it means to become elderly in America, how this process can be complicated by mental illness, and how the whole bizarre panoply of life can be redeemed by art.

Awards / Nominations

CINEMA EYE HONORS: Spotlight Award Nominee and The Unforgettables List (January 2016)

Erikson Prize: Excellence in Mental Health Media (2016 nomination)

Independent Spirit Awards: "Truer Than Fiction" (2016 short list)

Midwest Film Festival Award Winner: Best Editing (Aaron Wickenden), Chicago IL (December 2015)

Best of the Midwest Nominations: Best Film, Best Director, Best Editing, Best Artistic Visualization (December 2015)

Special Jury Prize for Visionary Storytelling, Indie Memphis Film Festival (November 2015)

Audience Award, EBS Documentary Festival (EIDF), South Korea (August 2015)

Top 6 Audience Rated - Sheffield Doc/Fest (June 2015)

Special Jury Prize for Complex, Hands-on Storytelling, Sarasota Film Festival (April 2015)

Best of the Fest, Sebastopol Documentary Film Festival (March 2015)

Emerging Filmmaker Award, Geneva Film Festival (March 2015)

Best Exploration of Doc Ethics (Columbia Daily Tribune), True/False Film Festival (March 2015)

2015 Top Ten "Best in Nonfiction" Lists

Film Comment (Eric Hynes) - #10

Village Voice (Serena Donadoni) - #5

POV's Documentary Blog (Tom Roston) - #6

RogerEbert.com/Indie Outlook (Matt Fagerholm) - #5

Indiewire (Sam Adams) - #7

Movie City News (Ray Pride) - #9

Movie Pilot (Jamison Rabbit) - #1

NonFics (Christopher Campbell) - #11

What Not to Doc (Basil Tsiokos) - listed alphabetically

Reviews

http://www.almostthereproject.com/press/

Screenings

WORLD PREMIERE - DOC NYC, November 2014
LOS ANGELES PREMIERE - ArcLight Documentary Series: curated by the president of the International Documentary Association, Marjan Safinia who chose the film because "Its absolutely riveting, haunting, and moving. One of those that sticks with you long after the lights are up."
CHICAGO (HOMETOWN!!!) PREMIERE: Stranger Than Fiction: Documentary Premieres Series: TWO SOLD OUT screenings! Curated by Gene Siskel Film Center programmer Barbara Scharres who personally reached out to the filmmakers after hearing buzz about the film. She writes, “This chronicle of a near-decade in the life of East Chicago, Indiana, outsider artist Peter Anton, now 83, boasts as many layers, permutations, and interpretations as the pages of one of his profusely illustrated scrapbook journals.”
MONTANA PREMIERE: BIG SKY Documentary Film Festival - Feb 2015
SPECIAL SCREENING: Urban Institute for Contemporary Art (UICA), Grand Rapids, MI - Feb 2015
OFFICIAL SELECTION: Big Muddy Film Festival - Feb 2015
MISSOURI PREMIERE: TRUE/FALSE Film Festival - March 2015
OFFICIAL SELECTION: Geneva Film Festival - March 2013 (EMERGING FILMMAKER AWARD)
OHIO PREMIERE: Cleveland International Film Festival - March 2015
OFFICIAL SELECTION: Sebastopol Film Festival - March 2013 (BEST OF FEST)
SPECIAL SCREENING: Wexner Center for the Arts, Columbus, OH - April 2015
OFFICIAL SELECTION: Midwest Independent Film Festival, Chicago, IL - April 2015
FLORIDA PREMIERE: Sarasota Film Festival - April 2015 (SPECIAL JURY AWARD)
WISCONSIN PREMIERE: Wisconsin Film Festival - April 2015
MINNESOTA PREMIERE: Minneapolis St. Paul International Film Festival - April 2015
OFFICIAL SELECTION: Chicago International Music and Movies Festival (CIMMFest) - April 2015
ARIZONA PREMIERE: Arizona International Film Festival - April 2015
NEW ENGLAND PREMIERE: Nantucket Film Festival - June 2015
INTERNATIONAL PREMIERE: SHEFFIELD DOC/FEST - June 2015 (TOP 6 AUDIENCE RATED)
LONDON PREMIERE: Curzon Bloomsbury / Bertha DocHouse - June 2015
INDIANA PREMIERE: Indy Film Fest - July 2015
OFFICIAL SELECTION: Middlebury New Filmmakers Festival - August 2015
ASIAN PREMIERE: EBS International Documentary Festival (EIDF) - August 2015 (AUDIENCE AWARD WINNER)
MAINE PREMIERE: Camden International Film Festival - September 2015
OFFICIAL SELECTION: Big Eddy Film Festival - September 2015
OFFICIAL SELECTION: Milwaukee Film Festival - September-October 2015
KENTUCKY PREMIERE: IF Film Festival - Louisville - October 2015
TEXAS PREMIERE - Dallas VideoFest - October 2015
NEW MEXICO PREMIERE - Santa Fe Independent Film Festival - October 2015
OFFICIAL SELECTION - Driftless Film Festival - November 2015 (OPENING NIGHT FILM)
OFFICIAL SELECTION - Houston Cinema Arts Festival - November 2015
OFFICIAL SELECTION - Bisbee Film Festival - November 2015
IRELAND PREMIERE - Cork Film Festival - November 2015
TENNESSEE PREMIERE - Indie Memphis Film Festival - November 2015 (SPECIAL JURY PRIZE)
SOUTHERN CIRCUIT TOUR OF INDEPENDENT FILM - (Greensboro, New Orleans, Tallahassee, Miami)  - February 2016

