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IDA's four-decade history has seen the beginning and end of many programs, but few have withstood the test of time like our Fiscal Sponsorship program. IDA began offering fiscal sponsorships to support independent documentary filmmakers in 1986, and since then we have supported hundreds of films from all over the world. These IDA-supported documentaries have won prestigious awards, from Sundance Film Festival to Peabody Awards; been nominated for Academy Awards; and, most importantly, changed countless lives. To celebrate IDA's 40th anniversary and our second longest-running program, here is a

Forty years ago, on February 6, David L. Wolper and 74 other filmmakers answered a classified ad announcing the first meeting of the International Documentary Association (IDA). They met in Los Angeles, seeking to elevate documentaries in the film industry and beyond. While both IDA and the larger nonfiction community have continued to transform in size and form, we are revisiting some key moments and boxed-up memories on this day of celebration. 1980s Within two years, IDA was hosting numerous educational seminars and had already organized the first annual DocuDay—an all-day, back-to-back

Roadrunner, Oscar-winner Morgan Neville’s documentary film about chef and cultural icon Anthony Bourdain, sparked a heated debate last summer when the filmmaker revealed to The New Yorker that three lines in the film—that sounded like they were being spoken by Bourdain, who died in 2018—were generated using AI technology. Neville explained to the magazine’s Helen Rosner that the three quotes, which were Bourdain’s written words, were spoken by an AI model of his voice created using roughly a dozen hours of recordings of Bourdain. Of his decision to employ this "modern storytelling technique,"

In our bid to make this 40th anniversary issue somewhat of a time capsule, we asked our members to send in photographs—new and old—with the cameras they have worked with. Placing them on a timeline, what emerged was a technological history that, by constantly evolving in access, portability and cost efficiency, made space for more and more people to start recording their stories, making their films, and letting the world know of the unique perspective with which they see the world around them. We thank you for sharing these images with us, and hope you’d enjoy taking this trip down memory lane

The IDA Documentary Awards have been a part of our programmatic mix for nearly as long as IDA’s life. Thanks to the efforts of former Board President Harrison Engle, with additional assistance from the late Gabor Kalman, the Awards launched in 1985, with five honorees for Distinguished Documentary Achievement, as well as a Career Achievement Award, which went to Pare Lorentz—whose name graces both an award for a feature or short documentary that reflects the spirit and tradition of Lorentz’s work, and a documentary fund—and a Preservation and Scholarship Award, going that year to renowned

Documentary filmmakers have been raising alarm bells about this year’s Sundance competition documentary Jihad Rehab for over a year, claiming it promotes Islamophobia and re-victimizes its protagonists. The controversy around the film was only just made public after its premiere on January 22; the film received disparaging reviews published in POV Magazine (“A Question of Ethics”) and Filmmaker Magazine, and was criticized in opinion pieces by filmmakers Jude Chehab and Assia Boundaoui; and a loose-knit critical Twitter campaign was joined by award-winning filmmakers such as Sami Khan ( St

This past weekend I got cozy on my living room couch and attended my first screening of the 2022 Sundance Film Festival— the premiere of Meg Smaker’s Jihad Rehab. The film’s hapless title manages to be both inaccurate and offensive—“rehab” refers to an incarceration facility in Saudi Arabia and the casual equation of the word “jihad” with terrorism is offensive to Muslims—and foreshadows the next 108 minutes of the film. The film focuses on four Yemeni men, at least two of whom were teenagers when they were detained by the US military and later imprisoned in Guantanamo. After being tortured

Dear IDA Community, I would like to address the recent resignations of four IDA staffers. I am deeply disappointed that they chose to leave. I cannot provide insight into why they made their decisions. To do so would be speculative or divulge confidential personnel information. I can say that I am disappointed that in resigning they relinquished an opportunity to respectfully engage in a constructive dialogue with me, the IDA’s Executive Director, to resolve their concerns. I can also say that I have a 20-year history in our community as a filmmaker, program designer, funder, advocate and

Swedish filmmakers Maria Loohufvud and Love Martinsen’s children had friends over when they received an email from the Sundance Film Festival programmers. The couple was nervous. “What could they possibly want to know?” The programmers had some questions regarding their submission Calendar Girls and would call within a half-hour. The first-time filmmakers put the kids in front of the TV and braced themselves. “The only question we have is, Do you want to be in the World Cinema Documentary Competition?” Corks were popped, oysters were shucked, and ice cream was devoured with the news that

Screen Time is your curated weekly guide to excellent documentaries and nonfiction programs that you can watch at home. With just a little less than a month in, 2022 has already been a difficult year, and we’ve lost far too many cultural icons. The larger-than-life former editor-at-large at Vogue, André Leon Talley, passed away last week. You can celebrate his life and career by watching Kate Novack’s The Gospel According to Andre, which is streaming on Hulu. Featuring the likes of Anna Wintour, Marc Jacobs and Whoopi Goldberg, the film gives us a deep insight into Talley’s fascinating legacy