Editor's Note: My Perestroika opens Friday, April 15, in Los Angeles at the the Laemmle Sunset 5. The following interview with filmmaker Robin Hessman was published last summer in conjunction with IDA's DocuWeeks^TM Theatrical Documentary Showcase.

Over the next month, we at IDA will be introducing our community to the filmmakers whose work is represented in the DocuWeeks^TM Theatrical Documentary Showcase, which runs from July 30 through August 19 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 continue this series of conversations, here is Robin Hessman, director/producer of My Perestroika.

Synopsis: My Perestroika follows five ordinary Russians living in extraordinary times--from their sheltered Soviet childhood, to the collapse of the Soviet Union during their teenage years, to the constantly shifting political landscape of post-Soviet Russia. Using a wealth of footage rarely seen outside of Russia--including home movies from the USSR in the 1970s--the film combines an intimate view of the past with the contemporary lives of these former schoolmates, painting a complex picture of the dreams and disillusionment of those raised behind the Iron Curtain.

IDA: How did you get started in documentary filmmaking?

Robin Hessman: I was very active in theater and music throughout my childhood, and in my teens I became very serious about photography. I suppose documentary film integrated many aspects of visual storytelling that I had always been interested in.
In my freshman year of college, I went abroad to Leningrad (that was the year they voted to re-name it St. Petersburg). I vividly remember landing on the snowy tarmac in January, and being greeted by men in giant fur hats who handed us our sheets of ration coupons (since there was little food in the city.) I think I realized, being there, that no matter how much I had read in advance and how much I intellectually knew about Leningrad and the Soviet Union, it hadn't prepared me for what it would viscerally feel like to experience it. I realized that I had never seen a film set there, and I wondered how different it would have felt if I had.
The very first film I made was a 16mm short. I shot it in the summer of 1991 in Leningrad after the end of my semester studying there. (I was also working at the Leningrad film studio--Lenfilm--that summer on an American horror movie that starred the actor who played Freddy Kreuger in Nightmare on Elm Street.) When I left the USSR to go back to school a few weeks after the August 1991 coup, my film and all the cans of outtakes were taken away from me at the border, since I had no official papers or stamps giving explicit permission to export so many kilometers of film out of the USSR. 
My junior year abroad was spent at VGIK, the All-Russian State Institute of Cinematography in Moscow, together with one of my best friends from high school, James Longley (Iraq in Fragments; Sari's Mother). We made a 27-minute documentary that year called Portrait of Boy with Dog. We shot on 35mm black and white cinemascope, and edited on flatbeds from the 1930s. That year at VGIK was such an incredible experience, I decided to stay with my film school class and complete the five-year film directing program.

IDA: What inspired you to make My Perestroika?

RH: I began to think about this film 10 years ago. After I graduated from film school in Moscow, I spent several more years living in Russia producing the Russian Sesame Street, Ulitsa Sezam. By the time I returned to live in the States again, I had spent most of the decade--all of my early adult years--living in Russia. Back in the US, the questions I was asked made me think about the fact that despite the end of the Cold War so many years earlier, there was still a wall when it came to information and understanding about what life was like in the former USSR. Stereotypes and misconceptions prevailed.
So I wanted to make a film about my generation of Russians--the generation that I joined, in a sense, when I went to live there at age 18. They had normal Soviet childhoods behind the Iron Curtain, never dreaming that their society could change. Just coming of age when Gorbachev appeared, they were figuring out their own identities as the very foundations of their society were being questioned for the first time. And then, they graduated from college just as the USSR collapsed, and they had to figure out how to survive in a new world where there were no models to follow. Although I didn't grow up there and I have no Russian family history, I certainly shared their journey throughout the 1990s, adjusting to the evolving post-Soviet Russia. So I was an insider and outsider at the same time, which is a helpful position to be in as a documentary filmmaker.

IDA: What were some of the challenges and obstacles in making this film, and how did you overcome them?

RH: Raising money was the biggest challenge, but I imagine that's true for all documentary filmmakers. I had anticipated that it would take me two to three years to make the film, not the five plus years that it actually did take. But I think I got through it because in my mind it never was a question of if I would finish the film, only a question of how long it would take me. Having no doubt that I would finish someday kept me going steadily forward.
Another challenge for me was actually shooting the film myself. I started out convinced that I would work with a cinematographer. However, it soon became apparent that it would be difficult. First of all, it wasn't easy to find someone with the right eye and experience. In Russia, shooting styles usually vary between two extremes--either elaborative feature films with lighting and cranes, or journalism, where the main point is coverage, with little attention to composition or sensitivity to the subjects you are filming. And I certainly couldn't afford to bring someone to Moscow for months at a time over several years.
The very first day of shooting with a proper camera was with someone I hired...and it was a disaster for so many reasons. Spatially, one couple's kitchen was so small, I had to sit on the floor under the table and call things up to them. More troubling, the atmosphere was totally different. Whereas the couple had been completely at ease with me when I was shooting for research, once the cameraman was there, they stiffened up and became shy. So I really had no choice but to grit my teeth and take the camera in hand.
In the end, however, it was the best thing that could have happened. As the shooting progressed, I realized the extent that working with a cinematographer would have also been a logistical nightmare, as it was never clear in advance when I would be able to film any of the subjects. As a rule, they were not likely to make a plan more than a day in advance, and often it was completely spur of the moment: I would get a phone call and 15 minutes later I'd be trudging off to the metro with gear slung over me every which way. (I was often compared to a Christmas tree with enormous black padded ornaments.) I would never have been able to book time with a cinematographer that way. But more important was the extremely intimate setting that working alone allowed, where it was just me, the camera and the person I was filming. The predicament that filled me with despair when I was beginning proved itself a real gift in the end. And I also found out how much I enjoy shooting.

IDA: How did your vision for the film change over the course of the pre-production, production and post-production processes?

RH: During pre-production, a lot of the ideas were already in place. I knew that I wanted to film several people who had been childhood classmates and had grown up together. (In Russia, a class of about 20 people is together from first grade through the end of high school, so they really know each other well and have an entire shared history.)  I figured that once I found the anchor of the film, I'd meet his or her classmates from there. I interviewed dozens of people during my first trip back to Moscow, and I spent time in several different archives, as well as searching for 8mm home movies. From the very beginning, home movies also were an integral part of my vision for the film, as they provide a privileged and personal view into everyday life of the past, with no agenda other than preserving memories.
And it was also during pre-production that I began thinking about Russia's "unpredictable past" and began to seek out the perspective of history teachers in their 30s. They had been taught one version of the past as children and today are teaching a completely different interpretation of those same events (to students who were born after the collapse of the USSR, and are living in a completely different world.) I began speaking with dozens of history teachers and eventually was lucky enough to meet Borya and Lyuba Meyerson, a married couple who both teach history in the same Moscow grade school. Through them I met childhood classmates Olga, Andrei and Ruslan.
So the film does have all of the elements of the first early proposals I wrote back in 2004 and 2005: childhood classmates telling stories from their Soviet childhoods through their youth during Perestroika and their adult lives in a newly democratic Russia. It interweaves their stories with Soviet archival footage and home movies that show a more intimate view of the past. But there are certainly things I couldn't have predicted at the beginning. For example, I expected the home movies would be of the era and of the age cohort of the subjects, but I never dreamed I'd be lucky enough to have actual home movies of the characters when they were children. (Cameras were relatively rare.) It was a wonderful gift to find out that Borya's father had constantly filmed not only his son, but the entire class. So that was something that came as a total surprise to me.
And most importantly, in the end, no matter how much I might have imagined all of the elements that would go into the film in advance, it is really the characters--Borya, Lyuba, Olga, Ruslan and Andrei--and their stories and generosity and honesty that make My Perestroika what it is. And those specifics were all completely impossible to imagine before I met them.

