Editor's Note: Music by Prudence, which eanred the Academy Award for Best Documentary Short Subject, airs May 12 on HBO. Here's an interview we conducted with director Roger Ross Williams in the days leading up to the Oscar telecast on March 7.
In the days leading up to the Oscar-cast, we at IDA will be introducing--and in some cases, re-introducing--our community to the filmmakers whose work has been nominated for an Academy Award for either Best Documentary Feature or Best Documentary Short Subject. As we did in conjunction with the DocuWeekTM Theatrical Documentary Showcase that we presented last summer, we have 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, and the impact of an Academy Award nomination.
So, to continue this series of conversations, here is Roger Ross Williams, director/producer of Music by Prudence, which is nominated in the Documentary Short Subject category.
Synopsis: Prudence lives in Zimbabwe, and for a long time almost no one knew about that hauntingly beautiful voice. No one knew the strong, resilient woman that owned it. They were unable to overlook her body: crippled and deformed with a debilitating condition called arthrogryposis.
When Prudence was born, her paternal grandmother wanted her dead. In Zimbabwe, disabled children are believed to be the result of witchcraft. In extreme cases, families kill them--to remove the "curse" from their family. Prudence's mother kept her and fed her. Cast out of her husband's (Prudence's father's) home, she brought the baby to her own mother's rural home. Four years later, she left. Prudence was raised by her maternal grandmother, Rachel, who taught her to sing. But when Prudence turned 7, Rachel knew she couldn't school her, so she sent her to live with her father and his new family.
There, Prudence fell prey to neglect and isolation, in an unloving and unsupportive environment.
But there was a haven from this pain: King George VI School & Centre for Children with Physical Disabilities (KG6), which offered her a scholarship, and her new life as a singer/songwriter began--first as a student, and now as a teacher.
Music by Prudence traces the path of this young woman, and her remarkable transcendence from a world of hatred and superstition into one of music, love and possibility.
IDA: How did you get started in documentary filmmaking?
Roger Ross Williams: As a child I was never very popular, and I lived in my own fantasy world. I escaped by writing short stories, which eventually evolved into documenting other people's stories as a television producer/director for Sundance Channel, Discovery Channel and PBS. But I've always wanted a bigger canvas, and independent documentary film has provided that.
IDA: What inspired you to make Music by Prudence?
RRW: I grew up with a single working-class mother who was a maid, and there were many struggles in my own childhood. While Prudence's struggles were far worse than mine, her resilient spirit, her determination to survive and overcome obstacles, and her message of hope inspired me.
IDA: What were some of the challenges and obstacles in making this film, and how did you overcome them?
RRW: Everything was a challenge in making this film: Shooting in a country with the highest rate of inflation in the world, with sporadic electricity, water and basic resources--all with the backdrop of a violent political election. I can't tell you the details, but it's a miracle this movie ever got made.
IDA: How did your vision for the film change over the course of the pre-production, production and post-production processes?
RRW: As the film developed, so did the focus of the story. While I had originally set out to include other members of Prudence's band as main characters, as all filmmakers know, the story you set out to shoot isn't always the story you end up with. Prudence's story shone through in a way that was illuminating and enlightening.
IDA: As you've screened Music by Prudence--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?
RRW: Audiences have been blown away. Some of the words I get are "blown away," "inspired" and "entertained." I was most surprised by the intensity of the reaction to her story. I think the intense reaction is partly because seeing this powerful woman living her life so proudly and fully with a severe disability in a country that has experienced such profound economic devastation allows audience members to reflect deeply on the blessings in their own lives, and awakens the passions of their own possibly dormant dreams.
IDA: Where were you when you first heard about your Academy Award nomination?
RRW: I got together with a bunch of friends on the morning of the announcements. My first reaction was to call Prudence in Zimbabwe to tell her she was coming to the Oscars. For someone like Prudence, who has had such a challenging life, to finally be recognized for her talent and her beauty, and to roll down the red carpet is beyond amazing to me.
IDA: What docs or docmakers have served as inspirations for you?
RRW: Albert Maysles, because Salesman is one of my all-time favorite films, and he's a genius. Barbara Kopple, because she has such deep empathy for her subjects, takes real risks and she's brilliant. And any documentarian who takes risks and pushes the boundaries of the genre to new heights.
Music by Prudence will be screening Saturday, March 6, at 9:00 a.m. at the Writers Guild of America Theater in Beverly Hills, as part of DocuDays LA, and Saturday, March 6, at 1:30 p.m. at the Paley Center for Media in New York City as part of DocuDays NY.
For more information on DocuDays LA, click here.
For more information on DocuDays NY, click here.
DocuWeeks 2009 alums Severe Clear (Dir.: Kristian Fraga) and Kimjongilia (Dir.: NC Heikin) open in theaters this month, as does IDA Fiscal Sponsoree See What I'm Saying (Dir.: Hilari Scarl). Also on tap for March are a couple of Hollywood-oriented docs: Peter Hanson and Paul Robert Herman's Tales from the Script, about the art and business-and travails-of the screenwriting trade; and Don Hahn's Waking Sleeping Beauty, a chronicle of golden age of animated blockbusters, from The Little Mermaid through The Lion King. New York's Film Forum brackets the month with Felix Moeller's Harlan: In the Shadow of Jew Süss, about Third Reich era filmmaker Veit Harlan and his troubled and troubling legacy; and The Sun Behind the Clouds, from Ritu Sarin and Tenzing Sonam, about Tibet's ongoing struggle for independence.
