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, AMPAS board of governors member Roger Ross Williams opens up about the documentary shortlist process. "Naturally, films that appear at top festivals get more attention and press. The doc branch consists of working filmmakers and industry professionals, so they see films at festivals or hear about
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Editor's Note: Some of the greatest documentaries of all time would be inconceivable without their protagonists to drive the stories and keep us viewers enthralled. From the Beales to the Friedmans, from Bob Dylan to Bob Flanagan, these real-life people were transformed, through the dynamic collaborative processes with their respective filmmakers, into indelible and engaging characters of cinema. And it's thanks to the access and intimacy that these protagonists granted to the filmmakers that these films were made in the first place. So when writer Lauren Wissot proposed a column in which she
Right smack-dab in the middle of Awards Season - two months after the Toronto/Telluride/Venice triumvirate and two months before the Academy Awards nominees announcement - the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences stages its annual Governors Awards; call it "the lifetime achievement awards for those whose careers merited an Oscar or two, but who somehow fell through the cracks." While the Governors Awards may lack the global cachet and frenzy that define the Academy Awards, this ceremony, staged at The Ray Dolby Ballroom at Hollywood & Highland Center® in Hollywood last November, more than
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, five tips from a filmmaking community ready to stand up to Trump. "This is not the time to compromise or shy away from the truths that we see, because there's going to be a lot of pressure to not tell those stories and to not get them on air," said filmmaker Dawn Porter, adding that in some southern
Keith Fulton and Lou Pepe's latest documentary, The Bad Kids, is an intimate portrait of at-risk students at Black Rock Continuation High School, located in Yucca Valley, California, within the Mojave Desert. The teachers at Black Rock High are trying to make a difference one student at a time. They accomplish this not by lecturing from the front of the classroom, but by moving among the student body, engaging each student individually, asking questions about both their school work and their personal lives. Black Rock is a safe haven for listening, sharing and understanding, and this is not
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 Business Insider, Jason Guerrasio reports the story of a filmmaker's Netflix deal gone bad. Atkinson said he wanted to go public with his experience because he wanted filmmakers and fans of Netflix to understand that for as much good as Netflix was providing mass audiences with exceptional content, he believed
December 14, 2016 Public Relations Department Corporate Communications Division Canon One Canon Park Melville, NY 11747 Dear Canon, We, the undersigned documentary filmmakers and photojournalists, are writing to urge your company to build encryption features into your still photo and video camera products. These features, which are currently missing from all commercial cameras on the market, are needed to protect our safety and security, as well as that of our sources and subjects worldwide. Without encryption capabilities, photographs and footage that we take can be examined and searched by
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 Columbia Journalism Review, Judith Matloff reports on the legal challenges that documentary filmmakers may face in the Trump era. Documentary filmmakers tend to gravitate towards topics like whistleblowers and corruption, which make them vulnerable to legal action. They are more exposed than reporters, because
"The MacArthur Foundation supports independent inquiry and storytelling that helps to inform, engage and inspire the American public to think critically and deeply about the challenges we face as a nation," said Kathy Im, Director of the Journalism and Media program at MacArthur. "Support for this new fund at IDA is an expression of the Foundation’s enduring commitment to independent media, and part of a broader set of investments aimed at building strong institutions in the fields of nonprofit journalism, nonfiction storytelling, and participatory civic media." "Independent documentary makers
Editor's Note: The landscape of American entertainment would look very different without the work of Norman Lear, who wrote, produced, created or developed some of the most popular and provocative shows of all time, including All in the Family , The Jeffersons and Sanford and Son . Lear's liberal-minded sitcoms held up a mirror to American society, using comedy to tackle thorny issues of race and class while entertaining millions of viewers. Lyn Davis Lear is a social and political activist engaged with the most pressing global issues. Lyn Lear Productions works to mobilize action on climate