Usually when one hears the phrase "boot camp," images of guns, camouflage fashionand tough sergeants barking out orders come to mind. A boot camp of a different sort took place this past February in Culver City, California, when five veterans from the Iraq and Afghanistan Wars spent three days together getting a crash course in documentary filmmaking. The experience was part of Operation In Their Boots, the kickoff to a unique fellowship program during which the vetswill produce and direct their own nonfiction films.
The program is part of the larger In Their Boots series, which is produced by Brave New Foundation and funded by a grant from the Iraq Afghanistan Deployment Impact Fund (IADIF) of the California Community Foundation. Brave New Foundation received the three-year grant to raiseawareness through documentary stories of how people here at home are impacted by the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. The grant is flexible, allowing executive producer Richard Ray Perez to experiment with different ways of fulfilling its mandate.
During the first cycle of the grant in 2008, Perez wanted to experiment in new media because that's one of Brave New Foundation's prime areas of focus. He hired a producer and director and developed 12 stories, eight to 36 minutes in length, all of which were streamed on the website. In 2009, during the second cycle, Perez and his team produced a more traditional documentary series of 10 half-hour episodes, which they are currently considering releasing on individual public television stations. For the 2010 cycle, says Perez, "We came up with the idea to commission veterans themselves to produce and direct their own documentaries. I realized a lot of people who served are National Guardsmen who may have had experience in the film industry working as grips, DPs, electricians or in jobs that may have helped them acquire any number of skills that are transferable to documentaryfilmmaking."
Perez was able to work out a budget in which the foundation would be able to provide $7,500 in stipends to five filmmakers to help support them during a three-month, part-time filmmaking process. "We had to come up with a formula that would make this really possible for emerging filmmakers," says Perez. "Making a living and making a documentary are two differentthings." Each project was allocated a $10,000 production budget, most of which is expected to go towards travel and crew. The short docs are expected to run an average of 15 minutes in length. The budget does not include equipment rental or post-production costs, as Brave New Foundation will provide these items from its stash of in-house resources. In addition to the funding, a key part of the program would be the mentorship and guidance each filmmaker would receive from the team at Brave New Foundation, including Perez and Robert Greenwald.
Once they set the parameters for the program, Brave New Foundation put out calls for entry through a variety of outlets, including IADIF sister organizations, military.com and documentary-related networking groups. The foundation received approximately 100 applications, and selected Tristan Dyer, Kyle Hartnett, Chris Mandia, Victor Manzano and Clint Van Winkle to participate. Perez says that the filmmakers were chosen based on both their story ideas and an assessment of whether the applicant was capable of actually executing his pitch. While documentary filmmaking experience was not a requirement, filmmaking experience in any genre was a plus. Additionally, Perez wanted to make sure that the participants were open to collaboration and learning new storytelling skills, as the Brave New Foundation's staff would be advising them throughout the process. Although they had hoped to have a woman among the bunch, only two applied to the program, and ultimately Brave New Foundation went with those applicants who presented the strongest story ideas that were well suited for the documentary form.
Hartnett was thrilled when he found out he'd been accepted into Operation In Their Boots. Hehad studied film production at San Francisco State, and he had come down to Los Angeles to break into the industry. "This opportunity came across as too good to be true," he says. "I never thought I'd be working on a documentary; I studied narrative fiction in school. This is not what I had in mind, but I'm super stoked to be doing it. I've been out here for less than ayear, and I'm already working in a professional environment. I'm super lucky to be a part of it."
Hartnett is a veteran of the 82nd Airborne Division; he served a six-month tour of duty in Afghanistan. His film is about his personal quest to gain a better understanding of the challenges Muslim-American service members and veterans face. During Tristan Dyer's five years of active duty service, he spent one year deployed to Camp Taji, Iraq. Upon honorable discharge he enrolled in the Visual Journalism Program at the Brooks Institute of Photography in Ventura, California. His film,which will utilize stop-motion animation, will examine substance abuse among Iraq and Afghanistan War veterans. Chris Mandia served as a US Marine infantryman in Iraq. An award-winning playwright and screenwriter, he currently attends the University of Southern California School of Cinematic Arts. His film is about the transitional journey American service members make when they go from thebattlefield to a college campus. Victor Manzano also served as a Marine infantryman in Iraq, as well as Afghanistan, and is now an entertainment entrepreneur and veterans advocate. His doc will chronicle the turbulent life of fellow veteran Rudy Reyes, who overcame immense hurdles to become a highly skilled combat Marine, a successful actor and an inspiring self-help author. Marine Sergeant Clint Van Winkle served as an AAV section leader during the initial invasion of Iraq. He is the author of Soft Spots: A Marine's Memoir of Combat and Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, and his film examines survivors' guilt among Iraq and Afghanistan War veterans.
Despite their different service experiences and proposed projects, the filmmakers found a common bond when they participated in the three-day Filmmakers Bootcamp at Brave New Foundation. The purpose of the Bootcamp was to school the participants in everything from story structure to production basics, giving them the essential skills they would need to embark on their projects.
"There was a strong feeling of camaraderie because we all served," explains Dyer."You sort of click with one another immediately. We've been through a lot of the same stuff, even if it wasn't with each other. It's the whole tribal kind of mentality that's part of human nature."
Adds Hartnett, "We're kind of a rarity. Veterans are able to find their own, but there are so few of us out there who want to be filmmakers. It was immediately comfortable--like, 'I knowthese guys. These guys are me.'"
This trust and shared experience came in handy while working on storytelling exercises. Each vet was tasked with honing his story down to the essential conflict of the film or character. As each filmmaker tried to articulate his pitch and refine his story, the rest of the participants chimed in with valuable ideas and opinions. Their ability to do this was in part due to the fact that they all spoke acommon emotional language; their mutual understanding of the wartime experience gave them insights into what fellow group members were trying to express.
The bond among the five filmmakers has lasted beyond the Bootcamp, and they are all helping one another as they move forward with their documentaries. For example, the group is trying to locate Muslim service members for Hartnett to interview, as he's finding that the most challenging part of his film so far. And of course, it wouldn't be a Brave New Foundation program if new media weren't somehow involved. The program requires that all maintain Facebook profiles and Twitter accounts, and blog on a regular basis, so that the participants--as well as the public--can all follow one another online.
