Congratulations to all of the documentary nominees in the 71st Academy Awards®' For best achievement in documentary features: Dancemaker, Matthew Diamond & Jerry Kupfer The Farm: Angola, U.S.A. Jonathan Stack & Liz Garbus The Last Days, June Beallor, James Moll & Ken Lipper Lenny Bruce: Swear to Tell the Truth, Robert B. Weide Regret to Inform, Barbara Sonneborn and Janet Cole For best achievement in documentary short subjects: The Personals, Keiko Ibi A Place in the Land, Charles Guggenheim Sunrise Over Tiananmen Square, Shui-bo Wang & Donald McWil liams. For a few minutes on Sunday, March
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Dear IDA Members: Change seems to be the rule around the IDA headquarters these days. We have just opened our New York Office, staffed by Susan Berry, our East Coast coordinator. Additionally, we have completed our search for our new editor, and welcome Kathleen Fairweather to the helm of the magazine. Kathleen brings an innate understanding of the non-fiction media world through her career as a film journalist, college film instructor, and documentary filmmaker. Kathleen has written about the documentary and entertainment industry for American Cinematographer, Written By, the Writer 's Guild
As a medium of expression and exploration, documentary film is compelling for its breadth of subject matter and diversity of style. Nowhere was this more evident than at the second annual New York International Documentary Festival, otherwise known as docfest. The screenings took place June 2-6 in Manhattan, and included gritty reportage pieces, experimental films and poetic works. Sixteen films screened at the festival, and all were impressive for their insightful, wide-ranging investigations into the human condition. Launched in part to fill the void left by the demise of the Global Village
The pen may be mightier than the sword, but for first-time documentary filmmaker Erin Calmes, the camera is the most effective way to affect global change. Calmes had originally traveled to the Philippines to photograph and document the lifestyle of an ancient headhunter tribal village located high in the mountains. Her goal at the time was to produce a coffee table book of photos. After shooting, Calmes took a day of much needed rest and relaxation at an obscure beach resort. That day changed her life, as well as Philippine fishing and export laws, and ultimately saved the gentle whale shark
In August 1910, Sir William MacKenzie whose transcontinental railway, the Canadian Northern, was then in the initial stages of construction, commissioned the writer to undertake an expedition to the East Coast of Hudson Bay to examine deposits of certain islands upon which iron ore were supposed to be located. All told I made four expeditions on Sir William's behalf, during a period of six years, along the East Coast of Hudson Bay, through the barren lands of the hitherto unexplored peninsula of Ungava, along the west coast of Ungava Bay and along the southern coast of Baffin Land. This work
The IDA is on the move-quite literally. And if you happened to be on the East Coast on June 28, you probably heard IDA members, trustees and guests marking the opening of our new East Coast office. June 28th was also an evening in HBO's annual Bryant Park outdoor screening series ( The 1999 HBO Summer Festival) . To celebrate, IDA trustee Sheila Nevins graciously hosted a reception on the terrace of the New York Public Library overlooking Bryant Park. What a great place to enjoy an early summer evening in New York! After the rousing reception, we all settled in for an outdoor screening of what
Editor's Note: Since I began editing the magazine, back in October 1996, and even before, Contributing Editor Gordon Hitchens has been generously offering the magazine his valuable reportage from the many festivals he attends, including those for which he acts as U.S. assistant (Yamagata every other year, and Berlin each February). My friendship with Gordon goes back more than 30 years, when he published an article of mine in an issue of Film Culture that he was guest editing. Twenty years my senior he can be an irascible character at times, but no one can doubt the invaluable service he
P.O.V. has declared its 1999 season to be one in which "filmmakers focus their lenses on freedom": the term is given broad latitude as the films in its lineup range from explorations of oppression past and present to individual journeys against the odds and expectations of society. And as in previous years, the series includes selections from this year's festival favorites—Emiko Omori's Rabbit in the Moon and Barbara Sonnebom and Janet Cole's Academy Award@ nominee Regret to Inform—mixed with some lesserknown gems. The series' opener is Michael J. Moore's Sundance entry The Legacy: Murder &
The Los Angeles-based Pan African Film & Art Festival was launched in 1992 and in a short time, thanks to the tireless efforts of executive director Ayuko Babu, has emerged as major player in the growing nexus of African Diaspora-oriented festivals in the United States and around the world. As curator of the film festival (other individuals curate the music and visual arts components), Mr. Baby labors year-round maintaining working relationships with sister festivals in Chicago, Newark, Atlanta, Houston and Oakland. The Mecca of black film arts festivals, where programmers and producers from
Sometimes, the act of watching films is like going to a place where you've never been and discovering that you feel right at home. That's what happened to Paul Pena, the star of Adrian and Roko Belic's Genghis Blues. This popular documentary—already mentioned in these pages for its Sundance premiere—won both the Grand Prize for Best Bay Area Documentary and the Audience Award at the recent San Francisco International Film Festival (April 22-May 6). At closing night ceremonies, when Genghis Blues was announced as prizewinner, Roko Belic brought Pena onstage. The blind musician, whose journey to