by Eugene Hernandez

Eight months after receiving the grand jury prize at the Sundance Film Festival--the second time she’s won the coveted documentary award--filmmaker Ondi Timoner is bringing her latest film to theaters herself. After raising money for the release and tapping Richard Abramowitz to execute the plan, Timoner opened We Live in Public Friday in New York City.

“I didn’t care for any of the deals that we were offered at Sundance and thereafter,” she recently told indieWIRE. Among the high-profile suitors she reportedly turned away was HBO, a dream distributor for most documentary filmmakers. But, Timoner has ambitious goals for her movie, which looks at Internet guru Josh Harris and his pre-Web 2.0 move to constantly document his life via the Internet.

After debuting her film at Sundance in January Timoner hit the road, often with subject Josh Harris in tow. The two have made public appearances at numerous festivals and along the way, Timoner has appropriately used Twitter (@onditimoner) to build a a fan base for her movie, constantly documenting her travels with TwitPics and tweets from around the world. She’s hoping that online tools will stir grassroots awareness for the movie that will effectively replace an expensive marketing campaign.

“I don’t think it makes sense to spend a lot of money on theatrical distribution,” Timoner explained, “(I am) really counting on some of these viral techniniques that we are putting into place.”

She feels that if filmmakers are willing to roll up their sleeves and do the work, they can carve out a new path for reaching audiences, especially at a time when tradtional distribution companies and methods seem unreliable.

“So many distribution companies are closing their doors or seem confused by the new era of the Internet,” Timoner said, noting that she still has to recoup royalties owed to her for the release of her 2004 doc, DiG!

“If the Internet can get the word out—and word of mouth can spread virally—we’ll see whether or not the sheer force of how entertaining and thought provoking the film is can draw people,” she explained. She added that Ashton Kutcher, Trent Reznor and Demi Moore are among those she’s relying on to help her spread the word about her film via Twitter.

The theatrical release, timed to qualify the film for Oscar consideration, may hit as many as seven to ten cities, Timoner said. It opens today at New York’s IFC Center and will then head to the Nuart in Los Angeles and the Brattle in Boston next Friday. Theatrical runs in Austin, Chicago and Seattle are also in the works.

Timoner is resistant to talk too much anout her plans for the movie after its theatrical release, but she teased that the is eyeing an online premiere of the film the new year, simultaneous with the DVD release. In order to meet Oscar consideration requirements, though, she has to keep the theatrical and online releases of the film far apart.

Talking about her evolving plans for getting her film in front of audiences, Timoner reiterated that she is in this for the long haul.

“You can’t just be a documentary filmmaker and focus only on the creative side anymore,” she said. “I spent ten years making this film, I would be stupid if I just moved on and I just started shooting my next film.”

More on the movie is available via the film’s website.

This news item is brought to you by a special partnership between the IDA and indieWIRE and SnagFilms.

Flashback: Ken Burns and Buddy Squires met and shared an apartment over a liquor store in Amherst, Massachusetts during the mid-1970s, while they were students at Hampshire College. They credit their mentors, Jerome Liebling and Elaine Mayes, with teaching them that there can be more drama in documentaries than in fiction filmmaking.

Burns and Squires planned to produce their own documentaries on subjects close to their hearts. They began their careers by eking out livings as freelance cinematographers until Burns produced Brooklyn Bridge in 1981. He initially planned to shoot that film himself, but decided to focus on producing and directing; he brought Squires onboard as the cinematographer.

The National Parks: America's Best Idea is their 17th collaboration. Their films have earned an array of IDA, Emmy, Oscar and other nominations and awards. Burns is the youngest recipient of the IDA Career Achievement Award; he received that tribute in 2002. Squires was the second recipient of the IDA Outstanding Documentary Achievement in Cinematography Award, in 2007.

The seed of the idea for producing a documentary about the national parks began with a passion that Burns and filmmaker/writer Dayton Duncan shared about the subject. They discussed the concept for several years before launching the project in 2002.

Florentine Films produced the 12-hour documentary in conjunction with WETA-TV, the PBS affiliate in Washington, DC. Duncan wrote the script and co-produced the film. He has also authored a companion book, published by Alfred Knopf.

