Sydneysiders, as they're called, are acutely aware of both being the center of a world (their own) and at the edge of others (the world offshore). The Sydney Film Festival, now in its 64th year and still enjoying the prestige that critic David Stratton built up over his decades of stewardship, meets Sydneysiders where they are: It offers a cosmopolitan survey of exciting films worldwide and also a focus on the latest Australian work. "We're proud that an Australian documentary opened the film festival this year," says documentary curator Jenny Neighbour. We Don't Need a Map, by noted
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IDA announces eight feature-length documentary films selected to receive a total of $130,000 from the IDA Pare Lorentz Documentary Fund. These grants were awarded in 2016 and the first quarter of 2017.
What is the typical process you will go through when working with a sound house or individual? Is there a typical process? Everyone works a little differently, but there are many common steps that you will encounter when you engage someone to do your sound. Here are some words of wisdom and advice from my 20+ years of designing and mixing documentary films. Finding Your Sound House Today, a film's soundtrack can be prepped and mixed in all sorts of different-sized facilities. Dare I say that you could have one person do your whole sound job when I’m the owner of a modest facility with small
Screen Time is your curated weekly guide to excellent documentaries and nonfiction programs that you can watch at home. Coming to Netflix this Friday, Brian Knappenberger's Nobody Speak, which examines the Hulk Hogan vs. Gawker Media case as a deeper exploration into the precarious state of free press, free speech and freedom of expression in the Trump era. Sara’s Taksler's Tickling Giants tells the story of how Dr. Bassem Youssef, the "Egyptian Jon Stewart," makes the transformation from heart surgeon to late-night comedian to exlore and support creative ways to protect free speech and fight
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, director Andrew Cohn ( Night School) explains his commitment to making films in the Midwest. Similar to politicians, too often the people and places in the Midwest seem to be exploited by filmmakers as political vessels (I'm looking at you, Michael Moore!). While I mostly agree with the message of
From Bernardo Ruiz' Reportero. Photo: Bernardo Ruiz/Quiet Pictures "Let them kill us all, if that is the death sentence for reporting this hell," veteran reporter Javier Valdez Cárdenas tweeted on March 25, in response to the murder of a fellow journalist in Mexico. "No to silence." Less than two months later, Valdez was pulled out of his car and shot more than ten times in broad daylight. Valdez, who was recognized for his courage by the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) with an International Press Freedom Award in 2011, became the sixth journalist to be killed in Mexico this year. Soon
Based in Copenhagen and run jointly by Signe Byrge Sørensen, Anne Köhncke, Monica Hellström and Heidi Elise Christensen, Final Cut for Real is one of the world's leading documentary production companies. Their slate includes such award-winning titles as Joshua Oppenheimer's path-breaking films The Act of Killing and The Look of Silence, and Pervert Park by Frida and Lasse Barkfors. During CPH:DOX, I stopped by the company's cozy offices in a modest, stylishly Danish old building to chat with co-founder and two-time Oscar-nominated producer Signe Byrge Sørensen about Final Cut for Real's
Since IDA's DocuClub was relaunched in 2016 as a forum for sharing and soliciting feedback about works-in-progress, four DocuClub alums have premiered their works on the festival circuit this 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 winding their way through the festival circuit. Following their DocuClub screening last year, director Mark Hayes and producer Gabriele Hayes will be premiering their film Skid Row Marathon at the Los Angeles Film Festival on June 17. Synopsis: When a
Screen Time is your curated weekly guide to excellent documentaries and nonfiction programs that you can watch at home. Currently streaming at Filmstruck is Word Is Out: Stories of Some of Our Lives, the groundbreaking 1977 documentary in which a group of gay and lesbian individuals share their personal stories about identity, prejudice, and acceptance. The Village Voice called it "extraordinary...still enormously powerful today." Starting its four-night run on Showtime Monday, June 12 at 9pm is Oliver Stone's The Putin Interviews, in which the controversial filmmaker sits down with the
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! In Huffington Post, filmmaker Michael Moore announces the debut of TrumpiLeaks. Today, I’m launching TrumpiLeaks, a site that will enable courageous whistleblowers to privately communicate with me and my team. Patriotic Americans in government, law enforcement or the private sector with knowledge of crimes