DOC SHOT is an exclusive online feature by Documentary magazine associate editor Tamara Krinsky. Through this mix of questions (some serious, some sassy), each DOC SHOT provides a glimpse into the work and lives of those creating and supporting nonfiction film.

Editor's note: This DOC SHOT originally appeared in the July 2009 e-zine, prior to the screening of Prodigal Sons at OutFest. The film opens February 26 in New York City, through First Run Features. Filmmaker Kimberly Reed appeared on Oprah today, February 11, to promote the film.

Kimberly Reed
Director/Producer, Prodigal Sons
Playing at Outfest 2009

In Prodigal Sons, filmmaker Kimberly Reed returns home for her high school reunion, ready to reintroduce herself to the small town as a transgender woman and hoping for reconciliation with her long-estranged adopted brother Marc. Things are complicated by the shocking revelation that Marc may be the grandson of Orson Wells and Rita Hayworth, forcing Kim and her family to explore questions of sexual orientation, identity, severe trauma and love.

YOUR FILM

Your role/credit on the film?
Director/Producer

This is a personal documentary. What was the impetus for you to begin the project?
I started this film when I got up the nerve to return to my high school reunion, after much had, um, changed. The project really began when it became clear that there was a remarkable story about identity — with both my brother’s and mine having changed — and I had no choice but to follow that story wherever it led.

If you had had an extra $10,000 to spend on your film, what would you have used it for?  
I would repay the tremendous support many others have shown our film. So many people worked for much less than they’re worth that it stuns me.

What excites you about playing your film at Outfest?
I didn’t want to make the transgender version of Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner?. I’m excited that at Outfest our film will find an audience that wants to see trans film take steps beyond that.

YOUR WORK

What's the first film you remember seeing as a child?
I remember seeing The Great Waldo Pepper, starring Robert Redford, with my dad. It was the first PG-rated film I’d seen. Someone said “shit.” It was scandalous.

Tell me about a film that affected your profoundly or changed/inspired the way you do your own work. The gravity of Tarkovsky’s The Sacrifice, combined with its so-beautiful-it-hurts cinematography, has been a driving force for me ever since I saw the film. His audacity to create film worlds that exist unto themselves inspires me.

What would surprise people the most about your job or the way you execute it?
I’m an editor, but the first thing I did was hire an editor.

When you are feeling creatively stumped or burnt out, what do you do to get the creativity flowing again?
Nothing like watching a film that almost nails it to get me going.


YOUR LIFE

What do you want more of in your life?
I think there’s plenty of love in the world for all of us. I wish we knew that.

What do you want less of in your life?
Hate is the easy way out. Less of that would be a great start.

What do you want for your birthday?
A pony, of course! (Still!)

Editor's Note: The Beaches of Agnes airs June 29 on PBS' POV series. This article ran in the July 2009 Documentary Online in conjunction with the film's theatrical release through The Cinema Guild.

Agnès Varda earned the moniker "The Grand Dame of the Nouvelle Vague," in part because she was the only female in the highly influential French New Wave. Her marriage to fellow Left Bank filmmaker Jacques Demy and their inevitable distinction as French cinema's power couple certainly contributed to the reputation. But Varda's import to film is unrelated to either her gender or the import of her colleagues.

Varda's work has spanned decades and genres and is a favorite of film classes. Like most of the New Wave filmmakers, her films challenge formal assumptions. Her particular interest is the assumption of truth that tints the documentary aesthetic.

The Beaches of Agnès is her most recent film, and a cinematic self-portrait. She carries us from beach to beach, introducing us to the people who made her, both literally (her family) and metaphorically (her colleagues and the art that inspired her). Poetic logic and daydreams are all over the film, as they are in every one of her films; it's just that this film is about her. So here, as the protagonist/filmmaker, she is, as she's said before, "the other than me" and via a travelogue through beaches, clips from her films, photographs she took and whimsical dialogues with those people who have influenced her, we can piece together the puzzle of her life and career.

Documentary: Your documentaries tend to involve you as a character and tend towards a travelogue format. What do these two tendencies have in common?

Agnès Varda: It's not a tendency. It's a choice. It's an auto-portrait--self-portrait, but mostly, I would say, it's "the other than me." It's not really me...Me or me. Just to give an example, the first few seconds of the film are on the Belgian beach. I use mirrors because the mirror is the tool of the self-portrait. You don't have to be so self-conscious to make a portrait of yourself; it's an artistic act. If I were very coquette, I would have done it earlier and would not have waited until I was 80 years old and almost broken to make it. So, the travelogue is more [about] going through my life. I like to take your hand and take you with me, meeting again or visiting some pieces of my life. Like bubbles, what came out came out. I missed parts and certainly forgot very important meetings and stories. I made it very simple: I divided my life in beaches. It was obvious. I'd been in Belgium near beaches, in the South of France during the war, in beaches in Los Angeles and in that island at Normandy. Now for Paris there is no beach, so I had to make it. It became a gag to throw sand in the sidewalk in the middle of the road. My production team was nice enough to wear swimming suits to type and make phone calls. You need the complicity of people around you to do that.

