Filmmaker magazine has announced the results of its annual survey of the “25 New Faces of Independent Film.” Published by IFP, the nation’s largest and oldest organization of independent filmmakers, Filmmaker has been doing the survey for eleven years. It will be featured in the Summer 2009 issue, which is online now, and available on newsstands at the end of the month. It showcases 25 up-and-comers poised to shape the next generation of independent film.

“This year’s crop of 25 New Faces consists, as always, of new film artists whose work we feel passionately about but also, in this year of change, people who are redefining the notion of a career in film,” said Filmmaker‘s Editor-in-Chief Scott Macaulay. “There are filmmakers who have embraced DIY strategies for both the production and distribution of their work, directors bouncing between documentary and fiction, and those for whom the online space is vital to their artistic identities. And, of course, there are a few contrarians, those whose resistance to all of these things is their own way of defining themselves!”

Of the 290 on the list over the past 11 years, nearly 90% have been filmmakers, including Craig Brewer (“Hustle & Flow”), Ryan Fleck and Anna Boden (“Half Nelson”), Barry Jenkins (“Medicine for Melancholy”), Miranda July (“Me and You and Everyone We Know”), Joshua Safdie (“The Pleasure of Being Robbed”) and Peter Sollett (“Raising Victor Vargas”). Notable actors noted in the survey in the early days of their careers have included Ryan Gosling (“The Believer”), Ellen Page (“Hard Candy”), Peter Sarsgaard (“Another Day in Paradise”) and Hilary Swank (“Boys Don’t Cry”).

Filmmaker’s 25 New Faces of Independent Film in 2009 are:

Andrew T. Betzer, director of this year’s Cannes Director’s Fortnight entry, “John Wayne Hated Horses.”

Eleanor Burke and Ron Eyal, writer-directors of the upcoming “Stranger Things.”

Derek Cianfrance, writer-director of upcoming “Blue Valentine,” starring Ryan Gosling and Michelle Williams.

Destin Daniel Cretton, winner of the Jury Prize at Sundance for his short, “Short Term 12.”

Lena Dunham, director of the semi-autobiographical “Creative Nonfiction,” which screened at SXSW.

Morgan Jon Fox, writer-director of “OMG/HaHaHa,” will be out on DVD this fall.

Steph Green, a commercial, music video, and narrative fiction director whose short, “Boy,” was nominated for an Academy Award.

Paula Huidobro, director of photography on Damian Harris’s “Gardens of the Night,” Joy Gohring’s short “18,” and Leland Orser’s upcoming “Morning.”

Frankie Latina director of underground spy movie epic, “Modus Operandi,” which debuted at CineVegas.

Jody Lee Lipes, director of photography on “Afterschool,” and director of upcoming doc “Brock Enright: Good Times Will Never Be The Same.”

Lost Zombies, who won two Web awards at SXSW for LostZombies.com, a site that is crowdsourcing the production of what is billed as “the first community-generated zombie documentary.”

Tina Mabry, writer-director of Slamdance-premiering debut, “Mississippi Damned.”

Rooney Mara, an actress featured in Miguel Arteta’s “Youth in Revolt,” Adam Salkey’s “Dare,” and James Strouse’s “The Winning Season,” as well as the new remake of “Nightmare on Elm Street.”

Geoff Marslett, Austin-based animator currently in post-production on his debut feature, “Mars.”

Paola Mendoza, co-director and writer of “Entre nos,” which premiered at this year’s Tribeca Film Festival.

Jeff Mizushima, winner of the Filmmaker to Watch award at CineVegas for his debut feature, “Etienne!”

Asiel Norton, director of first feature “Redland,” which premiered at CineVegas.

Ian Olds, director of doc, “Fixer: The Taking of Ajmal Naqshbandi,” which showed at Rotterdam, and premiered at Tribeca.

Nicole Opper, a Philadelphia-based documentarian whose “Off and Running” screened at Tribeca, New Fest and Frameline.

Jessica Oreck, director of science documentary “Beetle Queen Conquers Tokyo,” which premiered at SXSW.

Michael Palmieri and Donal Mosher, directors of “October Country,” which won Best Documentary at Silver Docs.

David and Ian Purchase, Toronto-based directors whose $500 short film based on the Half Life video game was viewed 2.7 million times on YouTube.

Nat Sanders, editor of both Barry Jenkins’ “Medicine for Melancholy” and Lynn Shelton’s “Humpday.”

Sebastian Silva, director of the Sundance World Cinema Grand Jury Prize winning “The Maid.”

Bradford Young, director of photography on “Mississippi Damned” and “Entre nos.”

Check out full profiles of each here.

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

Here, believe it or not, is an abbreviated list of the News & Documentary Emmy Awards nominations, which come out of the New York-based National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences; tyou can find out about the nods for the Prime Time Emmy Awards, under the auspices of the Los Angeles-based National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences, click here.

PBS led the way with 41 News & Docs nominations, followed by CBS, with 23; ABC, 13; National Geographic Channel, 12; and HBO/Cinemax., 12. For a complete list of all the nominations, click here.

