What's in a name? Well, if you are the festival formerly known as SILVER DOCS, it was not only a name but an identifying location: Silver Spring, Maryland. But with the recent departure of Discovery Networks as one of the event's main sponsors for the past decade, the documentary festival had to re-invent itself. So in 2013 AFI DOCS Film Festival was born. The festival took on a new look and main sponsor (Audi), added a new campus of landmark venues in Washington, DC, close to Capitol Hill, and premiered some groundbreaking filmmaker programs. There were also five premieres, including three
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From the World of Wonder production Life with LaToya, which airs on OWN. Courtesy of World of Wonder When first-time director Marta Cunningham got the news that her documentary Valentine Road had made it into the 2013 Sundance Film Festival, she probably didn't stop to Tweet a thanks to Kim Kardashian. But strange as it might seem, the indie filmmaker owes a debt of gratitude to the media vixen because, after years of struggling as an indie project, Cunningham's Valentine Road ended up in the loving hands of the company behind the Kardashian family: Bunim/Murray Productions. It might seem odd
From Seamus Murphy's A Darkness Visible: Afghanistan, which received an Emmy Award nomination in the New Approaches to News and Documentary Programming: Documentaries category. Courtesy of Media Storm Over the last seven years, we have witnessed a cavalcade of revolutionary developments in content creation and delivery: Facebook opened its membership to the world beyond colleges in September 2006; Netflix introduced VOD in February 2007; Twitter debuted at South by Southwest Film Festival a month later and, one year after, the very first Tweet was transmitted; and Apple released its first
Aftermath of hurricane Sandy in Seaside Heights, New Jersey, October 2012. Courtesy of NBCUniversal Archives In the aftermath of the recent Boston Marathon bombings, authorities were able to sift through hundreds of hours of video footage shot by attendees with their smartphones, multiple security cameras and professional news camera crews. But a decade or so ago, whether it was a cultural, political or any major event, the primary footage available was shot by local, national and/or international news organizations. For many years, documentary filmmakers seeking access to historical or even
Politics and activism were in the air this year at the 29th Toronto International Film Festival. Filmgoers walked around with Kerry-Edwards pins of all shapes and sizes. Volunteers trolled movie theatre lobbies trying to register to vote those with dual Canadian/US citizenship. And the issues covered in the documentary line-up read like a congressional meeting agenda: the war in Iraq, gay marriage, Kerry's participation in Vietnam, the Rwandan genocide and the effects of globalization. At a time when many are frustrated with the glossed-over treatment that serious issues receive on cable and
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