It has been deeply troubling to watch our peers in the Ukrainian film community have their lives and work unraveled by the horrors of war. The International Documentary Association (IDA) has joined over 500 film professionals and institutions from around the world in signing a letter in support of Ukrainian filmmakers’ effort to fight the toxic disinformation war waged by Russia and keep our hearts open to all Russians and Belarusians who resist Putin’s war. Please join IDA and support our colleagues in Ukraine by: Signing the letter, if you are a filmmaker, industry leader or on behalf of a
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Screen Time is your curated weekly guide to excellent documentaries and nonfiction programs that you can watch at home. As the tragedy and the resistance both unfold in Ukraine this week, we offer a selection of documentaries, in solidarity with the struggle and the beauty of the Ukrainian people. The International Coalition For Filmmakers at Risk is putting together an emergency fund. Please consider making a donation here. Iryna Tsilyk’s The Earth Is Blue as an Orange, for which Viacheslav Tsvietkov won a 2020 IDA Documentary Award for Best Cinematography, follows single mother Hanna and her
Essential Doc Reads is our curated selection of recent features and important news items about the documentary form and its processes, from around the internet, as well as from the Documentary magazine archive. We hope you enjoy! In celebration of Black History Month, Farout Magazine’s Calum Russell writes about Marlon Riggs’ revolutionary documentary Tongues Untied. Whilst experimental, personal filmic essays are often reserved for the artistic expression of private exhibition, there are some that become simply too pertinent that they break free from their own secrecy. Such was the case for
Editor’s note: Black history in the US is marked by unimaginable pain and violence, but also by resilience, triumph, beauty, and a rich cultural history. The Black community’s struggle for equity continues today. As we honor and uplift Black voices, stories, and art for Black History Month this year, we’re excited to share a list of Docs to Watch in collaboration with the Black Association of Documentary Filmmakers West (BADWest). Joyce Guy, Officer and Treasurer of BAD West, shared a list of their members' picks for the top five Black docs of 2021—along with a few honorable mentions. The list
Since 2003, IDA has presented the Emerging Documentary Filmmaker Award to a filmmaker whose early work exhibits extraordinary promise and expands the possibilities of nonfiction storytelling. This year, IDA recognizes Cecilia Aldarondo, a director/producer from the Puerto Rican diaspora, whose innovative films emerge from the intersection of poetics and politics. She holds an MA in Contemporary Art Theory from Goldsmiths College and a PhD in Comparative Studies in Discourse and Society from the University of Minnesota. She is also an Assistant Professor of Art at Williams College. Through
What is the responsibility of programmers when it comes to discerning whether a film deserves the platform and profile of a major festival? In a recent opinion piece in The New York Times, Roxane Gay inadvertently spoke to this issue: “There’s a difference between censorship and curation,” she wrote. “When we are not free to express ourselves, when we can be thrown in jail or even lose our lives for speaking freely, that is censorship. When we say, as a society, that bigotry and misinformation are unacceptable, and that people who espouse those ideas don’t deserve access to significant
Cydney Tucker is a journalist and documentary director/producer currently based in New Orleans, Louisiana. She has written, produced and directed films for a variety of legacy and digital media organizations including CBS News, NBC News, Al Jazeera International (AJ+), and RYOT. Her latest projects include two films for The New York Times Presents’ Hulu/FX documentary series, and a short film, Rebyrth. Her work has been featured in several festivals including SXSW, New Orleans Film Festival, Indie Memphis Film Festival and Idlewild Film Festival. She was recently awarded a grant from the
Essential Doc Reads is our curated selection of recent features and important news items about the documentary form and its processes, from around the internet, as well as from the Documentary magazine archive. We hope you enjoy! Politico’s Phelim Kine did a deep dive into the dark underbelly of a transcription service that is the go-to for several filmmakers and journalists, and raises some very pertinent privacy concerns. We make privacy versus utility tradeoffs all the time with our tech. We know Facebook sells our data, but we still post baby pictures. We allow Google maps access to our
There’s an age-old question that every filmmaker wrestles with: How to start a film? In the case of Apart, it took until the end of editing to find the beginning. Apart, by Oscar-nominated Jennifer Redfearn and Tim Metzger, takes an intimate look at three incarcerated women trying to maintain relationships with their children. The film follows them on their journey through an innovative reentry program and after release, as they try to repair the damage from years of separation. Partners in life and in film, co-producers Redfearn and Metzger talked to over two-dozen women in Cleveland’s
I always imagine Jean Tsien in constant motion, even though her work as an editor and producer usually means hours of sitting at a computer. Her films propel you through histories and lives with emotional force and intellect, and she crafts documentaries that are, at once, intimate personal stories and far-reaching interrogations into questions of race, politics and culture that have defined our times. In her path-breaking 38-year career, Tsien represents the documentary field as a Governor of the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts & Sciences. She has edited for a master class-worth of