2002 IDA Distinguished Documentary Achievement Awards Feature Documentary Mai's America Producer/Director: Marlo Poras Executive Producer: David Sutherland P.O.V., ITVS, Women Make Movies Mai's America is a personal journey that defies all expectations. Mai, a smart, vivacious and resilient Vietnamese teenager, travels to America for her senior year of high school, shouldering her family's high expectations and her own visions of western-style success. Yet, nothing in Mai's wildest imagination could prepare her for what she finds in rural Mississippi, where encounters with white Pentecostal
Latest Posts
I read a front-page article in The New York Times recently that stated that the US is currently buying millions of barrels of oil a year from Iraq. Iraq?!! A trading partner? And I actually thought we were going to war. Isn’t it crazy that it’s okay for the government to help the Iraqi economy, yet I’m not allowed to buy a Cuban cigar? Aren’t the Iraqis the ones who are acquiring weapons of mass destruction and threatening to destroy us because they’re jealous of our freedoms? There’s only one film that could possibly help put this absurd story into perspective, one I first saw as a teenager
In 1982, shortly after Linda Buzzell founded the IDA, she invited me to run for the board of directors, with the cheerful promise that it would require "only a couple of meetings a year." One of Linda's early goals was to shine a spotlight on the Academy Award-nominated documentary filmmakers, who, arriving in Los Angeles, were usually ignored by the press amid all the Oscar hoopla. I ran for the board, went on to serve for nine colorful, formative years, and happily have been involved with IDA since. Through a roller coaster ride of highs and lows, IDA has endured and steadily grown into the
IDA Documentary Award honors Agnès Varda with the Pioneer Award.
Glossary of Terms Agents: Represent works for a fee to distributors or to broadcast/cable/satellite outlets. Broadcasters/Cable-Satellite Programming Distributors: These entities buy and produce documentaries for transmission over the air (broadcasters such as ABC, NBC, PBS, etc.), via cable (cable programming companies such as A&E, HBO), satellite distributors (such as Canal+, DirectTV). They sometimes also distribute to the home video (and educational) markets. Broadcast/Cable-Satellite Distributors: These distributors sell television/cable/satellite rights to broadcast, cable and satellite
Documentary filmmaker Michael Moore has developed a knack for methodically and humorously unmasking the powerful, who for some unknown reason keep taking his calls and granting him interviews. In his latest effort, Bowling for Columbine, he turns his camera on Moses and Ben Hur’s alter ego, the current president of the National Rifle Association (NRA), Charlton Heston. Gaining access to Heston’s gated lair, he asks the octogenarian proponent of unfettered gun ownership to explain his views. Heston takes the bait and slowly, under the influence of Moore’s prodding, we see filmdom’s commanding
This year I found myself going into production on two feature-length documentaries at the same time. I described the development process in an earlier article—how I arrived at shooting one film, on the American Presidency, in an eclectic style that would change as the Presidents we covered changed, and the other, a documentary I was making on my own about professional actors, that would be shot more like cinema vérité. I discovered that when you make two very different films like this, similar problems crop up and seem more apparent because you’re looking at the same issue under different
Dear Readers, There’s making your film, and then there’s getting your film made. Finding a distributor for your documentary is often more arduous a task than making it. But we’re here to try to help you navigate through the sometimes byzantine process of getting your film to its audience. Mitchell Block, a longtime veteran in educational and home video distribution, presents a comprehensive analysis of the field—theatrical, broadcast/cable, and home video/educational—and offers a set of rules and guidelines for considering the possibilities of distribution, and its many permutations, obstacles
Dear Readers, “DOCtober…in September” was a smashing success; we sold nearly twice the number of tickets over previous DOCtobers. But it’s time to change the name. When DOCtober was first created in order to showcase documentaries and help them qualify for an Oscar nomination, the Motion Picture Academy’s deadline for qualifying was the end of October, so it all made sense. This year, the deadline was moved up a month, hence the temporary name. Next year the deadline—and therefore the festival—could move again. So, we need to find a name for this important event that is not date-specific
Filmmakers frequently ask me, “At what point in the production process should I offer my film to distributors?” Considering that thousands of documentaries are made each year, it is astounding that this is such a recurring question. Filmmakers persevere and some of these films find their way into festivals. Many are offered to broadcast and cable companies and numerous theatrical, home video and educational distributors. It is clear, however, that far too little work is done to pre-sell the films before they are made. Before making any work, filmmakers should talk with potential buyers