Perez anticipates that all five films will be completed by August. Ideally, he'd like to find broadcast distribution for the docs with a cable network or public television. Perez is open to packaging the films into a two-hour block, or playing them individually as shorts. The Foundation has also discussed bundling the films into a feature, but right now there is no money for the additional editing that would require.
Tamara Krinsky is associate editor of Documentary magazine.
The eighth edition of the AFI-Discovery Channel Silverdocs Documentary Festival opens June 21 with the multi-director project Freakonomics, based on Steven Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner's bestselling book, Freakonomics: A Rogue Economist Exposes the Hidden Side of Everything. The sextet of directors on the film project includes Alex Gibney (Taxi to the Dark Side), Morgan Spurlock (Super Size Me), Rachel Grady and Heidi Ewing (Jesus Camp), Eugene Jarecki (Why We Fight) and Seth Gordon (King Of Kong), each of whom created a short piece based on a chapter from the book. The film is slated for a fall 2010 release through Magnolia Pictures.
The book famously applied statistics and incentives to analyze human behaviors, which yielded surprising and controversial conclusions that years of psychology and moral philosophy had yet to reveal. In the film, Gibney looks behind the fragile façade of Sumo wrestling and exposes uncomfortable truths about this ancient and revered sport; Spurlock examines the consequences of a name, and whether being dubbed Sheniqua, Tripp or Moon Unit have any affect on one's future prospects; Grady and Ewing explore whether money can be used to incentivize underachieving kids to improve their grades in school; Jarecki investigates Levitt's provocative theory as to why crime rates dramatically dropped in the early '90s; and Gordon weaves the pieces together with playful animation and commentary from the authors.
"We are thrilled to open the festival with Freakonomics, one of this year's most highly anticipated documentaries," said artistic director Sky Sitney in a statement. "Thanks to a team of celebrated documentarians, one of the best-selling books of the past decade debuts on the big screen for a riveting cinematic experience."
Silverdocs 2010, which runs from June 21 to 27, will showcase over 80 films plus special screenings, music performances and dozens of panel discussions featuring hundreds of filmmakers, diverse topics and media professionals. In addition, the festival will honor Frederick Wiseman, widely recognized as one of America's greatest and most prolific documentary filmmakers, at the Charles Guggenheim Symposium. The Symposium, named after the late, four-time Academy Award winner Charles Guggenheim, honors a filmmaker who has mastered the power of documentary and inspires audiences with powerful explorations of the human experience. Past recipients include Barbara Kopple (2004), Martin Scorsese (2006), Jonathan Demme (2007), Spike Lee (2008) and Albert Maysles (2009).
"For over four decades, Wiseman has used a 16mm camera and portable sound equipment to create an exceptional body of work consisting of over 30 feature-length films devoted primarily to exploring American institutions," said Sitney. "We are thrilled to recognize his vast contribution to cinema and the documentary form."
The IDA and a group of filmmakers that includes Academy Award winners and nominees have issued an open letter in support of Joe Berlinger, the director of Crude, and objecting to a judge's ruling that Chevron could subpoena Mr. Berlinger's footage from his film.
Read about the developing story in the NY Times here.
And now the letter in its entirety:
May 12, 2010
An open letter in support of Joe Berlinger and the documentary filmmaking team of "Crude"
As members of the documentary film community, we the undersigned strongly object to theHonorable Judge Lewis A. Kaplan's ruling last week in the case involving our colleague JoeBerlinger, the Chevron Corporation, and Berlinger's 600 hours of raw footage shot duringproduction of his documentary film "Crude".
Judge Kaplan sided with Chevron and ruled that Berlinger must turn over all of his raw footageto Chevron for their use in the lawsuit discussed in the film. Berlinger and his legal team plan toappeal the ruling.
In cases such as these involving access to a journalist's work material, whether they involve anewspaper or online reporter, a radio interviewer, a television news producer, or a documentaryfilmmaker, it is understood that First Amendment protection of the journalist's privilege is neverabsolute. Typically, if such privilege is successfully rebutted in court, a turn-over orderdemanding a document or other thing is issued and the journalist must comply or face theconsequences. Therefore, it is astounding to us that Judge Kaplan demanded that all of thefootage shot during the production of the film be handed over to the attorneys of Chevron, giventhat the privilege exists primarily to protect against the wholesale exposure of press files tolitigant scrutiny.
While we commend Judge Kaplan for stating "that the qualified journalists' privilege applies toBerlinger's raw footage", we are nonetheless dismayed both by Chevron's attempts to go on a"fishing expedition" into the edit rooms and production offices of a fellow documentaryfilmmaker without any particular cause or agenda, and the judge's allowance of said intentions.What's next, phone records and e-mails?
At the heart of journalism lies the trust between the interviewer and his or her subject.Individuals who agree to be interviewed by the news media are often putting themselves at greatrisk, especially in the case of television news and documentary film where the subject's identityand voice are presented in the final report. If witnesses sense that their entire interviews will bescrutinized by attorneys and examined in courtrooms they will undoubtedly speak less freely.This ruling surely will have a crippling effect on the work of investigative journalistseverywhere, should it stand.
Though many of us work independently of large news organizations, we nevertheless holdourselves to the highest of journalistic standards in the writing, producing, and editing of ourfilms. In fact, as traditional news media finds itself taking fewer chances due to advertiser fearsand corporate ownership, the urgency of bold, groundbreaking journalism through thedocumentary medium is perhaps greater than ever.
This case offers a clear and compelling argument for more vigorous federal shield laws to protectjournalists and their work, better federal laws to protect confidential sources, and strongerstandards to prevent entities from piercing the journalists' privilege. We urge the higher courts tooverturn this ruling to help ensure the safety and protection of journalists and their subjects, andto promote a free and vital press in our nation and around the world.