D: It seems to me that you earn their complicity with your respect. The people in your films are always subjects. You, however, are often an "other."

AV: Well, a little. With Beaches, you can say it's about me, but it's about me and the others and the others and me. I think it was important to show the people who made me-- not only my mother and father who construct my spirit and my mind, but people I met and paintings I loved. I made a puzzle with my friends.

D: You allow people to critique your films while you're in editing--

AV: Yes! Not neighbors--different people, including professionals. During editing I take advice because I want to see how much I share, how much is understandable and pleasant. But I'm not obliged to follow [the advice]. "Okay, that's their point, that's mine." It gives you a key of how this film can be accepted or loved or what. But then, after the editing, I don't [touch it]. This is it and the critics can say what they want. People write me a lot of letters.

D: Getting input from your friends and colleagues must be challenging, and finishing this film, this movie about your life, must have felt pretty heavy.

AV: I didn't think it was more important than another film; it just came on time in my life. Maybe it was my last film, maybe not.

D: The film dances between family photos and reenactments. You say that you don't know what to make of the reenactments. Playing with these reenactments and photographs and old footage foregrounds the subject of representation, yes?

AV: Representation is the main subject. My life is how it is, but how to represent it, how to make it a film, how to find cinematic set-ups.

I'll give you an example: I did some shots in 16mm for my first film, La pointe courte--tests. Then I made the film in 35 and, by the way, I imitated my test. But these tests had been made with a couple, my friends, and the man died of cancer, so I dedicated the film to him. He had a wife with two kids, three and five [years old].

Ages pass, and when I find the 16mm film, I say, "Oh, I should put this in the film [Beaches] as my test." [Then] I realized that the family had not seen the test. So, at that point I can just be normal and say, "Come in my editing room and see your father," but I decided to make a real cinematic set-up. I took the carriage that was in the final film, La pointe-courte, and organized a screening on it and projected it on it and I had the kids push that carriage and screened the film in 16mm. Their father, whom they had never seen in motion, is pushing that carriage in the 16mm footage. And it's like a second burial. It's like a very nice way of pushing the memory of something they didn't have, because they had not seen him like this. You see, it's sophisticated in a way to try to find that cinematic thing, but it is touching, much more than if I just say, "Look at your father here."

I felt it very true, very good, you know? It's a way of presenting what I felt and what I wanted to show them instead of just showing it. So, it's a cinematic act. And in many places in the film I wanted to make it pleasant. Not because I want to please everybody, but because I think they deserve to get something for their money when they pay for the theater. So, I could tell very true things and moving [things] sometimes, but also pass from one thing to another, like we all do, zap all the time.

D: That's such an artful way to live. How intertwined are life and art in your view?

AV: My whole life as a filmmaker was [dedicated] to finding representations. I changed my way of filming according to the subject, according to the evolution of equipment, of material, of stock. And, you know, when I made The Gleaners and I and had to approach people who were very poor, I was so glad that I had these little cameras and not a big crew. Now I use this very small HD camera so I can do things that can be integrated into films. The technique is very important because it opens you to new worlds of filming and representation. You have to find [a different means of] representation for every film, every scene, every opinion you want to express. You can't just say, "I will write a line," and that will just illustrate it. Representation is the main string of what we do.

I was in Sete, in the South of France, and I didn't like the idea of living outdoors in the canals, so we had to go to Paris. But in my mind, I was not leaving Sete--I was still there. So I decided to write that scene where I sail that little boat from Sete down the River Seine near the Tour Eiffel. La Tour Eiffel means Paris. But this is a choice of representation, because this is not true. I didn't come in the boat; you cannot even sail on the River Seine. This was a dreamy approach to what I felt. In the film I represent my life and reality, but I [also] represent daydreams, impressions, desires, showing something that is not part of my exact life, shot after shot.

D: The real world includes the imaginary world.

AV: We have to love that. Like the way I love the surrealists; I make some images and put myself in the belly of a whale to create the feeling that I was really inside that.

D: It was a darling office in the belly of that whale. Very well decorated.

AV: The belly of the whale was made from paper, so we had to decide if we would represent the whale with glossy black paper--this is not redoing a real whale. Again, there is a décalage: It is not exactly on the side of the representation, it's not reality all the time; it's playing with reality.

D: So art is playing with reality?

