For almost two months, two documentary filmmakers—Paul Schwartzreich and Mait Quinn—wove themselves into the fabric of the streets of Portland, Oregon. They were exploring the world of homeless teens, with the mission to make a documentary about what it was like to live on the streets. The film we made, The Runaways, was a startling, honest, engaging hour. The pictures were stark. What we witnessed and recorded was real—and painful. The film aired on MSNBC. Immediately, we received lots of positive feedback; community groups told us the film was a powerful tool to teach young people about the
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The approach to the Festival International du Documentaire in Marseille was uplifting. It involved a harborside walk past luxury yachts with masts silhouetted against an azure Mediterranean sky. The National Theatre, in which all the events took place, was cool and welcoming. Screenings were in two auditoriums, starting at 9.30 a.m. and usually ending about midnight. Immediately after every show filmmakers answered questions, with everyone sitting in a curved area that naturally brought people together. About 100 films were selected from 57 countries. As festival president Michel Tregan
In the 1960s, when I had just arrived in New York City, I spent a year as an assistant to Willard Van Dyke, the renowned social documentary filmmaker. It was then that I first saw Willard’s half-hour documentary, Valley Town (1940). This film was produced in association with New York University, and was intended to draw attention to the plight of unemployed workers in a Pennsylvania steel town caught by the rising tide of automation. Released just before American entry in World War II, the film was perhaps the last social documentary drawn from the concerns of the Great Depression and Franklin
Dear Editor, I am writing in response to the article in the November 2002 issue written by Mitchell W. Block regarding distribution. This article contains a great deal of good advice; in fact, the “Rules” he has listed are quite well stated and should be of great help to any filmmaker learning to navigate through the development and distribution jungle. Block is clearly qualified to inform our readership of the finer points of home and educational video and producing documentaries, but his foggy overview of “agents, producer’s representatives and distributors” is confusing and misleading. To
Documentary filmmakers often use still images—mostly photographs—to help tell their stories, and prefer to have “camera moves” that complement the visual flow. Until a few years ago, the most popular way to accomplish this effect was with a motion-control camera stand. Today, some producers are using computer-editing software. As an editor, I have experience with both methods. The camera stand method involves moving the image in front of the camera and using a zoom lens. This is a real optical zoom, so resolution isn’t lost when honing in on a small area. Some systems can shoot film as well as
Dear IDA Members: As we gain distance on the summer discussions between Discovery Channel and Documentary Credits Coalition, their import becomes clearer. By working with the coalition, Discovery came up with a creative, feasible and appropriate solution to the placement of credits. But the work of the coalition is not over. Both the National Geographic Channel and the Scripps family of cable channels—Better Homes and Gardens, the Food Network, Fine Living and Do It Yourself Channel—have been put on the DCC watch list. But the DCC cannot do it alone; the issue of credits is of concern to
Dear Readers, The next few months will see the releases of two landmark films that look in very different ways at two similar, tragic systems of government—Jim Crow segregation in America and Apartheid in South Africa. The Rise and Fall of Jim Crow, from filmmakers Richard Wormser, Bill Jersey and Sam Pollard, examines the period from just after the Civil War to the 1954 Supreme Court decision on Brown v. Board of Education. It is a period that effectively fills in the gap--in terms of major documentary programs that explore the history of race and race relations in America--between where Ken
Dear Readers, The next few months will see the releases of two landmark films that look in very different ways at two similar, tragic systems of government—Jim Crow segregation in America and Apartheid in South Africa. The Rise and Fall of Jim Crow, from filmmakers Richard Wormser, Bill Jersey and Sam Pollard, examines the period from just after the Civil War to the 1954 Supreme Court decision on Brown v. Board of Education. It is a period that effectively fills in the gap--in terms of major documentary programs that explore the history of race and race relations in America—between where Ken
Every time I watch The Times of Harvey Milk, directed by Rob Epstein and produced by Richard Schmienchen, I am overcome with emotion. Call me a sentimentalist, but this film touches my heart, striking at the core of human emotion. The Times of Harvey Milk tells the story of the life and times of Harvey Milk, America’s first openly gay person to hold political office. Much of the film’s emotional power derives from the simplicity of its storytelling, making effective use of the most basic of documentary cinematic tools: voiceover, stills, interviews and stock footage. There are so many elements
Amandla! A Revolution in Four Part Harmony, a film about music’s role in the long struggle for freedom in South Africa, melted the hearts of audiences at this year’s Sundance Festival. But the first screening almost turned into a meltdown. Leaving a grueling, sleepless, 36-hour crash-edit session, the film’s director, Lee Hirsch, grabbed a plane from Los Angeles to Salt Lake City. The film’s producer, Sherry Simpson, followed on a later flight. When Simpson arrived she expected to say hello to Hirsch, find her room and finally be able to doze off. Instead of greeting her warmly, Hirsch was