This is a guest post by Matt Holzman, host of KCRW's Matt's Movies and creator of The Business. Please read on to learn more about how Peter Gilbert's and Steve James' doc inspired a 1/2 hour radio show, which will air Friday, October 26 on KCRW's Unfictional.

I used to love loitering in the video store, rummaging aimlessly through the documentary section and coming across an intriguing-sounding film I'd never heard of. iTunes doesn't offer quite the same visceral joy of discovery, but at the end of the day I've unearthed a lot more great films that way.

And it was on one of those late-night, trance-like, remote-clicking jags that I came across Hoop Dreams'  Peter Gilbert's and Steve James' 2008 film At The Death House Door. What a joy to realize that you haven't seen a movie by some of your favorite filmmakers!

Death House is the powerful story of a "speak softly and carry a big bible" kind of Texas minister named Carroll Pickett. As the chaplain of the State Penitentiary at Huntsville for 15 years, he ministered to 95 inmates that died in the Texas death house.

Pickett is an amazing character and his story is one of subtle transformation. But there was something else. Those tapes.

In the wee hours after every execution, Pickett would go across the street to his house, sit down, turn on his little tape recorder and talk. He would describe what he'd seen in the particularly stoic-sounding drawl of an old Texas lawman. For the most part, it was just the facts, ma'am—but it is that clear-eyed recollection of events—both mundane and extraordinary—that make the tapes so riveting.

Of course, Gilbert and James could only include so much audio in their film...it is, after all, a film. But I'm a radio guy, and I have no such limitation. For me, those tapes represented a deep vein of precious ore. They were a mother lode of rare audio, if you will. A radio-makers' dream. You cannot imagine my excitement at the thought of listening to them.

And so I worked up the nerve to call Steve—a complete stranger—and asked if we would help me convince Reverend Pickett to let me make a radio piece from the tapes. Pickett is cautious and conservative—he's had a lot of bad experiences with the press and the Texas prison people are not at all pleased with his anti-death penalty activism. But after working with him on what Pickett calls "our" documentary, he trusts James explicitly, and for reasons I still don't fathom, Steve indeed vouched for me. In the months since our original conference call, Pickett's said "If Steve James says you're ok, than I guess you must be OK..." about 1,000 times.

Reverend Pickett gave the green light to my project, and Zak Piper, Co-Producer on At The Death House Door at Kartemquin Films, sent tons of audio—I listened to about half of the tapes, some 30 hours in all. As I've said, they are largely unemotional; they lack the purple prose that has become associated with the "death house scene." But then again, most of the people writing those scenes have never attended a real execution, let alone 95 of them. And none of them has spent the day with the man about to be executed, getting to know him as a man.

The result is Ministry of Presence, a 1/2 hour radio doc that will air on KCRW's UnFictional this Friday at 7:30pm, repeated Tuesday at 2:30. You'll also be able to stream and podcast it on the show's site. I am very proud of the piece, which will air, not coincidentally, a few days before Californians vote on the death penalty. I am grateful to Carroll Pickett for putting his amazing story in my hands, and to Peter Gilbert and Steve James for making such an amazing film and helping make my piece possible. It makes me wonder why doc filmmakers and radio-makers don't work together more often!

Listen now

The International Documentary Association is pleased to announce the five feature-length documentary films that have been selected to receive a total of $75,000 from the Pare Lorentz Documentary Fund. The Fund, which was created with support from The New York Community Trust, goes to projects that illuminate pressing issues in the United States and honor the legacy of the landmark documentary filmmaker Pare Lorentz.

This year IDA received a record number of grant applications from 216 filmmakers from across the U.S. and around the world. Submissions were judged on their objective research, artful storytelling, strong visual style, and high production values, as well as the reflection of the spirit and nature of Pare Lorentz’s work.

Pare Lorentz was an American original. His documentary films The Plow That Broke The Plains (1936), The River (1938) and The Fight for Life (1940) were among the first to demonstrate that films can educate and rally a nation around its history, its greatness, and its problems. After first working as a journalist and a film critic, Lorentz became a director in the 1930s and was appointed as film advisor to the U.S. Resettlement Administration. In 1939 Lorentz founded and began running the U.S. Film Service.

"Using the power of nonfiction storytelling, each of these films has the potential to change how our society views some of the most pressing issues of our time," said Michael Lumpkin, IDA’s Executive Director. "With the support of The New York Community Trust and the Elizabeth Meyer Lorentz Fund, IDA is able to further support the vital work of documentary filmmakers."