Opening: March 3
Venue: Film Forum/New York City
Film: Harlan: In the Shadow of Jew Süss
Dir./Wtr.: Felix Moeller
Distributor: Zeitgeist Films
http://www.zeitgeistfilms.com/harlan/
The infamous Jew Süss (1940), directed by Veit Harlan, and produced under Joseph Goebbels's Ministry of Propaganda, was the Nazis' most vicious anti-Semitic film. A drama set in 18th century Germany, it purports to tell the true story of a Jew who dresses incognito (as a Christian), corrupts a local Duke, restructures the government to bleed the people through punitive taxes, and forces himself upon a beautiful, married Christian woman (played by Kristina Söderbaum, Harlan's third wife). At the war's end, the filmmaker was prosecuted for crimes against humanity, but acquitted. Today, his children and grandchildren consider his legacy and the hard questions it continues to pose. Some have changed their name and left Germany. Others claim he was forced to direct the film and deride it as loathsome, crudely-made propaganda. Harlan is a fascinating exploration into the murky waters of a family's unique, disturbing relationship to one of history's worst crimes.
Opening: March 12
Venue: Angelika Film Center/New York City; Gaslamp Stadium/San Diego
Film: Severe Clear
Dir./Wtr.: Kristian Fraga
Distributor: Sirk Productions
http://severeclearthemovie.com/wordpress/
Severe Clear is based on the memoir by First Lieutenant Mike Scotti as well as video footage shot by him and other members of 1st Battalion, 4th Marines on the outset of the 2003 invasion of Iraq.
Opening: March 12
Venue: Quad Cinemas/New York City
Film: Tales from the Script
Dir.: Peter Hanson
Prods./Wtrs.: Peter Hanson, Paul Robert Herman
Distributor: First Run Features
http://www.talesfromthescript.com/
Few modern art forms are as misunderstood as the craft of screenwriting, because the collaborative nature of filmmaking and the dominance of celebrity actors and directors obscures the contributions of screenwriters. So if you're a writer eager to break into Hollywood or simply a movie buff excited to hear the stories behind your favorite films, this unique nonfiction book/documentary film project will captivate you with insights into the wild and mysterious world of Hollywood screenwriting.
Enjoy inside conversations with the men and women who dreamed up some of the world's most beloved movie characters. Learn how they surmounted the incredible odds against breaking into Hollywood, and discover the myriad ways in which they transformed their ideas into films that topped the box office, launched the careers of major stars, and earned them Oscars. The stories behind the storytellers are as exciting, surprising, and inspirational as the narratives of their celebrated films.
In addition to name-brand talents, Tales from the Script features newcomers whose stories prove that talented people can write their way into the top ranks of the movie industry.
Tales from the Script puts readers into the trenches of the Hollywood development process through colorful stories about Harrison Ford, Morgan Freeman, Adam Sandler, Joel Silver, Steven Spielberg, Martin Scorsese, and many more. Entertaining, startling, and uplifting, this collection is a pure pleasure for those who dream of writing the Great American Screenplay--it's a master class taught by those who made that dream come true.
Opening: March 18
Venue: Egyptian Theatre/Los Angeles
Film: See What I'm Saying
Dir./Prod: Hilari Scarl
Distributor: Sprint
http://www.seewhatimsayingmovie.com/
Deaf people can do anything but hear. But an all deaf rock band? An international deaf comic famous around the world but unknown to hearing people? A modern-day Buster Keaton who teaches at Juilliard but is currently homeless? A hard-of-hearing singer who is considered "not deaf enough?"
See What I'm Saying follows the journeys of four extraordinary deaf entertainers over the course of a single year as their stories intertwine and culminate in some of the most important events of their lives.
See What I'm Saying is the first American film to be fully subtitled for the country's 30 million
deaf and hard-of-hearing viewers and opens the door into deaf culture for those who are "signing impaired."
Deaf culture is unique. Out of the nearly 30 million deaf and hard-of-hearing Americans, only 10 percent have a parent who is deaf, making deaf culture one of the only heritages in the world that is rarely handed down from parents to children. Deaf culture is composed of a community of people who consider
deafness to be a difference in human experience rather than a disability. There are deaf entertainers within the community who perform mostly for deaf audiences, many of whom are trying to cross over to the mainstream. This film is about four of those entertainers.
See What I'm Saying is a powerful and unique look at deaf entertainers that touches on the human nature of these unsung artists. Its universal appeal transcends the four intertwined stories,
allowing audiences to peek inside deaf culture and see this vibrant community in a fascinating new light.
Opening: March 19
Venue: Cinema Village/New York City
Film: Kimjongilia
Dir.: NC Heikin
Distributor: Lorber Films
http://www.kimjongiliathemovie.com/index1.html
North Korea is one of the world's most isolated nations. For 60 years, North Koreans have been governed by a totalitarian regime that controls all information entering and leaving the country. A cult of personality surrounds its two recent leaders: first, Kim Il Sung, and now his son, Kim Jong Il. For Kim Jong Il's 46th birthday, a hybrid red begonia named kimjongilia was created, symbolizing wisdom, love, justice and peace. The film draws its name from the rarefied flower and reveals the extraordinary stories told by survivors of North Korea's vast prison camps, of devastating famine and of every kind of repression. All of the interviews featured took place in South Korea, where the defectors now live. Their experiences are interspersed with archival footage of North Korean propaganda films and original scenes that illuminate the contours of daily life for a people whose every action is monitored and whose every thought could bring official retribution. Along with the survivors' stories, Kimjongilia examines the mass illusion possible under totalitarianism and the human rights abuses required to maintain that illusion. Ultimately, the defectors are inspiring, for despite the extremes they have suffered, they still hold out hope for a better future.
