Started the day off with an early morning screening of Passing Strange, Spike Lee’s filmed version of the Tony-winning rock musical. Early in the afternoon, I headed to the Vitamin Water house to interview both Mr. Lee and Passing Strange creator and star Stew.

During my time there, I experienced in full force the bizarro world that is now Sundance. Members of the cast and crew of the film feasted on a ritzy catered lunch (the ahi tuna app looked damn good, but no foodie love for the journos waiting to talk to Spike), and the fully stocked bar doled out schmancy Vitamin Water cocktails. The house was branded the hilt with Vitamin Water bottles in all colors and flavors adorning the walls. Meanwhile, I was waiting to interview the creators of a film that has no distribution, and has its story development roots in the Sundance Lab...about as indie as you can get. 

After talking with both Stew and Spike (more on that later), I headed over to the PBS/ITVS party at the Riverhorse. I was greeted at the door by the lovely Cara white, and there were lots o’ non-fiction folk in attendance. ITVS’ Jim Sommers, Sr. VP of Content Management, welcomed the crowd by mentioning that 64 ITVS films have premiered throughout the years at Sundance, with 16 of them receiving awards. John Wilson, PBS’s SVP & Chief TV Programming Exec, spoke about this being a time of monumental transition that  can be challenging but can also lead to new opportunities. He bragged about the fact that pbs.org receives more visits than the online outposts of ABC, CBS, Fox and NBC.

 

New Frontiers panelist Thomas Allen Harris, Sundance's Shari Frilot
and Mark Samels (executive producer, EARTH DAYS)

 

THE GLASS HOUSE director/DP/Editor Hamid Rahmanian and producer/screenwriter Melissa Hibbard 

Filmmaker Adrian Belic and ITVS's Lois Vossen

 

A contemplative Stanley Nelson (WOUNDED KNEE)

Ran into Dirt! The Movie co-director Gene Rosow on the festival shuttle Thursday afternoon. He was supposed to have arrived at the festival with his film in hand, but some post-production issues had waylaid him and he was eagerly waiting for his print to make it to Park City. Considering he’d been in a sound mix until 4:30am that morning, he was in remarkably good spirits.

Last year, one of my favorite docs of the festival was F.L.O.W., which looked at the state of water on the planet. Dirt! The Movie, inspired by William Bryant Logan’s acclaimed book Dirt: The Ecstatic Skin of the Earth, is described as "a humorous and substantial look into the history and current state of the living organic matter that we come from and will later return to." I'm looking forward to seeing it later in the festival. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

My Sundance experience began with the random travel pairing of Guillermo De Toro and Tom Kenny, the voice of SpongeBob SquarePants, who shared my flight out of LAX into Salt Lake City. This talent grouping was so inspired, I thought, that perhaps Sundance films should be made only from casts accidentally assembled on airplanes. This notion was confirmed ten minutes later when Pierce Brosnan walked up to retrieve his luggage while paparazzi shuttered away.

Really, "paparazzi" is too fancy a term -- how about "a dubious collection of grizzled stringers and fans with camcorders and cellphones." All of whom were recording footage which probably ended up on TMZ's TV show. It's truly amazing to me that horribly shot footage containing any famous person in any situation is now considered worthwhile viewing. In the future, I think we will all be able to order up security camera feeds from anywhere in the world with the click of a keypad. "Rob Schneider - McDonalds bathroom, Columbus, Ohio!" "Lenny Kravitz - Fountain, Caesar's Palace, Spring 1998!" This material is nonfiction, all right, but I'd like to think it isn't the "future" of documentaries.

Also enjoyed eavesdropping on a (nonfictional) conversation about guest lists that rivaled the classic "Who's On First?"

"Who has a Plus One?"
"I have a Plus One, but I don't know if YOU'RE my Plus One."
"I have a Plus One, so I don't need your Plus One."

Unfortunately, I did not get to see any films today. I attempted one, and it had nothing to do with the world of documentaries: Spring Breakdown, Amy Poehler, Parker Posey and Rachel Dratch's seemingly funny femme comedy. But when I arrived, there were 150 people on the waitlist in front of me. Needless to say, I gave up that idea pretty quick. But I did get to stand outside the theater to see fans geeking out over the stars, who very cordially posed for photos. The trailer looks enjoyable. Here, enjoy it yourself:

Sadly, I had left the Gen Art party (which was kind of fun), and as I walked out they said, "You know, if you leave you can't come back." Then I regretted leaving, of course. But this had been my fourth event in a row, starting off with a very nice ITVS event where I got to catch up with a lot of cool docu-folks, so I figured I ought to call it a night. Fellow documentary.org correspondent Tamara Krinsky was my travel companion for some of this ride and thankfully let me be her plus one, twice.