Patrick Creadon Doug Blush
Los Angeles, CA Los Angeles, CA
Eddie Schmidt
President, International Documentary Association (IDA)
With the support of IDA's Board of Directors:
Adam Chapnick, Beth Bird, Bob Niemack, Brian Gerber, Gilda Brasch, Laurie Ann Schag,Marjan Safinia, Moises Velez, Pi Ware, Sara Hutchison, Senain Kheshgi, Steven Reich,Sue West, Thomas Miller
Executive Director Michael Lumpkin
Supporting Filmmakers
Alex Gibney, Michael Moore, D.A. Pennebaker, Chris Hegedus, Bruce Sinofsky, Joan Churchill,Rob Epstein, Barbara Kopple, AJ Schnack, Kirby Dick, Ricki Stern, Annie Sundberg, HeidiEwing, Rachel Grady, Freida Mock, Terry Sanders, Marina Zenovich, Tia Lessin, Carl Deal,Kevin Macdonald, Ken Burns, Haskell Wexler, Ellen Kuras,Robby Kenner, Fisher Stevens, Margaret Lazarus, Renner Wunderlich, Gordon Quinn, Margaret Brown,
Rebecca Cammisa, Ondi Timoner, Elise Pearlstein, Ross McElwee
Davis Guggenheim, Lesley Chilcott, Rory Kennedy, Jeff Blitz, Laura Poitras, Marshall Curry,Ross Kauffman, Adam Del Deo, Hubert Sauper, Adam Hyman, Richard Pearce,R.J. Cutler, Sam Pollard, Jessica Yu, Nick Broomfield, Morgan Neville,Peter Gilbert, Steve James, Louie Psihoyos, Lucy Walker,
Pamela Yates
Morgan Spurlock, Bill Moyers, Scott Hamilton Kennedy, Tom Weinberg, Joel Cohen,Kate Amend, Anne Makepeace, Evangeline Griego, David Zeiger, Chris Paine,Greg Barker, Skip Blumberg, Brian Strause, Joe Angio, Ben Shedd,Brian Oakes, Dallas Rexer, John Maringouin, Jeff Malmberg,
David Van Taylor
Liz Garbus, Cara Mertes, Simon Kilmurry, Cynthia Wade, Stefan Forbes,Jennifer Venditti, Peter Kinoy, Tom Putnam, Jessie Deeter, Robin Hessman,Paco de Onis, Kim Longinotto, Steven Bognar, Julia Reichert, Sean Welch,Steven Ascher, Jeanne Jordan, Kevin Walsh, Christine O'Malley, Theodore James,Tomlinson Holman, Paola Di Florio, Martin Smith
Diane Weyermann, Jehane Noujaim, Leon Gast, Bill Guttentag, Steven Okazaki,Peter Davis, Michael Tucker, Gabor Kalman, Andrew Goldberg, Eva Orner,Christoph Baaden, Mark Lewis, Annie Roney, Petra Epperlein, Christopher Quinn,Amy Berg, Douglas Chang, Tina DiFeliciantonio,
Jane C. Wagner
James Longley, James Marsh, Yance Ford, Lisa Rich, Tony Gerber,Amy Ziering, Kurt Norton, Amanda Micheli, B. Ruby Rich,Amir Bar-Lev, Jon Else, Judy Branfman, Lucy Phenix, Mike Tollin, Paul Mariano,Jay Rosenblatt, Johanna Demetrakas, Kristine Samuelson, John Haptas
Robert Greenwald, Terry Zwigoff, Laura Gabbert, Matt Tyrnauer, Anna Thomas,Doug Block, Ken Schneider, Gary Cohen, Peter Gerard, Nathan Truesdell,Chris Smith, Bob Richman, Sandy McLeod, Judith Katz, Paul Rachman,Hilari Scarl, Jonathan Stack, Shirley Moyers, Andrew Berends, Buddy Squires,
Jon Alpert, Matthew O'Neill
Lynne Littman, Mark J Harris, Thom Powers, Lauren Greenfield,Theodore Braun, Mary Ann Braubach, Frederick Gerten, Seth Gordon, Celia Maysles,Henry Alex Rubin, Rick Goldsmith, Bob Hercules, Jim Morrissette, Howard Weinberg,Judith Helfand, Andrew Garrison, Rebecca Chaiklin, Doug Pray,Katy Chevigny, Sarah Gibson, Daniel Junge, Ted Hope, Tom Fontana, Doug Zwick, Michael Winship, Stacy Peralta
Sandy Cioffi, Jeffrey Schwarz, Lyda Kuth, Sara Archambault, Geoffrey Smith, Marina Goldovskaya, Jennifer Grausman, Ginger Brown, Natalie Difford, Dierdre Haj, Jack Willis, Judy Irola, Kieran Fitzgerald, Jon Shenk, Mridu Chandra, Ryan Krivoshey, Doug Whyte, Rebecca Cammisa, Charlotte Lagarde, Alison Armstrong, Amy Geller, Gerald Peary, Paul van den Boom, Petr Lom, Jan Rofekamp, Rick Minnich, Henry Chalfant, Mark Achbar, Marcia Jarmel, Stephanie Soechtig, Fisher Stevens, Risa Morimoto, John Philp, Carol Dysinger, Tom Lino, Gregory Orr, Stuart Samuels, Daniel B. Gold, Alice Klein, Brian Newman
Marc Simon, Summer Preney, James Scurlock, Neil Sieling, Laura Israel, Tom Yellin, Michael Schwarz, Joshua Z. Weinstein, Safina Uberoi, Dylan Robertson, Linda Jaivin, Karin Hayes, Ondi Timoner, Jeanne C Finley, Eric Lin, Joanna Rudnick, Justin Pemberton, Esther Robinson, Kief Davidson, Colin Powers, Laurie House, Stephanie Black, Ayza Omar, Harold Moss, Robert C. Alexander, Daniel Coffin, Nilita Vachani, Mark Landsman
Bill Ferehawk, Judith Ehrlich, Frank Christopher, Churchill Roberts, Xan Parker, Elizabeth Holder, Ivy Meeropol, Cameron Yates, Deborah Dickson, Paul Devlin, David Leaf, Janet Cole, Michael Palmieri, Donal Mosher, Maro Chermayeff, Mario Murillo, Christine Noschese, Stephanie Caruso, Jason Figueira, Stephen McCarthy, Jonathon Napolitino, Nick Andert, Hima B., Gary Weimberg, Martin Harbury, Margaret Brown, David Soll, Neal Baer, Alcides Soares, Sandra Schulberg, Francisco Bello, Margaret Lazarus, Renner Wunderlich,
Miranda Yousef, Yung Chang
San Francisco International Film Festival: Utopias, Journeys and Alt Realities
Among the events with the biggest buzz at the San Francisco International Film Festival were centered around documentaries, with Brazilian director-producer Walter Salles presenting his work-in-progress, In Search of On the Road; Sam Green's live presentation of Utopia in Four Movements; and Joan Rivers attending the closing night screening of the documentary of her life, Ricki Stern and Annie Sundberg's Joan Rivers--A Piece of Work.