OUTSTANDING CONTINUING COVERAGE OF A NEWS STORY‑‑LONG FORM

ABC News Special : China Inside Out )
Executive Producer: Tom Yellin
Senior Producer: Kayce Jennings
Producer: Gabrielle Tenenbaum
Reporter: Bob Woodruff

FRONTLINE: Bush's War (PBS)
Executive Producer: David Fanning
Producer/Director: Michael Kirk
Producer/Reporter: Jim Gilmore
Co‑Producer: Mike Wiser

FRONTLINE The War Briefing (PBS)
Executive Producer: David Fanning
Producer: Marcela Gaviria
Co‑Producer: Will Cohen
Correspondent: Martin Smith

Wide Angle: Birth of a Surgeon (PBS)
Executive Producer: Pamela Hogan
Senior Producer: Nina Chaudry
Producer: Loui Bernal
Co‑Executive Producer: Moises Naim
Producer/Director: Helen Fitzwilliam

National Geographic Explorer: Gorilla Murders (National Geographic Channel)
Executive Producer: Jonathan Halperin
Senior Producer: Robert Zakin
Series Producer: Max Salomon
Producer/Director: Michael Davie

P.O.V.: The Ballad of Esequiel Hernandez (PBS)
Director: Kieran Fitzgerald
Producer: Brendan Fitzgerald
Executive Producers: Peter Gilbert, Michael Fitzgerald
Executive Director: Patricia Boero
Executive Producer for POV/American Documentary Inc.: Simon Kilmurry

OUTSTANDING INFORMATIONAL PROGRAMMING ‑- LONG FORM

FRONTLINE : Growing Up Online (PBS)
Executive Producer: David Fanning
Producer/Directors: Rachael Dretzin, John Maggio

HBO Documentary Films: Resolved (HBO)
Executive Producers: Sarah Clark, Mark Iola Clark, Lisa Kraus, Peter Kraus, Sheila Nevins, Marc Stanley, Wendy Stanley, Andy Waters, Liz Waters
Senior Producer: Nancy Abraham
Producer/Director: Greg Whiteley

HBO Documentary Films: The Greatest Silence: Rape in the Congo (HBO)
Executive Producers: Diana Barrett, Sheila Nevins
Supervising Producer: Nancy Abraham
Producer/Director: Lisa Jackson

Independent Lens: Hard Road Home (PBS)
Executive Producer: Sally Jo Fifer
Producer: Selina Lewis Davidson
Director: Macky Alston

NOVA: A Walk to Beautiful(PBS)
Executive Producer / Producer: Steve Engel
Senior Executive Producer: Paula Apsell
Senior Series Producer: Melanie Wallace Producer/Director: Mary Olive Smith
Co‑Producer: Allison Shigo
Director: Amy Bucher

P.O.V. In The Family (PBS)
Director/Producer: Joanna Rudnick
Executive Producers: Sally Jo Fifer, Simon Kilmurry, Gordon Quinn
Co‑Producer: Beth Iams

OUTSTANDING HISTORICAL PROGRAMMING ‑-LONG FORM

Cinemax Reel Life: Nanking(HBO)
Producer/Director: Bill Guttentag
Producers: Michael Jacobs, Ted Leonsis
Co‑Producer: Violet Du Feng
Director: Dan Sturman

Documenting the Face of America: Roy Stryker and the FSA/OWI Photographers (PBS)
Producer: Jeanine Butler
Co‑Producers: Catherine Butler, Alastair Reill

Koppel on Discovery: The Last Lynching (Discovery Channel)
Executive Producer: Tom Bettag
Senior Producer: Hallye Galbraith
Producers: James Blue, Steve Cain, Lete Childs, Peter Demchuck, Bob Fahringer, Guy Federico, Jay LaMonica, Elissa Rubin, Alissa Shapiro
Anchor/Correspondent: Ted Koppel

MSNBC Films: Witness to Jonestown (MSNBC)
Executive Producers: Benjamin Ringe, Knute Walker
Senior Executive Producer: Scott Hooker
Senior Producers: Daniel Bregman, Vicki Sufian
Producer: Stephen Stept
Vice President ‑ Long Form Programming: Michael Rubin

P.O.V. :The Judge and the General(PBS)
Director/Producer: Patricio Lanfranco
Executive Producers: Sally Jo Fifer, Simon Kilmurry, Richard Pearce Producer/Director: Elizabeth Farnsworth
Executive Director: Patricia Boero

The Rape of Europa (PBS)
Producer/Directors: Richard Berge, Bonni Cohen, Nicole Newnham

OUTSTANDING ARTS & CULTURE PROGRAMMING

60 Minutes: Alec Baldwin (PBS)
Executive Producer: Jeff Fager
Senior Broadcast Producer: Bill Owens
Executive Editor: Patti Hassler
Producers: Deirdre Naphin Curran, Katy Textor
Correspondent: Morley Safer

ABC News 20/20: Drama High (ABC)
Executive Producer: David Sloan
Senior Broadcast Producer: Jessica Velmans
Producers: Bram Harris, Muriel Pearson

Cinemax Reel Life: Salim Baba (HBO)
Producers: Francisco Bello, Raja Dey, Scott Mosier
Director: Tim Sternberg

HBO Documentary Films: The Art of Failure: Chuck Connelly Not For Sale (HBO)
Executive Producers: Diana Holtzberg, Sheila Nevins
Supervising Producer: Sara Bernstein
Producer/Director: Jeff Stimmel