So my evening ended, pleasantly, at the 24 hour Albertson's with condomate and Board Member Adam Chapnick, as we purchased coffee, salt and vinegar chips, and contemplated the 24 oz. Budweiser-And-Clamato in a can. I said, "contemplated," not "ingested."

I tried to take some video of myself in front of a giant stuffed bear, but something went wrong. I'll work harder at it tomorrow, I promise.

After reading Mike Jones’ Variety post on Wednesday about his amusing shuttle ride experience, I couldn’t help but hope that my arrival at Sundance would yield similar results. Turns out I didn’t even have to wait until I got into my shuttle for my Sundance moments to begin.

Straight off the plane, the baggage carousel came to a dead stop. Despite several rabble rousers who tried to spread rumors of a labor strike (haven’t we had enough of those?), turns out it was just a mechanical glitch. Whilst waiting for the bags to emerge from the dungeon of Salt Lake City International Airport, I bonded with my fellow passengers, a good sampling of Sundance attendees.

Passenger A: A studio exec whose pet project is a nascent documentary festival.
Passenger B: A vendor who inadvertently insulted the producer she sat next to on the plane when she told him she didn’t like ANYTHING about his previous film.
Passenger C: A post-production supervisor who was tagging along with A and B for several days of fun and movies. When he learned I was at the festival covering the non-fiction films, he confided that he actually goes to the theater and pays to see docs. Love that!

Stepped outside into a gorgeous, sunny day with a fantastic view of the mountains. Crisp and chill, but not a complete shock to my thin-blooded LA body.

The airport shuttle ride itself did not disappoint. I had a wonderful reunion with Deliver Us From Evil producer Frank Donner, whom I met at Sundance two years ago when I interviewed him the morning he found out his film had been nominated for an Oscar. He told me about Amy Berg’s latest project (writer/director, Deliver Us From Evil), a film about Benazir Bhutto. Donner himself has several projects in the works.

I like getting to Sundance on Thursday afternoon before the massive crowds hit on Friday. Gives me a chance to get settled in before the madness begins. Of course, this year many are predicting a muted Sundance, which in my mind might not be so bad. A return to focusing on filmmaking? Fewer long lines at parties? Less traffic? Sounds pretty OK to me. We’ll see if it actually happens...stay tuned...

IDA friend AJ Schnack pointed out that Ari Folman's Waltz with Bashir becmase the first nonfiction film to ever win a Golden Globe when it took home the statuette for Best Foreign Language Film last night.

Bashir is also a 2008 IDA Documentary Award winner (in the Feature Documentary category), on the Cinema Eye Honors Feature Film Shortlist, has taken home more than a few other awards already and is a strong Oscar contender.

Check out Documentary magazine's feature on Waltz with Bashir here.

Congrats to Ari Folman and the rest of his team.

The European Documentary Network has expanded their well-known documentary funding book The EDN TV-Guide into The EDN Financing Guide. The financing guide provides documentary professionals with the information needed to navigate in the evolving landscape of documentary production, where new approaches to funding and distribution become increasingly important. The new guide will include information on funds, VDD platforms, distributors and sales agents as well as broadcasters.

It's an essential tool for documentary filmmakers, producers, distributors and program sellers looking for financing, co-financing and sales of their projects and finished films.

You can buy the EDN Financing Guide 2009 for 100 Euro + postage.

If you join EDN you will receive a copy of the EDN Financing Guide 2009 as well as access to search our online database on European broadcasters

For more information about the guide and the organization, go to www.edn.dk.

 

IDA's second free membership mixer was off and running on January 7 at Carbon in Culver City, with free suds courtesy of Heineken, choice spins from DJ's Mike D'Angelo and Dollar Short, and great conversation with a wide spectrum of the documentary community. The event was a live-wire welcome mat for our spiffy new Executive Director, Michael Lumpkin, who was personable enough to actually greet several members right at the door! Spotted amongst the packed-like-sardines crowd were DP extraordinaire Shana Hagan; Documentary magazine Editor Thomas White; filmmaker and Man About Town Michael Rose; editor Miranda Yousef; Sundance's Win-sie Tow; Board Members Steve Reich, Moises Velez, LaurieAnn Schag, Pi Ware and Gilda Brasch; and many other talented members, both veteran and brand new.

