MUCH THANKS!
The Central San Pedro Neighborhood Council provided a grant to the IDA to purchase cameras for the Docs Rock program. All of us at the IDA and the high school students who are part of the Docs Rock program are thrilled for their support.
Developed in conjunction with the Los Angeles Unified School District and the City of Los Angeles, Docs Rock is a two-semester program that introduces high school students to the world of documentary filmmaking. This unique program engages students in their educational studies, exposes them to the art form of documentary filmmaking, and prepares them for college and employment, by developing critical life skills, such as: analytical, oral and communication, team building, time management, leadership and organizational.
For more information about the Docs Rock program, click here.
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Regular Deadline April 19!
"...not only does DocuWeeks™ make a film eligible for the Documentary Oscar®...it can also put a film in the running for the PGA, DGA, and WGA Awards...the returns from participating in DocuWeeks are almost infinite."
—Matthew D. Kallis, Director/Producer, MOST VALUABLE PLAYERS
"...DocuWeeks™ helped put LOUDER THAN A BOMB on the map...bringing it to the attention of distributors, critics, and festival programmers...we are enormously grateful to the IDA..."
—Greg Jacobs & Jon Siskel, Co-Directors/Co-Producers, LOUDER THAN A BOMB
15th Annual DocuWeeks™ Theatrical Documentary Showcases
Los Angeles & New York City
Late Summer 2011 (Specific dates TBA)
| Earlybird Deadline: | April 5, 2011 | $100.00 |
| Regular Deadline: | April 19, 2011 | $150.00 |
| Late (FINAL) Deadline: | May 10, 2011 | $250.00 |
DocuWeeks™ helps to qualify outstanding new feature and short documentaries for Academy Award® consideration, by providing its participants a commercial theatrical exhibition in Los Angeles and New York.
Among other requirements, to be eligible for consideration for the 84th Academy Awards®, a feature documentary film must complete a seven-day commercial theatrical run (screening twice daily) in the County of Los Angeles and in the Borough of Manhattan between September 1, 2010, and December 31, 2011. Short documentaries must complete a seven-day commercial theatrical run (screening once per day) in the County of Los Angeles or in the Borough of Manhattan.
DocuWeeks provides one-week theatrical runs in Los Angeles and New York City, as well as the required advertising and publicity support. If selected to participate in DocuWeeks a participation fee of $4,500 for short films and $14,000 to $20,000 for feature films will be required. See Co-op fees for more inforation. After reaching a minimum in gross ticket sales, films will participate in a ticket sales share program.
Please see the 84th Annual Academy Awards Rules for complete eligibility and Academy Award® application requirements. Each filmmaker is responsible for submitting their Academy Awards® application. IDA will provide the filmmaker with proof of advertisement and theatrical runs for submission to the Academy prior to the Academy deadline.
Requirements for application to DocuWeeks™These requirements conform to the 84th Annual Academy Awards® Rules. The Academy rules take precedence if there is any discrepancy. We will make best efforts to update DocuWeeks™ requirements in the case of any changes to the Academy rules. Filmmakers are responsible for confirming their projects are in alignment with the Academy’s rules.
- The film must meet all requirements for the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) 84th Annual Academy Awards® Special Rules for the Documentary Awards.
- Only individual documentary works are eligible.
- The significant dialogue or narration must be in English, or the entry must have English language subtitles.
- Films that, in any version, receive their first public exhibition or distribution in any manner other than as a theatrical motion picture release will not be eligible for Academy Awards. (This includes broadcast and cable television as well as home video marketing and Internet transmission, with the exception of password-protected Internet screenings for press review or film festival submission.) Screenings at film festivals are permitted. Ten minutes or ten percent of the running time of a film, whichever is shorter, is allowed to be shown in a non-theatrical medium prior to the film’s theatrical release.
- Documentary motion pictures are divided into two categories:
- Documentary Feature - motion pictures with a running time of more than 40 minutes, and
- Documentary Short Subject - motion pictures with a running time of 40 minutes or less, including all credits.
Submitting your program to DocuWeeks™ in the wrong category will delay its viewing by the selection committee. - Films participating in DocuWeeks™ are responsible for paying a Co-op fee to cover the showcase costs. Fees are $4500 for shorts and range from $14,000 to $20,000 + for features. See Co-op Fees below for details.
Submission process:
All submissions are accepted through the online platform Withoutabox.com. By submitting to DocuWeeks™, you are confirming you have read the AMPAS 84th Annual Academy Awards® Rules.
To apply for IDA's DocuWeeks™ please use the online submission process at Withoutabox.com.
Final (late) deadline for completing your entry in Withoutabox is 11:59pm PT MAY 10, 2011 and all submission materials requirements must be received at IDA no later than MAY 17, 2011 by end of business day (PT). You may make your submission in Withoutabox.com and send your required submission materials anytime beginning March 18, 2011.
Applicants will be notified in mid-June if selected to participate. Entry fee is NON-REFUNDABLE. If paying by check or money order, please send entry payment in US dollars.
Material requirements for SUBMISSION:
- Enter your project into DocuWeeks™ using online platform Withoutabox™
- Five (5) screeners on separate DVDs of the full motion picture including final credits
- DVDs must play in NTSC Region 1 players
- DVDs must be clearly labeled with title, producer, director, contact information, and running time inclusive of credits
DVDs must be sent to the IDA office (see shipping address); they cannot be uploaded. You must include a copy of your Withoutabox (WAB) confirmation page showing the WAB serial number of your entry.
