Julie Bayer and Josh Salzman's documentary Time & Tide won the Best Documentary Award at the Hawaii International Film Festival in October, after receiving a Special Jury Award at the Sidewalk Film Festival in September. The film has also been traveling around the country as part of National Geographic's All Roads Film Festival the past several months. The film is slated to air on PBS in May 2007 through a licensing agreement with Pacific Islanders in Communications.

Open Sky Entertainment will produce a new feature-length documentary film exploring the topic of the United States federal debt. Based loosely on the writings of Bill Bonner, Addison Wiggin and Kate Incontrera, editors of the financial newsletter "The Daily Reckoning," the new documentary will examine the ever-expanding US federal debt and its implications for the nation's future. Wordplay director Patrick Creadon will write and direct the new doc, while his partner Christine O'Malley will serve as co-writer and producer. Addison Wiggin of Agora Financial, LLC and Jon Carnes of the One Horizon Foundation will serve as executive producers. Open Sky Entertainment's Sarah Gibson will also serve as a producer; she was producer of the film Small Town Gay Bar, which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in January 2006.

Producer Aaron Kirk Douglas reports that the feature documentary Monster Camp is an official selection of the Cinequest, Seattle International and the Swansea Bay Film Festivals. Monster Camp is a rare and fascinating glimpse into a real-life version of World of Warcraft®, where gamer stereotypes are simultaneously shattered and confirmed. Monster Camp meticulously examines the lives of die-hard gamers at NERO Seattle. The devoted group congregates at a secluded state park, where they act out battles complete with magic potions, evil spells and legendary sword fights. By day, these people are software engineers, department store managers and high school students, but for one weekend each month they seamlessly transform into dwarves, dragons and green lizard people.

The Santa Barbara International Film Festival awarded the Fund for Santa Barbara Social Justice Award to The Ground Truth by Patricia Foulkrod and Crude Impact by James Wood.

LogTV, Ltd. is proud to announce the release of a new documentary by Slawomir Grunberg and progress on two others released in 2005. Saved by Deportation: An Unknown Odyssey of Polish Jews looks at how Joseph Stalin's 1940 deportation of approximately 200,000 Polish Jews to forced labor settlements in the Soviet interior ultimately saved many Jewish lives. This film, co-produced with Robert Podgursky, premiered at the Washington Jewish Film Festival in December 2006, where it won the Audience Award for Best Documentary. The Legacy of Jedwabne, which tells the story of a 1941 pogrom in Poland, premiered at Warsaw Jewish International Film Festival, followed by a run of screenings at various festivals and venues around the world. The film is being broadcast by PBS, Link TV, Polish Channel Kultura, Planete Poland, Russian Cable-Channel Nostalgia and Al Jazeera TV. Borderline: The People v. Eunice Baker follows the story of Eunice Baker, a borderline mentally retarded woman who was convicted of murder, despite evidence that the death was accidental. The film received the Best Documentary on Disability Award at the Picture This Film Festival in Calgary, Canada, and has also screened at festivals worldwide. Borderline is being broadcast by LinkTV, Free Speech TV, PBS, Denmark TV 2 and Planete Poland. For more on Grunberg's films, go to www.logtv.com/films/borderline; www.savedbydeportation.com; and www.jedwabne.net.

Adele Horne, director of The Tailenders, won the 11th annual Axium Truer Than Fiction Award at the 2007 Independent Spirit Awards, presented to an emerging director of nonfiction features "who has not yet received significant attention." The award is accompanied by a $50,000 unrestricted grant funded by Axium International.

Larry Hott and Diane Garey's Through Deaf Eyes was broadcast nationally on PBS on March 21. The two-hour HDTV documentary explores nearly 200 years of deaf life in America and presents the shared experiences of American history--family life, education, work and community connections--from the perspective of deaf citizens. The film is a production of Florentine Films/Hott Productions and WETA-TV in association with Gallaudet University, and was executive-produced by Karen Kenton and Dalton Delan.

Writer/director Adrena Ifill's Congressman Robert Smalls: A Patriot's Journey from Slavery to Capitol Hill brings to light the full picture of the development of American democracy, the origins of civil rights movement and the man who dedicated his life to this crusade. African-American politicians like Smalls pushed the boundaries of American democracy, setting the stage for the modern day civil rights movement. The film premiered this past February at the Pan African Film Festival in Los Angeles and on South Carolina Pubic Television. www.doublebackproductions.com.

Director Dan Katzir's Yiddish Theater: A Love Story, an 80-minute documentary co-written and produced by Ravit Markus, screened at the Santa Barbara International Film Festival. The film looks at the funny, larger-than-life world of Yiddish theater through the story of Zypora Spaisman, the amazing woman who has kept the oldest running Yiddish Theater in America alive. http://myspace.com/yiddishtheateralovestory.

Mystery of the Nile, the highest-grossing giant screen film of 2005, was released on January 7 at the historic Ethiopian National Theatre in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. The opening event, held on Ethiopia's Christmas Day, was attended by more than 600 guests, including the most important authorities of the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopía, representatives of more than a dozen embassies, academic authorities and businessmen. A special 35mm version of the film, dubbed in Amharic, was produced for the exhibition. The Ethiopian Minister of Culture and Tourism, his excellency Mr. Mohammud Dirir, thanked the producers of Mystery of the Nile, Jordi Llompart and Greg MacGillivray, as well as the film's expedition and production teams. Dirir was especially grateful that a large format documentary filmed in Ethiopia could be "enjoyed not only in Spain, Europe and the USA, but also in our own country, which is the first time that has happened, and on such a special date in the Ethiopian calendar as Christmas Day."

