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 The New York Times, James Glanz reports from the West Bank on the world behind the documentary The Settlers. Mr. Dotan’s film chronicles the germination of the early settler movement after Israel captured the West Bank from Jordan in 1967, including the ideas and religious zeal that fueled it, and explores its
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The Cannes Film Festival isn't particularly known for its devotion to the documentary form. Only twice in the festival's history has the Palme d'Or gone to a nonfiction film: in 1956 for The Silent World, directed by Jacques Cousteau and Louis Malle, and in 2004 for Michael Moore's Fahrenheit 911. This year, not a single documentary appeared among the 21 films selected for "main competition"—i.e. those with a shot at winning the Palme d'Or. However, that doesn't mean there isn't space for documentaries in Cannes, although they tend to remain on the periphery, sheltered from the glare of the
In many ways, Ido Haar's Presenting Princess Shaw is a story of connection, an inspirational refute to those who accuse our digital culture of fostering alienation and social remove. The film, which had its international premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival last fall, tells the story of two dissimilar musicians brought together in a unique form of Internet Age collaboration. On one side of the world lives Ophir Kutiel, aka Kutiman, an Israeli composer and media artist renowned for his symphonic mashups of YouTube videos uploaded by amateur musicians. Thousands of miles away, an
The criminal justice system is in the DNA of Bay Area filmmakers Kelly Duane de la Vega and Katie Galloway. Both grew up with "civil rights fathers" and have been making documentaries on the criminal justice system for many years. Their films include the 2011 documentary Better This World, which follows two childhood friends from Texas who got arrested on terrorism charges at the 2008 Republican National Convention. Better This World earned the IDA Creative Recognition Award for Editing, the Gotham Award for Best Documentary and the Writers Guild Award for Best Documentary Screenplay. Their
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! As part of an ongoing symposium on nonfiction and "cinematic reality" at Reverse Shot, Chris Wisniewski considers the affinity between progressive education and Direct Cinema. Both attempt to problematize, minimize, or even eliminate the concept of authority as embodied, alternately, by the teacher or the director
When we think of documentary, we might not immediately consider its broader uses in transmedia and digital applications. For example, Tracy Fullerton’s Walden, a game, takes us into "a real-time 3D environment, which replicates the geography of Walden Pond and the woods in which Thoreau made his home." The game allows individuals to explore complex humanities themes outlined by Thoreau in a newly immersive environment. Telling Stories with the AIDS Memorial Quilt Project is a work currently in development that will result in web-based "public interactives" that will provide a cultural and
"Man is by nature a political animal," Aristotle famously wrote, but in reality, it takes a special breed of man to be a politician. This is quite evident upon viewing Weiner, a documentary by Josh Kriegman and Elyse Steinberg. The Grand Jury Prize winner at this year's Sundance Film Festival, the film is a captivating roller coaster ride following Anthony Weiner's 2013 New York City mayoral campaign—from his unexpected comeback from political disgrace and rapid ascent as a favorite, to a new round of sexting revelations, leading to his precipitous decline in the polls. By their very nature
This has been called a new Golden Age of documentaries—with more of them being made and experienced by audiences than ever before. It's certainly golden for short docs, which used to dwell in relative obscurity before the Internet opened up unprecedented distribution opportunities. "Online is a natural home for short documentaries because it's a place people go to watch things that are usually shorter in length," says Kathleen Lingo, series producer and curator at The New York Times' Op-Docs, one of a growing number of platforms for the short form."We've run films between one minute and 30
It's tempting to give the short film short shrift. Is less less? Is less more? Or is less the same? Various mechanisms allow the short to transcend its length—shaping the piece according to its internal logic, drilling the story down to its essence, and using only the most potent material, according to the filmmaker's vision. We spoke with seven noted feature filmmakers, who also work in the short form: Jessica Yu won an Academy Award for her short film Breathing Lessons: The Life and Work of Mark O'Brien. Don Argott and Sheena M. Joyce made commissioned shorts for ESPN and SundanceNow Doc
Dear IDA Community, In January I had the honor of serving on the US Feature Documentary Jury at the Sundance Film Festival. While the 16 films we saw represent just a slice of the many that are made each year, it was a concentrated and intense overview of how diverse and dynamic documentary films are in both form and content. We selected our winners and honorees, but I don't kid myself that another jury might have easily picked another slate of films to recognize. Juries, like all "taste-making" entities, are ultimately subjective. Even when we try to apply objective criteria, the subjective