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.

When: November 9-19, 2006
Where: Montreal, Quebec, Canada
What: Dedicated to promoting point-of-view documentary, the Rencontres internationales du documentaire de Montréal presents an annual program of films from around the world.  Films are selected according to various themes, and in some cases, the public is invited to participate in debates after the screenings.  Also part of the event is Doc Mtl Circuit; this emerging documentary market that allows members of the profession to meet with purchasers, distributors and production partners in Montreal.
Website: http://www.ridm.qc.ca/

During the feverish days following the attack, Congress established a billion- dollar compensation fund, and grieving wives became overnight millionaires.

No one could have known that for many of them, the money would destroy their lives once again, attracting jealousy, resentful relatives and making them even more depressed. Some would become squandering, spendaholic widows, their payouts fuelling addictions which could not replace the husbands they had lost. Others would become embroiled in legal battles with their families, their lives eaten up by bitterness.

Click here for the Daily Mail article.

After success pitching Quaker Oats and Miller High Life, Errol Morris is doing a series of TV ads for Reebok that will highlight when NFL players knew they were destine for greatness.  Morris commercials are always more interesting than the average fare, and this concept likely will continue the higher standard of work.  But these commercials highlights the difficulty of even a successful documentary director being able to be well compensated in his chosen field.

If you saw the film in 2002 and weren’t offended, well you might be today, or more likely the FCC might.  While it seems highly unlikely that films on such important subject matter as terrorists attacks and world wars, will lead to FCC fines, some CBS affiliates believe they might.  Reuters reports that dozens of CBS affiliates are unwilling to rebroadcast 9/11 because of course language used by firefighters.  With possible fines increasing ten fold under new rules, content caution is happening.

Thankfully, there is DOC Blog.  Daily posts leading up to and during this film festival.  Close to 50 filmmakers are asked to participate, and the posts vary widely.  But for a view into the festival and some of these filmmmakers thoughts as they make the best of it, DOC Blog should not be missed.

http://blog.tiffg.ca/blog/

When: September 15-21, 2006
Where: Overland Park, Kansas
What: Strong lineup of fictional and documentary films.  Particular films of interest this year include This Film Is Not Yet Rated, War Tapes, and Drakmar.
Website: http://www.kansasfilm.com/

The health care industry is not taking Michael Moore’s new documentary on their practices lightly.  According to Advertising Age:

• Pharmaceutical manufactures  Pfizer, AstraZeneca and GlaxoSmithKline have instructed employees not to speak to Moore.
• Families who Moore interviews have a 100% rate of getting free medicines after being interviewed and making it know.
• Health care industry representatives consistently using phrase “one-sided” in describing Moore’s past films.

The pharmaceutical industry might have reason to believe they are Moore’s primary target.  Rumor has it that Moore has setup entire fake business offices to film how far doctors will go when they interact with Moore’s “drug reps”.  The relationship between doctors and drug reps has been long documented on TV and in print.  Atlantic Monthly recently did an article reporting the extremes, but also acknowledging that the most extreme incentives and gifts for doctors have been scaled back.  Whether Michael Moore can bring new information to this corruption is questionable.  Whether he will bring a bigger audience to the issue is not in doubt. 

Michael Moore has indicated that Sicko will be released in 2007.  Miramax will be distributing.

When: September and October, 2006
Where: Auckland, Wellington, Chrishchurch, and Dundein; New Zealand
What: First Australasian dedicated documentary film festival. The festival will showcase more than 110 documentary works from all over the world with a quarter from New Zealand. 30 New Zealand films are in compeitition for the Best Feature Documentary, Best Medium Documentary and the Best Short Documentary.
Website: http://www.docnz.org.nz/

Where: Vancover, BC, Canada
What: Digital film production program.  Includes general certification as well as a documentary film production certification program lasting twelve weeks.
Website: http://www.langara.bc.ca/cs/dfp

Two Colorado State University women ‑ one a professor, the other a researcher ‑ have received a $50,000 grant from the National Science Foundation, and a like sum from CSU’s College of Liberal Arts, to study the effects that a loss of culture has on these evacuees.

Kate Browne, an expert in Afro-Creole populations and professor of anthropology, has teamed with Lori Peek, a disaster researcher in the Department of Sociology, to document their stories.

“Evacuees feel a profound sense of attachment to New Orleans: its Creole food, its music, its flair for celebration and even the way of talking were wildly different than what they have found in other areas,” Browne said.

How evacuees fared from the Gulf Coast is reflected in the proximity to their former social networks.

The researchers write that many evacuees came from a culture based in French Creole roots in which celebration, regional cuisine and extended family ties are highly valued.

While not enough time has elapsed for evacuees to pull their lives together, the misconception that life for evacuees should be returning to normal only compounds their troubles.

Click here for the Rocky Mountain News article.

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NBC will be airing In His Own Words: Brian Williams on Hurricane Katrina on August 28th.  The one hour film will air commercial free.

HBO will be airing Spike Lee’s four hour documentary When the Levees Broke: A Requiem in Four Acts.  The film will air over two nights, August 21 and 22, with the full film being shown on the 29th.

I have seen neither of these films, but have been aware of the Spike Lee documentary for several months.  The focus on New Orleans has always bothered me on some level.  The hurricane hit so many communities beyond New Orleans, that the focus on just this one area seemed too limiting.  This site was run for several years when the publisher (myself) lived in Long Beach, Mississippi.  Most of the Mississippi coastal community (several blocks in, all along the coast) was completely destroyed including where I lived.  But that initial feeling of being bothered, when looked at closer is absurd.  Documentaries are all about focusing on one part of life and telling about it.  Putting the focus on New Orleans is a perfectly legitimate choice.

