In the last year I've been on a number of panels about film festival strategies. It's clear that there isn't one simple plan that will work for every film. But in order to have a positive experience on the festival circuit, filmmakers should do some serious thinking about what it is they want to get out of the experience—beyond getting into a festival and selling their film. A number of strong documentaries have screened at numerous festivals in the past year, but have yet to find distribution. I spoke to Louise Hogarth, maker of The Gift , a controversial film about the practice of HIV self
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You've got a big shoot coming up in Asia, and potential disasters start popping up in your mind. What if your equipment gets tied up in customs indefinitely? What if the soundperson the crewing agency stuck you with can't hear the low hum that's so clear to you on playback? What if you can't film at the temple so crucial to your story until you pay the abbot a $10,000 "location fee?" You can rest assured that all these things have happened and will happen to those who come to Asia unprepared. On the other hand, if you do your homework and choose the right people with whom to work, the chances
'Twenty Feet from Stardom' director Morgan Neville offers some great insights into what makes a doc stand out in the crowd.
The New Americans, a Kartemquin Films documentary about immigration that airs on PBS from March 29-31, couldn't be more timely. From fear about terrorists—especially within the community of Arab and Muslim immigrants—to concern about undocumented Mexican laborers flooding the job market, immigration is directly linked these days to the topics of homeland security and the economy. And, thus, to politics in a presidential election year: witness the controversy over President Bush's new proposal to give temporary guest-worker status to those considered "illegal aliens." But when Steve James, co
Park City, Utah, has a population of just over 7,000 people, but when the Sundance crowds—whom the locals refer to as "the people in black"—arrive every January, the population mushrooms—this year to nearly 50,000. This makes for a pretty crowded little place. Everyone needs to lodge, eat, ski and, naturally, watch movies. Regardless of the fact that Sundance screened about 150 films this year, nearly everything was sold out, with people lining up for the infamous wait-list tickets up to two hours in advance. For many people, there was just no getting in. But at the Treasure Mountain Inn at
Back in 1983 I was living in San Francisco, and I read in the newspaper one day about a new documentary called The Atomic Café that had just opened. I was in the early stages of producing my first documentary that also dealt with atomic power, a film that would eventually evolve into Radio Bikini. Given the similar subject matter, I made a point of going to see The Atomic Café. Walking out of the theater with my girlfriend that rainy night was a revelation. Here was a documentary that had me riveted in my seat like the best fiction. It was hip, ironic, hilarious, shocking, brimming with
To school myself in documentary filmmaking after a career in journalism, I gave myself a daily assignment, which I held to faithfully for nearly two years: Every morning before heading to work, I watched a movie. Most were documentaries, but not all. I also watched films that had what I called "journalistic pretensions" and were based on reporting, like The Insider or Argo. I saw hundreds and hundreds of films. Most of them made strident arguments about their subject matters, for or against. That seemed easy enough—maybe too easy. I found myself drawn to stories where the filmmaker let me be
The Sundance Film Festival is an amazing, wild ride, with so many screenings, panels and events taking place simultaneously that it's tough to choose which one to attend. The Filmmaker Lodge, located on Main Street in Park City, is a cozy retreat from the swirl of activity. The Filmmaker Lodge, which merged with the House of Docs in 2003, also hosts panel discussions and informal industry meetings. "The House of Docs was initially established to bring the documentary film community together at Sundance," says Diane Weyermann, director of the Documentary Film Program. "It worked so well that we
In September 2013, I traveled to Morocco as a film envoy for the American Film Showcase (AFS), a partnership between the US Department of State's Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs and the USC School of Cinematic Arts; IDA and Film Independent are partners. AFS' mission is to foster cultural diplomacy by presenting independent films to audiences who would otherwise not have access to such work. The plan was to screen my film Don't Stop Believin': Everyman's Journey-about Filipino musician Arnel Pineda, who was plucked from YouTube to become the front man for iconic American rock band
Full Frame Documentary Film Festival earned its reputation as the "filmmakers' festival" by becoming a showcase for powerfully intimate stories, most often about people. "Character-driven" can be a redundant quality when it comes to most modern documentaries, but Full Frame distinguishes both its films and its own character as "bold, personal and very brave." This was how programming director Sadie Tillery introduced Darius Clark Monroe's Evolution of a Criminal, which went on to win both the Reva and David Logan Grand Jury and the Center for Documentary Studies Filmmaker Awards. Evolution