A review of Sheila Curran Bernard's 'Documentary Storytelling for Film and Videomakers'
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Last week, the USC Intellectual Property and Technology Law Clinic continued its advocacy efforts on behalf of documentary and independent filmmakers seeking reform on the issue of orphan works, copyrighted works for which the original rights holder cannot be identified or located. Many documentary filmmakers use existing copyrighted works when editing together their films, typically in the form of archival material. Sometimes a filmmaker may rely on fair use, but often he or she needs to obtain a license. When a work is orphaned, obtaining a license is impossible: how do you get a license
Ultimate Explorer correspondent Lisa Ling, (right) on assignment with smokejumpers in Nepal. Photo: Mark Thiessen/National Geographic Television and Film." src="http://www.documentary.org/images/magazine/2003/UltimateExplorer_Dez2003.jpg" style="width: 647px; height: 411px;"> One of the longest running series on cable television, National Geographic's Ultimate Explorer, debuted in 1985 as Explorer, just as cable was starting to explode. The series has bounced from channel to channel, but has always managed to stay alive in the television jungle. Explorer first found a home on Nickelodeon. A
It's April, and the political season is in full swing as Americans explore the ideas, ethics and vision of a field of presidential hopefuls. For those of us who pride ourselves in making documentaries that are important and engaging, politics can be alluring subject matter. Fast-paced and dramatic, the medium has the impact to shape the world around us in a way that few others can. But there is a problem. Documentaries are, in their purest form, a slow and careful enterprise. News programs—the hyperactive cousin of the observational documentary—are in many ways more suited to the high-speed
Dear Editor, I just read Melissa Hook's article ("The Real CSI: Are Crime Victims Being Re-Victimized by Filmmakers?") in the February-March 2004 International Documentary. I was interviewed for this piece and was glad to participate, given the importance of the topic. Unfortunately, while I cannot speak for the entire article, the section where she quotes me is both erroneous and shortsighted. Her first mistake is a misreading of my and Liz Garbus' film, The Farm. Contrary to Hook's stated assumption, the unjust conviction of a rapist is not a theme in the film. The main themes are about how
Nominees: 19 th Annual IDA DISTINGUISHED DOCUMENTARY ACHIEVEMENT AWARDS 2003 Feature Documentaries BalserosMaria Jose Solera, Tom Roca, Loris Omedes, Carlos Bosch, Josep M. DomenechHBO/Cinemax Documentary Films, Seventh Art Releasing, Televisio Catalunya, Bausan Films Berga: Soldiers of Another WarCharles Guggenheim, Grace GuggenheimPBS Home Video, CS Associates, Guggenheim Productions Inc., Thirteen/WNET New York Capturing the FriedmansAndrew Jarecki, Marc Smerling, Jennifer RogenMagnolia Pictures, HBO Documentary Films Das Leben Geht Weiter (Life Goes On)Carl Schmit, Mark CairnsStarcrest
The Independent Film Project (IFP) Market, held in New York City in September, has reinvented itself. Gone are the circus-like antics to recruit viewers into screenings. Absent is the excess of projects diluting the overall quality. Today's IFP Market has changed: it's streamlined, more focused. And it's a better place than ever to bring your documentary, at whatever stage you are in. Veteran market buyer Stephen Kral of Seventh Art Releasing notes the changes this way: "For years the market has been a good place to bring your doc; now it's an excellent place. Docs are getting better all the
Earlier this year Discovery Channel announced a self-proclaimed "historic" venture-"Discovery Docs," the first theatrical film series produced by a cable TV network. Co-produced with CameraPlanet, Discovery Docs will release from two to four titles a year to theaters, followed by a Discovery Channel airdate. Discovery says the first film in the series is slated to debut in early 2004, although until the ink dries on everyone's contracts, neither the filmmaker nor the topic will be announced. Discovery might have started a sensation, or at least furthered a growing trend. Since the announcement
A battle is brewing between victims and filmmakers over the use of crime stories for documentary films and reality television. Victims/survivors are outraged when they find that their victimizations have been exploited for commercial gain without their knowledge or participation. Some express distress over what they consider to be sordid re-enactments of the death or retrieval of the body. More importantly, they do not want the precious memories of their loved ones denigrated by victim-blaming or an emphasis on salacious aspects of the victimization. Some victims/survivors at the center of
Returning from the 82nd Annual Inter-Tribal Indian Ceremonial in Gallup, New Mexico, in August 2002, with nine hours of DV-cam footage shot on my Sony PD150, I had the intent to return in August 2003 to complete a documentary of this oldest American Indian arts event in the world. With Indian dancing and rodeo held in an arena surrounded by the spectacular red sandstone cliffs of Red Rock State Park, and Indian artists selling their art in the main building and surrounding courtyard, Ceremonial––ls it is referred to by Indians and art collectors alike--is a visual extravaganza for those