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.

Two of IDA's fiscally sponsored documentaries, Lost Angels and A Small Act, premier this weekend at Los Angels Film Festival. Screenings are FREE!

Find out what Fiscal Sponsorship with IDA can do for you. Get Funded!

Lost Angels
(USA, 2010, 76 mins, HDCam)
Directed By: Thomas Napper
Thomas Napper’s empathetic but tough-minded documentary invites us into a part of Los Angeles that many choose to ignore—downtown’s skid row. As we meet the distressed area’s residents, including a former Olympic runner, a transgendered punk rocker, and an eccentric animal lover and her devoted companion, their remarkable stories paint a multifaceted portrait of life on the streets. There are undeniable problems—mental illness and addition are common themes—but there is also hope and a surprising sense of community. 

Lost Angels is also a scathing condemnation of the Safer Cities Initiative of Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and Police Chief William Bratton. Although its stated purpose is to reduce crime in the area, for many the program is nothing more than officially sanctioned class warfare, unfairly targeting the low income and homeless population of skid row in what some feel is an effort to pave the way for gentrification. 

Passionate, polemic, and generous in spirit, Lost Angels finds a unique vitality to life on skid row and a stirring humanity in those who live there.

Screening Schedule
Fri, Jun 25th 7:45pm
Regal 11
FREE

Sat, Jun 26th 1:45pm
Regal 11
FREE

More info about: Lost Angels

A Small Act
(USA, 2010, 88 mins, HDCam)
In Swahili, Swedish, English with English subtitles
Directed By: Jennifer Arnold
Decades ago, Hilde Back, a gray-haired Holocaust survivor, began sending $15 a month from Sweden to Kenya to fund a child's primary school education. To her, that amount felt inconsequential but for Chris Mburu, it changed his life. When no other Kenyan family could afford to send their children to high school, Mburu went, and that was enough to springboard him to Harvard. Now a U.N. human rights lawyer, he's founded a new scholarship fund for the next generation of smart kids with few options. And he's named it for the benefactor he never met. Until now.

Jennifer Arnold's colorful and moving documentary weaves Back and Mburu’s intertwined stories with the current plight of three Kenyan eighth graders desperate to be their village's next success story. Their shot at a bright future come courtesy of the Hilde Back Education Fund and the generosity of a distant benefactor. As the elderly Hilde visits the village in which she sowed hope, sighing, "I'm simply not used to being a hero," we're inspired to witness firsthand that one person, without a doubt, can make a difference.

Screening Schedule
Sat, Jun 26th 7:30pm
Regal 11
FREE

More info about: A Small Act

About LAFF

Now in its 16th year, Film Independent's Los Angeles Film Festival, presented by Los Angeles Times, showcases the best of American and international cinema. The 2010 Los Angeles Film Festival takes place June 17-27, 2010 in downtown Los Angeles. The Festival screens more than 200 features, shorts, documentaries and music videos from more than 40 countries. The Festival connects the movie-loving public to critically acclaimed filmmakers, film industry professionals, and emerging talent in the heart of Los Angeles, the entertainment capital of the world.

Passes on sale now. Tickets on sale June 1. For full Festival details, please call1.866.FilmFest or visit www.LAFilmFest.com

Check out the complete list of Festival Documentaries:

Click here for more info on the LAFF Documentary line-up.

Find out what Fiscal Sponsorship with IDA can do for you. Get Funded!

Industry organizations and documentary filmmakers joined forces today by lending their names to an amicus brief filed on their behalf by attorney Michael C. Donaldson in support of Joe Berlinger who was ordered to turn over some 600 hours of raw footage shot in connection with his film Crude.

American petrochemical company Chevron Corporation asked the court for the order in connection with an Ecuadorian class-action lawsuit. Chevron is being sued over environmental contamination in the Amazon rainforest (the Lago Agrio Litigation). Additionally, Chevron intended to use the footage to help fend off threatened Ecuadorian criminal prosecution of two of its attorneys in the litigation. A related international arbitration is also pending.

Chevron's attorneys are seeking to obtain footage shot during the production of appellant Joe Berlinger's 2009 film "Crude," a documentary which reports on the Ecuadorian lawsuit and focuses on indigenous efforts to hold Texaco (now owned by Chevron) accountable for its role in polluting the Amazon rain forests. Chevron obtained the order to turn over the raw footage on May 10, 2010. A federal appeals court stayed the order pending the appeal, but is handling the matter on an expedited schedule due to the timing of the lawsuits in Ecuador.

