Call For Entries For Best Audio Documentary (Radio/Podcast) are now open! In recognition of the continued expansion of the nonfiction form, we are introducing two new categories for the 34th Annual IDA Documentary Awards. As radio storytelling and podcasting have staked out bold artistic territories, we are debuting the award for Best Audio Documentary. And, as the community has witnessed an impressive body of adventurous work in music documentaries over the past few years, IDA will create a special category devoted exclusively to this genre. "The IDA is proud to support the documentary
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Screen Time is your curated weekly guide to excellent documentaries and nonfiction programs that you can watch at home. Rest in Power: The Trayvon Martin Story, directed by Jenner Furst and Julia Willoughby Nason and written and produced by Jay-Z, re-examines the life and legacy of Trayvon Martin, whose death in 2012 became a catalyst for the Black Lives Matter movement. The six-episode series airs July 30-August 12 on Paramount Network and BET. Whose Streets?, directed by Sabaah Folayan and Damon Davis, makes its PBS premiere July 30 on POV. When unarmed teenager Michael Brown was killed by
Essential Doc Reads is a weekly feature in which the IDA staff recommends recent pieces about the documentary form and its processes. Here we feature think pieces and important news items from around the Internet, and articles from the Documentary magazine archive. We hope you enjoy! From The New York Times, William Yardley reflects on the passing of Bill Loud, the patriarch of the Loud family, the stars of the prototypical nonfiction series, An American Family. But the Louds became a cultural touchstone anyway. Decades before characters on reality programs like The Osbournes and Dance Moms
My name is Cecilia Mejia Morales, but the filmmaking community knows me as Cecilia MeMor. This summer, I am working as an intern for IDA in the Filmmaker Services department through the Los Angeles County Arts Commision (LACAC), Paid Arts Internship Program. During my first week at the IDA, I was invited to attend the National Association of Latino Independent Producers (NALIP) Summit with my supervisor, Toni Bell, Filmmaker Services Manager. While she moderated the “Pitching to Perfection” panel and took meetings with documentary filmmakers, I attended several panels. What follows are my
Screen Time is your curated weekly guide to excellent documentaries and nonfiction programs that you can watch at home. Editor's Note: I didn't know Jonathan Gold personally. And I'm not a hardcore foodie. But Jonathan Gold, whose shocking death on Saturday night of pancreatic cancer, was not simply a Pulitzer Prize-winning food critic. Food, to Gold, was the port of entry to a richer appreciation of culture, of which cuisine was as essential an ingredient as language, music, history and folklore. Gold was an amiable populist, more at home sampling taco-truck fare on the sidewalks on East LA
Essential Doc Reads is a weekly feature in which the IDA staff recommends recent pieces about the documentary form and its processes. Here we feature think pieces and important news items from around the Internet, and articles from the Documentary magazine archive. We hope you enjoy! From TVreal, Sara Alessi talks to gatekeepers about the true crime genre phenomenon. Audiences find true-crime so gripping because the traditional whodunits and longer explorations tap into "universal themes of betrayal, lust, greed, revenge and overcoming adversity," says Laura Fleury, A+E Networks' senior VP
Leah Smith defiantly refuses to believe she needs to be "fixed." A media and entertainment advocate for the Center for Disability Rights, who holds degrees in both public relations and political science (as well as a master’s in public administration), Smith is one of several preconceived notion-upending characters in Emmy Award-winning documentarian Rachel Dretzin’s Far From the Tree. An adaptation of Andrew Solomon’s widely lauded 2012 bestseller Far From the Tree: Parents, Children, and the Search for Identity, the film is a lovingly rendered deep dive into the lives of families with
IDA announced today that it will bring Gimme Truth! to Getting Real ‘18, the only documentary film gathering of its kind in North America. This special edition of the infamous documentary game show is presented in partnership with True/False Film Fest. The wildly entertaining event is a hilarious mashup of filmmaking and investigation, where local filmmakers attempt to stump the panelists with their short doc-style videos that are entirely TRUE or entirely FALSE. The game show will be free and open to the public.
"Show me the money!" was Cuba Gooding Jr.'s rallying cry in Jerry Maguire back in the '90s. Today everyone seems intent on showing you the money; ostentatious displays of wealth seem to be all around us. In her new film, Generation Wealth, veteran photographer and filmmaker Lauren Greenfield ( Thin; Queen of Versailles) takes us on a dizzying journey around the globe, exploring our current obsession with wealth and its trappings. The documentary—part of a multiplatform project that includes a travelling photography exhibition and a photography book—explores our unbridled obsession with
Marina Zenovich is a documentary filmmaker known for her sensitive handling of the life stories of high-profile—some might say, controversial—personalities ( Roman Polanski: Wanted and Desired; Richard Pryor: Omit the Logic; Who Is Bernard Tapie?). For her latest documentary, she has taken on the legacy of actor/comic Robin Williams, who took his life in 2014. Nearly four years later, the shock of his loss persists. Documentary recently caught up with Zenovich to discuss Come Inside My Mind, a title as provocative as the man the film explores. What has the public's reaction been to your film