PRESS:

"The film is hilarious, heartbreaking and haunting. It’s dark, disturbing, thought-provoking, powerful and, at times, simply hard to watch. It’s a brilliant piece of work and a must-see." - Jeff Manes, Gary Post Tribune

"4.5 Stars. Almost There blends personal portrait with an exploration of the responsibilities of the director in fascinating, exhilarating ways." - Columbia Tribune

"Our favorite film at True/False: accidental, affectionate, surprising, affirming. See it." — Jeff Truesdell, People Magazine. 

"Blown away... A journey of art, heart & surprise." — Jesse Moss, director of The Overnighters.

"Anton’s dream of being discovered masks a deeper one—of being forgiven. No sooner does his name appear in the headlines than a profoundly upsetting charge from his past resurfaces, accompanied by phone calls expressing outrage and anger. This is the sort of unexpected turn that could’ve caused the entire film to implode on itself, or worse, remain unfinished and unseen in the musty shadows of Anton’s basement. Instead, this is where “Almost There” blossoms into one of the best documentaries I’ve ever seen." - Indie Outlook

"A definitively human documentary that mixes the idiosyncratic canvas of “Grey Gardens” with the compassion of “Hoop Dreams.” - Nick Allen, HollywoodChicago.com

"Anton fights back at one point — "I’m not a project," he tells Rybicky — he, indeed, becomes more than a film character, but a human being whose life is significantly changed by the documentary that he takes part in." - Anthony Kaufman, Indiewire

"We want so badly for artists to be geniuses whose lives we can only dream of emulating. Almost There paints a different, more down-to-earth picture. Art is rarely made in a vacuum, no matter how remote or isolated the artist’s environment is. It is also a searing portrait of postindustrial Indiana as it attempts to resurrect itself after decades of neglect. Just as Anton has to leave the wreckage of his past behind, so the Rust Belt — brilliantly evoked in the film by David Schalliol’s environmental cinematography — must find some new way to grow, prosper, and move forward." - Dmitry Samarov, BELT Magazine

