The construction of subjectivity in first-person documentary is given serious consideration in The Cinema of Me: The Self and Subjectivity in First Person Cinema, a collection of first-person essays from several talented film theorists and practitioners. These essays examine the roles of geopolitical contexts, ethnicity, cultural identities and personal histories, and offer a timely understanding of this documentary sub-genre. Special attention is given to the fact that first-person films are often not a cinema of "me," but of someone else who informs the filmmaker's sense of him or herself
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For all theatergoers who love documentaries and have feared the impending death of the cinema experience, I offer hope. It came to me in the form of Festival International de Cine Documental de la Ciudad de Mexico ( DOCSDF), which took place November 8-18 in several venues across Mexico City. Most US-based doc industry news seems to be overwhelmingly focused north of the border and, historically, on our UK and European counterparts, while often ignoring our neighbors to the south. Mexico City is a vast, sprawling metropolis of over 22 million people, steeped in cultural traditions and hungry
Just a few years ago, a Kickstarter campaign was a strange, exotic scheme. However, with traditional funding streams drying up, doc filmmakers began experimenting with crowdfunding, and before we knew it, we all had Kickstarter fatigue. But the need for funding has only increased and the doc community has moved past fatigue into acceptance, and now we are entering the realm of warm embrace. With both Indiegogo and Kickstarter easing the way to work with fiscal sponsors, it becomes even more possible to raise significant sums. Filmmakers have also learned to use the social media aspects of
Iran is a country where the cultural, social and political landscape has experienced one of the most overwhelming challenges of the last millennium. The history of cinema and documentary in Iran was started in the court of squirarchy. Aside from the opening of cinema to the public in Iran in Tabriz in 1900 and Tehran in 1904--the first available document about documentary film coincides with the first camera purchased by the Qajar king, five years after the invention of the cinematograph, in June 1900. This Gaumont brand cinematograph was ordered by the official photographer of the royal court
In the late 1930s, due to its miraculous resurgence after near-devastation from a Category 5 hurricane in 1926 and the ensuing Depression, Miami became known as the "Magic City." Seemingly overnight, the city emerged from the swampy marshland that characterized South Florida 's topography, and over the next seven decades grew into a cosmopolitan, multicultural melting pot. This year, the city hosted the 22nd annual Miami International Film Festival, which screened 118 films over 10 gloriously brisk February days. Its film lineup was chock-full of compelling documentaries from all over the
'Mondays at Racine' is nominated for Best Short.
Above Photo: Todd Wawrychuk / ©A.M.P.A.S. In a de facto preamble to the Oscar-cast on February 24, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences staged the fourth annual Governors Awards this past Saturday, December 1, at the Ray Dolby Ballroom of the Hollywood and Highland Center in Hollywood. Among the four honorees, DA Pennebaker earned an Academy Honorary Award for his undeniable impact on the documentary form. As the inscription on his Oscar says, he "redefined the language of film and taught a generation of filmmakers to look to reality for inspiration." Senator Al Franken, the subject
15 Films Advance to the Next Round
Have you seen ¿Más Bébes? or Land of Opportunity? By linking to these online productions, you have dipped your toe into the vast pool of the future: Mozilla, Living Docs, and the world of HTML5. This new filmmaking experience is brought to you by an ever-expanding consortium of organizations that are making your computer and the Web the burgeoning new frontier of filmmaking. As Tiffany Shlain, cloud filmmaking pioneer and creator of the Webbys, proclaimed in her talk at TEDxBerkeley, "If you have a hammer in your hand, everything looks like a nail. If you have a camera in your hand, everything
If you have ever used a clip or a photo or an existing piece of music in your documentary, you must have spent more than a little time looking for the owner to obtain the proper permission to use the item in your film. You might have spent a lot of time. You might not have found the owner. When the owner can't be found, after you've made a reasonable effort to do so, the item in question is called an "orphan work." IDA is helping to solve this problem and we believe that help is on the way. Congress has been aware of the problem for some time. It was mentioned when the Copyright Act was