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JUST FOR THE RIDE Camera, Editing, Production: Amanda Micheli Cast: Fern Sawyer, Jan Youren, Jean Bell, Candy Jacobsen, Amanda Micheli Additional Camera: Allison Humenuk, Karen Gottfried, Maria Rivarola 53 min. Just for the Ride is a personal documentary born out of a young woman's desire to find the heroines of her childhood-cowgirls. The film investigates the past and present of women's rodeo through the filmmaker's experiences with two inspirational women, Fern Sawyer and Jan Youren. Fern is a legendary rodeo cowgirl who runs her own ranch at age 76 and whose extravagant rodeo clothes grace

A recent issue of THE JOURNAL (Writers Guild of America West, August 1996 ) featured the important article "Documentaries Exposed: Writing Real Life " by Lisa Chambers, with six writers of documentary discussing the reasons they chose to work in nonfiction, how the programs are written, where funding is obtained and the growing popularity of documentary (the writers are Joan Owens, Barbara Jampel, Carl Byker, Carol Fleisher, Jim Milka and Melissa Jo Peltier). As a "sidebar " to the lively discussion were quips from contemporary filmmakers whose documentaries have recently attracted

1995 America and Lewis Hine Produced by Daniel Y. Allentuck and Nina Rosenblum; Directed by Nina Rosenblum George Stevens: A Filmmaker's Journey Written, produced and directed by George Stevens, Jr. Sixteen Days of Glory Written, produced, and directed by Bud Greenspan The Times of Harvey Milk Produced by Richard Schmiechen; Co-produced/directed by Robert Epstein 1986 Jacques Cousteau: The First 75 Years Produced by John Soh Las Madres: The Mothers of Plaza de Mayo Produced and directed by Susana Munoz and Lourdes Portillo Shoah Produced and directed by Claude Lanzman Soldiers in Hiding

Winning an award was not what I had in mind, when it instituted its production workshops; but that is exactly what happened. The Documentary Production Workshops were created as part of IDA's Outreach Program to local high schools. And, Larry Shapiro's Filmmaking Class at Venice High, under the supervision of Project Director Ed Landler and Technical Advisor Rich Samuels, won 1st place in the 12th Annual Visions of U.S. Home Video Competition—Young People's category, for Code 594 in Progress, a nine-minute documentary about graffiti tagging from the perspective of teenagers. The competition

Documentaries always turn up on Chicago's roster of diverse festivals devoted to children, women, seniors, lesbians and gays, Latinos, African-Americans, Asian­ Americans and Native Americans. But films and videos belong­ing to this versatile genre have never had a festival all their own in Chicago until the Documentary Center at Columbia College started the Windy City International Documentary Festival. Billing itself as the only competitive international fest in America specializing in documentary work, this year's event drew over 120 entries from 29 countries, according to director Martha

Dear Readers: I'm thinking about Charles Foster Kane's "Declaration of Principles" when he takes over the Inquirer. "You don't wanna make any promises, Mr. Kane, you don't wanna keep," the faithful Bernstein Interjects. As the new editor of the s m magazine-barely two weeks into the job as this issue goes to press—I'm in awe of the work performed by previous editor Diana Rico and the art direction by Ruth Ann Anderson. My hat's off to them for jobs well-done. Designer Nancy Hard s and I clearly have some large footwear to fill. (I'd doff my hat to Assistant Editor Tom White and Publisher Betsy

At least two of the films screened at the recent San Francisco International Film Festival—Round Eyes In the Middle Kingdom and Personal Belongings—raised for me some significant issues about the relationship between financing a film and the resulting form, particularly in the area of personal documentary. A topic chosen by an independent filmmaker is one that not only personally interests the filmmaker but will be captivating enough to carry that interest over a number of years. While I know that a documentary's form is often a combination of fate and artistry, its form is most influenced by

In 1986, Mark Soosaar founded the International Visual Anthropology Festival (IVA) in Pärnu, an Estonian resort. Many believed this development merely a dalliance of perestroika: when interest in perestroika would wane, who would care about Pärnu? As perestroika and glasnost pass into history, the small Pärnu IVA—held at the Chaplin Art Center—celebrated its tenth anniversary, 7-14 July 1996. On a wall of the Center, three unique country handmade coverlets are displayed. One of them shows a symbolic tree of life with its roots and branches and songbirds in its crown. It's a fitting symbol for

It's an intriguing scenario: a naturalist, talented in still photography, wants to do a 35mm motion picture in the wilds of Africa, concentrating on the animals. But dis­tributors don't believe that audiences will sit still for a full-length nature film being shown in local theatres. So the naturalist rethink his approach, adopts a human story to chronicle, with animals as the characters. But still the financing road is blocked by obstacles, doubts about whether such a story could be realized. Twenty years go by, and the times change: now distributors show some interest in reaching wider, more

In the beginning, there was the documentary, the cinematographic evangelist. Argentinean cinema did not escape this origin. The Lumière brothers' historic and The Departure of the Lighting Factory Worker and The Arrival of the Train at the Vincennes Station have their contemporary local equivalents in The Hoisting of the Flag and The Arrival of the President of Brazil (1900), made by the photographer Eugenio Py, one of our pioneers. The cinematographic sons and daughters of the legendary Py have traveled along hazardous roads, and the majority of us have ended up imprinting our imaginations on