Jon Alpert may be the bravest filmmaker I've ever met. Like most documentary filmmakers, Jon finds himself drawn toward untold truths. And in the weeks leading up to the war in Iraq, anyone who was watching the news knew there wasn't a whole lot of truth to be found. The networks scraped for any bit of information, and the drumbeat of an impending war seemed to drown out any chance for deliberation, discussion or reflection. Perfect fodder for Jon, a one-of-a-kind filmmaker—a 12-time Emmy Award-winning journalist, and former NBC correspondent. He then moved into long-form docs and became one
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The Had To Be Made Film Festival (HTBMFF) is the most recent film festival to put out a call for entries. If you've tried the film festival circuit and still don't have a distributor, then the Had To Be Made Film Festival might be for you. If you're thinking this is just another festival, it's not. In fact, you don't have to make reservations to attend, and you don't need to travel to some distant location. Just go to the HTBMFF website, www.hadtobemade.com, and see if there's a participating independent video retailer in your area. If there is, head down to the store and check out the HTBMFF
As I prepared to attend the 2003 National Association of Television Program Executives (NAPTE) marketplace in New Orleans—my third such event—I wondered what type of conference I would find. In 2001, over 20,000 persons attended the event in Las Vegas. All of the major US and international broadcasters, syndication companies, distributors and industry vendors were present. Whether owing to fears of terrorism, an overall economic downturn, or internal organizational problems, last year's conference attracted only 9,000 participants. In a protest of sorts against the high cost of exhibition
While documentary and television aren't the same thing, to the majority of documentary filmmakers in London and the UK, they have become inseparable. The BBC has a long and honorable tradition in the genre, but, because of its remit to commission from independent production companies, the alternative, risk-taking commercial channel, Channel 4, which was launched in November 1982, came to represent the land of milk and honey for up-and-coming documentary filmmakers. Before the coming of Margaret Thatcher, there was a more corporatist tradition in Britain in which a number of enclaves were
Two and a half years ago, as I was working on an English-language documentary about an ancient monument located in Eastern Turkey, I received an email from a producer based in California. I had no idea that would be the beginning of one of the most fulfilling and satisfying experiences of my life. In 1996, after seven years of undergraduate and graduate study in engineering in Turkey and the United States, I decided to pursue filmmaking––my first love––at American University in Washington, DC. By 2000, I had moved back to Turkey after making two documentaries, one in Turkish and one in English
Just looking at this year's Oscar nominees for best documentary will tell you that documentary filmmaking can be no less diverse than life itself. No matter what style of documentary filmmaking you employ, or subject matter you are undertaking, there will most likely be one underlying common thread that you will use in telling your story: music. Whether your documentary is educational, biographical or political in nature, at some point music is going to play a role in conveying your creative vision and helping to tell your story on an emotional level. The more you understand the dynamics and
Two Filmmaking Teams Discuss Their Salutes to the Stars of Early Soul and R&B
Dear IDA Members, I am happy to report on the successes of the Oscars Reception and DocuDay—and want to congratulate the Academy Award winners: Michael Moore's Bowling for Columbine and Bill Guttentag and Robert David Port's Twin Towers. In 1982, after Nigel Noble accepted the Academy Award for best short documentary, he was ignored by the media, which chose to interview his celebrity presenters instead. So, in the spirit of the IDA's mission, the Oscars Reception and DocuDay, were born. This is a far different world than it was 20 years ago. As this country wages a war that most of us did not
As a documentary producer/director for almost two decades, I have had the opportunity to experience first-hand the meteoric evolution of technology over that time, and the commensurate changes in the process of making documentaries. But as much as things changed in the past two decades, over only the past few years a whole new spate of technological advances have once again completely revolutionized the documentary process––in some cases, in ways we never could have imagined. In the spring of 2001, I was asked by the History Channel to produce a rather ambitious four-part documentary series
With a $1,000 entry ticket, RealScreen Summit—the annual international conference on "the business of factual programming," held in February in Washington, DC—is an event that most independent documentary filmmakers will have to evaluate carefully before committing their credit cards. Why do they come? Veteran producer Jennifer Lawson comes in order to "affirm my understanding of the marketplace"—to get a reality check and to pick up news. Ben Phelan of Denver Center Media, which produces programs oriented to the public TV market, comes to pitch. "It's convenient," he says. "You can have all