Tonight at the 85th annual Academy Awards in Los Angeles, CA, feature documentary Searching for Sugar Man and short doc Inocente took home statues in their respective categories.

Searching for Sugar Man, the film that won Best Feature at the IDA Documentary Awards in 2012, details the efforts of two Cape Town fans, Stephen 'Sugar' Segerman and Craig Bartholomew Strydom who seek to find out if the rumored death of American musician Rodriguez was true. The film, directed by Malik Bendjelloul, also won the Special Jury Prize and the Audience Award for best international documentary at the Sundance Film Festival and the Audience Award at the Los Angeles Film Festival. Read about Sugar Man's win at the IDA Awards last December.

Inocente, tonight's winner in the Best Short category, is an intensely personal and vibrant coming of age documentary about a young artist’s fierce determination to never surrender to the bleakness of her surroundings. At 15, Inocente refuses to let her dream of becoming an artist be caged by her life as an undocumented immigrant forced to live homeless for the last nine years. Neither sentimental nor sensational, Inocente will immerse you in the very real, day-to-day existence of a young girl who is battling a war that we rarely see. Read IDA's interview with Inocente directors Sean Fine and Andrea Nix Fine.

Congratulations to all the winners at tonight's ceremony!

In the weeks leading up to the Oscars®, Documentary.org is taking the time to talk with the filmmakers whose films have been nominated for Academy Awards in the documentary short and feature categories. Below is an interview with Matthew O'Neill and Jon Alpert, directors of the short film Redemption.

Synopsis: They are New York City’s gleaners—struggling at the edge of our society. You see them on almost every street corner in America’s richest city—thousands of jobless New Yorkers combing through the garbage, scooping through the slime. The prize they pursue? Empty bottles and cans. Each discarded container worth five cents at the redemption center.

Documentary.org: What got you started in documentary filmmaking?

Jon Alpert: We wanted to change our neighborhood and make it better. My wife and I were doing community organizing in Chinatown and the Lower East Side of New York City in the 1970’s—and failing to make a dent. But when we took one of the early, primitive black and white porta-pak cameras and made short films that documented the horrific conditions of our local schools, factories and hospitals, things began to change. There was no such thing as cable TV or the internet—so we bought a used post office truck for five dollars, put two black and white TV sets on the side of it, and played our docs on street corners. This helped mobilize our community and showed us the power of documentary films.

D: Being a former New Yorker, I’m embarrassed to say how rarely I noticed people canning in my neighborhood. Once you started noticing them everywhere around the city, what made you think that their story would make a good documentary?

Matthew O'Neill: You are not alone—many New Yorkers don't notice the men and women canning all across the city. But one New Yorker who does is Sheila Nevins, the head of HBO Documentary programming, who walked into a meeting with us one day having just seen yet another canner working her neighborhood and asked, "Who are they? What is their world?" Jon and I leapt at the opportunity to explore that world for her. That's how the project started. And once we spent a little bit of time on the streets with the men and women you meet in Redemption, we didn't want to stop filming.

Photo credit Tom LeGoff

D: We see the canners working on the streets in both warm and cold weather conditions. How much time did you spend following them around the city?

MO: They're more consistent than the mail—"neither snow nor rain nor heat" stops them. They're canning to survive, and can't afford a sick day or a rain delay—they're all living too close to the edge. We started filming in the beginning of 2010, and were still filming this past summer, so almost two and a half years immersing ourselves in the world of canning.

D: Some of the canners are openly hostile towards those they see as a threat to their livelihood. Based on the way the film portrays these interactions, one would think that it would be quite difficult to start a relationship with people in this community. What were some of the hurdles you encountered when filming this project? How did you overcome those obstacles?

JA: Parts of the Chinatown community have a cultural and a historic aversion to cameras. Many of the Chinese who were canning were former factory and restaurant workers who had lost their jobs as factories were moved offshore and Chinatown businesses dwindled after 9/11. Although they are proud hard workers, some felt some stigmatization and shame because they are forced to make their living going through the garbage. But our community media center (DCTV) has been based in the Chinatown community for 40 years. We have strong roots in the neighborhood, strong trust—and people on our staff and who are involved in our community programs know the local dialects. This combined with the respect we showed all canners enabled us to work in Chinatown and other parts of the city.

MO: We spent a great deal of time on the streets and in redemption centers NOT filming—many documentary filmmakers will tell you that the "getting to know you" process is sometimes best done without a camera. This is a population that is marginalized and has not been treated well by society. Gaining trust took time. Most New Yorkers walking down the street will not make eye contact with men and women collecting bottles and cans. They pretend that they're not there; they walk right by them. I think that after being ignored like that for so long, many people were surprised that we were asking them about their lives—and showing them the respect they deserve. They are our friends and neighbors.

Photo credit Tom LeGoff

D: Who are some filmmakers who have inspired you throughout your careers? Was there a style of filmmaking that you kept in mind when making Redemption?

JA: The list is too long to enumerate—so I would like to honor and say thanks to the people that have supported our work and enabled people to see it: David Loxton of WNET’s TV Lab where all the early port-pak documentarians got their start; Steve Freidman of NBC, who astonishingly broadcast our work over a 13-year period on a commercial network; and most of all, Sheila Nevins of HBO, who continues to stand beside us and many other documentary filmmakers.