The documentary airs in HD format September 27 through October 2, in six two-hour segments that take the audience on journeys to national monuments and 57 parks in 49 states. The sole exception is Delaware, where there are no national parks.

"Helping to make this film was one of the great joys of my life," Duncan says in retrospect. "Each park is unique and has its own fascinating story." 

The nonfiction film blends archival still photos and newsreels dating back to the 1920s with around 400,000 feet of new Super-16 footage, including some 40 interviews with experts talking about the history of the parks. Peter Coyote is the narrator.

Duncan and co-producer/editor Craig Mellish scouted locations, and decided where and when they should be shooting. Squires was the principal cinematographer.  Additional cinematography was done by longtime Florentine cameraman Allen Moore, Burns and newcomer Lincoln Else, who sometimes accompanied Squires as an assistant cameraman. Else's father, filmmaker Jon Else, heads the documentary program at the University of California at Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism.  

"Lincoln was a climbing ranger at Yosemite for eight years," Squires says. "He is an experienced mountaineer who knows the parks. It was incredible having him as an assistant. He also did some wonderful cinematography." Duncan usually guided Squires on his journeys through the parks. 

"The grandeur of our public lands is a symbol of the promise of a democratic country, where the land belongs to everyone, rather than being the private preserves of a privileged class of nobility and other rich people," Squires observes.

Squires usually carried supplies and his gear in a backpack, including the same reliable Aaton XTR camera that he has used for years, Canon 8:64 and 11:165 mm zooms and a 300mm long lens, a tripod and an ample supply of Super-16 film. On longer journeys through the wilderness, mules occasionally hauled supplies.

The crew also traveled to destinations in the Grand Canyon while riding on a raft for two weeks. A bush plane hauled them to parks in Alaska.

"We care greatly about what we do and, if necessary, we will fight and go to extreme measures to do it right," Squires says. "The July 4th weekend wasn't an ideal time to be shooting at Yosemite; there were huge crowds and traffic jams.

"But the parks are so expansive that you can find places that make people in the audience feel like they are the only ones there," Squires continues. "It was a magnificent experience. It is important for people to see this film and appreciate that these parks are a crucial important part of our history, culture and identity. Preserving them preserves our soul."

Filming was literally no walk in the park. Squires and Duncan generally began hiking to destinations where they planned to shoot in time to arrive 30 to 45 minutes before sunrise. They left 45 to 60 minutes after magic hour at sunset. They were shooting in Alaska during the summer, when there were 21 to 22 hours of daylight.

"No matter how prepared we were, there were always surprises," Squires notes. "It was 20 degrees below zero while we were shooting at Yellowstone National Park. The sky was filled with beautiful white plumes from geysers of boiling water thrusting up into the frozen landscape. I turned around and saw a buffalo with icicles hanging off his furry chin, with steam coming out of his nostrils."

At Katmai National Park in Alaska, Squires saw and filmed grizzly bears at the bottom of a waterfall, catching salmon with their paws.

"We had to see the potential, be at the right places at the right times, and then be patient...very patient," Squires maintains. "There is a place in Volcanoes National Park in Hawaii where a river of lava flows off a cliff and into the sea. Flying low over the coast with the rays of sunset dancing off the primal fireworks display of red, hot liquid rock exploding beneath my feet was a magical experience. There is a purity to the accidents of nature that you could never plan. It was a wondrous process of discovery." 

Squires recorded daylight sequences on Kodak Vision 2 7212 color negative film. The 100-speed film is balanced for exposure in tungsten light.

It was an intuitive decision. There is a 50-speed film that is balanced for exposure in daylight, but Squires felt that there is something special about the look of film balanced for exposure in tungsten light with a number 85 filter on the camera lens. When it got dark, he switched to 500T Kodak Vision 2 7218 color negative film.

"Film provided the latitude needed to record nature at its best, with true colors and details in the brightest highlights and darkest shadows the way the human eye sees them," Squires explains. "It is also the only proven archival medium, and this film is history."

The images were composed in a 16:9 aspect ratio. The processed negative was scanned at 3K resolution and sub-sampled down to a 2K 10-bit digital log file at Goldcrest Postproduction, in New York. Final editing was done by Paul Barnes, who has worked on Florentine Films since The Statue of Liberty in 1985. 