In The Footsteps of Marco Polo (PBS)
Executive Producers: Tom Casciato, Josh Nathan, Stephen Segaller, Lisa Taylor‑Belliveau
Senior Producer: Eva Anisko
Producer/Directors: Denis Belliveau, Francis O'Donnell
Producer: Emir Lewis

P.O.V.: Belarusian Waltz (PBS)
Executive Producers: Sally Jo Fifer, Miroslaw Grubek, Therese Jebsen, Simon Kilmurry, Jan Ramstad, Krzysztof Talczewski
Producer: Torstein Grude
Director: Andrezj Fidyk

OUTSTANDING SCIENCE, TECHNOLOGY AND NATURE PROGRAMMING

EVOLVE: Eyes (History Channel)
Executive Producers: Charles Nordlander, Beth Hoppe
Series Producers: Jonathan Grupper, Neil Laird
Producers: Stephanie Angelides, Kurt Tondorf

National Geographic Channel Presents: Five Years on Mars(National Geographic Channel)
Executive Producer: Howard Swartz
Producer/Director: Mark Davis
Senior Vice President, Production: Michael Cascio

NOVA : Ape Genius (PBS)
Executive Producer: John Bredar
Senior Executive Producer: Paula Apsell
Senior Series Producer: Melanie Wallace
Supervising Producer: James Donald
Producer/Director: John Rubin

NOVA: Secrets of the Parthenon (PBS)
Senior Executive Producer: Paula Apsell
Senior Series Producer: Melanie Wallace
Producer: Gary Glassman

Secrets of the Dead: Doping for Gold (PBS)
Executive Producers: Phil Craig, Sally Jo Fifer, Jared Lipworth
Producer/Director: Alison Rooper

BEST DOCUMENTARY

Cinemax Reel Life: Nanking(HBO)
Producer/Director: Bill Guttentag
Producers: Michael Jacobs, Ted Leonsis
Co‑Producer: Violet Du Feng
Director: Dan Sturman

HBO Documentary Films: China's Stolen Children (HBO)
Executive Producers: Sheila Nevins, Kevin Sutcliffe
Supervising Producers: Nancy Abraham, Mark Roberts
Producers: Kate Blewett, Brian Woods
Director: Jezza Neumann

HBO Documentary Films: Taxi to the Dark Side (HBO
Executive Producers: Sidney Blumenthal, Don Glascoff, Robert Johnson, Jedd Wider, Todd Wider
Producer/Director: Alex Gibney
Producers: Eva Orner, Susannah Shipman
Co‑Producers: Blair Foster, Sloane Klevin

National Geographic Explorer: Gorilla Murders (National Geographic Channel)
Executive Producer: Jonathan Halperin
Senior Producer: Robert Zakin
Series Producer: Max Salomon
Producer/Director: Michael Davie

The Devil Came on Horseback (National Geographic Channel)
Producers: Gretchen Wallace, Jane Wells
Directors: Ricki Stern, Annie Sundberg

P.O.V.: Inheritance (PBS)
Executive Producers: Simon Kilmurry, Chris Malachowsky, Ryan Malachowsky
Producer/Director: James Moll
Producer: Christopher Pavlick

NEW APPROACHES TO NEWS & DOCUMENTARY PROGRAMMING: DOCUMENTARIES

The Boys of Christ Child House (Freep.com/Detroit Free Press)
Producer/Senior Videographer: Brian Kaufman
Lead Photojournalist: Kathleen Galligan
Photojournalist: Regina Boone
Executive Producer: Kathy Kieliszewski
Reporter: Robin Erb
Video Executive Producer: Craig Porter
Managing Editor, Digital Media: Nancy Andrews
Web Producer: James Thomas

FRONTLINE :Bush's War Timeline (pbs.org/frontlline)
Executive Producer: David Fanning
Producer/Director: Michael Kirk
Co‑Producer: Mike Wiser
Web Producer: Andrew Ott, Sarah Moughty
Editorial Director: Marrie Campbell
Director of New Media & Technology: Sam Bailey

Intended Consequences (Mediastorm.org)
Executive Producer: Brian Storm
Producers: Pamela Chen, Xiaoming Jia, Tim Klimowicz, Bob Sacha, Chad Stevens
Reporters: Jules Shell, Jonathan Torgovnik

NEW APPROACHES TO NEWS & DOCUMENTARY PROGRAMMING: ARTS, LIFESTYLE & CULTURE

Hope: Living and Loving with HIV in Jamaica (Livehopelove.com)
Executive Producer: Jon Sawyer
Co‑Producers: Nathalie Applewhite, Stephen Sapienza
Correspondent: Kwame Dawes
Videojournalist: Doug Gritzmacher
Photoojournalist: Joshua Cogan
Interactive Producer: Josh Goldblum

P.O.V. : Ars Magna (PBS)
Producer: Sean Roach
Director: Cory Kelley

Tate Liverpool: The One That Spoke To Me (tate.org)
Producer: Martin Percy

Tate Modern : Tate Street Art (Tate.org)
Producer: Martin Percy

Vanguard : Lost In Democracy (Current TV)
Producer: Mike Shen
Producer/Correspondent: Christof Putzel

OUTSTANDING INDIVIDUAL ACHIEVEMENT IN A CRAFT: WRITING

Bill Moyers Journal: Essays ‑ Gilded Age, It Was Oil, Memorial Day (PBS)
Writers: Bill Moyers, Michael Winship

