Government elections and cultural events don't always go hand in hand. This year's Thessaloniki Documentary Film Festival in Greece was rescheduled to take place a week later than planned, due to the elections. It also lasted a week instead of the usual ten days, but that didn't mean fewer films, just a more compact program—and less time to sit and enjoy a cup of coffee in the sun. But then again, the films offered several feel-good moments. The opening film, The Story of the Weeping Camel by Luigu Falorni and Byambasureb Davaa, a German/Mongolian production, was a hit. Inspired by the work of
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South by Southwest began in 1987 as an effort by the local Austin music scene to promote itself nationally and offer a more laid-back alternative music conference to NYC's New Music Seminar, which had become both unwieldy and violent. At that first SXSW, there were 172 bands and 700 registrants. The film festival/conference came on board in 1994. By 1997, the festival showed over 100 feature films, and attendance was near 10,000. In 2013, with over 2,200 official musical acts (and seemingly as many or more playing unofficial showcases) and over 130 feature films, there were easily over 100,000
At SXSW panels, you can get the headlines of business trends that overlap techie and filmmaker interests, if you can sift through the hype, the self-promotion, the glib reductionism and relentless branding. This year, the standard "convergence" panels featured issues of overlapping interest, particularly around changing television business models. The big growth area of interest was the "digital domain," or interactive documentary strand, where for the second year, crowds demonstrated that SXSW has to relocate the strand from the tiny room it's given. New this year was a Participant Media
'Anita' opens in theaters March 21 through Samuel Goldwyn Films.
At the annual high-tech attentional food fight that is SXSW, you could see Google Glass-wearers, a Wookie, a flock of foldup bikes, food trucks, an entire portable showroom dedicated to (yes) toilet paper, and...what am I forgetting? Oh, the movies! The standout documentary film of the festival and winner of the Grand Jury Prize, The Great Invisible, was one of several films focusing on ecological issues. Margaret Brown's cinema vérité look at the consequences of the 2010 BP oil spill on the people most directly affected brought audiences in Austin—at the heart of the oil industry—to their
The American Film Showcase in Israel and Palestinian Territories.
When filmmaker Frank Pavich took the stage to introduce his film Jodorowsky's Dune on the opening night of the True/False Festival, he looked out at the crowd in the 1,200-seat Missouri Theater and beamed. "I'm completely blown away," said Pavich. "I've been to Cannes, Toronto and Telluride, but within a few hours of being here, I feel so welcomed by this amazing community." Director Frank Pavich (right) and editor Alex Ricciardi following the screening of their film Jodorowsky's Dune. Photo: Sarah Hoffman A few days later, Tracy Droz Tragos, co-director with her cousin, Andrew Droz Palermo
The new dual-format Blu-ray and DVD edition comes out March 18.
What happens after you’ve finally finished that amazing film you worked on for years? You want to sell it, of course. You want to find a way to get it out there and earn what you know it’s worth. But where do you start? Who do you take it to? With Preferred Content's Managing Partner Kevin Iwashina at the helm, we brought together an expert panel including top sales agents Josh Braun of Submarine (US sales) and Annie Roney of ro*co (international sales), as well as David Magdael (publicist), to give you a few insider dos and don'ts for selling your documentary. DO find the right match
Here comes the sun—and, with it, the Spring 2014 issue of Documentary magazine!