Material requirements upon ACCEPTANCE
- Digital press kit, uploaded to your Withoutabox.com entry (preferred) or delivered to IDA office on flash drive, CD or EPK, to include the following:
- Short biographies of director and producer
- Director and producer headshots
- Film stills (no logos)
- Brief Synopsis (125 words)
- Medium Synopsis (250 words)
- One sheet sized 21” x 40” and the texted and textless versions of the key art
- 35mm print or Digital Cinema Package (see below)
Shipping address:
IDA / DocuWeeks™ 2011
Attn: Amy Jelenko / Programs and Events
1201 W. 5th St. Suite M270
Los Angeles, CA 90017
213 534 3600 tel
Anything sent to the IDA office in connection with your DocuWeeks™ entry must include a copy of your Withoutabox (WAB) confirmation page showing the WAB serial number of your entry.
Share of Ticket Sales
IDA is pleased to offer DocuWeeks™ participants a Box Office Revenue
Share Program. Feature films grossing more than $5,000 as a combined
total of gross box office receipts from their DocuWeeks™ runs in Los
Angeles and New York will receive 50% of combined gross ticket sales
above $5,000. Shorts will receive a percentage of gross of gross ticket
sales above $5,000 based on the number of shorts screening in their
shorts program.
Co-Op Fees
Participation in DocuWeeks™ requires payment of a Co-op fee structured as follows:
Features:
35mm (flat rate) $14,000
Digital Cinema Package (Based on running time)
41 to 89 minutes $17,000
90 to 102 minutes $20,000
Over 102 minutes TBD
Shorts:
35mm OR Digital Cinema Package $4,500
Co-op fees cover part of the costs of the theatrical run for your film in New York City and in Los Angeles including theater/projection equipment rental, paid advertising, and general publicity and promotion. If you are invited to and accept participation in DocuWeeks™ , the Co-op fee is due within two business days of receipt of the invitation. Co-op fees are NON-REFUNDABLE.
Screening Options:
If
selected to participate in DocuWeeks™, you may choose to screen on 35mm
print or Digital Cinema Package (DCP). Please choose this option
carefully when you apply, as we have limited slots for each type of
format. IDA does not cover the costs of producing either the 35mm print
or the DCP. Final screening elements are due to theaters 7 days prior to
opening screening date (TBA).
Digital Cinema Package (DCP) Information
Filmmakers choosing to screen via DCP must provide an Academy/DCI
compliant DCP which will be loaded to Academy compliant cinema players
and projected with D-Cinema projectors. Click here for the Academy’s technical requirements and information.
Hermosa Beach Filmworks LLC will be overseeing all DCP files for DocuWeeks™ and providing special rates to create Academy compliant DCP files for DocuWeeks™ participants. Please contact Jonathan Liebert directly with any technical questions regarding DCPs or for a quote.
Jonathan Liebert
Hermosa Beach Filmworks LLC
703-B Pier Ave #250
Hermosa Beach, CA 90254
310 897 6277
jliebert@hbfilmworks.com
http://www.hbfilmworks.com/
Applicants will be notified in early to mid-June if selected to participate in DocuWeeks™. Please contact Amy Jelenko, Program and Events Manager, with any questions.
Read what other filmmakers have to say about DocuWeeks™Click here to read filmmaker comments.
Past documentaries selected for IDA's DocuWeeks™ include:
Doc U: Straight Shooting
A Conversation with World-Class Documentary DPs
April 25 in Los Angeles at The Cinefamily
The documentary filmmaker/cinematographer faces many complex challenges, from keeping abreast of the latest camera technologies and post-production workflows to following the subtle clues of a developing story as it is happening, clues often hidden in a look or a gesture and invisible to everyone else but the person looking through the camera lens. What are some of the ethical (and technical) problems unique to this kind of documentary storytelling? As filmmakers, how do we nurture the confidence of our subjects in such a way that they will feel comfortable opening up to our cameras without ultimately betraying their trust when we leave? What are some of the techniques that documentary DP's use in the field to handle second-by-second decisions and never-to-be-repeated moments? How has the very process of filmmaking changed for the doc "shooter" with the arrival of lightweight digital video cameras? How does each one of these filmmakers work to push the boundaries of their craft every time they start a new film or go out on a new shoot?
Join Joan Churchill, James Longley, Haskell Wexler and moderator Richard Pearce in a rich conversation about the unique POV of the documentary shooter.
Panelists:
Joan Churchill, ASC, James Longley, Haskell Wexler, ASC
Moderator:
Richard Pearce
When:
Monday, April 25, 2011
Doors Open: 7:00pm
Discussion & Audience Q&A: 7:30pm - 9:00pm
Wine Reception to Follow
Where:
The Cinefamily
611 N. Fairfax Avenue
Los Angeles, CA 90036
Parking:
Metered parking available for free after 6pm, and non-permitted parking
in neighborhoods behind The Cinefamily
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.
Special support provided by:
As allegories for cinema go, it's hard to beat Plato's Allegory of the Cave, even though it preceded the invention of cinema by about 1,300 years. There seem to be limitless interpretations of exactly what Plato's cave would look like, but the gist of the allegory is that some humans are chained in a cave such that they can only stare ahead at the wall upon which shadows are projected from behind them.
Plato loved his allegories. Werner Herzog, not so much. But there seems to be a persistent paradox expressed throughout Herzog's career in that his boundless quest for "pure, transparent imagery" results in work that begs allegorical consideration.
Consider, for example, his new film, Cave of Forgotten Dreams, a 3-D exploration of the astounding and otherwise off-limits Chauvet Cave in France, where over 32,000 years ago some of our ancestors began creating what would be discovered--only in 1994--as some of our oldest and most mystifying art.
Documentary recently spoke with Herzog about the cave, 3-D hype, albino crocodiles, doppelgangers reading How the Grinch Stole Christmas, his current project about death row inmates, The Simpsons, and the feeling of being watched by unseen eyes.
As a child you saw a book of the cave paintings and then you saved up to buy the book. I'm wondering how the paintings resonate in your life now.