Here are the productions receiving Pare Lorentz Documentary Fund grants:

After Tiller - Directed and produced by Martha Shane and Lana Wilson. After the assassination of Dr. George Tiller, the last four late-term abortion doctors in America confront harassment from protestors, challenges in their personal lives, and a series of tough ethical decisions.

Citizen Corp - Directed and produced by Tia Lessin and Carl Deal, Citizen Corp is about the influence of money in US politics. Set against the Supreme Court’s Citizens United decision and the rise of the Tea Party and Occupy movements, the film explores the consequences for democracy when private interests determine who is elected to deliver public good.

Four Walls Around Me - Produced and directed by Irene Taylor Brodsky and produced by Sophie Harris, Four Walls Around Me follows three ex-cons their first year out of prison. Through their earnest attempts, grave missteps and a frightening end game, the film asks, is it possible to truly reinvent yourself?

The New Black - Directed by Yoruba Richen and produced by Yvonne Welbon, Yoruba Richen, and Angela Tucker, The New Black is a documentary that uncovers the complicated and often combative histories of the African-American and LGBT civil rights movements.

Remote Area Medical - Directed by Jeff Reichert and Farihah Zaman and produced by Jeff Reichert, Farihah Zaman, and Dan O’Meara. Over three days, Remote Area Medical, the pioneers of “no-cost” health care, treat nearly 2,000 patients on the infield of Bristol, Tennessee’s NASCAR speedway.

Learn more about the Pare Lorentz Documentary Fund.

We are SO excited to finally announce all of the nominees for our 28th annual IDA Documentary Awards ceremony, which will be held Friday, December 7, 2012 at the Director's Guild in Los Angeles. Our Executive Director Michael Lumpkin expressed his enthusiasm about this year's selections: "This year’s documentaries have once again shown us the power of the documentary art form," Lumpkin said. "The record number of submissions we received reflects the cultural relevance of documentary storytelling."

The five films nominated in IDA’s Best Feature category include The Central Park Five (Ken Burns, Sarah Burns and David McMahon), The Invisible War (Kirby Dick), The Queen of Versailles (Lauren Greenfield), Searching for Sugar Man (Malik Bendjelloul), and Women With Cows (Peter Gerdehag).

The five nominated films in the Best Short category are God is the Bigger Elvis (Rebecca Cammisa), Kings Point (Sari Gilman), Mondays at Racine (Cynthia Wade), Open Heart (Kief Davidson), and Saving Face (Daniel Junge, Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy).

To see the nominees in the Best Continuing Series, Best Limited Series, the HUMANITAS Documentary Award, the David L. Wolper Student Documentary Award, and the ABCNEWS VIDEOSOURCE Award, please visit the Awards page.

We're thrilled that Penn Jillette will be hosting the IDA Awards. He is a cultural phenomenon as a solo personality and as half of the world-famous Emmy®-Award­ winning magic duo Penn & Teller. His solo exposure is enormous: Howard Stern to Glenn Beck to the Op-Ed pages of The New York Times. Dancing With The Stars, MTV Cribs and Chelsea Lately, and hosted the NBC game show Identity. As part of Penn & Teller, he has appeared more than twenty times on David Letterman, as well as on several other TV shows, from The Simpsons and Friends to Top Chef and Jimmy Fallon. He co-hosts the controversial series Penn & Teller: Bullsh*t!, which has been nominated for sixteen Emmy® Awards. His documentary, The Aristocrats, features 100 top comics telling their version of the world's dirtiest joke and was a 2005 official Sundance entry.

Winners in the Best Feature and Best Short categories are selected by IDA’s membership. Screening committees of industry professionals based in New York City, Washington, DC, the San Francisco Bay Area and Los Angeles determine other award categories.

In addition to recognizing the year’s best in documentary filmmaking and nonfiction programming, the 2012 IDA Documentary Awards will be honoring producer Arnold Shapiro with the organization’s Career Achievement Award, and presenting The Sundance Institute's groundbreaking Documentary Film Program and Fund with IDA’s Pioneer Award, which recognizes extraordinary contributions to advancing the non-fiction form and providing exceptional vision and leadership to the documentary community.

Winners will be announced live at the awards ceremony. Tickets available now!

Read the official press release.

Check out two of IDA's fiscally sponsored films that are creating meaningful social change. Sin by Silence, a film about domestic violence, made legislative history after Assemblywoman Fiona Ma attended a screening of the documentary in 2011. The result? The Sin by Silence Bill was signed into law by Governor Brown this September. Rebecca Richman Cohen's Code of the West hit headlines last month when it was used as part of the defense of a man facing federal drug charges. Instead of 20 years in prison, he received 5 years probation. Read the Indiewire article.

