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! From Cineaste, Thomas Doherty examines three recent docs that make innovative uses of found footage. A cluster of three like-minded documentaries, all spellbound before the big-screen spectacle of 35mm and 16mm formats, bids to rescue the cast-off canisters from the dumpsters of cinematic history: Bill Morrison's
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Filmmaker Greg Barker began working as a freelance journalist in news and international conflict for CNN, covering Yugoslavia and issues in the Middle East. His first documentary was as an associate producer for PBS' The Prize: The Epic Quest for Oil, Power and Money (1992), the eight-part series about the history of the oil industry. It was there that he fell in love with the process of nonfiction filmmaking. Since then, he's directed half a dozen Frontline episodes, as well as the features Sergio (2009), Legion of Brothers (2017) and Manhunt: The Inside Story of the Hunt for Bin Laden (2013)
Screen Time is your curated weekly guide to excellent documentaries and nonfiction programs that you can watch at home. Premiering this week on Starz and Starz On Demand, Paige Goldberg Tolmach's What Haunts Us investigates the story of the 1979 class of Porter Gaud School in Charleston, South Carolina. Within the last 35 years, six of the graduating class of 49 boys have died by suicide. Tolmach herself, a graduate of Porter Guad School, takes a deep dive into her past in order to uncover the surprising truth and finally release the ghosts that haunt her hometown to this day. In Random Acts
Looking for a Mother's Day activity? What better way to spend the Sunday night than watching a great documentary with the mothers in your life! Happy Mother's Day (Richard Leacock and Joyce Chopra, 1963) In 1963, Richard Leacock and Joyce Chopra were hired by the Saturday Evening Post to document the story of Mary Ann Fischer and her quintuplets. The film was slated to air on ABC TV but was rejected for its cinema verite approach, revealing the tensions between the Fischer family and the local town of Aberdeen, South Dakota. In the words of filmmaker Gordon Quinn, “Happy Mother's Day taught me
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! At Poynter.org, James Rose examines four ways that journalism is under attack around the world. As journalists, society’s eminent storytellers, lose their jobs and their industry implodes, the privilege of whom actually gets to tell the story, to articulate immanence, is up for grabs. Governments, like
Leon Vitali has spent his entire working life devoted to a single cause: the cinematic vision of Stanley Kubrick. After landing the role of Lord Bullingdon in Barry Lyndon, the well-known British TV star stepped out of the spotlight to become what he terms a "filmworker," doing whatever was necessary to ensure Kubrick’s next masterwork would come to fruition. From casting (he found Danny Lloyd for The Shining), coaching actors and scouting locations in pre-production, to color-correcting and sound-engineering in post, to marketing and promotion, and now restoration, there was no job too big or
SFFILM Festival, or the 61st edition of the San Francisco International Film Festival, has pulled up its stakes for another year. During the festival I found myself billeted at the South of Market venues for the documentaries: SFMOMA, more than any other, and the Children's Creativity Museum theater and occasional trips out to the Castro Theatre for crowd-pleasers and big events. My friend and fellow film writer Michael Hawley noted that roughly 40 percent of all feature films in this year's festival were documentaries, an increase over the year before. Press screenings kicked off with
The International Documentary Association (IDA) believes that documentary storytelling expands our understanding of shared human experience, fostering an informed, compassionate, and connected world. We are a non-profit organization committed to freedom of expression, the representation of diversity, and the presentation of multiple points of view. In this spirit, we express our support for the right of the Doc Edge International Documentary Film Festival of New Zealand, a highly respected festival and voice for documentary filmmakers, to develop a festival program as it sees fit, including
May 7, 2018 (Los Angeles, CA) - The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has announced the recipients of its 2018 FilmCraft and FilmWatch grants, including a $10,000 FilmCraft grant to the International Documentary Association to support Educational and Cultural Public Programs. “IDA is deeply appreciative to receive the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences FilmCraft grant, which will provide the opportunity to introduce nationwide audiences to prominent filmmakers and to present engaging content and education about nonfiction and documentary,” said Claire Aguilar, IDA’s Director
Screen Time is your curated weekly guide to excellent documentaries and nonfiction programs that you can watch at home. In commemoration of Mental Health Month, Liz Garbus' A Dangerous Son premieres on HBO tonight, May 7, and will be streaming on HBO Now through the month. This film tells the stories of children who are suffering with serious mental illness and the parents who desperately try to obtain treatment before they harm themselves or others, in the face of limited resources and support. No Man’s Land, from David Byars, airs May 7 on Independent Lens and streams on PBS.org