John Dowdell, at Goldcrest, was the colorist. He has served in that role on all Florentine Films from the beginning. Final timing was done in a theater environment with the images projected on a big screen.

"Today's technology allows us to isolate elements of frames, so Ken and Buddy could add painterly touches to the look," Dowdell explains. "There is a sunset scene at Yosemite with a mountain in the background where you can feel as well as see the texture of water in the lake. It's visual poetry in motion."

Burns concludes, "It's the most stunning cinematography in the history of Florentine Films." What is he going to do for an encore? Stay tuned. There are many future chapters to be written before this story ends.

Bob Fisher has been writing about documentary and narrative filmmaking for nearly 40 years, mainly focusing on cinematography and preservation.

While the U.S. automotive industry has had a little bit of hope lately, don't forget to miss the downer doc, The Last Truck: The Closing of a GM Plant when it airs on HBO on Sept. 7. When filmmakers Julie Reichardt and Steven Bognar screened it to hundreds of workers who lost their jobs when General Motors closed an Ohio sport-utility vehicle plant, the subject of the film, it was met with cheers and tears.

RealScreen is excited to see the doc Hugh Hefner: Playboy, Activist and Rebel, come to the Toronto International Film Festival this year (he is, after all, bringing his girlfriends). TIFF runs from Sept. 10-19. (via Realscreen)

Andrew Herwitz's Film Sales Company has secured worldwide sales rights to Joan Baez: How Sweet The Sound ahead of its Toronto premiere in September. Pretty swee, huh? (via Screen Daily)

A new movie directed by Jodie Foster, entitled Cockeyed, Earth Camp One by Paris is Burning director Jennie Livingston and Fame High by The Garden director Scott Hamilton Kennedy are some of the highlights of the upcoming Independent Film Week. Formerly known as the IFP Market, the invitation only Project Forum of IFP’s Independent Film Week will present some 116 projects this year, September 19 - 24, 2009 in New York City. See an entire listing here. (via indieWIRE)

Opening this week: We Live in Public, which tells the story of the effect the Web is having on our society; At the Edge of the World about volunteers determined to shut down an illegal whaling fleet in Antarctic waters (check out the New York Times piece and our own Doc Shot interview); The September Issue, about bringing the single largest issue of Vogue to life. Check out legendary Vogue editor in chief Anna Wintour on The Late Show with David Letterman:

In anticipation, perhaps, of the release date of the actual September issue of Vogue, R. J. Cutler's The September Issue, which captures the production process of that monumental issue as well as the driving forces behind it, opens in New York today, via Roadside Attractions and A&E Indie Films, with a nationwide release slated for September 11.

From the forthcoming Fall 2009 issue of Documentary, here's an article by Sara Vizcarrondo, which includes an interview with Cutler.

Anna Wintour is famously private, but when R. J. Cutler approached her with the idea of making a documentary series on the production of Vogue's September issue, she was promptly supportive. This aside, it was not so easy for him to get the project rolling.

While fiction films have touched on the candy-colored universe of Wintour's Vogue magazine, Cutler asserts that the project, which evolved in concept from a series to a feature-length doc, is no reaction piece. "It's a narrative reflection of something that I witnessed over nine months, melded together with something I experienced when I was witnessing it--and that's it."

The September Issue, which rolls out to theaters in September through Roadside Attractions and A&E Indie Films, documents the editors of Vogue planning the largest issue the magazine has ever published, and they begin nine months before the issue goes to print. While all the editors are involved, one editor, the most famously inaccessible among them, gets center stage.

Anna Wintour is known for being fiercely private. Was that an obstacle to reaching her or representing her?

R. J. Cutler: Whether they're famously private or not, you have to earn your subjects' trust and maintain it through the duration of filming. If you do your job properly and protect that trust, the subjects become more committed to sharing their stories with you. You have to fundamentally believe throughout the process that the story belongs to them, and not to you. Therefore, the only thing you can do is endeavor to earn their trust.

You ask if it was difficult to get Anna to open up--Grace Coddington [Vogue's creative director] wouldn't let me film a frame with her for four months. I would show up and if Grace was there, she would ask me not to film, yell at me or walk out of the room. She was really unhappy that a camera was present at Vogue, and it was only when I could not imagine making the film without her--and I confessed that to her and basically got down on my knees--that she agreed to give us a chance. And then, she was involved.