Salles, who was honored this year with the festival's Founder's Directing Award, got his start in documentaries. When he was tapped by producer Francis Coppola to make the film version of Jack Kerouac's On the Road, Salles began his research by re-tracing Kerouac's epic journey and interviewing people who inspired the novel's characters. The filmmaker amassed hundreds of hours of Super-8 and mini-DV material, including over 100 hours of interviews with such Beat Generationluminaries as Michael McClure, Lawrence Ferlinghetti and Carolyn Cassady. Exclusively for the festival, Salles winnowed down some of the material into a one-hour documentary that festival head Graham Leggat called "an open-ended exploratory meditation." That's an apt description for Salles' compendium of road trips, interviews, musings on the appeal of road movies, and a fascinating casting call/reading from On the Road by actors such as Ashley Judd and Russell Crowe. As for the future of the film version of On the Road, Salles joked, "You've heard of the Sisyphus myth?" Today's economic realities make funding difficult, and it's unclearwhether the film will ever happen. In Search of On the Road will not be finished until production starts on On the Road, or until the project is abandoned. "I've thought of ending [the documentary] with the clap" of the dramatic film beginning, said Salles. "If it doesn't happen, I'd like it to reflect on what the book meant."
Another a work-in-progress was Sam Green and Dave Cerf's Utopia in Four Movements, billed as "a live documentary" that Green presented on stage with his own narration, accompanied by sound effects and music. The work examines the utopian impulse in the 20th century, from the attempt to gain acceptance for Esperanto as a universal language and way of life, to an American political refugee living in the socialist society of Cuba. The film looks at the world'slargest shopping mall in China, now eerily deserted, a would-be happy place that's trying to be a cross between Disneyland and Las Vegas. And as a coda, Utopia in Four Movements shows forensic anthropologists excavating mass graves and hoping to identify the victims and re-bury them.Green calls their work hopeful, and the film itself is a hopeful act in a dystopian time. The live element evolved from presentations Green would do while he was looking for funding for the film, and he found that it added something to the experience. "Watching something about utopia, and doing it all together with a lot of people in the same room creates an energy that's inspiring," he explained.
There was no lack of inspiring energy at the festival, including the robust 80-year old Japanese inventor in Danish director Kaspar Astrup Schröder's The Invention of Dr. NakaMats. A genuine eccentric, NakaMats claims to have over 3,000 inventions to his credit, including the floppy disk. He says he thinks better when he's deprived of oxygen, so he invented a notepad and pen that he could use underwater during his daily swim. He photographs every meal he eats, plans to live to be 144, and has figured out the 55 best foods to eat in order for him to reach that age. Apress release from the producer calls The Invention of Dr. NakaMats "madcap fun," promises "nonstop laughs" and describes Nakamats as "utterly fantabulous." But Nakamats is too self-aware to be dismissed so lightly. Schröder says that when the project began, NakaMats gave him a long list of what they would shoot. He's shown as a tough negotiator in business, and such a total control freak that in one scene in which his children bring him a birthday present, he doesn't like the way they do it, so he sends them back out to do it again. "Normal isn't my style," he says.
The elderly husband and wife of Constantin and Elena are the antithesis of NakaMats, living a quiet life in a Romanian village. He farms. She weaves. Seasons change. They joke and reminisce, friends and family visit, nothing much happens. But the film builds an intimacy that is warm and comforting. It's like spending a year with your grandparents, which is exactly what 25-year old director Andrei Dascalescu, the couple's grandson, did. Dascalescu, who worked as an assistant to editor Walter Murch on Francis Coppola's Youth Without Youth (2007), achieved the couple's ease in front of the camera with a direct cinema technique. "The rhythm of their life is better presented without moving the camera," he explained. "That, I felt, was a more honest approach."
A complex approach was called for in Jeff Malmberg's Marwencol, one of the most rivetingprofiles of the festival. Badly beaten in a bar fight and left brain-damaged, Mark Hogancamp saved his sanity and restored his health by creating his own universe--a miniature World War II Belgian town populated by counterparts of his friends and acquaintances. The characters are played by costumed Barbie and GI Joe dolls. "This is how I work out patience," he says. "This is how I work out dexterity. I create my own therapy." But Marwencol also gave him an emotional outlet. The town's hero, an American GI, is Hogan's own alter ego. "Everyone wishes they had a double who could do things they could never do," Hogancamp says. His doppelganger falls in love, has sex, marries, kills bad guys. The way Malmberg shoots the village mimics how Hogancamp sees it, up close and real. But the outside world intrudes, when his work is discovered by New York's art world, and he's invited to the city for a gallery show. How Hogancamp handles the event provides the film's climax.
Alternate realities are also the focus of Life 2.0, Jason Spingarn-Koff's look at peopleobsessed with the online world of Second Life, created by Linden Labs. To them, Second Life is a real community, and the people who live there are real, even when they're very different from their real-world selves--like the man whose avatar is an 11-year old girl. He eventually reveals a secret about his past that may explain that choice. A man and woman, both married, commit "emotional adultery" which escalates into a meeting, and the real thing. A Linden executive says, "The virtual world can only succeed if it's ungoverned," and adds, "It's safer than the real world." Not really. Lives are turned upside down. Real-liferelationships are destroyed. These people are addicts, and while you may root for them to make it in the real world, you're not surprised when they don't.
The real world was very much a part of the documentary lineup at the festival. Russian Lessons examines the 2008 war between Russia and Georgia over South Ossetia. As soon as the conflict broke out, directors Olga Konskaya and Andrei Nekrasov headed for the war zone, each approaching in a different direction, since Russia was tightly controlling the borders. Russians and longtime human rights activists, they were skeptical about the information the Russian government was putting out. The result is pro-Georgian, a long and detailed look at the history and politics behind the war. "We did not set out to make an objective TV report," Nekrasov said. "What was important to us was to look at the culture of our country that encourages people to pursue that imperial greed." Nekrasov is no longer permitted to work in his native country.
