Although Spain now has a vibrant feature film industry-and an icon in internationally acclaimed director Pedro Almodvar-the country has no real documentary tradition. "The marriage of Franco and documentary was the worst kind of marriage," says Joan Gonzalez, the founder of Parallel 40 Production Company in Barcelona. The Franco dictatorship lasted almost 40 years, from 1939-1975, and Franco had tight control over what was made, what was seen and how archival footage was used. NO~DO-Noticiaro Documental, the state-sponsored newsreel program, was the sole means of visual communication that
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When the Slamdance Film Festival debuted in 1995, there were 12 features and 12 shorts programmed out of a mere 40 submissions. A motley group of writers, directors and producers joined forces to create what is now one of the hottest destinations in Park City, Utah. Neighboring the renowned Sundance Film Festival, Slamdance created a new outlet for low-budget, high-quality filmmaking and grew a community for these filmmakers in the process. While the festival has moved venues and increased submissions (there were 2,800 this year), its mission statement has stayed true: "By filmmakers, for
Dear Readers, It begins in December with the Best-of-the-Year lists, and, dare I say, the IDA Awards. This is the snappy start of the annual drum roll that picks up speed in Park City, rumbles deftly through the thicket of awards ceremonies in February and March, and reaches a thunderous, death-defying crescendo with the Academy Awards, and IDA's own days-long salute to the nominees in the doc categories, the Oscars Reception and DocuDay. This issue salutes the nominees, and Jason Lyon talks to last year's winners about what a difference a year in the glow of the little golden man has made
For filmmakers, the changes at the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences may seem a little mind-bending. There are new rules regarding theatrical exhibition (see www.oscars.org for details), lots of adjustments and the promise that the policies and guidelines may be modified again. That was the basic message that Michael Apted, Arthur Dong and Frieda Lee Mock, the governors on the Academy's Documentary Branch, made very clear during their standing-room-only presentation at the House of Docs at Sundance in January. After their explanation, filmmakers were grumbling. But the new rules
Dear IDA Members: Once again, the Oscars Reception turned out to one of the highlights of the crazy awards season. Special thanks go to chair Rick Trank, co-chairs Lynne Littman and Bob Niemack, as well as Ann Hassett, Traci Lewis, Jeff Swimmer, diane estelle Vicari, Nancy Willen, Sarah Jo Marks and Sandra Ruch for all their hard work in producing the Oscars Reception. Thanks also to Sundance Channel for its sponsorship. And congratulations are due to IDA members Gail Dolgin, producer/director of Daughter from Danang; Jeffrey Blitz, producer/director of Spellbound; Alice Elliott, producer
How do filmmakers choose what to document? They choose what moves them, what may bring about change; they explore personal histories, investigate issues—all in the spirit of creating art. The 16th annual AFI Los Angeles International Film Festival (Nov 7 - 17, 2002) provided filmgoers with these stories and brought the filmmakers out to talk about their work, their process and just what drives them to create. For 10 days hungry moviegoers crammed into the grandest movie hub in Los Angeles—the Arclight Cinema—for screening after screening of films from every corner of the globe. AFI Fest 2002
DOCS ROCK, a digital documentary film curriculum targeting high school students, was officially expanded in October 2002. A two-day teacher-training institute held at San Pedro High School in Los Angeles brought together teachers from seven LA high schools and filmmakers from the greater LA area. The scope and mission of the workshop was to train high school teachers in the DOCS ROCK curriculum, one that integrates standards of English and visual arts set by the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD). The workshop followed a successful collaboration among the LAUSD, IDA and the City of
To say the Regus London Film Festival (RLFF) is a feast of film is an understatement. For the gourmet there's enough of the esoteric or obscure to be satisfying; for the gourmand it justifies gluttony with an international array of high profile movies. Nearly 250 films were shown during the 46th annual festival (November 6-21), 20 percent of them documentaries—apparently a record year for nonfiction screenings there. Having attended the fest two years ago, I came better prepared to manage the plethora of films, with my focus on documentary. Nevertheless my mission was daunting-just
Berlin, Germany. October 20, 2002. A clear, crisp, cold day, with autumn winds blowing in from the east. At the Intercontinental Hotel on Budapester Strasse, located in what 13 years before was part of the American sector of a divided Berlin, the World Congress of History Producers 2002—hosted by the German network ZDF and organized by the Banff Television Foundation—was getting underway. The Congress attracted delegates from Europe, Canada, the United States and Australia, among them commissioning editors, distributors, producers and directors, as well as independent producers just finding
May we direct your attention to the upper left-hand corner of your map? At the northwest edge of the continental United States sit two thriving documentary and independent film communities separated by a total of only 180 miles, Seattle Washington and Portland, Oregon. (Vancouver, a mere 130 miles further north, is also an artistically vital part of the Northwest scene—but since the process of funding, creating and distributing films in Canada is so different from that in the US, it receives separate consideration in the sidebar below.). While there's no single group or movement that links