Opening: March 19
Film: Neil Young Trunk Show
Dir./Prod: Jonathan Demme
Distributor: Abramarama
http://www.trunkshowmovie.com/
Few musical artists have shown as much interest in cataloging their history as Neil Young. Since Rust Never Sleeps in 1979, Young has been at the center of ten concert films. Oscar-winning director Jonathan Demme has always exhibited a passion for music in his films and reset the standard for concert films with 1984's Stop Making Sense. The two men, both in their 60s, came together for the 2006 release Heart of Gold, which chronicled a Young concert in a historic theater as elegantly and precisely as a well-rehearsed curtain call. But Young and Demme never rest, and three years later, they are back, chronicling yet another tour. This time, the style is rough, raw and relentlessly rock 'n'
roll. Nine cameras shooting two shows in three formats (HDCAM, HDV and Super-8mm) create the ultimate Neil Young video bootleg video. The duo plans on completing their trilogy in 2012.
--David Poland
Opening: March 26
Venue: Quad Cinema/New York City
Film: Dancing Across Borders
Dir./Prod: Anne Bass
Distributor: First Run Features
http://www.dancingacrossborders.net/
From the serene countryside of Southeast Asia to the halls of New York's School of American Ballet to the stage of the Pacific Northwest Ballet in Seattle, Dancing Across Borders peeks behind the scenes into the world of dance and chronicles the intimate and triumphant story of a boy who was discovered, and who only much later discovered all that he had in himself.
Opening: March 26
Film: Waking Sleeping Beauty
Dir.: Don Hahn
Prod.: Peter Schneider
Distributor: Disney Films
http://www.wakingsleepingbeautymovie.com/
By the mid-1980s, the fabled animation studios of Walt Disney had fallen on hard times. The artists were polarized between newcomers hungry to innovate and old timers not yet ready to relinquish control. The conditions produced a series of box office flops and pessimistic forecasts: maybe the best days of animation were over. Maybe the public didn't care. Only a miracle or a magic spell could produce a happy ending. Waking Sleeping Beauty is no fairy tale. It's the true story of how Disney regained its magic with a staggering output of hits-The Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin, The Lion King and more--over a 10-year period.
Opening: March 31
Venue: Film Forum/New York City
Film: The Sun Behind the Clouds: Tibet's Struggle for Freedom
Dirs./Prods.: Ritu Sarin, Tenzing Sonam
Distributor: Self-Distributed
http://thesunbehindtheclouds.com/
Fifty years have passed since the fall of Tibet. The Dalai Lama, Tibet's spiritual and temporal leader, has lived in exile for most of his life, trying to find a peaceful solution to the Tibet issue by giving up the goal of independence and reaching a compromise with China. But his efforts have failed to yield any positive outcome, and his people are becoming more desperate.
March 2008. Tibet erupts as the biggest uprising since China took control in 1959, spreads across the country. The Tibetan people, for one brief moment, demonstrate to the world their unhappiness under Chinese rule and their desire for freedom. But China cracks down hard on the protests. It is also the year of the Beijing Olympics.
Even as the unrest spreads in Tibet, exiled Tibetans in India, frustrated by the lack of political progress, set out on a march to their homeland, convinced that this is the only action they can take to support their
countrymen. Meanwhile, there is a huge groundswell of international sympathy for the Tibetan cause.
This is a year of dramatic possibilities for Tibet. Can the Dalai Lama's strategy of non-violence and compromise based on his Buddhist beliefs finally make a breakthrough?
In The Sun Behind the Clouds: Tibet's Struggle for Freedom, Tibetan filmmaker Tenzing Sonam and his partner, Ritu Sarin, take a uniquely Tibetan perspective on the trials and tribulations of the Dalai Lama and his people as they continue their struggle for freedom in the face of determined suppression by one of the world's biggest and most powerful nations. The filmmakers had intimate access to the Dalai Lama and followed him over the course of an eventful year, which included the 2008 protests in Tibet, the international response to it, the Beijing Olympics, and the breakdown in talks between his representatives and the Chinese government.
Set against this backdrop, the film explores the interplay between the personal and the historic, spirituality and politics, and the tension between the Dalai Lama's efforts to find a peaceful solution to the Tibet situation based on compromise and dialogue, and the impatience of a younger generation of Tibetans who are ready to take a more confrontational course.
Sundance, Berlin, Cannes, Venice, Toronto--the high mantra of any filmmaker thinking about his or her film's festival run. Where to world premiere? Which programmer to trust with watching a rough cut or work-in-progress? From whom to seek advice about the best possible rollout, domestically and internationally? Which festivals will provide the largest audiences, the most optimal screening times, the PR and marketing that will get people to buy tickets and show up to the film? Which festivals provide round-trip transportation, accommodations, per diems for food and drink, and other costs associated with taking a film on the road? Do you consider this your theatrical exhibition and ask for screening fees and other related costs? What kinds of networking opportunities will you have with other filmmakers, industry executives and commissioning editors? What value, if any, will playing at certain festivals offer for your professional future?
