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! Kathy K. Im, Director of the MacArthur Foundation, reflects on the importance of protecting independent journalism and journalists. Increasingly, and for some time now, reporting that takes four months, 12 months, or two years is unthinkable for most commercial news organizations, and so nonprofit newsrooms and
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During the 60th BFI London Film Festival, which wrapped on Sunday, one of the most acclaimed dramatic features was British director Andrea Arnold's American Honey, a coming-of-age story acclaimed by critics for its "visually fascinating aesthetic." But far away from the buzz surrounding such Oscar hopefuls, in the relative quiet of the Documentary Competition, I found a clutch of coming-of-age films that equally shone. Together, they employ a battery of storytelling techniques to bring their young protagonists' lives to the big screen. All This Panic, a feature debut by husband-and-wife
The day before they brought together a groundbreaking number of Asian American documentary filmmakers on the first day of the International Documentary Association's Getting Real 2016 Conference, Grace Lee and S. Leo Chiang barely dodged Typhoon Megi in Taiwan. They had been there for CNEX, a Chinese documentary forum during which Chinese filmmakers come together to work on pitches and meet distributors. Lee and Chiang had to board an earlier flight in order to make it out before the typhoon landed. Lee, director of American Revolutionary: The Evolution of Grace Lee Boggs, and Chiang, director
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 Realscreen, Kevin Ritchie reports on the ways that Terrence Malick's Voyage of Time charts a new course for "natural history." "As far as your typical, blue-chip natural history documentary goes, that time is over," says Sophokles Tasioulis of Berlin-based Sophisticated Films. "We've filmed every river and
In August 1966, the University of Texas at Austin found itself at the mercy of a sniper perched at the top of a tower at the center of the campus. Ninety-six terrifying minutes later, more than a dozen were dead, many more injured and an entire community was traumatized. It was the first mass shooting at a school in America - and, of course, far from the last. From its opening moments, the mesmerizing Tower pulls viewers directly into the horror of the unfolding murder spree. Its dazzling use of rotoscopic animation and vivid eyewitness testimony contribute to one of the most effective
The Civil Rights Division of the U.S. Department of Justice has responded to the IDA's recent Statement in Support of #RightToRecord, which called for an investigation into a disturbing pattern of citizen journalists being targeted and arrested by law enforcement in response to their reporting. The DOJ's response can be read in full here. Ramsey Orta (who documented Eric Garner's death) began a 4 year prison sentence on October 3rd. He's currently at Rikers Island Correctional Facility, where he found rat poison in his food during a post-Garner filming stint in 2015. In light of that, he's
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, Anthony Kaufman reports on the current state of digital distribution. Is online distribution a boon to independent filmmakers or a boatload of false promises? Given that streaming/downloading is the primary way that many audiences are now consuming content, this may be the most pressing and important
There's a lot about Hot Springs, Arkansas, that might seem unexpected—or even quirky, as outsiders sometimes see it. Specifically, the city was neutral ground for gangsters in the 1920s and 1930s, when Al Capone and his cronies were regulars around town. During the same time, Babe Ruth and other Major League Baseball players descended on Hot Springs for spring training, which continued until the 1950s. It's also where former President Bill Clinton grew up. Today, Hot Springs is the home of Arkansas' only horseracing track, a national park, vast lakes, crystal mines and countless historic
Docs are getting better than ketchup. The Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) showed 57 documentaries - the full Heinz variety pack - premiering films in Canada by such auteurs as Steve James, Morgan Spurlock, Raoul Peck, Werner Herzog and Jonathan Demme. That's by far the largest number of docs ever screened at TIFF, a festival that has rarely highlighted documentaries despite Canada's international reputation for excellent nonfiction films. While the majority of TIFF 2016's documentaries were screened in programmer Thom Powers' TIFF Docs section, nonfiction features appeared in wildly
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 Center For Media & Social Impact, Caty Borum Chattoo reveals the results of a 2016 survey of documentary industry members. Despite new opportunities for documentary filmmakers and audiences, particular challenges are persistent. Questions about sustainable systems and sources of revenue that can support career