Dear Readers, DVD—whether it stands for "digital video disc" or the more recent "digital versatile disc" to accommodate the uses of the medium beyond video—has, since its introduction to the consumer market in Japan in 1996 and the US in 1997, quickly staked out its frontier in the mediamaking universe. While the format's arguable precursors, laserdiscs and CD-ROMs, made a modest impact, at best, they laid the groundwork for what would be a veritable revolution in home entertainment, whether engaged on the TV monitor or the computer screen. For the documentary, the DVD has presented a range of
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On September 2, 2003, a remarkable film made its way to HBO. The journey is worth retelling. In the spring of 2001, three Columbia University graduate students—Stefan Knerrich, Michael Rey and Amy Rubin—finished their senior project, a film called 3rd Reich to 3rd Generation. It was the story of Arthur Lederman, a 101-year-old Holocaust survivor who had never had a conversation with a German during his adult life. But when Dorot, a Jewish aid agency, sent German exchange student Christophe Erbsloeh to help Lederman with his daily life, a dialogue began that explored the Holocaust through the
Dear IDA Members: The International Documentary Association has many objectives, but none is more important than encouraging the theatrical exhibition of documentary films. In no way, however, does this statement detract from the importance—indeed, the pre-eminence—of television financing for documentaries. It is just that the appetite of television for all manner of nonfiction programming is well documented, so to speak. The first and foremost focus of our efforts to spotlight theatrical exhibition takes place this month with the InFACT Theatrical Documentary Showcase in Los Angeles. The
Dear IDA Members: I report to you, as I have during the past few springs, from the Cannes Film Festival—and a very different Cannes it is for the documentary community. Particularly noticeable is the changed attitude at the March de Film, the film market that takes place at the same time as the festival. A record number of documentaries were represented at and screened throughout the market. Perhaps it was because of Michael Moore's success last year with a special jury prize for Bowling for Columbine and its subsequent success at the box office. Perhaps it was because of the increasing number
Dear Readers: We profile three cable companies in this issue. Two are relative newcomers—Discovery Times and TRIO Channel-while the third, MTV, is both the elder statesman of the group and the channel with the youngest demographic—the 18-24 slot. Discovery Times is a union of two institutions-Discovery Civilization, a division of Discovery Communications, and New York Times Television, a division of The New York Times. The channel was launched last spring to weld the journalistic reputation of The Times (recent events notwithstanding) to the programmatic direction that Discovery seems to be
I was recently with a group of friends when my husband introduced a seemingly simple question: Can you create your list of top ten films of all time? That night, I searched our DVD library of favorites, and I spotted an old friend that was always a source of inspiration during the long days and nights of editing my own documentary, AMANDLA! It was When We Were Kings (Leon Gast, dir./prod.; David Sonenberg and Taylor Hackford, prods.). The film defines itself early on, with its bold blend of sound, music, wit and visual majesty in keeping with the protagonist, Muhammed Ali. The film tells the
" It is difficult to produce a television documentary that is both incisive and probing when every 12 minutes one is interrupted by 12 dancing rabbits singing about toilet paper." -- Rod Serling The only thing harder than making your documentary film is funding it. What do you do after you've tapped out your credit cards, borrowed from family and friends, mortgaged your house and, in some cases, sold your own blood and are still in need of money for your film? Before you take a trip to the blood bank, there are several options available that don't involve selling vital organs or your firstborn
Film critic and author Chris Gore named Cinequest as one of the Top 10 Film Festivals in the world in his The Ultimate Film Festival Survival Guide (2001). "Cinequest represents a trend of great regional film festivals that have garnered acclaim for their bold programming choices," Gore explains. Based in San Jose, California, the film festival had a 17 percent increase in box office receipts over its 2002 earnings. "This is really significant," says Jens Hussey, Cinequest's public relations director. "We were operating in a weak economy where many other arts organizations have had a very