Andrew Berends, the recipient of the 2006 Courage Under Fire Award, traveled to Iraq in March 2004, intending to get a behind-the-scenes look at what was really happening in that war-torn country a year after the Unites States' invasion. He felt that traditional news media were mainly reporting on the numbers of people killed and wounded and where American soldiers were fighting. Berends called his friend James Longley, who was working on a made-in-Iraq documentary ( Iraq in Fragments). Longley advised him to fly to Amman, Jordan, take a taxi to Baghdad, and bring a passport to get across the
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Reports of a film festival can lapse into a list of titles. For the Jihlava (Czech Republic) International Festival of Documentary Films ( www.dokument-festival.cz), which ran from October 24 to 29, 2006, a few snippets may give the flavor of the event: *A festival press release stating that one screening "was accompanied by a short discussion with the authors, and by a competition for a DVD containing the film, on which [sic] the audience participated much more than on the discussion." *Mária Ferenčuhová of the Slovak national film school summarizing the prospects for nonfiction movies in her
From Black Harvest By Steven Ascher and Jeanne Jordan We do many different types of projects and don't think of ourselves as having a single filmmaking style. But in our feature documentaries, we're drawn to stories with a personal connection and a political aspect, focusing on individual lives that illuminate universal truths. We're fascinated by the power of time as a narrative element, and we think humor is essential. For these reasons, Black Harvest, the third film made by Robin Anderson and Bob Connolly in the Highlands of Papua, New Guinea, is an inspiration. It's a model of brilliant
Editor’s Note: On October 1 at the Lakeside Theater in Oakland, IDA will present a special Bay Area edition of its Conversation Series, featuring The Black Panthers director Stanley Nelson talking with Orlando Bagwell, director of the Documentary Program at the UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism. Learn more and purchase tickets. In the beginning, there was Stanley Nelson and his production company, Half Nelson Productions. Nelson's focus has been documentary films about the African-American and minority experience, and his resume is peppered with accolades such as a MacArthur "Genius"
As we poise gingerly on the precipice of another year, we tend to look back longingly, one last time, at the year that brought us here. Fortunately, the Awards Season--which kicked off right after Thanksgiving with the IFP Gotham Awards, followed a week later by the IDA Awards, then by a spate of critics' picks, reflections and ruminations rumbles through the winter, reaching a crescendo at the brink of spring with the Academy Awards. So here is January, named for Janus, the god of doors, gates and beginnings, depicted always with two faces, looking forward and looking back. The infrastructure
Morgan Spurlock, from his 2004 film Super Size Me. Photo: Julie Soefer I know what you're thinking--what could possibly be funnier than a gaggle of documentary filmmakers discussing the use of humor in the nonfiction form? So, we set out to interview a variety of figures in the documentary production and exhibition arena about the ways in which filmmakers can use comedy and humor to reinforce their intended message to audiences. Perhaps we should begin with Mark Lewis, a documentary filmmaker who is particularly skilled at using anthropomorphism to imbue his otherwise incommunicative subjects
Launched last year by distributor Richard Propper and filmmaker Chuck Braverman, the WESTDOC conference brings together the documentary and reality TV production communities with a two busy days of in-depth panels and a third day dedicated to a pitch fest. For the second year in a row, WESTDOC enticed high-level network and cable executives who primarily work from the East Coast to fly out to Santa Monica to participate in candid, intimate panels revealing how they choose and manage the hit shows on their outlets. "This conference should be in the face of every filmmaker out there," says
From Pernille Rose Gronkjaer's The Monastery: Mr. Vig & the Nun, which won the Joris Ivens Feature Award at the 2006 IDFA. Along with unseasonably warm temperatures and frequent blue skies, International Documentary Festival Amsterdam (IDFA), which ran November 23 to December 3, was a breath of fresh air. In its 19th year, the festival has truly become a massive gathering of the international documentary community. It's the "community" aspect, rather than the films, that was most striking at this year's incarnation. At an early panel discussion, "State of Documentary," IDFATalks producer and
From Michael Tucker and Petra Epperlein's Gunner Palace Debating the Academy's rules that determine eligibility for feature documentaries has become an annual event within these pages and the documentary community at large. Inevitably, each year when the shortlist is announced, a handful of critically acclaimed and/or box-office successes are passed over or disqualified from potential Oscar nomination. Part of this might be taste, but more often than not, it's because of the rules. Recent shortlist announcements have become fodder for entertainment columnists who rightfully point out the