IDA:  As you've screened My Perestroika--whether on the festival circuit, or in screening rooms, or in living rooms--how have audiences reacted to the film? What has been most surprising or unexpected about their reactions?

RH: I have been so happy with the reactions to the film. The people who did not grow up in the USSR, and remember the Cold War from the West's side, either as children or as adults, have found it eye-opening and fascinating to see how similar "They" were to us. Western Gen X'ers, who are the same age as the characters in the film, have especially connected to seeing what our counterparts' lives were like then and are like today. People who have never been to Russia have expressed the sense that they had an hour and a half of getting to really know these people--sitting in their kitchens and learning about their lives. The way audiences connect with the characters has been really rewarding for me. But it is the audience members who grew up in the USSR who have had the most emotional responses. In Q&As,a few times, people have been moved to tears. Russian-American parents have thanked me for making something that they can show their children to help them understand the world they grew up in. So that was certainly what I had hoped for, but I was surprised by just how powerfully they react to the film.

IDA: What docs or docmakers have served as inspirations for you?

RH: Alan Berliner's film Nobody's Business is always inspirational to me. Other films I looked at in thinking about My Perestroika were the films of Peter Forgascs. He often uses home movies in his films in a way that the personal aspects of life are in the foreground, while "history" takes a backseat. I always watch Fred Wiseman's films whenever possible, too.

My Perestroika will be screening August 6 through 12 at the the ArcLight Hollywood in Los Angeles and August 13 through 19 the IFC Center in New York City.

To download the DocuWeeks^TM program, click here.

To purchase tickets for My Perestroika  in Los Angeles, click here.

To purchase tickets for My Perestroika  in New York, click here.

Documentary filmmakers today gained access to previously "locked" DVD content for fair use in their productions under an exemption to the Digital Millennium Copyright Act granted to them by the US Copyright Office.

The exemption was granted as a result of an action spearheaded by entertainment attorney Michael Donaldson, who assembled a coalition of documentarians and filmmaker organizations led by the International Documentary Association and Kartemquin Films, the Chicago-based nonprofit. Donaldson provided legal counsel for the effort on a pro bono basis, along with the USC Gould School of Law Intellectual Property & Technology Law Clinic, led by Professor Jack Lerner. 

The exemption allows documentarians to obtain short portions of material from DVDs, even when that material is behind encryption and other digital locks for any non-infringing use in a documentary. That includes copying public domain materials and to make fair use of other material contained on such DVDs for use in a documentary. This was a crime under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act of 1998. Documentary filmmakers can take advantage of this exemption through October 2012, when the next DMCA rule-making will take place and the filmmakers' exemption will be up for renewal.

Many filmmakers, particularly those who incorporated current or historical events into their work, were previously restricted by the DMCA from using a wealth of material available only on DVD. Today's decision enables them to use everyday cultural material contained on DVDs to tell their stories.  

 "The organizations and filmmakers who have joined together on this issue represent the cornerstones of the documentary filmmaking community in the United States," said Donaldson, in a statement. "The filmmakers knew it was time that they confronted this problem that hampered their work on a daily basis, so we decided to come together as a united front--filmmakers and advocates alike--to change the law. Collectively, this group--five major documentary and independent filmmaking organizations and six award-winning documentary filmmakers--has garnered Peabody Awards, Academy Awards, National Board of Review honors, Sundance Film Festival Awards, MacArthur Foundation recognition for excellence, and some of the most honorable, international distinctions in film over the past 50 years.

"In a digital world without this exemption, fair use existed largely in theory but not in practice," said IDA Board President--and award-winning filmmaker--Eddie Schmidt. "The DMCA forced filmmakers to attempt highly inferior technical methods to avoid breaking digital locks, or prohibited them from using such material at all. Decriminalizing the use of digital excerpts for documentary filmmaking purposes shows that the Copyright Office continues to understand the historical, cultural and journalistic implications of this provision in copyright law and its integral nature to freedom of expression."

 "This exemption will affect documentary filmmakers across our community," said Kartemquin Films Co-Founder and Artistic Director Gordon Quinn. "The DMCA had made it difficult for filmmakers to exercise their fair use rights. Today's ruling removes the unwarranted threat to the exercise of those essential rights--rights that we must be able to use if we are to continue to play a vital role in our democratic culture as reporters, critics, commentators and educators." 

 "This was an important victory for free expression and the essential role that documentary film plays in our democracy," said former USC Law student Chris Perez, a lawyer with Donaldson & Callif who also served on the pro bono legal team while at USC. "To make social, political or cultural critiques, filmmakers need to quote from copyrighted material such as motion pictures. It's well established that this type of use is permitted by the fair use doctrine in copyright law, but the DMCA was preventing it."  

Students from USC Intellectual Property and Technology Law Clinic, under the supervision of Professor Jack Lerner and in close collaboration with Michael Donaldson, are now turning to educational and training efforts designed to help documentary filmmakers understand how to use the exemption properly.

Here is a summary of the recommendations of the US Copyright Office:

The exact language is that if you are engaged in documentary filmmaking, you can copy a DVD without violating the DMCA as follows: "solely in order to accomplish the incorporation of short portions of motion pictures into new works for the purpose of criticism or comment, and where the person engaging in circumvention believes and has reasonable grounds for believing that circumvention is necessary to fulfill the purpose of the use..."

In order to qualify for the exemption you must meet all of the following criteria:

1.  You must have lawfully acquired a lawfully made DVD. In other words, don't buy a pirated copy. Don't steal a legitimate copy.

2.  You may only copy short portions of material for a "non-infringing use" which essentially translates into material in the public domain or material that you plan to use pursuant to the doctrine of fair use.

3.  You must be making the copy to use in a documentary.

4.  You want to be sure that you are well aware of public domain and fair use laws.

5.  You must only copy what you need, you cannot copy the entire DVD.

It is important that documentary filmmakers be very diligent in complying with the details of the regulation when they take advantage of the exemption, as the Copyright Office will be reviewing the issue anew in October 2012.

For the complete ruling and Determination of the Librarian of Congress, click here.

Editor's Note: Pushing the Elephant airs March 29, 2011, on PBS' Independent Lens.

