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Notes from the Reel World: The President's Column, January 2007

By diane estelle Vicari


As we enter the holiday season, IDA celebrates a banner year! 

Looking back at the challenges we've faced these past few years, which the Board of Directors and our dedicated staff have skillfully tackled, it gives me great satisfaction to have been of service to this organization while working to be part of its future!

Nearing the end of 2006, we honor the finalists and winners of the 22nd Annual IDA Distinguished Documentary Achievement Awards at our IDA Awards Gala Benefit on December 8. We salute the following individual honorees: Haskell Wexler, Career Achievement Award; Pat Aufderheide, Preservation & Scholarship Award; Andrew Berends, Courage Under Fire Award; and Christopher Quinn, Jacqueline Donnet Emerging Documentary Filmmaker Award.

We wish to extend our gratitude to a very dedicated group of jurors, who spent much of their summer and fall screening the many international documentary entries in six different categories.

The winners in these categories are An Inconvenient Truth, Pare Lorentz Award; Jonestown: The Life and Death of Peoples Temple, IDA/ABCNews VideoSource Award; Reporter Zero, IDA/ David L. Wolper Student Documentary Achievement Award; Off to War, Limited Series Award; and American Experience, Continuing Series Award. We tip our hats to all of the winners for setting a standard of excellence in nonfiction filmmaking.

This year the Board of Directors elected to launch a new voting procedure in the Feature and Short Documentary competitions. Secret ballots have been compiled and, unlike in preceding years, the winners in each of these two categories will be announced at our Gala event. Congratulations to all of the finalists and winners!

Since 1982, the vision and dream of a handful of dedicated individuals--to have an organization that would strive to meet and serve the needs of its constituents--has remained true for 25 years. Our 22nd Annual IDA Awards Gala Benefit kicks off our 25th Anniversary celebration!

As part of the many 2007 festivities, we will commemorate the 10th anniversary of our Pare Lorentz Award. Thanks to a generous grant from the New York Community Trust, we will present a Pare Lorentz Film Festival in October, screening the entire Lorentz oeuvre, as well as each of the Pare Lorentz Award recipients over the past ten years. In addition, the grant will enable us to inaugurate the Pare Lorentz Filmmaking Award for a proposed project in the pre-production stage. Details will follow on our website, www.documentary.org

While the world of nonprofit organizations continues to face uncertainty, we unite in celebrating our many accomplishments! Our Trustees and Directors, our Members and supporters, and the IDA staff have made it all possible.

I invite you to participate in IDA's 25th anniversary, a celebration of aspirations and new beginnings!

 

Wishing you a Happy Holiday Season,

diane estelle Vicari
IDA President