As Michael Donaldson mentions in his column, the Oscars® telecast spotlighted 60 years of Best Documentary honors with a stellar tribute, produced by filmmaker Penelope Spheeris; in this issue Jason Lyons looks at the new Documentary Branch, formed last year, and former IDA President Chuck Workman, an Academy Award® winner for his short Precious Images, reflects on how the documentary field has evolved over the past 20 years, both in and out of the Academy. As I write this column, in early March, ABC, the longtime broadcaster of the Academy Awards, is mulling over the possibility of
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In the past decade, we've undergone a massive change in the world of the documentary. Fiction and nonfiction now live equally side by side in schools, despite the bright lights of Hollywood that glow so seductively there. The Oscar® nomination process seems finally reasonable and equitable, although we've all had favorite films left out, including our own. The creation of a Documentary Branch at the Academy is promising but hopefully will be watched closely for the incestuous problems that occurred in the past. The growth and good will of the IDA is simply staggering. But best of all, so much
Over the past five years, consumers have adopted DVDs (Digital Versatile Discs) faster than any other form of home entertainment. Today there are more than 31 million DVD players in American homes. The medium owes its popularity to two things: First, the picture and sound quality is far superior to that of a VHS tape; second, a DVD often includes added-value materials, creating new markets and audiences for both documentary lovers and subject enthusiasts. Indeed, one of the best-selling genres among DVDs is documentary. “From Mao to Mozart was produced 20 years ago,” says Donald Klocek
Cinematic immunity: The false sense of invincibility that you get when you’ve got a camera in your hands in a very dangerous situation. This term is truly put to the test when you’re locked in a room full of convicted rapists, murderers and armed robbers. Fight to the Max is a feature documentary about prison boxing championships in the Deep South. It is the second of a planned trilogy of prison sports documentaries—the first was The Wildest Show in the South, about prison rodeos, and my next project, Bound and Chained for Glory, will look at the Superbowl of Prison Football. Here are some of
Can you believe it's been 20 years? Well, for me it's actually 21. Twenty-one years ago my husband Larry and I were practicing psychotherapists (having formerly worked in documentary for David Wolper and Jacques Cousteau), and we were lured back into "the biz" by fellow Cousteau veteran Tom Horton. "Would we like to go to New Zealand and work on a doc about Sir Edmund Hillary?" he asked. We agonized, but of course we said yes. And now that we were back in "the biz," however temporarily, I thought it would be great to join the professional association for documentarians, so we could get back in
It might be argued that the 1990s was a Golden Age for documentaries. Certainly, the number of worldwide television distribution outlets, and hence the quantity of films and the size of the audiences they reached, multiplied exponentially. It was a decade when lightweight portable camera and sound technology became truly affordable for thousands of individuals, and nonlinear editing systems brought the power of a cut to anyone with a home computer. The number and popularity of film festivals and markets devoted to documentary expanded, and the prominence of documentaries within general
Having been present at the creation of the IDA in 1982, I am today not only proud and grateful at receiving this new award, but proud of the current administration and Board of the IDA for creating it. It is my hope that this award will achieve what we want all awards to achieve—that it doesn’t just become a pat on the back, which we all need and appreciate once in awhile, but that it serves to motivate and inspire others to re-commit themselves to the making of good films and videos and to live lives of service. Awards, after all, are not just about what we’ve done, but more about what we are
In the midst of vivid reminders that today’s news is tomorrow’s history, 400 filmmakers and broadcasters gathered in Boston last fall for History 2001, the inaugural edition of the World Congress of History Producers. The sponsor, Boston’s own WGBH, and the organizer, Canada’s Banff Television Foundation, trumpeted the conference as an international event exploring “the future of history.” But the audience—as participants were quick to point out—was dominated by documentary-makers from North America, Australia and the UK, making for more insular explorations than some had hoped for
Triumph of the Will, Leni Riefenstahl's fetishistic film about Hitler's 1934 Nuremberg rally, is a controversial choice for "Playback," but not a perverse one. We recently sat down to watch it as we were preparing to make The Pink Fuhrer, a documentary about the controversy that Hitler might have been gay. For us, controversy is a critical ingredient for documentaries, whose raison d'etre is to look reality dead in the eye, and not be a hostage to political correctness or consensual thinking. A great documentary should not be afraid to ask the unaskable, even if it doesn't have the answers. Of
Looking back and looking forward have always been linked in my mind. What’s the use of looking behind us if not to see where we might go? These pages are filled with reminisces, reflections and remembrances of many of those who shaped the IDA. As someone who was recruited by Linda Buzzell a few short months after the formation of the IDA, I am proud to say that it is a joy to see the growth that has taken place. We were a very small group at the beginning. The bylaws needed some serious fixing. We soon launched a fiscal sponsorship program that was somewhat groundbreaking at the time. Today