When the editor of this magazine asked me to speculate on what the next decade might hold in store for the documentary industry, I reminded him that I've only been on the job for eight months, and my crystal ball might be a bit cloudy. Fortunately, though, I was able to fall back on the collective expertise of our membership, which now includes 2,500 filmmakers from 52 different countries, as well as the inestimable wisdom of my predecessors, Betsy McLane and Linda Buzzell. Inspired, as well, by the documentary Derrida, which I previewed at Sundance, I took the plunge. In Kirby Dick and Amy
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Can you believe it's been 20 years? Well, for me it's actually 21. Twenty-one years ago my husband Larry and I were practicing psychotherapists (having formerly worked in documentary for David Wolper and Jacques Cousteau), and we were lured back into "the biz" by fellow Cousteau veteran Tom Horton. "Would we like to go to New Zealand and work on a doc about Sir Edmund Hillary?" he asked. We agonized, but of course we said yes. And now that we were back in "the biz," however temporarily, I thought it would be great to join the professional association for documentarians, so we could get back in
It might be argued that the 1990s was a Golden Age for documentaries. Certainly, the number of worldwide television distribution outlets, and hence the quantity of films and the size of the audiences they reached, multiplied exponentially. It was a decade when lightweight portable camera and sound technology became truly affordable for thousands of individuals, and nonlinear editing systems brought the power of a cut to anyone with a home computer. The number and popularity of film festivals and markets devoted to documentary expanded, and the prominence of documentaries within general
Having been present at the creation of the IDA in 1982, I am today not only proud and grateful at receiving this new award, but proud of the current administration and Board of the IDA for creating it. It is my hope that this award will achieve what we want all awards to achieve—that it doesn’t just become a pat on the back, which we all need and appreciate once in awhile, but that it serves to motivate and inspire others to re-commit themselves to the making of good films and videos and to live lives of service. Awards, after all, are not just about what we’ve done, but more about what we are
In the midst of vivid reminders that today’s news is tomorrow’s history, 400 filmmakers and broadcasters gathered in Boston last fall for History 2001, the inaugural edition of the World Congress of History Producers. The sponsor, Boston’s own WGBH, and the organizer, Canada’s Banff Television Foundation, trumpeted the conference as an international event exploring “the future of history.” But the audience—as participants were quick to point out—was dominated by documentary-makers from North America, Australia and the UK, making for more insular explorations than some had hoped for
Triumph of the Will, Leni Riefenstahl's fetishistic film about Hitler's 1934 Nuremberg rally, is a controversial choice for "Playback," but not a perverse one. We recently sat down to watch it as we were preparing to make The Pink Fuhrer, a documentary about the controversy that Hitler might have been gay. For us, controversy is a critical ingredient for documentaries, whose raison d'etre is to look reality dead in the eye, and not be a hostage to political correctness or consensual thinking. A great documentary should not be afraid to ask the unaskable, even if it doesn't have the answers. Of
Looking back and looking forward have always been linked in my mind. What’s the use of looking behind us if not to see where we might go? These pages are filled with reminisces, reflections and remembrances of many of those who shaped the IDA. As someone who was recruited by Linda Buzzell a few short months after the formation of the IDA, I am proud to say that it is a joy to see the growth that has taken place. We were a very small group at the beginning. The bylaws needed some serious fixing. We soon launched a fiscal sponsorship program that was somewhat groundbreaking at the time. Today
Let’s reflect on the context for Linda Buzzell and the 75 documentary filmmakers that she compelled to gather in a cafeteria in Los Angeles for the very first meeting of the International Documentary Association on February 6, 1982: the personal computer was barely in its infancy; Sony and Phillips would introduce the compact disc a few months later; video was on the rise as a shooting medium; the Internet was primarily a tool for the military and academia; the networks were beginning to soft-pedal on documentary/nonfiction programming as the cable industry was starting to grow; and PBS was
Post-September 11, we have trained our senses on other corners of the world, and on ourselves. In “ Short Takes” this month, we cite two initiatives, 9.11 Moments, producing by Independent Television Service (ITVS) and War & Peace, a project of the D-Word Community, as examples of how our community is responding. In addition, New York-based collectives Third World Newsreel, Paper Tiger Television and Independent Media Center are all producing media works that examine the schism between how Americans really see themselves and how the America mainstream media and government would like us to be
Entertainment companies reeled in films and canceled dramatic shows that might remind people of the horrors of September 11, while channels that primarily broadcast documentaries clamored for programming that could explain the tragic events of that day. Documentary buyers, producers and distributors began grappling with this shift at last fall’s television market, MIPCOM, in Cannes, France, the day American bombs started to fall on Afghanistan. “A new reality has set in,” according to documentary production executive Ron Devillier. “We don’t know what it is exactly, but it’s there.” Even