Eli Despres: Celebs Rumors

Thanks to the pandemic, 2020 is a summer without a superhero movie. But a new documentary about the American Civil Liberties Union, The Fight, which Magnolia is releasing in theaters and on demand July 31, offers up a kind of alternative, a real-life Avengers starring a group of lovably nerdy civil rights attorneys.

UPDATED, 10 AM: HBO has released the official trailer for Jerrod Carmichael Reality Show ahead of its debut later this month. Revolving around Carmichael’s personal life, the show is described as a darkly funny documentary series about Jerrod’s tumultuous quest for love, sex, and truth. New episodes of the eight-episode series will debut weekly beginning Friday, March 29 (11 PM). Check out the trailer above.

FX has set a March 29 premiere date for Spermworld, a documentary feature on the unregulated online marketplace for sperm, produced by The New York Times and Edgeline Films.

Todd Gilchrist editor On Showtime’s documentary series “Couples Therapy,” clinical psychologist and psychoanalyst Dr. Orna Guralnik has served in many roles for her clients: sounding board, support system, referee, reality check and sometimes, an uncomfortable mirror. And she shares her insights in each capacity with plainspoken simplicity and with empathy. It’s what has made the show such a revelatory watch for her patients as well as viewers — it exemplifies the virtues of the therapeutic experience.  “As a psychoanalyst, you want to really have the same distance from all the inner voices in the patient,” says Guralnik. “Otherwise, I try to really keep going back to a place of what we call neutrality. Now, that’s not always possible, but that’s the North Star. That’s where I try to go to.” 

Todd Gilchrist editor Over three seasons (and a pandemic special) on Showtime, “Couples Therapy” has quietly become a destination for healing for television watchers who are interested in the difficult work of digging into interpersonal relationships — or watching other people do that work, anyway. Through the empathetic, incisive probing of Dr. Orna Guralnik, executive producers Elyse Steinberg, Josh Kriegman and Eli Despres have not only explored the complexity of couples’ shared and individual lives, but the essential, often painful and yet invariably revelatory therapeutic process that helps people understand themselves, their partners and the world around them. Following the April 28 premiere of Part 2 of the show’s third season, Variety spoke to Steinberg, Kriegman and Despres about “Couples Therapy” as a mirror for the challenges that many relationship face. In addition to talking about the themes that emerged from the conversations shared with their selected couples this season, the filmmaking trio broke down the process, both logistical and philosophical, that guided them, and examined some of the deeper notions exposed by the series’ format — and by therapy itself.

HBO has handed a series order to a comedy documentary series about Jerrod Carmichael’s life. Carmichael will executive produce as part of his overall deal with HBO.

Showtime has handed Couples Therapy, the docu-series featuring psychologist and psychoanalyst Dr. Orna Guralnik, an extended third season renewal.

Also Read: 'The Fight' Producer Kerry Washington on Why ACLU Lawyers Are 'Our Avengers' | VideoAn exemplary work of nonfiction storytelling that won a special jury prize after its premiere at Sundance, the film from directors Elyse Steinberg, Josh Kriegman and Eli Despres and producer Kerry Washington won’t persuade those who, in this hyper-partisan age, look upon the ACLU as left-wing zealots (even though it has also fought for things like allowing the far-right protestors in Charlottesville to march, a decision that the film makes clear was the subject of much internal dissension).But for those who consider the current administration a dangerous one, “The Fight” is a stirring chronicle of resistance in a crucial battleground, the courts.

Dino-Ray Ramos Associate Editor/ReporterIt’s a volatile time in our country. We are divided and there’s an extreme sense of civic unrest.