On July 16, the Omaha, Nebraska based non-profit Film Streams is hosting a local celebration for See Change, the organization’s initiative that strives for gender parity in their programming. The fundraiser will spotlight four women documentary filmmakers, featuring a discussion moderated by Film Streams’ artistic director, Dr. Diana Martinez. The four visiting filmmakers are Ramona Díaz (A Thousand Cuts), Grace Lee (American Revolutionary), Yoruba Richen (The New Black) and Lucy Walker (Waste Land). The event will be held at Film Streams’ Dundee Theater, the longest-surviving cinema in Omaha. Film Streams Executive Director Deirdre Haj, who took on the title last […]
by Natalia Keogan on Jul 13, 2022There were movies. Some, like New York Times film critic (and my fellow SUNY Purchase Film alum) Manohla Dargis, said there were too many — even before she saw any of them. Sales, at least during the festival, weren’t robust; perhaps some of the weary execs, including a couple she overheard dishing on their inability to sit through American Hustle while in line for a theater, are taking her advice and sitting on their pocketbooks. Perhaps we’ll find some of these movies on VUDU or Seed&Spark or NoBudge. Maybe someone will tap an unexpected and unforeseen audience outside of the […]
by Brandon Harris on Jan 26, 2014I’ve been to many documentary screenings, and even to some attended by the films’ subjects. But seeing The Crash Reel with its subject, Kevin Pearce, present was one of the most riveting movie screening experiences I’ve ever had. If you haven’t read about or seen the movie, The Crash Reel follows champion snowboarder Kevin Pearce through a debilitating accident, his recovery and then his slow coming to grips with the fact that he can’t go back to competitive snowboarding. On the face of it, this may sound unappealing, but The Crash Reel is no 60 Minutes bedside weepy. Instead, it […]
by Michael Murie on Jan 8, 2014Depicting professional snowboarder Kevin Pearce’s rise to the top of his sport and then his struggle to recover from a monster wipe-out and traumatic brain injury, Lucy Walker’s The Crash Reel is riveting, emotional, sobering and enraging. It tells a very human story as the endearing Pearce struggles to not only physically recover from his injuries but, at such a young age, to invent a new identity for himself and his future. At the same time, the film is a provocative, well-researched takedown of the extreme sports industry, which markets vicarious danger for energy-drink consumers and sneaker-wearers at the expense […]
by Scott Macaulay on Dec 14, 2013The following is an extract from Jessica Edwards‘ book Tell Me Something, which collects together advice on non-fiction filmmaking from 50 of the world’s most prominent documentarians, in which two-time Oscar nominee Lucy Wakler shares her wisdom. Tell Me Something is also available as an e-book. This piece of advice has been my lifeline, my mantra, my toehold on sanity and encouragement, the bandage for when I am kicking myself so hard I can’t stand up. It was told to me by Barbara Kopple, the legendary two-time Oscar-winning documentary filmmaker. One of my greatest strokes of luck in life was that she came to […]
by Filmmaker Staff on Nov 25, 2013Documentary filmmaker Farihah Zaman shares the secrets of the Good Pitch.
by Farihah Zaman on Jan 17, 2013[PREMIERE SCREENING: Friday, Jan. 18, 6:30pm — Rose Wagner Performing Arts Center, Salt Lake City] A good film takes great sacrifice. A great film takes an almost unbearable amount. Malcolm Gladwell says it takes 10,000 hours to get good at something. That’s nothing compared to making good documentary. A good film is like an iceberg, for every bit you can see there’s at least 10 times more work invisibly undergirding it. The scenes and characters that didn’t make the cut, the cuts that were recut, the time you invested researching, the time you spend waiting for the right shot, going […]
by Filmmaker Staff on Jan 17, 2013The Guardian has been taking the lead in coverage of the controversy surrounding the complete absence of work by female filmmakers in this year’s Cannes Competition section. Last week, it published the English translation of an open letter by the French feminist group La Barbe, and over the weekend interviewed Trudie Styler (who runs Maven, a production company specifically supporting women in film) and Lucy Walker, the Academy Award-nominated documentarian who was one of Filmmaker‘s 25 New Faces in 2002, about gender imbalance within cinema. Here’s an extract from Walker and Styler’s conversation about the difficulties facing women in the […]
by Nick Dawson on May 21, 2012This past weekend, the documentary as a tool for change was discussed at “Envision: Addressing Global Issues Through Documentary,” a forum co-sponsored by the IFP in partnership with the United Nations Department of Public Information. In her introductory remarks, Joana Vicente, IFP’s executive director, said that the goal of the event was to unite the “filmmaking community with the activist [community].” It was a sentiment echoed by Kiyo Akasaka, the Under-Secretary-General for Communications at the UN who encouraged the activists and filmmakers in the attendance to partner with each other “to envision a better world” and “meet the needs of […]
by Mary Anderson Casavant on Apr 11, 2011Here are a few links I sent to my Instapaper account and have been reading this weekend. * When we queried a few filmmakers for a column on software and apps in the new issue of Filmmaker, I noted the number of respondents who had migrated to the Android operating system. I recalled meeting an Android developer at SXSW this year, and he told me he was planning for the platform’s rapid rise. He also said that he was an Apple fan too, and he felt the competition would be a good thing for both platforms. There’s an exchange along […]
by Scott Macaulay on Jul 11, 2010