Just a few scrolls through the Ford Foundation's JustFilms initiative's collection of funded films since its founding in 2011 reveals some of the most interesting social-justice documentaries of the past decade: Laura Poitras' Citizenfour, Shola Lynch's Free Angela and All Political Prisoners, Connie Field's series Have You Heard From Johannesburg?, Yance Ford's Strong Island, David France's How to Survive a Plague, and the films of Frederick Wiseman and Stanley Nelson, to name only a few. This year's Getting Real conference features JustFilms' program officer Chi-hui Yang as one of its
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One of the costs of living in the US is that you have to pay income tax to enjoy all the services of the government. This year, paying taxes just got a lot more complicated for independent and emerging filmmakers. This shouldn’t come as a surprise to many; the new Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, signed by President Trump on December 22, 2017, was designed to ease the federal income tax burden on corporations in order to spur job creation. The bill wasn’t necessarily written with the independent filmmaker in mind. It was also the result of many last-minute, handwritten changes, was subject to little
The majority of American documentary filmmakers do not live in New York or Los Angeles. That may seem difficult to believe, given the large communities in those film centers. However, documentaries can be made anywhere, and there are thriving communities outside of the coastal film capitals. One is right here in our nation's capital, Washington, DC. As a near lifelong Washingtonian and executive director of Docs In Progress—a nonprofit dedicated to supporting documentary filmmakers in the region—I have a special interest in this community, but I also see it in the context of regional film
In 2018, the world needs documentaries more than ever, yet doc-makers frequently find themselves under-resourced and isolated. Space for the larger documentary community to convene is scarce, but its community members need a place to connect, investigate, learn, brainstorm, problem-solve and recharge. Getting Real is that place. A unique three-day conference on documentary media, and one of the premiere documentary gatherings in the world, Getting Real 2018 features four inspiring keynote speakers (IDFA Artistic Director Orwa Nyrabia; filmmaker Michèle Stephenson; A&E IndieFilms Senior Vice
Conversations about power, ownership and representation in the documentary field are as old as the documentary tradition itself. Ours is a history rooted in a patriarchal society defined by cultural, racial and class-based colonialism. Recently, these conversations have left the confines of the classroom or the backroom of a festival cocktail party and are now taking place under a spotlight at festivals and conferences. And most importantly, they are beginning to have a real impact on who tells what stories and how. New Day Films, a distribution co-op created by and for independent documentary
Screen Time is your curated weekly guide to excellent documentaries and nonfiction programs that you can watch at home. Making its VOD premiere, A Greater Society, from Stacy Goldate and Craig A. Colton, follows the 2014 midterm elections through the perspective of the residents of a South Florida retirement community, who, aware of the power of America's largest swing state, mobilize to get out the vote. Although the 20-hour, 10-part documentary series Basketball: A Love Story doesn't premiere on ESPN until October 9, you can get the ESPN App on September 18, which will grant you access to
The IDA announced today the lineup of their annual curated screening series, which opens Wednesday, September 12 with a screening of one of this year’s film festival favorites, Won't You Be My Neighbor?, from Academy Award-winning director Morgan Neville launches the series.
Next week at Getting Real ‘18, the IDA will introduce a cohort of 12 films receiving the IDA’ Enterprise Documentary Fund production grants.
Essential Doc Reads is a weekly feature in which the IDA staff recommends recent pieces about the documentary form and its processes. Here we feature think pieces and important news items from around the Internet, and articles from the Documentary magazine archive. We hope you enjoy! Filmmaker Magazine releases their 25 New Faces of Film list for 2018. Since I first worked at Filmmaker 10 years ago, I have been passionate about the 25 New Faces list, its importance and its ability to transform the career of filmmakers who truly deserve it. The list has also spawned an event that is an antidote
As a secular Jew who resided for over a decade in pre- Girls Brooklyn, I'm not sure which Williamsburg community proved more inscrutable to my eyes—hipster or Hasidic. Both appeared isolated in secret echo-chambered societies, living blocks away—and worlds apart—from one another. And the notion of a feminist Hasid would strike me as outlandish as a hipster sporting payot. Enter Rachel "Ruchie" Freier to upend my preconceived notions. Freier is the pigeonhole-avoiding star of filmmaker Paula Eiselt's 93Queen, a fascinating look at America’s very first all-female EMT corps—started in the heart