Every three years, the U.S. Copyright Office conducts a rulemaking process to assess whether the DMCA's ban on circumvention interferes with noninfringing uses of copyrighted materials. If the Copyright Office finds a substantial adverse effect on noninfringing uses of certain types of works, it grants a three-year exemption from DMCA liability for that class of works.
I and the Intellectual Property Clinic at USC Law School filed a request with the Copyright Office for an exemption that would make it clear that documentary filmmakers can access CSS-protected material on DVDs for fair use purposes or if the material is in the public domain without any charge. We are representing several individual documentary filmmakers, The International Documentary Association and Film Independent. Several other film organizations are considering joining this next phase. Our request was filed in early November, 2008.
According to the rules relating to such requests, we have until February 2, 2009, to file some more paperwork in support of the request. We plan to add stories and examples to enliven and enrich the legal request we filed. We are looking for real-world examples that will help illustrate any adverse effect the prohibition is having on documentary filmmakers. If you would like to help, you can provide:
1. Examples of how you've been unable to use material from DVDs for fair use purposes (or public domain material) due to CSS;
2. Examples of having to use severely degraded analog versions of noninfringing material due to CSS and the effect that had on your documentary; and
3. Stories about what you would do with noninfringing material in your documentary films if you could obtain protected material from DVDs without fear of breaking the law.
All responses and any questions you have can be e-mailed to Ashlee Lin at alin@law.usc.edu or Christopher Perez at cperez@law.usc.edu. You should send me a copy at info@michaelcdonaldson.com. We will put your stories in proper form to join other stories. Let us know if you want to submit your story with your name or without your name attached to it. You can read the entire request on the U.S. Copyright Office website at http://www.copyright.gov/1201/2008/ (see Document 11B). But watch it. It is 22 pages long. Thank you in advance for your assistance!
Below is the draft language of our proposed "class of works," which defines which materials would be eligible for the exemption and the conditions under which the exemption would be available.
Audiovisual works in the form of Digital Versatile Discs (DVDs) not generally available commercially to the public in a digital form not protected by Content Scrambling System technology when a documentary filmmaker, who is a member of an organization of filmmakers or enrolled in a film program at an accredited university, is accessing material for a use for the purposes of criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, or research in a specific documentary film that has been commenced and has progressed to the rough cut stage, where the material is in the public domain or will be used in compliance with the doctrine of fair use as defined by federal case law and 17 U.S.C. § 107.
Entertainment attorney Michael C. Donaldson, Esq. (Donaldson & Hart), is a former IDA Board President and served on the Legal Advisory Board for the Documentary Filmmakers' Statement of Best Practices in Fair Use.
Another clear, balmy, shiny Park City day...another day of the Cold From Hell. I’ve never been sick up at Sundance before, and bottom line, it bites.
I dragged myself out of bed to go see an 8:30am screening of Sergio at the Yarrow. Directed by Greg Barker, the film is the story of Sergio Vieira de Mello, the UN’s charismatic ambassador to Iraq. Handsome and charismatic, his life story brings up the age old question, "Why do bad things happen to good people?" Following the film, I returned to my condo for a nap and then headed out to interview Barker. I’ll be posting a more in-depth look at his film over the next couple of weeks.
After Barker's interview, I popped into the New Frontiers section for a quick look around - lots of cool stuff happening in there and I'm going to try to get back later in the week. Then I mingled for a moment with filmmakers at the Press & Filmmaker reception, where I met Havana Marking, the director of Afghan Star. A fellow strawberry blonde, she and I engaged in a moment of red-head bonding while I congratulated her on her film. It's one of the few on my list that I'm probably not going to get a chance to see at the fest. While I was at Sergio that a.m., my condo-mate had gone to see Afghan Star and came back raving about it.