HBO Documentary Films: The Greatest Silence: Rape in the Congo (HBO)
Writer: Lisa Jackson

MSNBC Films: Witness to Jonestown (MSNBC)
Writer: Stephen Stept

Take One Step: The Truth About Cancer (PBS)
Writer: Linda Garmon

OUTSTANDING INDIVIDUAL ACHIEVEMENT IN A CRAFT: RESEARCH

Cinemax Reel Life: Nanking(HBO)
Researchers: Marina Brodskaya, Violet Du Feng, Joann Jacobs, Zachary Leonsis, Dylan Nelson, Wan‑Shun Shih, Katie Strand, Izumi Tanaka, Makiko Waka

D‑Day: The True Story of Omaha Beach (Smithsonian Channel)
Researchers: Georgina Leslie, Simon Trew

HBO Documentary Films: Taxi to the Dark Side (HBO
Researchers: Salimah El Amin, Blair Foster

NOVA : Ape Genius (PBS)
Researcher: John Rubin, Jonathan Sacks

P.O.V./American Documentary : Traces of the Trade (PBS)
Researchers: Jennifer Anderson, Catherine Benedict, Katrina Browne, Beth Sternheimer

The Rape of Europa (PBS)
Researchers: Sergei Beck, Richard Berge, Bonni Cohen, Linda Davis‑Garkow, Elena Franchi, Alexander Kandaurov, Andrzej Lewandowski, Nicholas Lynn, Monica Nagele‑Dreher, Nicole Newnham, Sabine Ranft, Bonni Rowan, Camille Servan‑Schreiber

OUTSTANDING INDIVIDUAL ACHIEVEMENT IN A CRAFT: CINEMATOGRAPHY‑‑NATURE DOCUMENTARIES

NATURE:Crash: A Tale of Two Species(PBS)
Camerapersons: Michael Male, Chris Szwedo, Andrew Young

NATURE:White Falcon, White Wolf (PBS)
Camerapersons: Ian McCarthy, Mark Smit

Wild China: Heart of the Dragon (Travel Channel)
Camerapersons:John Aitchison, Mike Lemmon, Justin Maguire, Gavin Newman

OUTSTANDING INDIVIDUAL ACHIEVEMENT IN A CRAFT: CINEMATOGRAPHY

FRONTLINE: The War Briefing
Cameraperson: Timothy Grucza

Koppel on Discovery: The People's Republic of Capitalism (Discovery Channel) Director of Photography: Robert Goldsborough

National Geographic Explorer: Gorilla Murders (National Geographic Channel)
Cinematographer: Erin Harvey

P.O.V.: Up the Yangtze (PBS)
Director of Photography: Wang Shi Qing

OUTSTANDING INDIVIDUAL ACHIEVEMENT IN A CRAFT: EDITING

The Devil Came on Horseback (National Geographic Channel)
Editor: Joey Grossfield

HBO Documentary Films: Resolved (HBO) Editors: Brad Barber, Tom Runquist, Greg Whiteley

National Geographic Explorer: Gorilla Murders (National Geographic Channel)
Editors: Christine Jameson‑Henry, Max Salomon, Salvatore Vecchio

P.O.V.: Soldiers of Conscience (PBS)
Editors: Gary Weimberg , Josh Peterson

Wild China: Shangri-La (Travel Channel)
Editors: Andy Netley, Steve Olive

OUTSTANDING INDIVIDUAL ACHIEVEMENT IN A CRAFT: MUSIC & SOUND

The Devil Came on Horseback (National Geographic Channel)
Composer: Paul Brill
Sound Mixer: Tom Efinger
Sound Designer: Rusty Dunn
Sound Editor: Brad Bergbom

Superpride (National Geographic Channel)
Composers: Mac Squier, Lenny Williams

When We Left Earth: The NASA Missions-Landing the Eagle (Discovery Channel)
Composer: Richard Blair-Oliphant
Sound Designer: Peter Baldock
Dubbing Mixer: Cliff Jones
Conductor/Orchestration: Ben Wallfisch
Additional Music: Jody Jenkins
Music Recording Engineer: Geoff Foster
Post Production Supervisor: Richard Lloyd
Music Supervisor: Hilary Skewes
Supervising Music Editor: Richard Todman
Music Editor: Peter Clarke

Wild China: Heart of the Dragon (Travel Channel)
Composer: Barnaby Taylor

Even during these financially troubled times for their industry, there's one thing magazines will also continue to do: make lists.

The aging hipsters over at Paste Magazine have put together what they're calling "The Definitive All-Time Top 10 Rock 'N' Roll Documentaries List." And we think it's pretty solid.

Please note, this is not a list of concert films (thus, no The Last Waltz or Stop Making Sense). These are those films that walk the delicate line of great storytelling, insight and good old-fashioned jamming.

The "Top 10" is cranked up to 11, with, naturally This is Spinal Tap. From the piece:

What else could make it to number 11 on our top 10 list? This is satire at its best, as"the world's loudest band" tours the country with outrageous songs, even more outrageous leather pants, and amps that go just a little bit higher. Christopher Guest plays the misguided lead guitarist, Nigel Tufnel, and his biting comedic timing carries the film. It’s a must-see for music fans of any genre.

