With Getting Real '20 quickly approaching, we met with the supporting programming team to see what they have planned for this year’s digital conference. Read more about what changes they’ve made to adapt to this unique moment in time and what exciting events they have in store this year. Stephanie Owens (SO) is a filmmaker based in Los Angeles. She has programmed with Palm Springs ShortFest, Sundance and LA Film Festival. She's also contributed to POV and festival and funding juries. Nat Ruiz Tofano (NRT) is a queer and multiracial documentary filmmaker based in Oakland, California. Nat has
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My name is Paul. I enjoy a good movie and consider myself the “George Costanza” of films. Over the years while watching the Oscars, they would name the category of Best Documentary. All the time I would wonder where do you see these films? Serendipitously, I saw IDA’s screening of films at the Landmark for free. Free can’t be all bad. Can it? I saw my first IDA Documentary Screening Series film, The Witness, in 2016. It was the story of the rape and murder of Kitty Genoves that was reportedly observed by 38 people who did nothing to stop it. I went with a friend who was convinced of the
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Thirty-seven years since IDA was launched, the documentary form has soared in popularity, keeping us attuned, informed and endlessly curious. Not only have documentaries become a staple of every digital streaming platform available, but they have transformed into episodic content, audio stories, animation and immersive, new media experiences that have widened the scope of what a documentary means, or can achieve. As the 35th anniversary of the IDA Documentary Awards approaches, we reached out to some of the prime movers behind the awards, as well as some of the past winners, to give us a sense
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The podcast space, even with hundreds of thousands of titles proliferating the market, is still emerging and evolving. Like documentary filmmaking, the podcast promises compelling stories and examines important issues. The overlap is organic. But the two also underlap, if you will, as podcasting’s audio-only limitations invite inventive, cinematic use of sound, engulfing the ear to incite the imagination. Ultimately, the audience is coaxed into seeing sound. For the podcast-curious, leading podcast producer Wondery and IDA offered a day-long program on August 24 of topic-specific panel
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My exposure to documentary film was quite limited growing up. Like many, I got my fair share of Ken Burns clips and maybe an episode of PBS FRONTLINE in high school, but for the most part, I knew very little about documentary film. Enter, the IDA Documentary Screening Series—a godsend to a documentary novice like myself trying to grasp the nuances of nonfiction storytelling. Gliding up the escalator of The Landmark to my first screening, Three Identical Strangers, I was greeted by a line of ecstatic filmgoers of all ages. I expected to see many people my own age; free entertainment is a huge
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As a documentary filmmaker with one project in distribution, one in post and one in development, it felt like a perfect moment to attend IDA’s Getting Real 2018. Having more than one project to lean on, I was able to seek out industry wisdom from a variety of angles thanks to a professional development grant from the Regional Arts and Culture Council in Portland, OR, where I’ve lived since 2010. I’ve been to film festivals before and admit that I enjoy looking at massive schedules, circling too many films, and trying to get to them all. What I always forget is that ideally one does this while
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The ArcLight Cinema and its surroundings are not typically crowded at 9:00 a.m. on a weekday morning. But over the past three days, the area was swarming with credential-wearing, tote-carrying documentary filmmakers and smiling, helpful, eager volunteers clad in bright orange T-shirts. Nonfiction had descended on Hollywood. What were my takeaways from Getting Real? Fifty-two pages of furiously scribbled notes, two large handfuls of precious business cards, a long list of documentary films to catch up on, reconnections with old friends I had not seen in years, and many new acquaintances made
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As the conference is named Getting Real and this dispatch is of a more personal nature, my job here is to, yes, keep it real. That’s why I must confess: when I'm really enthused about something, I use rhyming expressions. My response to my Wednesday Getting Real experience? It rocks my socks. In fact, it's the bee's knees. All day, I felt the enormity and depth of the wisdom, talent, experience, passion, creativity and intelligence surrounding me, during every panel and presentation, in every gathered audience. Whether or not we find our way in this world depends on people like the attendees
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I'm Tracie Lewis. I'm a film lover, adjunct film instructor, filmmaker, storyteller and three-time Getting Real attendee. Getting Real '18 is bigger and better! This conference has grown in several ways since the first one four years ago. This year there are thoughtful panels, fresh ideas, new faces, expanded venues, a younger demographic of attendees and a large group of very helpful volunteers wearing easily identifiable orange tees. There is so much more this year: Carefully curated panels, topics, case studies, funding initiatives and discussions with interesting and engaging facilitators
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Tuesday morning, the Cinerama Dome in Hollywood buzzed with introductions, reconnections and reunions as Getting Real 2018 attendees settled into their three-day conference journey. IDA Executive Director Simon Kilmurry offered opening remarks, encouraging everyone to "talk, engage, listen and debate," perfectly setting the stage for Molly Thompson's keynote, which centered around one question: What is a documentary filmmaker? As Senior Vice President of Feature Films at A+E Networks, Thompson has overseen such Academy Award-nominated docs as Life, Animated; Cartel Land; Jesus Camp and