Next stop: the IDA party. Gorgeous house, great food, wonderful people. For more, read Eddie Schmidt’s round up of the party, complete with pics. After the IDA shin-dig, we headed over to the HBO Documentary Films dinner. As always, the HBO folk threw a classy event, with fantastic food and the crème de la crème of the doc world in attendance. HBO has many reasons to celebrate this Sundance, with a number of films playing the festival, including U.S. documentary competition films Boy Interrupted, Good Hair, Sergio, and Shouting Fire: Stories From the Edge of Free Speech; world documentary competition films Rough Aunties and the recently acquired Burma VJ; and the documentary short I Knew It Was You.
Following the dinner, I headed down to the Temple Theatre for the premiere of Good Hair, produced by Chris Rock. It was my first time at the new venue. On the plus side, the Temple is a great theater - good sound, right size, comfy seats - all of which make for a pleasant viewing experience. On the negative side, despite the fact that it’s technically in Park City, the Temple is geographically undesirable. And like a great boyfriend who lives on the other side of the country, no matter how cute he is, at the end of the day the relationship's just not going to work. The Temple is outside of the main drag, so if you’re trying to pack in multiple screenings, you’re more likely to choose films at venues that are closer to one another.
A lot of the docs are premiering at the Temple, and to me it kind of felt like they’d been ghettoed outside of the main fest. Sundance has always been a strong supporter of non-fiction, making sure to put the docs on par with the narrative features, so I hope they look into whether or not having so many docs at the Temple affects overall attendance.
Luckily, none of that seemed to matter tonight, and the Good Hair screening was packed. Rock, executive producer Nelson George and several subjects of the film including actresses Nia Long and Tracie Thoms were in the house. The 95 min doc about African American hair culture had the audience laughing out loud, while at the same time providing insights into the global aspects of the hair business. I’ll be speaking with Rock later this week, so more to come on the film.
Chris Rock surrounded by fans after the screening of Good Hair
Good Hair subjects actresses Sarah Jones & Tracie Thoms
came to the premiere to support the film
Paul Marchand was busy this year:
he was the editor & camera op on Good Hair
and the DP and Add. Editor on Big River Man.
There were many fun parties on the agenda for the evening, but the only party I was going to was the one back at my condo with my drinking buddies NyQuil and TheraFlu. Keeping fingers crossed that tomorrow I'll feel like a normal human being again.
In the meantime, I'll leave you with this little snippet of Chris Rock that I captured with my camera at the Good Hair Q&A following the screening. He's responding to a question about why his film explored both the humorous and serious aspects of business and culture of African American hair. [NOTE TO READERS: This clip is DEFINITELY more about the audio than the video...it's just a li'l clip of video shot from my still camera).
I continued my media-doc themed day on Saturday afternoon at the A&E IndieFilms/Actual Reality party for The September Issue, followed by a screening of the film. R.J. Cutler’s documentary is an intimate, behind-the-scenes look at the production of the September issue of Vogue magazine, the largest issue in the magazine's history.
THE PARTY
Met up with IDA Board President Eddie Schmidt at the party, which was held in a groovy lounge space at the Village at the Yard. I worked at Cutler’s company, Actual Reality Productions, many moons ago as an associate editor on series such as The Residents, so the party turned into a bit of an ARP mini-reunion for me. It was fantastic to see my old comrades such as Eliza Hindmarch (producer, The September Issue) and Mary Lisio (co-producer, The September Issue) involved with such a high profile project.
Hindmarch, Lisio and A&E IndieFilms' Molly Thompson (executive producer, The September Issue) had just come from the noon public screening of the film, which was a complete mob scene due to the fact that Ms. Wintour was there in person. Apparently, she was quite candid during the Q&A about the fact that she did NOT agree with Cutler about some of the choices he made with the film. Luckily, Cutler had negotiated final cut as part of his deal.
PARK CITY TRANSPO SURVIVAL
One thing I’ve definitely learned this fest is that whenever possible, walk instead of shuttle. Initially I was a bit leery of walking down Kearns Blvd. in the dark to get from the party to the screening at the Yarrow (just to be clear – I wasn’t worried about being attacked – just about face-planting on the ice). The lovely locals at the party coat check who advised me were correct, though – walking was a heck of a lot faster than attempting to find a shuttle going in the right direction.
