AJ Schnack
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ajschnack.bsky.social
AJ Schnack
@ajschnack.bsky.social
Nonfiction Filmmaker (Escalation, Long Gone Summer, Speaking is Difficult, Caucus, Kurt Cobain About a Son, Gigantic, Majority Rules, more). Team Cinema Eye Honors.
Reposted by AJ Schnack
This week, documentarians Andrew Jarecki and Charlotte Kaufman discuss The Alabama Solution, a searing exposé made possible by the immense courage of inmates using contraband cellphones.
And @lucasshaw.bsky.social and I banter (what else?) the fate of Warners.

podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/t...
‘The Alabama Solution’ filmmakers on exposing America’s prison crisis
Podcast Episode · The Business · 11/07/2025 · 30m
podcasts.apple.com
November 8, 2025 at 10:39 PM
This is a crucial thread from @awalkerinla.bsky.social incorporating reporting by @shoton35mm.bsky.social and commentary by @adamrose.bsky.social about the LAPD’s hideous overreach on the night the Dodgers won the World Series.
November 7, 2025 at 11:56 PM
Reposted by AJ Schnack
“Now the city attorney says in a leaked memo the real problem is that ‘anyone can claim they are a Journalist.’ Fine. Maybe those anyones shouldn’t get shot in the head, either.”

Perfect editorial. No notes.
Los Angeles city attorney to press: drop dead
Why does the city attorney hate the press so much she literally wants ink-stained wretches — and their contemporary multi-media cousins — shot by the police?
www.dailynews.com
November 7, 2025 at 1:50 AM
Reposted by AJ Schnack
Cops going aggro on Sunset near Echo Park in LA after the Dodgers Win. Shooting people with less lethals from point blank range, horses running people and press down. Literally minutes before, fireworks in the street
November 2, 2025 at 5:59 AM
Reposted by AJ Schnack
100 days until pitchers and catchers report.
November 2, 2025 at 4:19 AM
Baseball remains undefeated.
November 2, 2025 at 4:20 AM
This is absolutely insane behavior by the LAPD.
Los Angeles, CA -

LAPD once again calling unlawful assembly outside of the Douglas bar as fans are watching the dodger game via laptop and radio the bar turned the tv off. About 30 minutes ago, they called it for the first time and said 5 minutes. Now giving 20 minutes to disperse. Top of the 10th.
November 2, 2025 at 4:04 AM
Kiké Hernández is a @dodgers.com legend. What a play to end game 6.
November 1, 2025 at 3:29 AM
Portland, Oregon is one of my favorite US cities. It is safe and beautiful and filled with amazing people. Loved being there last month and taking long walks all about.
September 27, 2025 at 7:37 PM
Reposted by AJ Schnack
I was in the courtroom when a DHS lawyer tried to argue that filming ICE equals encouraging incitement of violence.

A) Press didn't do that.

B) He denied DHS did things we caught on video. Which ... proves why press needs to film police/ICE/DHS.

Thanks for making our point for us, DHS lawyer!
It was bad enough when government officials claimed that journalists incite violence by reporting. But now, they’re accusing reporters of actually committing violence.

The supposed violence by reporters? Recording videos.
Recording police is ‘violence’? Absolutely not.
Now the Trump administration is trying to destroy the right to document police by labeling it as an attack
freedom.press
September 5, 2025 at 10:49 PM
Reposted by AJ Schnack
It was bad enough when government officials claimed that journalists incite violence by reporting. But now, they’re accusing reporters of actually committing violence.

