http://www.theusversusjohnlennon.com/

Not that it is a new idea, but The U.S. vs John Lennon, takes what works with the Drudge Report and uses a bit of parody to create an effective and engaging website for the film, Grudge Report 2006.

When: January 18-27, 2007
Where: Park City, Utah
What: This year is the 13th festival of the “other” Park City film festival. Located at the same time and place as Sundance, Slamdance focuses on unknown filmmakers. This years program will feature equal number of narrative and documentary films. Deadline for submission is October 10th for shorts (under 40 minutes) and October 16th for features.
Website: http://www.slamdance.com/

Minutes into Michael Moore’s first feature length film the viewer is introduced to the two themes which will reoccur for more than a decade. The first is the plight of the American working class and the maniacal nature of predatory capitalism. The second, as Moore’s first employer outside his hometown of Flint, Michigan tells him, is that Michael Moore and California are a “mismatch.”

After a Bay Area magazine gave Moore the sack and sent him home in a complimentary U-Haul, which we will soon learn is something of a state mascot in Reagan-Bush era Michigan, he becomes witness to the rapid decay of a city which once boasted the most manufacturing jobs in the world.

Roger & Me also acquaints us with Moore’s soon-to-be notorious filmmaking style. A disheveled fat man in a ball cap tilting at corporate windmills, playing out an amusing picaresque equal parts Quixote and Columbo. Moore is determined to interview General Motors chairman Roger Smith and somehow convince him to visit Flint so he can look into the eyes of the 30,000 people whose livelihood he shipped to Mexico.

The subject comes naturally to the filmmaker. His father, along with Dinah Shore and Pat Boone, worked for GM. His uncle was involved in the 1936 Flint Sit Down which resulted in the birth of the United Auto Workers Union in February 1937. Throughout the course of the story he comes across friends and classmates who have been adversely affected by the plant shutdowns. Read the rest of this entry »

Thanks to documentaryfilms.net for creating this forum.   Time is pinched now but I look forward to reviewing the blog further. 

TO ANY AND ALL, your commentary is welcome at my first film project’s blog.

To others new to filmmaking, I found this author useful.
 

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Paper Clips captures how the students of Whitwell Middle School responded to lessons about the Holocaust; they committed to honor every lost soul by collecting one paper clip for each individual exterminated by the Nazis. Despite the fact that they had previously been unaware of and unfamiliar with the Holocaust, their dedication was absolute. Their plan was simple but profound. The amazing result, a memorial railcar filled with 11 million paper clips (representing 6 million Jews and 5 million gypsies, homosexuals and other victims of the Holocaust) which stands permanently in their schoolyard, is an unforgettable lesson of how a committed group of children and educators can change the world one classroom at a time. Here is a poem inspired by the film. Read the rest of this entry »

The Chicago Cubs were the best team in baseball – almost a century ago. They won a record 116 games in 1906, and back-to-back World Series titles in 1907 and 1908. Fast- forward to 2006, and the “Cubbies” are still waiting for another championship win. But despite the longest dry spell between world championships in all of professional sports, the Cubs are perennially in the top ten in league attendance.

WAIT ‘TIL NEXT YEAR: THE SAGA OF THE CHICAGO CUBS chronicles the lives of die-hard Cubs fans, and the ultimate devotion they show their beloved team. The documentary captures the energy and optimism of opening day from the fans’ perspective, following several fans over the course of the season as they root on their team. The “Sports of the 20th Century” documentary premieres TUESDAY, SEPT. 26 at 10:00-11:00 p.m. ET/PT.

