Mon, 04/06/2020

Essential Doc Reads: Week of March 30

As Tiger King reigns as the predominant safer-at-home entertainment, The New York Times' Dave Itzkoff talks to co-director Eric Goode about how he evolved from New York City nightclub owner to conservationist to documentary filmmaker.

I originally set out to do a project that was a combination of Best in Show, Grizzly Man and Blackfish. The core reason for doing this was, how do you create awareness about the suffering and exploitation of exotic animals but in a way where you can engage an audience? It was equally important for me to dig into the pathology of these characters as it was to expose the horrible practices of exploiting these animals.

Writing for Vulture, Iranian filmmaker Mehrdad Oskouei shares how he is coping during the quarantine in his homeland.

These days are so strange. Eight hundred people have died in Italy in just 24 hours. I can't believe it! The kind, old people who came to see my films and watched them carefully and asked important questions, where are they now? Many of them come to my mind: Where are the gardener, the chef, and the architect from Florence? I know that I can do nothing and it makes me angry. I've had periods of depression.

Writing for Columbia Journalism Review, Martine Powers discusses the challenges of creating podcasts at home.

In this climate, the intimacy that is inherent to audio doesn't just seem like a blessing for listeners. To be making a podcast in these strange times feels like a tiny portal out into the rest of the world. Standing alone in my closet, clutching a microphone, hoping that other people are out there listening, I'm craving to make a connection, too.

Smarthouse Marketing shares in Film Threat its five tips for releasing your film online

Pivoting to an online festival paid off, and the Forum has now moved to an all-online program until public gatherings return. Other regional cinemas, like the Pickford in Bellingham, and the Grand in Tacoma, have done the same, and now we're seeing theaters and film festivals all across the country starting to follow this model in order to provide audiences stuck at home great independent film options. And you, as an indie filmmaker, can do the same thing.

Global Investigative Journalism Network's Olga Simanovych discusses how journalists can deal with trauma while reporting on COVID-19.

During a natural disaster or outbreak of violence, a journalist—like a psychotherapist—often takes on the role of a witness, who at times may experience a horror, rage and despair that is almost like that of the victim's, Dr. McMahon said. The journalist risks psychological harm at three different stages of his or her work: firstly, as a witness or participant in the event; secondly, while communicating and showing compassion to the victims; and thirdly, by telling their stories—allowing their experiences to pass through the reporter to an audience.

From the Archive, Summer 2011 Issue: "When Animals Attract: Docmakers Study Relationships between Man and Beast"

These filmmakers are forgoing their own presence in their films to behold compelling narratives in which animals share in the drama. These films are not conventional wildlife documentaries. There is no Morgan Freeman or David Attenborough commenting on animals from afar; no troves of title cards listing the numbers of endangered species; no animals that have ever lived in the wild. These films resemble wildlife documentaries insofar as they encourage us to consider the wild—our relationship to it, the very idea of it.

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Gordon Quinn Making Slow and Steady Recovery

Essential Doc Reads: Week of March 30

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