Over the next month, we at IDA will be introducing our community to the filmmakers whose work is represented in the DocuWeeks™ Theatrical Documentary Showcase, which runs from August 3 through August 30 in New York City and Los Angeles. We asked the filmmakers to share the stories behind their films—the inspirations, the challenges and obstacles, the goals and objectives, the reactions to their films so far.

So, to launch this series of conversations, here is Tali Yankelevich, director of The Perfect Fit.

Synopsis: Ballet shoes may be worn by delicate girls, but they're crafted by big burly men whose hands tell another story.

IDA: How did you get started in non-fiction filmmaking?

Tali Yankelevich: The truth is I actually didn’t know much about documentaries when I went on to study filmmaking. I was 19 years old when I enrolled in a Media Foundation course in London where I got to try a few different audiovisual media, and I guess it became a case of natural selection. I hadn’t seen many documentaries at that age; all my reference came from fiction films. I soon realized I had really no talent for fiction. I wasn’t any good at writing or creating situations, but I did truly enjoy observing. And so I was instantly drawn to the documentary practice and its process.

IDA: What inspired you to make The Perfect Fit?

TY: I was trained in classical ballet and danced for 10 years when I was growing up, so I always wanted to make a film on the subject. I felt the right approach never came to me. So many films are made about dance and ballet and I didn’t want to make just one more.

The idea for the film came from an article I found on the Internet about a pointe shoe factory in London. Reading that article was to me a complete shock, as I had danced in pointe shoes for so long and it never occurred to me where they actually came from. I think I probably had a picture in my mind of a little shoe coming out of a machine or something like that.

I read that the shoes where completely handmade, from beginning to end, that they were made of paper and glue, and that a shoemaker would glue layer after layer together to make the shoe hard enough to support the feet of a dancer. And each principle dancer had her one shoemaker who would craft her handmade shoes for her whole career. At the end of the article I remember reading a quote from one of the cobblers, who said, "The dancer should feel the soul of the shoemaker in the shoes." I then knew there was a film here, and I guess because of my experience with dance this felt really moving. To me the shoes were like an instrument of torture and caused me so much pain, but it was a contradiction as I loved dancing. So in this moment I could see that there was a story to be told between those two worlds.

I also thought the idea of this mysterious kind of bond between the dancer and the maker was so interesting and very cinematic even. I completely fell in love with the idea of a story, which could explore the parallelism of the lives of those two characters. So this became my door back into ballet and to making The Perfect Fit.

IDA: How did you get in touch with Denise The Dancer and Patrick The Shoemaker?

TY: I met Denise through a place in Edinburgh called Dance Base. I was looking for professional dancers and one of their teachers put me in contact with her. Denise is a very successful and experienced dancer who had been dancing all her life—she started her career in professional ballet companies at a very early age. I was particularly interested in those early years. On one of our first meetings she told me stories about her transition from being a student to becoming a professional dancer that were extremely moving. Much of the voice-over in the film was recorded in one of those early meetings. It is a very complex universe, the ballet, and Denise verbalized it in quite a memorable way.

With Patrick it was quite a different encounter. I met him during my first visit to Freed of London, the ballet shoe factory. I went there to shot some footage for a trailer. I was there with a friend and we had a limited time at the factory as it was quite a busy season for them. We were given a tour around the factory and I can say we were completely overwhelmed with what we saw. Everything there was just so visual and full of character. The workers there also were so warm and extremely friendly. I can remember every second of that visit so well; everywhere I looked was just filled with incredible details. I could have spent hours and hours there filming and not wanting to go home.

While we had a walk around, one of the shoemakers really grabbed my attention. This was Patrick. Can we say 'love at first sight' about a documentary character? This is how I felt. There was an incredible energy in the way he worked and made his shoes that was hypnotizing to watch. He almost looked like he was dancing—there was a rhythm and a fascinating synchronization in his movements and how he worked. His face was also so full of expression. We were observing how he worked and he spontaneously started talking to my friend and I. We filmed I think a conversation of around 20 min which was also so strong that at the end much of the film is built around this conversation.

IDA: How did your vision for the film change over the course of the production process?

