Still in Motion

Sheffield Awards

This morning at 10:30, fueled by sweet rolls and pastries, an audience gathered in one of the Showroom cinemas here in Sheffield to attend the awards ceremony that officially closes this edition of the Sheffield Doc/Fest. 

Once again, it was said, as it has been many times, that since taking over the running of this market, festival director Heather Croall has done an incredible job of putting Sheffield on the map as a highly important destination for media makers and media professionals.  Croall, in turn, celebrated the programming work of Hussain Currimbhoy, by saying that she heard from many jury members how appreciative they were to be able to judge such across-the-board inspiring and important work. 

Roger Graef hosted the ceremonies, assisted by the lovely AJ Schnack, where members of the juries presented the nominated films and the award-winners.  Halfway through, at 11:00 a.m., there was a two-minute silence to honor soldiers everywhere in observance of Remembrance Day.

The Sheffield Green Award honors the documentary from the program that best addresses major environmental challenges on our planet.  Nominees were The Blood of the Rose, The Cove, Earth Days, Haynesville, Petropolis, Shelter in Place, and A Time Comes.  The Blood of the Rose received the award.

The Wallflower Press Student Doc Award was given to the best student documentary made as part of course work from UK and other international universities.  I took the time to see most of these films (I make it a point to check out student work at any festival or film event) and everything I saw was exciting, exceedingly well-crafted, original storytelling.  Arsy-Versy, a 24 minute film from Slovakia directed by Miro Remo won the prize.  I absolutely adore this film.  It is imaginative, funny, and artfully told.  I was astounded at the proficiency and sophistication of the shooting.  The rest of the selections, particularly, Presidio Modelo, Time Within Time and Tsirk, were impressive.

The Sheffield Innovation Award, given to a film that exhibits originality in approach to form and radical manifestations in story delivery presented pieces ranging from art installations to solely web-residential work, running the gamut from video mapping in Palestine to the stunning and singular cinematic passion plays of Finnish filmmaker Jukka Kärkkäinen's The Living Room of the Nation.  An honorable mention was given to The Big Issue from France, and the award was given to LoopLoop from Canada.

The Sheffield Youth Jury Award is given to a film that engages a young audience judged by a jury consisting of young adults from 16 - 21.  In extremely eloquent fashion, they gave the award to Andrew Lang's gorgeous Sons of Cuba.  I did do a really wonderful interview with Andrew several months ago for the Shooting People site and it's gone missing, somehow, which we're both a bit puzzled by.  I hope it gets published somewhere soon.  Lang just won another well-deserved prize at the Rome International Fest in October, as well.  A theatrical distributor should grab this straight away.

The Special Jury Award, Sheffield's very first, honors a film that displays excellence in style, substance and approach.  The jury consisted of US filmmaker,  AJ Schnack, ITVS's Claire Aguilar (US), UK filmmaker, Kim Longinotto, UK filmmaker, Nick Broomfield, and US filmmaker, RJ Cutler.  The nominees were Horses, I'm Dangerous With Love, Junior, Men of the City, October Country, Petition, Until the Next Resurrection, and the prize-winner, Erik Gandini's Videocracy.

The Sheffield Doc/Fest Inspiration Award, again an inaugural honor here, celebrated the work of journalist, Adam Curtis, a man who has championed documentary (although he never really considered himself a documentary filmmaker until recently) and his decades-long contribution to groundbreaking television work.  A filmmaker who is embracing the digital future utilizing a multi-platform approach to projects, his latest is a collaboration with Punchdrunk called "It Felt Like A Kiss."  He gave a very short, but eloquent, speech on the muddy terrain between journalism and documentary filmmaking, and how the ascendancy of nonfiction storytellers is usurping a once robust, but now dangerously ineffectual, news media.

The Audience Award will be announced tomorrow, Monday the 9th.  I will, unfortunately, be in that disorienting twilight zone of all-day travel getting myself back to the States for an onslaught of work.  I'm looking forward to posting more about Sheffield--look for more impressions, film reviews and articles over the coming months. 

Finally, I'd like to express personal (big!) thanks to Charlie Phillips and Rachel Smith.

