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With nearly 15 years under its belt, Columbia, Missouri's True/False Film Fest is officially a destination event in the world of nonfiction film, and it offers a newcomer like myself a bounty of expected pleasures: across-the-board, high-quality programming; a charming, walkable downtown; an easily navigable ticketing system; and an engaged and hospitable local community that includes over 900 enthusiastic volunteers. True/False's mission avoids the term "documentary," instead staking out the "permeable, in-between land" of "creative nonfiction." Every film screened at the fest presupposes 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! From IndieWire, three filmmakers of docs about the crisis in Syria weigh in about the recent bombings and attacks. "In Last Men in Aleppo, I documented the Assad attack on civilians in Aleppo from 2013 through 2016. Most of the victims were children and there were no serious actions to stop this. One of the

True South By Jon Else Illustrated. 404 pages. Viking. $30. A corollary of the old adage, "You can't tell a book by its cover," may be, "You can tell a book by the length of its subtitle." At 17 words, the subtitle of documentary filmmaker-turned-author Jon Else's indispensable and richly layered new book, True South, is a long one: Henry Hampton and "Eyes on the Prize," the Landmark Television Series That Reframed the Civil Rights Movement. But given the multiple tasks that Else has set out for himself, it is also justified. With True South, Else tells both the behind-the-scenes story of 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! At The New York Times, sociologist Eve L. Ewing considers why authoritarians attack the arts. We need the arts because they make us full human beings. But we also need the arts as a protective factor against authoritarianism. In saving the arts, we save ourselves from a society where creative production is

The 2009 Sundance Film Festival opened in the Bush Administration and concluded in the Obama Administration. Eight years later, Sundance straddled two starkly different administrations again, as the dread and anxiety that underscored November 8, 2016, arrived in its full-throttled manifestation on January 20. Park City - always a bright blue spot in a deep red state - got its activist groove on, as thousands of Sundancers marched down Main Street, joining millions around the globe for a This Is What Democracy Looks Like proclamation. But despite this tsunami of hope, the Age of Dystopia had

I'd like to take a moment to slow things down a bit. In the current political climate, we find ourselves in unfamiliar territory. Amid the tectonic shifts underfoot, funding for the arts, including support for the NEA and by extension, Full Frame, may be at risk. Our world has changed - or so it seems. Recently, I have been approached by several organizations about launching "rapid response" documentary teams in the South, and nationwide. Making documentaries suddenly seems more urgent, more needed and more relevant than ever, and a documentary film festival embedded here in the South seems

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 The New York Times, Michael Cooper reports on a new ballet inspired by Frederick Wiseman's classic documentary Titicut Follies. The ballet — which is to have its premiere this weekend in Minneapolis, where Mr. Sewell's company, James Sewell Ballet, is based — had an unusual genesis. Mr. Wiseman, 87, said he had

URGENT! This week, public broadcasting came under attack from several members of Congress, who criticized a wide range of documentaries on PBS, including Kumu Hina and The New Black - both of which aired on Independent Lens - and Baby Mama High. CPB President/CEO Patricia Harrison came to public broadcasting's defense, citing a wide and diverse range of documentaries, but we still need you to express how vitally important it is to protect public broadcasting. We urge you to call your representatives in Congress and pledge to support the diversity of documentaries on PBS and freedom of

Carrie Lozano recently joined IDA as Director of the Enterprise Documentary Fund, an ambitious new project that supports mid-career filmmakers telling contemporary stories with a journalistic foundation. Earlier this month, Carrie introduced the Fund to our readers, but we wanted to take an opportunity to introduce Carrie herself. A veteran of the documentary film world, Carrie produced the Academy Award-nominated The Weather Underground and directed The Ballad of Fred Hersch. She was recently a senior producer on Al Jazeera America’s Peabody Award-winning Fault Lines series, and is a graduate

CAAMFest 17, which ran March 9-19 in the San Francisco Bay Area, looked back at some of the most powerful documentaries created by Asian Americans. It rightfully patted its parent organization, the Center for Asian American Media ( CAAM), on the back for helping conceive these films as well - creating a legacy of resistance that must inspire us today. Commemorating its 35th year in existence - making it one of the oldest and certainly the most important festival for Asian and Asian American media - CAAMFest screened Curtis Choy's 1983 The Fall of the I-Hotel, a vivid chronicle of the decade