Andrea James

Matt Yoka

‘Whirlybird’ Film Review: Journalism Doc Makes More Impact With Family Breakup Than With Breaking News

Sundance 2020: The evolution of L.A.-based news pales in comparison to the personal story in Matt Yoka’s documentary Elizabeth Weitzman | January 26, 2020 @ 3:15 PM There’s more, though. And since it’s not presented as a spoiler, it should be…

Sundance 2020 Documentaries: How I Shot That

Chris O’Falt Jan 29, 2020 1:32 pm Shooting “Whirlybird” Dir: Matt Yoka Format: 2.8k ProRes 4444Camera: ARRI Alexa MiniLens: Panavision PCZ 19-90mm T2.8 zoom Cinematographer Ed Herrera: Our earliest conversations revolved around the color photographs of Nan Goldin from the 1980’s. There’s something inherently personal…

‘Whirlybird’ Review: An Absorbing Look at a Sky News Pioneer’s Unconventional Life

Jude Dry Jan 29, 2020 12:39 pm The Tur family tale, in which a plucky young couple fall in love and raise children to a soundtrack of manhunts and forest fires, is undeniably compelling and an obvious fit for the…

Sundance Film Review: ‘Whirlybird’ Soars Just As High As Its Subject

BY TONI GONZALES -January 30, 2020 The history of Los Angeles isn’t in a museum that you visit. No, it sits on thousands of videotapes in a U-haul storage unit. Or, it did until director Matt Yoka and his team came along to convert…

Sundance 2020: Whirlybird

Matt Yoka beautifully weaves in archival footage with contemporary interviews.  One can look at Whirlybird as a time capsule.  The film captures around 40 years or so in the industry.  When it comes to the news business, it’s about being in the…

Sundance 2020 reviews: Day 4

Scott Renshaw on January 27, 2020 The central subject is the founders of L.A. News Service, a breaking news operation that began by chasing police scanner calls at street level in the 1980s, before taking to the skies with helicopter footage that…

Sundance Review: Whirlybird Explores the Adrenaline-Fueled Aerial News Game

Matt Cipolla January 28, 2020 It’s curious to see something like Whirlybird in a time when traditional television use is 1.) on the decline and 2.) retroactively looked as a precursor to today’s voyeurism. Director Matt Yoka frames the archive footage almost…

The LGBTQ Films of Sundance 2020

by Daniel Reynolds Many of the year’s best films — LGBTQ or otherwise — gain momentum at the Sundance Film Festival, the annual cinematic gathering in Park City, Utah. This year’s queer offerings are the strongest yet. Below, see the…

‘Whirlybird’ shows a filmmaker swinging for the fences at Sundance

Entertainment | January 23, 2020 JAY MEEHAN With adrenaline driving the narrative from both the air and the ground, the never-ending breaking news cycle and the competition to capture its most intriguing visual aspects for L.A.’s prime-time news make for a…