Circumventing government opposition to their project was also a major preoccupation for Andrew Thompson and Lucy Bailey, directors of Mugabe and the White African. They hadto smuggle in their equipment, arriving in Zimbabwe through different borders. For a climactic hospital scene, they gift-wrapped their gear, and one crew member walked in using his boom as a crutch.
Zimbabwe has a policy of taking land from longtime white owners and redistributing it to black farmers. But the way it's distributed is based on cronyism. The film documents a white farmer's court battle to keep his farm in Zimbabwe, against the background of President Robert Mugabe's corrupt regime. Mugabe and the White African is structured like a legal thriller, with the outcome uncertain until the end. In spite of the hopeful ending, Bailey's update on the case and the family was less optimistic.
Presumed Guilty, the festival's Golden Gate Award winner for Bay Area Feature Documentary, is also a tale of legalinjustice. Lawyer and co-director Roberto Hernandez and fellow attorney and producer Layda Negrete took on the case of Antonio Zuñiga, who was convicted of shooting and killing a Mexico City gang member, although he didn't know the victim, was nowhere near the crime scene, and had no gunpowder residue on his hands. He was sentenced to 20 years in prison. The genius strategy thateventually got the case overturned was simple: The filmmakers took cameras into the courtroom during the appeals process. The case exposed the corruption of a justice system that has a 95 percent conviction rate, and in which suspects are presumed guilty even when they're proven innocent. Like many of the documentaries, Presumed Guilty, which Geoffrey Smith co-directed, advocated for change. Unlike most of them, the film was actually instrumental in causing it.
Margarita Landazuri is a San Francisco-based writer.
Hot Docs: A Global Feast
The 17th annual Hot Docs festival in Toronto started with a bang--I almost wrote "a rush"--with an Opening Night gala presentation of Thomas Balmès' Babies and a premiere of Scott McFadyen and Sam Dunn's new rock doc Rush: Beyond the Lighted Stage. After the films, there was a "green carpet" party at the Royal Ontario Museum (recently renovated by celebrity architect Daniel Libeskind) featuring local cocktails, eco-cuisine and a fairly hefty ticket price--$175--for a good cause: "The Friends of the Environment." The spirit at the after-party was effervescent, with the doc community--local and international--out in force to chat, drink, flirt and dance. If this is an industry in crisis, you certainly couldn't tell it at the ROM.
Over the course of the following week and a half, from April 20 to May 9, Hot Docs screened 166 films in 10 programs ranging from a South American survey to a retrospective on British veteran vérité specialist Kim Longinotto. Lovers of docs and stats will find it hard to stop dwelling on details. The festival presented lots of premieres: 20 world, 30 international, 26 North American, 48 Canadian and 16 Toronto.
Docs from around the globe were represented: 47 from the US, 30 Canadian, 20 from the UK, 10 from Germany, seven from Brazil, six from the Netherlands and, well, you get the drift. Even Yemen and the Republic of Cameroon made the cut, with one doc apiece. The best stat of all? Forty-eight docs were from first-time filmmakers.
While all of this constitutes good news for the documentary and independent film scenes, one should approach all of the merriment around Hot Docs--and other documentary fests this year--with caution. True, this is clearly a landmark year in what is now one of Toronto's iconic festivals. But it's also certain that funding sources for docs are drying up around the world as the market for TV viewers and advertising dollars continues to fracture and governments grow increasingly reluctant to fund arty projects or prop up threatened public-minded broadcasters. And without TV dollars or arts council grants, many of the docs selected for this festival would never have been made.
Working to address the dodgy funding situation worldwide, the Toronto Documentary Forum's (TDF) director, Elizabeth Radshaw, "asked producers to explore and develop their projects' distribution, engagement and interactive strategies as part of their submissions." Thirty projects were pitched over two days, as well as an improvised submission chosen out of a "mountie's hat."
With the projects a mixed bag dealing with subjects as diverse as the traumatic and dramatic lives of height-challenged females (Tall Girls), the impact on the continent of soccer's first African World Cup (Africa10) and the gay-related reason behind the killing that started Nazi Gemany's viciously anti-Semitic Kristallnacht (Nice Jewish Boy), the TDF is always exciting. It transports us out of the quotidian festival experience and into a theater of dreams. For two days, the passions of filmmakers are played out in a room full of friends, rivals and potential backers.
The big winner of this year's TDF was doubtlessly Yung Chang, the acclaimed director of Up the Yangtze. He came in with two projects, China Heavyweight and The Fruit Hunters, both of which scored well with the 450 industry observers and 120 commissioning editors attending the sessions. Doc guru and China Heavyweight producer Peter Wintonick, of Manufacturing Consent and IDFA's Talks acclaim, started the pitch posing as a boxing announcer, standing towards the middle of the stage, swaying and intoning "in this corner, the light heavyweight champ Yung Chang will present his latest documentary project."
Wintonick got laughs and everyone's attention for a film about amateur boxers in China training under the watchful eye of a pugilistic Buddhist master for the 2012 Olympics. Among the enthusiastic respondents to the project was Patricia Finneran of the Sundance Institute, who started the next pitch (for Jonathan Stack's dot.com doc proposal Connected) by saying that "it's unfair to follow Peter." Wintonick observed a few days after the pitch that "there's never enough money, but we should be ready to go into production by the fall."
Yung did even better with EyeSteelFilm's producer Mila Aung-Thwin for The Fruit Hunters, which will investigate the seductive smells, colors and tastes in exotic fruit--and the people who are fighting to preserve them around the globe. Again, there was a gimmick: three commissioning editors were given a fruit to eat, which changes a human's taste buds from tart to sweet for a few minutes. At the end of the pitch, which included the possibility of having the film be a "doc Avatar" shot in 3D by potential producing partner the National Film Board of Canada (NFB), the trio was asked to eat lemons. Each pronounced the taste to resemble lemonade.