The brief was filed for fear that the subpoena, if upheld in the Court of Appeal, would have far-reaching and potentially devastating consequences on documentary filmmakers' ability to not only acquire the statements they need from confidential sources, but also to protect through anonymity those who do come forward to tell their stories, often at great personal risk to themselves and their families.

The amicus brief is filed as a friend of the court in order to bring to the court's attention the interests of the broader group of filmmakers who are not a party to the dispute. "Allowing an entity--any entity--to have access to all the raw materials that comprise a film--any film--effectively muzzles the future of free speech as it applies to our profession," states Eddie Schmidt, IDA President and Oscar nominee for the 2005 documentary Twist of Faith. "The scope of this order--all 600 hours of shot footage for a 105-minute film--is so vast, it threatens to swallow an entire profession along with it."

Initially, the brief was prepared on behalf of the International Documentary Association. The following organizations joined the brief: Center for Asian American Media, Directors Guild of America, Film Independent, IFP, Inc., Latino Public Broadcasting, Native American Public Telecommunications, National Association of Latino Independent Producers, Pacific Islanders in Communications, Producers Guild of America, Tribeca Film Institute, University Film and Video Association, Women Make Movies, Writers Guild of America East and Writers Guild of America West. Individual amici also joined the brief: Patricia Aufderheide, Theodore Braun (Darfur Now), Kirby Dick (This Film Is Not Yet Rated), Alex Gibney (Casino Jack and the United States of Money), Andrew Goldberg (Armenian Genocide), Robert Kenner (Food, Inc.), Tia Lessin (Capitalism: A Love Story), Eddie Schmidt (President of the International Documentary Association) and Ricki Stern (Joan Rivers: A Piece of Work).

The United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit in New York City will rule on the decision of the lower federal court that granted Chevron's request forcing Berlinger to hand over the footage. Attorney Michael C. Donaldson plans to attend the hearing, which will be held on July 14, 2010.

Michael C. Donaldson, of Donaldson & Callif, organized the writing of the amicus brief along with his partner Lisa Callif and their legal team: Chris Perez, Melissa Radin and Brianna Dahlberg. The International Documentary Association recruited filmmakers and organizations as declarants and signatories.

As reported in indieWire, Berlinger appeared at the IFC Center on June 22 in a fundraising event for his legal fees. Following a screening of Crude, he was joined on stage by his attorney, as well as filmmaker Morgan Spurlock and WGA East President Michael Winship. A separate coalition of media companies-HBO, The New York Times, the Washington Post, CBS among them-has also signed on to an amicus brief, filed by attorney Floyd Abrams. "It is American media versus corporate interests and defense attorneys," Berlinger said at the event, calling the impending battle "an amazing squaring off of the media against corporations."

Filmmaker and IDA member Mohammed Ali Shirzadi has been held in Iran's notorious Evin Prison for the past five months, in the wake of the crackdown following last year's disputed elections. Shirzadi is one of many journalists and filmmakers-including the recently released filmmaker Ja'far Panahi--who were arrested during the crackdown.

Shirzadi was arrested in January of this year. According to a report in astreetjournalist.com and on Amnesty International UK's website, his family believes he was arrested because of an interview he filmed in 2008 between human rights advocate Emadeddin Baghi--founder of the now-banned Association in Defense of Prisoners' Rights, of which Shirzadi was a member--and the late Grand Ayatollah Montazeri. Baghi was arrested shortly after the Montazeri died in December 2009, and remains in prison.

Amnesty International called for the release of both Shirzadi and Panahi last month, and following a high-profile appeal at the Cannes Film Festival, which had invited Panahi to serve on the jury, Panahi was released. Prior to the Cannes Film Festival,

Amnesty International UK Campaigns Director Tim Hancock issued this statement: "Free speech has been severely restricted in Iran since last year's disputed elections, and thousands of people have been locked up: journalists, activists, students and demonstrators. Once again Iran is shaming itself on the international stage as it seeks to repress its own citizens and silence its critics. These men are prisoners of conscience, detained for the peaceful expression of their opinions. The Iranian authorities should release them immediately."

In Make Believe, armed with magic hoops, decks of cards, and homegrown illusions, six hopefuls from around the world prepare for Las Vegas' World Magic Seminar and the chance to win the title of Teen World Champion.