Where: George Washington University
What: The Documentary Center is an expansion of a decade-long commitment at The George Washington University to teaching documentary film production theory and techniques and to creating documentary films for national audiences. Inaugurated in 1990 as The Center for History in the Media, the Documentary Center is one of the few educational centers in the nation that focuses exclusively on the production of non-fiction filmmaking. The Documentary Center is an interdisciplinary program at the school of media and public affairs in the Columbian College of Arts and Sciences.
Website: http://www.gwu.edu/doccenter/home.htm

When: October 1st-5th, 2006
Where: Art Museum and the Theatre of Music of Olomouc – Olomouc, Czech Republic
What: The theme of the 41st year of the festival will be ‘Prominent personalities in documentary film’, that is notable personalities featuring in films as well as those behind the cameras. During the festival, spectators will have a chance to watch new documentary films, popular-scientific as well as educational programmes produced in the course of the past two years.
Website: http://www.afo.cz/

When: September 29-October 1, 2006
Where: Newburyport, Massachusetts
What: This film festival is in its third year.  A number of juried catagories exist with a panel of three judges; an audience judged award is also given.   Twenty films will be shown.
Website: http://www.northernlightsfilmfestival.com/

When: September 22-24, 2006
Where: Maputo, Mozambique
What:  Twelve films will be shown in various venues in the capitol city.  Included are Filmmakers from Mozambique, South Africa, Cape Verde, Madagascar, Guinea-Bissau, Senegal, Brazil, Portugal and Holland.  Contact information not available.

When: September 28th-October 4th
Where: Wellpark, Ireland
What: Only four films will be shown this year so is more of a showcase than a full festival. The Irish Film Institute is hosting at Eye on Cinema.
Website: http://www.eyecinema.ie/

Coming in September as part of the American Masters series. Check your local listings for day and time.

The two-part, four-hour documentary is directed by Ric Burns. The film is narrated by artist and musician Laurie Anderson and features artist Jeff Koons as the voice of Andy Warhol.

You work so much – is the need to tell stories what motivates you to work that much?

Herzog: Probably, but I am not a man who is driven all the time. I am not a maniac. But Ilove my work and I do not like to hang around for years and twiddle my thumbs and hope that something will happen to me and some producer will offer me something. I always, when I am in between larger projects, I do a documentary. For example, Grizzly Man was done in 29 days. 9 days of editing, 14 days of shooting. From the first day of shooting to the first cut of the film being presented to the committee of Sundance was exactly 29 days. That film came so easily – it all fell in place, as if I was sleepwalking.

Were you surprised by the response that film got?

Herzog: The magnitude of the response surprised me, but I had the feeling from the very first moment that this was something very big. You can tell – it happens a couple of times in your life when you know that you’ve gotten into something and you better do it right now, this is big.

It’s a film that is going to stay, it’s not going to age. It’s not going to disappear after its first run, which was quite successful. It’s going to linger. This was a film that’s going to stay.

The themes are timeless.

Herzog: And the character and the environment, and wild nature – this is something I can deal with easily. But I always kept saying, ‘Do not expect me to do a film about wild nature, this is a film about human nature.’ 

It was an incredibly crowded group of documentaries last year – what do you think has changed in the documentary world?

Herzog: I think there’s a very big background to that. The background is that we have an explosive evolution of new instruments for creating reality or pseudo-reality of invented reality; digital effects, virtual reality and the net, reality TV, PhotoShop itself. All of a sudden filmmakers, and we as an audience, are forced to readjust our attitudes towards reality. What constitutes reality? There will be many great documentaries because audiences are longing for films that point back to the reality of their lives. We have find new way to express this – it’s a great time for filmmaking, and a great time in particular for documentaries. But not in the way that cinema verite was done – that was the answer of the 60s.

Grizzly Man is a documentary that is about Treadwell but is also an editorial and a discussion with him –

Herzog: An ongoing argument.

A lot of people think of documentaries as only fact, fact, fact…

Herzog: We have to look after that, but beyond the facts there is something we have forgotten to ask about, and that is the truth. Where is the truth that illuminates us? I’m after an ecstasy of truth, an ecstatic truth. And not just in documentaries – in all my feature films you see this quest for illumination, this ecstasy of truth. I have my way to do it, but I see many, many others who are doing very bold and unusual new things in documentaries. I really welcome that.

Is it harder to find that truth in a narrative feature?

Herzog: It’s always elusive. It is always mysterious. You have to have a very clear vision, a very deep vision. If you don’t have that, don’t go into filmmaking.

Complete Interview at CHUD

Kinky Friedman may not win the governor’s race on Nov. 7, but if you thought his quotable roadshow would be forever silenced then, think again.