Earning trust is always a challenge, but once you've done it, regardless of the person's reputation, you get to make a movie.

When did you begin to have the support of A&E Indie Films?

It's kind of a beautiful story. When I first started talking to Anna about this, I thought of making a series about it consistent with the other documentary series I've done [American High; The Residents]. I was very frustrated at the time. People who buy television series get very, very excited about it, and then they get cold feet. I went to Sundance, and while I was there I was having dinner with Stephanie Davis, who's a wise friend of mine, and I was bitching and moaning about two things: I was frustrated that I hadn't made the time in my life to make another film, and I was missing the fact I hadn't made a doc for a while. I said, "I have access to Anna Wintour and I can't even set this series up!" And she said, "I don't understand why you don't do this as a documentary." And all of a sudden the clouds in the sky cleared and it made complete sense to me. We went off to a party, where I ran into Micah Green from CAA, who is the maestro of arranging financing and sales for documentary films. I mentioned it to him and he said, "I'll call A&E the day I get home," and the next day he called me. It was really that kind of sudden transformation in the life of this film being made. It came after I had agreements with Anna, but a full year before we started shooting.

Did the deal with A&E affect the final cut?

No, I had final cut on this film. That's a critical part of making the movie, for me. It was something A&E and Anna both agreed to. When I met Anna and we started talking about doing a project together, her response to my desire for final cut was, "I totally understand. I'm a journalist, my father was a journalist and this isn't going to be a problem." I was grateful she totally got it but also struck that we had just met and she was talking about her dad. It was a clue to me that her father and how she sees herself were big issues to her. It was like she couldn't hold herself back from giving me that indication, almost immediately after meeting.

This is an aside to the issue of editorial control, but one of the reasons you have final cut is because you want the film to be exactly what you want it to be. It's an incredible privilege when you can have that, but in a way you're also protecting the subjects from themselves. It's always hard to look at a movie, and the first impression is not always going to have the perspective a filmmaker has. You want to avoid a situation where you're sharing any editorial control with your subject.

Part of the reason I ask this is that I thought A&E might have had an opinion on the inclusion--or in this case exclusion--of any mention of the death of the magazine industry in this doc.

This movie doesn't have anything to do with that. That's the kind of thing you would never ask a scripted filmmaker; you'd only ask a documentary filmmaker because there's this kind of misunderstanding--because documentaries deal with real life, that they're somehow obliged to cover subject matter.

We're telling stories about human beings. This is a movie about these two women who've been working together for 20 years and were in a certain moment in their careers: They know the end is near, they know how much they've accomplished but they still come to work every day and fight about what works and what doesn't, and they do it in the midst of this extraordinary world and this $300 billion industry they kind of run. Though they appear to be polar opposites, they have this deep symbiosis and what they create is quite extraordinary. In fact, they create the single largest magazine issue that's ever been published. That's the story. Commenting on the death of the magazine industry is something you write news articles about; it's not what you make movies about.

There was a lot of commentary from the people in the film about how hard it is to be a designer. Do you feel there's any parallel there to the difficulty of being a filmmaker?

Well, it's hard to do anything that's creative and driven by passion and part of an industry. One of the central themes of the film is how art and commerce have to find a way to live together, and what happens when they do. One of the by-products of that situation is that it's tough on the artists. That's one of the easier observations the film makes. Sure it's tough, but what Grace and Anna are able to accomplish and what you see in the film is an argument why it's all worth it.

Following its opening August 28 in New York, The September Issue expands nationwide September 11,

Sara Vizcarrondo is a film journalist writing and editing in San Francisco, California.

In the few weeks since the Los Angeles County Museum of Art announced that it would significantly scale back its longstanding and well-respected film program after 40 years due to allegations of declining attendance and revenue, a legion of fans, including Martin Scorsese, Los Angeles Film Critics Association and the grassroots coalition Save Film at LACMA, has worked to try to reverse this decision.

