The DMCA’s ban on breaking encryption is hurting our ability to make fair use. But you are helping us renew our exemption! The Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) makes it illegal to rip from DVDs, Blu-ray discs, and many other encrypted technologies. The law is blocking our ability to make fair use and could seriously harm documentary filmmaking. Why? Because even though fair use allows us to use copyrighted footage, the DMCA restricts our access to such material. Luckily, the law lets the Librarian of Congress grant exemptions that allow folks to access the works they need. In November
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We are excited to announce today that Carol Leifer will host the 30th Annual IDA Documentary Awards, to be held on Friday, December 5, 2014 in the Paramount Theater at Paramount Studios in Los Angeles. Carol Leifer has starred in five of her own comedy specials that have aired on HBO, Showtime and Comedy Central and has written for the Oscars® telecast seven times. She is a four-time Emmy®-award nominee for her writing on Seinfeld, The Larry Sanders Show and Saturday Night Live. She also received the prestigious Writers Guild Award for her work on the number one comedy, Modern Family. She is
This year’s recipient of IDA’s Preservation and Scholarship Award is Cambodian director Rithy Panh, 60, whose most recent autobiographical film, The Missing Picture, won top prize in the Un Certain Regard section of the 2013 Cannes Film Festival and was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film, as Cambodia’s submission. The Missing Picture blends clay figures, photographs and Khmer Rouge propaganda films into a devastating memoir of Panh’s family’s demise in the work camps of that murderous regime. The Preservation and Scholarship Award goes to Panh for co-founding, along
In 1996, I was working as a journalist and, in lieu of film school, living on a steady diet of documentaries. I was just finishing my first film, and still trying to figure out the mechanics of what makes a documentary work, when I saw When We Were Kings. Though I'd loved many documentaries, none surprised or excited me like this film. The first few minutes are like a magic trick. In flashes, interspersed with the credits, we get Muhammed Ali's early career, meet promoter Don King, understand the pending heavyweight bout, and are introduced to black pride, racism in America and post
Brand, niche, Klout Score, impressions, presence, following: those were the buzzwords bandied about by experts at the 10th annual Film Independent Forum held October 24-26 at the DGA in Los Angeles. "Break Through the Noise" was the title of the conference, and to do just that, upon registration each attendee was handed a heavy book replete with professional contacts, foundations and a compendium of case studies compiled from previous forums. Despite an opening night narrative film ( Nightcrawler), the last day of the Forum consisted of several panels and lectures geared to documentary
'E-Team' is screening in selected theaters and screening on Netflix.
In January 2013, Laura Poitras was working on a film about surveillance, the third and final film in a trilogy propelled by the attacks on September 11, 2001, and the subsequent war on terror, when she was anonymously contacted by a whistleblower. This person, who went by the name "Citizenfour," wanted to get the word out about the NSA's surveillance programs aimed at private citizens who were in no way suspected of any link to terrorism or of any misconduct, transgression or crime. Poitras was Citizenfour's conduit. The 2013 recipient of the IDA's Courage Under Fire Award, which honors a
The Blu-ray edition 'F for Fake' comes out October 21 through The Criterion Collection.
With the Cal Humanities' California Documentary Project grant deadline fast approaching on October 15, we asked Program Officer John Lightfoot to answer questions from the community to help you better prepare your proposal for submission. As always, he provides clear and helpful answers so you can navigate the application process with greater ease. If you have additional questions, post them in the comments section or send them to Lisa Hasko at lisa.h@documentary.org. Good luck! The California Documentary Project grant requires that we have humanities advisors. Who can be an advisor and how do
Colleagues described Breitrose, who taught the history of film and film aesthetics at Stanford for more than five decades, as a man "absolutely in love" with film.