Dear IDA Community: I once read that "A good business or community is a group of people moving together--different genders, ethnicities, strengths, talents--utilizing each other and understanding that if they fall, someone will stop them." You may be a documentarian, a distributor, a broadcaster, hopefully an IDA member and certainly a supporter of our community. If you have time, access to resources, expertise and knowledge in your respected field, we invite you to help shape the future of IDA. Our very small staff--Tracie Lewis, programs and events manager; Stephon Litwinczuk, membership
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Can we establish standards for an ethical documentary practice? This is not a purely rhetorical question, as the debate around whether Mighty Times: Volume 2: The Children's March (2004; Robert Hudson, Bobby Houston, dirs./prods.) deserved receiving an Oscar in 2005 indicates. The film apparently merged reenactments and historical footage indistinguishably, and used archival shots of violence in one time and place to represent violence in another. (Disclosure: I have not yet seen the film.) Did this breach an ethical standard? What might such a standard be and who might enforce it? What
On DocuWeeks, DocuDay and the Academy Awards.
A new year, a new president.
Former Vice President Al Gore, from An Inconvenient Truth, a project of Participant Productions. Courtesy of Sundance Film Festival Editor's Note: On October 21 at the Linwood Dunn Theater in Los Angeles, IDA will present Davis Guggenheim in conversation with Turner Classic Movies host Ben Mankiewicz. The two will explore his wide-ranging body of work that includes culturally significant and brilliantly crafted films. Learn more and purchase tickets. Did you know there are thousands of orphaned children living in Rwanda? Or that quadriplegic rugby players compete all over the world in
There's a moment in Marco Williams' 1992 film, In Search of Our Fathers, that changed my life. I was a photographer when I saw the film. I had just finished a series on Latino and Asian immigrants in the South and was hesitantly toying with the idea of turning it into a film. Here's the scene: Williams, who was raised by his mother and aunt, had been trying for months to get his mother to talk about his father, whom he had never met and knew nothing about. Having finally relented, she allowed him to come to Paris, where she was living, and film an interview. In the scene, you see her sit down
From the musical Grey Gardens, based on the documentary by Albert and David Maysles, Ellen Hovde and Muffie Meyer, the musical had its world premiere at Playwrights Horizons in New York. Photo: Joan Marcus One of the biggest trends in the theater world over the past few years has been "the movical," the creation of stage musicals based on previously existing films. Spamalot found its inspiration in Monty Python and the Holy Grail, The Lion King and Beauty and the Beast began life as animated Disney films, and the musical version of The Wedding Singer will hit theaters in May 2006. This past
Election Night 2005, Antonio Villaraigosa celebrates winning the election to become the first Latino Mayor of Los Angeles in more than 130 years. From Lyn Goldfarb's The New Los Angeles, an episode from the four-part series California and the American Dream that airs on PBS California is a state of dichotomies. Home to the world's tallest trees, it's also where logging efforts perpetually threaten to cut them down. The state has both the highest and lowest elevation points in the 48 contiguous states. California has more land under irrigation than any other state, but it's also been voted the