South by Southwest Film Festival ( SXSW), held every March in Austin, Texas, has become a must-attend event for documentarians, for several reasons. There is the thoughtful curating of documentaries, under the aegis of Janet Pierson, who has a long history of nurturing independent filmmakers. There's none of that "well, but it's an important issue" selection that is the death of documentary curating, and there's very little of the shiny-edge, no-surprises commercial fare. (Oh, there was the IMAX film Hubble 3D, but it's excused for offering breathtaking views of the universe.) There's not much
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From Christopher Quinn's God Grew Tired of Us. Courtesy of Christopher Quinn I cannot imagine thinking that my life was a struggle because God grew tired of me. But now when I hear that phrase, I can't help thinking about Big John Dau, a protagonist in Christopher Quinn's God Grew Tired of Us. My eyes still well up from the scene in which he reveals this. God Grew Tired of Us is full of moments that stick with you and make you think differently about excess, waste and the things we take for granted living in a modern world. Quinn is an amazing director with a talent for capturing things that
An interview with Rachel Rosen, director of programming at Los Angeles Film Festival.
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Conventional wisdom leads most filmmakers to tour the festival circuit for a year and then, once they secure distribution, open commercially, with the goal to reach a large audience through positive press, and then generate significant distribution revenue. Yet a commercial run in theaters doesn't often come close to the full houses many filmmakers will have enjoyed at festivals. Increasingly, filmmakers are being more strategic, narrowing down a few A-list festivals as platforms to launch their film theatrically and looking into alternative venues such as museums and universities, to better
A report on the inaugural edition of this Texas fest.
Also: Arthouse Picks up Walker’s 'Waste Land'
This week, we at IDA are introducing our community to the filmmakers whose work will be represented in the DocuWeek TM Theatrical Documentary Showcase, August 17-23. We asked the filmmakers to share the stories behind their films-the inspirations, the challenges and obstacles, the goals and objectives, the reactions to their films so far. So, to continue this series of conversations, here are Sean Fine and Andrea Nix Fine, directors of War/Dance . Synopsis: Set in Northern Uganda, a country ravaged by more than two decades of civil war, War/Dance tells the story of three children whose