TY: My original vision for the film was to work with a dancer at the start of her career. When young dancers enter companies, this is time when they start looking for the perfect shoe for them [and start to have them] custom made. So I though it would be an interesting moment to capture in relation to the shoe making world too. I was interested in establishing a strong direct relationship between the cobbler and a dancer. However, this was really impossible in terms of production. I had very limited time, therefore it just wasn’t possible to get permission to film in a ballet company.

But at the end it all worked out really well. Denise wasn’t dancing in a company at the time we met but there was a strong emotional journey in how she remembered and talked about the early years of her career. So it really ended up being 'a perfect fit' alongside Patrick’s story.

IDA: What documentaries or documentary filmmakers have inspired you?

TY: So many! [It] would be difficult to name them all. But I guess I can name two masters, whose films I feel I will never stop learning from. Sergei Dvortsevoy and Victor Kossakovsky are two filmmakers I truly admire. There is an incredible depth to every single moment in their films, to me they are able to explore something quite unique in their filmmaking; every shot has a life of its own that even transcends the narrative. There is a fascinating energy to the way they film their subjects. Their work carries so much poetry and an incredible sense of humanity.

IDA: What do you hope to get out of your participation in DocuWeeks?

TY: Well, I have to say this is an extraordinary event for me. When I finished this film I never in a million years imagined it would travel so much, and that it would be seen by so many people. Getting a week[long] theatrical release is something that probably won’t happen many times in the course of my career. I feel extremely lucky to have a short film screening at DocuWeeks. I currently reside in Brazil so I wont be in NYC, but I really hope that audiences enjoy the film, and that hopefully it will present them with a take into the ballet universe that they haven’t seen before.

The Perfect Fit will be screening August 3 through 9 at the IFC Center in New York City.

Complete DocuWeeks™ 2012 program

To purchase tickets for The Perfect Fit and the rest of the films in the DocuWeeks New York Shorts Program for Week 1, click here.

Enigmatic French filmmaker Chris Marker died at age 91 at home in Paris this past Sunday, the same day as his 91st birthday. Often considered on par with Jean-Luc Godard and Alain Resnais and as a master of the avant-garde, Marker is responsible for La Jetee, a pioneering science fiction film considered by some to be the greatest achievement in the genre to date.

Over the length of his six-decade career, Marker produced over two dozen films including the documentaries A Grin without A Cat (1977) and Chats Perchés (2004). Known for creating his films in the style of essays, Marker uses A Grin without A Cat to interview important French leaders of the time to shine a light on the political upheaval permeating the world in the 1960s and 70s. His later non-fiction work Chats Perchés looks at M. Chat, the graffiti cat that started appearing around France in the late 1990s. He is also responsible for co-creating Far from Vietnam (1967) with his contemporaries Godard and Resnais, which express their strong views against American involvement in the Vietnam War.

After the announcement of his death, Los Angeles Times speculated about Marker’s early life:

Little is known about Marker's life, which apparently was just as the filmmaker, who called himself "the best-known author of unknown movies," wanted it.

Most biographies say he was born Christian François Bouche-Villeneuve in Neuilly sur Seine, France, on July 29, 1921, and studied philosophy with Jean-Paul Sartre in the late 1930s. It may be apocryphal, but some sources say his affection for the Magic Marker felt-tipped pen inspired him to change his last name.

Doubts also surrounded his birthplace. Marker told film historian Thomson during a meeting in Berkeley in the 1980s that Thomson's "Biographical Dictionary of Film" was in error and that he actually was born in Ulan Bator, Mongolia.

Few images of Chris Marker exist, as noted by The Guardian: "Throughout his career, Marker, who was notoriously secretive about his private life, was rarely interviewed or photographed, often responding to requests for his photograph with a picture of a cat – his favourite animal."

Read our review of a DVD reissue of A Grin without a Cat from our Summer 2009 online issue.

To see all the photos from this event, visit us on Facebook.

With the almost universal accessibility afforded by video uploading services like YouTube, one would imagine it's simple to find a clip of almost everything with the click of a mouse. But what about all of the news footage that was shot before the advent of digital? What about those sources that are under copyright protection and aren't subject to fair use? How does one tap into those resources? Most of the time, finding that clip you are looking for involves research, planning, digging, and talking to as many people as possible. But there are other options we haven't touched on here: official archives, libraries, footage firms, and other sources that might cost a bit of money. These all exist for the purpose of helping you with the process of finding that perfect clip to help illustrate or clarify your point.

