Israeli director Ari Folman can't remember the time he spent as a 20-year-old IDF soldier during Israel's invasion of Lebanon in 1982. When a fellow veteran recounts his own haunting by a recurring nightmare from the war, a single vision appears from the mires of Folman's mind: He and two other recruits rise naked from a black sea like some modern myth, clutching machine guns, their somnambulant lurch toward Beirut's Corniche illuminated by flares in the night sky. Are these the Israeli flares that lit the slaughter of Palestinian civilians in the Sabra-Shatila refugee camps? Folman knows he was there during the infamous massacre, when Phalangist militias stacked bodies high in the narrow alleys as Israeli commanders stood watch; the event burns on the edges of his subconscious. So he sets off to retrieve his own memory of the war by tapping the memories of his comrades--and in turn rouses the collective consciousness of a nation.

But memory is a strange beast. At once fallible and persistent, over time it inevitably colludes with imagination to reveal things that might have otherwise remained hidden. Objective truth, while the overt impetus of documentary, proves not only fallacious but less interesting than the subjective, visceral truths elicited from an imaginative retelling. Reality, we find, is only intelligible through imagination.

Thus Folman's journey to reconstruct his personal experience of the massacre, which a comrade agrees "is not stored in my system," takes on a life of its own, moving freely through dreams, memory--and the dynamic spaces in between.

From the beginning, Folman saw Waltz with Bashir as an animated feature, drawing inspiration from graphic novels--many coming out of post-war Bosnia. "If you look at this film," he says, "with [its] lost memory, dreams, war--which is pretty surreal--there is no other way to tell this story."

Funding this vision, and the challenge it poses to documentary stricture, proved more difficult. "The budget for the film was such a tough mission," says Folman. "People [in the industry] couldn't understand how it could be a documentary...and why they should support this kind of film."

Before sending a script to animation, Folman edited original footage of real-time interviews with several comrades whose memories of the war might overlap with his own, on which the drawings were modeled. This footage was then cut with their vivid, sometimes surreal visions of the war--which Folman thought would be best conveyed, "like a bad acid trip," by the artists' renderings.

Some scenes convey the unthinkable beauty of death; elsewhere, death is lyrical, poetic and absurd.

"There is a contradiction in the film," says the director. "It's really beautiful: War is horrific, but the design is romantic. I'm aware of that, and it's one of my main intentions to attract you as an audience."

The unorthodox use of animation makes us keenly aware of the form--and how we experience representations of war, violence and suffering.

In the film, a trauma specialist tells Folman about a soldier who walked through combat "looking at everything through an imaginary camera." Then, confronted with a field of slaughtered horses, his camera breaks. "Watching the war on film protected him." We might ask: does it protect us?

As much as Folman stresses the apolitical nature of his personal journey, it is disingenuous to remove the film from its wider historical context (Israel's invasion of Lebanon and the 17,000 Lebanese casualties that resulted, most of them civilian). Like all films dealing with contested or painful historical events, this one contributes to the social meaning of the event, and determines how we will remember it.

And as all documentary, it implies a responsibility to convey truth about history. Knowledge is subjective, but it is also shared.

In Lebanon, where the film will not be shown, Christians might notice that they are only represented by the Phalangist militiamen--barbaric, bloodthirsty, oafish, inhuman. Palestinians might recognize their victimized ghosts.

In Israel, where a recent surge of government funding has resurrected the national film industry, reception has been positive, with some criticism for leniency in portraying Israel's role in the massacre--or the conflict surrounding it. (At the time, Sabra-Shatila generated enough outrage to force then-defense minister Ariel Sharon to step down).

As it continues to rack up prestigious honors and stir critical acclaim, the film raises difficult questions for Israel, and the world is watching. Asked if he thinks Israel would have received Bashir similarly 10 years ago, Folman replies, "No. Five years ago, even three years ago, it would have been different. The second Lebanese war changed things. Israel was exposed to a lot of embarrassment. And the army was shown in a very embarrassing manner. It was on television, soldiers came back and spoke about the war. Compared to this reality, this is a cartoon movie."

It was also the government's "chance to show that it wasn't the army that did the massacre," he says. "This is a thing that the government couldn't buy in money, this propaganda. They understood that, and they went for it."

At the end of the film, Folman finds his way backwards to the moment he "realized" what had happened inside the camps, and the question arises, "What do these camps most resemble?" Indelibly pressed with the suffering of the six million who died in the other camps, the Israeli consciousness is quick to make the connection: A death camp is a death camp. The guilt, even by association, that weighs on Folman and his comrades (most of whom have parents who survived the Holocaust) reflects their own psychic weight of annihilation, and the wider context of the suffering of the Palestinians--not just at the moment of their execution.

Thus, when 45-year-old Folman is shaken from his coma, seeing his 20-year-old self finally realize why women run screaming from Sabra-Shatila, this ending is also a conception of sorts--a moment designed to cross boundaries. In the last frames of the film, Folman switches to real documentary footage of the aftermath inside the camps. The camera breaks. We awake from our dream, unprotected. The broken bodies and wailing women are no longer faceless, and speak almost as loudly as the silent suffering that still lingers.

Folman remains skeptical.

