IDA News and Features

IDA Has Moved!

Lisa_Hasko — Tue, 07 May 2013 15:20:03 -0400

The International Documentary Association has moved offices in Los Angeles. Please update your fundraising materials, both print and online, and make sure your donors have our new address.

New Address:

What To Do When Your Footage is Behind Encrypted Technology

krelth — Thu, 02 May 2013 13:36:34 -0400

As part of our ongoing Doc U educational series, we brought together the best fair use lawyers and researchers to help you understand what the DMCA exemption means for your non-fiction film.

Fair use is a concept that was created by the courts over 150 years ago. Courts recognized that it simply was not fair to say that every copying of a copyrighted work was a violation of the law. Some copying was necessary to promote the very creativity that the copyright law was designed to promote and protect. ...

IDA Receives NEA Grant for 'Documentary' Magazine

IDA Editorial Staff — Fri, 19 Apr 2013 17:36:46 -0400

National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) Acting Chairman Joan Shigekawa announced today that the International Documentary Association is one of 817 nonprofit organizations nationwide to receive an NEA Art Works grant. The IDA is recommended for a $30,000 grant to support a new distinct online-home for Documentary magazine.

The NEA funds will be used to create a website that contains current issues of the print magazine, as well as an archive of 30 years of back issues. The funding will also help the IDA offer the magazine’s content on mobile and ...

IDA's New Screening Series To Replace DocuWeeks Qualifying Showcase

IDA Editorial Staff — Tue, 09 Apr 2013 14:37:50 -0400

The IDA is happy to announce the launch of the IDA Documentary Screening Series, invitation-only screenings of fifteen documentary features to take place annually between September and January. The new series will replace our DocuWeeks™ Theatrical Documentary Showcase, a program designed to help filmmakers qualify their works for Oscar® consideration. We are making these changes in response to both the evolving needs of documentary filmmakers and recent changes in the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences' (AMPAS) qualifying rules for documentary features and shorts.

Over the last year, we have ...

Les Blank, IDA Career Achievement Award Honoree, Dies at 77

twhite — Mon, 08 Apr 2013 00:00:00 -0400

Les Blank, whose scintillating portraits of Americana defined a six-decade career, died April 7 at his home in Berkeley, Calif., of complications of bladder cancer. He was 77.

He leaves behind a trove of poetic explorations into the lives of legends and unknowns alike—Lightinin' Hopkins and Leon Russell, as well as gap-toothed women, garlic and tea aficionados and Mardi Gras revelers. Legendary folklorist Alan Lomax mined this territory too, but Blank opened it up further and deeper, beyond the conventions of ethnographic filmmaking to a more resonant kind of poetry. (For ...

Pare Lorentz Documentary Fund Accepting Submissions Through Monday, April 22

Lisa_Hasko — Thu, 14 Mar 2013 18:43:50 -0400

The International Documentary Association is now accepting proposals for the The Pare Lorentz Documentary Fund, which provides production support for full-length documentary films. The Pare Lorentz Documentary Fund is made possible by a grant from The New York Community Trust.

Launch Of FirstCom SoundFX Site

cchyr — Thu, 28 Feb 2013 17:08:35 -0500

Launch Of FirstCom SoundFX Site A Game Changer Producers and audio editors can now easily search, audition, and download over 33 thousand premium, pre-cleared sound effects.

IDA Sponsors, FirstCom Music today announced the official launch party for FirstCom SoundFX at NAB 2013 in Las Vegas. This new site is a rich and dynamic tool for producers to access thousands of quality online sound effects. “Our clients needed a more effective way to search for sound effects,” says Carol Riffert, Vice President/General Manager for FirstCom Music. “To meet this need, we ...

'Searching for Sugar Man', 'Inocente' Take Statues at 2013 Oscar Ceremony

IDA Editorial Staff — Sun, 24 Feb 2013 23:38:47 -0500

Tonight at the 85th annual Academy Awards in Los Angeles, CA, feature documentary Searching for Sugar Man and short doc Inocente took home statues in their respective categories.

Searching for Sugar Man, the film that won Best Feature at the IDA Documentary Awards in 2012, details the efforts of two Cape Town fans, Stephen 'Sugar' Segerman and Craig Bartholomew Strydom who seek to find out if the rumored death of American musician Rodriguez was true. The film, directed by Malik Bendjelloul, also won the Special Jury Prize and the Audience ...

