Back in November 2011, the IDA and Kartemquin Films sent out a request for your help as we were preparing to submit comments to the Library of Congress regarding the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA). We were requesting that an exemption be renewed to allow all filmmakers to obtain the clips they need to tell their stories under the protection of the law. With your help and support, we submitted these comments for consideration of appending the DMCA’s current restrictions for accessing footage on Thursday, December 1, 2011. Yesterday, on Thursday, October 25, the Librarian of Congress
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For many documentary filmmakers, the online world is still a foreign landscape that raises anxiety-producing questions: How will my audience find my work? How will I recoup my costs? Will I be seen as a legitimate documentary filmmaker? Morgan Spurlock, who has developed Web series with Hulu and Yahoo, among others, has actually been in the Web game long before his hit feature debut Super Size Me (2004). "The very first Web series I ever did was in 2000," he explained via e-mail. "In 1999, I wrote a business plan and raised $250,000 in financing for a company that would use the Web as a place
Host of Matt's Movies talks about an upcoming radio special based on a recent Steve James film.
In January 1999, The New York Times ran an article in its Arts and Leisure section entitled ''Female Directors Battle the Indie Boys Club,'' about the dearth of women film directors in Sundance. I wrote a letter to the editor that was published a few weeks later, in which I said the following: "Making films involves a kind of all-consuming passion. My own experience in being a film director...and a mother of three is that there are times when a woman really can't do both well. But at the end of my life, I'm certain I won't regret not having made a few more films knowing that I had been there
From the squalor of Tijuana to the magnificent beaches of Cabo San Lucas, Mexico 's Baja California Peninsula is an almost mythic place filled with contradictions. It's covered by deserts yet boasts grand, pine-covered mountain forests. Billionaires fly in to visit their beachfront villas while many people eke out a marginal existence. To some it's the last vestige of the Wild West. It's rough, seedy, dangerous and seductive. For 37 years Baja has enticed an ever-growing collection of little-known off-road racers, including motorsports champions Parnelli Jones and Robby Gordon, actors Steve
Werner Herzog knows when he's found the right subject for a film. But don't ask him to explain; he just knows, that's all. And he instantly knew he was destined to make his new documentary, Grizzly Man. It combines video footage shot by deceased grizzly-bear advocate Timothy Treadwell with recent interviews of his acquaintances and Herzog's own often-contentious commentary about his subject. It is tentatively scheduled for an August theatrical release via Lions Gate Films, followed by an airing on the Discovery Channel in fall 2006. Treadwell, a charismatic figure for his blond good looks and
Five films will receive $75,000 in grants.
As every freelance producer knows, work can be a real grab bag. Shows and shoots can range from the tawdry to the sublime, and the silly to the serious. And very occasionally, one finds oneself on a story that is drenched in drama, even history-making. The following, for me, was one of those rare moments. Christmas 2004. I'm in the final shooting stages of a show I'm producing for cable about natural disasters. I'd gone far and wide in search of places that are keenly threatened by natural disasters, including earthquakes, volcanoes and hurricanes. My crew and I had been to Istanbul, Turkey
We are SO excited to finally announce all of the nominees for our 28th annual IDA Documentary Awards ceremony, which will be held Friday, December 7, 2012 at the Director's Guild in Los Angeles. Our Executive Director Michael Lumpkin expressed his enthusiasm about this year's selections: "This year’s documentaries have once again shown us the power of the documentary art form," Lumpkin said. "The record number of submissions we received reflects the cultural relevance of documentary storytelling." The five films nominated in IDA’s Best Feature category include The Central Park Five (Ken Burns
Check out two of IDA's fiscally sponsored films that are creating meaningful social change. Sin by Silence, a film about domestic violence, made legislative history after Assemblywoman Fiona Ma attended a screening of the documentary in 2011. The result?