"Truth is the first casualty of war," the old adage says. And in the case of the war in Iraq it is alarmingly accurate. Documentarians have stepped in to show American audiences what they may not have otherwise seen on the media. The popular successes of such 2004 docs as Michael Moore's Fahrenheit 911, Robert Greenwald's Outfoxed and Jehane Noujaim's Control Room demonstrate that the American public is hungry for this kind of information, and is not alone in its desire to understand the texture and nuance of simple news and sugar-coated stories presented by the mainstream media. A recent
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Docuphiles know and love the elegant British director Michael Apted for his " Up" series, the ground-breaking British documentary project that, for 40 years now, has revisited the same individuals every seven years to document how their sense of self as children predicted their real adult lives. Apted shoots the next installment, 49-Up, in spring 2005. But mainstream American movie fans know Apted as the fiction director of films as varied as the Jennifer Lopez vehicle Enough (2002) and the classic Coal Miner's Daughter (1980). "I suppose the ' Up' film is the most important work I've ever
FEATURE DOCUMENTARIES Aileen: Life and Death of a Serial KillerNick Broomfield, Joan Churchill, Jo HumanLafayette Films, Lantern Lane Entertainment, Channel 4 Television, HBO Being DorothyHoward Goldberg, Ina FichmanDistribution La Fete Inc., Productions La Fete Inc. Born into Brothels (*Winner)Zana Briski, Ross Kauffman, Geralyn White Dreyfous, Pamela BollTHINKFilm, HBO Cinemax Documentary Films Control Room (*Honorable Mention)Jehane Noujaim, Hani Salama, Rosadel VarelaMagnolia Pictures, Films Transit International The CorporationMark Achbar, Jennifer Abbott, Bart SimpsonBig Picture Media
FEATURE DOCUMENTARIES Born into Brothels Directors/Producers/Cinematographers: Zana Briski, Ross Kauffman Editors: NancyBaker, Ross Kauffman Composer: John McDowell Executive Producer: Geralyn White Dreyfous Co-Executive Producer: Pamela Boll THINKFilm, HBO Cinemax Documentary Films The most stigmatized people in Calcutta's red light district are not the prostitutes, but their children. In the face of abject poverty, abuse and despair, these kids have little possibility of escaping their mother's fate or for creating another type of life. In Born into Brothels, directors Zana Briski and Ross
The summer granting cycle is open! Although they are competitive, grants are a great way to round out that ever growing budget. We've listed a few of our favorite documentary specific grants that are now accepting applications. Check them out and see if one is right for you. THE CATAPULT FILM FUNDCatapult Film Fund opened it's summer round of applications on June 17th, but the actual deadline is August 19th. Catapult Film Fund provides development funding to documentary filmmakers who have a compelling story to tell, have secured access to their story and are ready to shoot and edit a piece
She is young, pretty, petite. She faces a hostile group of men who claim the Koran decrees that women should cover their faces, and dares to tell them they're wrong. A voiceover translates her commentary: "I will never accept that ignorance and intolerance should hide my face ever again." Later, she turns her uncovered face to the camera, and says in English, "I am not afraid. I am a journalist. I am brave." It is one of the many riveting moments of the documentary Afghanistan Unveiled. And the young journalist, Mehria Azizi, is the new face of women in Afghanistan. She is one of a group of 14
Your shoulders and back ache; you've eaten way too much junk food and gotten far too little sunlight and exercise in the last few months. The obvious perils of the documentary edit. You and your editor (or maybe just you) have cut and re-cut, watched and re-watched, obsessed, argued and compromised your way to an early cut. Now what? If you are in the early rough-cut stage, it's time to call in your advisors. Having subject specific advisors weigh in on premise, accuracy, tone, balance and general fact checking early enough will give you plenty of time to address any major content issues long
Eighty-seven year old Claude Lanzmann's Le Dernier des Injustes, which screened in the Out of Competition section at the 2013 Cannes Film Festival, was the most important film I saw this year—a monumental, groundbreaking masterpiece that digs right to the core of Germany's darkest period from 1938-1945, revealing new aspects of the Final Solution. Using 20 hours of personal testimony that he filmed in 1975 of the last and only Jewish "Elder" to survive, Lanzmann adds new scenes in 2012 of his return to the scenes of the crimes. His three-and-a-half hour story goes by swiftly. "I kill the Nazis
Robert West, Co-Founder, Working Films Robert West, who, with filmmaker Judith Helfand, co-founded Working Films, the nonprofit dedicated to building an activist infrastructure around a documentary's release, died June 6 at his home in Wilmington, NC, after a nine-month battle with brain cancer. He was 60. Working Films, launched in 2000, was among the early pioneers in instilling an engagement and activist philosophy around the release of a film. Among the documentaries that West and his team took on include Helfand and Daniel Gold's Blue Vinyl and Everything's Cool; Marco Williams and
'Gideon's Army' premieres July 1 on HBO.