Since Heather Croall came from the Australian festival world to run Sheffield Doc/Fest a couple of years ago, it has increasingly become a magnet for across-the-pond visitors, in spite of the schlep factor out of London (two-and-a-half hours by train) and its scheduling proximity to the behemoth of documentary festivals, IDFA. That's partly because of Croall's relentless focus on cutting-edge practices, whether it's green filmmaking or video gaming. It's partly to do with the "Meet Market," where producers can meet funders and commissioning editors from all over. But still, the great majority
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Check out pix from the Awards After-Party and the pre-Awards Luncheon!
Doc about young Tibetan family wins $25,000 finishing fund grant. Plus, read about other finalists.
World premiere of Soderbergh's doc on Spaulding Gray among the highlights.
An interview with director/producer Dan Sturnam.
Sundance doc chief talks about career, programming sensibilities.
Last summer, as part of an exchange program with the University of Southern California and the Communication University of China, I set off with six USC students and fellow US filmmaker Johanna Demetrakas to teach a six-week documentary workshop in Beijing, China. With China in the headlines almost daily, I wondered what I'd encounter. I'd spent a month there in 1984--only eight years after Mao died--and I remembered Beijing as a chaotic sea of bicycles, powered by citizens dressed in somber green and blue "Mao jackets." Foreigners were required to stay in cordoned-off hotels; few Chinese
Doc-makers weigh in on their teaching careers.
Over the last half-century or so, documentary filmmaking has evolved as a formidable and expansive institution. In the US, filmmakers have built a soaring and sensible architecture by challenging ideology, pushing creative limits and distilling practice, while helping to legitimize the craft on a global stage. But the new generation of filmmakers faces a shifting landscape, including important changes in how they learn. Ongoing technological advances have arguably democratized the form, while the proliferation of film studies programs in higher education continues to institutionalize the
Radio docs via Skype, David Lynch's 'Interview Project' and more!