Ken Jacobson recently departed IDA, having served just over three years as its inaugural director of educational programs and strategic partnerships. In that short tenure, he added significant value and visibility to the organization, expanding its programming to include intensive master classes and enhancing the profile of the "Conversations with…" series by securing TCM host Ben Mankiewicz to commandeer the evenings. And then there was Getting Real, the groundbreaking filmmaker-to-filmmaker event--developed and produced by Jacobson, Execeutive Directors Michael Lumpkin and Simon Kilmurry and

Editor's Note: The following is a keynote address that Marcia Smith of Firelight Media delivered at IDA's Getting Real conference last September. Thank you to Simon Kilmurry, Ken Jacobson and other colleagues at IDA for the chance to talk to the tribe on the last day of what's been an inspiring and illuminating conference that has allowed us to deepen connections with each other—and have some great parties. It's not every day that filmmakers can get together in this kind of atmosphere, so this is a very special opportunity, and there's a real thirst for this kind of gathering. Looking to this

Editor's Note: Following IDA's Getting Real '16 conference, filmmakers Grace Lee and Marcia Smith approached us about publishing their respective keynote addresses in this issue. And then came The Election, which prompted both writers to reassess their speeches in this new dystopian world. But we decided to keep the speeches as they are—as self-contained calls for action that were just as powerful in September as they are now—and reinforce their combined urgency with introductions from each of the authors. In this post-election moment, we need more than ever to "get real" about who tells the

Shortly after Facebook acquired Oculus VR, which developed the Oculus Rift headset, CEO Mark Zuckerberg, in an interview in MIT Technology Review, asserted, "Immersive virtual and augmented reality will become a part of people's everyday life. History suggests there will be more platforms to come, and whoever builds and defines these will shape the future and reap the benefits." In the short time since that 2014 acquisition, VR has dominated the conversations among the tech and media cognoscenti, establishing itself as a must-program topic among festival, market and conference mavens

The day before they brought together a groundbreaking number of Asian American documentary filmmakers on the first day of the International Documentary Association's Getting Real 2016 Conference, Grace Lee and S. Leo Chiang barely dodged Typhoon Megi in Taiwan. They had been there for CNEX, a Chinese documentary forum during which Chinese filmmakers come together to work on pitches and meet distributors. Lee and Chiang had to board an earlier flight in order to make it out before the typhoon landed. Lee, director of American Revolutionary: The Evolution of Grace Lee Boggs, and Chiang, director

The three-day agenda of IDA's Getting Real '16 conference contains as many strands: art, diversity and sustainability braid together to form a rope, offering the entire documentary community a way to climb. "Programming a conference" accurately describes the Getting Real team's ultimate task, but it doesn't adequately evoke their process, which has been responsive, mindful and organic. Ken Jacobson, the conference's director of programming, with IDA Executive Director Simon Kilmurry, launched a dialogue in early 2016 with artists around the country, inviting them to unpack their needs. "We

Hillary got it wrong. Her campaign slogan, "Stronger Together," embossed on a sea of campaign signs at the Democratic convention and emblazoned across banner ads in The New York Times, has the right idea, but, in my mind, puts the two words in reverse order. At least that's the argument I began constructing when I realized that the slogan we coined months ago for the Getting Real 2016 documentary film conference was almost identical to hers. "Together. Stronger." That's our slogan. Of course, the two messages are so similar, why quibble? The difference is subtle, but for those of you not that

Back in the fall of 2014, the IDA held the first Getting Real Documentary Film Conference. We had no idea of the impact it would make in the field nor the depth of conversations it would spur. The conference aimed, of course, to gather filmmakers, industry professionals, academics, and students who could confront the critical issues facing the documentary community. The three-day conference, held in Los Angeles in partnership with The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, succeeded in building a sense of community and pushed the conversation forward on key issues within the field. This

This year’s GETTING REAL conference fell at an introspective and ripe time in my life as a documentary filmmaker. For most of my career, I have felt decidedly on the outside looking in at those special folks who visit war zones, interview presidents, whistle-blowers and celebrities, get the big grants and commercial work, and generally manage to make a living at filmmaking. I have envied those who, as Sundance Documentary Film Program Director Tabitha Jackson describes it, are "Curators of Outrage." Especially during my hiatus for motherhood, I was a complete outsider—in a world of diapers

I love hanging out with other documentary filmmakers. It's way cheaper than therapy! Because let's "#GetReal": It's hard out here, y'all! But it's also an amazing time for nonfiction filmmakers. So hanging out at the GETTING REAL 2014 conference was a great way to re-charge and get inspired. It was a welcome break from the grind of raising money, researching the kaleidoscopic distribution landscape and arguing with my tween daughter that Nicki Minaj offers no redeeming cultural value whatsoever. One thing stood out to me after seeing everyone together: There are a lot of people making