Werner Herzog: To see the Chauvet Cave and work there has been a phenomenal privilege for me--a childhood dream has come true, which I never expected.
Is the film at all about what the caves mean to you, symbolically?
No. I don't feel that way because I never speak about any personal feelings [in the film]. I'm doing my best to present the cave as it is to the world...I've realized when I see the film with audiences that nobody speaks about having seen a film. They all speak of having been in a cave.
But I also felt very much like I had just seen a Werner Herzog film.
Of course it is, with wild stuff in it like Fred Astaire.
And albino crocodiles.
In the postscript, the film steps into wild, science-fiction fantasies.
A very Herzogian maneuver.
In a way, yes.
After the audience has been in this awestruck mode, it puts them into a more critical, unfamiliar, if fantastical mode.
The new familiar.
3-D. Its resurgence. On the one hand, it's a means of making the experience seem more real. But when it doesn't work, it emphasizes the artifice of film and takes you out of the movie. And it can be hard to predict when it's going to do one or the other.
This is a very good observation. I still remain a mild skeptic of 3-D. [It] will not take over everything. We have some sort of hype right now, and it is emphasized by the fact that the film industry gets full revenues because there's no piracy possible--at the moment, at least. But we are in our normal daily life not so much attached to seeing in 3-D; the brain has to process too much.
We are basically seeing in 2-D if we sit opposite each other. We could not see the rest of the room or the rest of the landscape in 3-D. One eye is dominant which would see things in 2-D. The other eye is only peripherally seeing 3-D. Only if some dramatic event is happening-a gunman is rushing at you and all of a sudden the brain switches to full 3-D. And of course NBA basketball players are seeing full 3-D during the entire game.
The 3-D is very effective in the cave, but in the spear-throwing scene, you're poking fun at the three-dimensional aspect of the film.
A little bit, yes. How he's attacking the camera with his spear, showing how effective the weapon is and so, yes, the whole scene has a funny aspect to it because you can tell the scientist will never kill a horse or a mammoth with his toss.
In the film, you mention sensing that the original cave dwellers were observing you- this kind of haunting or maybe even spiritual experience...
No, we have to be very careful with that. I'm not into New Age or any of that kind of crap...These are sensations that occurred to us in some moments, fleetingly. And it occurred very much to the discoverers of the cave. They talk about feeling as if they were looked upon by eyes. Very fleeting and nothing particular, but maybe because the paintings look so incredibly fresh, as if they were left behind yesterday, but yesterday is actually 32,000 years ago.
I'd like to shift to the state of documentaries today and this seemingly perennial discussion of some kind of golden age of documentaries.
We are having major shifts in our perception of reality because of the Internet and virtual realities. Even six-year-old children nowadays can say in the movies this was a special effect. And we have artificial realities like WrestleMania or Photoshop or whatever--a huge onslaught on our understanding of reality. So I do believe that cinema today, or documentaries today, have a task to redefine our sense of reality.
There's been this surge--well, three films in 2010 in particular that seem to be emerging in the wake of your influence: Catfish, Exit Through the Gift Shop and I'm Still Here.
I have not seen any of these films. You see, what I'm trying to pass on and make understood is that fact itself does not constitute truth. That's the mistake of cinema vérité, and all the bastard children of cinema vérité. Because facts can create norms, but they do not illuminate us. So this is why in a film like [Cave of Forgotten Dreams] all of a sudden Fred Astaire appears or albino crocodiles--where the film goes into an exuberant mode and our fantasies are activated. That's what I love about this new form of documentaries; I'm not alone anymore. But nobody should be a clone of me.
God forbid. A planet of Herzogs.
Whichever path you take away from the mere factual is going to be wonderful.
I don't want to see any more artificial doppelgangers. There are actually these wonderful doppelgangers [of me] on the Internet who read How the Grinch Stole Christmas... However, I have to point out: I'm in one of the next Simpsons episodes on the sixth of March. This is my apotheosis in American popular culture.
You're finally a cartoon. It's like being bronzed or something. Are you playing yourself?
No, no. I'm playing a German industrial pharmacist who creates some new sort of LSD used to sedate the unbearable old guys like Grandpa.
They've got you pegged.
Yes, of course. I was a paid stooge! I loved this job. They're extremely professional in how they read it to test audiences, just the text and the voices. It's a phenomenal effort and understanding of audience. Totally fascinating. And I had no idea what The Simpsons were. I had to ask them to send me a few DVDs with some samples.
Are you working on another film now?
I'm shooting a film called Death Row with death row inmates in Texas and Florida.
Knowing you, this isn't going to be a social issue film...
No. Well, you see, all of us do not know how and when we are going to die. But they know everything--the steps of the procedure and the minute when they are going to die. [Making this film is] very disquieting. You look into an abyss wherever you look.
As someone whose work has dealt with sociopathic or psychopathic behavior, do you have anything to say about what happened in Arizona?
Well, no, no. You have to be careful with--well, the film is not finished yet. You will see, but one thing I can promise you: The crimes in all the cases that I've seen are monstrous. However, the people who committed the crimes are human. None of them is a monster. They are all human.
Taylor Segrest is a writer and filmmaker, and most recently wrote and co-produced the feature-length documentary Darwin (2011).
“The experience became so much more than the sum of the movies I saw. There was a sense of being part of the event; there were opportunities to meet and talk with the people involved with the documentaries. It wasn’t just going to the movies; it was a vacation!”
“Last year, I took a chance and got a pass and was overwhelmed by how much better it made the experience! Not only did I get into every film I wanted to see, but I saw films I loved, that I would never have "found" as a single ticket buyer. I had no idea how much fun a film festival could be!”
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South by Southwest's March film festival in Austin, Texas (town motto: "Keep Austin Weird") provides, for documentary lovers, an exciting mix of the provocative, the innovative and the downright quirky. And it does so in venues you can actually get to and get into. For documentarians, it also provides a sidebar conference with panels on cutting-edge issues.