The considerations and deliberations can be endless, aggravating, bewildering--and not just for the novice filmmaker. But as Jim Browne, Tribeca Film Festival programmer and principal of Argot Pictures, a New York-based independent distribution and production company, says, "Your festival run is part of your film's release strategy--essentially the launch of your film out into the marketplace. So, have a strategy!"
The Sundance Film Festival is one of the few venues that can now offer some kind of built-in strategy for a select number of films that debut there. Sundance Film Festival USA, a traveling exhibition in which the Park City, Utah fest brings direct-from-festival filmmakers and their films to theaters in eight cities, premiered during the 2010 festival. The news out of Park City wasn't a total surprise, since talk of just this kind of extra-festival exhibition scenario had been bandied about in programming and filmmaking circles for a while, spearheaded for the most part by Geoffrey Gilmore, who left his leadership role at Sundance last year to creatively oversee Tribeca Film Enterprises.
These conversations center on the idea that film festivals could possibly play other roles besides a showcase for fresh, innovative work or a platform for filmmakers to meet potential audiences and fans. But can, or should, festivals act as hybrid discovery showcases, taking some films directly to cinemas? Should they be quasi-distribution mechanisms--or distribution enablers, if you will? And if so, can they stay true to their core values and missions?
"Festivals struggle in the best of times," says Thom Powers, documentary programmer at the Toronto International Film Festival. "Distribution is not an opportunity that looks like a winning financial one." Lest we forget, festival darlings and best sellers in the marketplace can be two very distinct things. Muddying already muddy waters is not the way forward, for either filmmaker or programmer.
Given that the community has seen a number of significant changes at the helms of many festivals over the past year or so, Documentary wanted to investigate how the current festival model is--or is not--working and, more importantly, what they need to continue to offer to stay viable. What follows is a very circumscribed snapshot of what's happening here in the US (with a couple of significant weigh-ins from the UK and Canada) in terms of how some of the top programmers perceive the terrain. We also spoke to a few filmmakers who have had the beneficial experience of doing a circuit or two.
All of the programmers with whom I spoke believe strongly in bringing festival films out into their communities in a variety of semi-theatrical or full theatrical settings, enabling audiences hungry for new and original fare to get a steady stream of it year ‘round-the opportunity to experience screenings "direct from the festival." In addition to his position in Toronto, Powers runs Stranger Than Fiction, a documentary screening series, out of the IFC Center in New York City. Sean Farnel, head of programming at Hot Docs, founded DocSoup out of Toronto; filmmakers who have screened as part of that series are astounded when they play to a packed house of 1,000 people. The San Francisco Film Society partners with the Sundance Kabuki Theater to bring week-long engagements of festival faves to that city's denizens, and new director Rachel Rosen has plans to expand upon that. There continue to be plans afoot among many other festivals to offer similar curatorial packages to extra-festival communities. Most programmers have already realized the value of that.
In an interview I conducted with Sky Sitney, SilverDocs' artistic director, in February 2009, she stated unequivocally that "Every film is its own universe." In terms of this ongoing conversation, she feels, "It glosses over something critical; what festivals provide are one of the few stable areas where a filmmaker's desire to connect with audiences is met." Filmmaker Havana Marking concurs: "The one thing I have learned from my festival experience with Afghan Star is that every film is different, every festival is different, and that a personalized approach to distribution and the circuit is required for each."
One grows up fast on the festival circuit, learning an infinite array of lessons and cautionary tales to take into the next go-round, and that's the best thing to come out of it. Everyone acknowledges that the filmmakers drive the circuit. They are the content-providers; they are the artists looking for support and community and some sort of infrastructure into which they can pour their deepest ambitions, and meet people who can help them further their careers. In essence, this is what the best festivals currently provide, isn't it? The programmers like to think so. Most of them also think it's a bit misguided to keep having conversations wherein a festival run can be thought of as ancillary to a distribution strategy. It is part and parcel of taking a film to market, period--especially if one wants theatrical play.
But to throw something over the transom willy-nilly and hope for the best is naïve, and gives a festival acceptance or rejection far too much weight since, as Withoutabox's director of festivals, Christian Gaines, puts it, "Any one person's opinion is informed by the reality of his or her own business model." A festival's interests do not necessarily align with those of any given filmmaker submitting to that festival. However, when a filmmaker is given a slot, he or she should have a very specific list of objectives at that festival and then let the directors know what those objectives are. This is the best way to ensure that festivals will keep their focus on creating filmmaker-centric events.
In fact, a filmmaker can do a lot to enhance the festival experience that goes beyond the purview of the festival itself. "When we go to a festival and they are graciously paying our way, I try to take full advantage of being in the city," Ashley Sabin, who co-directs and produces documentaries and runs a distribution company called Carnivalesque Films with her partner, David Redmon. "I try to book one of our other films not playing the festival at another venue, which includes colleges, high schools, organizations and/or museums. With these screenings and the film festival screenings, it's possible for us to sell a healthy amount of DVDs afterward and collect names and contact information to build our fan base."