The Fruit Hunters won the Canwest-Hot Docs TDF Pitch Prize, which includes $40,000 (Canadian) and is voted upon by the international commissioning editors at the Forum. A second prize of $15,000, awarded by the NFB for "digital development" was given to The House that Herman Built, a project with an intriguing cross-media element. The story of a friendship between artist Jackie Sumell and Herman Wallace, a Black Panther radical imprisoned in solitary confinement for 38 years has developed creatively over the past eight years. Sumell worked with Wallace to come up with his dream house and that plan has turned into a potential community space for youths in New Orleans, Herman's hometown. Charmingly, the project also garnered the Cuban Hat, a "real cash, no strings attached" prize by colleagues attending the TDF. A total of $1013.67 was donated, including $500CD from EyeSteelFilm, $18 US, 5 Czech koruna, 2 Israeli shekels, 38 Malaysian cents, 20 pence and a Toronto transit token. (The design for Herman Wallace's project will be interactive and available online; for more information, check http://www.hermanshouse.org/)
The festival, which drew record attendance numbers of over 136,000, gave its Audience Award to Thunder Soul, Mark Landsman's film about the 35th year reunion of Houston, Texas's all-black and very funky Kashmere High School Band. Israeli filmmaker Yael Hersonski garnered the Best International Feature Award and $10,000 for A Film Unfinished, a beautifully realized deconstruction of a never-released Nazi propaganda film about Warsaw's Jewish ghetto. Laura Poitras garnered $5,000 and a Special Jury Prize for The Oath, her film about Osama bin Laden's former driver, as well as his brother-in-law, who was a prisoner of the US in Guantanamo.
Director Shelley Saywell, like Poitras, fearlessly took on a Muslim subject for her Best Canadian Feature Award-winner, In the Name of the Family. The powerful, vérité-style doc investigates honor killings, when fundamentalist fathers kill their daughters for becoming Westernized in their dress and beliefs. The jury, which gave Saywell $15,000, stated in part, "We were all moved by the young teenage Muslim women struggling to figure out their own identities, caught between two opposing worlds, to whom it gave voice."
The Special Jury Prize for a Canadian Feature, which is accompanied by $10,000, was given to Oscar-winner John Zaritsky's Leave Them Laughing, a moving portrait of feisty comic and cabaret singer Carla Zilbersmith, who is a dying of ALS (Lou Gehrig's Disease). Israeli filmmaker Tomer Heymann won the Best Mid-Length Award (and $3000) for I Shot My Love, about the challenging relationship between a German and Jew. Swede Jonas Odell garnered the best Short Prize for Tussilago, an animated doc set in the radical 1970s about a young woman's relationship to a German terrorist.
Last, but hardly least, the HBO Emerging Artist Award went to Jeff Maimberg for the eerie and moving Marwencol about Mark Hogencamp, who has re-created his life after a terrible beating through the creation of his own miniature world, populated by Barbie dolls, GIs and Nazis, all of which he has re-painted and re-imagined.
Based in Toronto, Marc Glassman is editor of Point of View magazine and Montage magazine.
Tribeca Film Festival: Docs Dominate Downtown
By Kathy Brew
The annual Tribeca Film Festival, launched in 2002 to help stimulate downtown recovery after 9/11, hardly occurs in Tribeca anymore. This year, most of the screenings took place a bit further uptown, in either the East Village or Chelsea. The festival is often critiqued as not really having a solid identity, of being all over the map with its wide range of films and populist programming that offers something for everyone. Despite the critique, the fact is, documentaries are one of the strengths at Tribeca, and this year's festival, which ran from April 21 to May 2, offered a diverse selection.
As with any film festival, even within a given genre, there was quite a range of themes and topics explored. Somehow my filter tended more towards the portraits and arts-related docs, although I did see a few of the social issue ones, as well.
April 22, the 40th anniversary of Earth Day, was an appropriate date for the North American premiere of Climate of Change, an eco-doc that puts a somewhat different spin on the state of the global environmental crisis. Director Brian Hill presents a sampling of ordinary people from around the world--from India to Papua New Guinea to London to West Virginia to Africa--who are all making a difference, taking steps towards ending global warming in their respective communities.
At the panel that followed the screening, Hill (who almost didn't make it due to the international flight snafus resulting from the Icelandic volcano eruption) spoke about wanting to avoid "the apocalyptic tendency" in some environmental documentaries, and show real people taking steps in their own lives to make a difference and affect positive change. The filmmaker was joined on stage by Christopher Gebhardt of TakePart (whose parent company, Participant Media, helped fund Climate of Change), actress Jessica Alba and filmmaker Sebastian Copeland, whose doc Into the Cold also played at Tribeca, for a discussion about global climate change and community activism.
Climate of Change is also part of Tribeca's new distribution initiative--Tribeca Film-that was launched with this year's festival, offering 12 films to viewers via VOD as well as to theatergoers for a weeklong run at Tribeca Cinemas. Climate of Change opens May 12. The festival also initiated Tribeca Virtual this year, which enabled film lovers from around the world to screen films and watch panels on the Web.
Several of the docs I saw won awards at the festival. Monica & David, the Best Documentary Feature winner, chronicles the love between two people with Down syndrome and the impact of this relationship on their families, exploring the tricky fine line between support and over-protection that confronts adults living with disabilities. The film, directed by Monica's cousin, Alexandra Codina, in her directorial and producing debut, garnered some initial support in 2007 through Tribeca's All Access program and will have its broadcast premiere on HBO in October during National Disability Employment Awareness Month. The fact that Codina is part of the family clearly allowed for access and intimacy that would be hard to achieve from an outsider.
Bobby Sheehan's Arias with a Twist, which won Third Place in the Audience Awards category, focuses on the collaboration between cabaret and drag artist Joey Arias and master puppeteer Basil Twist, whose groundbreaking 2008 show of the same title brought them the biggest success of their careers. But beyond this collaboration, the film is a celebration of the creative process and the inventive, outrageous downtown art scene of New York from the 1970s onward, and includes wonderful archival material featuring never-before-seen footage of many downtown luminaries, including Andy Warhol, Jim Henson, Keith Haring, Grace Jones and Divine.
The Woodmans, directed by C. Scott Willis, took the award for Best New York Documentary, and brings viewers into the lives of the artistic Woodman family, whose best known family member, Francesca, committed suicide at age 22 in New York City in 1981. Through the creative use of her journal entries, experimental videos, dynamic photographs and interviews with her parents and her brother--all artists -- and others who actually knew her (as opposed to art world authorities), Willis brings us into the life of this young artist in a very intimate, visceral and tragic way. Thirty years later, Francesca is acknowledged as one of the late 20th century's most recognized photographers.
