Dear Readers, Sports is a category, a section in the newspaper, a livelihood, an obsession. And it's also a genre in the rich world of documentary filmmaking. Films such as Baseball (Ken Burns, prod./dir.), Hoop Dreams (Steve James, dir./prod.; Peter Gilbert, Frederick Marx, prods.), When We Were Kings (Leon Gast, dir./prod.; David Sonenberg and Taylor Hackford, prods.) and The Life and Times of Hank Greenberg (Aviva Kempner, prod./dir) have enabled us to re-imagine sports in a new way-as a prism through which we try to understand the human experience. This summer brings Riding Giants, Stacy
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Dear IDA Members: Giving your time.... As many of us punch through our day-to-day routines of phone calls, emails and FedEx deliveries, once in while there is a moment of contemplation: how to make the world a better place. Perhaps you're already doing something socially or politically; it is an election year, after all. For some people, the lightning bolt of personal inspiration or motivation just hasn't hit yet. Until it does, they just want to get involved in anything that has a greater good. Yes, I'm talking about volunteers. At the IDA we see quite a number of happy, motivated people come
Amalgam, combination, composite and compound are synonyms for hybrid. The identification of something by classification is as a way of understanding it, and different classifications of art or film embody particular, commonly accepted traits and traditions. A hybrid does not neatly fit into any classification, and the documentaries that were once labeled "hybrid" or avant-garde have emerged as a prevalent category. These films may incorporate essential qualities of traditional documentaries, but they typically question or expand many characteristics that are considered basic documentary traits
Dear Readers, Considering the frontiers and pioneers of nonfiction filmmaking is as much a consideration of the zeitgeist as it is of the art form. In this era of mashing, surfing, blogging, listserving and synthesizing in the vast, souped-up, multi-dimensional and multi-planed cyberverse of the third millennium, genres blur and collide into new forms. There's a certain legerdemain and trompe d'oeil to all of this—fiction and nonfiction, music video and music documentary, re-enactments and re-creations. It's irreverence and reverence at the same time, all in the service of truth-seeking and
Dear IDA Members: I have just returned from MIP and MIPDOC in Cannes. These two events really are the center of the international broadcast marketplace. MIPDOC is a two-day specialized market dedicated solely to documentaries. There were some 1,031 entries this year, and the market attracted 350 buyers from around the world. I met a great number of people, most notably, the programmers from the Arab cable and satellite channel, al Jazeera, which is launching a second channel dedicated to documentaries and is looking for programming about the world at large. As Jehane Noujaim's Control Room, a
"It seems to me that the natural world is the greatest source of excitement; the greatest source of visual beauty; the greatest source of intellectual interest. It is the greatest source of so much in life that makes life worth living."-Sir David Attenborough Things have changed since Sir David Attenborough brought us Life on Earth. Back in 1979 when the BBC's 13-part series first aired, nature films were solely about ecosystems and the environment, digital technology was still a ways off, and television was the predominant outlet for these films. Today, digital technology has made an enormous
It used to be that when you went to see a movie about Mars, you assumed it was science fiction. Tales of the red planet involved little green men, ancient canals and doomsday radio broadcasts. However, with the arrival of the Spirit and Opportunity Rovers on Mars in early 2004, the fourth planet from the sun has become a hot topic among factual filmmakers. A number of docs are currently in production, with the blessings and full cooperation of NASA and JPL (Jet Propulsion Laboratories), the lab where Spirit and Opportunity were constructed. Projects in the works include two NOVA programs (one
Dear Readers, There are documentaries about music and those who create it; there are documentaries with music as a driving force; and there are documentaries with no music at all, but are nonetheless musical in their structure. Three documentaries coming out this spring focus as much on the creative process as on the fame and fortune it might bring—and the repercussions of that fame and fortune. DIG!, Ondi Tominer's Sundance Grand Jury Prize award-winner, follows over the course of seven years the internal conflicts and struggles of two rising bands—the Dandy Warhols and Brian Jonestown
Dear IDA Members, There are a number of excellent conferences worldwide devoted to the documentary. A notable one here in the US is the RealScreen Summit. I usually encourage new and even well seasoned producers to attend this event at least once. For the past few years it has been held in Washington, DC. Many of the world's top broadcasters attend to discuss the business and creative direction of the factual program market. If you're going to be in this business and you intend to sell your film, you had better know what the buyers are looking for. This is one event where you can find out. For
Dear IDA Members, Before I address you as your new president, I would like to say a few words about my predecessor, Michael Donaldson. About four years ago, IDA moved into new offices and almost simultaneously lost its executive director. At the end of that year, a new president was elected. Those were challenging times. Michael kept the organization headed in the right direction, and that was not easy. The board is comprised of individuals of varying creative and business opinions, but Michael, a consummate diplomat, would harness these opinions and forge them into a unified action. My hat is