In the case of David Wilson and Paul Sturtz's True/False Festival out of Columbia, Missouri, filmmakers, programmers, fest directors, and especially the town of Columbia, agree that Wilson and Sturtz have created one of the top festival destinations in the country. Because it is such a highly curated event, in no way driven by market forces or the hottest thing out of anywhere, filmmakers feel a real sense of accomplishment when garnering a slot in the program there. Wilson, a filmmaker himself, maintains that he and Sturtz have no desire to become a market, or coalesce with other markets. What they can provide is a watermark of sorts; in years to come, True/False aims to become more like an old-fashioned record label, with something along the lines of a branded collection that can be sold on various sites, and also perhaps be a fully fleshed-out road show sometime down the line. There are still many ways in which festivals should be allowed to grow and partner financially with filmmakers.
But is moving over to the distribution side of things where those efforts should be concentrated? To be a nonprofit entity while trying to be a market-and-bottom-line-driven one seems foolhardy and counterproductive. Except for those deep-pocketed festivals, it's not a viable business model. Christian Gaines has over 20 years' experience programming and directing festivals, including all the fests run under the American Film Institute banner. He maintains, "Festivals need to go back to their core values--honoring the artist by showing his or her work with the best possible picture and sound and enhancing the audience/filmmaker relationship as much as possible."
Of course, some festivals and markets do provide a pretty close to perfect market experience if your distinct purpose is to do some business-provided that you're thoroughly prepared to do so if you get the privilege to attend a venue like Hot Docs or the Sheffield Doc/Fest in the UK. Heather Croall, Sheffield's director, has been concentrating on cross-platform distribution since 2000. "We introduced the MeetMarket as an alternative to the public pitching forums," she says. "I did a lot of one-to-one research with commissioners to ask them what they wanted, and designed the MeetMarket around the results of that research, taking a user-centered approach to it to make sure it actually did what the buyers wanted. This is why we have designed the MeetMarket as we have, with a very sophisticated online match-making system in advance that makes sure the buyers, in the main, only meet the projects that fall within what they're looking for. We've seen growth so rapidly because of the bespoke treatment we give each project. So far, it's been very successful at getting real deals happening."
Hot Docs stages the largest and most important international pitching forum in North America, and has forged partnership deals with national theatrical distributors and created a DVD brand called "The Hot Docs Collection" with Kinosmith for a few select films coming out of the festival that get moved directly into public exhibition. Observes Farnel, "Given that film festivals appear to be thriving, at least in terms of audience growth, while other sectors, namely distribution and commercial exhibition, flounder, there does seem to be a growing consensus that film festivals could provide a spine to whatever new distribution/exhibition model(s) emerge in the coming years...The core change that is central to all of these so-called hybrid strategies, however, is that a film has to be 100 percent ready to enter the commercial market on the heels of--or even concurrent with--a festival premiere. That's a game-changer for festivals... If one festival, or an alliance of festivals, starts negotiating with rights holders to distribute a given film, what are the terms? Will the rights holders get their fair share of the revenue pie, which includes not only revenue from ticket sales, but also sponsorship revenues?
"Film festivals are the only arts-based events that do not pay fees for their content," Farnel continues. "Obviously, in a model in which festivals take on more ownership of the distribution life of a film, ‘free' won't sustain the production of new work to feed the market...We have to work together to transition to a model in which rights holders begin to tangibly share in the revenues generated by film festivals, modest though they are."
The year 2009 was a watershed, providing many exciting moments directly off the festival circuit, where we saw truly groundbreaking work in the ways that filmmakers marketed and exhibited their films. The array of choices will only grow as the technology advances and production budgets start to properly reflect the costs of DIY distribution and marketing, enhanced by a small team dedicated specifically to that phase of a film's lifecycle. This is no small thing to lose sight of.
Many have finally woken up to the fact that there are audiences in Alabama and Arizona and West Virginia and Kansas and Indiana that want what New York and San Francisco audiences have in abundance--the chance to see first-run features fresh off their festival run in the cinema. These places have great festivals, as well as a great art-house cinema culture. All you have to do is look at the theaters across the country where Emerging Pictures and Fathom bring the Metropolitan Opera or the New York City Ballet to big screens. A few documentary filmmakers have very successfully staged one-night-only special events that played in over 450 theaters across the country simultaneously, like Franny Armstrong's The Age of Stupid, Gini Reticker's Pray the Devil Back to Hell and several others.
In his "New Year: New Model" article, December 21, 2009, indieWIRE founder Eugene Hernandez observed, "Numerous filmmakers and producers are talking about these sorts of alternative approaches right now...There is a lot going on and I find it reassuring that months of talking about and experimenting with new models in 2009 will lead to more direct action among even bigger players in 2010."
In the same issue of indieWIRE, entertainment lawyer Steven Beer wrote, "For many independent filmmakers and producers, 2010--starting with the upcoming Sundance Film Festival-figures to be a watershed year and the beginning of a Decade of Filmmaker Empowerment. After years of disenchantment with traditional all-rights distribution deals, filmmakers and producers are poised to take matters into their own hands and forge a truly independent path to marketing and distributing their films."
It's a new decade with fresh beginnings. Get in the game.
Pamela Cohn is a New York-based independent media producer, theatrical outreach and social engagement producer, film programmer, and freelance arts journalist writing for many publications and sites including Hammer to Nail, Filmmaker Magazine and DOX Magazine. She writes a well-regarded blog on nonfiction filmmaking called Still in Motion.
