After completing his latest documentary feature, Errol Morris professed that the film captured "the strangest interview I’ve ever done." And for Morris, the man famous for the invention of his interviewing machine aptly coined The Interrotron, this conversation with former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld is just one of thousands he’s conducted over the course of his filmmaking career. So to refer to it as "the strangest" is certainly saying something. After developing a personal fascination with Rumsfeld's "snowflakes"—the enormous mountain of memos he composed during his almost fifty
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I have had job interviews and meetings with some of the best independent documentary filmmakers around. Some of them hired me for paying jobs; others offered me positions working for free; one didn't want to properly administer credit; another tested me out through a trial period of unpaid work. The last led to a paid position. Many prestigious filmmakers often say they have no money to hire while in development and in early stages of production, yet they want the labor. They offer unpaid work because they can get someone to fill the spot—usually a college student or a recent graduate, but
Director Barbara Kopple spoke to Indiewire's Dana Harris about wanting to get inside the Hemingway mythos.
The upcoming Winter issue of Documentary magazine will take a comprehensive look at the all-important elements to any documentary: Sound and Music! Production sound, sound design, editing and mixing, composing, music licensing and music supervision, and music documentaries: It's all here, for your reading—and maybe even listening—pleasure! Experts from across the documentary spectrum share their insights about their secrets to sonic synchronicity. But wait. There's more! Thanks to the popularity of the education-themed Fall 2013 issue, we are launching a new column that will spotlight a
Criticwire's Steve Greene talks to TIM'S VERMEER producer Farley Ziegler about carving their story.
NFB Deems Him 'One of the Greats of the Documentary World'
A review of 'American Ethnographic Film and Personal Documentary: The Cambridge Turn'
As reported in The New York Times, filmmaker Ed Pincus, one of the pioneers in the personal documentary genre, died last week at home in Vermont, at age 75, of complications from leukemia. Pincus was best known for Diaries, which documented five years of his life, from 1971 to 1976, with his wife, Jane, their two children—and a number of women with whom he had affairs. In an essay he wrote for Documentary magazine back in 2001, filmmaker Ross McElwee described Diaries as a "portrait of a particular era—the early 1970s—a time in which a willingness to experiment in life, love and political
Though it doesn't feel like winter at the IDA headquarters here in sunny Los Angeles, the season is definitely upon us, which means it's time for more grant opportunities! Okay, that might not be what the season is all about. But for documentary filmmakers, the fundraising brain never rests. We've put together a list of grants and other opportunities with upcoming deadlines that we think might be of interest to you. As you sort through the list and go about conducting your grant research and learning the requirements of each organization—they're all different—you'll find that many require you
'Narco Cultura' opens in theaters November 22 through Cinedigm.