AV: Sure. Playing with truth, too. Even if you are true, you play with it. You know, the way you decide to say one thing, not another thing? You decide what not to say and then you say it. The film is also about losing memory. In the film I appear all the time with these old ladies--which also says that I am losing my own memory. I am glad I made the film. This saves me from forgetting everything. I think that is my freedom. I can decide if the film can be true or vaguely away from the truth. Imagination has the power to show this and that. At the same time, I will film my family that I see as a dreamy concept. I think it is like a surrounding group protecting me.

D: Protecting you from what?

AV: I don't know. I love my film; it protects me. I feel loved by my audience, even though I don't know their names, I feel their protection is there.

The Beaches of Agnes, currently screening in New York and Los Angeles, will roll out to theaters across the country through October. For more information, click here.

Sara Scheiron is a writer based in the San Francisco Bay Area.

Robert S. McNamara, the Secretary of Defense under Presidents Kennedy and Johnson, died today at 93. McNamara earned notoriety for his mishandling of the Vietnam War, which would be his internal struggle for the rest of his life. McNamara was the subject of Errol Morris' Academy Award-winning documentary The Fog of War, in which he reflects on the decisions he made, from World War II through Vietnam, and the consequences of those decisions.

Morris spoke today about McNamara on the radio program Here and Now, originating from Boston-based station WBUR. To listen to the interview, click here. And for Morris' recent essay about McNamara in The New York Times, click here

And here's an essay about The Fog of War by David D'Arcy that appeared in the 25^th Anniversary issue of Documentary magazine.

And here's the trailer for The Fog of War:

:

Finally, here's an excerpt from the film, in which McNamara discusses the notorious Gulf of Tonkin incident that served as the dubious pretext for entering the Vietnam War in the first place:

Food, Inc., Robert Kenner's searing indictment of the US food industry, passed the $1 million mark after less than a month in the theaters. The film joins Earth, Waltz with Bashir, Valentino: The Last Emperor, and Every Little Step in the seven-figure club of 2009.   

With such festival crowd-pleasers as Soul Power and The Cove scheduled for theatrical release this month, the total number of million-dollar grossers this year could very well exceed the total for 2008--six.

Here are the top grossing documentaries of 2009, so far, according to BoxOfficeMojo.com:

1) Earth:          $31,800,598

2) Waltz with Bashir:               $2,283,849

3) Valentino: The Last Emperor:        $1,533,077

4) Every Little Step:                $1,477,126

5) Food, Inc.:                           $1,286,693

6) Tyson:                                  $ 857,488

7) Cross: The Arthur Blessit Story:     $ 741,557

8) Anvil!: The Story of Avil:    $ 623,642

9) Outrage:                              $ 246,649

10) Enlighten Up!:                  $ 153,148

Editor's Note: Yoo Hoo, Mrs. Goldberg comes out on DVD August 24, through New Video/DocuRama. The following article was puiblished in conjucntion with the film's theatrical release in July 2009.

In Aviva Kempner's latest film, screenwriter Margaret Nagle recalls, "There was a list every year of the most respected women in America. Eleanor Roosevelt was first and Gertrude Berg would be second. There was also a list of the highest wage earners in America, and Gertrude Berg was first and Eleanor Roosevelt was second." And who, exactly, was Gertrude Berg, you might be asking?

Most people really have no idea of the impact this first-generation American Jewish woman had on the face of national television entertainment, literally connecting to millions of households across America sending "greetings from our family to your family" from the set of the Goldbergs' Manhattan apartment. Gertrude Berg was a force of nature--a media mogul, a brilliant screenwriter, the first woman to win an Emmy.

You could also describe Yoo-Hoo, Mrs. Goldberg's director as a force of nature, for to make this feature-length documentary (or any of her other projects, for that matter), Kempner was as persistent and resourceful and determined as her subject ever was in her own work. She is on her way to realizing her dream of saluting this amazing woman and telling her story to as wide an audience as possible.

Gertrude Berg, born Tillie Edelstein in 1898 in Harlem, was the creator, principal writer and star of The Goldbergs, a popular radio show that ran for 17 years. The show became television's first domestic sitcom in 1949, making its star a national icon. This was at a time of severe economic depression (the radio show premiered a week after the stock market crash of 1929) and the TV show about a middle-class American Jewish family was becoming hugely popular as Hitler was rising to power over in Germany.

Also, by the time the TV show had reached its zenith in popularity, Senator Joseph McCarthy had cooked up his blacklist and The Goldbergs experienced the fallout from this devastating political movement first-hand when Berg's co-star, Philip Loeb, who played Jake Goldberg to Gertrude's Molly, was targeted by McCarthy. After holding strong, Berg, under intense pressure and threats from sponsors, finally settled with Loeb in 1952 and he left the show; sadly, he killed himself three years later, and the show was cancelled in 1956.