Seven Years, '5 Broken Cameras': Documenting the Occupation

Thomas White — Sun, 24 Feb 2013 00:00:00 -0500

Oscar-Bound: 'Redemption' Directors Matthew O'Neill and Jon Alpert

Katharine Relth — Wed, 20 Feb 2013 18:38:01 -0500

Documentary.org asked Matthew O'Neill and Jon Alpert about their Oscar-nominated short film 'Redemption'

City of New York Blocked from 'Central Park Five' Film Footage

IDA Editorial Staff — Tue, 19 Feb 2013 19:34:48 -0500

It was announced today that New York City's case against the Central Park Five filmmakers Ken Burns, David McMahon and Sarah Burns has been blocked by a federal judge. Back in October, 2012, the filmmakers received a subpoena from the City of New York for the outtakes and extra footage from the documentary. Although the lawyers for the city insisted on seeing all of the footage before the film was released to the public, U.S. Magistrate Judge Ronald L. Ellis said the city's concerns did not override the "precious rights ...

Oscar-Bound: 'Inocente' Directors Sean and Andrea Fine

Katharine Relth — Thu, 14 Feb 2013 14:44:06 -0500

Documentary.org talked with the filmmakers Sean and Andrea Fine, directors of the Oscar-nominated short film 'Inocente'.

IDA Submits Comments on Orphan Works to US Copyright Office

IDA Editorial Staff — Tue, 05 Feb 2013 15:26:20 -0500

On Monday, February 4, 2013, IDA filed comments with the United States Copyright Office regarding orphan works, or materials for which the original copyright owner cannot be contacted. These comments, which the USC Intellectual Property and Technology Law Clinic and attorney Michael C. Donaldson submitted on behalf of the IDA, Film Independent, the Independent Filmmaker Project, Kartemquin Educational Films, Inc., and the National Alliance for Media Arts and Culture, will hopefully help urge the Copyright Office and Congress to take the right approach when ruling on orphan works.

Orphan works are ...

Doc U Now Available Online to IDA Members

IDA Editorial Staff — Tue, 15 Jan 2013 14:00:00 -0500

The International Documentary Association (IDA) is thrilled to announce that Doc U is available for online viewing starting today, January 15, 2013. This new program expansion was made possible through generous funding from The Harnsich Foundation and Lekha Singh.

"Making Doc U available online was an important program expansion for the IDA, and we cannot thank our funders enough for their generosity," explains Michael Lumpkin, Executive Director of the IDA. "Our documentary film community consists of members who live around the world—having Doc U Online allows us to meet the needs ...

This February: Documentary Producing Workshops with Mitchell Block

IDA Editorial Staff — Fri, 11 Jan 2013 17:10:00 -0500

Need to know how to get funding to make your documentary? In the dark about distribution and marketing opportunities? Want to share your ideas or your project have them evaluated in a group of your peers? If you answered "yes" to any of these questions, then do we have the opportunity for you!

Multi-award winning executive producer Mitchell Block has joined with the IDA once again to produce an exclusive 2-day Documentary Producing Workshop to help you and other aspiring documentary filmmakers find answers to all your questions. Part of ...

IDA's Fiscally Sponsored 'The Invisible War', Two DocuWeeks Shorts Get Oscar Nods

IDA Editorial Staff — Thu, 10 Jan 2013 13:17:50 -0500

On the morning of Thursday, January 10, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announced their nominees for Oscars 2013. The IDA is proud to highlight our strong relationship with several films in the running, including nominees in both the Documentary Feature and Documentary Short categories.
In the Feature category, Kirby Dick's The Invisible War is one of the five films to receive this much anticipated nomination. A groundbreaking investigative documentary about the epidemic of rape within the U.S. military, The Invisible War is a participant in IDA's Fiscal ...

Sundance Announces Doc Grantees

IDA Editorial Staff — Wed, 26 Dec 2012 00:00:00 -0500

The Sundance Institute announced that 25 feature-length documentary films that will receive $550,000 in grants from its Documentary Film Program and Fund (DFP). Grantees were selected from 696 submissions from 104 countries.

Cara Mertes, Director of the Sundance Institute Documentary Film Program and Fund said, "As we enter a new cycle for political leadership in the US and abroad, documentary filmmakers continue to seek out stories that elucidate the conditions of our lives. Their reach is global, and their stories connect and inspire a new generation of independent documentary filmmakers and audiences."

Among ...

'Searching for Sugar Man,' Herzog's 'On Death Row' Take Top Honors at 2012 IDA Documentary Awards

krelth — Wed, 12 Dec 2012 21:02:51 -0500

On Friday, December 7, 2012, the biggest names and faces from documentary film and non-fiction production in the past year all gathered at the Directors Guild of America Theater in Los Angeles to celebrate this year's achievements in the medium. Renowned illusionist, comedian, and larger-than-life personality Penn Jillette hosted the 28th year of this Awards program, which recognized a gamut of productions in 15 different award categories. The ceremony, which kicked off after A&E's pre-party honoring IDA Career Achievement Award winner Arnold Shapiro, was full of laughs, heart-felt words about ...