I personally was invigorated by meeting so many cool filmmakers with fascinating projects in various stages of pre, prod and post, and came away feeling psyched to pull together the community to just plain hang and have fun (and hoping that we, as an organization, can also help). Major kudos to Maria Arzola, Manager of Membership Services, her committee (the aforementioned Mr. Velez and Board Member Beth Bird), and our dedicated staff, many of whom were in attendance, including Controller Meg Madison, Program & Events Manager Peggy Ellithorpe, Webmaster and Technical Director Mark Dischler, and Executive Administrative Assistant MJ Brown. (Fiscal Sponsorship Manager Amy Halpin was there in spirit!)

Up next: Open your Trapper Keepers, there will be a mixer just for students in February.

All photos by Juan Ruvalcaba. See more pictures on the IDA Flickr Photostream.

I.O.U.S.A., the prescient, timely and perhaps timeless doc from Patrick Creadon about the national debt crisis that has, in part, led to the economic turmoil we find ourselves in, is making its television debut Saturday, January 10 and Sunday, January 11, on CNN.

The film, which premiered at the 2008 Sundance Film Festival, also screened at both the Democratic and Republican National Conventions last summer, and has earned considerable acclaim from critics and audiences alike.

The broadcast will be hosted by Ali Velshi and Christine Romans, co-anchors of CNN's Your $$$$$, the network's weekend business roundtable program. Throughout the broadcast, Velshi and Romans will engage a distinguished group of panelists including Pete Peterson, chairman of the Peter G. Peterson Foundation and former US Commerce Secretary; Dave Walker, president and CEO of the Peter G. Peterson Foundation and former US Comptroller General; Alice Rivlin, noted economist and former director of the Office of Management and Budget; and Bill Bradley, a managing director of Allen & Company and former U.S. Senator and Democratic presidential candidate in discussions about issues raised in the film and their ties to current economic events.

I.O.U.S.A. uses candid interviews, archival footage and economic data to tell the story of America's mounting debts. Interview subjects include noted investor Warren Buffett, former Federal Reserve Chairmen Alan Greenspan and Paul Volcker, former US Treasury Secretaries Paul O'Neill and Robert Rubin Rivlin, Walker, and Concord Coalition Executive Director Bob Bixby. The conclusion of the film offers suggestions for how best to recreate a fiscally sound nation for future generations. I.O.U.S.A. was directed by Patrick Creadon ("Wordplay") and distributed in the United States by Roadside Attractions ("Super Size Me"). Michael Kane is the executive producer of the program for CNN.

This exclusive televised event will air on CNN/U.S. on Saturday, January 10 at 2:00 p.m. EST and on Sunday, January 11 at 3:00 p.m. EST.

The Cinema Eye Honors for Nonfiction Filmmaking announced that 15 feature films have been named to the 2009 Cinema Eye Shortlist.

They are:

American Teen
The Betrayal (Nerakhoon)
Encounters At The End Of The World
The English Surgeon
Forbidden Lies
In A Dream
Man On Wire
My Winnipeg
The Order Of Myths
Roman Polanski: Wanted And Desired
Standard Operating Procedure
Stranded, I've Come From A Plane That Crashed On The Mountains
Trouble The Water
Up The Yangtze
Waltz With Bashir

Now in its second year, the Cinema Eye Honors honors nonfiction films and filmmakers, recognizing the breadth of the genre and including the crafts of cinematography, editing, producing, directing, etc. Final nominations will be announced January 19, 2009 in Park City, Utah. The Honors will be presented March 29, 2009 in New York City.

“These fifteen films represent every facet of nonfiction filmmaking, from classic cinema verite to films that employ animation, actors and narrative storytelling in often groundbreaking ways,” said Cinema Eye Honors co-chair AJ Schnack. “This shortlist is a terrific kickoff for this year's awards.”

Keep up to date with the awards on AJ Schnack's blog.

What's the difference between hockey mom and a pit bull? A hockey mom bites back at the media and SNL comediennes.

As part of conservative filmmaker John Ziegler's documentary-in-progress Media Malpractice...How Obama Got Elected he sat down with former Vice Presidential nominee Sarah Palin in her Wasilla home for a little chat about such hot topics as her much talked-about interview with Katie Couric, that silly Tina Fey and how the chatter about her family made "the mama grizzly rises up in me."

Check it out, straight from the grizzly's mouth:

Find out more at www.howobamagotelected.com.

What do you think of Palin's comments? Comment away.