Getting Real ‘20’s Main Stage programming sought to address some timely issues within the documentary community, and sparked nuanced, thought-provoking discussions among the panelists and the hundreds of viewers tuning in in real time. The “Documentary Funding Ecosystem: Building Values-Based Financial Strategies” session was one especially valuable discussion, among a group of five producers, grantmakers and film professionals. They discussed the key priorities for our community if we are to move towards a more just, equitable and value-based financial ecosystem for filmmakers of all
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The digital edition of Getting Real ‘20 has underscored the driving themes—”Access. Power. Possibility.”—by serving up riveting conversations from around the world, enabling filmmakers from, say, the Global South to engage with their counterparts from the American South and map out strategies and paradigms for the future. Day Two featured a Breakout Session headed by Judy Kibinge, executive director of the Nairobi, Kenya-based DocuBox, the East African Documentary Film Fund. Joining her for a discussion of ‘“The Things We Lost—The Role of Documentary Film in the Restitution of Africa’s Erased
On Day 3 of Getting Real ‘20, we joined the breakout session “ Counteracting Extractive Storytelling In The American South And In Global Communities Of Color.” Members of the collective Indie Media Arts South (IMAS) discussed storytelling priorities in the Southern region including regionally specific programming, curating practices, and achieving authenticity and agency in filmmaking. Moderated by Amada Torruella, independent filmmaker and film curator, panelists included Ebony Blanding, writer, filmmaker and co-founder of the Atlanta-based film art house, House of June; Zandashé Brown
Continuing the theme of #DecolonizeDocs that was first initiated at Getting Real ‘18, the 2020 edition’s first focused session on the South Asian region made for a highly dynamic and valuable breakout. Accommodating those joining in from the “motherland” time zone (of which there were plenty, including myself), the session hit the ground running at 7 AM Pacific Time with Anam Abbas, co-founder of Documentary Association of Pakistan, moderating and skillfully navigating the two-hour conversation. The all-too-familiar limitations to the digital realm aside, the excitement for the session was
Getting Real ‘20, our biennial conference on documentary media, happened from September 9 through Oct 3. On the opening day, we joined “ Expanding Expression: Audio Descriptions and Captioning in Film.” The makers and artistic collaborators of Vision Portraits and Crip Camp discussed the creative process behind their use of accessibility features such as audio description (AD) and closed captioning (CC). Moderated by Brenda Coughlin (Director of Producing and Impact Strategy, Sundance Institute), panelists included Crip Camp co-directors Nicole Newnham and Jim LeBrecht; Vision Portraits
I opened an email message from Jim LeBrecht, sound designer and mixer, disability rights advocate, and co-director with Nicole Newnham of the film Crip Camp. “It was great to see you on the Zoom call today,” he said. “I thought I heard mention about you making a film. I wanted to know more about that if you’re willing to share.” This email led to Jim sharing information about FWD-Doc, adding me to a Facebook group for filmmakers with disabilities, and posting about my work in the group. I did some Googling, read bios of the founders of FWD-Doc, and became very excited that there was a whole
What was the first documentary film you saw that shifted something within you? That helped you see an issue differently? Changed your behavior? Spurred you to take political action? While it may not have been the first documentary to change me, I have never forgotten how Justin Schein and Laura Gabbert’s No Impact Man, a year-long profile of Colin Beavan trying to eliminate his family’s carbon footprint, permanently transformed my consumption habits. For author/educator/filmmaker Caty Borum Chattoo, it was Kartemquin’s Hoop Dreams and Stanley Nelson’s The Black Press that opened her eyes to
Essential Doc Reads is a weekly feature in which the IDA staff recommends recent pieces about the documentary form and its processes. Here we feature think pieces and important news items from around the internet, and articles from the Documentary magazine archive. We hope you enjoy! Following the death of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg last week, Deadline published a joint statement by Betsy West and Julie Cohen, directors of the Academy Award-nominated RBG. “Like so many Americans, we are crushed by the death of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg,” West and Cohen said in a joint statement. “Even had
This month, we’re featuring one of our newest Organizational Members, Black Documentary Collective (BDC). BDC was founded by the late, great documentarian—and former IDA Board Member St. Clair Bourne, to support the artistic development and professional advancement of documentary media makers of African descent. We spoke with its Co-Chair, Sabrina Schmidt Gordon, on how the organization got started and the goals the collective has set over the next year. The mission of BDC is “to support the artistic development and professional advancement of documentary media makers of African descent”. Can
When planning began for Getting Real '20, IDA’s biennial conference on documentary media, Maggie Bowman, the newly hired director of programming, anticipated a three-day, in-person event in Los Angeles. “I got to LA on February 26,” Bowman recalls. “We had a meeting with LA filmmakers the next day. During the course of my two-week stay, we went from being 100% certain it would be in person to starting to consider the possibility that COVID might make it impossible to do in person.” Such circumstances required a quick strategic shift, demanding unprecedented logistical and programmatic agility