Francesca Woodman: Self-Portrait Talking to Vince (1975-1978). From C. Scott Willis' The Woodmans. Courtesy of Betty and George Woodman
I also attended a few of the panels and industry talks. One dealt with the future of film distribution, featuring filmmakers, sales agents and distributors in a discussion about how to enable independent film and filmmakers to reach audiences and make money in the digital landscape. Distribution is the key issue these days, and is in such a state of flux and evolution. The idea of festivals being used as the launch for a film is no longer the way things really work. The fact is, the audience is going to tell us how they want to see films. And so it's of the utmost importance to know your audience--who they are, where and how they're watching, and how you're going to reach that community. Clearly social networks and viral marketing are important elements in the current landscape--a kind of transmedia approach. The sky has fallen, and the audience has changed, with an expectation of a participatory kind of engagement.
Another panel featured a conversation between Geoff Gilmore, Tribeca Institute's chief creative officer, and Sheila Nevins, head of HBO Documentaries-and described by Gilmore as "the de Medici of TV" and the "Dominatrix of Docs," since she's been at the forefront of exposing innovative new documentary films to a wider audience for over 25 years. Nevins discussed her passion for the genre and shared some insights on the future of documentary filmmaking. For her, television is theater, and real people are actors in their own life. She discussed the importance of documentaries in portraying the basic truth of the human condition and how changing societal norms and new technology are both contributing to increased opportunities for filmmakers to tell stories differently or with a new emphasis. Nevins also talked about the fear that she's programming for herself, but that she tries very hard to "feel the pulse." At the same time, she doesn't want to sell out for that fast acceptance of "what's now." The main thing is, the story is what comes first.
My final Tribeca event was the anthology film Freakonomics, the closing night gala film. I attended a second screening the following day, the last in the Tribeca Talks: After the Movie series that included a post-screening discussion with many of the filmmakers and Stephen Dubner, one of the writers of the best-selling book on which the film is based. Like the book, the film examines human behavior and popular culture as it relates to economics through some provocative and (in some cases) humorous case studies.
Accomplished documentary filmmakers Alex Gibney(Taxi to the Dark Side), Heidi Ewing and Rachel Grady (Jesus Camp), Eugene Jarecki (Why We Fight) and Morgan Spurlock (Super Size Me) bring their unique styles to the short documentary form, with stories ranging from corruption in the sumo wrestling world, to whether financial incentives can inspire high school students to study more, to an exploration of the sociological significance of baby names, to a theory that links the drop in crime rate to Roe v. Wade. Seth Gordon (The King of Kong) created the interstitial segments, helping to weave together the disparate short docs, offering comments and context from authors Steven Levitt and Stephen Dubner. Having the authors comment and banter among themselves between the different pieces makes the film feel more like four short films strung together with commentary, like something made for public affairs television. It feels more journalistic, rather than cinematic, despite the strong individual short docs. After all, the whole conceit stems from a book, and yet the film doesn't really allow for getting into any of the stories in depth. This may be one case where the book will be more successful than the film adaptation. The film will be released by Magnolia Pictures sometime this fall, so audiences will soon be able to weigh in for themselves.
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.
Sponsored by the IDA, the "Digital Documentarian: DIY All the Way" panel at the Digital Hollywood conference in Santa Monica on May 3 considered several timely subjects: how the availability of digital cameras has impacted production; the use of the Internet in promotion and distribution; and how subjects, even as serious as mountaintop removal coal mining, can be made accessible to audiences via online initiatives like Second Life.
Although it was not possible to cover all aspects of the impact of digital technology on documentary filmmaking, after clips from each filmmaker, the forum raised some ideas and participants posed some questions. Adam Chapnick, IDA Board Vice President and CEO of Distribber, moderated the panel, which included the following filmmakers: Christoph Baaden (Hood to Coast, a sports film that covers the world's largest relay running race); Keven McAlester (The Dungeon Masters; You're Gonna Miss Me); Sally Rubin, who has created a companion interactive game in Second Life to her film Deep Down that further exposes the realities of mountaintop removal; Jason Spingarn-Koff, whose documentary Life 2.0, about people immersed in Second Life virtual reality, was shot partly in the virtual world, and partly in real life; Adam Del Deo (Every Little Step); Scott Hamilton Kennedy (The Garden), now in post-production on Fame High; and Christopher Quinn (God Grew Tired of Us), who is the process of opening a documentary theater in Los Angeles.
For Christophe Baaden, the key to getting Hood to Coast made was understanding the core audience for the film. "Before we started filming, we talked to distributors, specifically about the sports hook," Baaden said. "We were able to raise money because of the large built-in audience." He credits other doc filmmakers for sharing information on DVD, rental and theatrical numbers for other sports films to show the market potential of Hood to Coast to investors.
Adam Del Deo also stressed the importance of using whatever camera is available (you can't always afford HD) to capture those vérité moments that are so important. "Don't be paranoid about technology," he stressed. "Just capture it; the look can be fixed at end of process."
Jason Spingarn-Koff espoused the contrarian's viewpoint: While digital cameras provide a low bar to entry, he has no illusions that digital filmmaking is cheap; he couldn't make money while making his film, which took three years to make.
Sally Rubin explained how pitching and then creating a Second Life component allowed her team to make their film. "It's not enough to just have a good idea and a compelling story," she contended. "We wanted to make a film that would get made and have people see it; we came up with a gimmick and a way to connect with the story in Kentucky." Funder ITVS loved the idea and provided funding; the filmmakers then leveraged for additional funding and an upcoming PBS national broadcast. "We had to think well beyond cinema vérité: how to get the story out there and impact people," Rubin noted.
Keven McAlester agreed that while it is much easier these days to make a film because of digital technology, the bar has been raised. "In terms of technology, it's forced filmmakers to consider creativity and imagination when making films," he pointed out. Scott Kennedy countered that his film The Garden was almost completely a vérité film (it did have some Adobe After Effects). "As filmmakers, you don't want style to outweigh substance," he cautioned. "Story has to work with technology."