Missive from UK

Hello from Sheffield, where I'm knee-deep in the hoopla of a very bustling festival and market.  Last night at the big party at the local roller skating rink (fast becoming a Sheffield tradition), the 2010 Cinema Eye Honors announced their nominees for the ceremony that will take place at the Times Center in NYC in January.  Visit the site to read about all the nominees, and the latest and greatest on the best of nonfiction. 

Umbilically connected to New York wherever I happen to go, I wanted to say "hey," and mention a few things coming up: 

I've been part of the "getting butts in seats" brigade, aka Outreach Producer, for Four Seasons Lodge, a beautiful documentary film opening at the IFC Center this coming Wednesday, November 11.  The director, New York Times' journalist, Andrew Jacobs, some of the subjects of the film, and other crew and special guests, will be there for Q&As throughout the week, and some of our best indie film orgs will be on hand to co-host and join in the festivities for after-screening drinks shindigs.  Shooting People will host Friday night, Arts Engine / DocuClub will be with us on Sunday night, and UnionDocs will host on Monday evening.  Visit the website to get all the info you need, watch the trailer, and meet the extraordinary subjects, the last living generation of Holocaust survivors (two of them, pictured above).  Don't let the "H" word keep you away--it's an exceedingly heart-warming, uplifting and life-affirming film.  You can also visit the First Run Features site to keep abreast of where else the film will be opening across the nation.  Next up on December 11, Four Seasons Lodge will run in Los Angeles and Boston.  If you live in those cities, contact me to learn how you can help us get the word out and plan some special events around the screenings there.  The IFC Center puts up showtimes very close to the opening, so keep checking there and buy your tickets in advance.  There are discounts for groups of 10 or more.

Also on the 11th, which is Veteran's Day, The Way We Get By will have its national broadcast début on P.O.V.  The film is now also available for purchase on DVD--probably will become one of the top 10 stocking stuffers of all time, I would wager.

Rooftop Films sends news that their 2010 submissions have opened and they are welcoming entries for their summer series next year.  You can find downloadable information here or submit through Without A Box.  The superb series runs from May to September and will feature more than 200 films in various outdoor screenings throughout New York City.  All genres, formats and lengths are welcome.

On Monday, November 9, The Flaherty has a hot animation program on tap at Anthology Film Archives in the East Village.  "Experiments With Animation" will feature short works by such talents as Phil Solomon, Martha Colburn, Signe Baumane and Jeff Scher.  Go here for more info.

Okay, gotta pull myself back into the fray here.  I will be having lunch shortly with filmmaker Geoffrey Smith, director of the glorious The English Surgeon and co-director of Presumed Guilty which débuted at Toronto in September and is playing the fest here before moving on to CPH:DOX in Copenhagen next week.  It's a tremendous film and it will be fascinating to see the furor it will cause in Mexico where the story is told.  I'll have a full review soon, but watch for this one.  It will be one of the most important films of 2010.

I will have much more from Sheffield in the next couple of weeks, but back to just taking it all in--seeing great nonfiction films and getting to visit and converse with new filmmakers bringing groundbreaking talent and expertise to the field.  It's so awesome to be in the company of thousands of others who are as equally rabid about nonfiction cinema as I am.  Right now, off to Digital Bootcamp with Ingrid Kopp--woo hoo!

The 33rd Annual Margaret Mead Film & Video Festival

I'm off to the Sheffield Doc/Fest tomorrow for the rest of the week, but wanted to mention that on the other side of that, here in New York at the American Museum of Natural History, the Margaret Mead Film & Video Festival will host its 33rd iteration.  This is the longest-running documentary festival in the US, and their line-up is particularly stellar this year.  The fest starts on the 12th of November and goes through the 15th and the box office is now open! 

The festival presents a selection of documentaries and other non-narrative work, as well as animation, experimental films, and indigenous media.  This year, the festival will highlight a series of films in conjunction with the AMNH's exhibition, Traveling the Silk Road, opening November 14.  Look for a presentation of an exploration of the science and history behind Terra Nova: Sinfonia Antarctica, a new multimedia performance by Paul D. Miller, aka DJ Spooky, which incorporates the sounds of melting ice recorded by him in Antarctica.  Coooool. 

The Museum is located at Central Park West at 79th Street and tickets can be purchased by phone at 212 769 5200, online here, or at any of the Museum's admission desks.  The film schedule can be downloaded here.