But how and where to start? What will the cost be? And what kind of manpower will it take? Incorporating archival footage into your documentary film can bring a level of authenticity unmatched by other means, furthering the film's impact and reach. With literally thousands of hours of footage from almost all modern history's major events, the biggest hurdle in using archival footage may just be in knowing where and how to start looking.

That's why the IDA called in a few experts in the field to discuss just these issues and answer questions from the documentary community at large. With IDA's Executive Director Michael Lumpkin moderating, the panel for Doc U: Using Archival Footage in Your Film consisted of Clara Fon-Sing, Vice President and General Manager of NBC News Archives; Jackie Mountain, Vice President of Sales for T3Media; and Peter Jones (Director) and Brian Tessier (Supervising Producer), Johnny Carson: King of Late Night. The five discussed the benefits and challenges of using archival footage in your film, from the beginning steps of initial research to negotiating that final licensing fee.

Michael kicked off by asking what a filmmaker should know before they call or email an archive. Clara emphasized the importance of contacting whatever footage firm or archive you want to work with early in the process. Most archives as big as NBC News Archives or T3Media have a staff of researchers who are extremely well acquainted with the content they have available. She recommended that you share what you are trying to do, even if you are not clear on what the end product will be. Be ready with information like whether your project is archival-based, or if you are just looking for a few seconds of material. Knowing at least that much as you going into your conversations with an archive could really help guide or change your writing. Clara also really encouraged people to come in and screen the material themselves. "It will guide where you go," she said.

Each panelist brought in their own material to screen, with Jackie and Clara showing powerful clips from the vast archives available at T3Media and NBC News Archive, respectively. Known for building their stories using rare, previously unseen archival footage, Brian and Peter also showed clips of their films, including Johnny Carson: King of Late Night, Inventing L.A.: The Chandlers and Their Times, and two other documentaries about Judy Garland and Charlie Chaplin. Although they have experience with archives including T3Media, they also brought up how important it is to speak to the families of the people you are profiling. With the Chandlers, the family had documented everything but were skeptical of the media. Once the elder Chandler passed, however, those home movies and images were turned over to Peter and Brian to help them with their project. What a stroke of luck!

Michael then asked the two filmmakers on the panel what their process is for finding things that haven't ever seen the light of day. "Who do you talk to?" he asked. "Who do you interface with?" Brian (far right), the one on his filmmaking team known for finding clips that have never before been seen, reminded everyone to be reasonable with their time. Be sure that you set aside time to talk to your subject and plan ahead so you can give a wishlist to the archive with which you are working. "If you express your enthusiasm," he said, "then people want to help you." Even though everyone loves YouTube, he mentioned, "you can't replace the human element."

Michael next turned to Jackie to ask if T3Media ever recommends footage to a filmmaker. "We try not to be too presumptuous," she said. "If we know the general feel, the emotion you are looking for," that gives them a good starting point for knowing whether they have footage that's applicable to your project. "Understanding that," she noted, "will allow us to give a recommendation."

"What do you do when that footage doesn't exist at all?" Michael asked the two filmmakers responsible for Johnny Carson: The King of Late Night. "The first years of The Tonight Show are gone. How do you get around that?"

"Never let them see you sweat!" Peter (second from right) joked. When footage of an historical event is totally missing, the small amount of footage that you do use to refer to the event has to really mean something. "The audience doesn't know you can only access four percent of the shot footage" from The Tonight Show, Peter mentioned, so those clips that you show them that represent that small amount of footage might as well be what you selected from among hundreds upon hundreds of hours of tape. "Sometimes," Brian said, "you just have to think differently."

Once the panel turned to the audience for questions, a few heavy points came from the attending members of the documentary community. The question that seemed to be on more than one person's lips: "Why does footage cost so much?" T3Media's Jackie Mountain explained:

"We're representing archives," she said, with the full intention of restoring, reserving, and protecting the footage they own. "We do that for free so that we can represent the collection." Their goal of making it searchable and available is not cheap. "We do the best that we can," she insisted, "to be very fair to the filmmaker"—that is, if they understand the scope of the project. Essentially, the more you know, the better off you will be. This is especially true when working with places like T3Media, who has project-based pricing and offers discounts if they are part of the project in an early phase.

After the panel wrapped up, everyone was invited outside for snacks and more conversation on archival footage on The Cinefamily's picturesque back patio. We were happy to host such an informative event. Look for our next Doc U in September!