Over the next month, we at IDA will be introducing our community to the filmmakers whose work is represented in the DocuWeeks^TM Theatrical Documentary Showcase, which runs from July 30 through August 19 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 continue this series of conversations, here are Beth Davenport and Elizabeth Mandel directors of Pushing the Elephant

Synopsis: Rose Mapendo lost her family and home to the ethnic violence that engulfed the Democratic Republic of Congo, yet she emerged from the suffering advocating peace and reconciliation. But after helping numerous victims to recover and rebuild their lives, there is one person Rose must still teach to forgive: her daughter Nangabire, now 17 and living in Arizona. Pushing the Elephant captures one of the most important stories of our age, in which genocidal violence is challenged by the moral fortitude and grace of one woman's mission for peace.

IDA: How did you get started in documentary filmmaking?

Beth Davenport: I started out working in commercials and music videos. I loved the medium of film/video, but wanted to work on social-justice issue films. In 2003, there was an opportunity at our company, Big Mouth Films, the production department of Arts Engine, to help produce a film about girl rockers and to work on the outreach campaign for Deadline, a film dealing with the death penalty. I jumped at the chance to get involved with such disparate projects and have been at Arts Engine ever since.
We believe that filmmakers who document human-interest stories that deal with social justice issues in accessible ways are creating critical tools for engaging audiences, raising awareness, inspiring action and affecting policy.

Elizabeth Mandel: I had a previous career in international affairs. I felt passionately about the issues I was working on--women's economic and political development--but I wanted the opportunity to approach the challenges to women's empowerment, security and autonomy from a more creative perspective.

IDA: What inspired you to make Pushing the Elephant?

BD & EM: Arts Engine is committed to telling multifaceted stories through an intimate lens, and we have both always been interested in making such a film about a strong woman. With the kind of serendipity filmmakers dream of, we learned about Rose and her family just two weeks before the reunion with Nangabire. Here was an opportunity to make a film about a powerful African woman and a refugee who is a leader and an activist, a model we rarely get to see on film or other media sources. We jumped in, confident that in capturing the reunion, we were on the road to tapping into something both unique and universal. For all the unique circumstances of the story, it contains universal truths about the mother-daughter bond and the importance of family, connection and forgiveness--themes to which women everywhere can relate.

IDA: What were some of the challenges and obstacles in making this film, and how did you overcome them?

BD & EM: Because of distance and time, the first time we met Rose and Nangabire, we were already filming. This is unusual for us, in that we usually spend time getting to know our film subjects, building trust, ensuring they understand what it means to agree to have a camera turned on their lives, figuring out the core of the story. However, we realized as soon as we met them how fortunate we were: Sight unseen, we had found subjects who were charismatic, compelling and willing to open up to us.
This presented us with a second challenge, however: how to do justice to the story with which they were entrusting us, while maintaining an unbiased lens to effectively present what happened. One decision we made early on was to allow Rose and her family's stories to be told in their own voices, from their own perspectives, rather than force our views as filmmakers--especially given that we are white women from a Western country. What we aimed to achieve through doing this was to give a voice to the often unheard--women who can tell how war and conflicts affect them, and also can offer solutions and ways for others like them to become empowered.
We are now working closely with Rose and with organizations committed to the issues dealt with in the film--refugee policy, peace-building and women's rights--to develop an audience engagement campaign, to get audiences involved in furthering those issues. In Rose's words, one person alone cannot push the elephant, but many people together can.
The other great challenge was to make sure that the film captured the joy and resilience of the Mapendo family; both because the truth of the story requires it, and because we want the film to be palatable to audiences and not feel like a school lesson. Throughout the editing process, we made sure to include moments of humor and lightness, as well as a lot of the music that is integral to the Mapendos' home life. We hope that we did justice to the feeling of wholeness Rose has maintained in her family's life.

IDA: How did your vision for the film change over the course of the pre-production, production and post-production processes?

BD & EM: Surprisingly, the film's themes have remained fairly consistent from the beginning. We knew we wanted to make a film about women and war, mothers and daughters, and the importance and challenge of public and personal forgiveness. The big change was that we thought those themes would revolve exclusively around Rose and Nangabire (which, for a long time, was the working title for the film). And then along came Aimee's story. Early on, Rose hinted that there was more to Aimee's story than we knew, and as the full story was revealed, that changed the arc of the narrative. However, it did not change our original themes; rather, it enhanced them. Rose's reveal of it, both as it unfolded to us and as it unfolds in the film, also enhanced the theme of the power of talking and storytelling to heal, and added the complex question of Rose's ability to forgive herself.

IDA:  As you've screened Pushing the Elephant-whether on the festival circuit, or in screening rooms, or in living rooms-how have audiences reacted to the film? What has been most surprising or unexpected about their reactions?

BD & EM: We have been very gratified to find that we have been successful in communicating the many themes of the film, and that the film has been inspiring people to ask us how they can get involved in the many political issues raised. We have also been surprised to find the many personal lenses people bring to bear on the film, and how that affects their reactions. This ranges from people finding ways to use it in their own activism that we never thought of--such as part of an African women's health initiative--to inspiring people to find forgiveness in their own lives. Following one of our screenings, one of our colleagues received a message from a friend saying that because of the film, she had found a way to forgive someone important in her own life.

IDA: What docs or docmakers have served as inspirations for you?

BD: Films like Marshall Curry's Street Fight and Andrew Jarecki's Capturing the Friedmans have been very influential for me. Films like these take great risks, turning on a camera with no guarantee that a story will emerge. I admire directors who have the temerity to follow their guts. They are also great films in the degree of access they managed to maintain. What makes a family reveal their very deep, extremely dark secrets to the camera--to the public--the way the Friedmans did? A patient, persistent director. Street Fight is a terrific example of getting an audience involved in an issue they might have just glossed over in the newspaper: local politics, deep-seated corruption. It was honest and hard-hitting without being sensationalist. And Curry's faith in his subject was beautiful to watch.

EM: As part of a women's rights seminar in graduate school I saw a film called Something Like a War, by Deepa Dhanraj, about India's forced sterilization program. I think it was this film that first planted the seed in my mind regarding the power of film to educate. Years later, when I was planning a career change, I kept thinking about how that film affected me; it got my attention, made me want to take action, and stayed with me. I also really admire films that tackle difficult subjects in an unconventional way, like Byron Hurt's Beyond Beats and Rhymes. The film focuses on men in its examination of gender and culture (which seems the obvious thing to do, but somehow isn't), and because it's also a fun film with great music, reaches an audience that might not otherwise watch a film about gender dynamics. 
While we are committed to making social-justice issue films, we would both love someday to make a film like Spellbound or Wordplay, which humorously and respectfully examine quirky subcultures, or Touching the Void, which, through a nail-biting adventure story as gripping as any Hollywood extravaganza, explores human relationships, the balance of responsibility between oneself and others, and the will to live. We also aspire to make a film as aesthetically powerful and true as Rivers and Tides, perhaps the most quietly eloquent art film we've seen.