Want to see the real 1-10? Check it out right here.

In the latest chapter in the Bananas*! Saga, Dole Food Company filed suit against director Fredrik Gertten, producer Margarete Jangard and production company WG Film, alleging defamation. According to Variety, Dole Food will seek permanent injunction against Gertten to prevent him from screening his film again. In the suit, Dole attorney Theodore Boutrous Jr. writes "To screen, promote, and profit from this film, despite the fact that its entire premise has been adjudicated a fraud ... is the epitome of reckless and irresponsible conduct."

Firing right back at Dole Food, Gertten's attorney, Richard J. Lee, issued a statement that says, in part: "My clients and I believe that this suit is without merit and represents the latest in a continued line of intimidating harassment by a multinational corporation aimed squarely at a small, independent film and its filmmakers." The letter is posted in its entirety, as is the defamation suit, on the Bananas*! website.

For more about Bananas*! screenings and discussions at the Los Angeles Film Festival, click to the LAFF report in Documentary magazine here and in indieWIRE's "Cinema Daily" column here.

FilmBuff, a new video-on-demand channel curated by New York indie sales outfit Cinetic, launched last  week. The channel will offer 10-15 first run films and classics per month, with the goal of attracting and widening the audience for new titles, those that have fallen through the cracks, and older films that complement a current trend. Amongst the launch titles is Rob Epstein's 1984 documentary The Times of Harvey Milk.  (via Variety)


Brian Newman has announced his departure from his position as CEO of the Tribeca Film Institute. In a post on his blog Springboard Media, Newman says that he's extremely proud of leading National Video Resources to becoming Renew Media, and then  shepherding the merger of the latter with Tribeca Film Institute (TFI).
      Newman has not yet announced his future plans. He says on his blog, "As many of you know, I have quite an entrepreneurial spirit and want to now explore other opportunities. I will be launching a consulting business focusing on business development projects in the entertainment and cultural industries as well as helping filmmakers, artists and organizations to distribute content and connect with audiences through innovative uses of new technology."
You can follow Newman on Twitter @bnewman01.

Michael Moore doesn't usually come to mind when thinking about romantic comedies, but perhaps all that is about to change with the release of his upcoming recession-themed doc. Taking its cue from the torrid love stories of cinema past, Capitalism: A Love Story will premiere in the U.S. on Oct. 2.
"It will be the perfect date movie," said the filmmaker in a statement. "It's got it all - lust, passion, romance and 14,000 jobs being eliminated every day. It's a forbidden love, one that dare not speak its name. Heck, let's just say it: it's capitalism."
The film's U.S. release falls a year and a day after the U.S. government announced its Wall Street bailout. Overture Films will release the project domestically, with Paramount Vintage handling international distribution. For more on Moore, go to his website www.michaelmoore.com.

Academy Award-winner Alex Gibney (Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room, Taxi to the Dark Side) is currently working on a documentary about Lance Armstrong, which is being produced by Sony Pictures Entertainment. The piece is focused on Armstrong's comeback, and was championed at the studio by Columbia Pictures President Matt Tolmach, an avid cyclist.  The $3.5 million dollar film will most likely be finished later next year. (via the Los Angeles Times).
Gibney just set up a Twitter feed (@BaLueBolivar) where he's posting production updates from the Tour de France.


According to a piece by John Miga, John Kerry wants to become a movie producer. The Massachusetts Senator has put in a request to the Federal Election Commission to use $300,000 from his campaign funds to invest in a documentary about injured Iraq war veterans. The film, tentatively titled Keeping Faith, is to be directed and produced by George Butler (Going Upriver: The Long War of John Kerry, Pumping Iron). (via Google News)

I spent the Tuesday and Wednesday of this past week at NATPE's LATV Fest, which aimed to offer "Real Tools, Real Access, Real Pitches...for Real Producers." Between the panels, lobby chit-chat and lunchtime networking, there was much spirited debate about making money from online content, current trends in reality and scripted programming, and how to avoid falling on your ass in a pitch meeting.

I spent the majority of my time jumping back and forth between the digital and reality TV tracks, as there are a large number of documentarians who work in the latter to pay the bills. I'll be writing a comprehensive piece about the non-fiction perspective on the event for IDA's August e-zine, but I wanted to immediately post a practical nuts-and-bolts piece about a great session I attended on Wednesday called "Google Power Tools: Become a Power Ninja." I thought I was going to a session on search engine optimization (SEO), where I'd learn some tips and tricks about how to make it easier for people to find my work online.  The session turned out to be the exact opposite – it was a tutorial on how to use Google more effectively to find what I might be looking for.

Now, the idea of taking a class on how to use Google seems, well, ridiculous. I've been using Google for years. You type in what you're looking for, get a bunch of links and then click away until you find what you need. But as speaker Dmitry Shapiro, Founder and CEO of Veoh Networks, Inc. pointed out, with the growth of the Internet and the large number of results that queries now return, one can lose hours sifting through to find the most useful, relevant information.

For independent filmmakers, time is money. Documentarians usually don't have large research staffs, yet there's a ton of work to be done online, including researching topics, locating  subjects and fact-checking the information in projects. Therefore, I wanted to share some of the tips Shapiro passed along about using Google operators, a.k.a. Google commands, to help make this process more efficient, and therefore more economical.

