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! On Motherboard, filmmaker and Kartemquin founder Gordon Quinn argues that the Digital Millenium Copyright Act is still broken: The Copyright Office's decisions are never a sure bet, and free expression becomes the victim as a result. Just three years ago, for example, we argued for an exemption to circumvent
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Editor's note: Over the next few weeks, we at IDA will be introducing our community to the films that have been honored by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences with an Oscar® nomination in the documentary category. You can see A Girl in the River: The Price of Forgiveness on Saturday, February 27 at 11 a.m. at the Writers Guild of America Theater as part of DocuDay LA. When Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy was nominated for the Academy Award in 2012 for her documentary short Saving Face (Daniel Junge also directed), the film made an immediate impact in getting her fellow Pakistanis to engage
The importance of telling what's happening on the ground and relaying these visuals back to the people with the power to make a difference and fund the response is so critical. Editor's note: Over the next few weeks, we at IDA will be introducing our community to the films that have been honored by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences with an Oscar® nomination in the documentary category. You can see Body Team 12 on Saturday, February 27 at 11 a.m. at the Writers Guild of Theater in Beverly Hills as part of DocuDay LA. In 2014, when the Ebola virus outbreak began to spread across
In celebration of the feast of Saint Valentine, we wanted to shine a (heart)light on a handful of our favorite documentaries about love. Here are ten films we recommend watching while cuddled up with your sweetheart, or snuggled up alone on your couch on Valentine's day. Walk Run Cha-Cha (Laura Nix, 2019) Oscar-nominated and IDA fiscally-sponsored short, Walk Run Cha-Cha, tells the story of Paul and Millie Cao who reunited in California after the Vietnam War. Forty years later, they are rediscovering themselves on the dance floor. Watch it: New York Times Op-Docs Meet the Patels (Ravi Patel &
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! On NPR's Code Switch, Monica Castillo wonders where the Sundance Film Festival fits into Hollywood's conversation about diversity: The increased attention on underrepresented filmmakers excites Sonita director Rokhsareh Ghaem. The Iranian director believes the digital revolution is behind the increase of female
"We are standing here to prove that Ukraine is a European country." Editor's note: Over the next few weeks, we at IDA will be introducing our community to the films that have been honored by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences with an Oscar® nomination in the documentary category. You can see Winter on Fire on Saturday, February 27 at 10:30p at the Writers Guild of America Theater as part of DocuDay LA. Over the course of just 93 days in 2014, what began as peaceful student demonstrations in Ukraine morphed into a violent revolution. Filmmaker Evgeny Afineevsky was on the
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 Sundance Institute blog, editor Kate Amend discusses her art and craft: I don't think anyone grows up wanting to be an editor. When I was a kid the options for women were housewife, teacher, and nurse. But I always fantasized that I would do something in the arts. I wanted to be a singer or an actress –
"The more people see of me, the more they'll realize that all I'm good for is making music." Editor's note: Over the next few weeks, we at IDA will be introducing our community to the films that have been honored by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences with an Oscar® nomination in the documentary category. You can see Amy on Saturday, February 27 at the Writers Guild of America Theater as a part of DocuDay. On September 21, 2015, the IDA screened filmmaker Asia Kapadia's shattering and affecting Amy as a part of the IDA Documentary Screening Series. Now an Oscar-nominee about the
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 covers filmmaker's Laura Poitras's upcoming exhibit at the Whitney Museum: Nothing is what it seems in the exhibition by Ms. Poitras, the crusading journalist and filmmaker made famous (or notorious) by her association with the former government contractor Edward J. Snowden. Mr. Snowden's
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