Twenty years seems to be the appropriate time frame for historical events to transform into history, and for historians, pundits, journalists and we the people to look back on how we’ve grown and changed, and how we haven’t; what we’ve learned, and what we haven’t learned. In the mid-1990s, just on the cusp of the digital revolution, America was gripped by the so-called Trail of the Century. OJ Simpson, who nurtured and cultivated his iconic status well beyond his football days, was tried for and acquitted of the double murder of his ex-wife and her friend. This was the culmination of nearly
Latest Posts
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! Amy Ziering, producer of The Hunting Ground, which addresses sexual assaults on college campuses, and Kamilah Willingham, one of the film’s subjects, appeared on Democracy Now! to discuss the recent Stanford University rape case and verdict. “And what’s so interesting is that the reception to The Hunting Ground
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! The New York Times reports on new efforts from female cinematographers attempting to correct gender inequity in the industry. Women make up about 12 percent of Local 600’s camera department roster, Ms. Rhine said. (The union also represents entertainment industry publicists.) The group is just beginning to compile
For the last eight years, the IDA has been a leader in efforts to obtain exemptions to the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (“DMCA”) that preserve documentary filmmakers’ abilities to make fair use in the digital age. Now the Copyright Office is looking at ways to reform the exemption process, and it looks as if things may get just a bit more bearable. The DMCA is the 1998 law that makes it illegal—in some cases a crime, even—to rip from DVDs or other encrypted media, even for filmmakers like us who need to access high-quality media in order to make criticism, commentary, or other forms of
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! At The New York Times, James Glanz reports from the West Bank on the world behind the documentary The Settlers. Mr. Dotan’s film chronicles the germination of the early settler movement after Israel captured the West Bank from Jordan in 1967, including the ideas and religious zeal that fueled it, and explores its
The Cannes Film Festival isn't particularly known for its devotion to the documentary form. Only twice in the festival's history has the Palme d'Or gone to a nonfiction film: in 1956 for The Silent World, directed by Jacques Cousteau and Louis Malle, and in 2004 for Michael Moore's Fahrenheit 911. This year, not a single documentary appeared among the 21 films selected for "main competition"—i.e. those with a shot at winning the Palme d'Or. However, that doesn't mean there isn't space for documentaries in Cannes, although they tend to remain on the periphery, sheltered from the glare of the
In many ways, Ido Haar's Presenting Princess Shaw is a story of connection, an inspirational refute to those who accuse our digital culture of fostering alienation and social remove. The film, which had its international premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival last fall, tells the story of two dissimilar musicians brought together in a unique form of Internet Age collaboration. On one side of the world lives Ophir Kutiel, aka Kutiman, an Israeli composer and media artist renowned for his symphonic mashups of YouTube videos uploaded by amateur musicians. Thousands of miles away, an
The criminal justice system is in the DNA of Bay Area filmmakers Kelly Duane de la Vega and Katie Galloway. Both grew up with "civil rights fathers" and have been making documentaries on the criminal justice system for many years. Their films include the 2011 documentary Better This World, which follows two childhood friends from Texas who got arrested on terrorism charges at the 2008 Republican National Convention. Better This World earned the IDA Creative Recognition Award for Editing, the Gotham Award for Best Documentary and the Writers Guild Award for Best Documentary Screenplay. Their
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! As part of an ongoing symposium on nonfiction and "cinematic reality" at Reverse Shot, Chris Wisniewski considers the affinity between progressive education and Direct Cinema. Both attempt to problematize, minimize, or even eliminate the concept of authority as embodied, alternately, by the teacher or the director
When we think of documentary, we might not immediately consider its broader uses in transmedia and digital applications. For example, Tracy Fullerton’s Walden, a game, takes us into "a real-time 3D environment, which replicates the geography of Walden Pond and the woods in which Thoreau made his home." The game allows individuals to explore complex humanities themes outlined by Thoreau in a newly immersive environment. Telling Stories with the AIDS Memorial Quilt Project is a work currently in development that will result in web-based "public interactives" that will provide a cultural and