Editor’s note: With “Reality Check,” we launch a new column, penned by Steve Rosenbaum, CEO of CameraPlanet, in which he addresses issues about the art, craft and business of documentary making. When the mighty Cannes Film Festival honors a documentary—Michael Moore’s Bowling for Columbine—for the first time in 35 years, documentary filmmakers sit up and take notice. When distributor Bingham Ray and United Artists pick up that documentary for a reported $5 million, filmmakers think that docu-nirvana may be approaching. And when a film like The Kid Stays in the Picture bows to solid reviews and
Latest Posts
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
“It comes from outrage that I pursue the projects I do,” says Arthur Dong, whose films L icensed to Kill (1997) and the recent Family Fundamentals (2002) have explored issues of grave concern to the gay and lesbian community—hate crimes and religious intolerance. But these latter films aren’t polemics or screeds—they provoke, but they also give a fair hearing to the sources of outrage—whether murderers of gay men, in the case of Licensed to Kill, or, in Family Fundamentals, conservative parents whose rigid, faith-based positions on homosexuality have created seemingly unbridgeable schisms with
By Laura Almo Last June ShowBiz Expo held its annual gathering at the Los Angeles Convention Center. Amid the myriad of vendors were two panel discussions, both sponsored by the IDA: “Getting Your Documentary Made and Distributed” and “The Influence of Documentary on Narrative Filmmaking.” “Getting Your Documentary Made and Distributed,” the first panel, was moderated by IDA Treasurer Richard Propper, founder of Solid Entertainment, a world-wide distributor of documentaries. Propper began by clarifying the three categories of projects: a commissioned project, a co-production and an acquisition
By Michelle Mason & Jeff Schutts Promising “innovation, excellence and opportunity,” the Banff Television Festival is one of the most important annual gatherings for international documentary filmmakers. Setting another attendance record at its 23rd annual meeting, over 1,800 delegates from 42 countries found their way to the Canadian Rockies last June. Such accelerating growth has become a hallmark of the Banff Festival’s success. However, some fear that the festival is on the verge of outgrowing the third part of its mandate, particularly when it comes to emerging talent. These concerns have
Documentaries can be as visually inventive as an Errol Morris film or as evocative as the slow zooms and pans across Ken Burn’s daguerreotype tin plates and pin-hole battle photographs. Nevertheless, the sound of the documentary—particularly the spoken word—is essential to convey and communicate the story. Location sound recording for documentaries can present quite a few challenges. As a production sound mixer I troubleshoot sound problems everyday. Typically, documentary audio problems are the result of insufficient planning and selection of audio equipment. Just as you schedule your shoot