With the dexterity of a master of prestidigitation, J. Clay Tweel directs this irresistible documentary with a keen eye, deftly balancing the personal stories of these kids with their amazing feats onstage. From an acrobatic duo from South Africa to an all-American perfectionist from Malibu, Make Believe offers a sensitive peek into the world of some dazzling teens, a world of--if you'll forgive us--pure magic.

Screenings:
Tue., June 22, 7:45 p.m., Regal 11
Thu., June 24, 5:30 p.m., Regal 10
Sat., June 26, 5:00 p.m., Regal 11

Purchase tickets now for Make Believe screenings.

About LAFF

Now in its 16th year, Film Independent's Los Angeles Film Festival, presented by Los Angeles Times, showcases the best of American and international cinema. The 2010 Los Angeles Film Festival takes place June 17-27, 2010 in downtown Los Angeles. The Festival screens more than 200 features, shorts, documentaries and music videos from more than 40 countries. The Festival connects the movie-loving public to critically acclaimed filmmakers, film industry professionals, and emerging talent in the heart of Los Angeles, the entertainment capital of the world.

Passes on sale now. Tickets on sale June 1. For full Festival details, please call1.866.FilmFest or visit www.LAFilmFest.com

Check out the complete list of Festival Documentaries:
1428
Ain’t in it for my Health: A Film about Levon Helm
Camera, Camera
Cane Toads: The Conquest
Circo
Climate Refugees
Disco & Atomic War (Disko ja Tuumasõda)
Everyday Sunshine: The Story of Fishbone
Farewell
Gaslandv Kings of Pastry
Life With Murder
*Lost Angels
Make Believe
Marwencol
One Day Less (Un día menos)
One Lucky Elephant
The Peddler (El ambulante)
The People vs George Lucas
Presumed Guilty (Presunto culpable)
The Red Chapel (Det Røde Kapel)
Secrets of the Tribe
*A Small Act
Space Tourists
Thunder Soul
The Tillman Story
The Toledo Report (El informe Toledo)
The Two Escobars
Utopia in Four Movements
Vlast (Power)
Waiting For Superman
Where Are You Taking Me?

*IDA Sponsored Documentaries

Click here for more info on the LAFF Documentary line-up.

Crude focuses on a lawsuit by Ecuadoreans against Chevron over pollution in the Amazon. Chevron is seeking 600 hours of footage from the film in an effort to shore up their case in the long-running lawsuit. Lawyers for Berlinger are arguing on First Amendment grounds that his material is protected by journalistic privilege.

Hundreds of filmmakers, organizations and concerned citizens have shown their support for Berlinger since the subpoena was issued in May. The IDA supported an open letter spearheaded by Patrick Creadon and Doug Blush, (see full letter here) which has been signed by hundreds of other filmmakers since its release (see the comments sections of the following articles on documentary.org and AJ Schnack's blog to read additional signees).

Notably, Robert Redford expressed his support of Berlinger with a piece he wrote for The Huffington Post on June 4, stating, "Filmmakers like Joe Berlinger fulfill a crucial role in today's society by providing independent information on pressing contemporary human rights and social issues. Their success as storytellers depends on access to those men and women willing to talk on camera. If the subjects of those documentaries are fearful of the ramifications of telling the truth then the filmmaker has no story."

Get the latest on Crude and these legal developments at the film's website.

Editor’s Note: Restrepo, an Academy Award nominee for Best Documentary Feature, will be screening Saturday, February 26, at 8:30 p.m., as part of DocuDay LA at the Writers Guild of America Theater in Beverly Hills, and at 12:05 p.m. at DocuDays NY at The Paley Center for Media in Manhattan.

Who wouldn't want to spend the better part of 15 months at a hot, dusty, flea-bitten outpost, precariously perched on a mountain ledge overlooking a tree-lined valley that provides cover for people who shoot at you daily? Oh, and there's no electricity, no Internet, no TV, no running water, no bathroom, no heat, no privacy and no one from the opposite sex. No comforts at all. Not even a chair. Just unremitting boredom broken up by whizzing bullets that ping the dust long before the sound makes it to you.

Not the stuff of romance that typically fills the lines at Army recruiting offices, but this alluring scenario was too good for a pair of seasoned war correspondents to pass up.  Author/journalist Sebastian Junger and photographer/journalist Tim Hetherington convinced Vanity Fair, ABC News and the US Army that it would be a splendid idea to send the team to the Korengal Valley--"The deadliest place on earth."