LOOT Has a Sneak-Peek at IFC Tomorrow

Darius Marder's award-winning début nonfiction feature has a one week run planned at the IFC Center starting November 20, but if you're fast on your feet, you can grab a ticket for tomorrow's sneak peek at 8:00 p.m. courtesy of Stranger Than Fiction.  Marder will be in the house for a Q&A and post-screening fest at MacDougall Street's own 99 Below, home to many a drunken doc lover.

Loot won the grand jury prize for best documentary feature at last year's Los Angeles Film Festival, a fine validation for a new artist on the scene--one this writer hopes will make many more films.  Marder's past incarnation as a chef served him well in making his first film, for Loot serves up a really complex and memorable (narrative) dish, resonant with ingredients and flavors that one recognizes, certainly--the eccentric characters, the quixotic quests, haunted pasts, and the serendipitous meeting of souls from different generations that resonate so strongly with one another that viewers intuit that an emotional crescendo of some import is likely.  But what Marder is really adept at capturing (along with his cinematographer, Anson Call) are the nuanced ways in which his subjects deal with shaky memory, denial of epic proportion and unbearable emotional pain, each helpless in the face of their guilt and remorse for what transpired in a time when they were young and brash WWII soldiers trying to do anything they could not to get killed.  And in finding themselves all in one piece at the end of a long and brutal time of it, they rewarded themselves with war booty. 

Darrel stole 20 pounds of jewels, hid them in the attic of an Austrian farmhouse and returned home to Utah. Andy looted Samurai swords and jewels, burying them in the Philippines before returning to Arizona. Sixty years later, infirm and facing the end of their lives, Lance Larson comes into the picture.  Larson is a Utah-based, Mormon used-car salesman, inventor, entrepreneur and second-generation treasure hunter; in two separate storylines, he offers to help them recover their long-ago buried treasures, despite the apparent apathy and ambivalence both men feel about going back to uncover, or re-cover, that part of their lives.  In the interim, the ferociously violent, inhuman memories of war rise to the surface and we slowly realize the toll that all of that inherent, irrevocable and life-altering damage has had on these men and what finding this elusive treasure will bring to the surface--a recapitulation of their lives, a true reckoning with their mortality and, above all, the confrontation of the wounded love they have for their lost sons, both victims of mortal drug addictions. 

It is a compelling, poignant and universally relevant moral fable that will surprise you and move you deeply.

Docs Under Duress Panel

Docs Under Duress

Check out the conversation I had last week with filmmakers Laura Poitras, Ross Kauffman, Andrew Berends and Eric Daniel Metzgar at the Royal Flush Fest.  The sound might be kind of low, so use headphones and turn it up!

REPORTER Plays at The Paley Center for Media and the Maysles Cinema

New Yorkers will have two opportunities to see Eric Daniel Metzgar's latest nonfiction film before it has its national broadcast on HBO in early 2010. (The Paley screening is, in fact, in association with HBO Documentary Films.)  This Friday, October 23, at 6:30 p.m. Metzgar will be appearing in person with producer Mikaela Beardsley, and author and film subject, New York Times' Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist, Nicholas Kristof, at the Paley Center in midtown as part of its annual DocFest. 

Director Metzgar profiles Kristof as he travels to Congo to turn a spotlight on one of the longest and most brutal of civil wars the continent has ever seen, a conflict that has claimed over 5.4 million lives over the last decade.  In attempting to profile the story in a human-scale way, Metzgar explores how news is disseminated these days and how our consciences can be mobilized (or not) by one person's story.  You can read what I wrote about the film here after seeing it at this year's True / False Fest, and you can read some of Metzgar's thoughts on the Paley website by clicking here.

Then on Saturday, the 24th, up in Harlem, the film will screen at the Cinema at the Maysles Institute at 7:30 p.m. preceded by WITNESS' A Duty to Protect as the cinema continues their "Congo in Harlem" series.  Metzgar will be joined by Mohamed Keita of the Committee to Protect Journalists, journalist, Makeda Crane, Sasha Lezhnev of the ENOUGH Project (they are co-presenting the screening), and Bukeni Waruzi of WITNESS (the other co-presenter).  There will be a series' closing night reception featuring music by Deja Bella.

