Sundance Institute selected four projects for the fifth annual Documentary Film Editing and Story Laboratory, which was held in June in Sundance, Utah. The Editing and Story Lab Fellows included editor Tim Bartlett for Tibet in Song; director Tia Lessin for Trouble The Water. Editors Kate Amend (Thin, Academy Award-winner The Long Way Home) and Jean-Philippe Boucicaut (Citizen King, Matters of Race) participated in the Lab as creative advisors.

In celebration of the publication of F Is for Phony: Fake Documentaries and Truth's Undoing (University of Minnesota Press, 2006), co-editors Alexandra Juhasz and Jesse Lerner participated in the Los Angeles Filmforum presentation "F is for Phony" in June at the Egyptian Theater. Juhasz and Lerner presented a selection of films discussed in their anthology including, among others, Luis Bunuel's Land without Bread/Tierra sin pan (1932), Mitchell W. Block's no lies (1972) and Marlon Fuentes' Bontoc Eulogy (1995). 

Pamela Cohn was invited to participate at this summer's Sundance Producers Conference with her project Riding Code 3: EMS in Nigeria, a documentary project she started directing and shooting last year about the first Emergency Medical Service/First Responder training program in West Africa. She hopes to find an executive producer at the conference who has experience doing projects in Africa, and who will raise funds to continue to shoot there this year.

Former IDA Board President Michael Donaldson's new book, Fearless Negotiating: The Wish-Want-Walk Method to Reaching Agreements That Work, was just published by McGraw-Hill. www.FearlessNegotiating.com.

Amber Edwards reports that her latest documentary, Words and Music by Jerry Herman, about the Broadway composer/lyricist, will air nationally on PBS in January 2008. In the months leading up to the broadcast, the film has been screened in New York City at ASCAP, the 92nd Street Y, Brooklyn Academy of Music and the Museum of Television and Radio, with a gig at the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, DC scheduled in September. For more information about the film, go to http://www.njn.net/television/specials/wordsandmusicbyjerryherman/.

Director Steven Fischer was awarded a pair of Gold Remi Awards at the 40th Annual WorldFest International Film Festival in Houston earlier this year. He won in the Cultural Programming category for Draw the Line, his 2006 documentary showcase on the art and business of animation, and in the Music Video category for Houdini, his magical music video for indie rock favorite Jim Camacho. In April, Draw the Line was also the recipient of a national Telly Award. Freedom Dance, which has fiscal sponsorship from the IDA, recently premiered at the Maryland Film Festival. This animated documentary, produced by Fischer and animator Craig Herron, retells the adventurous escape of a cartoonist from Communist-ruled Hungary to the United States in 1956.

IDA Board Member Paola Freccero has joined the Tribeca Film Festival as co-executive director, and will also hold the post of senior vice president of Tribeca Enterprises. She shares her titles with Nancy Shafer. The two women will jointly oversee the day-to-day operations of the festival, with Schafer handling film and industry operations and Freccero managing content production, website and special events. Both will play a pivotal role in the growth of the festival and in the year-round activities of Tribeca Enterprises.

Premier giant screen filmmakers MacGillivray Freeman Films have announced production of the 3D giant screen adventure Return to Everest 3D, a follow-up to the company's giant screen blockbuster Everest. The production marks the first time the world's tallest mountain will be filmed in IMAX 3D. Return to Everest 3D is directed by two-time Academy Award nominee Greg MacGillivray (The Living Sea, Dolphins) and produced by MacGillivray and his son Shaun MacGillivray. Starring in the film will be Jamling Norgay of Nepal and Spanish climber Araceli Segarra, both featured in the original Everest; they will assist the Nepalese Sherpa people, whose livelihood depends on the mountain. While Sherpas know the perils and moods of Everest intimately, they often lack critical climbing and communication skills, which has led to a number of deaths on the mountain in recent years. The film will also follow a groundbreaking medical research expedition seeking to turn Everest into a working laboratory. 

Producer's rep Sarah Jo Marks is excited to report the world premiere of the film JUMP! (Helen Hood Scheer, dir./prod.) at the Los Angeles Film Festival. Following eight jump-ropers over the course of a year--from their hometown training to the US Nationals to the Worlds in Toronto--JUMP! highlights not only logic-defying routines, but also the unwavering commitment of young athletes to a fledgling sport. Another doc on Marks' slate, The Fighting Cholitas (Mariam Jobrani, dir.) also screened at the festival as part of the Shorts Program. sarajo@atriskfilms.com.

The National Film Board of Canada (NFB) is pleased to announce that three of its co-productions won awards at Hot Docs 2007. Bryan Friedman's Bodybuilder and I won Best Canadian Feature Documentary; Serge Giguère's Driven by Dreams won the Special Jury Prize in the Canadian Feature Documentary category and Johanna Lunn's Forgiveness: Stories for Our Time was honored with the Best Mid-Length Documentary Award. www.nfb.ca.

Director Chris Sheridan's ABDUCTION The Megumi Yokota Story has won numerous awards and has been shown in at least 10 countries. The 85-minute documentary details the kidnapping of a 13-year-old Japanese girl by North Korean agents. Last May, Sheridan and co-director Patty Kim met with Akie Abe, the wife of Japanese Prime Minster Shinzo Abe, in a private session at the residence of Japanese Ambassador Ryozo Kato in Washington, DC. The prime minister was making his first visit to the nation's capital. www.abductionfilm.com.

Sarah C. Sifers' documentary Fate of the Lhapa premiered at the Maui Film Festival in June and played in competition at the Woods Hole Film Festival, which ran from July 28 to August 4. Fate, which benefited from fiscal sponsorship through IDA, tells the story of three old Tibetan shamans living in a refugee camp in Nepal who are practicing an ancient healing tradition in danger of extinction. Forced into exile by the Chinese invasion of their homeland, they struggle to survive and preserve their cultural heritage. 

Towers Productions will produce a one-hour documentary special for the National Geographic Channel entitled Road to War, about the origins of the war in Iraq. The program will air on the channel in late August.

Independent filmmaker Suree Towfighnia recently finished Standing Silent Nation, about Lakota Indians in South Dakota who are trying to develop a sustainable economy by growing industrial hemp on their lands. The film touches on many things: sovereignty, environmentally friendly hemp growing, the hypocrisy of federal government policy and drug policy, economic empowerment, the spirituality and tradition of a marginalized people, family values and protection of the land. The film aired July 3 on PBS' P.O.V. series. www.prairiedustfilms.com.

Pamela Yates' State of Fear: The Truth About Terrorism, a documentary based on the findings of the Peruvian Truth and Reconciliation Commission and their examination of Peru's 20-year "war on terror," is now available on DVD. While the film takes place in Peru, it also serves as a cautionary tale for a world currently engaged in a "global war on terror." www.skylightpictures.com.