Growing up in Broomfield, Colorado, I vaguely knew that the nearby nuclear weapons plant Rocky Flats existed. As a family, we sometimes worried about drinking contaminated water and would occasionally even glimpse a protest. But radiation is an abstract notion for kids. As someone says in the 1982 film Dark Circle, “You can’t see it, you can’t feel it.” Dark Circle, directed by Judy Irving, Christopher Beaver and Ruth Landy, is one of the most poignant films about the military industrial complex ever made. Sequences include interviews with a man who survived Nagasaki, footage of hideous
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Dear IDA Community, Change can be hard. It can be terrifying, even paralyzing. It can also be exhilarating, inspiring and rejuvenating. After 28 years living in New York and 16 wonderful, often thrilling years at POV, I decided to welcome change, overcome the fear and embrace the inspiration. After just a few short weeks in Los Angeles and taking up my new role at IDA, I am already feeling the rejuvenating effects of change. In many ways, these first weeks have been similar to my work at POV. I’ve spent countless hours listening to filmmakers and the various tribes involved in our documentary
Dear Readers, Over the years, we haven’t committed as much editorial content to technical issues and information as we would like. So, in a step towards more consistency, we devote this issue, in part, to the nuts and bolts of the process of making a documentary, from cinematography to editing. And as we develop issues of the magazine in concert with the rest of the services that IDA is providing to you, the Fall edition jibes with IDA's first Tech Day event, on the evening of October 27 at the AFI Mark Goodson Screening Room in Los Angeles, during which editors Matt Radecki and Doug Blush
Eclipse 43: Agnès Varda in California Released by The Criterion Collection At the Cannes Film Festival this past May, the indomitable French filmmaker Agnès Varda was awarded an honorary Palme d’or—the first woman to earn such an honor. It was the most recent in a string of much deserved accolades going back over her long distinguished career, which began in 1954 with the release of her first film, La Pointe Courte, which established her as a stylistic precursor to the French New Wave. Today, at 87, she remains a dynamic contributor to the world of avant-garde film and art. Her work is not as
In the digital era of global film distribution, we often hear this phrase: “The world is getting smaller.” That certainly feels true. But let’s take a step back. The world is the same size as it has always been, and it is full of opportunity for indie docs and the people who make them. What has changed is the emergence of digital platforms that provide audiences all over the world access to the same film. For documentary filmmakers to maximize audience, impact and revenue on a global scale, it is critical to understand these new digital opportunities in relation to the added value of
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! Phillip Lopate on why Chantal Akerman mattered: "Some words that spring to mind about Akerman's work are: annoying, irritating, stubborn—but in the best possible sense. She was not obliging, thank God. She was not afraid to try your patience. She would push past the stage when the alleged single "point" was made
You've got to hand it to TIFF Docs programmer Thom Powers and the team at Toronto's singularly walloping fall festival. Cutting their signature conference in half has made the event much more focused and practical. There were few dead moments in the new one-day Doc Conference. Things started off briskly with Powers' interview of Asif Kapadia. The North London director of Amy and Senna was "full value," as the Brits like to say, with an assured account of how his two recent doc hits were created. After the success of Senna, his fascinating doc about the legendary Brazilian auto racer, he was
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! Dan Mirvish at Filmmaker Magazine lays out eight different strategies for dealing with piracy: "As independent filmmakers, we have a more nuanced relationship with the pirates. As 'gifted and misunderstood artists,' we want to share our art with the world. So, the more people who see it, the merrier! And, as
Field of Vision, a new platform for short-form and episodic documentary, launches September 29, in collaboration with The Intercept and parent company First Look Media. Field of Vision will commission up to 50 original nonfiction works a year, pairing filmmakers with developing stories around the world. The visionaries behind Field of Vision—Academy Award-winning filmmaker Laura Poitras, Cinema Eye Honors co-founder and filmmaker AJ Schnack, and former Hot Docs director of programming Charlotte Cook—had spent the last year developing and honing the idea, building the infrastructure, and
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! The folks at Kartemquin reflect on what the "Happy Birthday to You" fair use win means to them: "In one of the most infamous cases of the unfair 'clearance culture' that existed before filmmakers began reclaiming their fair use rights to use copyrighted material, we were forced to pay to license this scene from