"I just don't think that films can change the world," he says. "How many Americans know about the massacre in Sabra-Shatila?"

Cautiously, the director will admit that he has opened a door. "If people walk out of the theater, go home and read about it," or if "teenagers see what war really looks like when you're a common soldier, then it's something."

Beige Luciano-Adams is a Los-Angeles-based journalist and former associate editor of Egypt Today and Business Today Egypt magazines in Cairo, Egypt. She is also co-founder and managing editor of EastsideLivingLA.com.

Day 7--Deliberation Day

We wrapped up our screenings and, following a final fantastic lunch and two more screenings, we sat down for two hours of bare-knuckled deliberations. Actually, the process was quite civil, with two films rising to the top of the Wolf pack, and one clear winner emerging among the Cubs. With more discussion, driven by our predominant criteria--does this film push the form forward?--and our subsidiary criteria--what is the best synthesis of subject, story, POV, form, style and relevance/timeliness?--as well as our independent visceral passions about our favorites, we came to a consensus with our third Wolf nomination and the other two Cub nominations. We felt so strongly as a group about the runner-up in the Wolf category that we awarded with a Special Jury Prize.

And who were the nominees? Well, dear readers, you'll have to wait until I present the nominations at the Talkshow on Day 9--which, since it will air locally in Amsterdam and on the web, will be my television and Internet debut!

That's Me in the Corner: The Silver Wolf/Silver Cub Competition Jury, wrapping up deliberations. Left to right: Jeanne Wikler, Tom White, Rik Stallaerts, Jess Search, Nishtha Jain. Photo: Jannie Langbroek.

Day 8--ParaDocs; Capturing Reality

Saddled with writing the Jury Report and prepping for its presentation, I nonetheless took time to explore a couple of the many programs at IDFA--in addition to the 307 docs that were apportioned among the seven competitive strands and ten non-competitive strands, there was The Forum, the pitching session of buyers and sellers; Docs for Sale, an emporium of viewing booths for distributors and festival programmers; and the Documentary Workshop. It's doc-tastic!

I opted for ParaDocs, a program that explores the outer edges of the documentary practice, via hybrid forms-not just fiction and nonfiction, but nonfiction and conceptual art and nonfiction and other artistic disciplines. The ParaDocs installment that I attended-in the ever-versatile Escape club-was an amalgam of ideas: choreography based on actual maneuvers by Israeli soldiers; a short film of a woman sitting at a desk talking about being a Taiwanese immigrant in the United States, while that same woman-the filmmaker-sits in silence at the same desk, situated below the screen...

While some of the pieces fell short of the mark, the most provocative was a reading from Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness as a prelude to an excerpt from Renzo Martens' Episode 3: Enjoy Poverty (See IDFA: Days 2 and 3: Meet The Jurors), followed by a discussion with Martens himself. He lays the irony and postmodern self-reflection on thick; playing himself in the film as a conceptual artist, he visits the Congo, under the premise that poverty is Africa's biggest export, benefitting everyone from NGOs to journalists to photojournalists to, yes, documentary filmmakers, all of whom capture the stories and images for Western consumption. Martens, in the film, prevails upon the Congolese to take ownership of their poverty, that they could earn more from horrific images that they could from photos of weddings and parties. In addition, Martens creates a large neon sculpture that exclaims "Please Enjoy Poverty." In a Kurtz-meets-Fitzcarraldo gesture, he pays the Congolese five euros a day to transport this sign 20 kilometres, which he leaves as a parting gift.

Martens had no qualms about the fact that he himself would be benefitting from his film, and that we all benefit. "We're all complicit," he claimed. "The film is about showing the rule, rather than the exceptions.

In positing his claims of exploitation, Martens has perhaps created for himself a hall of mirrors in which one irony begets another. But perhaps he has also unwittingly entrapped himself in a Chinese box, in which one irony trumps another. Whether a postmodern conceptual documentary or a cynical repurposing of a kindler, gentler Kurtz for the 21^st century, Episode 3: Enjoy Poverty provokes further thinking about the storyteller and the story, and the filmmaker and his subject. Martens' premise is susceptible to many refutations, from the empowering works coming out of Witness and Pangea Day and the myriad of docs that have a difference in confronting poverty, and changing lives.

But if you really want a wry observation of post-colonial Africa from a post-colonial African perspective, why not showcase the works of Jean-Marie Teno instead?

Later that evening, I trekked to the most remote screening facility-at the Bibliotech, a beautiful 21^st-century library reminiscent in its translucence of Dutch architect Rem Koolhaus' Seattle Public Library. I saw Pepita Ferrari's Capturing Reality: The Art of Documentary, which, as the title suggests, is a survey film, featuring over 30 of the greatest names in documentary talking about every aspect of their creative process, punctuated by clips from their films. At once exhaustive and exhausting, Capturing Reality has great value as an educational tool-and as a validation for why we do this in the first place. For more information about the film, click here.

Here's a clip from the film:

Over the next week, we at IDA will be introducing our community to the filmmakers whose work is nominated for IDA Documentary Awards in the Feature Documentaries and Short Documentaries categories. We asked the filmmakers to share the stories behind their films-the inspirations, the challenges and obstacles, the goals and objectives, the reactions to their films so far.

