On production sound...
Latest Posts
The University of California at Santa Cruz (UCSC), tucked between mountains and the redwoods of the central Pacific coast, is famous for its progressive values and faculty/student activism. This legacy thrives in UCSC's acclaimed master's program in Social Documentation/Film-Digital Media, nicknamed "SocDoc." Documentary spoke to B. Ruby Rich, co-founder of and professor at SocDoc, as well as its former director of graduate studies; and John Jota Leaños, associate professor and director of graduate studies, via email about the history and mission of the program. How did the program get started
In the spirit of the US presidential election year, the programmers at the 2004 Sundance Film Festival threw their hats into the ring with a cross-section of documentaries that, obliquely or directly, examine the American political system and the free market economy with which the system is inextricably linked. By plumbing the distant and not-so-distant pasts, these films both uncover heretofore buried stories of individuals who challenged the system and throw harsh light on its merits and flaws. Julius and Ethel Rosenberg were executed in 1953 for "conspiracy to commit espionage." The case
The power of pictures can no longer be denied. Maybe in the past, if you had a television station, movie theater, cable network or a newspaper... You could manage the message. But all that changed at Abu Ghraib prison. Now the power is in the hands of independent voices, and free thinkers. I'll call them "documentarians" for simplicity's sake, but they're not documentary makers in any classic way. Those images were certainly not recorded for publication—more as some sort of horrible trophy. Yet they document acts that will have reverberations around the world. Before those pictures were
A review of 'The Autobiographical Documentary in America.'
It's been CAAMFest for two years now, but it's still a pleasant surprise not to have to utter its former mouthful of a name: the San Francisco International Asian American Film Festival. Like its parent organization, the Center for Asian American Media, its name has been cropped, but its documentary subject matter has remained as inclusive as ever. That CAAMFest draws the youngest audiences I've ever seen at a film festival just confirms its inclusiveness—and probable staying power. Arab-Americans are another community included in CAAMFest's documentary scope. Usama Alshaibi opens his personal
Organizations urge Congress to reduce risk for independent filmmakers.
In 2013, Dolby Labs launched the Dolby Institute, an educational initiative devoted to the use of technology—specifically, sound—as a creative tool. Institute director Glenn Kiser says that the program will "reach out to young filmmakers with an inspirational, educational message about using sound and picture more creatively as storytelling tools." Kiser, former vice president and general manager at Skywalker Sound, has presented educational panels with working artists and sound experts at Sundance Film Festival, Tribeca Film Festival and Los Angeles Film Festival. "We want to engage and
In Missoula, Montana, a town surrounded by mountains, people line up around the block, in freezing weather, to watch films by local favorites, as well as overlooked gems. In its 12th year, the Big Sky Documentary Film Festival, which was started by local filmmakers, focuses not only on finding great films, but also on making sure that the filmmakers get as much out of the experience as possible. While the festival, which ran February 15-23, isn't premiere-centric, I did catch two debuts that really stood out. While it first played for enthusiastic audiences at IDFA last November, Big Sky was
On the making of the PBS production 'Japan: Memoirs of a Secret Empire'