Some of these tips are quite basic, but I'll start at the beginning and build from there. I'll use a few practical examples to help put the tips in context. If these intrigue you and you want to learn more, you can check out the Weekend University class Shapiro teaches on the subject. Google also has an online cheat sheet with a list of some of the commands. If you have other tips to suggest, we'd love to hear them – please add them in the comments section.

Refining your search
Let's say you're doing a documentary on presidential elections, and you want to find material on Barack Obama. You should use quotes around the whole search term.
Enter: "Barack Obama"
Number of search results: 82,800,000

Now let's say you want to focus just on the presidential candidates, regardless of their running mates. So in the case of the recent election, you want to find all the results for Obama that don't mention Joe Biden. The minus sign will omit things from your search.
Enter: "barack obama"-"joe biden"
Number of search results: 80,300,00

There are a ton of sites out there that mention Obama. If you want more vetted information, perhaps you want to just check official government sites. You can specify the kind of site you're looking for with the site command. This operator will give you government sites and mentions of .gov sites that include Barack Obama (but not Joe Biden).
Enter: "barack obama"-"joe biden" site:gov
Number of search results: 70,300

You can make the type of site you're looking for as specific as you'd like. If you want to limit the search to congressional sites:
Enter: "barack obama"-"joe biden" site:congress.gov
Number of search results: 373

You can also narrow your search by the type of file you're looking for. Google indexes all kinds of documents, not just web pages. For example, you might want to find power point presentations about Obama as part of your research.
Enter: "barack obama" filetype:ppt
Number of search results: 2,670

Relevance
In addition to narrowing your search, you'll save time by making sure the results you get are those that are potentially the most relevant.  If someone names a particular URL or document with the search term you're looking for, that's a good indication that it is actually focused on your keyword.

Let's say you're doing a documentary on the Catholic Church's attitude towards homosexuality. If you put "Vatican" in as your keyword, Google returns 70,200,000 results. These range from those more pertinent, such as the official site of the Vatican and the Catholic Encyclopedia's entry for the Vatican, and those that are less so, such as sites selling Vatican souvenirs. To find your keyword in the title:
-Enter: Intitle:Vatican
Number of search results: 943,000
To find your keyword in the URL:
-Enter: inURL:Vatican
Number of search results: 963,000

If you want to search for more than one word contained in a title or URL, you can use the allintitle or allinURL operators. For example:
-Enter: allintitle: Vatican homosexual
Number of search results: 267
-Enter: allinURL: Vatican homosexual
Number of search results: 97

Practical applications
Sometimes when researching, you're not sure what search term will be most effective. If you're doing an environmental film about the state of the oceans, there may be very useful sites out there that reference the sea, marine, atlantic, etc . The tilde ~ operator does a synonym search.
-Enter: ~ocean.
Number of search results: 1,170,000,000

This particular search brought up a variety of helpful sites, along with things like the Atlantic Theater Company and Oceanic Airlines. To narrow your search, you might want to refine your search a bit. The following search will bring up all the sites that contain fish and ocean, or their synonyms.
Enter: ~ocean ~fish
Number of search results: 187,000,000

Quite a few of these are travel services that offer help in arranging fishing trips, information that's not useful for your documentary. By omitting the keyword 'travel', you'll be able to get rid of a number of the sites that are focused on fishing tours.
Enter: ~ocean ~fish -travel
Number of search results: 121,000,000

You might also want to try to eliminate some of the seafood restaurants from the search results.
Enter: ~ocean ~fish -travel -restaurant
Number of search results: 107,000,000

If you're trying to find equipment for sale, you can get quite specific with your search by using a combination of operators. For example, let's say you want to find a Panasonic HVX-200 for sale for between $3000-$4000. You can use [#]…[#] to indicate a range of numbers.
Enter: site:ebay.com Panasonic HVX-200 $3000...$4000
Number of search results: 147

When you get to the marketing stage of your film and need to find all the blogs and sites that have given you fabulous reviews, use the link operator to find the pages that link to your own film site.
Enter: link:www.weliveinpublicthemovie.com
**Additional tip: If you land on a page and the link isn't immediately obvious, as is often the case with blog pages that contain multiple entries, use your browser's "find" function to locate the link.


Other Useful Tools
Shapiro turned us on to a few other useful tools on Google. You can use all of the operators above with these sections of Google as well.  

Scholar.google.com has information that is generally more vetted than Joe Blogger's information, such as papers, theses, abstracts and articles from academic publishers, professional societies, universities and other scholarly organizations.

Books.google.com searches over 7 million books. You can put in a word or phrase, and it'll return results for the publications that include it. When you click on the link, the word or phrase will actually be highlighted on the page. It's a useful way to find sources for research, as well as quotes about a subject that you might want to use on cards or in press materials. For example, you might search the following for the above-mentioned doc on the oceans:
Enter: "value of our oceans"
Number of search results: 25

Google Blog Search (blogsearch.google.com) finds blogs that are talking about your film, which can be very helpful when trying to build a grassroots campaign. It's a good way to get a sense of the informal chatter occurring online about your subject or your film.  