MO: And we're inspired by the crop of documentaries (shorts and features) that are nominated this year along with Redemption—the craft, the ambitions and the overall quality are representative of a continuing growth in the caliber and breadth of documentary film.

D: Would you care to comment on your Oscar nomination?

JA & MO: We are honored to be included in this great group of short documentaries. We admire the work of our fellow nominees and hope that many many people get to see all of these films.

It was announced today that New York City's case against the Central Park Five filmmakers Ken Burns, David McMahon and Sarah Burns has been blocked by a federal judge. Back in October, 2012, the filmmakers received a subpoena from the City of New York for the outtakes and extra footage from the documentary. Although the lawyers for the city insisted on seeing all of the footage before the film was released to the public, U.S. Magistrate Judge Ronald L. Ellis said the city's concerns did not override the "precious rights of freedom of speech and the press."

The court wrote that:

Florentine’s motion to quash Defendants’ amended subpoena [for outtakes and notes in the Central Park 5 film] is GRANTED because: (1) Florentine [the filmmaker] has established entitlement to the reporter’s privilege; and (2) Defendants have failed to overcome the reporter’s privilege by making a showing that the information they seek pertains to a significant issue and is unavailable from alternative sources.

The IDA was proud to stand with these filmmakers when they were first subpoenaed, and is pleased with the court's decision to block the subpoena. To further understand the implications if the City of New York had not had their case blocked, please read a previous statement from Ken Burns, Sarah Burns, and David McMahon.

This verdict comes on the heels of an important Doc U educational seminar held in January by the IDA, where panelists including Sarah Burns and entertainment attorney Michael Donaldson participated in a robust discussion on navigating the intersection of documentary and journalism. We were happy to have come away from this panel with the clarity and insight, provided by Donaldson, about the ways that journalistic privilege extends to documentary filmmakers.

The outcome is a victory not just for the three filmmakers, but for documentary filmmakers throughout the United States who strive to be awarded the same rights as other journalists.

Read the press release from Michael Donaldson's offices.

In the weeks leading up to the Oscars®, Documentary.org is taking the time to talk with the filmmakers whose films have been nominated for Academy Awards in the documentary short and feature categories. Below is an interview with Sean and Andrea Fine, directors of the short film Inocente.

Synopsis: Fifteen-year-old Inocente, a homeless, undocumented immigrant, clings to her determination to become an artist in the face of a bleak future.

Documentary.org How did you two get started in documentary filmmaking? Did you start as a team?

Sean Fine: We started our careers at National Geographic making films there. We basically started dating there. We decided that we would not work together until our relationship got further along. So after we got married we decided to try and work together, and we left National Geographic. Our first film we made together was War/Dance.

Andrea Nix Fine: We had to get married because when we were both on filming shoots at the same time, we never saw each other! I was in Greenland and Sean would be in Columbia, and we figured out we were seeing each other less than a third of the year. After a few years of that we were like, "You know, the only way we could do that would be to get married and then we could work together, and actually see each other more."

SF: National Geographic was great, but I think we both felt like there were some handcuffs sometimes put on us. When we were able to make our first film, we worked with a really great producer, Albie Hecht, and he was like, "I want you guys to be as creative as possible." The format of a theatrical documentary and the ability to be creative—we just went for it. It felt like the handcuffs were off, and we could be as creative as we wanted to. It just stuck with us. We wanted to keep doing it this way. War/Dance was really successful: it was nominated for an Academy Award in 2008.

D: When you two collaborate like this, what sort of a crew are you bringing into the project? In Inocente, there are moments when you're in this very, very small living space with the family. Are both of you there at the same time? How do you work around getting those more intimate and personal moments between the two of you and your crew?

AF: We both direct, so we are both very involved equally in the creative process, but Sean is also an amazing cinematographer. He shoots everything that we do, so immediately that just cuts down on the number of us working together. Beyond that we work with a sound person. Often times, that's about it. We really try to keep it, for all the obvious reasons, as intimate as possible. We work incredibly hard to have people feel comfortable with us and comfortable with every person that we ever bring on our crew, so it feels like a family atmosphere. I think that we're married and that we have kids, they sense that with us. We share our lives with them. I think it helps encourage them to share their lives with us.

SF: Like Andrea said, we work really intimate, really small. We try to constantly work with the same people. Our sound man we work with on almost every project; even our editor, Jeff Consiglio, we've worked with him on every project we've done. We just had another film called Life According to Sam that premiered at Sundance; he worked on that and so did our sound man. It's the same result. It's this really core team that works on all these projects. We all know each other really well.

Andrea and I have a rule when we're filming someone and we tell the people we're filming: if they want us to stop, we stop. We put the camera down and we stop filming. Film is not more important than someone's life and we constantly are reminding ourselves of that. And yes, we miss sometimes really amazing moments, but when you put that camera down it builds a trust with people that is so close that it opens up many more doors and many other moments. They end up becoming really close with us. Even when I shoot, I shoot extremely close to people. And they forget about the camera and they forget that we’re there. Magical things start to happen because of that.