The supposed violence by reporters? Recording videos.
Recording police is ‘violence’? Absolutely not.
Now the Trump administration is trying to destroy the right to document police by labeling it as an attack
freedom.press
September 5, 2025 at 6:57 PM
California skies were really putting on a show tonight.
September 2, 2025 at 4:05 AM
I’ll assume the person who runs the @democracynow.org social account doesn’t know…

…that “and others” are Academy Award winning filmmakers Ezra Edelman and Marshall Curry.
August 30, 2025 at 10:19 PM
I’ll assume the person who runs the @democracynow.org social account doesn’t know…

…that Steal This Story, Please actually premiered at @dcdoxfest.bsky.social as the Opening Night film back in June.
August 30, 2025 at 10:18 PM
Not sure how I got on this woman’s email list to “stop Mamdani”, but they are really barking up the wrong tree.
August 29, 2025 at 10:02 PM
Reposted by AJ Schnack
É Tudo Verdade/It’s All True - International Documentary Film Festival is open for film submissions to its 31st edition (São Paulo and Rio, Brazil, April 9th ​​to 19th, 2026)! Deadline: November 30th. Regulations and submissions at www.etudoverdade.com.br or www.itsalltrue.com.br.
August 26, 2025 at 8:26 PM
Tonight, in the second largest city in America, I had dinner outside for several hours, and then, after 10pm, I went for a mile+ walk by myself. I didn’t see a single police officer nor a single thing that caused a moment of concern or fear. This is life in urban America in 2025.
August 22, 2025 at 6:05 AM
Wild and bad that Spike Lee’s Colin Kaepernick won’t be released, particularly after Ezra Edelman’s Prince epic was shelved.
Exclusive: Director Spike Lee's documentary series for ESPN Films about former NFL quarterback Colin Kaepernick, who sparked a national debate when he protested racial injustice nearly a decade ago, will not be released, the filmmaker and ESPN said reut.rs/45pGxkg
Exclusive: ESPN will not air Spike Lee's docuseries on Colin Kaepernick, citing 'creative differences'
The former NFL quarterback ignited a national debate in 2016 when he knelt during the national anthem to protest racism and police brutality.
reut.rs
August 18, 2025 at 7:22 PM
One of my absolute favorite clips we licensed for Gigantic. The Carson folks were so easy to deal with. We tried to get some of their early Late Night with David Letterman peformances (including their network tv debut), but those were impossible to get (at the time).
This is amazing: From April 1990, four months after FLOOD was released, here’s @tmbg.bsky.social performing on The Tonight Show with guest host Jay Leno. They do BIRDHOUSE IN YOUR SOUL and ISTANBUL (NOT CONSTANTINOPLE), and yes, Doc and the orchestra play along. Inceedible. youtu.be/2AQ9nSbWJHI?...
They Might Be Giants on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson - stereo
YouTube video by miscellaneous publication #15
youtu.be
August 16, 2025 at 6:21 PM
For my money, @patmullen.bsky.social is one of the very best writers about the documentary “trade” today and this is an insightful account of what has been unfolding re: #TIFF50 and its invitation/un-invitation of The Road Between Us.
August 14, 2025 at 3:39 AM
It’s gonna get messy in Arlington Heights.
July 26, 2025 at 12:19 AM
Reposted by AJ Schnack
Cult Leader Warns Followers Things Need To Get Way More Deranged To Be Made Into HBO Documentary Series theonion.com/cult-le...
July 23, 2025 at 9:00 PM
New nonfiction from Oscar/Golden Lion winner Laura Poitras, +Werner Herzog and Ross McElwee. And, in competition, Golden Lion winner Gianfranco Rosi & Cannes L'Œil d'or winner Kaouther Ben Hania. + a Marianne Faithfull doc from Jane Pollard and Iain Forsyth! Venice!

theplaylist.net/luca-guadagn...
Luca Guadagnino's 'After The Hunt,' Benny Safdie's 'The Smashing Machine,' Guillermo Del Toro's 'Frankenstein,' Among 2025 Venice Film Festival Official Slate
New films from Luca Guadagnino, Yorgos Lanthimos, Benny Safdie, and Guillermo del Toro are coming to the 2025 Venice Film Festival
theplaylist.net
July 22, 2025 at 1:59 PM