Preceded by the "In and Out of the Cold" documentary screening series, the 2nd International Documentary Congress, and the 11th Annual IDA Awards Gala, an exciting month celebrating the documentary came to an end with IDA's DocuFest, the annual all-day showcase of the five IDA Distinguished Documentary Achievement Award winning films and the IDA David L. Wolper Student Award winner. Presented by the IDA and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art at LACMA's Leo S. Bing Theater on October 28, DocuFest featured public screenings of all the documentaries honored at the IDA Awards Gala at Paramount
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The "International Coproductions" panel, moderated by British filmmaker Andre Singer, provided a range of solid information for those exploring this sometimes puzzling world. Panelists included both filmmakers and representatives of the Learning Channel and National Geographic Television. The world of international coproduction can be perilous. Apart from the obvious challenge of establishing the multinational relationships necessary in such a venture, one must deal with changes in corporate management, issues of rights ownership, and the sometimes glacially slow decision-making process. The
DC's "Concepts of Intellectual Property" panel, sponsored by Grinberg Film Libraries, gave an eager audience the opportunity to learn about important legal issues that affect every nonfiction film and videomaker. Led by moderator Michael Donaldson, an entertainment attorney and author of the new book The E-Z Guide to Trademarks and Copyrights, the panel included copyright attorney Eric Schwartz of the firm Proskauer, Rose, Goetz, and Mendelsohn; Mitchell Block, president of the distribution company Direct Cinema Limited; and award-winning feature film director Martha Coolidge, who serves on
Four large, soft, black leather chairs in front of a blank white movie screen. Four gray-haired maverick documentary pioneers sitting around talking... about themselves, each other, and their work together. Such was the IDA and the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences' joint tribute to David L. Wolper and his large circle of friends, here represented by Jack Haley Jr., Alan Landsburg, and IDA President Mel Stuart. Entitled "The Wolper Documentary: Creating New Concepts for Television," the evening was a nostalgic, informative, and intimate look at a remarkable period in the lives of a group
Filmmaker David Grubin, a 1995 IDA Award winner for his remarkable study on Franklin D. Roosevelt, moderated the "In and Out of the Cold" panel, which explored the role that the documentarian and the documentary have played in the past 50 years of social change. Grubin labored mightily to harness this unwieldy subject and create a catalyst between two seemingly disparate camps: archivist Roger Smithers of the Imperial War Museum in London and Bill Murphy of the National Archives, on the one hand, and filmmakers Hartmut Bitomsky of Germany and Marina Goldovskaya of Russia, on the other. Grubin
"The Documentary Eye," the brain child of IDA Executive Director Betsy McLane and a work-in progress, took the audience through the rich cinematic history of the documentary, from the Lumiere brothers to the Burns brothers and beyond. Ricky Leacock and Joan Churchill, veteran filmmakers from different eras, provided entertaining insights and anecdotes about the past, present, and future of the documentary at key points in this seminar. "The Documentary Eye" was an ambitious undertaking for both the IDC and its producers, but they stumbled slightly by opting for slides of stills when the
Nick Deocampo is one of the leading exponents of Philippine independent cinema in the post-Marcos era, and his presence at the IDC underscored one of its predominant themes: the recent evolution in the documentary aesthetic from historical to personal films. In Decampo's case, the evolution is more of a symbiosis. "During the revolution in '86, there was a great element of risk; no one really knew how long the revolution would last, but you're there and you're living the moment," he told his "At One With ..." audience. "And I was capturing those events. In 1987, I made Revolutions Happen as
Robert Drew, 71, was a World War II fighter pilot who became a Life magazine editor and then formed Drew Associates, a documentary unit that included Richard Leacock and Donn Pennebaker. Their films broke the documentary "lecture" mold by recording only unfolding events and using minimal narration, walking hand held cameras, and other devices to keep the experience firsthand for the viewer. Drew's wife, Anne, who started with the company as an editor and has produced with him for 24 years, is now making a verite documentary on the U.S. militia movement. Both were present to screen clips and
IDC's "Distribution and Marketing" panel, moderated by Joe Kennedy, West Coast sales director of ITEL, presented the audience with a look at the challenges and pitfalls of distribution. Geoff Gilmore, director of film festival programming and special projects at the Sundance Institute, observed that the theatrical distribution situation facing feature documentary films in the United States has been "fraught with crisis for the past 50 years—as opposed to something that's hitting right now." While most films that find distribution do so through nontheatrical channels, some do find theatrical
To paraphrase Prospero from The Tempest, "My revels now are ended." After two years, I am stepping down as president of the IDA. A commitment to produce a group of television documentaries will require my full attention. I found my duties as president a very fulfilling experience. Among other things, I was able to meet a wide cross-section of documentary filmmakers, assist others in obtaining funds for projects, and, best of all, help to establish a permanent documentary archive at the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. During these years, however, I noticed a further deterioration