AF: I think it all boils down to trust. I think that when you create a sense of trust with your subject that they start to trust you. All the characters in our films, we really love having them look directly into the lens. It's something people have to get used to. In the end they have to trust you that this is going to be okay, that the way in which they are speaking won't be odd. They have to trust that they are talking about some of the most dramatic moments in their life, things that are sometimes incredibly emotional and gut-wrenching for them and pivotal. They are trusting that you will take care with their story. We feel like it's an honor to be able to share people's lives like that. We make a huge effort to say, "The way in which we’ll bring your story across, even though your situation feels different from a lot of people, it will be relatable to people." There's a very human connection within that. There are some people who say "There's no place to have a relationship or an emotional connection to your subject because it clouds your judgment as filmmakers."

SF: You can't do that with human beings. Andrea and I, the films we make, generally they've been about teenagers who have been going through very difficult times in their lives. They're not films you can't, as a human being, get invested in, or get attached to the character, or try to develop this trust Andrea's trying to talk about—you can't separate yourself from that. Our films are also vérité; we basically are following people's lives, so you have to be close with them. If you're not, you won't be there when interesting things happen. It's not scripted, it's not like, "This is going to be the end." We're just kind of following a story. You've gotta have trust with your subject to follow a story the way we do, so closely.

D: How did you first learn about ARTS, and how did that lead you to Inocente?

AF: We came across ARTS first. We found out we wanted to do a film after we saw this statistic that one in 45 kids in the United States experiences homelessness. That just seems unreal. The more we looked into it, children and families are the new face of homelessness. There's been an exponential spike in that number, and yet it's something that feels invisible. We felt that we wanted to find a story that was very powerful to bring these kids' stories to life. We had this idea that an art connection of some sort would be an interesting way to come into these kids' lives, to be there to explore the talents and dreams these kids have. It took us months and months. Finally there was that program called A Reason To Survive—the acronym being ARTS—we spoke to the head Matt D'Arrigo and we described [that we wanted] someone they felt could share their story and had incredible talent. He said, "I have the girl for you. You need to meet Inocente."

SF: [We asked if] we could talk to her. He said, "I think you just have to come out here and meet her. She's not really good on the phone." So we flew out. No cameras. We spent a few days with her. Just seeing her for the first time, we were like, "Oh my gosh. This girl is unbelievable." She literally looked like a rainbow with legs. What she was wearing, it was insane: just colorful and bright. Here's a girl who’s been homeless for nine years. You wouldn't expect her to be so bright and colorful. You wouldn't expect her art to be so bright and colorful. So right away, from a visual standpoint, we were just blown away. The more we hung out with her without the camera, we [knew] this girl really has something to say. She's never really told her story, and she really has something to say. And it just evolved into our film.

D: Tell me about the first time you went to the place where she was living at the time.

SF: When we started she was 15, so I had to ask her mom for permission to film her. Neither of us realized the relationship she had with her mom. That kind of evolved as we were filming. That’s a big part of our film: I think, Yes, it is a film about homelessness, but it's also a film about a young girl's relationship with her mom, and trying to mend that relationship. We didn't know all that. We went with her to talk to her mom about what we wanted to do and explain what we wanted to do.

When we first met her, they were living at a friend's house. So they were still homeless and they were trying to figure stuff out. I remember when we went into the house, there were big suitcases and bags of clothes everywhere. It looked like they were going to leave. I was talking to Inocente, and she was like, "I don't know. We could be kicked out tomorrow. We could be kicked out in a week. We never know where we’re going to be."

It kind of hit us, what this does to a young kid. Inocente [didn't] even have a place in this space to do [her] art. Where they lived was just like a studio apartment with all these kids. They're sleeping on the floor, and they don't know where they’re going to be the next week. They can’t call a place her home. It was very telling: she didn't even want to hang her paintings up on the wall, because she [knew she would] probably have to take them down in a few days.

AF: She had to throw them out often. The way that the family becomes part of this story is really about the idea of home and the loss of home as not just a physical structure; it's about the loss of family and a safe place and a sense of emotional home. Oftentimes people can’t take in a whole family. Everything starts to disintegrate, and the stress that puts on the relationships. I think that's one of the things in our film that they all go through.

SF: Once we explained to her mom how we wanted to make this film, and we wanted to film her and Inocente and her kids. Her mom understood that we’d be following her daughter. When we came into the house the next time with our camera, it was as if the camera wasn’t there. It was very natural.

There's one point where we felt we had to interview her mom. Her mom started telling us all her stuff that Inocente had never shared with us, these stories about how her mom was an alcoholic, how there was this time when [she] took Inocente and was going to jump off a bridge with her. Inocente never told us this stuff. I remember the moment, because my sound man also speaks Spanish and he translated it to us. I said, "She really said that? Can you explain to her this is for this documentary. I just want to make sure."

We asked her, "Why did you share this with us?" She said, "I want to do this for my daughter. This is something I can do for my daughter because I've failed her. Being honest with this film hopefully will help my daughter." I thought that was really interesting, how the whole thing evolved.