So, to continue this series of conversations, here is Tom Dziedzic, director/producer of Redemption Stone: The Life and Times of Tom Lewis, which is nominated for Best Short Documentary.

Synopsis: Redemption Stone introduces Tom Lewis, a storyteller of quiet power, who recounts the social upheaval and rebirth that shape his unique American journey. A spiritual vision inspires Tom to open an after-school safe haven called The Fishing School and to turn hardship into hope for the children in his community.

IDA: How did you get started in documentary filmmaking?

Tom Dziedzic: I started as a soundman at the legendary Calvin Studios in Kansas City, Missouri. Director Robert Altman was the most famous filmmaker who once worked at Calvin, and everyone in the Midwest who wanted to work in film seems to have made a stop there at one time or another. I meandered through different film jobs until I ended up working at the post office. There, I began to write scripts and produce industrials, advancing to work at Postal Service Headquarters in Washington, DC. I went independent and started my own company in 1997.

IDA: What inspired you to make Redemption Stone?

TD: Meeting Tom Lewis; it's that simple. In 2002, I was hired to edit a short five-minute video about The Fishing School, and in the course of that edit, I looked at some archival video interviews done with Mr. Lewis as he discussed growing up in North Carolina and the things that happened to him along the way, including the many events that inspired him to start The Fishing School. I became really interested in his backstory and thought it would make a good documentary. I approached him in 2003 about doing an independent film about his life.

IDA: What were some of the challenges and obstacles in making this film, and how did you overcome them?

TD: I shot the main interview with Mr. Lewis in June 2003. Immediately after that, he became very ill battling a second bout of cancer. I edited a rough string-out from the interview and then put the tapes on the shelf to wait until Mr. Lewis regained his strength. He was very ill through 2004 and 2005; almost didn't make it. My partner Sue kept encouraging me to go back into the project or else Mr. Lewis' story might never be heard. So at the beginning of 2006, I edited an audio version of the Tom Lewis story that included music and effects. That audio edit turned out to be a good selling point to show Mr. Lewis and his family how I would treat his life story, as well as a good template for the video production to follow.

IDA: How did your vision for the film change over the course of the pre-production, production and post-production processes?

TD: My vision didn't change much from the beginning. First, I didn't want other speakers in the film; I just wanted Mr. Lewis to tell his story as he remembered it. It was his memoir. Also, I decided early on to shoot in High Definition, and I worked with two great directors of photography here in the DC area, Steven Holloway and Gonzalo Accame. The design was to stay on wide shots throughout and keep the screen as open as possible.

After a two-year hiatus, we started up production again in 2006 as Mr. Lewis regained his strength. We traveled down to North Carolina together to revisit his past. The beautiful opening shots of the Cape Fear River with morning mist streaming up as Mr. Lewis walks down to the river were a total accident, just serendipity. But I knew that was the opening as soon as we shot it. I edited at my home studio during 2006 and 2007 and completed the final edit in January 2008. The really great thing about the whole process was getting to know Mr. Lewis and his wife, Lucille. Even today, we talk on the phone like old friends and discuss the journey of the film so far. That's been a blessing.

IDA: As you've screened Redemption Stone-whether on the festival circuit, or in screening rooms, or in living rooms-how have audiences reacted to the film? What has been most surprising or unexpected about their reactions?

TD: The first large audience was at the Atlanta Film Festival in April 2008, and they really liked the film. About three months later, I was driving around in DC and I got a call from a lady who saw the film in Atlanta. She said she just had to call me to let me know how much the film moved her and meant to her. That was worth a million dollars to me. The film brings many viewers to tears. Tom Lewis is a powerful force on the screen. I know he inspired me as a filmmaker, so I hope the film inspires others to go out and make a difference in their communities.

IDA: What docs or docmakers have served as inspirations for you?

TD: Errol Morris. His 1988 documentary The Thin Blue Line was such a revelation to me, how documentaries can be created from real footage and reconstructed footage. I watched it many, many times to try to understand his genius.

The winning films in the Feature Documentary and Short Documentary categories will be announced at the IDA Awards on Friday, December 5, at the Directors Guild of America Theater, 7920 Sunset Boulevard, and will be screened the next day, December 6, as part of DocuFest at the Eastman Kodak Screening Room, 6700 Santa Monica Boulevard.

For more information about the IDA Awards, click here. For more information about DocuFest, click here.

Over the next week, we at IDA will be introducing our community to the filmmakers whose work is nominated for IDA Documentary Awards in the Feature Documentaries and Short Documentaries categories. We asked the filmmakers to share the stories behind their films-the inspirations, the challenges and obstacles, the goals and objectives, the reactions to their films so far.

So, to continue this series of conversations, here is Kief Davidson, director/producer of Kassim The Dream, which is nominated for Best Feature Documentary.

Synopsis: This is the story of world champion boxer Kassim "The Dream" Ouma-born in Uganda, kidnapped by the rebel army and trained to be a child soldier at the age of 6. When the rebels took over the government, Kassim became an army soldier who was forced to commit many horrific atrocities, making him both a victim and perpetrator. He soon discovered the army's boxing team and realized the sport was his ticket to freedom. After 12 years of warfare, Kassim defected from Africa and arrived in the United States. Homeless and culture-shocked, he quickly rose through the boxing ranks and became Junior Middleweight Champion of the World.

