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 IndieWire, Chris O'Falt investigates the role Facebook plays in helping indie filmmakers build community, and the results aren't pretty. Until recently, indie filmmakers viewed building a Facebook community as essential to success. That's a belief they’d like to maintain — but it's now extremely difficult
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Now in its 17th year, the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA)'s Doc Fortnight 2018 showcased "outstanding and innovative nonfiction film from around the world." Curated for its first 15 years by Assistant Curator Sally Berger, the showcase was guest-curated the last two years by filmmaker/educator/programmer Kathy Brew. Brew distinguishes the event from other documentary showcases as targeted for the public and not "Hollywood on the Hudson." With MoMA's mission to celebrate film as an art form, and holding the "strongest international film collection in the US," Doc Fortnight aims to identify quality
For any young aspiring filmmaker, entering the world of documentary can be a challenging endeavor. And if you're a person of color, or have limited financial means, or are part of another historically marginalized community, then entering this seemingly esoteric field becomes even more daunting. It requires understanding the business realities of the industry, as well as having support systems to help you develop projects while staying true to who you are and the stories you're trying to tell. When we launched NeXt Doc in 2016, our goal was to provide space for young documentary filmmakers
Finding refuge from the cacophony of New Frontier in the basement of the Kimball Art Center, I sat down with Chief Curator Shari Frilot to discuss her selection process for the Sundance Film Festival's impressive lineup of independent experimental media works. Frilot also touched on the incredibly diverse array of New Frontier Films and Performances and how the introduction of three new venues is changing the architecture of New Frontier. What’s your overall assessment of the work this year at New Frontier? Shari Frilot: This field is amazing. I think the ability of the artists to wrap their
Documentary Virtual Reality (VR) has finally arrived. Among the 24 projects being exhibited at the 2018 Sundance Film Festival's New Frontier program of experimental media, three exhilarating documentary VR experiences stood out above the rest and showed how, at last, VR's promise is now being fulfilled. The three pieces are: Awavena, Lynette Walllworth's dazzling follow-up to her landmark VR piece Collisions; Zikr: A Sufi Revival, from VR pioneer Gabo Arora and his co-creators, who have demonstrated the first significant social VR documentary experience; and Hero, from the team behind 1979
Ashley O'Shay, a recent graduate of Northwestern University, found a compelling subject in her own backyard for her first feature-length documentary. In 2015, she scraped up as much funding as she could, grabbed a camera and captured the lives of several female African-American activists in Chicago. Three years later, she is seeking funding to finish Unapologetic. "Here in 2018, I have raised close to $50,000," O'Shay said. "I have received support both from individuals and a number of professional development organizations. I am grateful for the support of these eight programs, yet my film is
Since IDA's DocuClub was relaunched in 2016 as a forum for sharing and soliciting feedback about works-in-progress, many DocuClub alums have premiered their works on the festival circuit over the past year. In an effort to both monitor and celebrate the evolution of these films to premiere-ready status, we reached out to the filmmakers as they were either winding their way through the festival circuit, or gearing up for it. In this edition of "The Feedback," we spotlight Elizabeth Mirzaei and Gulistan Mirzaei's Laila at the Bridge, which they presented at DocuClub LA in September 2017. We
Screen Time is your curated weekly guide to excellent documentaries and nonfiction programs that you can watch at home. Premiering tonight, Monday, March 26, on Nat Geo is Darren Aronofsky's One Strange Rock, a mind-bending, thrilling 10-part docu-series that explores the fragility and wonder of planet Earth. Also premiering tonight, on HBO, is Judd Apatow's The Zen Diaries of Garry Shandling. Epic in scope and intimate in detail, it features conversations with more than 40 of the late comedian's family and friends, and four decades' worth of TV appearances, along with personal journals
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 Los Angeles Times, David Pierson reports that Facebook is looking at new ways to compensate video creators. The new payment method would be in addition to existing monetization tools such as branded content and, to a smaller set of creators, advertising breaks in videos. Facebook said it will also be testing a
March 20, 2018 (Los Angeles, CA) — The International Documentary Association announced today that Jacqueline Olive’s Always In Season and Loira Limbal’s Through The Night are the the inaugural recipients of the IDA Elevate Grant. The IDA’s Elevate Grants are supported with a grant from the Jonathan Logan Family Foundation. "IDA’s commitment to funding and educating ambitious nonfiction storytellers makes them an ideal partner for our social justice work,” says Jonathan Logan of the Jonathan Logan Family Foundation. “We are particularly pleased to provide our support and name to the inaugural