Amid all the hullaballoo about the Election, not everything came to a standstill, the dire economy notwithstanding. Here's a rundown/roundup of the recent noteworthy doc-quisitions:

As reported in Movie City Indie, Rob Epstein's classic Academy Award-winning The Times of Harvey Milk will make its Web premiere on Amazon Video on Demand and via Amazon's CreateSpace DVD on Demand this month, in conjunction with the opening of Gus Van Sant's much anticipated feature Milk, on which Epstein served as a consultant and for which Epstein licensed footage from his documentary. The 1984 film tells the story of San Francisco's first openly gay, democratically elected politician, who was assassinated 30 years ago this fall.

Epstein will be honored at the IDA Awards next month with the Pioneer Award for his exemplary work over the past three decades in exploring gay themes and issues in his documentaries.

Elsewhere in the doc block, Arthouse Films has been keeping busy, having acquired worldwide rights to Megumi Sasaki's Herb & Dorothy, about an ordinary, middle class couple with an extraorodary collection of contemporary art, and the late Marion Cajori's Chuck Close, about the celebrated American portraitist.

As reported in Variety, Sony Pictures Classics bought the North American and Latin American rights to Jeffrey Levy-Hinte's Soul Power, which premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival. The film, which documents the "Zaire ‘74" music festival that was staged in conjunction with the legendary "Rumble in the Jungle" battle between Muhammed Ali and George Foreman.

As reported The Hollywood Reporter, another Toronto premiere, Food, Inc., was gobbled up by Magnolia Pictures. The film, directed and produced by Robert Kenner, with participation from authors Eric Schlosser (Fast Food Nation) and Michael Pollan (The Omnivore's Dilemma), investigates the US food industry. Schlosser is also credited as a producer, along with Elise Pearlstein. Participant Media and River Road Entertainment and the producing companies.

Finally, Agnes Varda's autobiographical documentary, The Beaches of Agnes, was picked up by Japan's Zazie Films, Benelux' Cinéart and Canada's Seville Pictures, according to an item in.Variety