IDA: How did you get started in documentary filmmaking?

Kief Davidson: I really had no clue what I wanted to do until my third year of college. Initially I pursued cinematography and somehow talked my way into a second assistant camera gig on a Bad Brains music video. It was a disaster. I couldn't figure out how to close a c-stand, and halfway into the shoot I lost the smart slate and was publicly fired by the DP.

I decided to give editing a try instead. Eager and willing to work for free, I landed an edit gig on a short doc about Sally Mann, the controversial photographer. This was my first real foray into the biz, and I soon discovered that the work was perfect training for filmmaking. Fortunately, I didn't mess the job up, and the film received an Oscar nomination. My editing career took off immediately. Working with many directors and learning from their successes and mistakes ultimately gave me the confidence and desire to start making my own films.

IDA: What inspired you to make Kassim The Dream?

KD: Kathleen Davidson, my co-producer and wife, stumbled upon a short news segment on HBO Real Sports about Kassim. Upon viewing the segment, we were struck by the charm and charisma of this former child soldier-turned-boxing champion of the world. How could a guy who was kidnapped at the age of six and forced to kill walk around with such a smile on his face? There was no doubt that a much bigger story needed to be explored. What is going on in this man's mind? How does he see the world? I instantly wanted to know more.

IDA: What were some of the challenges and obstacles in making this film, and how did you overcome them?

KD: I wanted Kassim to tell his own story, but his English was challenging, to say the least. He is a fast talker and difficult to understand. It was an ongoing joke that Kassim didn't even understand Kassim. We would play him back his own phone messages, and he wouldn't have a clue. A lot of time was spent coaxing Kassim to slow down and take his time.

One of the biggest challenges, however, was the fact that our story hinged on Kassim returning to Africa to reunite with his family. The Ugandan military publicly said that if Kassim was to return to Uganda, he would be tried for desertion and, if found guilty, executed. Strategic political pressure was put on the government for Kassim's return, and the closer we came to achieving entry to Uganda, the more terrified Kassim became of the trip.

IDA: How did your vision for the film change over the course of the pre-production, production and post-production processes?

KD: I recently read one of my first drafts of a treatment written for the Kassim film, and it was almost identical to what was ultimately captured in the movie. This rarely happens, so I consider myself quite lucky. My greatest fear in the early stages of shooting was that Kassim would not receive a military pardon and make it back to Africa. The film really would not have worked without this element. In contrast, the proposal for my prior film, The Devil's Miner, was nothing like the finished movie, and I couldn't have been happier.

My vision for the film definitely changed significantly during the editing process. We were working with over 200 hours of footage, and the structure of the film was difficult to nail down. The rough cuts had several more characters and heavier political overtones. Early test screenings with wonderfully opinionated colleagues helped steer our course and keep it as personal as possible.

IDA: As you've screened Kassim The Dream-whether on the festival circuit, or in screening rooms, or in living rooms-how have audiences reacted to the film? What has been most surprising or unexpected about their reactions?

KD: Audiences overall have been enthusiastic, emotional and inspired. The most interesting Q&A was at SilverDocs, where two Ugandan Army officials showed up. As Kassim and I took questions from the audience, they stood up and denied that the rebel army in 1986 ever kidnapped children. The audience booed them off of the microphones, and the tension made for a great evening.

IDA: What docs or docmakers have served as inspirations for you?

KD: Errol Morris, Werner Herzog, the Maysles brothers. The Staircase, by Jean-Xavier de Lestrade, is one of my favorite doc series.

The winning films in the Feature Documentary and Short Documentary categories will be announced at the IDA Awards on Friday, December 5, at the Directors Guild of America Theater, 7920 Sunset Boulevard, and will be screened the next day, December 6, as part of DocuFest at the Eastman Kodak Screening Room, 6700 Santa Monica Boulevard.

For more information about the IDA Awards, click here. For more information about DocuFest, click here.

The Sundance Film Festival announced its competition lineup, including the films selected for the Documentary Competition and the World Cinema Documentary Competition.

Documentary Competition
This year's 16 films were selected from 879 submissions. Each film is a world premiere.

Art & Copy (Director: Doug Pray; Screenwriter: Timothy J. Sexton)-Rare interviews with the most influential advertising creative minds of our age illustrate the wide-reaching effect advertising and creativity have on modern culture.

Boy Interrupted (Director: Dana Perry)-An intimate look at the life, mental illness and death of a young man told from the point of view of the filmmaker: his mother.

The Cove (Director: Louie Psihoyos; Screenwriter: Mark Monroe)-Dolphins are dying, whales are disappearing, and the oceans are growing sick. The horrors of a secret cove nestled off a small, coastal village in Japan are revealed by a group of activists led by Ric O'Barry, the man behind Flipper.

Crude (Director: Joe Berlinger)-The inside story of the "Amazon Chernobyl" case in the rainforest of Ecuador, the largest oil-related environmental lawsuit in the world.