The Sundance Institute and Cinereach recently announced a $1.5 million, three-year grant to form The Cinereach Project at Sundance Institute. The program, underwritten by Cinereach, will support a unique and flexible resource pool for documentary and feature film projects with themes that evoke global cultural exchange and social impact. The partners anticipate that at least 12 films will have been supported through this initiative.

The Cinereach Project at Sundance Institute will consist of a discretionary fund that can be used towards projects that are participating in Sundance Institute's existing Feature Film Program and Documentary Film Program, and are in need of emergency support. As a result, Sundance program directors will be more equipped to bridge gaps at critical stages of its Fellows' projects.

Additionally, the project will establish a special Fellowship for emerging directors committed to global cultural exchange and social impact. The Fellowship, for both documentary and fiction filmmakers, will provide the Fellows access to the multitude of Sundance Institute resources, as well as special funding and support from Cinereach. Fellows will be chosen from existing Sundance Institute Lab Projects as well as projects specifically recruited by both organizations.

"For nearly 30 years, Sundance Institute has been discovering and developing emerging independent artists," said Philipp Engelhorn, Cinereach founder and executive director, in a prepared statement. "This long record of nurturing diverse and authentic stories that foster empathy and understanding dovetails directly with the Cinereach mission."

Cinereach, founded in 2006, supports and produces artful films that depict underrepresented perspectives, cross-cultural boundaries and promote dialogue through three focus areas--Grants & Awards, The Reach Film Fellowship and Productions.

"We have long admired the work of Philipp and his team and commend them for their vision and dedication to promoting storytelling and awareness," said Jill Miller, Sundance Institute's managing director. "Their long-term commitment comes at a crucial moment as the current global financial crisis threatens to constrict film artists' possibilities of connecting to audiences."

For an article about Cinereach and Chicken&Egg Pictures that appeared that appeared in the Spring 2009 Documentary, click here.

The Sundance Institute also announced this week the expansion of its Creative Producing Initiative designed to nurture emerging independent producers in both narrative and documentary fields. For 2009-2010, the Initiative will include the re-conceived Creative Producing Summit (formerly the Independent Producers Conference), the Creative Producing Lab supporting six Fellows from the Feature Film Program and, new for this year, four from the Documentary Film Program, as well as Sundance Industry Meetings to connect filmmakers with industry members at the 2010 Sundance Film Festival. 

The Creative Producing Initiative is designed to support producers with project-specific support through Labs, grants and long-term advisor relationships and to also reinvigorate dialogue within the independent producing community. 

Fellows and projects attending the Documentary Film Creative Producing Lab and selected for the Documentary Film Creative Producing Fellowship are:

¿Dónde Están? / Kaye Pyle
El General / Daniela Alatorre
Give Up Tomorrow / Marty Syjuco
Match+ / Ann S. Kim

Producers Jennifer Fox (Love & Diane; On the Ropes) and Tia Lessin (Trouble the Water) will serve as creative advisors to the Documentary Creative Producing Lab.

by Peter Knegt

Capitalism: A Love Story has been unveiled as the title of Michael Moore's latest documentary feature. The film examines "the disastrous impact that corporate dominance and out-of-control profit motives have on the lives of Americans and citizens of the world."

On why he chose to make a 'love story,' Moore stated that it was time for him to make a 'relationship movie.' "It will be the perfect date movie," said Moore, in a statement. "It's got it all--lust, passion, romance, and 14,000 jobs being eliminated every day. It's a forbidden love, one that dare not speak its name. Heck, let's just say it: It's Capitalism."

Overture Films will release the film domestically on October 2, 2009, and Paramount Vantage will handle international distribution.

Related:

See the trailer for Capitalism: A Love Story here.

See filmmaker Michael Moore talk about a plan to get more documentaries into movie theaters at the IDA's DocuDay 2008 event.

See filmmaker Michael Moore and producer Meghan O'Hara talk about their Oscar-nominated film Sicko at the IDA's DocuDay 2008 event.

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

When I was a little girl, I used to watch my parent's videotape of Whoopi Goldberg's solo Broadway show over and over. In one her routines, she plays a six-year-old girl who puts her t-shirt over her head so she can pretend to have long, luscious locks. I could relate. My own Jersey Girl hair was of the curly, frizzy variety, and I used to spend hours in front of the mirror, wishing for smooth, straight tresses. I truly believed that if I just had Barbie hair, life would be much, much better.

Apparently, Chris Rock's daughter was having hair issues of her own. His response was to make the HBO Films documentary Good Hair. Hilarious, informative and at times alarming, the Sundance Special Jury Prize winner provides audiences with an entertaining education about the contemporary world of Black hair.

The seed for the film was planted about 15 years ago when Rock was doing a stand-up gig in Atlanta and stumbled across some interesting characters staying in his hotel who were attending a hair convention. The project came up again when he was shooting The Chris Rock Show for HBO, which ran from 1997 to 2000. Rock and his creative team talked about the possibility of doing a movie together, but when the show ended, everyone dispersed to work on other projects and the idea fell into the void. It was only in 2006 when his little girl Lola asked, "Daddy, why don't I have good hair?" that he decided it was finally time to commit to making the film.

Luckily, Rock was able to assemble much of the team from The Chris Rock Show to work on Good Hair. Alums include executive producer Nelson George, director Jeff Stilson and writers Chuck Sklar and Lance Crouthier. Reuniting with previous collaborators was a key reason George decided to sign onto the film. Says Rock, "It was cool. We'd done these remotes [on the show] and Stilson had directed most of those. So we kind of had a shorthand already."