Among those interviewed in Kempner's beautifully realized film are actor Ed Asner, Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, television producers Gary David Goldberg and Norman Lear, CBS anchor Andrea Roane and NPR commentator Susan Stamberg. As for Kempner, her goal for the past 30 years has been to make documentaries about little-known Jewish heroes and heroines, celebrating a positive legacy when so much negativity is part and parcel of Jewish history and culture. Another goal of Kempner's, of which she is adamant, is that of exhibiting her work in the cinema.

I spoke with the award-winning filmmaker by telephone about her latest work as she took a break from a post session at Du Art in Manhattan. Yoo-Hoo, Mrs. Goldberg took six years to make (a bit of an improvement over The Life and Times of Hank Greenberg, which took her 13). We talked about the never-ending grind of raising money for documentary film projects and why she feels compelled to release her works theatrically.

Documentary: What really impressed me about this piece, among many things, is that really fine balance you strike between all the superb archival material you've gathered and your live interviews.

Aviva Kempner: Thank you. That's actually an MO of mine, something I strive for.

D:  It can be a difficult balance to find, particularly when one doesn't have the wealth of material you've gathered and pieced together to tell the story of not only Gertrude Berg, but also the timbre and mood of a distinct period of time in America. You also had great access to some of her family members. How do you weight those things over the course of constructing a feature-length doc? 

AK:  I decided to do this film six years ago this month, which is seven years less than it took me to make Hank Greenberg. This, you understand, is all due to financial reasons. In fact, the Washington Post did a story on me last month called "Documentarian's Tenacity Pays Off in Fundraising," about how I raise money. I have a 501(c)(3) and, of course, I depend on "the kindness of strangers." 

I work as a director first. I go for all the great shots that will fit in with the narrative. I don't like using narration. I wanted Gertrude Berg herself and her family and her biographer to tell her story. Then I find the footage. Even though it costs me thousands upon thousands of dollars, I firmly believe that using feature footage from that time is key. If you're talking about the suffering Jewish mother, then you have to use The Jazz Singer. If you're talking about struggling in the hotel business, you use Cocoanuts. If you're talking about the whole immigrant experience, you use Charlie Chaplin. 

However, as a producer, I'm responsible for raising the money to pay for all this stuff; it's about $200,000 in rights and clearances. This is not fair use material; I'm using this footage to tell the story, so I have to cut deals left and right. I got Lucille Ball footage and Honeymooners footage gratis from CBS, which was really great, but everything else cost me. That Edward R. Murrow interview with Gertrude was key; I had to have that.

D:  And you negotiate all of this yourself?

AK:  Oh yes. I have a post-production coordinator that makes the initial contacts, then I go in for the kill. I raise the money for what I have to pay, and I'm still thousands in debt. I'm sitting here at Du Art, and thank goodness for Irwin Young [who heads the lab], who lets me pay off in time. Every independent filmmaker should have Irwin Young in his or her life.

D:  Why is a cinema release so vital to you?

AK:  Because I grew up loving the movies, going to the big Mercury Theater in Detroit, seeing things like Lawrence of Arabia on the screen. I love cinema. I make documentaries that, hopefully, are entertaining and moving, and I want to continue to make them to be seen, first and foremost, on a big screen, which is why I've always shot on 16 [mm] and blown it up, or why now I use the highest-end HD for the interviews. I know a lot of people just want to get their film out and have it be available on demand, or use other distribution scenarios that will get it out there quickly. I just don't believe in that. I believe in that collective movie experience. The natural audience for this is older people, and they'll go with their families. I think there's a strong appeal for a female audience as well.

Now this means I will probably lose something equivalent to about five years worth of salary. I also hired a distributor to book the film theatrically. [Hank Greenberg] played Film Forum in New York and all across the country. I've upped the ante, and this film will open on July 10 at Lincoln Plaza--I feel like a musician going to play at Carnegie Hall. There's also a theater I helped save in Washington called The Avalon where it'll play [opening July 17], and Landmark Theatres will exhibit it all around the rest of the country. It's something that takes careful planning. 

I said to Wendy [Lidell of International Film Circuit, Inc.], Listen, my natural audience is dying every day; I've got to get it out there even before I've paid for it. I also need to exhibit this summer because it's great counter-programming for all the big action blockbusters that come out.

D:  This month, the San Francisco Jewish Film Festival is honoring you with its Freedom of Expression Award.