"Formally different but also evocatively unresolved is Almost There, a seemingly familiar character study of an aged outsider artist that becomes a thoroughly self-examining, and open-ended rumination on filmmaker-subject complicity, responsibility, and purpose. Even during the early stages of the narrative, filmmakers Dan Rybicky and Aaron Wickenden invite us to think about the nature of their relationship with subject Peter Anton, whom they meet sketching children at a local fair in East Chicago, Indiana, and follow home to his jerry-rigged disaster of a home. “They took pictures of my underwear,” Anton narrates via voice-over, effectively critiquing proceedings from a future tense. “People told me to beware. Maybe they were out to take advantage of me. I want my story told, and that’s why I put up with it.” Such mutual interrogation takes place long before the filmmakers find out about a dark chapter in Anton’s damaged life, which forces them to further question the entire endeavor—particularly a gallery show they’ve set up for Anton in Chicago. He’s apologetic about not being truthful to the filmmakers, but doesn’t regret what it’s done to the film. “I’m not just a project,” he says. Yet Rybicky goes one further than exposing the seams of the doc filmmaking process. He interrogates similarities between Anton’s family and his own, which pushes the film past self-reflection into self-exposure. It’s rare for a film to be both sincerely outwardly and inwardly focused, and pretty much unheard of for one to explore, as Almost There does, how they can be effectively the same thing." - Eric Hynes, Museum of the Moving Image

"Almost There digs deep and goes further than your average artist profile film." - JUXTAPOZ

"One of my favorites [of True/False 2015]... a fascinating study in unintended consequences." — Sam Adams,IndieWIRE

"Beautiful... the heart of Almost There lies in the unmistakable persistence of compassion, seen not only in the directors, but also in the people who choose to help a man who struggles mightily to help himself." — Seth Boster, Vox Magazine.

Huffington Post: "One of the 16 Documentaries To Watch Out For This Year "

IndieWire: One of the five "must-see" films at DOC NYC

EDITOR / ADDITIONAL CINEMATOGRAPHER

"Aaron Wickenden is the best editor I’ve ever worked with in documentary. But on this Ali project, he’s become more than an editor. He’s a full-on collaborator, contributing research finds, camera skills on interviews, ideas for musical score and composers and made huge contributions to the story development of the film. To say that his impact is instrumental is an understatement. And with all that said, my favorite part of working with Aaron is the pure joy of working with such a careful, insightful, creative, warm soul. His passion for lifelong learning makes him a wonder to be around." - Bill Siegel, Director "The Trials of Muhammad Ali" / Co-Director "The Weather Underground"

The Trials of Muhammad Ali covers the explosive crossroads of Ali’s life. When Cassius Clay becomes Muhammad Ali, his conversion to Islam and refusal to serve in the Vietnam War leave him banned from boxing and facing a five-year prison sentence. Ali’s choice of belief and conscience over fame and fortune resonates far beyond the boxing ring, striking issues of race, faith and identity that continue to confront us all today.

DISTINCTIONS:

- EMMY AWARD for Outstanding Historical Programming - Long Form

- EMMY NOMINATION for BEST DOCUMENTARY

- EMMY NOMINATION for Aaron Wickenden for BEST EDITING.

- NAACP IMAGE AWARD: Outstanding Independent Motion Picture (nominated)

- International Documentary Association ABCNews Award for Best Use of Archival Footage

- FOCAL International Awards: Best Use of Sports Footage

- Black Reel Awards: Outstanding Documentary (nominated)

- World Premier at the Tribeca Film Festival and International Premiere at IDFA

PRAISE:

"Richly textured and exhaustively researched...fresh clips and new voices that make Ali come alive... a gift." — Sports Illustrated

"Complex and involving... gripping." — Kenneth Turan, Los Angeles Times

"Magnificently concise... makes you feel [Ali's] radicalism all over again." — Wesley Morris, Grantland

"May very well be the best sports documentary so far this decade. Carries within each frame a sense of vitality and power that is rarely seen in a documentary of this ilk... Sports fans take notice, your favorite film of the year may have just arrived." — Joshua Brunsting, Criterioncast

"Masterful... so engrossing it can't help but pull you in... one of the best documentary experiences of the entire year." — David Voigt, Examiner.com

"The best Muhammad Ali doc I've ever seen and - dare I say - I've seen 'em all." — Dave Zirin, The Nation.

CO-EDITOR / POST PRODUCTION SUPERVISOR

“ For ordinary moviegoers in search of an enthralling experience... this film is heroically life-affirming” - TIME

The Interrupters tells the moving and surprising stories of three Violence Interrupters who try to protect their Chicago communities from the violence they once employed. Shot over the course of a year, the film captures a period in Chicago when it became a national symbol for the violence in US cities. The film’s main subjects, ”The Interrupters”, work for an innovative organization, CeaseFire; they have credibility on the streets because of their own personal histories and intervene in conflicts before they erupt into violence.