AF: I think often times there's an intimate connection people have with the film. People say, "How did you get those people to talk about that stuff?" I've learned and I've always been surprised by—so many times people have this need to share this. Like the mother in the story wanted to talk about this. She felt like it was positive to share this. Even though it put her in some ways in the darkest light, it just shows how she’s trying now. Same thing when we did War/Dance and even Life According to Sam. These people have amazing things that they're wanting to share. You've asked, and so they're going to share. It's a way to give them an open door to do that.

SF: People just don't ask these people ever what they're feeling or what's going on. Especially Inocente's mom: she's invisible to everybody. She doesn't speak English, she washes bathrooms, she's trying to raise her kids. Nobody ever asked her, "What's your story?" These are things she never was asked, so I think it feels good sometimes to be able to talk about these things to the camera.

D: As you have screened this film, how have audiences reacted? What has been the most surprising or unexpected thing about their reaction?

SF: We had one screening in New York that was extraordinary because after the screening, Inocente had an art show. We had this screening and all these people were watching it. Inocente was up on stage answering all these amazing questions. It was really fantastic. This one girl stood up and said, "I don't have a question; I have a comment. I want to tell you, Inocente, I'm homeless. Seeing your courage and seeing what you've been able to do has inspired me. I want other homeless kids to see this."

It was amazing because Inocente [realized she had] impacted someone. It was the first time she had impacted someone and she could see it happening. When we started making the film we asked her why [she wanted] to make this film with us. She said [she wanted] to help other homeless kids. [She wanted] them to see that they can do really wonderful things. That homelessness doesn't define them, it's just kind of a part of who they are. This girl, to say that to her, it kind of all came around. The other great part is that after the screening, she had an art show and she sold everything. For her to support herself with her work, it's an amazing thing to see. It all came kind of full circle. That screening stood out for us as a pretty amazing event.

D: Are you excited about the Oscars?

SF: It's amazing. I hope this doesn't sound cheesy, but the history behind the Oscars and the people who have won and what it symbolizes—it kind of hit us the last time we were here when we were walking up from the red carpet. You saw Best Pictures listed on the column. It was like, Wow, these are the people who have walked here before us. They're amazing filmmakers. We're big traditionalists and we love history, so it brought out a lot in us emotionally. But then for this one, I don’t know: Has a former homeless kid ever been to the Oscars? I don't know. And Inocente is going to go with us. She’ll be on the red carpet. She is ecstatic. We're just gonna be with her and have such a fun time.

She asked us the other day, "Are we going to be standing next to movie stars?" We said, "Yeah, you will be." She was like, "Can I touch them?" (laugher) She was really excited. She's our date, and we're really excited just to hang with her.

AF: I feel like for a lot of the documentary work, it's incredibly hard. Generally everybody’' trying to tell a story that’s true and honest and powerful and beautiful. That's what we try to do. We worked for years on this, and there's not all that often when you actually get to celebrate, and celebrate together. It's such a team effort. Could this be a higher celebration? There's a giddiness to that. You just feel like you’re seeing and meeting the people whose work you really have had so much respect for.

See Inocente at DocuDay LA on Saturday, February 23 at 1:05pm, or at DocuDay NY on Sunday, February 24 at 2:05pm.

On Monday, February 4, 2013, IDA filed comments with the United States Copyright Office regarding orphan works, or materials for which the original copyright owner cannot be contacted. These comments, which the USC Intellectual Property and Technology Law Clinic and attorney Michael C. Donaldson submitted on behalf of the IDA, Film Independent, the Independent Filmmaker Project, Kartemquin Educational Films, Inc., and the National Alliance for Media Arts and Culture, will hopefully help urge the Copyright Office and Congress to take the right approach when ruling on orphan works.

Orphan works are copyrighted works—think old books and films—for which the rightholder cannot be found. As copyright law currently stands, the risk of using an orphan work is just too high for documentary filmmakers. While many uses of orphan works are likely protected by fair use, documentary filmmakers often seek to use third party materials in ways that are not fair use. As the comments state:

"Filmmakers must license third party materials in many such instances, but are unable to do so when the rightsholder to those materials cannot be identified or located. In many cases, filmmakers cannot even begin their projects; in more cases, the projects cannot be as rich as they should be; valuable information may have to be omitted; and important illustrative content cannot be used."

This problem is one of the biggest in copyright today, and is hugely important to the craft of documentary filmmaking. In 2008, Congress came close to passing a bill that would largely correct this problem, but the legislation was put on hold. The IDA has supported this bill from the get-go, with entertainment attorney Michael Donaldson of Donaldson + Callif working extremely hard on its language before the bill was paused. Donaldson and IDA Board Member and Director of the USC Intellectual Property and Technology Law Clinic Jack Lerner, together with USC IP & Tech Clinic interns Minku Kang and Chris Mastick, have worked hard to prepare a comment that updates the Copyright Office as to how things have changed since 2008. These comments also call for a renewal of the 2008 Senate bill.

Read the comments in their entirety.

The orphan works process is sure to be a long haul, but IDA will continue to work hard to ensure that the voices of documentary filmmakers will be heard—and to do that we will need your support with letters, phone calls, and other forms of help. Stay tuned, more to come!

The International Documentary Association (IDA) is thrilled to announce that Doc U is available for online viewing starting today, January 15, 2013. This new program expansion was made possible through generous funding from The Harnisch Foundation and Lekha Singh.

