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
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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
Now in its 15th year, Columbia, Missouri’s True/False Film Festival is widely recognized as the most prominent American showcase for documentary as a distinct art form. It does its best to treat docs as intentional works of cinema, temporarily sequestering them from concerns about market value and measurable "impact." Those who return year after year recognize True/False as somehow both the most welcoming and most radical of fests. Despite a name that suggests a cavalier attitude towards truth, True/False might also be the festival most committed to the responsibilities and ramifications of
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 Filmmaker, Sergio Andrés Lobo-Navia shares the nuts and bolts of delivering your film to a festival. Format. Codec. Audio. DCP. You've worked on your movie now for some time and have been eagerly waiting for acceptance emails from festivals. One lands in your inbox, and you excitedly read through the letter
When I was a sophomore in college, I saw Roger & Me, Michael Moore's moving and often darkly comedic romp through General Motors' exodus from Moore's hometown of Flint, Michigan. My love of the documentary genre was born in that moment. Yes, it was the storytelling, but it was also the anthropological voyeurism and access to intimate human moments that hooked me. Beyond the story form itself, where and how I experienced the film was meaningful—that is, in the context of a sociology course that focused on jobs and socioeconomic inequality. The class backdrop and discussion reinforced the film's
The 2018 Sundance Film Festival kicked off for me at the Firelight Media party at the Kickstarter Lodge, with a fired-up crowd anticipating the Women's Marches taking place across the country the next day. Firelighters Stanley Nelson, Marcia Smith and Sonya Childress addressed the attendees, then introduced activists and attorneys from around the country, who reminded the crowd of the long and difficult fight ahead. And the next day, such rebel legends as Jane Fonda and Gloria Allred exhorted the protesters at the "Respect Rally." Conceived as an alternative to the Women's March in Park City
Screen Time is your curated weekly guide to excellent documentaries and nonfiction programs that you can watch at home. Premiering on Netflix Friday, May 4 is Rob Epstein and Jeffrey Friedman's End Game. Facing an inevitable outcome, terminally ill patients meet extraordinary medical practitioners seeking to change our approach to life and death. Premiering on PBS Friday, May 4 is The Jazz Ambassadors. Beginning in 1955, when America asked its greatest jazz artists to travel the world as cultural ambassadors, Louis Armstrong, Dizzy Gillespie, Duke Ellington and their racially diverse band