AK:  Yes, I'm the first female and the first American director to win this, and I am so honored. That festival inspired me to start one of my own in Washington 20 years ago. I respect their programming so much. It's more like a career award, at this point. But I still have my "bucket list" of films I need to do. You know, I could have done ten more films by now?  It's all about the dollars and the struggle for every one of them. Norman Lear helped me raise first money, and then [Jeffrey] Katzenberg and the David Geffen Foundation came in with some. The Righteous Persons Foundation has been great. The NEA [National Endowment for the Arts] was wonderful this time around.

D:  It's a small pie, getting smaller and smaller.

AK:  Well, I've just hired Melissa Silverstein to help with blogs and other non-traditional media outlets. I have a bunch of interns who are going to divide up the country by region and hit Twitter and Facebook. The website has to look and function a certain way. I want to use part of the outreach money I've received and go into old folks' homes with the film. It's like a political campaign. In fact, I've been hired to do grassroots work for other films.

D:  Outreach coordination is fast becoming a key role in independent filmmaking. The life of a film needs enhancement, some kind of traction to keep it relevant and in the public eye for as long as possible. Without vociferous and constant audience building, you're kind of dead in the water.

AK:  We're just trying to get out to as many people as we can get, aside from the usual suspects of the older Jewish audience. It's a challenge but a wonderful one. It was so interesting when I did the works-in-progress screenings for this film, and so many young people commented on the astounding fact that no one had ever heard of Gertrude Berg. Our tagline, aptly, is, "The most famous woman in America you've never heard of." But it's memory lane for a lot of the population, too, that goes beyond just the Jewish one. That's why I have people like Andrea Roane in the film; growing up, she was watching with her family in New Orleans. You don't have to be Jewish to love Molly, just as "historical" films don't have to be boring. They can be cinematic and exciting.

I think people need to take more risks getting their films out there commercially. You have to go raise the money to make the [film] prints, hire a good publicist, divide up the rights and do it yourself. You do need a booking agent and other reps like that. I can't do that on top of everything else I'm doing. But my fundraising never stops.

D:  If you wouldn't mind sharing, what are some of the other projects that are on your "bucket list"?

AK:  I've co-written a script on a Navajo activist I knew when I was in VISTA in the early '70s. I'm hoping to produce that with my co-writer. It's sort of the Wounded Knee story of New Mexico--again, an important story and a hero hardly anyone knows about. Not a Jewish one, however, but from a different tribe. 

There's also a story I want to do on the Rosenwald Schools and the work of Julius Rosenwald, a philanthropist who partnered with Booker T. Washington to build over 5,000 schools in the South. Another project I'm working on is about the great Samuel Gompers, the labor organizer.

D:  An ambitious slate, to be sure. Thank you so much. I hope, by the end of the theatrical run this summer, many more people will know who Gertrude Berg was.

Click here to see the full theatrical booking schedule for Yoo-Hoo, Mrs. Goldberg, rolling out nationally this month.

Pamela Cohn is a New York-based independent media producer, documentary film consultant and freelance writer. She hosts a well-regarded blog on nonfiction filmmaking called Still in Motion.

By Brian Brooks

More change recently hit the indie biz with two key departures at IndiePix. Ryan Harrington, who joined the company last summer to spearhead the newly launched IndiePix Studios, the production and filmmaker relations arm of the online consumer film website, left in what he described as an “amicable parting.” The company’s documentary acquisitions point person, Danielle DiGiacomo, also announced her exit in an email to industry colleagues last month, saying, “after four-plus wonderful years at IndiePix,” she had decided to “pursue other exciting ventures.”

Harrington, who joined the company after working at A&E Indie Films and the Tribeca Film Institute’s Gucci Fund, said he was not authorized to speak about rumors that have swirled among some filmmakers and groups that have worked with IndiePix. indieWIRE had received word of an alleged communication breakdown and delayed payments to filmmakers. Emails have circulated among insiders and numerous individuals have contacted indieWIRE to express concern about the financial well-being of the company, but when pressed for details none would speak on the record or provide additional insight.

Yesterday, indieWIRE spoke with IndiePix head Bob Alexander about the changes at the company and its future as well as rumors of a breakdown in communication and payments to its filmmakers. “It is of course a problem, the filmmakers need to get paid, so we’re trying to figure that out,” said Alexander adding that, as per its agreements with filmmakers, IndiePix can only pay when they’re paid by their customers. “We’ve set up [a system] for each individual filmmaker showing each unit transaction for each project. It’s a highly transparent system that perhaps we haven’t successfully communicated to everyone that [it’s available].”

With the departure of Harrington and DiGiacomo, Alexander said its IndiePix Studios venture will continue, with himself and director of acquisitions Jason Tyrrell and COO Sally Ploured pursuing new projects. “We do have a significant new project to be announced, most likely in August, [and] we may have one or two others,” added Alexander. “We’re positioned for a substantial step forward in the second half of this year - we’re expecting a significant uptick.” Alexander said IndiePix will continue its sponsorship next year of the annual Cinema Eye Honors as part of a three year agreement with the event which recognizes documentary achievement.