"Making Doc U available online was an important program expansion for the IDA, and we cannot thank our funders enough for their generosity," explains Michael Lumpkin, Executive Director of the IDA. "Our documentary film community consists of members who live around the world—having Doc U Online allows us to meet the needs of filmmakers living in all corners of the globe."

Doc U is the International Documentary Association’s series of educational seminars and workshops for aspiring and experienced documentary filmmakers. Taught by artists and industry experts, participants receive vital training and insight on various topics including: fundraising, fair use, distribution, licensing, marketing, and business tactics.

"We applaud documentaries that tell important stories and inspire social change," said Ruth Ann Harnisch, President of The Harnisch Foundation, "and we want Doc U to empower more filmmakers through online access to really useful teaching for the pro as well as the novice."

"Independent documentary is a unique window on the world," said Lekha Singh. "Supporting efforts to broaden the audience for these amazing films is a privilege."

To take advantage of Doc U Online, please visit documentary.org/doc-u-online. You must be a current IDA member to have free access to the program.

To become a member of the IDA, please visit documentary.org/membership.

Quotes from Doc U attendees:

"… an engaging and inspiring event. I came away from Doc U with a lot of concrete tips and ideas…"

"The range and professionalism of the speakers was excellent. The topic was germane across the documentary filmmaking board… Very impressive."

"Tremendous impact. These seminars are invaluable, providing information only available at specialized conferences that are expensive."

On the morning of Thursday, January 10, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announced their nominees for Oscars 2013. The IDA is proud to highlight our strong relationship with several films in the running, including nominees in both the Documentary Feature and Documentary Short categories.

In the Feature category, Kirby Dick's The Invisible War is one of the five films to receive this much anticipated nomination. A groundbreaking investigative documentary about the epidemic of rape within the U.S. military, The Invisible War is a participant in IDA's Fiscal Sponsorship Program, a formal arrangement in which the IDA sponsors a project for the purpose of fundraising through grants and donations. The film paints a startling picture of the extent of the problem—today, a female soldier in combat zones is more likely to be raped by a fellow soldier than killed by enemy fire. The Invisible War exposes the epidemic, breaking open one of the most under-reported stories of our generation, to the nation and the world. Dick's film was also in the running in the Best Feature category at the 28th annual IDA Documentary Awards.

Dick's film is up against four other outstanding selections, including David France's How to Survive A Plague and Malik Bendjelloul's Searching for Sugar Man. At the IDA Awards on December 7, 2012, David France was awarded the Jacqueline Donnet Emerging Documentary Filmmaker Award to recognize his contribution to the documentary form with this, his first feature film. Bendjelloul also walked away with two awards for Sugar Man that night: one for Best Music, and another for Best Feature of 2012.

In the Documentary Short category, the IDA is proud to have helped both Open Heart (dir. Kief Davidson) and Kings Point (dir. Sari Gilman) qualify for Oscar consideration with our 16th annual DocuWeeks program in both New York and Los Angeles. A bittersweet look at our national obsession with self-reliance, Kings Point explores the dynamic tension between living and aging—between our desire for independence and our need for community—and underscores our powerful ambivalence toward growing old. Another film dealing with a struggle over life, Open Heart reveals the intertwined endeavors of Dr. Emmanuel, Rwanda's lone government cardiologist fighting to save the lives of his young patients, and Dr. Gino, the Salam Center's head surgeon, who is fighting to save his hospital, Africa's only link to life-saving free cardiac surgery for the millions who need it. Both films were also considered in the IDA Documentary Awards Best Short category back in December.

These two shorts are up against other IDA Documentary Award nominee Mondays at Racine, the story of two bold, brassy sisters who, every third Monday of the month, open the doors of their Long Island hair salon to women diagnosed with cancer.

See below for a full list of nominees in both the Documentary Feature and Short categories.

DOCUMENTARY FEATURE

5 Broken Cameras, Emad Burnat and Guy Davidi
The Gatekeepers, Nominees to be determined
How to Survive a Plague, Nominees to be determined
The Invisible War, Nominees to be determined
Searching for Sugar Man, Nominees to be determined

DOCUMENTARY SHORT

Inocente, Sean Fine and Andrea Nix Fine
Kings Point, Sari Gilman and Jedd Wider
Mondays at Racine, Cynthia Wade and Robin Honan
Open Heart, Kief Davidson and Cori Shepherd Stern
Redemption, Jon Alpert and Matthew O'Neill

Each of these films will be playing at IDA's DocuDay at the Writers Guild of America Theater in Beverly Hills on Saturday, February 23. Buy your passes today!

The Sundance Institute announced that 25 feature-length documentary films that will receive $550,000 in grants from its Documentary Film Program and Fund (DFP). Grantees were selected from 696 submissions from 104 countries.

Cara Mertes, Director of the Sundance Institute Documentary Film Program and Fund said, "As we enter a new cycle for political leadership in the US and abroad, documentary filmmakers continue to seek out stories that elucidate the conditions of our lives. Their reach is global, and their stories connect and inspire a new generation of independent documentary filmmakers and audiences."

