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!
At Alternet, Michael Moore shares his post-election to-do list.
You live in a country where a majority of citizens have said they believe there's climate change, they believe women should be paid the same as men, they want a debt-free college education, they don't want us invading countries, they want a raise in the minimum wage and they want a single-payer true universal health care system. None of that has changed. We live in a country where the majority agree with the "liberal" position. We just lack the liberal leadership to make that happen.
At Slate, Justin Peters argues that journalists should be terrified that Trump will curb freedom of press.
As a voice for the weak and powerless, a free press is important especially in neo-authoritarian conditions, and it should be obvious by now that Trump wants to curb its efficacy. As a candidate, he consistently maligned the mainstream media as corrupt and dishonest. He portrayed the press as a group of ethically compromised elitists colluding to thwart his candidacy and stifle the voices of his supporters. He represents a group of people who see a strong independent press not as a necessary check on accumulated power in America but as a bothersome impediment to the accumulation of that power. And he will almost certainly use the office of the presidency to bring the press to heel.
At Bay Area Video Coalition, Carrie Lozano offers a post-election message to the independent filmmaking community.
It is my job, as a filmmaker and a journalist, to inform the public, to provide a podium for the powerless, and to hold the powerful accountable for their actions. And that means trying to understand the plight and perspectives of people who do not agree with me, who do not look like me, and who do not believe what I believe, simply because we have the common goal of safe, secure, and meaningful lives. For the editors who are reading this, that means hiring those people too. And the irony is that the world’s most powerful social network, Facebook, will not help these efforts.
At Indiewire, Graham Winfrey reports on the DOC NYC Awards Lunch, where filmmakers expressed their commitment to pushing for progressive change.
The documentary community is not backing down from Donald Trump. At the DOC NYC annual Visionaries Tribute lunch in New York Thursday, four honorees from the documentary world received prestigious awards, but rather than bask in the glow of accolades, the winners seized their time in the spotlight to address the urgent need to expose the truth now more than ever as the start of Trump’s presidency draws near.
At Realscreen, Nick Fraser discusses his decision to leave BBC Storyville to launch new documentary SVOD service Yaddo.
"In television you're finding a big cultural shift and certain things like documentaries suddenly seem possible on the internet. It's not a question just of technology. It's more a question of zeitgeist. The idea that you can get people to pay a relatively small amount to subscribe to see lots of good documentaries and you know they'll enjoy them and can download them, seems like a much more reasonable proposition now than it did 10 years ago. The technology has made it possible, but it’s sort of a question of zeitgeist. I feel that, globally, there’s a substantial niche audience."
"The bottom line: We must make these films. They tell extraordinary stories about remarkable characters. They get to important issues about the men and women who lead our country, and the process by which we choose them. They ask crucial questions about who we are as a nation. These kinds of documentaries must continue to be made, and will serve as encouragement, even inspiration, to do so."
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