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, distribution, licensing, marketing, and business tactics.

Doc U is made possible by generous grants and contributions from our donors. Special support is provided by the Los Angeles County Arts Commission, the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, T3Media, IMAX, the City of Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs, AXIS PRO, Indie Printing, and Members and supporters of the IDA.

With the future of DocuWeeks films dependent on theatrical runs and press coverage, where would we be without strong media partners?

The IDA is proud to welcome The Village Voice, LA Weekly, and TheLip.tv's BYOD as the three official Media Sponsors of this year's DocuWeeks program. Both The Village Voice and LA Weekly will be covering all of the films featured in DocuWeeks in New York and Los Angeles, respectively.

Returning again to support DocuWeeks, The Village Voice is the definitive source of information for news, music, movies, restaurants, reviews, and events in New York. As the nation's first and largest alternative newsweekly, the Voice maintains the same tradition of no-holds-barred reporting and criticism it first embraced when it began publishing more than fifty years ago.

Since 1978, LA Weekly has been decoding Los Angeles for its readers, infiltrating its subcultures, observing and analyzing its shifting rhythms, digging up its unreported stories and confronting the city's political leaders. From the beginning, the paper has found success by drawing in readers with comprehensive calendar listings and cultural coverage, and then keeping those readers loyal with bold news and political coverage and in-depth feature stories by some of the country's finest writers.

BYOD is co-hosted by Ondi Timoner, director of DIG!, Join Us and We Live in Public, and Vladimir Radovanov, entertainment attorney, and executive producer of We Live in Public. Each week the show explores a different documentary filmmaker or aspect of filmmaking, with special guests and a live Q&A diving deep into creative process and the business realities of producing and distributing films. Ondi and Vladimir share their insider views, opinions, and personal stories, welcoming audience participation. BYOD aims to entertain, inform, and elevate documentaries in general by bringing attention to films and film makers that deserve exposure.

BYOD will be shooting interviews with most of the filmmakers over the course of the DocuWeeks program. Co-host Ondi Timoner had this to say about their involvement:

"DocuWeeks is a crucial element in today's independent film world in that in democratizes opportunities for exposure and access to awards for filmmakers, alongside facilitating audiences hungry for enlightenment and inspiration to discover incredible documentaries they might otherwise miss. BYOD is the only talk show where documentaries ad their makers are discussed from all angles. We are thrilled to partner with the International Documentary Association and cover the filmmakers presenting at IDA's 2012 DocuWeeks. Personally, I look forward to discussing the journey with my fellow artists, and sharing it with you on Bring Your Own Doc."

Learn more about DocuWeeks here.

If you’re a filmmaker with an idea for a three-minute nonfiction film around the theme of invention and innovation, then it’s time to get to work!

The FOCUS FORWARD – Short Films, Big Ideas initiative is giving away $200,000 in cash prizes to the top five entries in the Filmmaker Challenge, with $100,000 going to one Grand Prize Winner, the largest award ever given to a short documentary film. In addition, up to 100 finalists will be featured online at www.focusforwardfilms.com and www.vimeo.com/focus forwardfilms alongside work by Jessica Yu, Steve James, Lucy Walker, Victor Kossakovsky, and other FOCUS FORWARD filmmakers. Winners will be announced at the 2013 Sundance Film Festival. And it’s FREE to enter.

Qualifying films for the Filmmaker Challenge are three-minute end-to-end stories about people or organizations whose innovative efforts in medicine, computer science, robotics, engineering, green energy, or other fields of art and knowledge have had a significant positive impact on humanity. Recent, cutting-edge inventions that are changing how we live today are of special interest. Be sure to let others know about this groundbreaking competition—it’s all about celebrating advancements in culture and technology, so you’ll be helping to spread the word about positive change. That’s something we can all get behind.

Looks like Focus Forward can also get behind the IDA—they've recently signed on as Silver Sponsors of the upcoming 28th annual IDA Documentary Awards! Focus Forward joins Authentic Entertainment and ABC News Videosource as official sponsors of this year's prestigious event.

Be aware that submissions to the Short Films, Big Ideas initiative close on August 23, 2012.

Visit focusforwardfilms.com/#challenge for more information.

George C. Stoney, whose unparalleled influence as a filmmaker, media activist and educator spanned seven decades, died July 12 in his home in New York City at age 96.

