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Doc News Shorts: October 30, 2009

By Tamara Krinsky


Wildlife fan? Nat Geo's got a project that's right up your alley! As reported in RealScreen, National Geographic Society and National Geographic Channels have announced the undertaking of the largest global television event and cross-platform initiative in the institution's history. Entitled Greatest Migrations, the project includes a seven-hour television mini-series, a 300+ page book, a children's book, iPhone apps, a lecture series and screenings, exhbits, and a series of National Geographic Expedition trips, among other elements. From RealScreen:

"The scope of this project draws upon all of the Society's passion for the natural world," said Michael Rosenfeld, president of National Geographic Television, in a statement. "We are using every resource at our disposal to produce and distribute this spectacular content in a coordinated effort across all media platforms. Many of the planet's great migrations are at risk, so the series is going to illuminate the fragile existence of these great animal movements and inspire a worldwide movement to protect them."

The series is set to air on the National Geographic Channel in Fall 2010.

We're thrilled that documentary filmmaker and Newsweek correspondent Maziar Bahari has been released from his imprisonment in Iran. He had been held in Tehran since June 21st without access to a lawyer, and was subjected to regular interrogations during which he was either blindfolded or forced to face a wall, unable to see his interrogators. From Newsweek
The editors of Newsweek, Maziar, and his bride Paola Gourley would like to thank the thousands of friends, colleagues and well-wishers around the world whose support over the last few months has helped to make this moment possible. Your efforts have been invaluable, and the family is deeply grateful. They ask only that they be allowed some time alone together now after their long and trying separation.
For more on his ordeal, read the account in Newsweek.

Planning on coming to the IDA Awards on December 4th? Of course you are! We know you won't want to miss seeing Errol Morris receive the 2009 Career Achievement Award. For a look inside the mind of this wonderful documentarian, take a look at The Case of the Inappropriate Alarm Clock: a seven-part series he's writing for The New York Times. In the series, Morris looks at photography and propaganda through the lens of the Great Depression. From Part I:
Claims of posing, false captioning, and faking regularly appear in much the same way as they appeared in the 1930s. Clearly, Photoshop is not the cause of these controversies. They predate Photoshop and other modern means of altering photographs by more than a half century. But they allow us to ask an important question. What can we of the Great Recession learn from the photographs of the Great Depression?
Also, DocuWeeks 2009 participant Severe Clear was awarded a Special Mention by the Jury for Cinematic Excellence at the Rome International Film Festival. The festival set an impressive slate for its fourth edition including films by James Ivory, Joel and Ethan Coen, Martin Scorsese, Jason Reitman and Lasse Hallström. In attendance for the closing ceremony was a cast of great national and international stars including Milos Forman, Giuseppe Tornatore, Helen Mirren and Meryl Streep, who was awarded The Golden Marc'Aurelio Acting Award. See a complete list of awards here.