The festival, curated by Janet Pierson and her team, covers a wide range of styles and subjects, steering clear of the obligatory and earnest. Of course, as one of the more earnest attendees, I was drawn to the social documentaries.
Supported by and Supporting Public Broadcasting
Doc veterans Katie Galloway and Kelly Duane de la Vega debuted Better This World, which was funded by public TV's ITVS and will air on POV. It's a story about FBI entrapment of two foolhardy young Austin men during the 2008 Republican National Convention. With archival footage, home movies, re-enactments and interviews, the makers take us inside a process by which young and naïve protesters were tempted to commit domestic terrorism. In the process, the filmmakers remind us of the terrifying and poorly-recalled police strategies to contain protest during the convention.
It was sobering to realize that what lends this film part of its shock value is that it is all happening to two white men. Behind their story, the film lightly suggests, are untold stories of just such entrapment strategies--made far more likely by the loosening of requirements under the Patriot Act--committed against people of color, Muslims and dissidents of all kinds within US boundaries.
The film got a standing ovation at SXSW. The filmmakers plan to reach out to policymakers and law schools. "It was a choice to tell the story so close to the bone," said Galloway. "It invests you in the boys and what happens to them. We didn't really get a chance to put front and center that this is a widespread problem."
Another excellent film slotted for P.O.V. , after being groomed (like Better This World) by Sundance Documentary programs and funded by ITVS, was Where Soldiers Come From. Heather Courtney, a native of Michigan's Upper Peninsula and an award-winning doc filmmaker, went back to her home, where several young men have decided to join the National Guard together, knowing they will go to war. They don't really have much to do otherwise, besides practicing graffiti skills on rusted building hulks and hanging out. Their parents, who live modestly and work hard, clearly had more opportunities than they do. (One Guardsman's sister waitresses with her mom.)
Courtney embedded with the Guard unit in Afghanistan for five of its nine months of deployment, and also depended on helmet cams and mounted cams to get footage of IED explosions from inside the tank. (One of the men said after a screening, "Heather got to be one of the guys. We obviously held nothing back. We liked it that she went back and forth because she could bring us lots of goodies when she came back.")
Finally, she followed them home, where their options haven't improved any, especially for brain injury victims now afflicted with attention and mood disorders. Not just a film about war, Where Soldiers Come From is about the American dream and what's happening to it in small town America.
Public broadcasting's federal funding peril was in center spotlight at SXSW. In screenings for both of these films, as well as in the ITVS omnibus film Future States (an intriguing but not captivating experiment in short fiction programming), filmmakers and programmers spoke passionately about the role of public television in shaping the media environment and giving underheard viewpoints an airing. They asked audience members to reach out to legislators, to vote for endangered public broadcasting funding. Audience members regularly clapped and whistled.
Fighting and Dying
Fightville is the latest doc by the filmmaking duo Michael Tucker and Petra Epperlein. This husband-and-wife team has produced a series of films focusing on the lived experience of the Iraq War--Gunner Palace (a year among soldiers in one of Saddam's palaces), The Prisoner (the story of the torture and release of an innocent Iraqi arrested in Gunner Palace), Bulletproof Salesman (a profile of an international arms salesman) and How to Fold a Flag (the men from Gunner Palace go home). If you want to see the whole series, attend the June 17-19 retrospective at Yale University.
One of the men featured in the latest film has become a full-time cage fighter, or practitioner of "mixed martial arts." Fightville is a profile of the founder of an association for mixed martial arts and two aspiring fighters. Like any competition film worth its festival entrance fee, it's a story of aspiration, struggle and redemption. The film also provides a window into the working world of working-class sports, into the lives of young men without a lot of opportunities trying to build their lives with their bodies, and into popular culture. Like Courtney, the filmmakers clearly enjoy being with their subjects, and follow their struggles and achievements with respect.
"South by Southwest gives us a real audience, normal moviegoers," said Tucker. "It's the perfect audience for this film, because it's a Southern one, and fighting is a huge sport in the South. Fighting is the physical manifestation of the American dream, and people respond to that. They like seeing people rise above."
"People are surprised that it's not about violence," Epperlein added. "It's about determination and hard work."
Fightville is pretty much guaranteed a good commercial slot somewhere, and there was plenty of bidding for it at SXSW (which officially has no market). Indeed, the interest in Fightville spilled over to How to Fold a Flag, which has been languishing since it debuted at SXSW without a distributor and finally was picked up there this year.
Peter Richardson's profoundly moving and thoughtful How to Die in Oregon, which premiered at Sundance and is destined for HBO (May 26), should become a touchstone film for discussion nationwide. It's about the right to die with dignity, which is legal in Oregon (as well as Washington and Montana). It follows two main stories: In Oregon, 54-year old Cody, a vibrant mother of two young adults, is diagnosed with terminal liver cancer. In Washington, the widow of a man who died without dignity carries out his last wishes to fight for a change in the law (which is won). It's a three-hanky documentary, and a powerful argument for a chosen death.
Richardson, whose earlier work Clearcut followed a controversy over land use in his own area of Oregon, has a low-key style marked, like the other filmmakers whose work I so admired at SXSW, by a manifest respect for both subject and audience. "Cody's husband and kids were against the filming," Richardson told me. "They thought, We have very little time with this precious person; why invite into our lives the stranger with a camera? But Cody was very insistent, and they agreed to please her.
"The process became very constructive--Stan [the husband] called it ‘free therapy,'" Richardson continued. "Sometimes I was expectably shut out, and I was only ever included by Cody's invitation. It became collaborative. They're now grieving and growing into the new configuration of the family, and they have said to me, Now we see why Mom wanted to do this; we see the gift she left us."
