Festivals & Events
Festivals & Events
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Ten Tips for Securing “Out of the Box” Funding from DOC NYC
At a DOC NYC panel titled “Out of the Box Funding,” moderator Julia Labassiere (Chief Executive of BAFTA NY) defined the prhase as “anything besides getting a commission (for example, from HBO or National Geographic, etc.).” Marilyn Ness, producer of Cameraperson and Trapped, started the panel off by noting that there are no shortcuts to obtaining so-called “out of the box” money: “It’s a lot of work.” Here are ten tips for how to successfully bring in this type of funding. First Money: Friends, Family and Affinity Groups When you begin a new film, you have to figure out your […]
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Self Protection for Filmmakers: Security Rules to Live by from DOC NYC
Of all the panels I attended at Doc NYC, the one called Protecting Yourself, on November 16, gave me the most hope for the future. The filmmakers were an impressive line-up of first-timers and veteran filmmakers, linked by their willingness to put themselves in dangerous situations in order to shine a light on stories otherwise cloaked in secrecy, denial and misinformation. The panel was moderated by Caty Borum Chattoo, Co-Director of the Center for Media & Social Impact at American University. At several points, the audience was asked not to tweet or do social media on certain statements. Some details […]
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From DOC NYC, Five Takeaways from Veteran Documentary Editors on Successfully Cutting Doc Features
On Sunday I attended two editing-focused events at DOC NYC PRO. The “Morning Manifesto” was delivered by Matthew Hamachek, editor of films including Cartel Land and Amanda Knox. Later that afternoon, veteran editor Geof Bartz, Supervising Editor at HBO and a three-time Oscar winner, gave a masterclass on what to do when the pieces don’t fit. Having recently taken the Edit Center’s six-week Art of Editing Course at the IFP Made in New York Media Center, and currently assisting on the edit of a feature doc with a lot of moving parts, this seemed like a good way to spend […]
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Five Questions for Orange Sunshine Director William A. Kirkley
Dubbed the “Hippie Mafia,” the Brotherhood of Eternal Love was a collective of people in Orange County in the ‘60s and ’70s that grew from a spiritual commune to the largest distributors of LSD at that time in the world. For the first time, their story is told in-depth on film in William A. Kirkley’s riveting documentary Orange Sunshine, the name of their most famous strain of the psychedelic drug. Founded by John Griggs and collaborators Mike and Carol Randall, brothers Rick and Ron Bevan and Travis Ashbrook, the Brotherhood sought to change the planet with a cultural and spiritual […]
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Finding Some Post-Election Perspective at the 59th DOK Leipzig
Following the election returns via airplane TV (and hitting turbulence over the battleground states, no joke) on the second leg of my journey back from DOK Leipzig was surreal, to say the least. I’d just wrapped five whirlwind days at the oldest documentary film festival in the world (founded in 1955, also making DOK Leipzig the first independent film festival in East Germany) in a country heavy with a historical weight few Americans raised in the US could ever comprehend. Traveling outside my birth country – including through the terrific array of international films DOK Leipzig has a reputation for […]
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Hello, Oscar!: The Savannah Film Festival’s Docs to Watch Roundtable
Though the 19th edition of the Savannah Film Festival took place just a couple weeks after Hurricane Matthew forced festival staff to evacuate their offices, this year’s event ended up running every bit as smoothly as the effortlessly gracious, charming city itself. Hosted (and founded) by the Savannah College of Art and Design – SCAD seems to be the South’s answer to Parson’s or RISD – the festival is jam-packed with A-list flicks screened at gorgeous venues, attended by an eclectic mix of topnotch guests. For example, I caught sight of the adorably grateful Molly Shannon at the daily breakfast […]
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Religious Fervor and Precarious Times: The 2016 Indie Memphis Film Festival
I arrived in Memphis a week ago, but it feels like longer. It was a balmy evening like the last breath of summer, and I hadn’t yet met the full realization that Trump could become the President-elect in a matter of days. Making my way back from the opening night screening of The Invaders, a Memphis-produced documentary chronicling the local militant group’s role in the 1968 sanitation workers’ strike and their meeting with Martin Luther King, Jr. right before his assassination, I walked the empty blocks with a homeless vet and long-ago college football star who foreboded the results of […]
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Bringing the Short Film The Quarry to the Tribeca Film Institute’s Through Her Lens Program
Sonejuhi Suha is an award-winning filmmaker, working in both narrative and documentary storytelling. Her narrative short film, Love Comes Later, premiered in competition at the Cannes Film Festival and screened at over 60 film festivals internationally, garnering awards at festivals. Below is her guest blog post on her experience with Tribeca’s Through Her Lens Program. Her short film script The Quarry, selected for THL, is a psychological drama about a gynecologist and abortion provider, Reese, who practices in a remote town in America. When a threat emerges in town and Reese finds herself drawn into a rabbit hole of paranoia, […]
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Keegan-Michael Key to Host 2016 IFP Gotham Awards Ceremony
The Independent Filmmaker Project (IFP), Filmmaker‘s parent organization, announced today that Emmy® Award-winner Keegan-Michael Key — actor, writer, and co-creator of Comedy Central’s Key & Peele — will host the 2016 IFP Gotham Awards. The ceremony will take place November 28, 2016 at Cipriani Wall Street in New York City. “We’re excited to have Keegan-Michael at the helm of this year’s Gotham Awards celebrations,” said Joana Vicente, Executive Director of IFP and the Made in NY Media Center by IFP. “His unique presence and brand of humor will be a perfect addition to what we expect will be a lively and […]
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New Horror Film Festival Will Debut at The Shining Hotel
Festival co-directors Michael Lerman and Landon Zakheim chose Halloween to announce The Overlook Film Festival, a new genre festival that will open April 27 at Oregon’s Timberline Lodge. The historic hotel at the base of Mt. Hood was used for the exterior setting of the Overlook Hotel in Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining. The four-day festival will feature a weekend-long immersive game from Bottleneck Immersive and an original live version of the radio play Tales From Beyond the Pale by Glass Eye Pix. Live programming will also include musical performances, panel presentations, live podcasts, escape room challenges, magic shows, trivia night, games, […]