Pushing the Elephant will be screening August 6 through 12 at the IFC Center in New York City, and August 13 through 19 at the Arclight Hollywood in Los Angeles

To download the DocuWeeks^TM program, click here.

To purchase tickets for Pushing the Elephant in Los Angeles, click here.

To purchase tickets for Pushing the Elephant in New York, click here.

Editor’s Note: Sun Come Up, an Academy Award nominee for Best Documentary Short Subject, will be screening Saturday, February 26, at 9:00 a.m., as part of DocuDay LA at the Writers Guild of America Theater in Beverly Hills, and Sunday, February 27, at 2:15 p.m. at DocuDays NY at The Paley Center for Media in Manhattan.

Over the next month, we at IDA will be introducing our community to the filmmakers whose work is represented in the DocuWeeks^TM Theatrical Documentary Showcase, which runs from July 30 through August 19 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 continue this series of conversations, here is Jennifer Redfearn, director/producer of Sun Come Up.

Synopsis: Sun Come Up follows the relocation of some of the world’s first environmental refugees, the Carteret Islanders – a community living on a remote island chain in the South Pacific Ocean. When rising seas threaten their survival, the islanders face a painful decision: they must leave their beloved land in search of a new place to call home.

IDA: How did you get started in documentary filmmaking?

Jennifer Redfearn: I studied environmental science in college and thought I would become a tropical ecologist. In my last year, I took a film and photography course and fell in love with it. From there I worked my way up the ranks as a PA, AP, field producer, and producer. After producing for NOVA, Discovery and others, I decided to try my hand at an independent project.

IDA: What inspired you to make Sun Come Up?

JR: In 2008 a close friend showed me a humanitarian alert; it was the story of the Carteret Islanders. At the time, I didn't realize climate change was forcing people from their land, and I was shocked to learn of their story. I have a background in environmental science and journalism, and I realized that if I hadn't heard of the issue, then probably a lot of other people hadn't either. It seemed like an incredibly important story to tell.
After researching the story, I learned that the Carteret Islanders were negotiating for a new home on Bougainville, an island recovering from a 10-year civil war that had started over a different environmental issue--mining. Many Bougainvilleans lost their land, their livelihood and their sense of security during the war. There are parallels between their history and the story of the Carteret Islanders. I thought a deeper story might exist about two communities, both uprooted due to environmental tragedies, uniting over a common purpose or understanding.

IDA: What were some of the challenges and obstacles in making this film, and how did you overcome them?

JR: The greatest obstacle in making the film was the distance and inability to contact most of the islanders beforehand. The Carteret Islands are quite remote, and they don't have a way of communicating with the outside world, apart from a radio that connects them to Bougainville. The head of the Carteret's relocation program, Ursula Rakova, now lives on Bougainville and is working on the ground to facilitate the move through the islanders' own NGO, Tulele Peisa. I contacted her, and she helped us make plans to travel to the islands by boat once we arrived in the region.
The other obstacle was the lack of supplies and electricity on the Carteret Islands. We packed in almost everything we needed, including solar panels to charge the camera batteries. The camera's tape compartment jammed on Day 2 of the shoot, and I thought that was the end of the film! We were interviewing an island elder, Bernard Tunim, on Piul, one of six of the Carteret Islands. He encouraged us to be patient, and eventually we were able to open it and start rolling again.

IDA: How did your vision for the film change over the course of the pre-production, production and post-production processes?

JR: We initially wanted to follow the islanders moving, but when the move was delayed and Ursula explained that a group of young people was going to Bougainville to build relationships and negotiate for new land, I realized that their search for land could be a much more interesting development to follow. It seemed like such a rare process, and a crucial one to their relocation, especially in a region of the world where land is so intimately tied to identity, community and history.
We didn't have the opportunity to pre-interview anyone, so not too much changed during the production process. The challenge was making quick decisions about who and what to follow when we arrived on the Carteret Islands and later in Bougainville.
In post, we had to narrow down our characters, and a couple of the people we followed didn't make it into the film. Also, we initially covered the civil war in more depth. We struggled a lot with how to cover it responsibly and in a way that didn't take the viewer out of the vérité narrative. Too often, places are defined by something horrific, and local communities struggle against a narrative that has defined them over and over in media. The war is important in the region, but people are also moving on. I think we eventually succeeded in finding a way to cover it and show its importance without over-dramatizing it.

IDA:  As you've screened Sun Come Up--whether on the festival circuit, or in screening rooms, or in living rooms--how have audiences reacted to the film? What has been most surprising or unexpected about their reactions?

JR: The reaction to the film has been very positive. I was so nervous during our premiere at Full Frame, but the audience was great--laughing in the right places, gasping in the right places--and a woman next to my producer cried. We've also been surprised and thrilled at our audience's generosity. People ask us all the time how they can help. In response, we've created an outreach campaign to educate communities about climate change and displacement and to give them tools to help. Now community groups can host a screening and a "houseraiser"--a fundraiser that will help pay for houses for the Carteret Islanders.

IDA: What docs or docmakers have served as inspirations for you?

JR: This is the most difficult question to answer, as so many docmakers and films inspire me. I had the privilege of working with incredible filmmakers on Sun Come Up--Tim Metzger, who has such an amazing eye for light and images, and who seamlessly and courageously blended into whatever was happening in the moment and captured it with respect; David Teague, who has an exceptional talent for finding characters, solid story structure and the emotional heart of films; and Abigail Disney and Tracie Holder, who supported us early on and helped us tease out the important themes in the story. I am in awe of Judith Helfand's dedication to the craft and the voice in her films; I aspire to some day make a film as powerful as War/Dance, by Andrea and Sean Fine; and I'm a huge Errol Morris fan. My tastes in documentaries are eclectic; if I weren't busy making them, I would watch documentaries every night of the week. I'm working with MediaStorm now, and I'm thrilled to be learning more about multimedia and how to integrate photojournalism into documentary narratives.

Sun Come Up will be screening July 30 through August 5, as part of the DocuWeeks Shorts Program, at the IFC Center in New York City.

To download the DocuWeeks^TM program, click here.

To purchase tickets for Sun Come Up, click here.

SnagFilms, the advertising-supported site for documentaries online, announced today, on its second anniversary, a major expansion of its distribution infrastructure, bringing its library of 1,500 titles to a suite of new platforms. Among the new ventures: the creation of VOD offerings with Comcast, the nation's leading provider of entertainment, information and communication products; and with Verizon FiOS TV, the converged communications platform.