After the film's debut on HBO, Richardson looks forward to working with a variety of organizations focused on the issue. "The film says, It's OK to talk about this, and it provides a starting point."
Another Sundance-premiere film at SXSW was The Interruptors, a Kartemquin Films production by Steve James. (Full disclosure: I'm on the Kartemquin board of directors.) In the Kartemquin tradition of extended exploration of lives lived below the radar of mainstream media, the film follows a group of street-hardened men committed to interrupting cycles of violence in Chicago. The star of the film is Ameena Matthews, daughter of a gang leader and one-time gang girl. Now an observant Muslim, she fearlessly wades into furious street scenes, shaming and hectoring people into backing down. The film captures fights brewing, fights erupting and sometimes fights calmed down. The "Interruptors" follow the street word to the houses of people looking for revenge, and follow the noise to the action.
James is a filmmaker who refuses to look away from very hard news, as anyone who saw Stevie can attest. The film holds out no false optimism, at the same time that it puts names and faces on people rarely seen on television except in crime reporting. It portrays a world that is broken in too many ways. Even the language used is often broken. People speak in staccato or peremptory ways, as if yelling and denouncing had supplanted ordinary speech as the norm. (The film often resorts to subtitles.)
The hard news of The Interruptors is valuable, and so is the profound concern and commitment of those who live in the broken places and hold themselves and others to the commitment to work with hope.
Quirky and Different
The festival also showcased films with very different approaches. The First Movie is Mark Cousins' offbeat adventure bringing movies to Kurdish village kids--and in the process introducing viewers to a different view of Iraq. A quirky artistic and curatorial exercise from one of Britain's major film critics, The First Movie is on its way to finding its home in arts centers. Proceeds from the film will go back to the Kurdish villages, to provide the kids with computers and flipcams, according to producer Gill Parry. Gillian Wearing's Self Made documented the work of a Method-acting director with working-class Britons who learned to release their emotions; it looked more like therapy than art to me.
I was more nonplussed than impressed with Something Ventured, an unabashed paean to the vision, insight and brilliance of venture capitalists in Silicon Valley. (Finally-a pro-capitalist documentary film! Take that, Michael Moore!) The film provides biographical and historical background to entrepreneurship, but it suffers from tunnel vision.
Upcoming
SXSW also gives conference goers a chance to peer over the bleeding edge of documentary practice. Journalist Jigar Mehta, currently a Knight Fellow, teamed up with an Egyptian friend to create #18DaysInEgypt. The website will eventually be both an archive and a crowd-sourced documentary chronicling the grassroots movement that led to Hosni Mubarak's downfall. Angela Tucker, late of Arts Engine, besides finishing her film Asexual , is making six five-minute webisodes for National Black Programming Consortium. Black Folks Don't will feature both funny (they don't tip) and serious (they don't get medical checkups).
On the transmedia front, the National Film Board of Canada's Rob McLaughlin showcased a rich set of experiments online, including the disturbing "The Test Tube." Tommy Pallotta (collapsus.com) is putting the finishing touches on a new site, UNSPEAK, to showcase critiques of persuasive speech, including advertising and propaganda. He tantalized the audience with a glimpse of one of his own remix critiques, focusing on job "loss" (where did they go? Not behind the sofa). With new software and a deep archive of material, he hopes to empower people to make their own critical remixes.
Copyright and Business
Copyright was, of course, a hot topic both for geeks and filmmakers. I was on a crossover panel, Neither Pirates nor Moguls: Grey Areas in Music Distribution, that challenged media and music industry piracy claims. Speakers reminded the audience that all cultural creators make their work out of existing culture; I ran into Participatory Culture Foundation's Dean Jansen in the hall, and he introduced me to Kirby Ferguson's video series, Everything is a Remix, making the same point with pictures.
On another panel, Jamie King (Steal This Movie I and II) talked about distributing films using Vodo, powered by BitTorrent, which makes it easy to download material for free. The Yes Men got $37,000 in donations, without much effort, from a million BitTorrent downloads. (But it was HBO, King pointed out, that paid for the making of the film.) King believes thoughtful marketing, with the right incentives, can boost that number dramatically. Ray Privette is releasing a horror film, Zenith, on Vodo in stages, with crowd-sourced funding paying for the next stage; the verdict is out on the success of that strategy.
Throughout the festival, I ran into people--copyright holders all--who told me that they are using the codes of best practices in fair use facilitated by the Center, that they are teaching from it, and that they tell their friends about it. "It's a lifesaver," said Michael Chaney of the Savannah College of Art and Design. However, Gerry Peary, whose For the Love of Movies is loaded with fairly-used clips from popular film, told me that Turner turned him down, even with errors and omissions insurance, because of the amount of fair use. His ultimate purchaser, the Sundance Channel, bought it for less than he had hoped to get from Turner. In this transition moment, sharing such stories more could help documentarians understand--and even educate--the distributors.
Meanwhile, Julie Samuels of Electronic Frontier Foundation discussed on another panel the copyright troll behavior of Righthaven, a law firm that is buying up newspapers' copyrights and pre-emptively suing bloggers. EFF is representing two defendants, who have clear-cut fair use claims, and Righthaven has already lost big in court. These cases could provide some case law useful to documentarians.
Pat Aufderheide is director of the Center for Social Media at American University.
Morgan Spurlock's latest documentary, PomWonderful Presents The Greatest Movie Ever Sold, opens April 22 through Sony Pictures Classics. Like his Oscar-nominated Super Size Me, The Greatest Movie stars Spurlock as a gleeful, on-camera sociologist, but this time he's courting, rather than critiquing, Corporate America as he travels fromManhattan to Hollywood trying to land corporate sponsors...for a film about landing corporate sponsors.