Opening:         July 1
Venue:            Film Forum/New York City
Film:                The Beaches of Agnès          
Dir./Prod.:       Agnès Varda
Distributor:     Cinema Guild
http://www.cinemaguild.com/beachesofagnes/

A magnificent new film from Agnès Varda (2002 IDA Pioneer Award honoree), The Beaches of Agnès is a richly cinematic self-portrait, a reflection on art, life and the movies.

Opening:         July 3
Venue:            Starz Media Center/Denver
Film:                An Unlikely Weapon
Dir.:                Susan Morgan Cooper
Prods.:            Susan Morgan Cooper
Distributor:     Julesworks Releasing
http://www.anunlikelyweapon.com/

Eddie Adams photographed 13 wars, six American Presidents and every major film star of the last 50 years. History would be changed through his lens. But the photo that made Eddie famous would haunt him his entire life. In 1968, he photographed a Saigon police chief, General Nygoc Loan, shooting a Vietcong guerilla point blank. The photo brought Eddie fame and a Pulitzer Prize, but he was haunted by the man he had vilified. He would say, "Two lives were destroyed that day-the victim and the general." Others would say three lives were destroyed.

Opening:         July 3
Venue:            Museum of Modern Art/New York City
Film:                Nollywood Babylon    
Dirs.:               Ben Addelman, Samir Mallal
Prods.:            Ben Addelman, Samir Mallal, Adam Symansky
Distributor:     Lorber HD Digital/Alive Mind
http://www3.nfb.ca/webextension/nollywood-babylon/

Nollywood Babylon chronicles the wild world of "Nollywood," a term coined in the early ‘90s to describe the world's fastest-growing national cinema, surpassed only by its Indian counterpart. The film delves first-hand into Nigeria's explosive homegrown movie industry, where Jesus and voodoo vie for screen time. Among the bustling stalls of Lagos' Idumato market, films are sold, and budding stars are born. Creating stories that explore the growing battle between traditional mysticism and modern culture, good versus evil, witchcraft and Christianity, Nollywood auteurs have mastered a down-and-dirty, straight-to-video production formula that has become the industry standard in a country plagued by poverty. This burgeoning Nigerian film industry is tapping a national identity where proud Africans are telling their own stories to a public hungry to see their lives on screen. Peppered with outrageously juicy movie clips and buoyed by a rousing score fusing Afropop and traditional sounds, Nollywood Babylon celebrates the distinctive power of Nigerian cinema as it marvels in the magic of movies.

Opening:         July 10
Film:                Soul Power
Dir.:                Jeffrey Levy-Hinte
Prods.:            David Sonenberg, Leon Gast
Distributor:     Sony Pictures Classics
http://www.sonyclassics.com/soulpower/
;

In 1974, the most celebrated American R&B acts of the time came together with the most renowned musical groups in Africa for a 12-hour, three-night-long concert held in Kinshsha, Zaire. The dream-child of Hugh Masekela and Stewart Levine, the music festival became a reality when they convinced boxing promoter Don King to combine the event with "The Rumble in the Jungle," the epic fight between Muhammed Ali and George Foreman, previously chronicled in the Academy Award-winning documentary When We Were Kings.

Soul Power is a vérité documentary about this legendary music festival (dubbed Zaire '74), and it depicts the experiences and performances of such musical luminaries as James Brown, BB King, Bill Withers, Celia Cruz and others. At the peak of their talents and the heights of their careers, these artists were inspired by this return to their African roots, as well the enthusiasm of the Zairian audience, to give the performances of their lives. This concert has achieved mythological significance as the definitive African-American music event of the 20^th century.

Opening:         July 10
Film:                Yoo Hoo, Mrs. Goldberg
Dir./Prod.:       Aviva Kempner
Distributor:     International Film Circuit
http://www.mollygoldbergfilm.org/

Before The Cosby Show, The Jeffersons, Good Times, or even I Love Lucy, there was The Goldbergs. Yet most likely you have never heard of this show. From 1929 until 1955 The Goldbergs was one of the most popular shows on radio and television. At the center of the show was Gertrude Berg, or as most of the country knew her Molly Goldberg. Each week Molly would come into our homes dispensing advice with exasperation love and wisdom while nurturing her family.

From the award-winning producer and director of The Life and Times of Hank Greenberg and producer of Partisans of Vilna, comes a new documentary on America's favorite radio and television personality. Yoo-Hoo, Mrs. Goldberg is a 90-minute documentary on an American Jewish heroine who emerged during the most difficult years for American Jews.

