I'm evangelist for documentary," intones Bill Kurtis with I an aw-shucks twinkle in his eye. The 58 year-old, five-nights-a-week cable host presents 150 hours of Arms & Entertainment Channel Documentaries yearly. With a five year talent service contract, Kurtis is the flagship face upfront and the avuncular voice over the largest share of nonfiction tare in television today. "We want to be the place for contemporary documentary with a highly identifiable brand which stands out in the spectrum of television programming—we benefit from the sameness of entertainment product," says Kurtis, taking
Latest Posts
A co-production of the Film Society of Lincoln Center and the Jewish Museum, the New York Jewish Film Festival this year took place in January. Screenings occurred primarily in the Walter Reade Theater, Lincoln Center, with a few additional screenings at the Jewish Museum. There were eleven fiction films, mostly features, and fourteen documentaries—twenty-five titles, from ten nations, a mixed bag of world premieres, U.S. premieres and New York firstimers. Many of the directors were present in New York. Several titles are already set for commercial distribution. Granted, our mandate herein is
Everyone would like to avoid litigation and the time, expense and stress it entails. This article specifies 23 points to assist filmmakers in avoiding or minimizing lawsuits, or at least maximizing their position if litigation is unavoidable. 1. Get Contracts in Writing. Although most oral contracts are enforceable, their existence is more difficult to prove in court. Written contracts help avoid misunderstandings and force the parties to clarify potential disagreements. Some of the problems associated with alleged oral agreements were recently addressed in the Frank Duxv. Jean-Claude Van
Nominated for Best Documentary Feature DANCEMAKER Executive Producer: Walter Scheuer, with the Four Oaks Foundation Produced by Jeny Kupfer and Matthew Diamond Directed by Matthew Diamond Director of Photography, Tom Hurwitz Edited by Pam Wise Distributed by Artistic License 98 min. Dancemaker is the tale of the extraordinary, peculiarly American phenomenon, the Paul Taylor Dance Company. Hailed as "the world's greatest living choreographer," Taylor's life is traced from solitary child to star dancer to master choreographer. Interviews with current and past members of the company offer
It's a rare occasion—even in Utah—when a pimp, a porn star, a community activist, a former Vietnam POW, a Tuvan throat singer, an Internet impresario, a Beat Generation icon and an acclaimed violinist all show up in one locale and earn a modicum of celebrityhood to boot. As subjects of a bumper crop of well—received documentaries screened at the 1999 Sundance Film Festival, they earned more than their 15 min of fame, while others—Ken Kesey and Nadja Solerno-Sonenberg among them—gained a new legion of fans. No surprise that the real success story at Sundance was American Movie, the Grand Jury
Founded by filmmaker Nick Manning in 1966, the New York EXPO of Short Film and Video hasn't missed a single annual session in 32 years. Anne Borin is the current Director, succeeding Robert Withers (1994-97). Panels of New York professionals served as jurors, to consider 650 submitted titles; they culled 56 from 9 nations for the showcase. These were categorized into 4 groups: documentary, animation, experimental and fiction. EXPO's rules stipulate 60 min. maximum, and many titles were in the single digits, timewise. In addition, other committees of professionals acted as jurors to select the
One of the unique aspects of the Hot Springs Documentary Film Festival is the lack of distraction. The historic district where the Malco Theatre is located runs along side the (country's first) national park, with the famous bathhouse row from the turn of the century. There are souvenir shops, restaurants and some unusual art galleries; but if you're in town for the festival, that's pretty much all you'll have time to do. Two theatres are housed in the Malco, next to the festival office, each seating maybe 300 or so, and I'd bet that 75% of the screenings this past October were sold out
1999 began with the spirit of partnership taking another major step forward as IDA joined with NATPE (National Association of Television Program Executives) and Real Screen magazine to sponsor the Documentary Pavilion at the annual NATPE conference i n New Orleans, January 25-28. The Documentary Pavilion at NATPE '99 provided documentary producers with an affordable and high profile showcase for documentaries in all genres. More than 18,000 television executives from around the world attend NATPE each year seeking and buying programming for world television markets. With our first year under
In a country producing more than 600 feature films a year, in an incredible array of 23 languages, the Indian documentary film has always been a poor relative to the narrative feature. For 25 years after India's independence from Great Britain, the Films Division of the central government enjoyed a virtual monopoly in documentary production. Only in the last two decades has independent documentary been able to gain some foothold in India. While a few well-known Indian cineastes (Shyam Benegal, Mani Kaul, Satyajit Ray) dabbled in documentary for the Films Division early on, filmmakers
My first visit to Amsterdam's International Documentary Film Festival (IDFA) was quite a revelation for someone from Los Angeles, supposed movie capital of the world. Here was a festival exclusively devoted to documentaries, where advance ticket sales were often sold out. Many locals for months plan their lives around the festival, often to be disappointed because they can't get tickets... all of this highly inconceivable in L.A. where docs receive little theatrical play. I learned that in its eleven years, the IDFA has become one of the most respected and important festivals for documentaries