Founded by AOL Vice-Chair Emeritus and award-winning documentary producer Ted Leonsis (Nanking; Kicking It), SnagFilms has become the Web's largest and most broadly-distributed home for nonfiction films, with its library streamed free to consumers on 90,000 websites and webpages. "We started SnagFilms two years ago for four simple reasons," Leonsis said in a statement. "We wanted to use the scale and interactivity of the Web to bring great films to a broader audience. We wanted to create new tools and revenue opportunities for the entire indie ecosystem--filmmakers, festivals, film schools, non-profits, journalists and advertisers. We wanted to provide context and a community for film fans and the industry. And we wanted to deepen the reach of what we call ‘filmanthropy' by utilizing powerful films to catalyze discussion and lead to positive social change through individuals contributing what they could, whether it's their time, money, or even the pixels on their Facebook page on which they could open a virtual theater with a great documentary film they'd snagged from SnagFilms. Today we announce a series of advances toward all of these goals."

Here's a summary of SnagFilms' new initiatives:

• Launch pay VOD offerings, beginning with Comcast and FiOS. Offerings will include special selections from SnagFilms' library, and new titles that will be offered on a monthly basis.

• Increase purchase and viewing venues. Selections from SnagFilms library will be available for purchase on iTunes; for rental from YouTube's premium program; and both free and for purchase on the iPad.

• Distribute select films through mobile phone carriers worldwide (via A3 Media Network). Initial distribution on two major carriers with a reach of six million subscribers is set to expand to multiple carriers with an addressable audience of over 200 million mobile customers.

• Extend its library to Internet-connected TVs, Blu-ray players, gaming consoles and set-top boxes this fall.

• Commence its second annual SummerFest, beginning July 15, offering viewers screenings of six heralded documentaries headed to theaters or TV in the fall. SummerFest 2010 offers two-week sneak peeks of each of the festival favorites The Age of Stupid; Shooting Robert King; Disco and Atomic War; Videocracy and The Socalled Movie, as well as ESPN-bound A Fighting Chance. (More about SummerFest 2010here.)

• Launch SnagLearning, a special site that will be made available next month to educators in time for the new school year, with over 100 films slotted by education advisers for grade and subject, to which supplemental study materials will be added.

• Expand its distribution of the greatest documentary film libraries. SnagFilms will now offer films produced by leading indie studio Lionsgate; noted documentary aggregator New Video/Docurama; top student films from USC's School of Cinematic Arts; major selections from the National Film Board of Canada; an innovative Flip Cam film from the famed Disney Imagineers showing their creative process, and an array of extreme adventure and music films from the production arm of Red Bull.

"Our first two years were aimed at building our library and making those films widely available," said SnagFilms CEO Rick Allen in the statement. "Our 1,500 films are available on mainstream media sites like the Miami Herald, new media leaders like AOL, Hulu and Fancast, non-profit websites as varied as the USO's and Nature Conservancy's, and thousands of blogs, special interest sites and social network pages. We've brought a global audience to see films that may never have been shown in their local theaters, increased the engagement of audiences with powerful documentary films, and genuinely encourage philanthropic activity in support of causes important to passionate filmmakers. Two years in, we believe we are benefiting every aspect of the indie world, and define our success as a ‘double bottom line' business that does well by doing good."

For more about the expansion, here's an article in today's New York Times.

SAMO IS DEAD. That was the graffiti tag that defined the beginning of the meteoric rise and tragic fall of artist Jean-Michel Basquiat. It's been over 20 years since he died, and more than 10 years since Julian Schabel made his directorial debut with Basquiat, the fictionalized bio-pic that starred Jeffrey Wright as the young artist, David Bowie as Andy Warhol, Dennis Hopper as gallery owner Bruno Bischofberger, and a host of other actors playing New York City art-world characters. Now, with Tamra Davis' documentary Jean-Michel Basquiat: The Radiant Child, which Arthouse Films is releasing this summer, viewers have the opportunity to hear directly from Basquiat himself.

One of the uncanny things about film is that it can re-animate those no longer with us in a kind of pseudo-resurrection, where life after death temporarily exists. Back in the 1980s, Davis met Basquiat while she was a film student and he was visiting Los Angeles for his first show there. They became friends and immediately bonded over their mutual love of cinema. Davis began filming Basquiat painting, and whenever he returned to LA, she would film him while they were hanging out. In 1986, when he was 25 and already at the peak of his success, she shot a lengthy interview with him.  

When Basquiat died two years later, Davis put the footage away in a drawer; she didn't want to be one of those friends who appeared to exploit him and his work for profit. But 20 years later, when she was speaking to a curator/friend at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles as it was preparing for a major retrospective of Basquiat's work, it became clear to her that enough time had passed. Davis realized she had footage that offered a rare look into one of America's most important artists of the past 25 years, and it was time for Basquiat's voice to be heard, even if posthumously. 

Davis initially made a 20-minute film based on her footage, which was shown during the MOCA retrospective and at the other venues on the exhibition tour. She screened the short at the 2006 Sundance Film Festival, where she met David Koh of Arthouse Films. He asked her if she could make the short into a feature, and Jean-Michel Basquiat: The Radiant Child is the result. 

Davis liked the purity of Basquiat talking, and was a bit skeptical about adding other voices, but she knew it was necessary to add context to the story. So she did "a ton of research" and began the process of interviewing people in Basquiat's sphere. She didn't want to just make a bio-pic; she wanted to follow more of a narrative structure.  She also tracked down quite a bit of archival material, even though her own material serves as the strongest thread in the film. Throughout, she tried to keep Basquiat's voice in mind while making the film; she wanted it to "have the heart," yet she also wanted to make sure she had the art history right. 

Besides being a portrait of an artist, the film is also a portrait of a time and place-New York's downtown art scene in the 1980s. Along with the archival footage, some of which captures the relationship between Basquiat and Warhol, the film features interviews with Schnabel, hip-hop pioneer Fab 5 Freddy, dealers Bischofberger, Annina Nosei and Larry Gagosian, Basquiat's longest-term girlfriend (now a psychiatrist) Suzanne Mallouk, editor/writer Glenn O'Brien and author/curator Diego Cortez, among many others. The filmmaker herself has a small cameo, but it is in the intimacy of her interview off screen with Basquiat where her presence is most strongly felt.

Clearly there was a comfort level, a trust and connection not always felt between subject and filmmaker. After all, they were friends. For Davis, this is a very personal film. Her editor, Alexis Manya Spraic, kept pushing her to go deeper. It was difficult to be so vulnerable, and yet this intimate access is what makes the film more authentic and allows people to get a true sense of Basquiat, understand his process, appreciate his creative output and ultimately recognize the tragedy that came with his sudden rise to fame. 

The 90-minute film had a sneak preview at the Art Basel Miami Beach Art Fair in December 2009 and its official world premiere at the 2010 Sundance Film Festival. Since Basquiat and his work are "so international," the film is being picked up around the world. It will have its New York City theatrical premiere at Film Forum this July and will also be broadcast on PBS at some point in the future. According to Davis, this is "exactly what Jean-Michel wanted." After all, television is more populist than the art world.

For Davis, "It's wonderful to see the reaction with an audience." I recently showed the film to a class of university art students, some whom had never heard of Basquiat. It was interesting to experience the class observing and learning about this artist who was at the height of his career--when he was just a few years older than they are now--and who brought a street energy to the gallery world and the art world at large. I sensed that the students could consider him some kind of role model. And yet, by the end of the screening, although they were inspired by his street smarts and his creative output, the students were ultimately saddened by his life tragically cut short.