Stoney was born in 1916. According to a Wikipedia entry, he studied English and history at the University of North Carolina and Balliol College at Oxford University, and received a Film in Education Certificate from the University of London. He worked as an information officer for the Farm Security Administration and as a photo intelligence officer for the US Air Force during World War II.  His first professional foray into filmmaking came after the war, when he joined the Southern Educational Film Service as a writer and director.

Stoney launched his own production company in 1950, and one of his early works, All My Babies: A Midwife's Own Story, about an African-American midwife, received numerous awards and was named to the National Film registry in 2002. He supplemented his filmmaking by teaching--at Columbia University, City College of New York and Stanford University-but his true academic home over the last 42 years was New York University, where he was a professor of film and cinema studies.

In 1968, Stoney moved to Canada, where, for the next two years, he headed the Challenge for Change project, an initiative of the National Film Board of Canada designed to foster social change through film and video. He returned to the US in 1970 to lead NYU's undergraduate film department, and in 1972, inspired by the idea of community media that was intrinsic to the success of Challenge for Change, co-founded the Alternate Media Center, which pioneered the use of video for public access television and helped train aspiring filmmakers in this new medium. His groundbreaking innovations in this field helped inspire the George Stoney Award, presented each year by the Alliance for Community Media "to an organization or individual who has made an outstanding contribution to championing the growth and experience of humanistic community communications."

George Stoney was honored in 1998 with the IDA Preservation & Scholarship Award; Erik Barnouw, the late great scholar of documentary, presented him with the award. He continued to teach and make films up to his death. Among the 50 documentaries he made over his illustrious career, one of the many standouts was The Uprising of '34, which he made with Judith Helfand and Susanne Rostock.  Helfand, one of his students at NYU, shared this remembrance of Stoney on her Facebook page; here's an excerpt:

 "I took this picture on Wednesday night in Chicago to toast my beloved mentor, friend, collaborator and teacher, George Stoney--as he made his journey. He was still with us then... surrounded by the most loving, deeply respectful and perfect team of beloved ones who were keen to help him let his spirit soar. He showed us how to make movies with meaning, how to use them wisely and boldly, how to live each breath and use each one in a meaningful way."

For an article by Tamara Krinsky, from the Winter 2011 Documentary magazine, by Stoney on the occasion of his 40 years at NYU, click here.

Watch an interview with Stoney from P.O.V.'s Behind the Lens.

American documentary feature film Holy Man: The USA vs. Douglas White will now be playing in both New York and Los Angeles as a part of the 16th Annual DocuWeeks Theatrical Documentary Showcase. We are pleased to announce this new addition to the DocuWeeks 2012 lineup, which now includes 17 features and 11 shorts from 19 different countries. The film, directed by award-winning filmmaker Jennifer Jessum and narrated by Martin Sheen, will be playing in New York from August 10-16 and in Los Angeles August 17-23.

Holy Man: The USA vs. Douglas White is the story of an 89 year old Lakota Sioux medicine man from Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota, who spent 17 years in federal prison for a crime he did not commit. During the making of this film, filmmakers uncovered new evidence of White’s "actual innocence" and brought the case back to federal court.

Tickets for this and all other DocuWeeks films will be available starting in just a few days. Follow us on Twitter and Facebook for updates and ticketing information.

The National Association of Latino Independent Producers (NALIP) announces their open call for the 2012 HBO / NALIP Documentary Filmmaker Award. NALIP is a national member-based organization that seeks to support the professional requirements of Latino/Latina independent producers. NALIP is the first effort of its kind aimed at Latino production, and it is the first to sustain itself and provide ongoing support for Latino independent film and video makers. In an attempt to focus more on the Latino experience as documented through film, HBO has partnered with this great organization to create this exciting award.

From NALIP's website:

HBO has teamed with NALIP to find the next great Latino Documentary Film!

Social change has been the consistent undercurrent for HBO's critically acclaimed and award-winning documentary programs, with a myriad of issues presented in uncompromising quality and honesty. Through this cash award, HBO wants to focus its lens on the Latino experience and support the growth of social commentary by Latino documentarians. One Latino Filmmaker will win $10,000!