No one minds seeing Tony Stark blatantly eating a Whopper or driving an Audi, but no self-respecting documentary director would sink to having a famous social activist like Ralph Nader fondle a pair of Merrell shoes to finance their film...right? No one but mischievous Morgan Spurlock.
"One thing I'm glad of is that I'm not driving some piece-of-shit Volkswagen right now," says Spurlock to the camera in The Greatest Movie, unapologetically smack-talking about the car company who turned him down as he fuels up a Mini Cooper at a Sheetz gas station, Cooper and Sheetz being two of the 20 sponsors who said yes to his quirky exercise in product placement. Spurlock funded The Greatest Movie entirely with money from companies who not only agreed to pay for product placement, but agreed to be filmed agreeing to place their products.
"After people watch this film," says a hopeful Spurlock, "I think they will start to look at everything a little differently, especially the way they are marketed and advertised to every single day of their lives." The filmmaker is a bit ambitious here, as The Greatest Movie is less a mind-cracking exposé of the insidious influence of advertising in movies than a playful, behind-the-scenes romp of a year of Spurlock pitching to, cajoling and charming corporate marketing hacks. Yet despite checking in with the aloof likes of Noam Chomsky and Ralph Nader, Spurlock actually makes a great media literacy point by making utterly transparent every single dollarthat funded his film.
Spurlock critics will cluck--as always--about how much screen time he gives himself, but he infuses this fast-paced film with plenty of laughs as he plays the spunky tour guide who takes you along as he squirms his way into places where there's something serious to learn about the unseenforces manipulating our culture.
And that wasn't easy, even for Spurlock. Despite his credibility as a bankable hipster, he had a hard time getting companies to play along on the record, thanks in part to Super Size Me. Says Spurlock: "As we're calling people they would say, ‘Well, I already saw what you did to that other company. Why am I gonna trust you?'" He made hundreds of cold calls along the way, even calling BP with the pitch, "You need a makeover" and, yes, he did phone McDonald's, who never returned his calls. "They so don't want to talk to me," Spurlock exclaims.
It took him nine months to land his first sponsor. The Greatest Movie captures the wholeordeal, as well as all the whispered machinations in rooms Spurlock claims "nobody ever got to film inside of," including meetings with some of Hollywood's most influential lawyers, agents and ad executives, and Spurlock's pitch to Lynda Resnick of Pom Wonderful pomegranate juice. The company ultimately bought the premium, million-dollar slot that included incorporation in the film's title and Resnick's requirements in kind that Spurlock deliver proof of 500,000 DVD/Download sales, $10 million in box office revenue and 600 million media hits.
But the key deal point Spurlock explicitly refused Resnick was control over his product. Spurlock refused Pom and all his sponsors any say in how their products--or even their corporate staff--came off in the film. He promised the chance to see the film before it was screened for the public, but nothing more. "You can't let another cook come in your kitchen, especially a cook with corporate interests," maintains Spurlock, who defines this as the difference between "selling out" and "buying in." "We would have had a ton of other brands come on board if we had let them have control of the final picture," he adds. He describes the 20 sponsors he ultimately landed as "brave enough to turn over their brand identity" to his sales pitch and personal charisma.
Spurlock advises doc directors who want to dance with corporate dollars to seek out those creative decision-makers like Resnick who align with the "ideology of your project" and have the guts to "let you retain full creative control of the film." In addition, having made hundreds of cold calls to ad agencies who refused to work with him, he advises filmmakers to bypass the ad agencies. "We called every ad agency that you could think of and none of them would help us," says Spurlock, who had his best success with adventurous decision-makers likeResnick. "Once some of these other brands started coming on board, they talked to their agencies and their agencies were like, ‘You shouldn't do this film.' They're like, ‘No, no, no, we'regonna make this movie. We're gonna do it with him'...Ultimately I think the more artists work directly with companies, the more creative you're gonna be able to be."
Yet Spurlock is not sure if he will try to land a corporate sponsor for his next film. "Will that translate into other docs? I don't know if I could," but adds, "There's always the sequel!"
Elizabeth Blozan is a freelance writer and frequent transcriber of hundreds of hours of field footage for documentaries and reality TV shows.
Docs Make a DIFF-erence at Dallas Fest
As I reflect on the exceptional documentaries that screened at the Dallas International Film Festival (DIFF) this year, (i.e. The Pipe, The Interrupters, Page One: A Year Inside The New York Times, The Greatest Movie Ever Sold, Project Nim, Being Elmo: A Puppeteer's Journey, Norman Mailer: The American, The Disappearance of McKinley Nolan, OK Buckaroos, The Greater Good), I realize that the films that truly inspired me share a common theme: people striving against extreme odds to overcome injustice and/or adversity.
In each of the following films, the subjects either work to better themselves, or on behalf of an animal, individual, community, and in one case, entire countries. The following are some of the DIFF docs that to me illustrate the strength, courage and generosity of the human spirit.
DIFF hosted the world premiere of Tim Skousen's Zero Percent, an affecting film that documents the privately funded Hudson Link prisoner education program at Sing Sing Prison in New York. The title refers to the re-incarceration rate for those who participate in the program. Over the course of the film, the audience is introduced to a variety of prisoners--murderers and drug dealers among them--all working to atone for their crimes through rehabilitation and education. Warren Buffett's sister, Doris, an advocate for the program, calls the process, a chance for redemption. This poignant film illustrates the power of education and its ability to not only open up the imagination to the possibilities of life and redemption, but how it has allowed these men the opportunity to return to society as rehabilitated and productive members of their communities.
In Elevate, first-time filmmaker Anne Buford chronicles the remarkable personal journeys of four West African teenagers as they leave the SEEDS Academy in Senegal and head to prep schools in the United States on basketball scholarships. Filmed over four years, the film follows the young men as they learn to cope with the daunting challenges of learning a foreign language, American-style basketball, alienation and an unfamiliar American culture rife with African stereotypes. Through courage, laughter and resolve, they relentlessly pursue their dream--to obtain an education and a shot at the NBA.
