Last Days in Vietnam documents the frenzied, final chapter of a lamentable period in the American narrative. With access to remarkable footage of both the 45 days leading to the fall of Saigon and the 1973 cease-fire treaty that started the slow retreat, and to the key actors in that drama, producer/director Rory Kennedy has crafted a riveting, suspenseful account of history. Last Days in Vietnam, one of the Academy Award nominees for Best Documentary Feature, airs April 28 on the PBS series American Experience. Eschewing a re-examination of the Vietnam War, Kennedy focuses on a day-by-day
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In 40 short minutes, Aneta Kopacz's Oscar®-nominated short documentary Joanna invites us in, embraces us unconditionally, and reveals a brief portrait of a woman facing the realities of a terminal illness. The titular Joanna, a woman slight of stature but substantial in wisdom, copes with the reality of her condition by sharing as much as she can with her brilliant son Janek, a boy of roughly 8 years of age who asks questions as deep and important as any learned philosopher. She publishes her thoughts and succinct life lessons on her blog, where thousands of readers join her in the legacy of
Recently, net neutrality has been front and center in an ongoing fight over free and open access to information online. Over the past year, more than 4 million Americans called on Federal Communications Commission Chairman Tom Wheeler to make sure Internet service providers would not throttle the Internet for their own profitable gain or establish fast and slow lanes. And the IDA filed two comments with the FCC urging it to adopt a strong net neutrality rule, continuing work we started in 2010 on this issue. Last week, Wheeler proved that he was listening with a new proposal that promises just
Every Fall, we have the pleasure of hosting the IDA Screening Series, which brings some of the year's best documentary films to the IDA community and members of industry guilds and organizations. Films selected for the Series receive exclusive access to an audience of tastemakers and doc lovers during the important Awards campaigning season. Screenings conclude with a moderated Q&A with the filmmakers, which always produce a lively conversation and reveal extraordinary details about each film and the craft involved in bringing it to life. Back in 2014, the IDA was lucky enough to work with
As part of a new initiative to highlight critical issues in the documentary field and enhance filmmakers' professional development opportunities, IDA is presenting a series of four Doc U's in the Bay Area over the next four months. The kickoff topic in mid-January was "Getting Real About the Doc Career” featuring esteemed filmmaker Dawn Porter ( Gideon’s Army) moderating an all-filmmaker panel, including Kelly Duane de la Vega ( Better This World), Jennifer Maytorena Taylor ( New Muslim Cool), Amanda Micheli ( La Corona), Jesse Moss ( The Overnighters), and Nicole Opper ( Off and Running). The
Among the most fascinating documentaries are those that not only illuminate an individual—a character—but the times in which they live. Robert McNamara in Errol Morris' The Fog of War…Philippe Petit in James Marsh's Man on Wire….Jacqueline Siegel in Lauren Greenfield's The Queen of Versailles: These are some of the more shining examples. In writer-director Gabe Polsky's Red Army, the character is Slava Fetisov, and the times are the twilight of the Cold War. Fetisov, for those unfamiliar with hockey history, is among the greatest players ever, who captained the mighty Soviet national team at
The University of Texas at Austin offered its first degree in broadcasting in 1939. In 1965, the university formed its Department of Radio-Television-Film, which today offers a broad range of courses in the media arts that lead to bachelor of science, master of fine arts and PhD degrees. The school claims to have been “consistently ranked as one of the top 10 programs in the country,” and proudly notes, “It is one of the few departments offering degrees in both media production and media studies.” Filmmaker Paul Stekler came to Austin to head the RTF program in 1997. His documentaries have
Werner Herzog: Interviews Edited by Eric Ames from the Conversations with Filmmakers Series, edited by Gerald Peary Published by University Press of Mississippi 2014 “Will the real Werner Herzog please stand up?” Surely, the panelists would have been fooled if Werner Herzog had been a contestant on the 1950s TV game show To Tell the Truth. It is ironic that one of greatest enigmas in the art world of the 21st century is also one of its most prolific, discussed, revered and occasionally dismissed filmmakers. While many have attempted to get at the “truth” of the man through analysis of his
Enjoying its second year in the city center, the International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam (IDFA) thrives as a multi-layered event, offering up so much richness that one person cannot absorb it all. Forced to choose among some 300 documentaries, including 12 competitive categories, one can reach overload just by reading the program. Then there are the special screenings: master retrospectives, this year including films from Frederick Wiseman, Hubert Sauper, Nick Broomfield, Wim Wenders, Lixin Fan, Julien Temple; the 2014 IDFA Tribute to Heddy Honigman who, as is customary for the
Clearance & Copyright: Everything You Need to Know for Film and Television4th Edition, Revised, Updated and Expanded 2014By Michael C. Donaldson and Lisa A. Callif It takes a combination of self-confidence and chutzpa to include "Everything You Need to Know…" in the title of any book, but in the case of authors Michael Donaldson and Lisa A. Callif, that self-confidence is well earned. Back in 2008 I enthusiastically reviewed the 3rd edition of Clearance and Copyright: Everything You Need to Know for Film and Television for Documentary magazine. Then, I regarded issues surrounding clearance and