Win or lose, Friedman has a contract for a documentary on his campaign, which explains why a camera crew has been following him around.

The Los Angeles producers are Wayne Miller and David Steinberg, the comedian/director of Seinfeld and Curb Your Enthusiasm fame. . .

The project apparently grew out of earlier pilot episodes the same two producers shot of Friedman’s campaign for a Go Kinky reality show that didn’t get picked up on CMT, the country music network. . .

Miller said the documentary was his idea. He said he used to produce political commercials for television but never has shot a documentary on a governor’s race.

He said he has known Friedman for years and appreciates his talent.

“The reason for doing (the movie) is that it’s a tremendous story, and it has a real place in history,” the producer said, indicating he may try to sell the project to the big screen as well as TV networks.

Complete Houston Chronicle story

UNAFF Film Festival– Stanford University– Oct 25-29

The Stanford Film Society and the UNA Midpeninsula Chapter announce the ninth annual United Nations Association Film Festival (UNAFF). The festival will be held at Stanford University with pre-screenings in San Francisco on October 18 & 22 and in East Palo Alto on October 20. This year’s theme is SPARKS OF HUMANITY. UNAFF celebrates the power of films and videos dealing with local and global issues: human rights, environmental survival, women’s issues, protection of refugees, homelessness, racism, famine, disease control, universal education, war and peace. Thirty one films will be presented at this year’s festival from over thirty countries.

Festival Name: 9^th United Nations Association Film Festival (UNAFF)
Festival Date: October 25-29, 2006
For more information: web: www.unaff.org
email: info@unaff.org
phone: (650) 724-5544

Despite pronouncements of an end to The Age of Irony by a number of public intellectuals, essayists and even Time Magazine columnists, it seems that irony will be around long enough to enjoy the last days of the Mayan calendar with the cockroaches and Collected Longer Poems of W.H. Auden.

We’re reminded of this while pondering American cultural patterns in the Ipod Age. The culture, for lack of a better term, is at a state of hyperatomization. There’s an old anecdote about a certain way to offend a Spaniard: tell him Spain has 600 political parties. The inevitable rejoinder being, “You fool, Spain has 6 million parties and I am one of them!” Finally America can identify, replete with scores of youtube posters who are indeed their own biggest fans. In a vacuum, this isn’t ironic, even for the millions misusing the word on a daily basis. 

What has happened in popular music seems to be steering towards irony.     

Let’s say you consider yourself the uber-music fan. You go into your local record shop to pick up a few choice vinyls from the Riverside catalogue and… “What’s this?”

“Why,” the clerk tells you in-between sharp breaths to properly polish his new belt buckle, “it’s ‘Good For What Ails You: Music of the Medicine Shows 1926-1937.’  It happens to be Jack White’s favorite album this week.”

There are two options for the music consumer. Either you politely nod and sit the disc back down and look around for a Gid Tanner album or you buy it and put out of your mind that some hipster somewhere has beaten you to everything.

The further one wades into the waters of rare and obscure musical forms, though, the more he is made aware that with each passing year backwards he is witnessing via his headphones a music based communally, one without international or even national stars. At the end of his quest for American music’s holy grail he is humbled by the realization that everyone in Buncombe County, North Carolina beat him to it. What’s more, it was at the same time and there were no locked doors to be found, metaphorical or otherwise.

Perhaps our postmodern personality crises aren’t so far removed from the days of the medicine show. As Free Show Tonite points out in the beginning, the entertainment at these extravaganzas was a ruse to coax the more slow witted of rural Americans to buy snake oil. (Think Cialis. Or, for the forty-plus million uninsured Americans out there, think Snake Oil.) Continuing the crawl, the viewer enjoys her first caveat. Some of the scenes illustrate “…folk culture of the period (that) played upon deep-seated racial fears and stereotypes.” We’ve come so far.