Join other IDA members as well as documentary filmmakers nominated for this year's Spirit and Academy Awards as the 2010 awards season comes to a dramatic close. IDA staff and board members will help you get connected to the documentary community, share your projects, meet new friends and build your professional network.
No Host Bar. Event parking is valet only. IDA Mixer participants will receive a special sticker upon check-in at the door that will reduce the valet parking fees to $6.00 per car, not including gratuities. We do encourage carpooling!
See photos from Past IDA Mixers:
IDA Mixer October 7, 2009
IDA Mixer August, 28, 2009
IDA Mixer July, 15, 2009
Keri Putnam, who recently served as president of production for Miramax Films, has been named executive director of the Sundance Institute. Ken Brecher, her predecessor, stepped down last April. Putnam is scheduled to start her new position in mid-April.
"In the spirit of moving forward with new ideas and a fresh approach in the environment that surrounds us, Keri's appointment reflects the new direction in which Sundance Institute is headed," Robert Redford, the institute's founder and president, said in a statement. "Keri Putnam has a passion for the arts, a leading profile in the film community, and a stellar reputation for her intelligence, creativity, collaboration and leadership at the highest levels of business," said Redford. "Working together to expand our international presence, connect to new audiences, and experiment with emerging areas of artist support, I have every confidence Keri's knowledge and talent will be critical to the fulfillment and expansion of the Institute's mission and vision in the years ahead."
As executive director, Putnam will oversee all programs of the 29-year-old, nonprofit Sundance Institute, which include its Feature Film Program, Documentary Film Program, Sundance Film Festival, Film Music Program, Theatre Program, and Native and Indigenous Program. She will also be responsible for continuing the Institute's international work, initiating strategic partnerships, cultivating relationships with foundations and corporate sponsors, and growing the Institute's annual operating budget.
"Throughout my career I have witnessed the breadth and impact of the many programs of Sundance Institute, and I am both thrilled and privileged to become a part of this organization's leading work," Putnam said in the statement. "Sundance is truly unique not only for its mission but for its entire culture, brand and influence. This is an incredible opportunity for me personally and there is also tremendous potential for all of us--staff, trustees, alumni and friends alike--to explore new opportunities and expand on our global reputation. I can't wait to get started."
Prior to joining Miramax in 2006, Putnam was executive vice president of HBO Films, responsible for overseeing the development and production of feature films for both the cable network and for theatrical release. From 1996 to 1999, Putnam served as vice president, HBO NYC Productions.
A graduate of Harvard, Putnam studied theater and began her career working for Williamstown Theater Festival, McCarter Theater, Arena Stage, the ART, and others. She lives in Los Angeles with her husband and two children.
Today's theme: Hello and Goodbye...
Austin-based distributor, marketing and festival scheduler B-Side is closing effective March 1. CEO and founder Chris Hyams announced the news in a post on the B-Side blog, citing economic pressures and the ongoing upheaval in the film business as the reasons behind the decision of their investors to stop funding the company. He writes, "The timing is especially disappointing, as the past year has been our best ever. In 2009, we opened our New York office and launched a new distribution business, successfully releasing 8 films. We grew to 220 film festival partners worldwide and started off 2010 with our widely praised Sundance collaboration." IDA worked with B-Side for the 2009 DocuWeeks event, and we'll be sad to see them go.
Another online video site has bit the dust. As reported in VideoNuze, Veoh is closing shop. The site was never quite able to best YouTube at the user generated content game, and when they switched to premium content aggregation, Hulu came along to ruin that party for them. In addition to male-skewing featured categories such as "Popular Anime," "Cool Sci Fi" and "Beautiful Girls," Veoh had a "Documentary and Biography" section which included selections ranging from 1925 Battleship Potemkin to short pieces on the atom bomb and marijuana.
On a happier note, Quentin Tarantino has saved classic movie house New Beverly Cinema from being turned into a generic storefront! Owned and operated by the Torgan family since 1978, the theater had hit hard times in the mid-2000s. It was at that point that the Inglorious Basterds director began making regular contributions to help keep the theater's doors open. When family patriarch Sherman Torgan passed away unexpectedly in 2007, the Torgan's discovered that they had right of first refusal to find another buyer, and Tarantino stepped in. While I doubt he'll be manning the popcorn counter anytime in the near future, keep an eye out for specially curated evenings that have the Tarantino stamp. [Source: The Hollywood Reporter]
The Cove director Louie Psihoyos blogs about the adventure in getting his Oscar-nominated doc out to the world at The Wrap. Find out about the film's comparisons to Avatar (yes, that Avatar), how it's inspired Quentin Tarrantino to think about making a doc and more.
Strand Releasing has acquired all U.S. rights to Picture Me, a documentary by Ole Schell and Sara Ziff about the glitzy world of high fashion modeling, from photo shoots with celebrated photographers to runway shows in New York, Milan, and Paris. New York-based Paladin acquired Angela Ismailos' doc Great Directors, which celebrates films and filmmaking by interviewing ten of the world's most acclaimed living directors. The documentary had its world premiere at the 2009 Venice Film Festival.
Make some time for these must-reads: The profile of film critic Roger Ebert in Esquire is simply amazing. Then slum it for a bit and find out how reality TV has changed all of us over the last decade in a great Time magazine piece.
Hot Docs launched its new Doc Library at www.hotdocslibrary.ca. Featuring hundreds of Canadian films and videos, the Doc Library offers free access to homegrown documentary work, with full-length features by some of the country's leading non-fiction filmmakers.