The Sundance Institute Documentary Fund recently announced its first round of grants for 2006 with 14 feature-length documentary films receiving a total of $605,000. Dedicated to supporting U.S. and international documentary films that focus on current human rights issues, freedom of expression, social justice, civil liberties, and exploring critical issues of our time, the Fund was established at Sundance Institute in 2002 with a gift from the Open Society Institute and is supported by a grant from the Ford Foundation. The Sundance Institute Documentary Fund grants are announced twice a year and since its inception at the Institute, the Fund has disbursed almost $4 million to 113 projects.

Click here for the full Cinema Minima article by Cyndia Greening. (Found via AltFG)

[PBS CEO Paula Kerger]: “My point to them is that we, as public television, don’t have the resources to try to understand what they’re thinking,” said Kerger, who won big points with reporters for her forthright comments. “I can’t tell you, as I stand here today, that I have a clear understanding” of whether PBS stations could face fines for airing the Burns documentary — with language intact — before 10 p.m.

“When you look at the indecency rulings as they have transpired, I don’t see a clear path. Right now, it’s a moving target.”

The context for the concern is that KCSM, the San Mateo-based public TV station, is facing a $15,000 fine from the FCC for a repeat showing of an episode of Martin Scorsese’s “The Blues” that included a smattering of blue language. The FCC acted even though it got just one complaint and “The Blues” was shown all across the country without issue.

Full Mercury News story by Charlie McCollum

When: July 14-August 6, 2006
Where: Johannesburg and Capetown, South Afrca
What: One of the fastest growing documentary festivals.  Documentaries from around the world are showcased with a focus on South African and African films.
Website: http://www.encounters.co.za

When: July 26-28, 2006
Where: Keble College, Oxford, United Kingdom
What:  First annual festival.  British attempt at a must attend documentary film festival to allow for a meeting place of the British documentary community and introduction to the rest of the world.  In its first year 20 films will be screened.
Website: https://www.britdoc.org/festival/mission.php

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New to our reaunch in 2006, Documentary Films .Net is opening a posting forum. With the thousands of viewers, filmmakers and industry people visiting this site, it is time for everyone to have an opportunity to express their thoughts on documentary films. Similar to this site initial catagories will included:

• Documentary Discussion
• Filmmaker Resouces
• Festivals
• Films School, Education, and Scholarships
• Reviews

Sign-up today and be one of the first registered uses for the new forum.

 

 

By Gregg Goldstein

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Magnolia Pictures has nabbed North American rights to “Jesus Camp,” a documentary about a retreat for born-again Christian children.

The project revolves around three youngsters who attend the Rev. Becky Fischer’s “Kids on Fire” summer camp in Devil’s Lake, N.D. It details their training to “take back America for Christ” and hone “prophetic gifts” in a mission as political as it is religious. The film was directed by Heidi Ewing and Rachel Grady. Read the rest of this entry »

The PBS documentarian Ken Burns has been working for six years on The War, a soldier’s-eye view of World War II, and those who have seen parts of the 14-plus hours say they are replete with salty language appropriate to discussions of the horrors of war.

What viewers will see and hear when the series is broadcast in September 2007 is an open question.

A new Public Broadcasting Service policy that went into effect immediately when it was issued May 31 requires producers whose shows are broadcast before 10 p.m. to adhere to tough editing requirements when it comes to coarse language, to comply with tightened rulings on broadcast indecency by the Federal Communications Commission.

Full New York Times Story

When: August 18-24, 2006
Where: Hollywood, California
What: Smaller event that feels like multiple screenings more than a full festival.  Put on by the International Documentary Association.
Website: http://www.documentary.org/programs/index_06.php

I am obsessed with Flogging Molly.  I was not yesterday.  I had heard of the traditionally Irish-influenced punk rockers prior to watching the film, Whiskey on a Sunday, this morning but had never heard their music.  Now I type as fast as I can, eager to run out to the record store and grab all their records.  Ordering online won’t be fast enough.  After that I need to check local concert listings and camp out wherever they’re coming next.

Whiskey on a Sunday, directed, shot and edited by Jim Dziura, who, as far as I can tell, has only done supporting camera work of a handful of documentaries, flows extremely well, picking up at an undefined date in the midst of the band’s tour, and deftly weaves in and out of tour, studio and interview footage with all band members and effectively (and free of narration) tells the band’s story, both as group and as individual members.  Read the rest of this entry »

When: November 8-12, 2006
Where: American Museum of Natural History, New York City, New York
What: The Margaret Mead Film & Video Festival is the longest-running showcase for international documentaries in the United States, encompassing a broad spectrum of work, from indigenous community media to experimental nonfiction. The festival involves forums for discussion with filmmakers and speakers. The festival was founded by the American Museum of Natural History in 1977, in honor of pioneering anthropologist Margaret Mead on her seventy-fifth birthday and her fiftieth year at the Museum.
Website: http://www.amnh.org/programs/mead/

When: October 30-November 5, 2006
Where: Sheffield, United Kingdom/
What: Where the UK factual film industry goes to network and do business.  Beyond the commericial element, 75 films are going to be screened.  This is one of the largest doc festivals in the world, and extends it reach by offering a tour of select films at other times in the year.
Website: http://www.sidf.co.uk/

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When: January 2007
Where: Helsinki, Finland
What: DocPoint is the largest documentary film festival in the Nordic countries. In Finland, it is the only one dedicated solely to documentary films. Every year, the festival offers both a national and an international selection of the best brand new movies, celebrated classics, and a special selection of documentary films for children. In addition, a wide range of seminars, lectures and workshops is organised.
Website: http://www.docpoint.info/