Dirt! The Movie (Directors: Bill Benenson and Gene Rosow)-The story of the relationship between humans and dirt, Dirt! The Movie humorously details how humans are rapidly destroying the last natural resource on earth.

El General (Director: Natalia Almada)-As great-granddaughter of Mexican President Plutarco Elias Calles, one of Mexico's most controversial revolutionary figures, filmmaker Natalia Almada paints an intimate portrait of Mexico.

Good Hair (Director: Jeff Stilson)-Comedian Chris Rock turns documentary filmmaker when he sets out to examine the culture of African-American hair and hairstyles.

Over the Hills and Far Away (Director: Michel Orion Scott)-Over the Hills and Far Away chronicles the journey of the Isaacson family as they travel through Mongolia in search of a mysterious shaman they believe can heal their autistic son.

The Reckoning (Director: Pamela Yates; Screenwriters: Peter Kinoy, Paco de Onís, Pamela Yates)-A battle of monumental proportions unfolds as International Criminal Court Prosecutor Luis Moreno Ocampo faces down warlords, genocidal dictators and world superpowers in bringing perpetrators of crimes against humanity to justice.

Reporter (Director: Eric Daniel Metzgar)-Set in Africa, this documentary chronicles, in verité fashion, the haunting, physically grueling and shocking voyage of Pulitzer-Prize winning journalist, Nicholas D. Kristof.

The September Issue (Director: R.J. Cutler)-With unprecedented access, director R.J. Cutler and his crew shot for nine months as they captured Vogue editor-in-chief Anna Wintour and her team preparing the 2007 VogueSeptember issue, widely accepted as the "fashion bible" for the year's trends.

Sergio (Director: Greg Barker)-Sergio examines the role of the United Nations and the international community through the life and experiences of Sergio Vieira de Mello, the U.N.'s High Commissioner for Human Rights, including interviews with those who knew and worked with him over the course of his extraordinary career.

Shouting Fire: Stories from the Edge of Free Speech (Director: Liz Garbus)-An exploration of the history and current state of free speech in America narrated by the filmmaker's father, First Amendment attorney Martin Garbus.

We Live in Public (Director and Screenwriter: Ondi Timoner)-We Live in Public is the story of the Internet's revolutionary impact on human interaction as told through the eyes of maverick Web pioneer Josh Harris and his transgressive art project that shocked New York.

When You're Strange (Director and Screenwriter: Tom DiCillo)-The first feature documentary about The Doors, When You're Strange enters the dark and dangerous world of one of America's most influential bands using only footage shot between 1966 and 1971.

William Kunstler: Disturbing the Universe (Directors: Sarah Kunstler and Emily Kunstler)-With clients including Martin Luther King Jr., Malcolm X, and the Chicago 10, the late civil rights attorney William Kunstler was one of the most famous lawyers of the 20th century. Filmmakers Emily and Sarah Kunstler explore their father's life from movement hero to "the most hated lawyer in America."

World Cinema Documentary

This year's 16 films were selected from 744 submissions.

211:Anna / Italy (Directors:Paolo Serbandini and Giovanna Massimetti)-The story of Anna Politkovskaya, a Russian journalist and human rights activist who risked her life to report the truth about the Chechen conflict and President Vladimir Putin. World Premiere

Afghan Star / Afghanistan/UK (Director: Havana Marking)-After 30 years of war and Taliban rule, Pop Idol has come to television in Afghanistan: millions are watching and voting for their favorite singer. This film follows the dramatic stories of four contestants as they risk their lives to sing. North American Premiere

Big River Man / USA (Director: John Maringouin)-An overweight, wine-swilling Slovenian world-record-holding endurance swimmer resolves to brave the mighty Amazon-in nothing but a Speedo. World Premiere

Burma VJ / Denmark (Director: Anders Ostergaard)-In September 2007, Burmese journalists risking life imprisonment to report from inside their sealed-off country are suddenly thrown onto the global stage as their pocket camera images of the Saffron Revolution make headlines everywhere. US Premiere

The End of the Line / UK (Director: Rupert Murray)-Based on the book by journalist Charles Clover, The End of the Line reveals the devastating effect that global overfishing is having on fish stocks and the health of our oceans. World Premiere

The Glass House / USA (Director: Hamid Rahmanian)-The Glass House follows four teenage girls striving to overcome drug addiction, abandonment and abuse by attending a rehabilitation center in Tehran. North American Premiere

Kimjongilia / France/USA (Director: N.C. Heikin)-Defectors from North Korea finally speak out about the terrifying reality of their lives-and escapes. World Premiere

Let's Make Money /Austria/China/South Africa/Spain/Switzerland/U.S.A. (Director: Erwin Wagenhofer)-From the factories of India, to financial markets in Singapore, to massive housing developments in Spain and offshore banks in Jersey, Let's Make Money reveals complex and shocking workings of global money flow. World Premiere

Nollywood Babylon / Canada (Directors: Ben Addelman and Samir Mallal)-Welcome to the wacky world of Nollywood, Nigeria's bustling home-grown movie industry. US Premiere

Old Partner/ South Korea (Director: Chung-ryoul Lee)-A humble octogenarian farmer lives out his final days with his spitfire wife and his loyal old ox in the Korean countryside. North American Premiere

