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The first American women to make documentary films back in the 1910s and '20s, Osa Johnson and Frances Hubbard Flaherty, worked mainly as silent partners to their famous husbands, Mar­tin Johnson and Robert Flaherty.Their highly successful films set standards in two different direc­tions: commercial entertainment (as in the Johnsons' Baboona) and creative artistry (as in the Flaherty's' Man of Aran). In the late 1930s, the social and cultural documentary gave women the opportunity to function for the first time on their own (or nearly) in the non commercial arena that depended almost

We are told that 100 years ago, when our grandparents first saw the films of the Lumiere brothers, they were astounded and came in droves to see more. These brief films were mini- documentaries, casual observations of everyday life. Of course, since there was the necessity of setting up a hand-crank camera on a bulky tripod, what went on before it had to be somewhat organized: a reenactment. Nothing wrong with that; they worked, they were admired, and they still are. Today our cinemas show films that are designed to attract a maximum audience from every country in the world. The hub is

After forming its New Technologies Council in 1994, Women in Film held a series of seminars in Los Angeles to showcase some of the opportunities for creative professionals that are emerging as a result of the marriage between the entertainment and computer industries. Part 1 of this article appeared in ID, March 1995. Read more: " Hollywood Meets Silicon Valley: Women in Film's Interactive Seminars, Part 1" The second Women in Film Interactive Seminar, held June 15, 1994, and entitled "A Primer and Practical Guide to Interactive Multimedia," wrapped up by discussing games for women and girls

If you spent the past three months prowling about the ruins of the ancient city of Ubar in Oman, you might have missed the brouhaha about the documentary Hoop Dreams, but I doubt it. By one of those perplexing decisions that are becoming the hallmark of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences' documentary committee, Hoop Dreams, a documentary that won the Directors Guild of America Award and an IDA Distinguished Documentary Achievement Award and made the "10 Best Pictures of the Year" lists of many film critics, was passed by as a nominee for the documentary Oscar. Now, in the cosmic

Last November in Philadelphia, his­torians of what used to be called the Soviet Union gathered to share ideas and compare experiences on a theme of mutual interest: conveying aspects of the singular, complex, and volatile epoch of Gorbachev's perestroika in documentary film. Rendering history through film generally needs no special pleading these days. The subject turns up on diverse quarters, from academic journals to panel discussions at the Sundance Film Festival, where this year a session subtitled "Animating the Past" centered on such films as JFK and Quiz Show. The Philadelphia session

For film and video documentarians, what's the best-kept secret film festival in America? Here's my candidate: the Vermont International Film Festival, a sterling one-week event held each November in scenic Burlington, two hours south of Montreal. The Vermont fest is as political and socially concerned as one gets in the meonly 1990s, passionately committed to combating America's surly isolationism. "Images and Issues of Global Concern" is the festival's official mandate. What that means, in addition to a dozen progressive fiction feature films, is a feast of documentaries from around the world

Editor's note: In November 1994, San Francisco filmmaker Lisanne Skyler achieved the dream of many independent documentarians when she was informed that her first feature-length documentary, No Loans Today , about the lives of residents in the African­ American community of South Central Los Angeles, had been accepted into the 1995 Sundance Film Festival. Following are excerpts from Skyler's Sundance journal. November 24, 1994: Although Sundance Film Festival Programming Director Geoff Gilmore was more than convincing on the phone ( "We love your film," he said. "We want it in"), it is still

BLUES HIGHWAY Producers: Vince DiPersio and Bill GuttentagDirectors: Vince DiPersio and Bill GuttentagWriters: Vince DiPersio and Bill GuttentagAssociate Producer: Amy BucherSound: Albee GordonEditor: Jason RosenfieldNarrator: Alfre WoodardDistributor: National Geographic Society Blues Highway interweaves blues performances with the stories of some of the millions of African-Americans who migrated from the Mississippi Delta to Chicago and oth­er northern cities in the 1930s and '40s. Life in the delta for African-American sharecroppers was a constant struggle against virulent racism and

I've been doing quite a bit of chairing lately. Early in March I was chair of the Direc­tors Guild of America's documentary committee, which gave its award to Steve James for Hoop Dreams. A month earlier, I chaired the blue ribbon panel for Toronto's documentary festival, called Hot Docs. It was interesting to see that the organizing committee divided the festival into two sections: one for straight documentaries and another for journalistic documentaries made for television. It is a difference between apples and mushrooms. One taste of TV's flashing, jazzy opening teases, the palaver of the

Documentaries at this year's Berlin International Film Festival, which was held February 9-20, were most in evidence at the International Forum of Young Cinema, headed by Ulrich Gregor, who is also co-director (with Moritz de Hadeln) of the entire festival. Another section, Panorama, headed by Wieland Speck, is always generous with time for documentaries, with special attention to low-budget iconoclastic swingers, god bless 'em. Berlin's video sidebar also included documentaries, notably those of activist Jon Alpert, who heads New York's Downtown Community Television. Perhaps 200 international