Geeks rejoice! Rumors are that Joss Whedon and Morgan Spurlock are teaming up to make a documentary about the superfans who attend the annual comic book/geekfest Comic-Con in San Diego, CA every year. Word on the street is that they're casting for it now.
Presidents, new and old, are always good subjects for docs. Filmmaker Jeff Deutchman has tried to capture the hope, experience and emotions wrapped up in the last presidential election with his doc 11/4/08, shot cinema verite-style by his friends from around the globe. And he hopes to get more footage from everyone with a special website project which will kick off after the premiere.
Lots of acquisitions recently! Here they are, in alphabetical order:
As reported in indieWire, former Warner Independent Pictures colleagues Paul Federbush and Laura Kim, along with investor Ron Stein, announced a newly launched distribution company, Red Flag Releasing, along with their first acquisition, Reed Cowan's 8: The Mormon Proposition, which premiered at the 2010 Sundance Film Festival. Red Flag will handle theatrical and VOD releases for the film, which is slated to premiere this spring.
Magnolia Pictures acquired the North American theatrical rights to Lucy Walker's Countdown to Zero, about nuclear proliferation in the 21st century. Countdown to Zero is produced by Participant Media, which also handled Robert Kenner's Food, Inc. and Alex Gibney's Casino Jack and the United States of Money, which Magnolia will release in April. Countdown to Zero, which will also air in History in the future, will arrive in theaters this fall.
Sweden-based NonStop Entertainment will distribute Marina Zenovich's Emmy Award-winning Roman Polanski: Wanted and Desired in Scandinavia.
As reported in Screen Daily.com, HBO snatched up broadcast rights to Adrian Grenier's Teenage Paparazzo, at the European Film Market in Berlin. Grenier stars in the series Entourage, which also airs on HBO.
North American rights to Lance Bangs and Spike Jonze's Tell Them Anything You Want: A Portrait of Maurice Sendak comes out on DVD March 2 through Oscilloscope Laboratories to coincide with the DVD release of Jonze's cinematic rendering of Senadak's classic Where the Wild Things Are. The documentary will air on HBO later this year.
The Weinstein Company acquired theatrical and DVD rights to Amir Bar-Lev's The Tillman Story. A&E Indie Films, which produced the film, will air the film.
Film Movement picked up Beadie Finzie's Only When I Dance for a theatrical and VOD release this summer.
Finally, New Yorker Films, which ceased operations in March 2010 after an impressive 44-year run, got a reprieve last week in the form of Aladdin Distribution LLC, a Los Angeles-based company launched in late 2009 by David Raphel, a former president of Twentieth Century Fox International; Christopher Harbonville, a producer formerly associated with the Cambridge Film Group; and Hani Musleh, a former investment banker. Aladdin acquired New Yorker Films, along with its library of some 400 titles, which include such documentaries as Claude Lanzmann's Shoah; Nicolas Philibert's To Be and To Have; and Nathaniel Kahn's My Architect.
Jose Lopez, former business partner of New Yorker Films founder Dan Talbot, has been named president, and Peter Marai has been hired as Acquisitions Consultant. According to an article in indieWire, Talbot will focus on the exhibition side of things, overseeing his Lincoln Plaza Cinemas. "I started as an exhibito and I'll end as an exhibito," Talbot told indieWire.
New Yorker Films is committed to continue releasing quality art and independent films from around the world. The company plans to acquire six to eight titles each year for theatrical release. The non-theatrical and home video departments, both integral parts of the company, will continue acquiring and releasing numerous films.
New Yorker Films has a legendary legacy, boasting a long-standing track record in foreign film distribution, bringing a staggering number of international auteurs to American movie theaters for more than four decades. The company's illustrious roster of directors whose films were released by New Yorker Films includes Jean-Luc Godard, Werner Herzog, Louis Malle, Wim Wenders, Errol Morris, and many others.
The buzz around the nearly dialogue-free documentary Babies, which follows four newborns in four corners of the world for the first few months of their cute lives is building louder than, well, a baby's hungry cry.
The trailer was first seen last fall, and even had cranky bloggers like Andy Dehnart of Reality Blurred stating: "I’m not that fond of babies, especially the way some adults respond to them, especially if they’re sitting one row behind me on a five-hour flight, but this documentary looks fascinating."
A recent piece in USA Today proclaimed "Parents, movie fans are cooing over Babies documentary" and spotlighted not only the director (French documentarian Thomas Balmes, father of three), but the babies also in separate pieces.
James Schamus, the head of Focus Features which is releasing the film, said in the article: "It is 80 minutes of jaw-dropping wonder. The great thing about babies is you can never direct them. They never do something fake."
You'll have to wait until the movie's release date of April 16 to be the judge of that. Until then, the trailer will have to pacify your cravings for cuteness.
My partners Suki Hawley, David Beilinson and I tend to focus on immersive documentaries about subjects that are in process. As such, we can't wait around for grants. If we don't start shooting, we miss all of the action. From an artistic viewpoint, it's the only way to get the films done, but from a financial perspective, it's lunacy. Recently, after shooting our doc Battle of Brooklyn, about an eminent domain case pitting Brooklyn residents against a real estate developer, for over six years with only one medium-sized grant, we successfully carried out a kickstarter.com campaign to raise $25,000 to keep the project afloat.