 "I wanted to be with the best unit in the worst place," says Junger, who has reported from Afghanistan on and off since 1996 and from numerous other war zones. As Captain Kearney says in the film that resulted from their experience, "The road ends at the Korengal outpost and where the road ends, the Taliban begins."

Hetherington covered the civil war in Liberia, the wars in Chad, Nigeria and Sudan and the post-conflict zones of West Africa. He saw this assignment as "kind of a distillation of our war experiences over the ten years we've been doing this. This is what we've done; we know what to expect."

Their experience embedded with one platoon that's been tasked with securing a hilltop combat outpost as part of the Army's counter-insurgency offensive on the Afghan/Pakistan border is the subject of their riveting new documentary, Restrepo, winner of the Documentary Grand Jury Prize at the 2010 Sundance Film Festival.

This 94-minute film takes the audience inside the none-too-glamorous life of the foot soldiers in a dangerous yet beautiful setting. "It was an anti-paradise," Junger explains. "Everything young men enjoy wasn't up there, and everything they didn't like was." 

Junger and Hetherington toted small HD cameras with them because they had a deal with ABC to supply footage, but they also wanted to make a film. Hetherington became a still photographer or "image maker," as he prefers to be called, when he wasn't accepted in NYU's film school. He'd shot one documentary, Liberia: An Uncivil War, and several short, nonfiction TV projects, but he had never tackled a "long form narrative" film before. Nor had Junger, who is a print journalist first and foremost. But they divvied up the camera chores to insure they got enough coverage.

 "We basically did everything together, put it in a pot, shook it up and it came out," says Hetherington. Asked about his neophyte cinematographer partner, Hetherington issued a warning: "If he gets any better I'll push him off a cliff." Hetherington and Jungher earned an Alfred I. duPont-Columbia University Award for broadcast journalism for "The Other War: Afghanistan," which the filmmakers produced for ABC News Nightline in 2008. The production team remains in the background while providing us with a window into this "anti-paradise." We're front-and-center with the soldiers from 2nd Platoon from the moment they helicopter into the Valley. We stay with them during their 15-month tour as they get shot at, build their remote outpost, suffer the deaths of comrades, witness the human cost of counterattacks on villagers, wile away the boredom strumming guitars, engage in horse play and, finally, pack their rucksacks to hike back to the helicopters waiting to take them home. Most embedded reporters stay with an outfit for two to three weeks, which is what Mark Boal did for a Rolling Stone assignment that inspired his feature film writing debut, The Hurt Locker. Junger and Hetherington took the deep-dive approach in an attempt to create a more "nuanced" view of what life is like in combat.

The platoon was assigned to set up one of a string of Combat Outposts (COPs) that have been affectionately referred to by some as "bullet sponges" that would draw fire from the Taliban and allow American forces to use their overwhelming superior firepower to eliminate them one by one. Embedding in the "sponge" allowed the crew to capture plenty of chilling "bang-bang" scenes, sometimes occurring four or five times a day. The filmmakers are right there as the platoon takes fire, and in the ensuing chaos we see the soldiers scramble to locate the enemy and return fire. We stay in the mix as they leave their Spartan confines to venture out on patrol. Without the rock-filled plastic battlements to protect them, they are exposed from every angle. And when the inevitable attacks come, Junger and Hetherington capture every potentially heart-stopping moment. You'll have to forgive the occasionally shaky camera work during these scenes. This is not an MTV-like conscious effect to pump up the intensity of the moment, but an honest record of the experience. 

But it's the little human moments that occur during downtime that began to excite Hetherington about the unique possibilities of the film they were making. "I understand my work is about building links to an audience," he observes. "How do I connect them to a conflict in Liberia or Afghanistan? Moral outrage is not enough. Pictures of dead West Africans are not enough. Witnessing is important, but to move an audience we have to connect in a way that shows them their sons and their brothers" as complete human beings with a range of emotions.

The soldiers' candid dialogue in the field, and the 40 hours of interviews shot after they'd returned to their home base in Italy, bring us into the story with their own words. We hear 25-year-old Corporal Pemble-Belkin tell us his hippie mother wouldn't let him play with toy guns, not even a squirt gun, as we see his face light up while he energetically sways a tripod-mounted 50-caliber machine gun back and forth, up and down. But he also says that he doesn't want to worry her, so in his most recent letter home he didn't include news about the deaths in the platoon or their upcoming dangerous mission. 

