The Sundance Institute Documentary Fund announced its first round of grants for 2006 with 15 feature-length documentary films receiving a total of $605,000. The fund supports US and international docs that "focus on current human rights issues, freedom of expression, social justice, civil liberties, and exploring critical issues of the time." Projects receiving grants in which IDA members are involved in include: Robert Bahar and Almudena Carrecedo's Made in LA (US); Skye Fitzgerald's Bombhunters (US/Cambodia); and Tia Lessin, Carl Deal and Amir Bar-Lev's Trouble the Waters (US).

BBC Motion Gallery footage is featured in nine projects that were nominated for 2005-2006 Emmy Awards, including National Geographic Channel's Inside 9/11; PBS's American Masters (John Ford/John Wayne: The Filmmaker and theLegend; Bob Dylan: No Direction Home), TCM's Stardust: The Bette Davis Story, A&E's Biography, Bravo's Inside the Actors Studio, NBC's The West Wing and Showtime's Sleeper Cell. www.bbcmotiongallery.com.

Emmy Award winners Dayna Geller and Dan Goldfine report that their film Ballets Russes was released on DVD in September through Zeitgeist Video. Covering more than 50 years in the lives of a group of revolutionary artists, the film tells the story of the extraordinary blend of Russian, American, European and Latin Americans who, in collaboration with the greatest choreographers, composers and designers of the first half of the 20th century, transformed ballet from mere music hall diversion to a true art form.  

ITN Source (formerly ITN Archive), "the world's fastest growing commercial archive and moving image provider," has opened a German sales office. Account Executive Olivia Schofield will head up the new office and will be responsible for driving new business across the region. The team in Germany will work closely with the archive research team based at ITN Source's London headquarters to provide the German-speaking and East European regions with content from ITN Source's extensive catalogue of archive libraries, which include Reuters, ITN, Fox News, Fox Movietone, British Pathé, Granada and Channel 4. www.itnsource.com.

Brigid Kelly field-produced Driving Force, a television series for A&E that began airing in July. www.aetv.com/drivingforce/index.jsp.

Composer John Keltonic scored a project about Walter Cronkite that aired in July as part of the PBS primetime series American Masters. Produced by Tatge/Lasseur Productions for WNET/New York and PBS, this film focuses on the intriguing life of this CBS reporter and commentator as he led America through some of its most trying and difficult times, and in the process became known as "the most trusted man in America."

Writer/director Michelle Mason's documentary Breaking Ranks had its world premiere at the Montreal World Film Festival in August. The film follows four American military soldiers seeking sanctuary in Canada as part of their resistance to the war in Iraq. Produced by Screen Siren Pictures, in co-production with the National Film Board of Canada for Global Television's new Global Currents strand, Breaking Ranks focuses on the change of consciousness experienced by each of the young men, and how their decision to leave the army has affected their lives. Some are alone, some are surrounded by family, and all are experiencing the effects of this decision. www.breakingranksthefilm.com.

The National Film Board of Canada (NFB), the Ministry of Culture of Brazil and the Brazilian Producers' Association have joined forces to announce a C$100,000 development fund, open to Canadian and Brazilian private producers. This new fund is the latest spin-off from a far-ranging Cultural Cooperation Program Agreement signed by the NFB and the Ministry of Culture of Brazil in March 2006. The fund will provide up to $25,000 per documentary or animation project.

Sound of the Soul, Stephen Olsson's homage to the Fez Festival of World Sacred Music and to Morocco as a country where Muslims, Christians and Jews have lived together in relative peace for centuries, screened recently to full houses at the Tribeca Film Festival and the Jerusalem International Film Festival. At press time, upcoming screenings included the WOMEX international world music festival, the Arab Film Festival in San Francisco, the Sun Valley Spiritual Film Festival, the Vancouver International Film Festival, and as part of a special Tribeca Selection at the upcoming Sarajevo Film Festival.

Director/cinematographer Laura Poitras' My Country, My Country opened in Los Angeles in September. The film premiered at the Berlin Film Festival, and then played the 2006 New Directors/New Films series in New York. Working alone in Iraq over eight months, Poitras created an extraordinarily intimate portrait of Iraqis living under US occupation. Her principal focus in the film is Dr. Riyadh, an Iraqi medical doctor, father of six and Sunni political candidate caught in the tragic contradictions of the US occupation of Iraq and its project to spread democracy in the Middle East. Poitras received a Peabody Award for her last documentary, Flag Wars (2003).