And so the tragedy reads like a Shakespearean tale: the rise and fall of a tortured hero--a story we see too frequently in our overly star-crazed, media-feeding-frenzy universe. Davis's film helps Basquiat channel his own voice to a new audience, offering glimpses into the life and art of this "radiant child" who shone too bright and left too soon.

Kathy Brew is an independent filmmaker, media arts curator and writer, who also teaches at The New School, The School of Visual Arts and Rutgers University.

The Court of Appeals issued an order in the case of Joe Berlinger, a day after hearing arguments from attorneys for both the filmmaker and for Chevron, which underscores the court's recognition of the urgency involved in such matters. Berlinger had been ordered by the trial court to turn over 600 hours from his documentary Crude to Chevron.
This order is a partial victory for both sides. Chevron gets some but not all of what it wants. Berlinger has to turn over some, but not all 600 hours of footage. The many hours of footage that he gathered alone with the plaintiffs and their families, friends, and neighbors has all been protected. What is important to the documentary community is that--for the first time in this kind of case--the court is restricting Chevron on how it uses the footage: Chevron can only use it for litigation, arbitration or submission to official bodies. The company cannot use the footage in publicity or promotional materials. The documentary community is awaiting the final order of the court because it should give detailed discussion of the courts thinking and provide guidelines to help documentary filmmakers in the future.
It is important to note that the many hours of footage that Berlinger gathered as he talked to the victims and their families does not have to be turned over pursuant to this order.   In terms of the trust and confidence that is at the heart of investigative filmmaking this is a very important element of the order.

For the complete order from the Court of Appeals, click here.

Here's an article about the decision in The New York Times.

Photo: Juan Diego Perez

 Editor's Note: Colony will be released March 29, 2011, on DVD through New Video/Docurama. 

Over the next month, we at IDA will be introducing our community to the filmmakers whose work is represented in the DocuWeeks ^TM Theatrical Documentary Showcase, which runs from July 30 through August 19 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 kick off this series of conversations, here is Carter Gunn, director, with Ross McDonnell, of Colony.

Synopsis: The unexplainable phenomenon known as Colony Collapse Disorder has left landscapes of empty beehives all across America, threatening not only the beekeeping industry but our food supply. As scientists and beekeepers search for the cause, Colony captures the struggle within the beekeeping community to save the honeybee and themselves, through the eyes of veteran beekeeper Davis Mendes and Lance and Victor Seppi, two young brothers getting into beekeeping when most are getting out. As Mendes tries to save the nation's collapsing hives, the Seppis try to keep their business alive amidst a collapsing economy.

IDA:  How did you get started in documentary filmmaking?

Carter Gunn: Ross and I started working together on some short films back when I was at School of Visual Arts in Manhattan. I think we both knew we wanted to collaborate on something larger down the road. I went on to work various jobs in post-production, where I had the chance to work with a lot great folks in the doc world. Ross had been globetrotting, doing a lot of photojournalism work, and once we both had enough cash to buy a video camera and quit our jobs, we decided to make a movie.

IDA: What inspired you to make Colony?

CG: In 2007, Ross and I were sending each other clippings and articles all the time looking for topics that piqued our interest. The headlines that kept coming up were about the disappearing bees. We did a bit more research and found this whole hidden world of commercial beekeeping that neither of us knew about. We figured that if we were this curious about the subject, an audience would be, too.

IDA: What were some of the challenges and obstacles in making this film, and how did you overcome them?

CG: I think patience and persistence was the key to overcoming most of the challenges. Since this was our first film, we really had no compass to know if we were doing it right. Maybe there is no compass. There were many months of us wondering if all of this footage we had added up to anything at all. What's great about working with Ross is we can push each other a bit when things get difficult. As a team, there is always someone to say, "Let's pull over and shoot that sunset," or, "We should go talk to that crazy guy in overalls." I think having the patience to wait for the right light and to go the extra mile to explore new terrain is essential; I give Ross most of the credit there.
Another great lesson for us was trying to get Bayer to do an interview discussing their pesticides. We pursued them for over a year before they agreed to sit down with us. They rejected us many times before they came to the conclusion we weren't interesting in attacking them. So, wait for the light and call them again.

IDA: How did your vision for the film change over the course of the pre-production, production and post-production processes?

CG: Our visual approach was pretty consistent. We kept things very simple and shot using only natural light. In regards to the story, it changed constantly. Since Colony was documenting ongoing events, it would be impossible to say where the film was headed. It really served us to never set any boundaries regarding the direction the story was headed. We just went with it and, ultimately, I think we discovered things we would have never found if we were more conservative in our approach.

IDA: As you've screened Colony--whether on the festival circuit, or in screening rooms, or in living rooms--how have audiences reacted to the film? What has been most surprising or unexpected about their reactions?

CG: We have really gotten a fantastic response to the film. I think there tends to be a lot of surprise regarding the scale and impact of the pollination business. Most people think bees make honey and that's it. Everyone seems to be quite amazed when they find out that millions of bees are trucked around the country from crop to crop, season to season .  While we were in Amsterdam, this old Dutch man came up to me after a screening and said, "You don't really care about the bees." I was a bit shocked. I think if he knew how many stings Ross and I have endured over the past two years, he might take that back.

IDA: What docs or docmakers have served as inspirations for you?

CG: A few docs that Ross and I tend to reference a lot are To Be and To Have, Harlan County USA, For All Mankind, Lessons of Darkness, Manda Bala, King of Kong: Fistful of Dollars, God's Country, to name a few. Most recently, we saw Last Train Home, which was excellent.

Colony will be screening July 30 through August 5 at the Arclight Hollywood in Los Angeles and August 13 through 19 at the IFC Center in New York City.

To download the DocuWeeks^TM program, click here.

To purchase tickets for Colony in Los Angeles, click here.

To purchase tickets for Colony in New York, click here.

Yesterday, July 13, a panel of three Federal Appeal Court judges heard arguments to determine whether filmmaker, Joe Berlinger will have to turn over to Chevron 600 hours of raw footage he shot while producing the documentary Crude. Chevron went to court to gain access to the footage to help in defending itself against a massive Ecuadorian class-action lawsuit brought by workers and residents of the Amazon who are seeking redress for years of environmental pollution.

Attorney Michael C. Donaldson filed an Amicus Brief on behalf of International Documentary Association, as well as 22 other industry organizations and individuals, who saw the order to turn over the footage as a threat to the future of investigative documentaries. The judges heard from attorneys for Chevron, for Berlinger, and for the Ecuadorian plaintiffs. The hearing, which was initially scheduled to last 42 minutes, lasted an hour and 40 minutes. About the only thing the attorneys could agree on in their oral arguments was that the fate of Berlinger's appeal was controlled by a 1998 case--issued by this same court--entitled Gonzalez v. NBC. In fact, the three-judge panel that heard Berlinger's appeal included Judge Leval, who was on the panel for the Gonzalez case.