Opening:         July 17
Film:                The Queen and I
Dir./Prod:         Nahid Persson Sarvastani
Distributor:       7^th Art Releasing
http://www.7thart.com/joomla/

When Nahid Persson Sarvestani, an Iranian exile, set out to make a documentary about Farrah, the wife of the Shah of Iran, she expected to encounter her opposite. As a child, Persson Sarvestani had lived in dire poverty, watching Farrah's wedding as if it were a fairy tale. As a teenager, she joined the Communist faction of Khomeini's revolution that deposed the Shah, sending him and his family volleying from country to country. When Khomeini betrayed his promise for democracy, imposing more violent measures than the Shah had, Persson Sarvestani was also forced to flee.

Thirty years later, she needs key questions answered and goes directly to the source. Surprisingly, Queen Farrah welcomes her as a fellow refugee from their beloved homeland, granting unprecedented access. Over the next year and a half, Persson Sarvestani enters the queen's world, planning to challenge the Shah's ideology; instead, she must rethink her own. When Persson Sarvestani's prior opposition to the Shah surfaces, the Queen shuts down filming. Yet, in the struggle to understand each other's experiences, an unlikely friendship has blossomed. Confronting Farrah about the Shah's repression has become not only a political conflict but a personal one, and Persson Sarvestani's objectivity is shaken. In this gripping, poignant consideration of subjectivity as truth, we learn that people write history. And can also heal it. The Queen and I couldn't be more relevant as we reach across our own political aisles.

Opening:         July 17
Film:                The Way We Get By
Dir.:                Aron Gaudet
Prod.:              Gita Pullapilly
Distributor:     International Film Circuit
http://www.thewaywegetbymovie.com/

The SXSW Special Jury Award-winning The Way We Get By is a deeply moving film about life and how to live it. Beginning as a seemingly idiosyncratic story about troop greeters--a group of senior citizens who gather daily at a small airport to thank American soldiers departing and returning from Iraq--the film quickly turns into a moving, unsettling and compassionate story about aging, loneliness, war and mortality.

When its three subjects aren't at the airport, they wrestle with their own problems: failing health, depression, mounting debt. Joan, a grandmother of eight, has a deep connection to the soldiers she meets. The sanguine Jerry keeps his spirits up even as his personal problems mount. And the veteran Bill, who clearly has trouble taking care of himself, finds himself contemplating his own death. Seeking out the telling detail rather than offering sweeping generalizations, the film carefully builds stories of heartbreak and redemption, reminding us how our culture casts our elders, and too often our soldiers, aside. More important, regardless of your politics, The Way We Get By celebrates three unsung heroes who share their love with strangers who need and deserve it.

Opening:         July 24
Film:                The English Surgeon
Dir./Prod.:       Geoffrey Smith
Distributor:     IndiePix
http://www.theenglishsurgeon.com/

What is it like to have God-like surgical powers, yet to struggle against your own humanity? What is it like to try and save a life, and yet to fail? This film follows brain surgeon Henry Marsh as he openly confronts the dilemmas of the doctor-patient relationship on his latest mission to Ukraine.

Opening:         July 31
Film:                The Cove
Dir.:                Louis Psihoyos
Prods.:            Paula DuPre Presman, Fisher Stevens
Distributors:   Lionsgate/Roadside Atrractions/Participant Media
http://thecovemovie.com/

The Cove begins in Taiji, Japan, where former dolphin trainer Ric O'Barry has come to set things right after a long search for redemption. In the 1960s, it was O'Barry who captured and trained the five dolphins who played the title character in the international television sensation Flipper.  

But his close relationship with those dolphins--the very dolphins who sparked a global fascination with trained sea mammals that continues to this day--led O'Barry to a radical change of heart. One fateful day, a heartbroken Barry came to realize that these deeply sensitive, highly intelligent and self-aware creatures so beautifully adapted to life in the open ocean must never be subjected to human captivity again. This mission has brought him to Taiji, a town that appears to be devoted to the wonders and mysteries of the sleek, playful dolphins and whales that swim off their coast.  

But in a remote, glistening cove, surrounded by barbed wire and "Keep Out" signs, lies a dark reality. It is here, under cover of night, that the fishermen of Taiji, driven by a multi-billion dollar dolphin entertainment industry and an underhanded market for mercury-tainted dolphin meat, engage in an unseen hunt. The nature of what they do is so chilling--and the consequences are so dangerous to human health--they will go to great lengths to halt anyone from seeing it.

