The IDA Membership is composed of directors, producers, composers, editors, writers, cinematographers, students and nonfiction enthusiasts, among others. Members News is the place to find out about their accomplishments and activities.

If you are an IDA Member and would like your news to be featured in the Members News column, please send your blurb (150 words max) to Documentary associate editor/content producer Tamara Krinsky at krinskydoc@ca.rr.com. You MUST include your name and the words “Member News” in the subject line.   

Jenny Abel reports that Abel Raises Cain was named one of the top 50 documentaries of the decade by The Documentary Blog. Because of their US digital distribution deal with Indieflix, the film has now been seen by tens of thousands of people on Hulu. Jenny and her Dad were invited by Hulu to guest blog the week they spotlighted the film. Abel Raises Cain premiered on Israeli TV (Noga Channel 8) and Canadian TV (Super Channel) this year as well.

Robert Corsini, a screener for the IDA Awards process, was so inspired by the films he saw that it jump-started his own doc-making career. He is currently in Vietnam on a multi-media/documentary project he's producing with TruthOut.org. He's also working on Reinventing Paradise: New Orleans and the Invisible Coast, an essay plus video stories.

Gabor Kalman is currently in post-production on There Was Once..., which tells the story of Mrs. Gyöngyi Mago, a high school teacher in Kalocsa, Hungary, who is attempting to teach tolerance and fight prejudice against the recurrence of neo-Nazism in Hungary today. www.therewasoncefilm.com

ITN Source has signed an archive footage deal with Shanghai Media Group, China's largest commercial broadcaster. The agreement brokered by IPCN, the Anglo-Chinese media company created by Mick Desmond and Rebecca Yang, will see ITN Source supply footage to the documentary films production unit of Shanghai Media Group. This is ITN Source's second deal in China; the business announced a content agreement with the country's largest foreign education publisher FTLRP in May 2009.

New Love Films, Ravit Markus and Dan Katzir's company, has created a new sales page where you can find most of their award-winning films available on DVD. Their film Praying in Her Own Voice had recent screenings in various locations in Los Angeles and Florida. December will feature Chanukah screenings of Yiddish Theater: A Love Story in a variety of locations, ranging from North Miami Beach, Florida to Bethesda, Maryland.

Four of New Day Films' filmmaker members have films short-listed for the Academy Awards®. The Most Dangerous Man In America: Daniel Ellsberg And The Pentagon Papers (Dirs: Rick Goldsmith, Judith Ehrlich) and Under Our Skin (Dir: Andy Abrahams Wilson) have been short-listed in the Documentary Feature category. The Last Truck: Closing Of A Gm Plant (Dirs: Julia Reichert, Steven Bognar) and Woman Rebel (Exec Prod: Robert Richter) have been short-listed in the Documentary Short Subject category.

Producer/director Kevin Stirling was interviewed on C-SPAN about his documentary Moon Beat, which recalls the 1960s space race featuring top news reporters and senior NASA officials. The film is the winner of the 2009 Special Jury Remi Award at the Worldfest-Houston International Film Festival. You can watch the interview here.

Alan Swyer's film Beisbol won the Imagen Award as Best Feature-Length Documentary for 2009. His film Spiritual Revolution has been selected for the Thailand Buddhist Film Festival.