THE SCREENING
Full disclosure: The September Issue was one of the docs I’d been most looking forward to seeing at Sundance, and not just because of my previous ARP history. While I don’t normally consider myself a girly-girl, for some reason whenever The Devil Wears Prada shows up on cable, I find myself powerless to change the channel. I’ve also become somewhat addicted to Tyra Banks’ fierceness on America’s Next Top Model. I'm not proud of these things. But sometimes ya' gotta just give in to the pretty. So a doc about Anna Wintour, the legendary editor-in-chief of Vogue magazine for the past 20 years? Sign me up!
I’d been hearing good things about the film all day, and the screening did not disappoint, although the documentary was different than I expected (I intentionally did not read the production notes beforehand). I thought I was going to see a hard-hitting expose on Wintour, but instead, the true ‘star’ of the film is creative director Grace Coddington, who has worked beside Wintour throughout her tenure at Vogue. The relationship between creator and curator makes for rich subject matter.
Apparently, Coddington originally wasn’t thrilled about being on-camera. Her first words to Cutler and his crew were, “Get away from me.” But the former model-turned-stylist eventually opens up, revealing her creative process and frustrations with the issue as her spreads are edited down. I loved seeing how she put together a fashion shoot inspired by the 1920’s, how her research and vision translated into the actual photos. She’s a true artist, and for some reason, I found it comforting to know that behind the pages of the glossy, hi-falutin' magazine, there is the beating heart of a real, warm human being attempting to make her vision a reality.
Wintour is a much tougher nut to crack. She is fascinating to watch – the bob, the cute upturned nose, the eyes that can communicate a death sentence with a glance...that is, when she deigns to take off her dark glasses. I’m sure these comments have just killed my chances of ever being a Vogue cover girl...I have a feeling Ms. Wintour does not take kindly to the word "cute" being applied to her.
Throughout the film, small moments add up to give the audience a sense of what might drive the editor-in-chief. Despite being hailed by her colleagues as "the Pope of the Church that is Vogue” and "the Madonna of the fashion world," those closest to Wintour don’t seem quite as impressed. Her daughter declares that she doesn’t want to work at Vogue because she thinks one shouldn’t take fashion too seriously, and Wintour says that she believes her politically and socially involved siblings are “amused” by what she does.
The September Issue reminds us why shows like Project Runway and my aforementioned addiction, The Devil Wears Prada, are so popular – it’s fun to watch pretty people, charismatic personalities and gorgeous clothing. It's rude to stare at models on the street, so the chance to do so uninterruped for 90 minutes is a treat. The doc was shot by the Emmy-nominated cinematographer Bob Richman (DP, Metallica: Some Kind of Monster, My Architect: A Son’s Journey), who does a great job of capturing the glamour of the fashion world.
One of my favorite sections of the film is when the Vogue team goes to Europe to do the couture and cover shoots. There are beautiful shots of Grace wandering around Paris, talking about the fact that she was advised early in her career to always look up and out at the world around her for inspiration. Likewise, Cutler and his team have done a great job of observing the world they set out to document and finding the real stories within it, rather than imposing a pre-determined idea of Vogue and its creators onto their film.
During the 2009 Sundance Film Festival, Eddie Schmidt, the IDA President, Board of Directors and Documentary magazine editors Tamara Krinsky and Tom White braved the snow, the screenings and the celebrities to bring fresh reports from the filmmaking frontlines.
The day-by-day rundown is below or just peek at our News section to see them all. Plus, check out the coverage of our coverage.
Sundance Dispatch: Saturday, January 24
Sundance Jury & Audience Award Winners Announced (we've even included a few trailers for ya')
Sundance Dispatch: Thursday, January 22
How are docs doing at Sundance? Here's a mid-point report.
Sundance Dispatch: Wednesday, January 21
Schmidt at Sundance: The Day the Deals Stood Still
White at Sundance: Day 2: Slamming The Doors Movie
Random Sundance News:
The resession hits Sundance! Boom again! Oh, but stuff still sells!