Prom Night in Mississippi/ Canada (Director: Paul Saltzman)-When a small-town Mississippi high school resolves to hold its first integrated senior prom, strong emotions fly and traditions are challenged to their core. World Premiere

The Queen and I (Drottningen och jag) / Sweden (Director: Nahid Persson Sarvestani)- Swedish filmmaker Sarvestani, an Iranian exile who helped overthrow the Shah's regime in 1979, confronts her own assumptions and complex truths about Iran when she enters the life of the Shah's widow. World Premiere

Quest for Honor/ Kurdistan / USA (Director: Mary Ann Bruni)-A former teacher and tireless activist works with local lawmen, Kurdish government agencies and her colleagues to investigate and eradicate honor killings in the tribal regions of Kurdistan. World Premiere

Rough Aunties/ UK (Director: Kim Longinotto)-Fearless, feisty and unwavering, the "Rough Aunties" protect and care for the abused, neglected and forgotten children of Durban, South Africa. North American Premiere

Thriller in Manila/ UK (Director: John Dower)-A tale of betrayal stoked by the racial politics of 1970s America, Thriller in Manila chronicles the most intense and bitter sporting rivalry ever: the 1975 final match between Muhammad Ali and Joe Frazier. North American Premiere

Tibet in Song / USA (Director: Ngawang Choephel)-Through the story of Tibetan music, this film depicts the determined efforts of Tibetan people, both in Tibet and in exile, to preserve their unique cultural identity. Choephel served six years of an 18-year prison sentence for filming in Tibet. World Premiere

End the awards weekend...for Good!

After attending the 2008 IDA Documentary Awards and DocuFest, make sure to catch a free screening of IDA/Jacqueline Donnet Emerging Filmmaker Award-winning movie Boogie Man: The Lee Atwater Story, presented by GOOD Magazine and The International Documentary Association.

The screening will take place on Sunday, December 7, 2008 at 7:30 PM at THE GOOD SPACE, 6824 Melrose Ave. (between La Brea & Highland).

A reception will follow the screening featuring a Q&A with filmmaker Stefan Forbes.

This event is free and open to the public. However, you need to RSVP by noon on Sunday, Dec. 7, here: www.goodmagazine.com/events/decboogie

Need some info about Boogie Man: The Lee Atwater Story? Well, uh, good, because here's some right here plus the trailer (now don't you want to see it?):

This film is a comprehensive look at Lee Atwater, the blues-playing rogue whose rambunctious rise from the South to Chairman of the GOP made him a household name. Atwater mentored Karl Rove and George W. Bush while leading the Republican Party to historic victories and writing the Republican Party's winning playbook. In eye-opening interviews with Atwater's closest friends and enemies, the film re-examines Atwater's crucial role in the remaking of the Republican Party. To Democrats offended by his cutthroat style, Atwater was a political assassin dubbed by one Congresswoman "the most evil man in America". But for most Republicans, he remains a hero for his deep understanding of the American heartland and his unapologetic vision of politics as war. Director Stefan Forbes offers a timely documentary for this election year as he examines the charming yet Machiavellian godfather of the modern negative political campaign.

Day 4--Still Lost in Amsterdam

Following a seven-film jury session, we repaired to the Escape club, the hub of social activities at IDFA, including the Guests Meet Guests happy hours, the TalkShow and the Dance Club. While I haven't been able to partake in any extra-Jury screening, panel or The Forum, the Escape lends a high school reunion feel; I ran into journalist/educator/2006 IDA Preservation and Scholarship honoree Pat Aufderheide, filmmaker/educator/2008 IDA Preservation and Scholarship honoree Marina Goldovskaya, filmmaker Peter Wintonick and journalist Marc Glassman, and met a host of filmmakers, programmers and journalists through them..

My dinner-mates lost me in the crowd, so they left for a Thai restaurant without me. Despite my notoriously bad sense of direction, I decided to track them down, making my way through the maze of long, unpronounceable street names that aren't conspicuously visible on the street, heading south instead of north, finding myself on the west side instead of the east side. But after an hour, I reached my destination.

Day 5--Rough Aunties

You can lose sense of what day it is at a festival like this, so let's call it Day 5. We've been sequestered at the Binger Film Institute, where they keep us happy and well fed with sumptuous lunches. We're starting to get a sense of one another's tastes and sensibilities, and we've seen three films that have risen to the top. Since we're sequestered, we're not impacted by the audience reaction or the Q&As; we have spirited discussions after each film, but when there's a film that truly captivates all of us, the energy in the room as the credits roll is palpable. One film actually inspired us to stand up and cheer.

That night, following a pleasant Indian dinner with Marc Glassman (editor of POV, the Documentary of Canada, and Montage, the DGA Magazine of Canada) and his partner, journalist Judy Wolf, I headed off to my first extra-jury screening: the world premiere of Kim Longinotto's Rough Aunties- her fourth documentary in five years! Here, Longinotto travels to South Africa to document the daily lives of the caregivers at Bobbi Bear agency, a nonprofit facility for the care and education of sexually abused children. In her trademark unobtrusive style, she captures the most intimate moments-often painful, always poignant-as the "Aunties" cope with a succession of wrenching tragedies and show a remarkable resilience and rectitude, and a deep love for their charges.