Among the grantees with affiliations with IDA programs include 2011 and 2012 Pare Lorentz Documentary Fund grantees Rise and Fall of ACORN (Dirs.: Reuben Atlas, Sam Pollard); After Tiller (Dirs.: Martha Shane, Lana Wilson) and The New Black (Dir.: Yoruba Richen); and Fiscal Sponsorship Program project Rich Hill (Dirs.: Tracy Droz Tragos, Andrew Droz Palermo).

Here is the complete list of Sundance Institute DFP grantees:

Development

Boomtown (Dir.: Beth Murphy, US): A modern day Grapes of Wrath story is playing out across America as families pack their bags and head to North Dakota in search of the American Dream.

Bukom Fighter (Dir.: Makafui Zimrani; Ghana): A nine-year-old boy from a shanty town in Ghana tries to create hope for himself using the only resource at his disposal; the power of his fists.

Chameleon (Dir.: Ryan Mullins; Canada / Ghana): Africa's most famed investigative reporter, Anas Aremeyaw Anas, takes us deep undercover for his own brand of brazen journalism.

Perry vs. Schwarzenegger (Dirs.: Ryan White, Ben Cotner; US): In 2013, the US Supreme Court will hear a case that challenges California's ban on same-sex marriage. Perry v. Schwarzenegger, filed by two couples with an unlikely legal team, has now reached the nation's highest court and is poised to be the first ruling on the right of gay and lesbian Americans to marry.

Rise and Fall of ACORN (Dirs.: Reuben Atlas, Sam Pollard; US): In 2009 a national community-organizing group was destroyed. The complex story of ACORN involves a journalist posing as a pimp, embezzlement, and voter fraud.

Production/Post-Production

99%—The Occupy Wall Street Collaborative Film (Dirs.: Audrey Ewell, Aaron Aites, Lucian Read, Nina Krstic; US): The Occupy movement erupted in September 2011, propelling economic inequality into the spotlight. In an unprecedented collaboration, filmmakers across America tell its story, digging into big picture issues as organizers, analysts, participants and critics reveal how it happened and why.

After Tiller (Dir.: Martha Shane, Lana Wilson; US): Since the assassination of Dr. George Tiller in 2009, only four doctors in the country provide late-term abortions. With unprecedented access, After Tiller goes inside the lives of these physicians working at the center of the storm.

At Berkeley (Dir.: Frederick Wiseman; US): A world-renowned public university strives to maintain its academic excellence, public role, and the economic, racial and social diversity of the student body in the face of severe budget cuts by the California Legislature.

A Blind Eye (Director: Kirsten Johnson; US/Afghanistan): A one-eyed boy struggles to hide what really haunts him. A bold teenage girl defies convention, out running her nightmares of the Taliban, but still too afraid to show her face in a film. A US Military surveillance blimp in the sky over Kabul tracks their every move.

Dirty Wars (Dir.: Richard Rowley; US): Investigative journalist Jeremy Scahill chases down the truth behind America's covert wars.

The Faun Experiment (Dir.: Tamar Rogoff, Daisy Wright; US): He expected to be in a wheelchair by age 40 with cerebral palsy. Instead, Gregg Mozgala embarks on a dance project with choreographer Tamar Rogoff. As art overturns science his life is forever changed.

The Girl Who Knew Too Much (Dirs.: Amy Benson, Scott Squire, Co-Dir.: Ramyata Limbu; US /Nepal): Shanta is an Untouchable Nepali girl with a rare opportunity to break her family's cycle of poverty, through education. But, a year from graduation, Shanta falls victim to globalization's new epidemic: suicide.

The Kill Team (Dir.: Dan Krauss; US): An American soldier attempts to expose US war crimes even more heinous than Abu Ghraib and then is himself charged with premeditated murder.

Mr. President (Dir.: Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi; US/Senegal): President Abdoulaye Wade challenged Senegal's constitutional term limits and ran for re-election. The election and pro-democracy movement is seen from both sides, ultimately documenting a chapter of African Spring.

The New Black (Dir.: Yoruba Richen; US): The New Black uncovers the complicated and often combative histories of the African-American and LGBT civil-rights movements.

Powerless (Dirs.: Fahad Mustafa, Deepti Kakkar; India): In a city with 15-hour power outages, a nimble young electrician provides robin-hood style services to the poor. Meanwhile, the first female chief of the electricity supply company is on a mission to dismantle the illegal connections, for good.

Provenance (Dir.: Amie Siegel; US): Artist and filmmaker Amie Siegel traces the journey of Le Corbusier and P. Jeanneret designs in reverse—the economic circuit and life of objects, revealed across three continents. Without interviews, actors or voiceover, these coveted items are the protagonists of this story.

Regarding Susan Sontag (Dir.: Nancy Kates; US): The late writer, activist and public intellectual Susan Sontag was a study in contrasts; a courageous public figure who remained a closeted lesbian. The film examines her contributions to culture and her views, as a thinker and activist, on war, terrorism, torture and other contemporary issues.

Rich Hill (Dirs.: Tracy Droz Tragos, Andrew Droz Palermo; US):  Rich Hill is the coming-of-age story of kids in a dying American town who find strength in unlikely places

Running in the City (Dir.: Fan Jian; China): More than 240 million migrant workers who labor inside China aren't acknowledged as urban residents due to China's household registration policy. This is a story of one family's rebellion.