As North Texas prepared to host its first Super Bowl, filmmaker Mark Birnbaum documented the efforts of more than 44,000 children in the Dallas/Ft. Worth metroplex as they embarked on a year-long journey to determine issues facing their communities and create ways of improving the lives of those around them. In Slant 45, not only did these kids walk away from the experience full of self-respect and pride, but they also learned that heroism and leadership are not only characteristics of all-star athletes.
Based in part on the book The Sun Climbs Slow: The International Criminal Court and the Struggle for Justice by Erna Paris, award-winning Canadian filmmaker Barry Stevens' Prosecutor offers a riveting inside look at the International Criminal Court (ICC) as it holds its historic first trials under the leadership of its charismatic chief prosecutor, Argentine lawyer Luis Moreno-Ocampo. Headquartered at The Hague, Netherlands, the ICC is the first permanent, treaty-based international criminal court established to help end impunity for the perpetrators of genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes. Moreno-Ocampo is a hero to genocide survivors, but has bitter enemies on both the right and the left. His critics believe he is responsible for threatening stability and peace.
Cases documented in the film include the prosecution of rebel leaders from the Democratic Republic of Congo, and arrest warrants issued for Sudanese President Omar Al-Bashir and members of Uganda's Lord's Resistance Army. (The International Criminal Court is currently in the news for its investigation of Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi.) An intriguing story with fly-on-the-wall access, Prosecutor offers front-row seats to the historic events that will determine whether the ICC is a groundbreaking new weapon for global justice or just an idealistic dream.
In Alex Dawson and Greg Gricus' feature debut, Wild Horse, Wild Ride, the filmmakers document the Mustang Heritage Foundation's annual Extreme Mustang Makeover Challenge held in Ft. Worth. Each year the US government has to round up and relocate thousands of untamed mustangs from public lands. As a way of finding good homes for these wild horses, the challenge offers horse trainers around the country 100 days to voluntarily train these horses--which have never before had human contact--and get them ready for competition. As the countdown gets underway, the audience is witness to a kind of love story as the trainers woo these gentle giants into doing what they want and soon realize their hearts could break if they have to sell their new friends at the event auction.
It seems fitting that for the first time in the festival's five-year history, a three-part panel discussion entitled FilmMatters was curated "to specifically engage, educate and inspire an audience to support film as a means to facilitate social action." The films above are a testament to this idea and several films and filmmakers were singled out at DIFF for addressing socially conscious issues in their work.
Zero Percent received the festival's first ever $10,000 Silver Heart Award, presented by the Embrey Family Foundation for the filmmaker's dedication to fighting injustices and creating social change for the improvement of humanity. Dallas favorite (and environmentalist) Larry Hagman was on-hand to present the Environmental Visions Award to If A Tree Falls: A Story of the Earth Liberation Front, by Marshall Curry and Sam Cullman. DIFF also honored Scott Z. Burns, the Academy Award-winning producer of An Inconvenient Truth, and The Interrupters director, Steve James, with the Shining Star Award. Wild Horse, Wild Ride received the Audience Award for Best Documentary.
Finally, Peter Fonda presented Anne Buford with the Target Filmmaker Award for Best Documentary Feature for Elevate. Upon receiving her $25,000 award, the filmmaker stated that she would donate the money back to the SEEDS Academy.
A generous act, which yet again proves that films and filmmakers can make a difference.
Michele Goodson Garrison is field marketing specialist at the Dallas-Forth Worth office of 20th Century Fox.
"Wheelchair Accessibility," named Best Documentary/PSA at the 2011 Los Angeles Student Media Festival. The filmmakers Megan Roope, Kelly Voosen, Carlee Renteria, Emily Henderson and Mary Ruben are all Seniors of Providence High School located in Burbank, CA. As winners of the Best Documentary category, the students won lunch with IDA's Executive Director, Michael Lumpkin and a one-year IDA membership.
To watch "Wheelchair Accessibility," visit Councilmember Paul Krekorian's Channel by clicking here.
IDA is reaching out to the documentary community for support on an important issue that affects our community.
The multiple award-winning documentary film PRESUMED GUILTY (PRESUNTO CULPABLE), shines a light on the Mexican judicial system by addressing the case of Antoñio Zuniga, wrongly sentenced to 20 years in prison for a murder he didn’t commit. Released theatrically in mid-February 2011, the film has quickly become the highest grossing theatrical documentary in Mexican history. However, the film is currently fighting in the very courts it criticizes for the right to remain in theaters, based on a claim brought by a sole witness in the documented trial that the film violates his privacy. Judge Blanca Lobo Dominguez ordered PRESUMED GUILTY pulled from theaters pending resolution of the privacy claim. While the filmmakers were successful in filing an appeal against this action, returning the film to theaters, the film’s exhibitor, CINEPOLIS, is now being ordered to “camouflage” the face of the witness. This ruling is untenable and effectively prohibits the film from being shown in theaters, since altering and reprinting the 300 non-digital film prints would be economically disastrous.
Both the Mexican Senate and Congress have passed resolutions supporting the film. In the words of the Mexican Senate, “The film reveals startling irregularities in the preliminary investigation and criminal proceedings that in turn display the current deficiencies in the enforcement and administration of justice throughout the country.” Congress states, “This film, made by young lawyers Layda Negrete and Roberto Hernandez, reveals the disaster and disgrace of our justice system.”
IDA and a group of filmmakers have issued an open letter in support of PRESUMED GUILTY urging the Mexican courts to allow this important film to continue screening theatrically in the interests of the greater general public, and to use the opportunity provided by this film to engage their citizens in a deeper dialogue about the system that was designed to serve them. We ask you to join them by giving your support below.