AJ Schnack calls out Robert Redford.
Scott Weinberg at Cinematical loves him some Zooey Deschanel.
The official Sundance site has tons of great stuff, including this interview with Bobcat Goldthwait, the writer-director of the World’s Greatest Dad.
Sundance Dispatch: Tuesday, January 20
White at Sundance: Day One, History
Krinsky at Sundance: Inauguration Joy in Park City
Sundance Dispatch: Monday, January 19
Schmidt at Sundance: Fire, A Laugh and Slamdance
Sundance Dispatch: Sunday, January 18
IDA Sundance house party brings good people, good conversation and prosciutto-wrapped asparagus.
The New York Times' Carpetbagger blog showed up to the party. Check it out.
Sundance Dispatch: Saturday, January 17
Schmidt at Sundance: Live docs, Jack White and more!
Krinsky at Sundance: Art & Copy & a Cold
Krinsky at Sundance: Burma VJ, Part I
Krinsky at Sundance: The September Issue
Sundance Dispatch: Friday, January 16
Krinsky at Sundance: Spike Lee, Vitamin Water & PBS/ITVS Party Pics
Krinsky at Sundance: Dirt! Director Gene Rosow
Schmidt at Sundance: Paparazzi (Yes!), Amy Poehler (No!)
Sundance Dispatch: Thursday, January 15
Krinsky at Sundance: Arriving in Park City
For the inside look at the festival, read our interview with Geoffrey Gilmore, the longtime Director of the Sundance Film Festival and CaraMertes of the Sundance Institute Documentary Film Program.
Then check out these other links:
The Hollywood Reporter has a full competition lineup list for 2009.
Film.com is breaking down the six films to look for.
PBS's P.O.V. Blog has a countdown to the fest.
Of course, you can get video, a full movie list and more on the Sundance site.
I had been meaning to go to a breakfast viewing party to watch the inauguration. I wanted to celebrate this amazing event amidst a community, to look across the room at faces that reflected my own inner joy and wonder. To be part of a collective whole. To be proud together.
Unfortunately, the Cold That Will Not Die made staying in my room in my pajamas the only real option. And the fact that every time I tried to put on some eye make up while getting dressed, I’d look at the coverage on the TV screen, start to cry and then have to start all over again.
Despite missing out on a communal viewing experience, small moments of inaugural joy kept popping up throughout the day.
When I boarded the shuttle to go to a screening of We Live in Public, my entire section was abuzz with talk of documentaries. Two guys compared Tyson and Thriller in Manila, and then a third weighed in with his thoughts on Paul Saltzman’s Prom Night in Mississippi, which is about racially integrating the prom at Charleston High School. My shuttle-mates and I all marveled at the fact that we had just seen our first black President take the oath of office, yet just last year – 2008 – was the first time this school had had an integrated prom.
Obama fever, Lost-style
(though I'm sure the Dharma Initiative had nothing to do with his winning the election)
When Sundance programmer Caroline Libresco introduced the screening of We Live in Public, she began by linking the mission of the festival to the events of the morning. She said, “I’m proud to be part of an organization that presents all different points of view. That’s what democracy is.”
Even the Sundance Channel party later that afternoon at 350 Main incorporated the inauguration, with servers in shirts that featured the slogan, “1.20.09 for a change.”
Later that evening at the Kodak party, I ended up talking with a woman who, in the midst of the festival, had flown to DC and back to witness the historic event in person. She told us her stories, showed us her buttons, and made me feel one small step closer to being there.
After Art & Copy, I dashed down the hallway of the Holiday Village to go see a documentary about media of a very different sort. Anders Østergaard’s Burma VJ is about the Democratic Voice of Burma (DVB), an underground network of videographers dedicated to reporting news from one of the most closed countries in the world.
The film won the Joris Ivens Prize at the International Documentary Festival Amsterdam (IDFA) 2008 and was acquired by HBO for broadcast in 2010, but if you’re lucky, you’ll be able to catch this powerful film on a big screen sometime before then.