The Shadow World (Dir.: Johan Grimonprez; US/Belgium): This feature documentary explores the international arms industry: a business in which wins and losses are counted in human lives.

The Square (Dir.: Jehane Noujaim; Egypt/US): What does it mean to risk your life for your ideals? How far will five revolutionaries go in defending their beliefs in the fight for their nation?

Solarize This (Dir.: Shalini Kantayya; US): In a city where oil spills, ecological red-alerts, and poverty are commonplace, Solarize This asks the hard questions of how a clean-energy economy may actually be built, through the stories of three unemployed American workers seeking to retool at a solar power jobs training program in Richmond, California.

Uranium Drive-In (Dir.: Suzan Beraza; US): A proposed uranium mill gives an economically devastated mining community in Colorado hope of jobs for the first time in decades. When environmentalists step in to stop the uranium, pro-mill advocates are enraged. Is uranium worth it?

Audience Engagement

Dear Mandela (Dir.: Dara Kell, Christopher Nizza; South Africa /US): When their shantytowns are threatened with mass eviction, three 'young lions' of South Africa's new generation rise from the shacks and build a strong social movement to challenge their government in the highest court in the land, putting the promises of democracy to the test.

The Audience Engagement Award for Dear Mandela will support strategic exchanges between international human rights defenders, diplomats and law students poised to take action on the issues of evictions and housing rights, and a screening tour featuring a youth leadership initiative for shantytown dwellers in affected countries including Haiti, Zimbabwe, Nigeria, India and Brazil.

On Friday, December 7, 2012, the biggest names and faces from documentary film and non-fiction production in the past year all gathered at the Directors Guild of America Theater in Los Angeles to celebrate this year's achievements in the medium. Renowned illusionist, comedian, and larger-than-life personality Penn Jillette hosted the 28th year of this Awards program, which recognized a gamut of productions in 15 different award categories. The ceremony, which kicked off after A&E's pre-party honoring IDA Career Achievement Award winner Arnold Shapiro, was full of laughs, heart-felt words about the art of documentary, and chills to accompany touching and moving clips from 2012's year in docs. The ceremony was followed by an after-party with food and drink, sponsored by Canon.

The night kicked off with a party to honor IDA Career Achievement Award winner Arnold Shapiro. VIPs mingled with members of the documentary film community, while a quartet played music on the DGA Theater's back patio.

Shapiro addressed the crowd at his party in what would be one of two speeches he would give that night. IDA's Executive Director Michael Lumpkin and A&E's Laura Fleury introduced Shapiro and thanked everyone for attending the night's festivities.

During the pre-party, arriving guests made their way down the red carpet for photo ops and interviews with various press organizations and the IDA's very own video production crew. We were happy to speak one-on-one with Werner Herzog, Queen of Versailles's Lauren Greenfield, Ken Burns, host Penn Jillette, and IDA Jacqueline Donnet Emerging Filmmaker Award winner David France, among others.

Our first award of the night was the ABCNews VideoSource Award, which is given each year for the best use of news footage as an integral component in a documentary. This year's winner was Harvest of Empire, a feature-length documentary that examines the direct connection between the long history of U.S. intervention in Latin America and the immigration crisis we face today. Director Peter Getzels accepted the award on behalf of the film.

During the ceremony, two series awards were also presented. The Best Continuing Series Award went to the PBS series American Masters, which has profiled more than 180 of our nation’s most enduring artistic giants since 1986. The Best Limited Series Award went to Investigation Discovery’s On Death Row, written and directed by 2008 IDA Career Achievement Award honoree Werner Herzog.

IDA's Pare Lorentz Award recognizes films that demonstrate exemplary filmmaking while focusing on the appropriate use of the natural environment, justice for all and the illumination of pressing social problems. This year, this award was given to The Island President, the story of President Mohamed Nasheed of the Maldives. Director Jon Shenk was on hand to accept the award from host Jillette.  

The night moved next to the David L. Wolper Student Documentary Award, which recognizes exceptional achievement in non-fiction film and video production at the university level and brings greater public and industry awareness to the work of students in the documentary field. This year, the award went to Mark Kendall's La Camioneta, a film made while Kendall was a student at The School of Visual Arts.

Penn next called our fearless leader Michael Lumpkin to the stage, where our Executive Director thanked all of our wonderful sponsors of this event. Enough cannot be said about the DGA, American Film Showcase, The Standard Hotel, Stella Artois, Chainsaw, Docurama Films, Sony Creative Software, Focus Forward, Authentic Entertainment, Firstcom Music, PBS, HBO Documentary Films, IMAX, PES Payroll, Investigation Discovery, and ABCNews VideoSource for their generous contributions without which this event would not be possible. We especially want to thank our Luminary Sponsors A&E and Canon, who made both the VIP pre-party honoring Arnold Shapiro and the after-party not just possible, but also wildly successful.

Before leaving the stage, Lumpkin called legendary documentary filmmaker Ken Burns to the stage. Burns used this opportunity to discuss the advocacy efforts that the IDA has made so prominent in the past several years, including our efforts, along with Donaldson + Callif, in helping to fight the subpoena issued by the city of New York for the outtakes and extra footage collected during the making of Central Park Five. His kind words of support for our efforts remind us to keep on fighting the good fight for everyone attempting to exercise their right to free speech through their filmmaking and their art. We're so happy to know Ken Burns is on our side.