April 7, 2011
Open Letter in support of the documentary film, PRESUMED GUILTY (PRESUNTO CULPABLE).
The multiple award-winning documentary film PRESUMED GUILTY (PRESUNTO CULPABLE), shines a light on the Mexican judicial system by addressing the case of Antoñio Zuniga, wrongly sentenced to 20 years in prison for a murder he didn’t commit. Released theatrically in mid-February 2011, the film has quickly become the highest grossing theatrical documentary in Mexican history. Without question, there is clear evidence of the utmost relevance of the film to the greater population in Mexico.
However, the film is currently fighting in the very courts it criticizes for the right to remain in theaters, based on a claim brought by one sole witness in the documented trial that the film violates his privacy. This witness was filmed exclusively within the context of the public courtroom where the filmmakers had sought and obtained permission to film. With five cameras filming over 100 days, there could have been no question that filming was openly taking place.
We, the undersigned, fiercely defend the right of documentary filmmakers everywhere to practice their art and to seek and reveal truth in their films, however provocative that truth may be. We strenuously uphold the principles of free speech and freedom from censorship, including attempts at back-door censorship. The expression of the truth should never be silenced by the exercise of power by a State or system of authority that may be threatened by the content of the artistic or journalistic work.
We urge the Mexican courts to allow PRESUMED GUILTY (PRESUNTO CULPABLE) to continue screening theatrically in the interests of the greater general public, and to use the opportunity provided by this film to engage their citizens in a deeper dialogue about the system that was designed to serve them.
Eddie Schmidt
President, IDA Board of Directors
With the support of IDA's Board of Directors:
Adam Chapnick, Beth Bird, Bob Niemack, Brian Gerber, Gilda Brasch, Laurie Ann Schag, Marjan Safinia, Moises Velez, Pi Ware, Sara Hutchison, Senain Kheshgi, Steven Reich, Thomas Miller
Executive Director Michael Lumpkin
Simon Kilmurry, Executive Producer POV
National Association of Latino Independent Producers (NALIP)
Robert Kenner, Joan Churchill, Alex Gibney, Lucy Walker, Joe Berlinger,
Ondi Timoner, Haskell Wexler
Sean Welch, Paul Devlin, Eva Orner, Miranda Yousef, Morgan Spurlock, Leon Gast, Chris Paine, James Longley, Lucy Massie Phenix, Morgan Neville, Doug Block, Charlotte Lagarde, Amy Ziering, Colin Powers, Valentina Leduc Navarro, Hima B., Mark Landsman, Rebecca Cammisa, Martha Sosa, Johanna Demetrakas, Kurt Earl Norton, Churchill Roberts, Gordon Quinn, Violeta Ayala, Edgar Lopez, Fredrik Gertten, Mark Kendall, Alejandro Springall, B. Ruby Rich, Peter Kinoy, Greg Barker, Ken Schneider, Marcia Jarmel, Paola di Florio, Annie Roney, Kathryn Fink, Carlos A. Gutiérrez, Salvador Quiroz Ennis, Brian Newman, Marshall Curry, Judy Branfman, Cameron Yates, Kate Amend, Tia Lessin, Cecilia Real, Ignacio Gómez-Palacio, Ted Braun, Bernardo León, Luisa Ortiz Perez, Daniel Aguayo Mosqueda, Carl Deal, Janet Pierson, David Wilson, Cynthia Kane, Carlos Hagerman, Mary Ellen Sanger, Aaron Schock
Elena Fortes, Jim Kolmar, Yissel Ibarra, Sylvia Perel, José de la Cruz, Alexandra Gallardo, Emmanuel F. Herrera C., Tania Salas Hurtado, Oscar Arturo Vela Silva, Daniela German, Ricardo Alfredo Espinosa Perez, Tania Sevilla, Vanessa Reynaud, Juan Carlos Tapia Hernandez, Aaron David Fuentevilla Topete, Beth Caldarello, Daniela Alatorre Benard, Victor Daniel, Selene Martinez, Rocio Chapman, Andrea Garcia Vazquez, Edgardo Gonzalez, Yasser Ezath Berrelleza Pérez, Francia Vianney Arenas Piquero, Yesica Hernandez, Perla Velez Portillo, Mauricio Pérez Mancilla, Erika A Nuñez, Citlally Villarejo, Dalia Díaz De León, Jesús Franco, Fernando fernandez, Juan Miguel Hurtado, Resendiz Espinoza, Roy Delgado, Mayra Aurora del Rocio Gonzalez Sanchez, Ariadna Casas, Yatziri Zepeda Medina, Enrique Fabregat, Beatriz Parra Rios, Andres Ilescas, Stephen Hewitt, Rodrigo Aguirre Arias, Gustavo Munoz Castro, Alejandro Rodriguez Garcia, Javier Zaragoza, Victor Lagos, Daniel Gomez Villegas, Fany Franco Perez, Adriana Grimaldo, Ambar Zarate, Gudberto Meza, Rocio Montes, Hector Pedrajo, Jose Ignacio Zuniga Leyendecker, Beatriz Adriana Chavez Roque, Octavio Vladimir Armendariz Altamirano, Alfredo Gutierrez, Karla Ivonne Espinosa Cruz, Oscar Fernandez, Nadia Licely Bartolo, Carlos Ernesto Contreras Flores, Monika Garcia Tamayo, Vera Machon Urruchua, Ingrid Nosti Romero, Develotte Catherine, Alvaro Tejera Perez, Daniel Kandell, Hector Silva, Laura Garcia, Norma Marcela Jiménez Torres, Maribel Solache, Anat Shenker-Osorio, Fernando Ballesteros, Miguel Angel Montes De Oca Galindo, Claudia Lopez, Amos Lieberman Michaeli, Irma Guerra Ruiz, Eduardo Herrera