We had an unusual amount of freedom in structuring the film since there was no simple narrative story to follow. Editors Steve James (who also directed the film) and Aaron Wickenden choose to interweave the stories of our main subjects with all the unfolding dramas of the people they were working with. The result is a film that is structurally quite complex, but that allows the audience to experience the same journey of surprise, revelation, humor, and tragedy that we experienced in capturing the story. At times we want to plunge the audience in and be on the edge of their seats, and at other times be at some remove and more analytical about what was happening. Because the goal ultimately was not to just immerse the audience in these neighborhoods and these lives, but to have them think deeply about the violence and what brings people to that place, and what can be done about it. But we didn't want to do it with experts, charts and flashy animation. As journalists and storytellers we gravitated to the raw power that can come through from simply being present and on location. And we wanted the subjects of our film to act as the real “experts” on the violence and its causes and solutions.

As the film evolved in editing, we wanted to connect the viewer with our subjects in a deeper way so that they understand Cobe, Ameena, and Eddie’s personal stories of redemption and see how they and the people they work with, ultimately, don't want to be violent. Editorially, this is underscored and symbolized by the overarching structure of using the four seasons to mark the passage of time. The film begins in the heat of the most violent season, the summer, and ends in the spring, a time of rebirth and hope. The hopefulness at the end we feel is genuinely earned, as well as tempered by the reality that individually and socially there's still much work to be done. Ultimately, through editing, we distilled a journey we made over the course of fourteen months of shooting down to two hours.

WHO SAW IT:

44 festivals in 15 countries. World Premiere at Sundance 2011

16k viewers at community screenings in 44 out of 50 states (including over 100 in Chicago)

41k viewers in the cinema

2.9 million television viewers across 9 territories including PBS Frontline, SVT, BBC4, DRTV, NRK, and Canal Plus France.

20k DVD sales

14 Awards and Prizes including:

- Emmy® Award nomination for Aaron Wickenden for Best Editing
- Emmy® Award: Outstanding Informational Programming: Long Format
- Alfred Dupont Award: SILVER BATON
- Cinema Eye Honors: OUTSTANDING ACHIEVEMENT IN NONFICTION
- Independent Spirit Awards: BEST DOCUMENTARY

Between 2011 and 2013 Wickenden helped create a variety of media for musician Andrew Bird and his label "Mom + Pop Music". A series of 3 x 30 second promos, a music video for the hit single "EyeOnEye", and a 35 minute behind-the-scenes featurette called "Here's What Happened" helped push Bird's 2012 release "Break it Yourself" into the top 10 on the Billboard's Top 200 chart. The edit of "Here's What Happened" was packaged as a DVD as part of a DELUXE EDITION of "Break it Yourself", aired on the Palladia network, and was given away for free on iTunes as a gift to fans.

Bird followed up the success of "Break it Yourself" in 2012 with his companion EP: "Hands of Glory". Wickenden documented the recording process behind the record and in doing so had the tremendous pleasure of being the only non-musician in the room as the tracks "Something Biblical", and "If I Needed You" were recorded. This documentary footage was used for a short promo by Pitchfork TV. Wickenden also directed, produced, filmed and edited a stylized music video for the album's single "Three White Horses".

DOCUMENTARY CINEMATOGRAPHER / POST-PRODUCTION SUPERVISOR

“A cunning hybrid of documentary and concert film.” – Film Society of Lincoln Center / New York Film Festival

Filmed during culminating months of the acclaimed singer-songwriter’s most rigorous year of touring, Andrew Bird crosses the December finish line in his hometown of Chicago – feverish and on crutches from an onstage injury. Is he suffering hazards from chasing the ghost of inspiration? Or merely transforming into a different kind of animal “perfectly adapted to the music hall?” FEVER YEAR is the first to capture Bird’s precarious multi-instrumental looping technique and features live performances at Milwaukee’s Pabst Theater with collaborators Martin Dosh, Jeremy Ylvisaker, Michael Lewis and Annie Clark of St. Vincent. 