In rapid-fire succession, Jillette next handed out the Creative Recognition Awards to the winners, which were announced in advance of the night's ceremony. Peter Gerdehag of Sweden picked up the Best Cinematography Award for his film Women With Cows, while Rodney Ascher's intricate Room 237 took the prize for Best Editing. Best Music went to Malik Bendjelloul's Searching for Sugar Man, and Ann Richards' Texas nabbed the Best Writing award. Complete with mooing and hugs, this was by far the most comedic moment of the evening—aside, maybe, from Penn's juggling act.

To keep things moving, Penn asked IDA's Jacqueline Donnet Emerging Filmmaker Award winner David France to take the stage to accept his honor. Each year, the IDA recognizes the achievements of a filmmaker who has made a significant impact at the beginning of his or her career in documentary film. This year, the honoree was David France, the producer and director of one of the year’s most-acclaimed films How to Survive a Plague. Since the film's premiere last January at the Sundance Film Festival, award-winning journalist and New York Times best-selling author David France has received tremendous praise from critics, programmers and fellow filmmakers for his directorial debut film. Several films have been inspired by his work, including the Emmy-nominated Showtime film Our Fathers, for which he received a WGA nomination. France acknowledged that while it was amazing to say that anything at this point in his life could be considered "emerging," he was honored to be bestowed with such an award.

Next, filmmaker Rob Epstein asked Sundance Institute's Cara Mertes to the podium to accept IDA's Pioneer Award for the Sundance Institute's Documentary Film Program and Fund (DFP). The DFP, which was established in 2002 with a gift from the Open Society Institute with leadership support from Ford Foundation's Just Films initiative among others, is a leading creative and financial resource for contemporary-issue nonfiction filmmakers worldwide. Each year the DFP grants and awards $1-2 million to independent documentary films and conducts a portfolio of Creative Labs and Fellows programs at Sundance Resort, Sundance Film Festival and elsewhere. Under the direction of Cara Mertes, the DFP also convenes events and forges partnerships globally to draw new resources to the non-fiction field, and to amplify the use of film as a tool for impact and motivate change towards more open and equitable societies. Her speech touched on the ways that both the DFP and our world have changed in the 10 years since the founding of this programming, providing a poignant moment of reflection for everyone in attendance. 

Up next, Executive Director of the HUMANITAS Prize Cathleen Young spoke about this award, which is given to a film that explores the hopes and fears of human beings who are very different in culture, race, lifestyle, political loyalties and religious beliefs in order to break down the walls of ignorance which separate us.

This year, the HUMANITAS Prize went to Bitter Seeds, directed by Micha X. Peled. Every 30 minutes a farmer in India kills himself in despair because he can no longer provide for his family. Will Ramkrishna be next? A cotton farmer at the epicenter of the suicide crisis region, he is struggling to keep his land. Manjusha, the neighbors’ daughter, is determined to overcome village traditions and become a journalist. Ramkrishna’s plight becomes her first assignment. Director Peled took the stage to gratefully accept this award.

Each year, the IDA bestows its Career Achievement Award to an individual whose work has spanned many subjects, years, and awards seasons. Arnold Shapiro, Oscar and Emmy Award-winning producer, director, writer of the documentary Scared Straight!, was chosen this year for his vast body of work. Shapiro is the mind behind 33 series, including CBS's Rescue 911 and Big Brother, and the current A&E hit series, Beyond Scared Straight; four CBS-TV movies, two prime time CBS drama specials, and more than 90 documentaries and specials.

IDA's Career Achievement Award was presented by Shapiro's longtime friend Bob Eubanks, who spoke of a time when the two were in their early 20s and just starting their careers as television producers. His inspiring speech spoke of the time when the two of them went to networks with the smallest idea for a game show, which would turn around and eventually launch both of their lifelong careers in television and entertainment.

Shapiro made his way to the stage to the sound of a standing ovation from the crowd, where he revealed that fear was the key to his success. "I literally have made myself – scared successful," he said, to a round of applause and laughter from the audience.

The ceremony ended with Penn announcing the winners of the Best Short and Best Feature Awards, which were voted on by a select group of IDA Members. Among the outstanding nominees in both categories, Best Short went to Saving Face, the Oscar® winning film which follows several women in Pakistan who have been disfigured by acid violence. Director Daniel Junge took the stage to accept the award.

Finally, the Best Feature award went to Searching for Sugar Man, the incredible story of Sixto Rodriguez, a '70s rock singer/songwriter who bombed in his native America, but became the voice for a generation in Apartheid-era South Africa. Director Malik Bendjelloul took the stage to accept the award.

With the ceremony now complete, Awards attendees filed out into the lobby, decked out by Canon and complete with a special lounge and a "Touch and Try" booth stocked with their latest and greatest camera technology. Refreshments were provided by 24 Carrot Catering and Stella Artois.

For more photos from A&E's VIP Party honoring Arnold Shapiro, the IDA Awards ceremony, and the Canon after-party, please visit our album on Facebook.