Now is the time to act with intentionality; we need to stop meandering in search of the right way forward. Deep introspection and consideration of historically marginalized perspectives are essential for a purposeful collective pursuit of equity in our documentary field. And so, we are pleased to announce the open call for this year’s IDA Enterprise Documentary Fund's Production Grant with an addition to our application guidelines—that of authorship. The updated grant application will include questions about why the creative team is uniquely positioned to make the film, and their personal
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Essential Doc Reads is our curated selection of recent features and important news items about the documentary form and its processes, from around the internet, as well as from the Documentary magazine archive. We hope you enjoy! Discussing the new documentary Framing Britney Spears, IndieWire’s Kristen Lopez addresses the conservatorship issue surrounding the pop icon, and how the documentary fails to mention how conservatorship is a key element of disability rights. Let’s be real, did I expect Framing Britney Spears to bring up disability issues? Sadly, no. But it’s something that, I think
I tell myself often, “You can’t cry. You are working.”
There Is No "I" in Threesome is certainly a doc I would not have predicted to have world-premiered at the WarnerMedia Lodge at this year’s Sundance Film Festival. Set for a pre-Valentine’s Day streaming debut on February 11 (as an HBO Max Original), the project is directed by and stars New Zealand-based filmmaker Jan Oliver “Ollie” Lucks. Lucks is the son of an Iranian-Indian mother and a German father, and only moved to New Zealand a decade and a half ago to pursue his craft. Once there, however, he met an actress named Zoe. Boy meets girl, boy and girl fall in love and plan a wedding. And
Screen Time is your curated weekly guide to excellent documentaries and nonfiction programs that you can watch at home. Streaming through February 16 on American Masters, How It Feels To Be Free, from Yoruba Richen, profiles six iconic African American female artists—Lena Horne, Abbey Lincoln, Nina Simone, Diahann Carroll, Cicely Tyson and Pam Grier—digging in to how they channeled their creativity into front-and-center civil rights activism within an industry bent on stereotyping and marginalizing them. Premiering February 15 on American Experience, Voice of Freedom, from Rob Rapley, tells
Dear Documentary Community, This past fall, I announced that I would be stepping down from IDA in 2021. Over the past few months we’ve all been living through an unprecedented pandemic, inspiring movements for racial justice, and uncertain political situations. That has caused many of us to reflect on our lives and our choices. I made my decision full of hope for IDA, the world of documentary, and whatever my role in that world may be moving forward. As I look back to how IDA has grown since 2015 and the work it is doing today, I see that IDA has become an essential institution within our
Dear Readers, The online edition of the Getting Real Documentary Conference, held last fall to a global audience of 3,100 attendees from 54 countries, catalyzed what has been one of the most tumultuous years of the past century. Within our community, the ongoing reckoning on systemic racism has spurred a collective self-examination among filmmakers, media arts organizations and the gatekeeping apparatus of programmers, funders, commissioning editors, distributors and exhibitors. Among the many takeaways from the digital confab were the keynote addresses from filmmakers Maria Agui Carter, Zeng
Criminal prosecutions and civil litigation can make compelling subjects for documentarians. Indeed, documentary films that have used legal cases as a vehicle to explore broader social and cultural themes, or to expose individual or systemic injustice, are legion. Ben Cotner and Ryan White’s 2014 film The Case Against 8, which told the story of the legal fight to overturn California’s Proposition 8 ban on same-sex marriage; Stephen Maing’s 2018 film Crime + Punishment, which focused on a group of whistleblowing New York Police Department officers—the “NYPD 12”—who alleged in a lawsuit that they
When I was in graduate school studying anthropology and film in the mid-2000s, the documentaries of Adam Curtis blew my mind. His playful and surprising, yet often also disturbing, historical collages were unlike anything I had seen at the time. Based at the BBC, Curtis splices gritty news and documentary archival with vintage ephemera including ads, educational films and industrials as well as Hollywood films. His cuts often highlight moments that might otherwise have been erased from official records—awkward silences, meaningful glances, unintentional camera movements. His early work such as
What role can mediation play in resolving disputes that arise during production of documentary films? Warning: producing documentaries can be hazardous to professional relationships. In the course of a typical production, collaborators may squabble over a variety of creative and business matters. Disputes could possibly involve project finance, editorial direction, distribution options, credits and, when reconciliation isn’t in the cards, the terms of a breakup. Making a documentary film entails dozens of important decisions. When the film has two or more producers, the parties sometimes enter