Undeterred, O'Barry joins forces with filmmaker Louis Psihoyos and the Oceanic Preservation Society to get to the truth of what's really going on in the cove and why it matters to everyone in the world.  With the local Chief of Police hot on their trail and strong-arm fishermen keeping tabs on them, they will recruit an "Ocean's Eleven"-style team of underwater sound and camera experts, special effects artists, marine explorers, adrenaline junkies and world-class free divers who will carry out an undercover operation to photograph the off-limits cove, while playing a cloak-and-dagger game with those who would have them jailed. The result is a provocative mix of investigative journalism, eco-adventure and arresting imagery that adds up to an urgent plea for hope

Opening:         July 31
Venue:            Beekman Theater/New York City
Film:                Gotta Dance  
Dir./Prod:        Dori Berinstein
http://www.gottadancethemovie.com/

Who says you can't hip-hop if you're 80 years old? Who says your days as a performer are long gone? Who says you can't shake things up and light up a jam-packed sports arena with your hot moves and cool attitude?

Gotta Dance chronicles the debut of the New Jersey Nets' first-ever senior hip-hop dance team--12 women and one man, all dance-team newbies, from auditions through to center-court stardom. Despite swollen ankles, exhausting rehearsals, fashion clashes and seemingly impossible dance steps, the NETSational Seniors go for it, spreading joy, inspiration and cool dance moves as they hip-hop their way into the hearts of Nets fans and beyond.

Opening:         July 31
Film:                Not Quite Hollywood           
Dir.:                Mark Hartley
Distributor:     Magnet Releasing
http://www.notquitehollywood.com.au/

The much mythologized Australian film renaissance of the 1970s has been well documented. It was an era that produced such seminal films as Sunday Too Far Away, Picnic At Hanging Rock and My Brilliant Career.

But do we know the whole story?

Not Quite Hollywood looks at a period when a lifetime of savage-censorship suddenly ended. Australian cinema broke the shackles of a staid, highly conservative society and started producing films dedicated to entertaining a mass audience.

An abundance of free-wheelin sex romps, blood-soaked terror tales and high-octane action extravaganzas were released and found enthusiastic audiences around the world.

Jam-packed with outrageous anecdotes, lessons in guerrilla-style filmmaking, a smattering of international names (including Ozploitation devotee Quentin Tarantino) and a genuine, infectious love of Australian cinema, Not Quite Hollywood is a pacy, entertaining, journey through a forgotten cinematic era unashamedly packed full of boobs, pubes, tubes and a little kung fu.

Iranian Documentary Filmmaker Association (IRDFA) has issued a video statement reacting to the current situation in Iran following the June 12 Presidential election which has led to controversy and violence throughout the country.

The entire statement, signed by over 100 filmmakers, is here both as a video clip and as a written text. Also, here is a link to a post which also includes an appeal released by IRDFA in connection with the detention of two the organization's members.

Now the full text:

In the Name of God

We are documentary filmmakers. Our work is to discover and tell the truth. Truth can only be found when all aspects of reality are told. In the course of recent events in our country, our national media, by deliberately hiding the realities, is making it impossible for the public to access the truth.

We are documentary filmmakers. Our work is through media. The National Iranian Television belongs to the entire Iranian society and should be committed to represent social events truthfully and different points of view in their diversity. It should not be the mouthpiece of a specific faction and ignore a vast part of society.

We are documentary filmmakers. Our work is art and we are committed to the culture, art, and language of our country. The language of journalism should respect the dignity and honor of a society. The National Iranian Television, by distorting and suppressing the news and with the use of degrading rhetoric, makes lying and slander acceptable. It also addresses people with degrading and abusive vocabulary and thus provokes the people into confrontation and uproar.

We warn: Under the present tense circumstances depriving the society of a peaceful and respectful discourse can result in violent reactions; a society whose people up to the Election Day were promoting their diverse views peacefully and respectfully.

We warn: This kind of action means sharing the responsibility for any kind of violence, terror, social disruption, and human tragedies. It divides and antagonizes a society that is able to create unity by justice.

In the last 30 years, each and every citizen of this country has shared happiness and sorrow. They have fought side by side, brought sacrifices and lost loved ones.

We are a people with a history of several thousand years. We all belong together and share this history and this country. Do not tear us apart.

For more information go to IRDFA site here. 

Scarlett Johansson's directorial debut, a short film titled These Vagabond Shoes, starring Kevin Bacon, will premiere as part of the opening night of LA Shorts Fest '09, which runs July 23-31 at the Sunset 5 Laemmle Theater in West Hollywood. Johansson and Smith will appear and take part in a Q&A. (via The Hollywood Reporter)

Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences accounced that they will broaden the best-picture Oscar race to 10 nominations. Could this open up the category wide enough for a doc to get a nod? (via Variety)

Indie studio Gigantic Group is launching an online service bringing first-run independent films to broadband households, starting with the documentary Motherland on Aug. 26. See the Motherland trailer here. (via Variety)