On that mission down the hill and into the villages, the platoon stops to question a young man, who tells the translator, "If we let you know about the Taliban, we will get killed."

Notes Junger, "A lot of Afghans feel caught between two realities." They remember the "bloodbath" of the '90s after the Soviets pulled out. They also remember greeting the Americans as liberators after they toppled the Taliban but saw them get distracted by the war in Iraq and not carry out the hoped-for reforms in Afghanistan.

 "Afghans are conflicted," and fear that if NATO pulls out it will be like the '90s again, Junger continues. We're left to wonder how the villagers felt when the US Army pulled out of the Korengal Valley in April of this year.

While telling the story of the soldiers, the filmmakers also wanted to convey "the nuanced sense of Afghans caught in-between," says Hetherington. They allow this to unfold without any reference to the policy decisions that sent the soldiers to this dangerous post, or the arguments surrounding this seemingly endless war. "I wasn't interested in writing about the politics or the geopolitics of the situation," Junger maintains. "I went in as a blank slate."

Instead, the filmmakers focused on the soldiers' lives in a way reminiscent of John Huston's 1945 documentary classic, The Battle of San Pietro, which was initially censored because of his realistic portrayal of an Army campaign. 

The end result of Junger and Hetherington's approach is a film about all wars--a film that transcends Outpost Restrepo as it puts you in the boots of these soldiers who spent every day, for 15 months, trying not to do anything to get one of their brothers killed as they counted the days remaining before they could go home. I resolved that there are other ways to learn about the context, but this is the only way I've discovered, outside of a 15-month hitch, to learn what it's like on the ground.

Restrepo, which the platoon named their outpost in honor of fallen comrade PFC Juan Restrepo, opens June 25 in New York and Los Angeles, through National Geographic Entertainment, and will roll out nationally through the month of July. The film airs on National Geographic Channel in the fall.

Michael Rose is a writer and documentary filmmaker.

For more information on this subject:

Sebastian Junger's book WAR, about his time in the Korengal Valley was released in May 2010.
www.twelvebooks.com

Tim Hetherington's book Infidel, about this experience in the Kornegal will be published in October 2010 by Chris Boot Ltd.
www.timhertherington.com

Into the Valley of Death
By Sebastian Junger
Photos by Tim Hetherington
Vanity Fair
January 2008
http://www.vanityfair.com/politics/features/2008/01/afghanistan200801?currentPage=1

Return to the Valley of Death
By Sebastian Junger
Photos by Tim Hetherington
http://www.vanityfair.com/politics/features/2008/10/afghanistan200810?printable=true

Institute for the Study of War Report: "Kunar and Nuristan: Rethinking U.S. Counterinsurgency Operation"
http://www.understandingwar.org/report/kunar-and-nuristan

Overview of Combat Operations in Kunar Province by 173d Airborne Brigade
Tactical Leader: "Lessons Learned in Afghanistan"
Military Review, July/August 2009
Colonel William B. Ostlund, U.S. Army
http://usacac.army.mil/CAC2/MilitaryReview/Archives/English/MilitaryReview_20090831_art004.pdf?q=predeployment

Pare Lorentz Jr., the son of the legendary documentary pioneer Pare Lorentz, died this past Friday at his home in Frankfort, Kentucky. He was 73.

Lorentz, a graduate of Harvard University, made a number of industrial films and documentaries in the 1970s and early 80s. But he was especially instrumental to the International Documentary Association in helping to establish the IDA/Pare Lorentz Award, which, since 1997, has honored documentaries that best reflect the spirit and aesthetic vision of Lorentz Senior, addressing the issues he cared about--the environment and social justice--and how those issues are rendered cinematically.

Over the years, the IDA/Pare Lorentz Award has gone to such films as Davis Guggenheim's An Inconvenient Truth (2006), Spike Lee's When the Levees Broke (2007) and Charles Guggenheimn's Berga: Soldiers of Another War (2003), and Lorentz Jr. served on the award's Blue Ribbon Committee from the very beginning. 

Lorentz Jr. also provided invaluable support and counsel for IDA's Pare Lorentz Film Festival, launched in 2007 through a grant from The New York Community Trust

For more information, here's an obituary from the Frankfort State-Journal