This is a completely biased festival report: I really like the Hot Springs Documentary Film Festival. Any film festival where I can 1) get in to see three or four documentaries a day without standing in line at 6 a.m., 2) meet and talk with filmmakers and other interesting people, 3) eat well, and 4) have a little time left for hedonist pleasures is my kind of festival. Hot Springs hits the mark on all of the above and more. Read on. Sometime last summer, I got a telephone call from Marlys Moodie, Filmmaker Relations Coordinator for Hot Springs, inviting me to attend the Hot Springs
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So there I was, on my fact finding mission to Cannes, strategizing my investigative assault on MIPCOM '97, armed with a bikini, a champagne bellini and a laptop computer—all from the headquarters of the rich and famous, the Hotel du Cap. From my poolside post on the Mediterranean, I could see the Croisette, the main drag where the conventioneers schmooze and mingle. I could see also the Palais, the convention site itself, where those same attendees sweat and hustle. Opening day of MIPCOM would be tomorrow and soon I too would be joining in the fray. My work attire would go from swimsuits to
Happy New Year! IDA begins 1998 with more members than at any time in history. A recent surge in new members has pushed our worldwide membership to over 2,000! Looking ahead to the new year, this month we will be welcoming returning and new members to the board of directors as well as electing officers for the year. Member services start off the new year with a four-part seminar series, Documentary from A to Z: Putting It All Together. This is a terrific opportunity to hone production skills with some of the best in the field. Special thanks to IDA members Mel Stuart, Barbara Gregson
Limited Series THE GREAT WAR AND THE SHAPING OF THE 20TH CENTURY Executive Producer: Blaine Baggett Chief Historian and Co-Producer: Jay Winter Series Producer: Carl Byker A co-production of KCET and the BBC in association with The Imperial War Museum This eight-part documentary portrays World War I through the cultural history of the period, the diaries and letters and poetry of people from all walks of life. This treasure trove of literature brings to life the hopes and fears of nearly a hundred real-life characters in the midst of war. Strand Program LOVE STORY Produced and Directed by
Now in its 31st year, the annual New York Exposition of Short Film and Video was held November 19-22, with screenings and other events taking place at the Tishman Auditorium of the New School for Social Research, in Manhattan. Five programs were presented: 9 titles in documentary; 13 in narrative; 13 in animation; 14 in video; and 10 in New Media, primarily interactive multimedia. Selections were culled from more than 700 entries. Distributors and agents for television are always in attendance. Now directed by the exceptional administrator Robert Withers, EXPO was founded by Nick Manning et al
The theme of the 4th Sheffield International Documentary Festival (October 13-19) was "Making History." A broad range of subject matter and stylistic approaches were evident in the week-long event, including the conventional historical documentaries, personal histories and documenting people as they navigated a defined period in their lives, from a few days to six years. Many professionals from the British television networks and independent production companies joined others in attending the event. The guest directors for this year's offering were Yiktor Kossakovsky from Russia and Alan
The Yamagata International Documentary Film Festival, held every two years since 1989, took place October 6-13, one day longer than in previous years. Located about 200 miles north of Tokyo, the city of Yamagata is obviously committed to its festival, and the cultural attractions nearby complement well the profuse film screenings. An International Competition (consisting this year of fourteen films) receives consideration from a distinguished jury (usually five; four this year) for five prizes, ranging from about $25,000 U.S. for the Grand Prize to $2,500 for the Special Prize. This year
If you go to only one assembly of academics yakking about documentaries, make it "Visible Evidence." This challenging itinerant conference—previously held at Duke University, the University of Southern California, Harvard University and the University of Wales, Cardiff—promises seminars and screenings designed to spark "interdisciplinary cross-talk" and "exchanges among scholars, teachers and producers." The conference's next site is San Francisco State University, tentatively scheduled for August 1998. (Contact host/organizer Bill Nichols in the Cinema Department there for further details)
It gives me great pleasure to announce another "first" for the IDA as we conclude one of our most active years in history. Through the tireless and greatly appreciated efforts of former board member Ann Hassett, IDA and the Getty Center partner this month in premiering Concert of Wills: Making the Getty Center. Concert of Wills is a 100 min. documentary which has been 11 years in the making. In this film, IDA Career Achievement Awardee Al Maysles and filmmakers Susan Froemke and Bob Eisenhardt chronicle the conception, planning and construction of the Getty Center for the Arts and Humanities
October 29, 1997: In the blazing heat that late fall brings to Los Angeles, hundreds of construction workers are working feverishly to complete the $ 1 billion Getty Center for its long-awaited opening on December 16th. And 3,000 miles away, in a cold, dark editing room, three filmmakers fix their eyes on an Avid screen, racing to complete a film documenting the twelve-year creation and building of what is considered the most expensive American cultural project since construction of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York in the 1870s. "I live in fear about what we're doing—we'll get our