In a partial reprieve, LACMA announced that the Hollywood Foreign Press Association and Time Warner Cable have committed $75,000 each to extend the program through next summer. In addition Time Warner Cable and Ovation TV have made an in-kind contribution of over $1.5 million to market the film program across their multiple media platforms, both locally and nationally.

Next week LACMA Director Michael Govan will meet with members of Save Film at LACMA. In a statement, he said, "LACMA's goals for its future film program include securing sustainable philanthropic support that provides a larger and more appropriate budget and affords more outreach and events to create broader awareness for the program overall. However, most importantly, the museum also intends to create a Film Department within the curatorial sphere of the museum that will be charged with critical thinking about the history and future of film as art as well as film's increasing importance in the larger narrative of art history."

I have no voice. Not in the "I can't find my voice, I don't have a message" type of way. But after Wednesday night's conversations and mixing and general good times with fellow IDA members and supporters, I've lost my voice. Gone.

My work colleagues thank you, IDA.

The successful and just-ended three-week run for DocuWeeks didn't keep filmmakers and other doc pros from coming out again to swank East 3rd Street for more mixing and meeting as IDA's August Mixer ("Smoky So.Cal  Nights" edition) was in full swing.

Spotted early on were IDA Exec. Dir. Michael Lumpkin, getting things started...Board member Steven Reich, freshly returned from a months-long writing gig in Maine, holding court and doing a fine job, judging from those assembled around him...fellow Board member Pi Ware, across a sea of people near the couches...and Board member Adam Chapnick--are you following him on Twitter, too?--looking in full effect.   

A highlight was introducing some of the producers behind the current documentary hit, The Cove. Larry David Eudene and Charles Hambleton spoke briefly to those in attendance about their self-described, real-life eco-thriller that is in theaters now; the challenges docs face in the marketplace; and the perils of using the word "documentary."  While the last point can be debated, the producers' passion for the project and documentaries in general was clear, and they received a warm reception, mixing with fellow filmmakers well into the night afterwards. 

These monthly events are always a great discovery. Among so many others, I met John Woehrle (Pride of Lions), who was talking about the exciting developments with his film about Sierra Leone (an IDA fiscal sponsorship project). 

In attendance and enjoying the night were Debra and Bradley Carr of the film Feat.  

New member and DC transplant Seana Carroll was quizzing me at the bar about my favorite football team. She produced a new doc about the Washington Redskins marching band. Great title: The Band Never Loses a Game. Even though I, with little measurable skills, never joined my school band, Seana assured me I must be good at something. That all remains to be seen.

IDA's Maria Arzola had things going smoothly, as always. She makes it look so easy.

Another fine IDA mixer in Downtown Los Angeles! We hope to get even more of you to come out when you can.

Saludos!
Moises

Holy Land Hardball, follows a diverse group of players and executives as they attempt to create the first-ever professional baseball league in the Middle East, is streaming on SnagFilms this week as the concluding installment of the online venture's SummerFest series that has been running since July. Holy Land Hardball is also available on Hulu.com, AOL.com and Fancast.com.

For SummerFest,, SnagFilms has been hosting one-week screenings of previously unreleased documentaries before they head for theatrical or television release. "Just as the Major League Baseball pennant races heat up, we're celebrating the end of our SummerFest homestand with Holy Land Hardball," said CEO Rick Allen, in a statement. "It's not just baseball fans who will warm to an unlikely cross-cultural attempt to bring America's game to a part of the world where 5,000 years of recorded history had yet to include a scorecard."

"Holy Land Hardball has been a labor of love that we are extremely proud of, said producer/directors Erik Kesten and Brett Rapkin, in the statement. "We're thrilled it was selected to be part of SnagFilms' inaugural SummerFest. This is a remarkable opportunity to bring our film to a limitless audience."

To commemorate the recent passing of Senator Edward Kennedy, HBO will air Teddy: In His Own Words, a documentary produced by Peter Kunhardt and Sheila Nevins, Tuesday, September 1, Thursday, September 3, and Friday, September 4.  The film premiered on HBO earlier this summer as the kickoff of the cabler's HBO Documentary Films Summer Series.

