Dear Members, The following is the first in a series of dispatches on the state of the documentary from lDA members around the world. News from Russia is reported by Leonid Gurevich, vice president of the Association for Joint Cine-Initiatives (formerly the American-Soviet Kino-initiative). He has written more than 70 documentaries, authored more than 200 articles on film and television, and teaches at Moscow's School of Advanced Screenwriting and Directing. Lisa LeemanIDA President The current state of affairs in Russian documentary film leaves one to hope for the better. The transition to a
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Who would have predicted that a seventy-something Iowa farmer—the subject of a documentary made by his daughter, no less—would emerge as one of the stars of the terminally trendy Sundance Film Festival? When filmmaker Jeanne Jordan brought her dad, Russ, up for a question-and-answer session after a screening of Troublesome Creek: A Midwestern, the audience—already enamored of the film—was moved to a standing ovation. Russ, who emerges as a crusty charmer in the verite work, also took the podium at the awards ceremony, when Troublesome Creek achieved the distinction of being the first
Toronto has the most international selection. London has the most eclectic. And Los Angeles has...the most. No, not restaurants. Primetime documentaries. An analysis of one week of evening (7 to 11 p.m.) documentary programming in these three media capitals reveals distinct differences, and for an average viewer in each city (i.e., one without a satellite dish or a subscription to every pay service), richness is a relative term. People who live in Los Angeles have the greatest number of channels from which to choose. In Toronto, with fewer channels, one has al most as many docu mentary hours
Dear Members, The IDA's executive director, Betsy McLane, has been bending my ear about a shocking problem. I'd heard about it for years, but didn't think it was that serious, and I thought someone else was taking care of it. No, I'm not talking about a secret Congressional plot to eliminate all funding for the arts or about a potential new form of digital censorship called the V-chip. I'm talking about film and video preservation. Before your eyes glaze over and you insist that this is a matter for film archivists and Martin Scorsese, please read on. Betsy recently delivered and heard
Jim Dine: A Self-Portrait on the Walu Producers: Nancy Diane and Richard Stilwell Director: Nancy Dine Cinematographer: Rudiger Kortz Editor: Maro Chermayeff Distributor: Outside in July, Inc. Jim Dine: A Self-Portrait on the Walu offers an entertaining and accessible look at the work of a prominent American artist. Over six days, Dine transforms the interior space of a German museum with massive charcoal drawings worked directly on the surfaces of its walls. Capturing humor and introspection along with the grime, dust, vacuuming, and handily improvised use of all manner of drawing implements
Following a stormy year surrounding the snubbing of such highly acclaimed documentaries as Hoop Dreams and Crumb for Oscar nominations, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences this year announced the nominations for best documentary under new guidelines in this category. These revisions, announced last June after a three-month review by Academy President Arthur Hiller, were designed to ease the workload of the Documentary Screening Committee, which had reviewed as many as 65 feature length films in a given year. Among the procedural changes that took effect this past year was a split
Japan's biennial celebration of documentary cinema, the Yamagata International Documentary Film Festival, ended its fourth week long event on October 9, 1995, with gala ceremonies and cash awards of $61,000. The International Jury evaluating 15 competing feature-length documentaries was composed of Barbara Hammer (United States), Tracey Moffatt (Australia), Tarr Bela (Hungary), Hou Hsiao-hsien (Taiwan), and Kudo Elichi (Japan). The Robert and Frances Flaherty Prize of $30,000 went to Tsipi Reibenbach of Israel for her two-hour Choice and Destiny, a lovingly detailed portrait of her elderly
November 3, 1995: Leona's Sister Gerri filmmaker Jane Gillooly's documentary, airs. Millions of PBS viewers who watch the P.O.V. special program are invited to participate in an intriguing new experiment to be called Two-Way TV. FLASHBACK 1964: Geraldine "Gerri " Twerdy Santoro dies naked and alone on a motel room floor from a botched illegal abortion. A police photographer captures the tragedy in one still frame: a woman crouched face down with her breasts to her knees, her head away from the camera, her feet and a blood stained towel in the foreground. 1973: The police photo of an anonymous
As with Oskar Schindler, most audiences won't have heard of Charles Bedaux prior to seeing the film based on his life. Despite obvious formal differences between Schindler's List, Steven Spielberg's Hollywood epic, and The Champagne Safari the comparison between the films makes perfect sense in light of the moral ambiguity surrounding their subjects' actions prior to and during World War II. Bedaux was an ardent capitalist who first gained prominence through his theories of labor and improvement of worker productivity. Suffice it to say, if Bedaux were alive and selling his package today, he'd
Anne Frank Remembered Producer, Director, and Writer: Jon Blair Director of Photography: Barry Ackroyd Editor: Karen Steininger Narrator: Kenneth Branagh Extracts from The Diary of Anne Frank read by: Glenn Close Distributor: Sony Pictures Classics The first filmed eyewitness account about Anne Frank, Anne Frank Remembered combines personal testimony, never-before-seen photos, newly discovered family letters, rare archival footage, and evocative contemporary film, including the first re-creation of the secret hiding place as it was at the time that the Frank family hid from the Nazis more than