Free Show Tonite documents the last old time medicine show. Surviving performers from the medicine and minstrelsy heyday were reunited for a two day event in North Carolina, circa 1982. Many devotees of old time music will notice some things they’ve only read about. For example, there’s a great scene featuring the lost art of “beating straws” on a fiddle. They’ll also be treated to OTM luminaries. There’s
Hammie Nixon, whose jug mastery extends even to what appears to be a Sundrop soda can. Guitar Slim and Walking Mary McClain offer some rousing numbers which belie their advanced years at the time of filming. And there’s that Roy Acuff fellow, who also narrates the film.
Read the rest of this entry »

September 16-17 Rochester, NY
September 23-24 Hot Springs, AR
September 30-October 1 Kansas City, MO
October 9-10 Silver Spring, MD
October 14-15 Indianapolis, IN
October 21-22 Ft. Wayne, IN
October 28-29 Salem, OR
November 6-7 Austin, TX

PHOENIX DANCE
PURVIS OF OVERTOWN
THE TRIALS OF DARRYL HUNT
AN UNREASONABLE MAN
SO MUCH SO FAST
MY FAVORITE HITLER YOUTH: JUST LIKE YOU AND ME

For theater information

Working on a film with a California twist? KQED-San Francisco has launched a new documentary series where they partner with filmmakers to get their films completed and broadcast. Check out the announcement below, and visit the web site for more details.  This looks to be a good opportunity to work directly with a local PBS station and get a wide audience.

KQED Public Television in San Francisco seeks one hour documentaries for the third season of Truly CA, a showcase for eclectic films about the golden state. Filmmakers will be offered significant post production resources to complete broadcast versions of their films, including: an online, sound mix, closed captioning, promotion, a web site, plus a licensing fee and broadcast. Projects should be completed films, fine cuts, advanced rough cuts, or festival versions. Submissions must be postmarked no later than October 1, 2006. Visit www.kqed.org/trulyca for details.

When: March 26-Apri 1, 2007
Where: Tartu, Estonia
What: With priority given to documentaries, this festival welcomes film entries from all over the world, especially the independent films which are not part of mainstream commercial filmmaking and which develop an anthropological, analytical approach to cultures and societies. Student films are also encouraged.
Website: http://www.worldfilm.ee

Adrian Grenier, the heartthrob star of the hit television series “Entourage”, had a gaping mystery most of his life — he didn’t know who his father was.

But long before he shot to fame with his portrayal of Vincent Chase on “Entourage”, a show about the  hangers-on of a rising celebrity in Hollywood, Grenier turned the camera on himself.

Armed with barely any money, but with an idea and good friend Jon Davidson by his side, he set out to find his father, a man he had not seen in 18 years and knew little about.

He eventually found John Dunbar, and he found that he could now put to rest his childhood.

The product of his curiosity turned into “Shot in the Dark”, a documentary that took seven years to finish and had its international premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival on the weekend.

Full story from MSNBC

49 UP is the seventh film in a series of landmark documentaries that began 42 years ago when UK-based Granada’s WORLD IN ACTION team, inspired by the Jesuit maxim “Give me the child until he is seven and I will give you the man,” interviewed a diverse group of seven-year-old children from all over England, asking them about their lives and their dreams for the future. Michael Apted, a researcher for the original film, has returned to interview the “children” every seven years since, at ages 14, 21, 28, 35, 42 and now again at age 49.

Documentary Films .Net review of 28 Up

Trailer for 49 Up

A chapter of Ken Burns’ upcoming, 15-hour documentary War also received a sneak preview. French director Bertrand Tavernier (Sunday in the Country, ‘Round Midnight) said that he had watched all of War and that it ranked among the greatest films he’d ever seen.

I can’t think of anything that would have made me more eager to see Burns’ epic World War II documentary than that kind of endorsement from a director whose knowledge of film remains unsurpassed.

Rocky Mountain News

Michael Moore had an eventful festival.  He screened twenty minutes of Sicko as well as clips of Slacker; Slacker is planned as a direct to DVD release covering the aftermatch of the 2004 election.  If you were at the festival and happen to catch the screening feel free to post a comment.  Would be great to have some feedback from actual viewers.

Word from Toronto is that Michael Moore and Mel Gibson were going to share Time’s “Person of the Year” in 2004.  Moore revealed that Mel Gibson backed out of the award after meeting with  Time representaives in California.  Rather than award it to Michael Moore alone, Time instead gave the award to George Bush.