The film combines the late Massachusetts Senator's narration-culled from past commentary, speeches and public and private sources-with archival footage from newsreels, television and home movies to tell the epic tale of a legendary public servant. Kunhardt's previous work for HBO includes JFK: In His Own Words and Bobby Kennedy: In His Own Words. His latest Kennedy profile completes the trilogy. For more information about Teddy: In His Own Words, click here.

Here's an interview on MSNBC about the documentary, with co-producer Caroline Waterlow:

Some said they had been consumed by the horrific slaughters since watching the documentary, The Cove, which exposes the annual killing of more than 23,000 dolphins in a National Park at Taiji, Wakayama in Japan.

Pressure had been mounting on the Shire of Broome to end the relationship with Taiji, where 26 dolphin hunters run a secretive operation to fill its government-sanctioned quota of 2300 dolphins, the paper reported. Broome Shire president Graeme Campbell said council’s unanimous decision was to "respectfully advise" the town of Taiji that Broome would be unable to fulfill its obligation as a sister town while the dolphin killings continued.

After the announcement, Louie Psihoyos, director of The Cove, issued the following open letter to the people of Broome, Australia:

I directed the movie The Cove, a documentary about an unlikely team of activists that come together to help former Flipper trainer Ric O'Barry penetrate and expose a secret cove in Taiji, Japan.

Over the past year, I have been amazed at people's ability to use their voice to make a difference, and the events of last week in Australia stand out as one of the greatest moments in this young film¹s history. Broome residents took a courageous stand against the actions of their Japanese sister city Taiji, and I commend them. This is a win not only for the Japanese people and the dolphins, but for the people of Broome who realized they have the power to change a horrible wrong.

The Cove exposes not just a horrific yearly hunt, but humans knowingly poisoning other humans by slipping dolphin meat into the food system. Dolphin meat is through-the-roof toxic because of high levels of mercury, the most toxic non-radioactive element in the world. Dolphins have anywhere from five to 5,000 times more mercury than allowed by law.

Despite this, the Taiji mayor and his council had a scheme in place to distribute toxic dolphin meat to school systems all over Japan. O'Barry, his organization Earth Island Institute/Save Japan Dolphins and my organization Oceanic Preservation Society had a small hand in ending that dreadful scenario through the help of two Taiji councilmen, one of whom had children in the school system. They tested the meat and found it had more than a dozen times more mercury than allowed by Japanese law. They demanded the meat be removed from the school system.

To this day, the Taiji mayor continues to allow over a thousand tons of dolphin meat to be sold throughout Japan under the guise of "scientific whale" meat. The Japanese government continues to position its argument for killing dolphins as a cultural issue and insist that we, as outsiders, should respect their tradition. But this is no tradition--the dolphin drive has only been going on since 1933. The tradition argument falls apart when human lives and health are severely threatened, and people must take a stand.

September 1st is coming up, the beginning of the yearly dolphin hunt in Taiji. With a little more pressure, we can put an end to a sad chapter in human history and create a new one where we have respect for the environment and other humans. The Cove is not just $10 and a box of popcorn--it's an attempt to use the most powerful medium in the world to inspire change. One person can make a difference, and a few like-minded people can change the world. Just like the people of Broome.

To the people of Australia, much respect, good on ya.

And to the rest of the world: the secret is out, spread the word.

Sincerely,
Louie Psihoyos

Related News and Articles:

indieWIRE News: 'Cove' On a Roll
Dolphin Confidential: Docu-Thriller 'The Cove' Exposes Slaughter
IDA Throws End-of-Summer Mixer

According to a report from the Iran Human Rights Voice website, filmmaker and IDA member Mohammad Ehsani was recently freed from the notorious Evin Prison in Tehran after serving one year. He was one of four Iranians accused of attempting to "soft-topple" the Iranian regime. Ehsani, 34, had been sentenced to three years, and he had spent two months in solitary confinement. The three other defendents--Arash Alaei, former director of the International Institute for Education and research on Pulmonary Disease and Tuberculosis; Kamyar Alaei, a Ph.D. dancidate in health science; and Sylvia Hartouian, a reproductive specialist--remain in Evin Prison.

As previous reported on IDA's website, at the time of his arrest in July 2008, Ehsani had been working on a documentary about Iranian music, and much of his previous work has dealt with social issues in Iran. He is also a member of the Iranian Documenatry Filmmakers Society.