The parties and the hallway conversations were as productive as the sessions at RealScreen Summit, held in Washington, DC this past February. The conference on the “business of factual programming” drew nearly 700 delegates from around the world, but preponderantly from the US and Canada. The group included some 400 producers and distributors, 250 representatives from TV channels and 44 representatives of production services. “This gets us independent producers out of the splendid isolation that we also need,” said IDA member Robert Frye, who after decades as a broadcaster is producing on his
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Apple Computers, along with a host of other tech companies--including Sun Microsystems, Ericsson, NNT DoCoMo and Sigma Designs--presented new capabilities and possibilities for delivering content quickly and inexpensively at the QuickTime Live Conference in Los Angeles February 12. Whether you’re a investigative documentarian who focuses on time-sensitive news coverage, an industrial filmmaker producing for corporate clients or an independent documentary filmmaker, QuickTime, and the recent technological announcements made at the conference, can help you deliver and get your footage seen on
I first encountered IDA Founder Linda Buzzell's “baby” shortly after it was born. I had recently returned to Los Angeles after 14 years in New York learning my life’s work, mostly at CBS. Through a transplanted East Coast friend I was granted the privilege of a small office at the legendary Production Center at Third Street and La Cienega Boulevard in Los Angeles. In this wonderful madhouse of independent producers and production facilities, I discovered a newly formed organization called the International Documentary Association. It was an ambitious title for a handful of LA documentary
Dear IDA Members: Our Oscars® reception in March was our most successful ever, and thanks are due to Nancy Willen, Michael Rose, Richard Trank, Ann Hassett, Lynne Littman, Kathryn Galan, Jan Peppler, Richard Propper, the staff and all the volunteers. Thanks also to the Sundance Documentary Channel, the sponsor of the evening and of DocuDay. With the Academy Awards® fresh in our memory, we’re already looking ahead to next year—and this fall, since the deadline for submission of prints to the Academy for Oscar® consideration has been moved up to October 1. This means that DOCtober™, our annual
I love working with myth, magic and the unknown. Since the 1960s, we’ve all seen tabloid programs about the unknown, but I wanted to try something different. On the strength of the 1999 broadcast of Sasquatch Odyssey: The Hunt for Bigfoot on TLC, we successfully pitched a two-hour, six-segment limited series about obsessed individuals who pursue monsters and creatures, real or imagined, around the world. Monster Hunters was essentially the equivalent of shooting half a season of a regular travel/adventure documentary series, with rigorous travel to Puerto Rico, England, New Jersey, Tasmania
Land in the American West was once advertised as free for the taking. Under the Homestead Act of 1863, nearly two million families came to settle virgin territory—the frontier. Last year, PBS station WNET/Thirteen and Wall to Wall Television (U.K.) selected three modern families from over five thousand applicants to travel back in time and live the homesteading experience, in a “hands-on” history experiment. Could 21st century pioneers endure the hardships of the past? How would this experience compare to films and television programs such as Little House on Prairie? The year in which our
Sundance 2002 was a relatively sober affair, in the wake of 9/11 and in the midst of a recession—fewer parties, less swag, more security. Even the sponsors went for simplicity over splash. But docs continue to thrive above it all, with founder Robert Redford announcing at the get-go plans for a Sundance Documentary Channel. The House of Docs, in its third year, continued to flout its presence and prowess as a nonfiction Woodstock, with the most prominent names behind the camera—makers, producers, distributors, programmers, commissioning editors—assembled for ten days of confabs and klatches
Chris Marker’s Le Joli Mai was made in Paris in 1962, as France’s war with Algeria was finally coming to an end. This seminal work was greatly influential in steering me towards the documentary form. Marker, who wrote the film’s eloquent narration, lays out his purpose at the start. He wants to see Paris “as if for the first time, without memories or habits. One would like to track it with a telescope and a microphone.” For the next two hours he does exactly that, plunging the viewer into virtually every aspect of Parisian life. The film has been rightly praised for being an early example of
Dear IDA Members, As I mentioned last issue, this is a particularly banner occasion for the Academy Awards—and for documentary in general. IDA celebrates its 20th anniversary, as does the Sundance Institute, which this year launches the Sundance Documentary Channel. And the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences commemorates 60 years of honoring the documentary form with a special presentation during the telecast. And the Documentary Branch, which has been sought after and fought for over the past few decades, is finally a reality. Speaking of the Sundance Documentary Channel, we are
As Michael Donaldson mentions in his column, the Oscars® telecast spotlighted 60 years of Best Documentary honors with a stellar tribute, produced by filmmaker Penelope Spheeris; in this issue Jason Lyons looks at the new Documentary Branch, formed last year, and former IDA President Chuck Workman, an Academy Award® winner for his short Precious Images, reflects on how the documentary field has evolved over the past 20 years, both in and out of the Academy. As I write this column, in early March, ABC, the longtime broadcaster of the Academy Awards, is mulling over the possibility of