Documentary

JAMES LONGLEY BLOGS FROM IRAN ABOUT THE DISPUTED ELECTION

Filmmaker James Longley (the excellent Iraq in Fragments) is in Iran working on his new documentary film, which includes coverage of the current disputed election. He’s been blogging at Doug Block’s D-Word doc forum, and over the weekend posted an amazing series of bulletins about the election, which include his thoughts on what it means for Iranian politics and then a gripping description of his being detained while his translator was beaten. A.J. Schnack has collected these posts in a single blog entry here. From one of the earlier posts: If this outcome is allowed to stand, we now have […]
by Scott Macaulay on Jun 15, 2009
PALLOTTA PUTS AMERICAN PRINCE ON BITTORRENT

When we last checked in with producer and director Tommy Pallotta, he was talking about distributing his latest documentary, American Prince, through BitTorrent for free download by filesharers… but he hadn’t done it yet. Now he has. You can download the torrent uploaded by the filmmaker himself here at Mininova. And here’s the description on the page: In 1978, director Martin Scorsese turned his camera on his friend and roommate, Steven Prince, with his lost documentary American Boy. Best known for his role as the gun salesman in Taxi Driver, Prince was a true-life raconteur, actor, ex-drug addict, and road […]
by Scott Macaulay on Jun 15, 2009
A GLIMPSE AT CINEVEGAS ’09

Head over to Festival Ambassador to see Mike Jones‘s coverage of the festival (part 1, part 2 & part 3), which wrapped over the weekend with Kyle Patrick Alvarez’s Easier With Practice winning the Grand Prize of $10,000. Other winners include:Best Documentary: Douglas Tirola’s All In: The Poker MovieBest Short: Destin Daniel’s Short Term 12Special Grand Jury Prize for Directing: Justin Nowell’s Acting for the CameraSpecial Documentary Jury Prize for Artistic Vision: Jessica Oreck’s Beetle Queen Conquers Tokyo Robert Saitzyk (director) and Cory Knauf and Joseph McKelheer (screenwriters) Exceptional Artistic Achievement Award for GodspeedFilmmaker to Watch Award: Jeff Mizushima’s Etienne!
by Jason Guerrasio on Jun 15, 2009
Daryl Wein, Sex Positive

RICHARD BERKOWITZ IN DIRECTOR DARYL WEIN’S SEX POSITIVE. COURTESY REGENT RELEASING. Most young filmmakers quickly define themselves in terms of both their creative roles and genre specialties, however Daryl Wein has so far benefited from doing exactly the opposite. Born in Santa Monica in 1983, Wein grew up in Connecticut and commuted to auditions in New York City as he pursued a career as a child actor, mostly in commercials. At the same time, Wein’s father’s interest in chronicling their family life on home video lead the young thespian to become fascinated with being on the other side of the […]
by Nick Dawson on Jun 12, 2009
BYRD STEPPING DOWN AS IFP EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR

The IFP has announced today that executive director Michelle Byrd will be stepping down when her contract expires on Dec. 31. Byrd has been with the organization since 1992 when she was in charge of a number of membership and programming responsibilities before being promoted to deputy director in February 1996 and then executive director in April 1997. The IFP is the publisher of Filmmaker Magazine. From the release: In her role as Executive Director she has overseen the strategic direction and growth of all of IFP’s activities, including:– re-positioning the founding program (now called Independent Film Week™) and its […]
by Jason Guerrasio on Jun 5, 2009
SAWING A LADY IN HALF AND THE DIVISION OF LABOR

When it comes to the visualization of gender imbalance in the workforce, a woman being sawed in half is perhaps the ultimate metaphor. And that’s not due to any judgement on the imagery inherent in such a presentation but a simple truth regarding the labor involved: while the magician spins the boxes and takes his bows, it’s actually the assistant who, during the performance, does most of the physical work. Writer/producer Blaire Baron-Larsen and directors Harry Pallenberg and Phil Noyes have spun an entire documentary, Women in Boxes, from this observation. From the movie’s Facebook page: Women In Boxes is […]
by Scott Macaulay on Jun 3, 2009
Anders Østergaard, Burma VJ

Danish cinema currently has numerous talented fiction directors – everybody from Lars von Trier, Christopher Boe, Ole Bornedal, and Susanne Bier to Thomas Vinterberg, Kristian Levring, Nicolas Winding Refn and Lone Scherfig – and now Anders Østergaard is bringing attention to the country’s documentary output. Born in Copenhagen in 1965, Østergaard studied at the Danish School of Journalism, graduating in 1991, before deciding to eschew a career as a journalist to become a documentarian. Throughout his career, he has been concerned with the boundaries of non-fiction and with the idea of documentary itself. Østergaard’s debut film, Gensyn med Johannesburg (1996), […]
by Nick Dawson on May 20, 2009
THE MACARTHUR FOUNDATION BYTES DOWN ON DIGITAL MEDIA

Jonathan Fanton, President of the MacArthur Foundation, has posted a “President’s Essay” in which he discusses the ways in which digital media is transforming both our lives as well as the working methodologies and granting practices of the Foundation. I recommend the essay, and particularly noteworthy is the section on media grantmaking, in which Fanton says the Foundation will now seek to fund projects that take advantage of the new distribution tools as well as those from new sources of information and that stimulate and include audience interaction. An excerpt: With these changes, the challenge of providing individuals with diverse […]
by Scott Macaulay on May 18, 2009
“CRIPS AND BLOODS: MADE IN AMERICA”

Stacy Peralta uses his knack for dissecting counter-cultures to highlight the two most violent gangs in America with Crips and Bloods: Made in America. Since his breakout Sundance hit Dogtown and Z-Boys, about the iconic skateboarders who revolutionized the sport (Peralta was one of the Z-Boys), Peralta has stayed in the alt-sport realm as his second doc, Riding Giants, looked at the history of surfing (it was also the opening film at 04’s Sundance). Now Peralta leaves his comfort zone to look at a world he’s not directly a part of. In telling the story of the Crips and Bloods, […]
by Jason Guerrasio on May 17, 2009
CANNES: MY NEIGHBOR, MY KILLER’s ANNE AGHION

Premiering in Cannes in Un Certain Regard, Anne Aghion‘s penetrating and transfixing documentary, My Neighbor, My Killer, is the culmination of a decade-long filmmaking quest to address one of the most difficult questions facing citizens, communities, tribes, religious groups and ethnic factions around the world today: “Could you forgive the people who slaughtered your family?” In 1994 hundreds of thousands of minority Tutsis were slaughtered by Rwanda’s Hutus, with villager killing fellow villager, cousin killing cousin. The Rwanda genocide has been well covered in the media, but less focused upon has been the Gacaca Tribunals, open air citizen hearings instituted […]
by Scott Macaulay on May 17, 2009

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