Can you think of other instances when documentaries have sparked social change? Leave a comment below!

Here are a few deadlines to take note of in the next few weeks. Feel free to contact Amy Halpin or myself about this or any other grant opportunities you come across.

October 31: The Frameline Completion Fund - grants to emerging and established filmmakers making projects about lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people and their communities.

New!: The Bertha BRITDOC Documentary Journalism Fund is an international film fund dedicated to supporting long form feature documentaries of a journalistic nature. Rolling deadline.

November 5: Tribeca Film Institute Grants (TFI)  - Latin America Media Arts Fund, Documentary Fund, All Access Tribeca.

With so much focus on online fundraising and crowd funding these days, it's easy to overlook one of the most tried and true methods of raising cash for your project... event fundraisers and house parties. Whether it is used as a launch party for a crowd funding campaign or a free standing fundraiser, here are a few tips if you are planning to throw an event to raise money for your IDA sponsored project:

Get the invite right

Invites should go out at least a few weeks before your event, possibly longer if you are hosting something during the busy upcoming holiday season. Save yourself stress and added expense by sending us a copy of the invite to approve a couple of weeks before it goes to your guests. You can always check out the handbook for some preapproved language regarding tax-deductible gifts.

Make it easy to give

Starting next month we'll be offering projects the option to accept credit card donations on site using a convenient GoPayments app on your smartphone or tablet! Contact us for more details or look for more information in the handbook shortly. But when sending your invites, consider including a mail in card with all of the details they will need to make a check, credit card or online donation, so even those who can't make it to the event find it easy and convenient to give.

Know what's deductible 

Fundraising events have a few special considerations when it comes to the question of what donations are tax deductible. Here's a brief primer:

• Admission - If you are offering your guests food, drinks or entertainment in return for an event ticket, the cost of admission is not fully deductible. You'll need to assign a fair market value to the items or services your guests are getting in return for a ticket. If your guests are paying more than that amount for a ticket, they can count the difference as a donation. This is true even if all the food and drink at the event was given to you for free. Check out the section on partially deductible donations in our handbook, and contact us if you still have questions about handling ticketing and partially deductible gifts.

• Auctions – Auctions can be a great way to bring in funds at a fundraiser, but the price people pay for items rarely results in a write off. That's because for something to be deductible, the winner would have to be paying over fair market value for the item they cast the winning bid on. That means if you auction off a $500 painting for $200, your donor gets a deal, but not a deduction. If the bidding gets heated and they pay $700 for it however, they get to write off $200 as a charitable gift. If you are collecting auction funds, make sure to contact us in advance so we can walk you through filling out the partially deductible donations spreadsheet that will have to accompany your donors' checks.  

• Raffles – Raffle tickets are never tax deductible according to the IRS. Due to our inability to monitor raffles in accordance with individual State gaming regulations, if you want to have a raffle at your event check out the rules in your State and know that raffle ticket sales should go directly to you or your company, not to IDA.

Keep track and follow up

For at least a few weeks after your event, put in regular requests for an account balance at www.documentary.org/sponsorship so you can promptly thank donors for gifts that trickle in after the event. If an attendee makes a pledge to give after the event, give him or her a couple of weeks to follow through and then follow up by email or phone if the donation doesn't materialize.

Look for more resources and tips on fundraisers and house parties in my next blog post.

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences today announced that the field of Documentary Short Subject contenders for the 85th Academy Awards® has been narrowed to eight films, out of a submission pool of 31. Three to five of these titles will earn Oscar® nominations.

Three of the shorts on the list qualified for Academy Award consideration through IDA's DocuWeeks^TM Theatrical Documentary Showcase this past summer: King's Point, from director/producer Sari Gilman and producers Jed Wider and Todd Wider; Open Heart, from director/producer/writer Kief Davison and producer Cori Stern; and The Perfect Fit, from  director Tali Yankelevich and producer Finlay Pretsell.