Entry deadline: Monday, August 27, 2012 (Postmarked)

• Application processing fee: $20 – No charge for current NALIP members.
• Submissions must be from a film already in progress or finished – footage and proposal to be screened by judges.
• Filmmakers may be U.S. or international, but film must be in English or with English subtitles.
• The winner must be 18 years or older, and of Latino descent.
• There is no limit to the number of entries: each entry must comply with the requirements below, and must submit a separate submission form for each.
• Prior submissions will be considered if the project has advanced to a new stage.
• A panel of industry professionals will judge the films based on the following criteria: uniqueness of topic/subject matter, professional quality of the film, and the structure, tone and style planned for presenting the topic to an audience. The judges will select one film as the winner of the competition.
• Winner to be notified by December 2012.

For more details and a full list of submission requirements, download the application here. (Save it to your computer before filling it out)

The IDA is pleased to announce that ABC News VideoSource has signed on as a Gold Sponsor of this year’s IDA Documentary Awards. Recently named the overall preferred news provider, ABC News VideoSource is the industry-leading stock footage licensing division of ABC News. We are proud to have this great resource join us as a returning sponsor of this event, where they will also be presenting the ABC News VideoSource Award for the best use of news footage as an integral component in a documentary. Part of the IDA Documentary Awards for over 10 years, this Award will go to the film that best utilizes contemporary or historical factual footage shot for use in context such as newsreels, news specials, magazines or nightly news.

On June 29, ABC News VideoSource announced an upgraded and expanded website which promises to deliver greater and easier access to ABC News' vast archival footage online. Producers and researchers will now be able to browse, license and immediately access tens of thousands of video assets from ABC News' expansive archives with the click of a mouse. It offers documentary filmmakers, educators or anyone with an interest in archival video footage access to historically-rich news video from a vast collection spanning from 1896 to the present.

To have such a strong relationship with ABC News VideoSource for so long is a true testament to the power of documentary footage in storytelling. Stay tuned for the official announcement of the nominees for this and all other IDA Documentary Awards in late October.

The Arab Spring as seen from the eyes of a young female Egyptian journalist. The mass exodus from a Northeastern Mexican village in search of water during the annual drought. A once-in-a-lifetime journey to the Academy Awards® for one extraordinary 5th grade choir. These are just some of the 28 outstanding stories that will be presented in the International Documentary Association’s 16th Annual DocuWeeks™ Theatrical Documentary Showcase.

Screening from August 3rd through the 23rd in New York at the IFC Center and August 10th through the 30th at the Laemmle NoHo 7, the 2012 edition of DocuWeeks™ will present seventeen feature films and eleven shorts from nineteen different countries in theatrical runs, giving movie-lovers a chance to catch some of the best documentary films of the year.

"With over 500 screenings during the month of August, DocuWeeks™ gives documentary fans on both coasts multiple opportunities to see a great lineup of short and feature length docs," says IDA Executive Director Michael Lumpkin. "We are especially excited about the eleven amazing short documentaries playing in DocuWeeks this year, by far more than we have had before."

The 16th Annual DocuWeeks™ Theatrical Documentary Showcase is presented by the International Documentary Association with the support of lead sponsor HBO Documentary Films; contributing sponsors NBCUniversal Archives, Chainsaw, and WESTDOC; and media sponsors LA Weekly and Village Voice.

Features appearing in this year’s DocuWeeks™ Theatrical Documentary Showcase include: The Anderson Monarchs, Defiant Requiem, Digital Dharma: One Man's Mission to Save a Culture, Drought/Cuates de Australia, Garden in the Sea (Jardín en el Mar), La Source, Love Free or Die, The Magic Life, Of Two Minds, Once in a Lullaby: The PS22 Chorus Story, Out of the Clear Blue Sky, RICKY on LEACOCK, TRIAL BY FIRE: Lives Re-Forged, We Women Warriors (Tejiendo Sabiduría), Without A Net, and Words of Witness.

DocuWeeks™ will also present eleven documentary short films, including: The A-Word, Beauty CULTure, Cutting Loose, Jimmy, Kings Point, Open Heart, The Perfect Fit, The Record Breaker, and StoryCorps Animated Shorts Shorts: Facundo the Great, Eyes on the Stars, and Sundays at Rocco's.

A complete schedule and additional information about each film can be found at documentary.org/docuweeks. Stay tuned for ticketing information later in July, and keep up with the conversation on Facebook and Twitter.