The judges have taken the case under submission, promising to issue their decision "expeditiously." Although one can never predict exactly what a court will decide, it's of Donaldson's opinion that the lower court's order to turn over the 600 hours of footage would be substantially cut--and that an additional step would be taken of putting restrictions on how the information gathered could be used by Chevron--i.e.: that it could not simply be used in the massive PR campaign Chevron has mounted, but that it could be used only in court or government proceedings. Additionally, Donaldson felt that the judges were prepared to confirm the test set forth in the Gonzalez case, which stated that, in order for a journalist to turn over material that is non-confidential, the material at issue must be of likely relevance to a significant issue in the case and not be reasonably attainable from other available sources--a test that is extremely important to the documentary community.

Other potential decisions could include sending the case back to the trial court with some clear direction as to how to decide these issues, ordering the trial court to view the footage before Chevron is able to view it, throwing out the subpoena in its entirety, or issuing an order that combines one or more of the above options.

After the hearing, Donaldson, who authored the Amicus Brief for filmmakers, praised the IDA for recruiting co-signers to the Brief. He felt that the voice of filmmakers was heard. "Everyone was extremely well prepared," he noted. "The judges were attentive, interested and extended the arguments by asking extensive, well-informed questions. You can't ask for much more--except a decision that favors the filmmaker."

July ushers in a wealth of high-profile docs that have garnered kudos on the festival circuit-both this year and in 2009. Winnebago Man, from Ben Steinbauer, is finally making its theatrical debut. The "Winnebago Man" in question--Jack Rebney, a pitch man and unwittingly star of a profanity-laced compilation video of outtakes from a commercial shoot--has achieved cult status, thanks to that video. Steinbauer sets out to find the man behind the outtakes, and when he achieves his goal, the journey begins-that labyrinthine relationship between filmmaker and subject, the filmmaker and his film, and the filmmaker and his audience.

Also coming this month is Brigitte Berman's Hugh Hefner: Playboy, Activist and Rebel, about the mogul behind Playboy Enterprises and the progressive crusader for civil and First Amendment rights behind the naughty purveyor of titillation.

Among the Sundance 2010 premieres to premiere this month include Tamra Davis' Jean-Michel Basquait: The Radiant Child, which opens July 21 at the Film Forum in New York City; Lucy Walker's Countdown to Zero, about the forgotten issue of nuclear weaponry; and Rob Lemkin and Thet Sambath's award-winning Enemies of the People, in which Sambath persuades perpetrators of the Khmer Rouge-led genocide in Cambodia to speak on camera about their horrors.

Finally, from DocuWeeks 2009, Lucy Bailey and Andrew Thompson's IDA Award-nominated Mugabe and the White African opens July 23 through First Run Features.

Opening:               July 2
Venue:                        Cinema Village/New York City
Film:                           Only When I Dance
Dir.:                            Beadie Finzie            
Distributor:                Film Movement
http://www.onlywhenidance.com/

Only When I Dance is a classic narrative documentary following two young teenagers, Isabela and Irlan, as they strive to realize an extraordinary dream. One girl, one boy; both black and poor, and living in one of the most violent favelas on the outskirts of Rio. Irlan and Isabela both want to dance--to dance ballet--and their ambition is to leave Brazil to join one of the great companies in the North. For them, dance is the way out, an escape, and on stage, an ecstasy that is rarely found in their day-to-day lives. The question is, Can they make it? Only When I Dance follows these two gifted teenagers during a year that will make or break all their future dreams.

Opening:               July 2--New York City; July 9--Los Angeles
Film:                           Great Directors
Dir.:                            Angela Ismailos        
Distributor:                Paladin
http://www.greatdirectorsfilm.com/

Great Directors, a celebration of films and filmmaking, starring ten of the world's most acclaimed, individualistic and provocative living directors, is a deeply personal look at the art of cinema and the artists who create it. The documentary features original in-depth conversation with world-class directors Bernardo Bertolucci, David Lynch, Stephen Frears, Agnes Varda, Ken Loach, Liliana Cavani, Todd Haynes, Catherine Breillat, Richard Linklater and John Sayles. Extensively illuminated by clips and extensive archive materials from the subjects' work, the interviews reveal the distinctive personalities who created the timeless images that have long inspired filmmaker Angela Ismailos-and all of us. Intercutting among the filmmakers in a freely associative way, Ismailos explores each director's artistic evolution; the role of politics and history in their work; their feelings about other great directors who inspired them; and the agony and ecstasy of being an artist in a medium that is, paradoxically, also an industry.

Opening:                    July 2--New York City; July 23--Los Angeles
Venue:                        Big Cinemas/New York City; Laemmle's Music Hall/Los Angeles
Film:                           Beautiful Islands
Dir.:                            Tomoko Kana                       
Distributor:                Eleven Arts
http://www.beautifulislandsthemovie.com/

This movie looks at three beautiful islands, shaken by climate change: Tuvalu, in the South Pacific; Venice, in Italy; and Shishmaref, in Alaska. The islands all have different climates and cultures, but the people all love their native lands. The film focuses on their daily lives. It portrays festivals that foster ties among the people, traditional crafts that have been passed on for generations, and peaceful lives by the water. These cultural traditions  are disappearing because of climate change. When these people lose their homelands, they potentially lose their cultures and histories. Their lives in the midst of all the changes suggest where our future leads. Director Kana Tomoko purposely decided not to put any narration or music in this film, relying instead on the sounds of waters and winds and the images of children's smiles to remind of of what we stand to lose as climate change threatens our planet.

Opening:        July 9--New York City; July 16-Los Angeles
Film:               Winnebago Man                                
Dir.:                Ben Steinbauer
Distributor:    Kino International                            
http://winnebagoman.com/index.php

Jack Rebney is the most famous man you've never heard of -- an RV salesman whose hilarious, foul-mouthed outbursts circulated underground on VHS tapes in the '90s before turning into a full-blown Internet phenomenon in 2005. Today, the "Winnebago Man" has been seen by more than 20 million people worldwide, and is regarded as one of the first and funniest viral videos. Filmmaker Ben Steinbauer goes in search of Rebney--and finds him living alone on a mountain top, unaware of his fame. Winnebago Man is a laugh-out-loud look at viral culture and an unexpectedly poignant tale of one man's response to unintended celebrity.