Østergaard’s film is told through “Joshua,” a 27 year-old video journalist whose real identity is kept secret for security reasons. Originally, Østergaard set out to make a more modest film about the lives of the secret reporters but in the midst of shooting the doc, Burma's Buddhist monks rebelled against the country's ruling military junta, providing the filmmaker with a much larger story to tell.
Joshua is forced to flee to Thailand, where he takes on a tactical role for the DVB, coordinating the VJs efforts with those of the monks. The film uses both original footage shot by the DVB and reconstructed scenes to convey the events of September 2007 in Burma. With the foreign media shut out and Internet connections severed, the VJ's footage is the only record of the uprising that made it out to the rest of the world.
Joshua’s face is never shown on screen in the film, and at first I found this off-putting. Eventually, though, it enabled me to experience the events as he was experiencing them. Burma VJ does what a good documentary should – it puts the audience inside of a situation they would never have the opportunity to witness firsthand.
I’ll be talking with Anders later in the week about his film, so check back over the next several weeks for a more in-depth look at the film. Here's a look at the trailer.
Saturday dawned cold and clear. Unfortunately, in addition to sunny skies and mild weather, it also brought a return of the cold I thought I had left back in Los Angeles. But there were movies to see, so I stuffed my bag with tissues and myself with DayQuil and headed out for a 9:15am screening of Art & Copy, Doug Pray’s (Surfwise, Hype!, Scratch) new film about advertising’s effect on modern culture.
The night before, I had attended a press roundtable with Pray and the advertising titans featured in the film. Pray said that the film started as a tribute piece, something with which he he was never quite comfortable. He wasn’t sure where it was going to go, so he kept shooting and shooting to find the story. He says that eventually, “the energy of the subjects changed the film.”
The advertising industry still comes out of Art & Copy smelling pretty darn rosy, but audiences at least get a glimpse into the hearts and minds of those who want it to be the best it can be. George Lois, the loud, Bronx ad man famous for his shocking Esquire covers, says in the film, “Advertising can be, and should be, and at times has been revolutionary.”
The film opens with the sounds of familiar jingles such as “I Wish I Were an Oscar Meyer Weiner” and goes into the story of how the business evolved from a Mad Men-esque old boys network into a hot industry that attracted creative, cutting-edge talent. The action that precipitated this change? Simply putting the art director and the copywriter in the same room.
The audience learns the history behind some of America's most famous ad campaigns, including "I Want My MTV," "Just Do It,” and “Got Milk?" Throughout the film, statistics about media consumption, the advertising business and the amount of money spent on advertising are set against images of billboard construction and satellite launches, giving the audience a sense of both the local and global reach of the industry.
In addition to the agency vets, Pray also follows Chad Tiedeman, a billboard “rotator” whose family has been in the business since the 1930s. At the beginning Tiedeman says that he doesn’t know any of those who create the ads that he hangs. By the end of the film, watching Chad hang an Apple iPod banner, the audience will feel like they do.
During the Q&A following the film, someone in the audience asked how filmmakers can apply some of the ideas explored in the Art & Copy to marketing documentaries. Pray responded, "A film is a film. The first thing to do is get rid of the "D" word. Treat it as a cinematic experience, and then sell that experience to the audience."
FOR MORE:
DOCUMENTARY magazine article on Pray's previous film Surfwise
George Lois's Esquire covers
Crew Labs: a competition for independent filmmakers with a prize of a marketing package worth $100,000
Broadband Jungle is reporting on the new user-friendly WhiteHouse.gov:
YouTube embeds from the White House homepage? Obama's cracking new media team didn't lose a second and relaunched what appears to be a cleaned up and user-friendly WhiteHouse.org while the nation was watching the inauguration this morning.
There's even a statement from Macon Phillips, Director of New Media on the newly-established White House Blog:
'A short time ago, Barack Obama was sworn in as the 44th president of the United States and his new administration officially came to life. One of the first changes is the White House's new website, which will serve as a place for the President and his administration to connect with the rest of the nation and the world.