To prep for the film, the Good Hair team went back to Atlanta to the scene of Rock's original inspiration for the film: the Bronner Bros. International Hair Show and Battle, the largest African-American hair show in the United States. Part trade show, part live competition, the event was instrumental in educating the filmmakers about the business and culture of African-American hair. 

The "battle" itself becomes the spine of the film, as the audience follows an array of eclectic stylists while they ready themselves for competition. The larger-than-life characters range from a stylist who cuts hair underwater in a fish tank, to Tanya Crumel, who attempts to cut hair while hanging upside down, to the flamboyant, portly Derek, for whom custom-made boots are a key part of his cutting strategy.

Surprisingly, the champion stylist everyone wants to beat is not the one the viewer might expect. His name is Jason Griggers, and he's a laid-back white guy from Atlanta who sports floppy blonde hair and polo shirts. By including Griggers, the film is able to subtly explore racial issues organically through a story rather than a lecture or history lesson. The mostly white audience for the film at Sundance was intrigued by Griggers' background. At the post-screening Q&A, an audience member asked him how he built his business. He responded that it had been a struggle in the beginning, but ultimately he succeeded by simply being really good at what he does.

Between the hair show segments, Rock and his team explore the multi-million dollar business of Black hair. Their journey begins at the local beauty shop and takes them all the way to India, which is the source for the hair used in many of the weaves worn by African-American women. Each year, more than 10 million people in India sacrifice their hair in a religious ceremony called "tonsuring." The hair is then processed and sold to hair dealers, and eventually makes its way to salons and stores from Beverly Hills to Atlanta.

"The business of hair was shocking to me-how it ran like Apple or General Motors," Rock says. "It's like sugarcane or something; it's really no different."

George was also surprised by the extent of the "international hair economy," a phrase he coined during shooting. "Hair goes all over the world," he notes. "If we had had more money, we would have actually gone to China to the big processing plants. We went to London and there are huge streets with scores of hair places. This is a vast business with many, many tentacles."

Another big surprise for the filmmakers was how hair issues can translate into intimacy issues between men and women. Due to the high price and time commitment of hair maintenance, women protect their hair at all costs, which often means that they won't let men touch it.
"I'd never really thought about what a hair weave meant to a woman, and that, in fact, it would stop her," Nelson admits. "I knew they wouldn't get into the water, that it was water sensitive. But this whole thing about not touching-what does that really say about how intimate you can be with someone when you can't touch her hair?"

Rock, too, had been in the situation where he hadn't been allowed to touch. "I'm so used to not touching!" he jokes. "But the flip side is, if you've been with a girl and you couldn't touch her hair, the day you're with a girl and you can touch her hair, you don't take your hands out of her fuckin' hair! You're just like ‘Oooohhhh.'"

To help audiences get up-close-and-personal with Black hair, Rock recruited a number of successful actresses to appear in the documentary and share their experiences about straightening hair, weaves and product. Political and cultural figures such as Maya Angelou and the Reverend Al Sharpton also offer commentary.

The actresses are honest and funny, and their candor adds depth to the film. "A lot of them I'd known awhile," Rock explains. "I tried to pick people I thought had diarrhea of the mouth."

Tracie Thoms (Cold Case, Rent) talks about the pressure she faces in keeping her hair natural, and questions why her decision to do so is considered revolutionary. For Nia Long (Big Shots, Big Momma's House), hair is something she likes to have fun with. She says, "It's like a character for me; it's different in every movie."

While the actresses' opinions about hair are as diverse as their hairstyles, almost all agreed upon the importance of hair to one's self esteem. So it doesn't matter if you're Whoopi Goldberg portraying a six-year-old, or if you're a famous TV actress; almost all of us at some point have stood in front of the mirror and wished for hair different from our own.

During the Q&A, Thoms said that she was grateful to Rock for doing the movie because it finally gave her a chance to talk about her hair. She eloquently summed up the paradox surrounding African-American hair: "The mystery of our hair is almost perpetuated by the reluctance to talk about it. People don't see it, so they're curious about it. They want to touch it, and we get offended. But they so rarely see real Black hair."

Good Hair goes a long way in quenching that curiosity, doing so with a light touch. Rock dons wigs at stores, jumps into an assembly line at a relaxer processing plant, and gently calls out the absurdity of putting a product on one's hair that causes soda cans to disintegrate. Rock says that these moments occurred spontaneously during shooting, but they feed into his general philosophy about coupling knowledge with comedy.

"There's a lot of great information in the movie, but you will digest none of it unless there is laughter," Rock maintains. "So if the movie's not funny, we're not even here right now. People are just like ‘OK, that was interesting about black hair; what's next?'"

What's next for Rock may be another documentary. He had such a good experience with Good Hair that he'd love to find another idea for a nonfiction film. "In a weird way, I think this is the best movie I've done," he admits. "I think I'm more natural, and I'm getting laughs in a weird, unforced way. I would love to do this again. I do a stand-up special every three or four years. I would love to get one of these into the rotation."

Good Hair will be released to theaters this fall through Roadside Attractions.

Tamara Krinsky is associate editor of Documentary. She is still searching for the perfect hair product.