Legendary French filmmaker Henri-Georges Clouzot, director of the masterful thrillers, Diabolique and Wages of Fear, began work on what may have been his masterpiece, 1964's Inferno. But due to a number of a circumstances including conflicts with his actors, a nearly unlimited budget, and self-sabotage on Clouzot's part, the film collapsed only three weeks into production. Now, after almost 50 years, a documentary has been produced that weaves the previously shot footage with interviews with those involved with the production. --Eddie Wright/Twitch

Opening:        July 16
Venue:            Village East Cinema/New York City
Film:               To Age or Not To Age                                   
Dir.:                Robert Kane Pappas
Distributor:    Self-Distributed                                
http://www.toageornottoage.com/

Imagine a 120-year-old living like today's 50 year-olds. Is it possible? Yes, according to the scientists in Robert Kane Pappas' new film, To Age or Not to Age.
The scientists featured in To Age or Not to Age have found the means to postpone and possibly mitigate diseases tied to aging, such as cancer, cardiovascular disease, neurodegenerative diseases and diabetes. Genes that control aging, among them SIRT2/SIRT1 genes, when altered, may, as a side effect increase our lifespans.
While To Age or Not to Age profiles the science of aging, it also addresses some of the moral, religious, practical and economic implications of increased lifespan. Who will have access to the medicine? Who will benefit from the breakthroughs? Will the price of these compounds make this a drug for the elites?
There already exists a potentially catastrophic problem with overpopulation. What happens if we live even longer? What does that mean for societal structures, family, marriage, social security?
If we can postpone aging, should we? Or are we arrogantly challenging the laws of nature?  Where does evolution fit in?

Opening:        July 21
Venue:            Film Forum/New York City
Film:               Jean-Michel Basquiat: The Radiant Child                       
Dir.:                Tamra Davis
Distributor:    ArtHouse Films                                
http://jean-michelbasquiattheradiantchild.com/

Centered on a rare interview that director and friend Tamra Davis shot with Basquiat over 20 years ago, this definitive documentary chronicles the meteoric rise and fall of the young artist. In the crime-ridden New York City of the 1970s, he covers the city with the graffiti tag SAMO. In 1981 he puts paint on canvas for the first time, and by 1983 he is an artist with "rock star status." He achieves critical and commercial success, though he is constantly confronted by racism from his peers. In 1985 he and Andy Warhol become close friends and painting collaborators, but they part ways and Warhol dies suddenly in 1987. Basquiat's heroin addiction worsens, and he dies of an overdose in 1988 at the age of 27. The artist was 25 years old at the height of his career, and today his canvases sell for more than $1 million. With compassion and psychological insight, Tamra Davis details the mysteries that surround this charismatic young man, an artist of enormous talent whose fortunes mirrored the rollercoaster quality of the downtown scene he seemed to embody.
Featuring interviews with Julian Schnabel, Larry Gagosian, Bruno Bischofberger, Tony Shafrazi, Fab 5 Freddy, Jeffrey Deitch, Glenn O'Brien, Maripol, Kai Eric, Nicholas Taylor, Fred Hoffmann, Michael Holman, Diego Cortez, Annina Nosei, Suzanne Mallouk, Rene Ricard, Kenny Scharf, among many others.

Opening:        July 23
Film:               Countdown to Zero                           
Dir.:                Lucy Walker
Distributor:    Magnolia Pictures/Participant Media                                 
http://www.participantmedia.com/films/coming_soon/countdown_to_zero.php

Countdown to Zero traces the history of the atomic bomb from its origins to the present state of global affairs: Nine nations possess nuclear weapons capabilities with others racing to join them, with the world held in a delicate balance that could be shattered by an act of terrorism, failed diplomacy or a simple accident. Written and directed by acclaimed documentarian Lucy Walker (Devil's Playground; Blindsight), the film features an array of important international statesmen, including Jimmy Carter, Mikhail Gorbachev, Pervez Musharraf and Tony Blair. Countdown to Zero makes a compelling case for worldwide nuclear disarmament, an issue more topical than ever with the Obama administration working to revive this goal today. The film was produced by Academy Award winner and 2009 nominee Lawrence Bender (Inglourious Basterds, An Inconvenient Truth) and developed, financed and executive produced by Participant Media, together with World Security Institute.

Opening:        July 23--New York City; August 13--Los Angeles
Venue:            Cinema Village/New York City; Laemmle Music Hall/Los Angeles
Film:               Mugabe and the White African                                
Dirs.:               Lucy Bailey, Andrew Thompson
Distributor:    First Run Features                           
http://www.mugabeandthewhiteafrican.com/
http://firstrunfeatures.com/mugabeandthewhiteafrican.html

Selected as one of the 15 feature documentaries on the short list for Oscar consideration, Mugabe and the White African is an intimate account of one family's astonishing bravery as they fight to protect their property, their livelihood and their country.
Family patriarch Mike Campbell is one of the few white farmers left in Zimbabwe since President Robert Mugabe began his violent land-seizure program in 2000. Since then the country has descended into chaos, the economy brought to its knees by the reallocation of formerly white-owned farms to Mugabe cronies, who have no knowledge, experience or interest in farming. In 2008, after years of intimidation and threats to his family and farm, Campbell decides to take action. Unable to call upon the protection of any Zimbabwean authorities, he challenges Mugabe before an international court, charging him and his government with racial discrimination and human rights violations.

Opening:        July 30--New York City; August 6--Los Angeles
Venue:            Quad Cinema/New York City; Laemmle Music Hall/Los Angeles
Film:               Enemies of the People                                   
Dirs.:               Rob Lemkin, Thet Sambath
Distributor:    International Film Circuit               
http://enemiesofthepeoplemovie.com/

The Khmer Rouge ran what is regarded as one of the twentieth century's most brutal regimes. Yet the Killing Fields of Cambodia remain unexplained. Until now.
In Enemies of the People, the men and women who perpetrated the massacres--from the foot-soldiers who slit throats to the party's ideological leader, Nuon Chea aka Brother Number Two--break a 30-year silence to give testimony never before heard or seen.
Unprecedented access from top to bottom of the Khmer Rouge has been achieved through a decade of work by one of Cambodia's best investigative journalists, Thet Sambath.
Sambath is on a personal quest: he lost his own family in the Killing Fields. The film is his journey to discover not how but why they died. In doing so, he hears and understands for the first time the real story of his country's tragedy.
After years of visits and trust-building, Sambath finally persuades Brother Number Two to admit (again, for the first time) in detail how he and Pol Pot (the two supreme powers in the Khmer Rouge state) decided to kill party members whom they considered "Enemies of the People."
Sambath's remarkable work goes even one stage further: over the years he befriends a network of killers in the provinces who implemented the kill policy. For the first time, we see how orders created on an abstract political level translate into foul murder in the rice fields and forests of the Cambodian plain. Sambath's work represents a watershed both in Cambodian historiography and in the country's quest for closure on one of the world's darkest episodes.

Opening: July 30
Film: Hugh Hefner: Playboy, Activist and Rebel
Dir.: Brigitte Berman
Distributor: Phase 4 Films
http://www.phase4films.com/detail.aspx?projectId=23e17797-a8b5-49a6-a3e5-9d0b007d9d0d

An intimate look at the outspoken, flamboyant founder of the Playboy empire. With humor and insight, the film captures Hefner's fierce battles with the government, the religious right and militant feminists. Rare footage and compelling interviews with a remarkable Who's Who of 20th Century American pop culture, present a brilliant and entertaining snapshot of the life of an extraordinary man and the controversies that surrounded him.