Millions of Americans have powered President Obama's journey to the White House, many taking advantage of the internet to play a role in shaping our country's future. WhiteHouse.gov is just the beginning of the new administration's efforts to expand and deepen this online engagement.
Just like your new government, WhiteHouse.gov and the rest of the Administration's online programs will put citizens first.'
Now that's progress we can believe in! For the full report, check out Broadband Jungle or the government's site itself at http://www.whitehouse.gov.
All dealmaking and even text messaging came to a stop yesterday morning (at least in our condo) to watch the triumphant and inspiring inauguration of our 44th President.
I was fortunate to watch the festivities at a lovely little impromptu gathering put together by Annie Roney and her partner Christine of Roco Films. Annie was kind enough to pass out not only celebratory champagne, but also tissues, as many in the group (including the usually unsentimental me) became choked up watching the proceedings. I think it was the only time in my life when I've been completely happy to be a part of something that major. I'm usually on the outside looking in, but this time I was proud to be in and among my--yes--fellow Americans.
Interestingly, many in the room were actually from the UK, and they seemed equally moved and transfixed by Obama and his message as we Yanks were. To me, that was a small reminder that our stock in the rest of the world just increased tenfold (even if the Dow did not).
I'd hoped to stand in line to see an early AM screening of World's Greatest Dad at 8:30AM. But as much as I really wanted to be there, I also didn't want to be the guy telling his grandchildren he went to see a movie starring Robin Williams and directed by Bobcat Goldthwait during one of the most momentous events in his lifetime.
Parting shot: on my flight back to LA was Laura San Giacomo, who had been in town for the 20th anniversary tribute (yes, you're old) to Sex, Lies and Videotape. Back in 1989, Sex, Lies was "the" critically anointed masterpiece to arrive in theaters on a wave of Sundance love. Personally, it marked the first time that I, then in college, had really heard or paid attention to the festival. So I found it fitting that Ms. Giacomo was on my flight (though I couldn't bring myself to ask for a pic).
It's no documentary, but sometimes it felt like one. Here's a toast to Park City's history with a little glimpse of 1989's finest:
I know a lot of people come to Sundance and see four or five movies a day. Every single day. Well, I finally managed to see two in one day, and they were both very fitting for MLK Day/pre-inaugural viewing, as they dealt with the politics of speech, culture, race and prejudice. Liz Garbus' new film, Shouting Fire, about the battles to engage, protect and uphold First Amendment rights, and Robert Townsend's Why We Laugh, a chronicle of the sociological importance of 20th Century African-American comedy, made an interesting--if accidental--double bill. That is if you call a "double bill" two films in two different theaters, separated by a wait in the cold and a wacky shuttle ride. I guess I would (did).
See this clip from Why We Laugh on YouTube here.
I'm unaware of the distribution plans for Why We Laugh (which boasted an impressive collection of interviewees and some choice clips from the likes of Redd Foxx and the great Robin Harris) but Garbus' film airs on HBO in July, along with an (appropriate) outreach program to schools. In the interest of full disclosure, I should mention that her father Martin Garbus, who is the connective 'glue' of the film (and one of the most renowned First Amendment attorneys in the country), also appeared in my own This Film Is Not Yet Rated. I enjoyed interviewing him then, and I enjoyed seeing him take a central role here - he's a wise and engaging man, and he was certainly in good hands here with his talented daughter.
I would have made it three films except I messed up my scheduling, as I headed over to Slamdance in the afternoon to see Lost Sparrow, a film which was part of IDA's own Fiscal Sponsorship program. Only it wasn't actually playing until Tuesday. Duh on my part. Slamdance looked like it had some fun offerings: the latest from Broken Lizard, The Slammin' Salmon, and Smile Til It Hurts, the doc about legendary kitschmeisters Up With People.
As for the Celeb Beat, I left the Cinema Eye honors and found myself crossing paths with Robin Williams, and then later overheard someone on a cell phone say, "Yeah, man, Ron Jeremy's here."
And it wouldn't be a Sundance without Ron Jeremy, right?