Day 6--APD Blue

One of our jurors had her wallet stolen at Escape on Night 4, so we accompanied her to the police station after our jury session. There we got a sense of the Dutch citizenry, who wander off the street to tell their stories to the desk sergeant, who patiently listens, as if she were tending bar at the local pub. There was a grandmother who wanted to show her drum that she had just bought for her grandson-and she proceeded to play it. Then there was the ponytailed gentleman who wanted to file a police report against the Dutch government-as well as The Hague, the CIA, the FBI and the UN-because, according to him, the water was poisoned with nitrogen and gas was coming out of the taps. We waited for more-perhaps a juggler, then a clown, then an anarchist carrying a very large tree. But the conspiracy theorist concluded this day's episode of The Precinct-which we juror later discussed over dinner at an Indonesian restaurant.

And while we were judging films, Senagalese superstar Youssou N'Dour was wowing the crowd at the Tuchinski Theatre, following a screening of Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi's Youssou N'Dour: I Bring What I Love. N'Dour had to return to Senegal, but the Escape club showcased an Afro-Pop band that scorched the place with their shimmering guitare lines and propulsive rhythms.

Although Documentary magazine has regularly published dispatches from IDFA, I have never attended, due to the overlap with Thanksgiving and the proximity to the IDA Awards. But I was honored to be invited to serve on the jury for two competitions-the Silver Wolf, for mid-length documentaries; and the Silver Cub, for shorts-so here I am.

But my first visit to Amsterdam was actually 27 years ago, when I, a college student taking a semester off to study at University of London, traveled there to launch an extended European junket. All I had known about Amsterdam at the time was its Dantesque depiction in Camus' The Fall, and the fact that John and Yoko had staged a bed-in at the Amsterdam Hilton (later memorialized in "The Ballad of John and Yoko.").

Tom's 1981 Amsterdam Epiphany #1: Edward Keinholz's The Beanery.

But there was so much more-and I'm not talking about the famous abundance of pot and porn, Amsterdam afforded me two epiphanies--actually, three, counting the hash-fueled freak-out vision I had at the Melk Veg. But the first two came from a clean and sober place. Number one, at the Stedilijk Museum, was an Edward Keinholz installation entitled The Beanery. So, imagine a young, impressionable post-adolescent walking into a bar like this, where you hear the conviviality and the music...and you see the decay and the depression that envelop the bar patrons-each one alone, with an inoperable clock for a face, and tinged from head to toe in battery-acid brown. This was the kind of transformative experience that comes around like a comet. I knew I had to return to The Beanery, and six weeks later, I did. And six years later, I moved to Los Angeles, and casting about in that new and strange city, I walked into a bar, and everything about it was instantly eerily familiar. But visit after visit, I couldn't quite graft this place to that unmoored memory. But one night, I looked above the bar, and there was a photo of The Beanery. And there I was.

Epiphany number two came courtesy of one of the true Dutch masters, Vincent Van Gogh. The museum in his name had just opened when I arrived in Amsterdam, And it was Wheatfield with Crows, his penultimate painting, that took me to a deeper, darker place. Maybe it was the thick, violent brush strokes of ochre and black that turned a sunny day on the farm into a rural apocalypse. Or perhaps it was knowing that just days after completing this painting, Vincent Van Gogh fired a bullet into his brain. But a print of Wheatfield with Crows hangs above my work space and greets me every morning.

And with those memories in mind, I boarded the plane, whose passengers included IDA director emeritus Sandra Ruch, a juror on the prestigious Joris Ivins Jury Competition; Senain Kheshgi and Geeta Patel, who were showcasing their film Project Kashmir in the First Appearance Competition; Luciano Blotta, traveling with RiseUp, a Reflecting Images-Panorama; and Diane Weyermann of Participant Media, representing Mark Becker and Jennifer Grausman's Pressure Cooker. Lots of schmoozing to do, at 10,000 feet!

The Sundance Institute Documentary Film Program has announced its latest round of grantees. 20 film projects out of the almost 800 submitted were awarded financial and creative support from the Sundance Documentary Fund. The group includes six first-time feature documentary filmmakers as well as familiar names such as Thomas Allen Harris, Pamela Yates, Edet Belzberg and Macky Alston.

Cara Mertes, Director of the Sundance Documentary Film Program, said in a statement, “The films funded in this round tell stories of perseverance and dignity in the face of our  world's greatest contemporary challenges. From journalists and lawyers who take on international war criminals, to a small American town confronting its own homophobia, nonfiction storytellers are leading us down new paths as we search for common ground.”

The next deadline for submission to the Sundance Institute Documentary Fund is February 9, 2009.  

Here’s the full list of projects:

DEVELOPMENT
Elinyisia Mosha
TANZANIA PROJECT (Tanzania/U.S.)
This film explores the impact of foreign direct investment in the filmmakers native Tanzania.

Priya Giri Desai and  Ann S. Kim
MATCH +: A STORY ABOUT LOVE IN THE TIME OF HIV (U.S./India)
At the Y.R. Gaitonde Centre for AIDS Research and Education (YRG CARE) clinic in Chennai, India, Dr. Solomon and her staff launch a matrimonial matchmaking service for their positive patients.