P.O.V., public television's premier showcase for independent point-of-view films, has received six nominations in the 27th Annual News and Documentary Emmy Awards. IDA members whose projects are represented include Marshall Curry (Street Fight -- Outstanding Informational Programming--Long Form); Tod Lending (Omar and Pete - Best Documentary); and Susan Stern (The Self-Made Man - Writing, Outstanding Informational Programming--Long Form).

Hank Rogerson and Jilann Spitzmiller's Shakespeare Behind Bars was released on DVD in July through International Film Circuit in association with Shout! Factory. It is available on Netflix, Amazon, Borders and Barnes & Noble, as well as at Best Buy and Tower Records. www.shakespearebehindbars.com.

Jeffrey Schwarz, president of Los Angeles-based Automat Pictures, produced and directed No Day But Today: The Story of Rent. This feature-length documentary tells the story of Jonathan Larson and the development of the hit Broadway show and movie. It is featured on the Sony Pictures Home Entertainment release of Rent. Other recent work includes the Encore special Shooting the Police, which focuses on the cop movie genre. He also produced Hitchcocked! for the Encore Mystery Channel, a survey of the work of Alfred Hitchcock, featuring interviews with contemporary filmmakers.

Producers/directors Chris Sheridan and Patty Kim have reached a deal with a distributor to bring their award-winning documentary ABDUCTION The Megumi Yokota Story to Japan. Safari Media, the film's production company, signed a distribution deal with Gaga Communications Inc. for theatrical, Internet, DVD and other rights for the Japanese market. The film will be re-titled MEGUMI: A Family Torn Apart for 30 Years for its Japanese release. Gaga plans to open the film theatrically in November in Tokyo, where the general public will finally be able to see it. The film tells the story of Megumi Yokota, a 13-year-old Japanese girl kidnapped by North Korean spies in 1977, and her parents' 30-year struggle to try to bring her home. www.abductionfilm.com.

Filmmaker Jonathan Stack recently participated in "Table of Free Voices," a global thought summit presented by Dropping Knowledge, an open-source content portal for multiple viewpoints. One hundred and eleven artists, activists, scientists, philosophers and writers convened to offer their insights on 100 of the most profound questions asked around the world. The conference took place on September 9, 2006. www.droppingknowledge.org.

The Cole Nobody Knows, the documentary short on musician Freddy Cole, recently screened at the 2006 Raindance Film Festival in London. Produced and directed by Clay Walker, The Cole Nobody Knows profiles the lesser-known, yet equally talented younger brother of Nat "King" Cole. At age 74, Freddy Cole is, at last, being widely recognized for his amazing musical talent. The film examines Cole's complicated journey of creating a career in the shadow of a famous sibling. Cole's story is told through interviews with Cole, Monty Alexander, Nancy Wilson, David "Fathead" Newman, John di Martino, H Johnson, Carl Anthony and many others. Photographed in Atlanta, New York City, New Jersey, Los Angeles, Switzerland and France, The Cole Nobody Knows also offers a reinvigorating journey through the "Great American Songbook" by offering extraordinary live performance material with Cole and his quartet. More info: http://www.planbproductions.com/Freddy_Cole/

Roger Weisberg's Waging a Living premiered on August 29 on P.O.V. Shot over a three-year period in the Northeast and California, this observational documentary captures the dreams, frustrations and accomplishments of a diverse group of people who struggle to live from paycheck to paycheck. By presenting an unvarnished look at the barriers that these workers must overcome to lift their families out of poverty, Waging a Living offers a sobering view of the elusive American Dream. A companion website offers a wealth of additional resources both about the film and the topic. www.pbs.org/pov/pov2006/wagingaliving.

Gail Willumsen and Jill Shinefield were nominated for News and Documentary Emmy Awards for Delivering the Goods, which they produced through their company Gemini Productions. Willumsen also served as director and writer on the show. Featuring profiles of groundbreaking health programs in Thailand, Bangladesh, Gambia and Chad, this documentary was one of six episodes in WGBH's series Rx for Survival: A Global Health Challenge, which received a nomination for Best Informational Programming--Long Form. www.pbs.org/wgbh/rxforsurvival.