Michelle Mason and Jeff Schutts became proud parents, on November 21, 2006, of Nicholas Hollister Schutts. This blessed event capped off a momentous fall that saw the world premiere screening of Mason's latest film, Breaking Ranks, at the Montreal Film Festival, and the world television premiere of the film on Canada's Global TV. Breaking Ranks examines the current phenomena of US soldiers seeking refuge in Canada as part of their resistance to the war effort in Iraq. www.breakingranksthefilm.com

Joan Meyerson received the Writers Guild of America Award for Outstanding Script: Television Comedy/Variety Specials 2007 for the National Memorial Day Concert broadcast on PBS.

Peter Miller's latest film, Sacco and Vanzetti, was released through First Run Features on March 30 at New York's Quad Cinema; the DVD of the film will be released this summer through First Run, which also distributes Miller's previous film, The Internationale. Of Sacco and Vanzetti, Miller writes, "Over the last five years, I've devoted my life to making a film about an important event in the history of America-a n event that a lot of people have heard of, but may not know much about. It's the story of Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti, two Italian immigrant radicals who were accused of a murder in Boston in 1920, and executed after a notoriously prejudiced trial. When I see in the newspaper today how certain immigrants are treated in this country, it makes me realize that in many ways not much has changed since the days of Sacco and Vanzetti. If you're from ‘somewhere else' and have an accent, or a different skin color, you most likely have to endure discrimination, resentment and even violence. And when I hear about government policies that cut back on civil liberties in the name of protecting our freedom, I'm reminded of the disastrous ‘red scare' that set the scene for the Sacco and Vanzetti trial."

Crossword gurus Merl Reagle and Will Shortz were guests on The Oprah Winfrey Show in February. The two appeared in the film Wordplay. 

The Sundance Institute Documentary Film Program recently announced its second round of grants for 2006 with 20 feature-length documentary films receiving a total of $600,000. Among the grantees were IDA Members Laura Poitras, Tod Lending, Phil Grabsky, Lucia Small and Ricki Stern. Poitras received a grant for Release, which explores the psychological and political repercussions of the United States' policy of detention at Guantanamo Bay Prison by following the stories of men released from Guantanamo and returning home. Lending received a grant for War Is a Force That Gives Us Meaning, a kaleidoscopic journey into the aftermath of war, inspired by and adapted from the national bestseller written by veteran New York Times correspondent Chris Hedges. Grabsky received a grant for Angola Music School (Rivers of Gold), which follows a year in the troubled life of Luanda's only music school. Ed Pincus and Lucia Small received their grant for The Axe in the Attic, in which the two filmmakers embark on a road trip across America to document the lives of those displaced by Hurricane Katrina. Annie Sundberg and Ricki Stern received a work-in-progress grant for The Devil Came on Horseback. Following the experiences of former US Marine Brian Steidle, the film documents his quest to document and expose acts of genocide after serving as an unarmed military observer for the African Union in Darfur, Sudan, from 2004 through 2005.

The films of Jay Rosenblatt were recently presented at a Documentary Salon screening by the UCLA School of Theater, Film and Television and the IDA. The San Francisco-based filmmaker's short films are elegant mosaics combining educational movies from the '50s and '60s, newsreels, Hollywood clips, historical footage, home movies and a rich trove of archival materials. But surreal and dreamlike as they often feel, Rosenblatt's movies also have hard-hitting psychological and historical underpinnings. He is arguably the most acclaimed filmmaker of short, personal/experimental movies working in the US today. A recipient of both Guggenheim and Rockefeller Fellowships, he has won dozens of awards at festivals, both here and abroad, over the past 20 years.

Producer/director Ron Rudaitis' documentary Farming the Future: Farm Life on Long Island was nominated for a New York Emmy in the Outstanding Documentary category. The nomination announcement came only a few days after the documentary won the Silver World Medal in the Environment and Ecology category at the New York Festivals International Film & Video Awards. www.RudaitisMedia.com

Jeffrey Schwarz of Automat Pictures was producer of the DVD Special Edition of the 1984 horror classic A Nightmare on Elm Street. Included on this disc is Never Sleep Again: The Making of A Nightmare on Elm Street, a definitive documentary on the making of the film and its cultural impact, featuring Wes Craven, Robert Englund, Heather Langenkamp, Robert Shaye and the rest of the cast and crew. www.automatpictures.com

Chris Sheridan, the director/producer of ABDUCTION The Megumi Yokota Story, reports that Noel Paul Stookey--the "Paul" in Peter, Paul and Mary--has written a song about the subject of the film, a Japanese girl who was kidnapped 30 years ago while walking home from school, by North Korean agents. Proceeds from the song, as well as several concerts Stookey plans in Japan this May, will go to Megumi's parents for their activities on behalf of Megumi and other Japanese abductees.

Producer Elizabeth Stanley's extreme sports documentary The Doctor, The Tornado and The Kentucky Kid won the Best Editing Award at X-Dance 2007 and received an Xtremey Award for Outstanding Achievement in Documentary Filmmaking. The film was directed by Mark Neale, and produced by Neale and Stanley. Rochelle Watson edited the film.

Dylan Verrechia's feature film Tijuana Makes Me Happy, a coming-of-age story set in Tijuana, Mexico, was an official selection of the Slamdance Film Festival 2007. www.tijuanamakesmehappy.com.