Because of his own experience with theatrical distribution and finding that docs are low on the totem pole in the theatrical world, Christopher Quinn is working on launching a documentary theater in Los Angeles. He is currently investigating theaters and expects to open within the year. "It's a reaction to selling a film: distributors are running the game," he maintained. "It's now about packaging the deal: roll films out quickly to take advantage of press, and the theatrical window is often by-passed." He also wants to have a place for the doc community that is not just online. But the panelists were quick to mention websites that did support doc filmmakers including http://www.d-word.com, http://www.doculink.org/ and https://shootingpeople.org.
The second documentary-specific panel of the day, "Crowd Funding, Alternative Distribution, Community Building and Social Marketing," was moderated ably by David Straus, CEO of Withoutabox. Participating and giving a glimpse of how documentary filmmakers can utilize Internet tools to build awareness, raise funds and promote and distribute their films were: Danae Ringelmann, co-founder, IndieGoGo, an online funding platform for indie filmmakers; David Gale, senior vice president for new media at MTV, an in-house incubator for new programming ideas; Sara Pollack, entertainment marketing manager for YouTube's Screening Room; Christian Gaines, director of festivals at Withoutabox; and Laura Beatty, vice president of marketing and distribution at Brave New Films.
Straus asked audience members if they were filmmakers or distributors. To those who answered as filmmakers, he admonished, "The first step in getting your film out is to identify yourself as a distributor." Filmmakers already have many tools to get their documentaries out. Here's a sampling of advice from the panelists on how to start that process:
Laura Beatty: "Look at a Facebook fan equally as an e-mail address. Message what you're doing as filmmakers to fans. Get a following based on what you're doing. Once you start the process of filmmaking, start messaging."
Sara Pollack: "Although YouTube is used most commonly as a platform for short films, we are now experimenting with feature films in an ad-supported model. With VOD [launched in January 2010] and a heavily curated sponsorship section, there are now a variety of ways to monetize on YouTube. All films and filmmakers should be on Facebook, then immediately share when you post to YouTube. Think of uploading a film, like a film's [traditional theatrical] opening weekend."
Danae Ringelmann: "Marketing is actually free now on the Internet. Use Facebook, Twitter and YouTube to get out into world; it is imperative as filmmakers to put on your marketer hat. Use the Internet to engage audiences earlier; start building a following early [by posting clips]. You don't have to give your entire film away, but production is the new promotion and a way to build buzz."
David Gale: "Whether you're big media or just starting, you still have to get an audience interested in what you're doing. You have to look at your film as an immersive experience; consider new platforms like the one-million-selling iPad. [Gale used MTV's Five Dollar Cover on the Memphis music scene as an example.] As filmmakers, you have to start to think outside of linear space--how to explore content, what information you want to convey."
Christian Gaines: "I've see film festivals change a lot: they are now experimenting with new forms of distribution as it relates to their brand. Formerly, there was a big focus on being first and only, with premieres. Now, with the advent of non-linear, that's not as important to film festivals these days. With VOD, iTunes, Amazon, Netflix, and pay as you go, compared to renting and buying DVDs, this is all a new world for documentaries and specialty films, and in its early stages. My advice: Learn everything about this space, which will give you a competitive edge."
Danae Ringelmann: "Get your [distribution] windows ready to go at same time; your ability to make money is in the robustness of your Fans, Friends and Followers. Audience-building and marketing is now the filmmakers' job. And you must outreach to organizations, bloggers, influencers, all those people who are going to get you to your fan base."
Christian Gaines: "Consider IMDB.com as a marketing engine and information site. Filmmakers need to take a film's title page seriously and add photos and videos."
And a post-session comment from filmmaker Lyn Goldfarb: "The session was really valuable in making filmmakers aware of the change in distribution and marketing around us and what we can do. There's a sea change in awareness that filmmakers have to come to grips with: the marriage of us as content producers and technology, all beyond broadcast and theatrical."
Kathy A. McDonald is a writer based in Los Angeles.
Babies, which documents the first year in the life of four babies around the world, pulled in an impressive $2,161,460 at the box office over Mother's Day weekend. As previously reported, Focus Features, which is distributing the Thomas Balmès film, spearheaded a hefty marketing campaign involving ten partners on board to get the word out
Of course, success breeds jealousy, and the California State Labor Commission is investigating whether inclusion of one of the babies, Hattie, a San Franciscan, may have violated child labor laws; for more, check this report on Moviefone.com.
Babies is actually the second doc to break the $1M mark in 2010; Oceans, the DisneyNature doc from Jacques Perrin and Jacques Cluzard, has now grossed $16,131,584, earning a number seven spot on the highest grossing docs of all time, according to BoxOfficeMojo.com.
Exit Through the Gift Shop, the doc-or-faux-doc from Banksy, is knocking at the $1M door at $932,497, and rounding out the top five grossers of 2010 are the Oscar-nominated The Most Dangerous Man in America: Daniel Ellsberg and the Pentagon Papers, at $423,411, and Frederick Wiseman's La Danse: The Paris Opera Ballet, which was actually released in late 2009, but is still playing in theaters around the country. The film has grossed $339,790.
And what do these five docs have in common? A French connection: Balmès, Perrin and Cluzard all hail from France, as does Theirry Guetta, the unwitting subject/Baedeker of Exit Through the Gift Shop. La Danse is self-explanatory, and the Pentagon Papers addressed America's involvement in Vietnam, a former French colony. And what does this all mean? Je ne sais pas. Probablement rien.
As reported the The New York Times, a federal judge in Manhattan on Thursday ruled favor of Chevron in its bid to subpoena footage from filmmaker Joe Berlinger's 2009 documentary Crude, which chronicles a lawsuit filed by Ecuadorian residents against Chevron over the oil company's involvement in the contamination of the local water supply. 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.
In an interview with Jennifer Merin of About.com that took place prior to his going to court this past week, Berlinger said, "Our opposition has nothing to do with Chevron's position regarding issues raised in the lawsuit depicted in the film, but rather represents our concern about this as an unnecessary breach of our First Amendment rights--not only as they pertain to Crude, but also with long term implications for investigative documentary filmmaking, which represents a singularly important form of in-depth reporting in the contemporary media forum."