Kickstarter is an arts funding site that utilizes the power of game theory to notch up fundraising energy. What sets it apart from other crowd-sourcing ideas is the fact that it's an all-or-nothing situation. The artist sets a fundraising goal and a timeline (up to 90 days). If the goal isn't reached in the time allotted, the artist gets none of the pledges. The artist also sets rewards for different pledge amounts to incentivize supporters. Before we launched our Kickstarter campaign, we did some research and we followed a few projects to see how they worked. We saw that as projects neared the end of their time limit, there was a flurry of pledging activity that pushed them past their goal. It appeared that even projects that didn't seem capable of reaching their goal shot way past it.
My brother does research on negotiation. In one study, he and his colleagues examined eBay auctions of a certain type of camera. They found that the cameras that were offered at a very low opening bid sold for much higher than ones that started out with higher bids. Their research demonstrated that people who bid when the price was low became emotionally invested in the process and tended to bid repeatedly. I think that the same theory holds true with Kickstarter (and was borne out through our anecdotal evidence). People who pledge towards a project become invested in seeing the project succeed, so they are likely to reach out to others to help reach the goal.
We set a fairly high goal of $25,000, with a pretty short timeframe of 30 days because we believed it was a reachable goal that we could focus on. We set up a wide range of pledge rewards from $10 for a download of the film in the future to $2,500 for a producer credit. We expected that the majority of people would pledge $25 for a DVD when the film was finished. As such, we tried to put together a list of 50 to100 people we could reach out to and enlist them as partners in our goal. We wanted these people to aim to get 10 other people to support the project. In addition to reaching our goal, it was important for us to have as wide a base of support as possible, because we wanted to prove to foundations and possible TV partners that there was a great deal of interest in the subject of our film.
During the course of our filming, we refrained from reaching out for funding from the local community that was fighting the eminent domain case because we didn't want to cannibalize the support that was needed to fund the fight, and it felt like a conflict of interest to get support from the community that we were documenting. However, eminent domain abuse is an issue that has interested parties throughout the country. We compiled a list of groups that might help us spread the word about the film, and we reached out them before launching.
In addition to lining up potential supporters, we also developed an implementation strategy that included figuring out potential rough and deleted scenes to post as updates each day to keep piquing interest in our campaign. Once people become backers of a project, they get alerts about every update, and we knew that blogs were likely to pick up some of the more controversial ones that would help us spread the word. For example, one scene in our film shows Bertha Lewis, the head of ACORN, proclaim at a press conference that they were working with the renters in the project footprint to ensure they were treated fairly. After the conference, our main character pleasantly confronts Lewis with the fact that the renters are all being kicked out. She replies that she hasn't actually started to work with the tenants--but she plans to....With ACORN in the news due to the "hooker/pimp" gotcha video, we knew that this scene would get play on other sites--and point back to our Kickstarter project. Lastly, we decided to stagger support from both individuals who would give larger pledges and groups that could reach large amounts of people because we didn't want to blow out all our steam in the first few days.
By the time we were ready to launch, we had lined up about 15 to 20 people who had committed to helping us spread the word, as well as several groups and websites that were against eminent domain abuse that pledged to help us out. Within a few minutes of launching, a close friend of ours pledged at the $2,500 producer level. This simple act of kindness gave us a huge boost and almost instantly legitimized our efforts. Our status bar pointed out that we were 10 percent funded, which signaled to others that we had a reachable goal. Over the next few days we slowly clawed our way to 20 percent funding, and then it leveled off for a few days.
Over the course of our campaign, I personally wrote back to every supporter, thanking them and gently urging to spread the word to friends. I'm not sure that it helped significantly, but it was important to me to acknowledge that even the $10 pledges gave us a huge boost emotionally. After working for so long below the radar, it was a great feeling to have people backing what we were doing. Once things had leveled off, we had one of the groups supporting our goal, The Institute for Justice, send out an e-mail mentioning the campaign, and we saw a flurry of activity that carried on for a couple of days. We repeated this type of strategy with other groups over the coming weeks.
By the time we had two days left to go, we were only 65 percent of the way there. I was a little worried, but I figured that the Kickstarter effect would go into overdrive--and it did. Over the next 48 hours, we had a steady stream of pledges that picked up steam as we got closer to our deadline. At 7:00 p.m., with five hours to spare, we crossed the $25,000 mark with nearly 400 supporters. The vast majority of our supporters pledged at the $25 level, but we also had a number of $50, $100 and $500 pledges. I talked with a lot of people who told me that they were constantly watching the progress all day and thinking of other people to send the link to. As we suspected, they became invested in the process and became our essential allies in reaching our goal.
For us, raising that $25,000 won't exactly get us to the end of our film. It was a lot of work, but it was huge boost for us. Over all, the process worked for us because the film had a large set of untapped affinity groups that were interested in supporting a project on the subject of eminent domain abuse. We did research before launching so that we could set up a clear, executable plan of action to reach our goal. In addition, when things slowed down we continued to brainstorm and reach out to friends despite the fact that we feared we were bothering people. We knew that they knew that we had invested six years of our lives in the project, and as such we knew that it was OK to push them a little bit.
Michael Galinsky is a filmmaker/father based in Brooklyn, NY. After over six years of filming, he and his partners Suki Hawley, and David Beilinson are nearing the completion of Battle of Brooklyn. www.rumur.com /battle