The aftermath of the American Civil War was the backdrop for a mythic American movie character, Scarlett O'Hara, who found herself adrift amidst sweeping changes in her world too recent to comprehend fully. Her struggle to survive in a suddenly altered society has affected generations of moviegoers. Though the political issues are not the same, the recent drastic political and economic upheavals in Central and Eastern Europe have likewise made for remarkable human drama. Documentaries from Russia, Poland, Germany and elsewhere have been on the scene capturing the transition from communist to
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The co-founders of Northeast Historic Film (NHF) became video distributors by accident. In 1986, David Weiss and Karan Sheldon had completed a 30-min. film for the University of Maine on traditional New England logging. The 1930s archival footage they used had no sound track, so the producers asked a local performer to read the original script that had accompanied the silent footage as narration. The film was titled From Stump to Ship because it illustrated the process of long-logging, from cutting down the trees to getting them to market by schooner. The producers expected to exhibit the
MIPDOC, held in Cannes on April 1 and 2, 1998, was the first ever "Reed Midem Organization event" dedicated exclusively to nonfiction television. Reed Midem is the company that "organizes 12 other international trade shows dedicated to music, multimedia, television and property throughout the world," including the MIPs and MIDEMs. The organization for these events is monumental, involving thousands of companies, tens of thousands of individuals, and hundreds of thousands of product hours. The spirit is that of the marketplace fully embraced; one MIP ad reads, "Buy, sell, make contacts, co
There are few things more gratifying for an IDA President than welcoming new members, friends and especially new trustees. In the first few months of 1998, three organizations have joined our dedicated board of trustees. New IDA trustee Broadcast News Network, a New York-based production company, includes among its many credits the verite series I Witness for CBS Eye on People, the CNN Perspectives documentaries Teens and Dark Religion and Border Battles, and the A&E series Inside Stories. Representing CNN on our board of trustees will be BNN founder/president Steve Rosenbaum. Discovery
When the Los Angeles Independent Film Festival closed its 1997 edition with the documentary Off the Menu: Last Night At Chasen's, doc fans went home happy that this wasn't just a Cinderella kinda year. In addition, Sick: The Life and Times of Bob Flanagan, Supermasochist won the Audience Award for Best Feature; and Michele Ohayon's Colors Straight Up later received an Academy Award® nomination. The momentum continued at Sundance '98, when docu-giants Ken Burns, Barbara Kopple, Penelope Spheeris and Michael Moore weighed in with their latest, and such films as The Farm, Frat House, Divine Trash
There's just no getting around it... Austin, Texas, is a hip place to be. And when South By Southwest takes the stage as the cultural event of choice in a city that prides itself on diverse and alternative offerings, many filmmakers can't think of a better place to spend a few days in March. This time of year, the famous Texas bluebonnets are beginning to sprout up along the highways, the warm southern wind is beginning to blow, the Tex-Mex food is once again being served on outdoor patios overlooking the hills along the Colorado River. SXSW was first established as a music festival and this
The appearance over the next two months of two new programs by the independent Broadcast News Networks (BNN) on Cable News Network's (CNN) new Perspectives series suggests that opportunities for the documentary on television may indeed be changing. It was not that long ago when documentarians had few places to show their work: there was PBS, also the non-theatrical educational market and the film festivals. The networks weren't interested: they rolled their own. It was not the most encouraging scene. And then, not much more than a decade or so ago, things exploded: cable companies seemed to
With just six months until International Documentary Congress 3—when the "best of the best" in the documentary world will convene in Los Angeles, October 28-30—I want to welcome the individuals who have joined with the IDA and the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences as members of the Congress Honorary Committee: Erik Barnouw, Les Blank, Robert Dowling, Robert Drew, Andy Garcia, Henry Hampton, Norman Lear, Pare Lorentz Jr., Albert Maysles, Leonard Nimoy, Edward James Olmos, Howard Rosenberg, Jay Ruby, Andrew Sarris, Richard Schickel, Gene Siskel, Steven Spielberg, George Stevens Jr
The second Houston Pan-Cultural Film Festival was held February 8-15. It's a young festival, with kinks here and there, but the programming makes up for the lack of experience. The purpose of Houston's Pan Cultural is to provide exhibition venues for underrepresented people and their films, to offer them a voice in a multicultural context. This year's festival was devoted primarily to films from Latin America, with opportunities to meet eight directors from Mexico, Venezuela, Guatemala, Chile, the United States and Pakistan. As an audience member, I look to films to transport me to another
It's nice to see a film festival get back to its origins. In recent years, the San Francisco International Asian American Film Festival has grown from a local event showcasing regional/national films to a quasi gala affair, with over 60% of the feature length films coming from abroad. In 1998, the 16th SFIAAFF (March 5-12) returned to a program in which the majority of feature-length films had been made Stateside, evidence that independent film deserves a showcase without being overshadowed by American premieres of foreign productions. This year's festival, however, was not without its