Screen Time is your curated weekly guide to excellent documentaries and nonfiction programs that you can watch at home. IDA Documentary Award nominee Sea of Shadows, from Richard Ladkani, makes its broadcast premiere this Saturday, November 9 on National Geographic. The film tracks the efforts of a team of scientists, conservationists, journalists, undercover agents and the Mexican Navy as they battle to save the rare totoaba fish from poachers, whose deadly methods threaten to destroy virtually all marine life in the Sea of Cortez region. Julia Reichert, the 2018 IDA Career Achievement Award
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Back in high school I had a psychology teacher who was known for opening up students’ backpacks and slowly removing ALL the contents out onto one’s desk if classroom rules weren’t followed. This ritual caused a great deal of fascination for the class. I thought of this when Tom White approached me asking me to share what is “inside my bag” with Documentary. Unlike my high school days, I’ll do a bit of editing and share with you the poignant stuff that I’ve photographed here. What is not pictured are my iPhone, laptop and lip gloss. On my iPhone are essential apps: Artemis for framing, Sun
Ready to venture into the world of podcasting? Well, the good news is, there is a low barrier to entry, meaning you don’t need much in the way of equipment to set up shop: a digital recorder, microphone, headphones, editing software and a few peripherals are about what it takes. Remember, It’s the Story That Matters. Of course, having top-of-the-line equipment would be nice, but it’s all in the way you use it—how you position the mic, how close you get the mic to the subject (which is different for film vs. audio). And of course, how comfortable you make the subject feel is key. First, you’re
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! The New York Times Magazine's Christine Smallwood profiles maverick docmaker Caveh Zahedi and his "abject, self-defeating ethically questionable, maddeningly original approach to documentary." "Caveh’s work opened me up: as a creator, as a viewer, as a recovering moralist," wrote Lena Dunham in the notes
Imagine this: You’ve got a great subject who’s now in her 80s. You want to tell her life story—how she left her stifling marriage at age 40 and defiantly set out on a career. Not just any career: Newspaper photographer, a man’s job. In Palermo, Italy, no less, at a time when women stayed home, Mafia mayhem went unchecked, and a photojournalist’s job was to document the corpses piling up in the streets. You’ve got her images to work with, as powerful as anything by Weegee. But you have a problem: There’s virtually no photographic record of her. A few snapshots. Maybe 90 minutes of home movies
The team behind Getting Real ’18 made a bold statement on commitment to inclusion and representation by programming three #DecolonizeDocs panels—addressing The Industry, The Filmmaker and The Audience. Speaking to Documentary just after the conference, Claire Aguilar, IDA’s director of programming and policy, explained, “I invited the cohort of media organizations that partner with IDA— A-Doc, Brown Girls Doc Mafia and Firelight Media—to collaborate on curating a series of panels about the audience, industry and filmmakers of color.” The intention was to hold a public discussion to share
Unflinching investigative documentary filmmaking that tells uncomfortable and sometimes embarrassing truths about powerful people, corporations and organizations is vital to a healthy democracy. It is also risky for the filmmakers that tell those stories. Documentarians that seek to speak truth about power can find themselves the targets of aggressive and often well-funded efforts to stifle their work. One too-frequently-used tool to intimidate, harass and silence journalists, including documentary filmmakers, are so-called “Strategic Lawsuits Against Public Participation,” or SLAPPs—meritless
In a Dream is one of few films I’ve returned to watch again and again. The story centers around Philadelphia-based artist Isaiah Zagar and his relationship with his family over the years. When Isaiah’s son Jeremiah comes home to document his father at the request of Jeremiah’s mother, Julia, we are introduced to Isaiah through his stunning and reflective sketches, paintings and mosaics, which are plastered on the sides of Philly buildings, spanning whole blocks. Even more elaborate and breathtaking is the artwork inside their household; it covers every inch of wall and ceiling. We soon realize
On a crisp Saturday morning last winter, IDA held a Master Class with George Lavender, vice president of content at Wondery, the podcast company based in West Hollywood. “How are you going to tell this story?” Lavender asked a roomful of docmakers. “Are there spaces you can create in audio that are impossible to create in other mediums?” It is a good question and one that is worthy of attention, as podcasts and audio storytelling have taken the mainstream by storm—so much so that in 2018 IDA introduced the award for best audio documentary in recognition of the “continued expansion” of the
Documentary film historically has provided a more welcoming and accessible environment for women filmmakers compared to theatrical feature filmmaking. Today, when asked to name great female documentarians, most of us think immediately of Barbara Kopple, Laura Poitras, Dawn Porter and Kim Longinotto, among many others. While women working in documentary are becoming more visible worldwide, they continue to be underrepresented (30 percent of documentary directors are female, based on the last Annenberg study) and their early contributions to the genre struggle to assume their rightful place in