Here's a complete list of the documentary shorts on the short list:

The Education of Mohammad Hussein (Loki Films; Directors/Producers: Heidi Ewing and Rachel Grady,)

 Inocente (Shine Global, Inc. ; Directors: Andrea Nix Fine and Sean Fine; Producers Yael Melamede, Emanual Michael)

 Kings Point (Kings Point Documentary, Inc.; Director/Producer: Sari Gilman; Producers Jed Wider, Todd Wider)

 Mondays at Racine (Cynthia Wade Productions; Director/Producer: Cynthia Wade)

Open Heart (Urban Landscapes Inc.; Director/Producer/Writer: Kief Davison; Producer: Cori Stern)

 ParaÍso (The Strangebird Company; Director: Nadav Kurtz) 

 The Perfect Fit (SDI Productions Ltd.; Director: Tali Yankelevich; Producer: Finlay Pretsell)

 Redemption (Downtown Docs; Producer: Matthew O'Neill)

The 85th Academy Awards nominations will be announced live on Thursday, January 10, 2013, at 5:30 a.m. PT in the Academy's Samuel Goldwyn Theater.

Academy Awards for outstanding film achievements of 2012 will be presented on Sunday, February 24, 2013, at The Dolby Theatre^TM at Hollywood & Highland Center®, and televised live on the ABC Television Network.

As reported by The New York Times on Tuesday, October 2, the City of New York is subpoenaing outtakes and extra footage from the documentary The Central Park Five on the grounds of obtaining evidence for a federal lawsuit filed by the subjects in the film. The film, which follows the lives of five men who were convicted and later acquitted of a racially-charged rape back in 1989, was an effort by the filmmakers to hopefully push the city to solve the case. The men accused in the trial are seeking compensation of $50 million each for their wrongful conviction and subsequent hardships the whole endeavor has cost them.

Lawyers for the City of New York, insistent on seeing all of the footage before the film is released to public, may have done too little too late—according to Ken Burns, one of the film's three directors alongside David McMahon and Burns' daughter Sarah, this subpoena comes after after officials in the City of New York had spent years ignoring his requests for interviews. The filmmakers hoped that these interviews with law enforcement officials, which he never obtained, might help explain the actions of those who were involved in the prosecution.

The IDA will follow up on this story as more information is released to the public. Please take the time to read the whole story and weigh in with your thoughts in the comments below. Please also read the full statement from Ken Burns, Sarah Burns, and David McMahon on the subpoena.

As first reported in The New York Times, documentary filmmakers Natalia Almada and Laura Poitras were among 23 recipients of the prestigious MacArthur Fellowship Grants for 2012—the so-called "Genius Grants," which have no application processes, arduous reporting requirements, or strings attached of any sort. The fellowships are $500,000, paid out over five years.

According to its website, the MacArthur Fellows Program, administered by the John  D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, honors "talented individuals who have shown extraordinary originality and dedication in their creative pursuits and a marked capacity for self-direction. The Fellowship is intended to encourage people of outstanding talent to pursue their own creative, intellectual, and professional inclinations."

Almada, who earned the 2009 IDA Jacqueline Donnet Emerging Documentary Filmmaker Award among other honors, maintains residences in both Brooklyn and Mexico City, and her most recent works— Al Otro Lado, El General and El Velador—explore the dualities, nuances and grey areas between the two cultures, with a style that eschews documentary conventions for deeper, more lyrical and literary resonances beneath the surface of sociopolitical inquiry. For a video interview with Alamda on the MacArthur Fellows website, click here.

Poitras is currently working on the third installment of her trilogy about America in a post-9/11 world, the war on terror and its human consequences. The first film, My Country, My Country, earned an Academy Award nomination for Best Documentary Feature, while The Oath earned an IDA Humanitas Award and an IDA Award nomination in 2010 for Best Documentary Feature. The third installment addresses, according to an interview with Poitras on the MacArthur Fellows website, "the NSA, WikiLeaks, whistle blowers and how the war on terror comes home."

Other documentary filmmakers who have earned MacArthur Fellowships over the years include Edet Belzberg, Charles Burnett, Jon Else, James  Longley, Louis Massiah, Errol Morris, Stanley Nelson, Marcel Ophuls and Frederick Wiseman.

The IDA is thrilled to announce that A&E has signed on as a sponsor of the 28th annual IDA Documentary Awards at the Luminary level. A&E, a global media company with joint ventures and channels all over the world since 1984, is a proud provider of quality non-fiction television programming with a strong focus on arts and entertainment. We are happy to have an organization with such common interests pledge their support to our most important event of the year.

The following organizations and companies have also committed to supporting the upcoming Awards ceremony:

Gold Sponsor:
ABC News Video Source

Silver Sponsor:
Authentic Entertainment
Focus Forward
Stella Artois
The Standard Hollywood
American Film Showcase

Held at the end of every year, the IDA Documentary Awards is the foremost event dedicated to the art of documentary film. Winners of the 28th Annual IDA Documentary Awards will be announced on December 7, 2012 in Los Angeles. Learn more about the IDA Awards.