Tina DiFeliciantonio and Jane C. Wagner
SEEKING REFUGE (U.S.)                                                                        
At the Bellevue Hospital Center N.Y.U. Program for Survivors of Torture, three patients from around the world come together in a journey of healing.

Marianna Kaat
THE PIT (Estonia/Ukraine)                                                                                    
Once prosperous during the Soviet era, the small town of Snezhnoje in East Ukraine now lives in poverty. The town’s desperate residents decide to start mining on their own.

Macky Alston
THE TRUTH WILL SET YOU FREE (U.S.)                                                      
An openly gay bishop from New Hampshire travels to London, where the Anglican Communion will decide to either retain or split gay leadership from their ranks.

Patricio Guzman
NOSTALGIA DE LA LUZ (Chile/France)                                   
In the desert of North Chile, astronomers study the ancient universe above, while women search below for signs of their family members disappeared under Pinochet’s dictatorship of 1973.

Mahmoud Al Massad
THIS IS MY PICTURE WHEN I WAS DEAD (Jordan)                                               
This is a film that artfully imagines the future of a four-year old boy who almost died in the assassination of his PLO lieutenant father 25 years ago.


PRODUCTION/POST-PRODUCTION
Lynn True and Nelson Walker, with Tsering Perlo
A NOMAD'S LIFE  (U.S./Tibet)                                                                            
In the mountains of Tibet, Locho and Yama struggle to maintain their family and way of life, and to reconcile their nomadic traditions amidst rapid modernization.

Andrew Berends
DELTA BOYS (U.S./Nigeria)                                                                                             
In the oil rich Niger Delta, Chima is a 21-year-old who is swept into the world of armed militants after a prison break. His story is part of a complex tale of oil, power, poverty and corruption.

Petr Lom
LETTERS TO THE PRESIDENT (U.S./Iran)                                                    
Across Iran, villagers share their hopes and fears through letters to President Ahmadinejad and his Presidential Letter Writing Center.

Mona Nicoara
OUR SCHOOL (Romania)                                                                         
Roma children struggle to break the barriers of segregation in a small Transylvanian school. Rejected by teachers, they find strength in the friendship of Romanian classmates.

Joe Wilson and Dean Hamer
OUT  IN THE SILENCE (U.S.)                                                                 
The filmmaker's same-sex wedding announcement in the local newspaper ignites a firestorm of controversy in his rural Pennsylvania hometown.

Eric Daniel Metzgar
REPORTER (U.S./Congo)                         
New York Times journalist Nicholas Kristof  journeys into the crisis in the Democratic Republic of Congo, inviting a consideration of the future of journalism.

Danae Elon
THE EVIL TONGUE (U.S.)                                                                                  
In the Orthodox Jewish family, those affected by sexual molestation may be unable to disclose the information to secular authorities.

Pamela Yates
THE RECKONING (U.S.)                                                                          
The film chronicles the history and launch of the International Criminal Court in the Hague, the world’s first institution created to prosecute individuals for war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide.

DISCRETIONARY
Edet Belzberg
WATCHERS OF THE SKY (U.S.)                                                                       
Drawing from Samantha Power’s book "A Problem from Hell" four exceptional visionaries traverse time and continents to explore the world's response to genocide.

Oren Jacoby
INJUSTICE  (U.S.)  
This film uncovers the backroom maneuvering during the waning days of the Bush Administration which led to the unprecedented and illegal firing of U.S. Attorneys David Iglesias, John McKay and three of their colleagues.

Samba Gadjigo and Jason Silverman
SEMBENE: REVOLUTIONARY ARTIST (U.S./Senegal)   
The story of independent filmmaker Senegal's Ousmane Sembene, providing an alternate history of contemporary Africa and a window into world cinema.

Thomas Wallner
THE GUANTANAMO TRAP (Canada/Germany)                                             
Murat Kurnaz, born in Germany of Turkish heritage, was detained, tortured at the U.S. military base in Kandar, Afghanistan and in the U.S. military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba and held for five years. This is his story.

Thomas Allen Harris
THROUGH A LENS DARKLY: BLACK PHOTOGRAPHERS AND THE EMERGENCE OF A PEOPLE  (U.S.)
Using an experimental approach, Harris shows how black communities use photography and imagery to construct political, aesthetic, and cultural representations of themselves in the world.

Documentary Editor Tom White has been at in Amsterdam, at IDFA, over the past few days, serving on one jury for two competitions: the Silver Wolf, for mid-length docs; and the Silver Cub, for short docs. The Queen Mother of all doc fests, IDFA is unspooling over 300 films over a ten-day period; Tom and his fellow jurors are reviewing 31 of those-in five days. He'll be filling us in on his adventures in The Netherlands this week.

IDFA: Day One: Taking Flight

IDFA: Days 2 and 3: Meet The Jurors

IDFA: Days 4 through 6: Still Lost in Amsterdam, 'Rough Aunties,' APD Blue

IDFA: Days 7 and 8--Deliberation Day, ParaDocs, 'Capturing Reality'