AWARDS:

Best Director
Blue Whiskey Independent Film Festival - Illinois

Jury Prize, Best Documentary Film
Omaha Film Festival

Best Pop Culture Documentary
Documentary Edge Festival - New Zealand

Audience Award
Noise Pop Film Festival – San Francisco

Best Sound
Blue Whiskey Independent Film Festival - Illinois

Best Sound
Southern Appalachian International Film Festival

Best Documentary Feature
SENE Film, Music, & Arts Festival – Rhode Island

Audience Choice Award: Best Feature Film
Gwinnett Center International Film Festival – Georgia

Golden Ace Award
Las Vegas Film Festival

EDITOR / ASSOCIATE PRODUCER

Set in Chicago's labyrinth of alleys, Scrappers is a verite portrait of Oscar and Otis, two metal scavengers searching for a living with brains, brawn and battered up trucks. The film shows how the 2008 financial collapse and crackdowns on undocumented immigrants affect these men and their families.

Winner of Best Documentary Feature and Audience Award at the 2010 Chicago Underground Film Festival. The film was rated 3.5 stars by Roger Ebert who later named it one of the Best Documentaries of 2010.

“Scrappers is...the definitive record of a vast underground culture. Who drives those spray-painted trucks with high walls full of battered appliances, and what happens to the things they collect?... Scrappers travels with two hardworking men and their families through three years of life at the margins of fickle industry. The patient and curious camera reveals a Chicago of informal economies, not just the ins and outs of collecting scrap metal, but bargains with neighbors through car windows and child-care arrangements made when everybody works and no one has money. Like their subjects, the filmmakers are quick on their toes and have their eyes wide open to the luck of circumstance; their captured goods range from the tenderly human to the violently mechanized. We notice every cat that wanders through the frame and peek into every pot cooking on a stove. The familiar aspect of Chicago’s alleyways is rendered uncanny with gliding, truck’s-eye-view camera work. Long wordless sequences of cars being compressed and copper being turned from cables to dust are buoyed by Chicago percussionist Frank Rosaly’s optimistic workday funk score (performed on found metal objects). With the exception of a handful of well-placed inter-titles, Scrappers lets the subjects and images do all the telling of both the personal stories about making ends meet and the big political story about a crashing economy and the crashing price of metals. They are the same and different stories at once; the connections are deep and plain. Documentaries rarely balance deep involvement with such a light touch. The result is essential.” — Cine-File

Rent or buy it on Itunes here.

CO-EDITOR / CO-PRODUCER / POST PRODUCTION SUPERVISOR

At the Death House Door follows the remarkable career journey of Carroll Pickett, who served 15 years as the death house chaplain to the infamous "Walls" prison unit in Huntsville, Texas. During that time he presided over 95 executions, including the very first lethal injection done anywhere in the world. After each execution, Pickett recorded an audiotape account of that fateful day. The film also tells the story of Carlos De Luna, a convict whose execution affected Pickett more than any other. Pickett firmly believed the man was innocent and two Chicago Tribune reporters turn up evidence that strongly suggests he was right.

ASSOCIATE EDITOR / POST PRODUCTION SUPERVISOR

"A film of rare honesty and power that exposes, from the eyes of those who fight the war, the revolting and soul-numbing world of combat." - Chris Hedges, author of "War is a Force that Gives us Meaning"

The War Tapes is the first documentary film of the 2003 invasion of Iraq to be produced by the soldiers themselves. The film (released commercially in 2006) follows three New Hampshire Army National Guard soldiers before, during, and after their deployment to Iraq about a year after the invasion.

In all, 17 soldiers were given cameras and recorded 800 hours of tape in Iraq. Stateside interviews with the soldiers and their families made up an additional 200 hours of tape.

The film won the prize for Best International Documentary at the Tribeca Film Festival in May 2006 and also Best International Documentary at BRITDOC in July 2006. The documentary was shortlisted for the 2006 Documentary Academy Award.