Essential Doc Reads is a weekly feature in which the IDA staff recommends recent pieces about the documentary form and its processes. Here we feature think pieces and important news items from around the Internet, and articles from the Documentary magazine archive. We hope you enjoy! At I ndiewire, Anne Thompson details the "fiasco" behind the new Buena Vista Social Club sequel. Back in January, Lucy Walker was on the verge of debuting her fifth feature at Sundance — the high-profile sequel to Wim Wenders’ 1999 Oscar-nominated documentary, The Buena Vista Social Club. It was the best-possible
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Two filmmakers from Mumbai are facing difficulties in screening their film An Insignificant Man in India despite the many international screenings that took place over the past months. The Indian censor board requires the filmmakers to get a no-objection-certificate from Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Directors Khusboo Ranka and Vinay Shukla have launched a social media campaign to raise awareness for the unacceptable censorship policies in India. The Hindi-English documentary An Insignificant Man - which premiered at Toronto International Film Festival last year - chronicles the anti
Sydneysiders, as they're called, are acutely aware of both being the center of a world (their own) and at the edge of others (the world offshore). The Sydney Film Festival, now in its 64th year and still enjoying the prestige that critic David Stratton built up over his decades of stewardship, meets Sydneysiders where they are: It offers a cosmopolitan survey of exciting films worldwide and also a focus on the latest Australian work. "We're proud that an Australian documentary opened the film festival this year," says documentary curator Jenny Neighbour. We Don't Need a Map, by noted
IDA announces eight feature-length documentary films selected to receive a total of $130,000 from the IDA Pare Lorentz Documentary Fund. These grants were awarded in 2016 and the first quarter of 2017.
What is the typical process you will go through when working with a sound house or individual? Is there a typical process? Everyone works a little differently, but there are many common steps that you will encounter when you engage someone to do your sound. Here are some words of wisdom and advice from my 20+ years of designing and mixing documentary films. Finding Your Sound House Today, a film's soundtrack can be prepped and mixed in all sorts of different-sized facilities. Dare I say that you could have one person do your whole sound job when I’m the owner of a modest facility with small
Screen Time is your curated weekly guide to excellent documentaries and nonfiction programs that you can watch at home. Coming to Netflix this Friday, Brian Knappenberger's Nobody Speak, which examines the Hulk Hogan vs. Gawker Media case as a deeper exploration into the precarious state of free press, free speech and freedom of expression in the Trump era. Sara’s Taksler's Tickling Giants tells the story of how Dr. Bassem Youssef, the "Egyptian Jon Stewart," makes the transformation from heart surgeon to late-night comedian to exlore and support creative ways to protect free speech and fight
Essential Doc Reads is a weekly feature in which the IDA staff recommends recent pieces about the documentary form and its processes. Here we feature think pieces and important news items from around the Internet, and articles from the Documentary magazine archive. We hope you enjoy! At Filmmaker, director Andrew Cohn ( Night School) explains his commitment to making films in the Midwest. Similar to politicians, too often the people and places in the Midwest seem to be exploited by filmmakers as political vessels (I'm looking at you, Michael Moore!). While I mostly agree with the message of
From Bernardo Ruiz' Reportero. Photo: Bernardo Ruiz/Quiet Pictures "Let them kill us all, if that is the death sentence for reporting this hell," veteran reporter Javier Valdez Cárdenas tweeted on March 25, in response to the murder of a fellow journalist in Mexico. "No to silence." Less than two months later, Valdez was pulled out of his car and shot more than ten times in broad daylight. Valdez, who was recognized for his courage by the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) with an International Press Freedom Award in 2011, became the sixth journalist to be killed in Mexico this year. Soon
Based in Copenhagen and run jointly by Signe Byrge Sørensen, Anne Köhncke, Monica Hellström and Heidi Elise Christensen, Final Cut for Real is one of the world's leading documentary production companies. Their slate includes such award-winning titles as Joshua Oppenheimer's path-breaking films The Act of Killing and The Look of Silence, and Pervert Park by Frida and Lasse Barkfors. During CPH:DOX, I stopped by the company's cozy offices in a modest, stylishly Danish old building to chat with co-founder and two-time Oscar-nominated producer Signe Byrge Sørensen about Final Cut for Real's
Since IDA's DocuClub was relaunched in 2016 as a forum for sharing and soliciting feedback about works-in-progress, four DocuClub alums have premiered their works on the festival circuit this year. In an effort to both monitor and celebrate the evolution of these films to premiere-ready status, we reached out to the filmmakers as they were winding their way through the festival circuit. Following their DocuClub screening last year, director Mark Hayes and producer Gabriele Hayes will be premiering their film Skid Row Marathon at the Los Angeles Film Festival on June 17. Synopsis: When a