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The Los Angeles Film Festival made its debut in 1995 as the Los Angeles Independent Film Festival, with screenings at the Raleigh Studios' modest screening room. The documentary representation was scant in the first few years; by 1998 the festival had commandeered the then-Laemmle Sunset 5, but that year audiences were treated to just two feature docs, one of which was Bennett Miller's first film (and sole feature-length nonfiction work to date), The Cruise, which screened at 10:00 a.m. on a Saturday. Film Independent (then IFP West) took over the festival in 2002, dropped the "Independent"

I attended the sixth annual Full Frame Documentary Film Festival in Durham, North Carolina last April, planning on paying special attention to the curated thematic series, "Leadership Through a Gender Lens" and "Flights of Fancy," to see if and how these themes might be reflected in the competitive films. However, war seemed to be the unintentional zeitgeist of this particular festival. Welcoming audiences to the festival, Executive Director Nancy Buirski admitted that there had been some concern among the staff about hosting a documentary film festival during a time of war. As if in

Birds in flight and birds in fights. Public power battles in India and Soviet Georgia. American women on welfare and American girls in jail. This spring's 46th annual San Francisco International Film Festival showcased two dozen documentaries shot in more than a dozen countries. The films raised old ethical dilemmas, new aesthetic issues and eternal funding problems. Ever since Nanook struggled with the walrus there has been a question about whether documentary filmmakers should intervene to help their subjects. Iranian director Rakhshan Bani-Etemad ultimately chose to help the subject of her

It is not surprising that the Tow Center for Digital Journalism's research project, Video Now —which examines current trends of news publications' video departments, focusing on October 2013 through February 2014—comes with this disclaimer: "The organizations that we visited and feature may all have moved on to new models by the time you watch this." It is a swiftly shifting world, with new leaders emerging and partnerships being formed everyday in the race to produce quality video content and maintain and grow audiences. Publications formerly steeped historically in print are forging ahead

The distribution landscape is constantly evolving. We already gave you 10 Keys to Successful Theatrical Distribution for Your Doc and the most important 5 Digital Distribution Tips for Filmmakers. Now, here are some of the most oft-used terms and their definitions to help you figure out how best to get your doc out into the world. Theatrical Releases: Wide release: a film is shown nationwide simultaneously in hundreds of theaters. Limited release: a film is released in a select several theaters across the country. This release style is frequently used for documentaries, art films, and

The rapidly changing distribution landscape has brought a whole new vocabulary with it. But where do you, the filmmaker, fit in?

North Carolina is a "right to work" state, which is part of her independent charm for documentary filmmakers, but also her challenge. There are no unions to organize and unify media artists, and networks tend to be loose, informal webs. Filmmakers seem to be regionally connected, allied to the Triangle (Raleigh, Durham, Chapel Hill), the Triad (Greensboro, High-Point, Winston-Salem), the Mountains (Asheville) or the Coast (Wilmington). The more tightly knit areas of the documentary production network appear to be associated with the universities, supported by university resources such as

Digital projection of video has been with us for some years, but has yet to attain wide acceptance in movie theaters. Initially, there were three major problems: the high cost of the equipment, the insufficient light output to meet the movie industry's strict quality standards and the question of who was going to pay for it. Prices have come down as light output has risen, but it's still difficult to find theaters that can project video. Although technically possible, digital projection of mainstream movies has yet to be fully embraced by the movie industry, although the most recent Star Wars

"One night in 1997, I was watching a documentary about Philo Farnsworth, the inventor of television, on American Experience," says David Strohmaier. "I said somebody should do something similar about Cinerama. I was in between editing projects and my wife encouraged me to produce a documentary about Cinerama. Based on that, I flew to Dayton, Ohio, to meet John Harvey, a film collector and projection engineer who had built a 350-seat theater where they were showing vintage Cinerama prints during Saturday matinees. There were people there from all over the world." Strohmaier subsequently

For a filmmaker, there's nothing like watching one's film unspool in a theater. My partner, Suki Hawley, and I recently made a documentary called Horns and Halos, about the re-publication of a discredited biography of George W. Bush. At the tail end of the film's festival run in 2002, we were in a very interesting position. Due to a kick in the pants and fiscal sponsorship from the IDA, we had managed to raise money for a film print. Cinemax had purchased the film for Reel Life, and we had several offers to distribute the DVD. However, there was no serious interest in releasing the film