I hosted a panel yesterday at the Royal Flush Festival ("Skullie" Awards tonight!) in the East Village with Metzgar, Laura Poitras, Ross Kauffman and Andrew Berends.  It was a really fabulous talk and because my fellow juror, Ingrid Kopp of Shooting People, is such a mega-rock star, she recorded it in its entirety, so we'll be able to share the audio file with you soon, both here on SIM and on her own splendid blog, From the Hip.  Don't miss this chance to see Reporter on the big screen and hear the eloquent Metzgar speak of his experiences making it.

Union Docs Rocks This Weekend: Deborah Stratman, Mamadou Niang, and More

This weekend, UnionDocs in W'burg, Brooklyn, will present two great programs.  On Saturday the 17th, guest curator, Rachael Rakes of Doctruck, will bring three wonderful pieces on contemporary China: the marginalized Turkic-Muslim community of Ughyurs in Deborah Stratman's Kings of the Sky from 2004, Sam Green's haunting short film, Utopia: Part 3, The World's Largest Shopping Mall (2009), and Yin-Ju Chen and James T. Hong's 11-minute, Dogs of Straw (still from film, pictured), a profile of the streets of Taiwan right before the 2008 elections.  Great filmmakers, great films!  Special guests will be on hand; the screening will begin at 7:30 p.m. 

On Sunday the 18th also at 7:30, UnionDocs is partnering with the African Film Festival New York to bring in documentary filmmaker, Mamadou Niang to present a short work-in-progress cut of his new piece on Ousmane Sembene, the father of African cinema.  Following this, the multiple award-winning Pray the Devil Back to Hell will play.  Devil presents the story of the powerful struggle of a group of Liberian women who band together to end a violent and long-standing civil war in their country.  Their methods of peacemaking are a sight to behold.  After the screening, I will moderate a conversation with the film's producer, Johanna Hamilton, and its cinematographer, Kirsten Johnson. 

It's supposed to rain for the next several days, so it's the perfect weekend to get your ass to a movie.  Come join us!

Royal Flush Is Coming!

Just a reminder that Royal Flush opens its festival this week in, and around, the East Village of our fair city.  Great program, some really original stuff that you won't see at too many other fests.  Celebrating the artist and the dreamer in all of us would be the main theme I would take away from the current program.  And which one of us couldn't do with a good dose of that now and then?  Here's the program of the films, art happenings and musical performances going on  October 15 - 19.

Also want to plug the panel I'm hosting again since it's chock-full of some of the best filmmakers around these days.  It helps if you're a doc fan, but anyone who loves great cinema will have a swell time participating in a conversation with Ross Kauffman, Laura Poitras, Ian Olds, Eric Daniel Metzgar and Andrew Berends.  That's some heavy talent, so come out and chat with us on Sunday the 18th at 1:30 p.m. - 3:00 p.m. at the Clemente Soto Vélez Cultural Center on Suffolk Street.  It's free with your festival pass or just 5 bucks if you don't have a pass.  But you should get a pass.  Hope to see you there.

Royal Flush Trumps Evil City: Something for Everyone

A bit over one week away, the East Village of Manhattan will be overtaken by all sorts of artistic shenanigans, musical, cinematic, and otherwise.  The Royal Flush Festival, formerly known as the Evil City Film Fest, has a really innovative lineup of independent films, music videos, live musical performances and underground art openings taking place October 15 - 19 at Anthology Film Archives and other venues throughout New York City.  In autumn of '07, the year I moved back to New York, I participated in a panel at Evil City with Michael Tully, Stu VanAirsdale and Karina Longworth--with lots of cocktails on hand.  It was such a blast that I didn't hesitate when they asked me to jury and lead a panel this year. 

In its current incarnation, it is now named after, and partnered with, Royal Flush Magazine, a nationally-distributed "killer rag" that celebrates underground music, art, video games, pop culture and indie movies.  During this year's fest, the magazine will showcase its 2009 issue featuring Playboy founder, Hugh Hefner, and rock goddess, Joan Jett, appearing on two separate covers. 

To start things off in Royal Flush splendor, the festival kicks off with a free opening night bash on the 15th at the Hiro Ballroom in the Maritime Hotel.  There will be live performances at the Knitting Factory throughout the fest from the likes of British psychedelic punks The Raincoats, and an appearance by Melissa Auf der Maur of Hole and Smashing Pumpkins fame.  The fest has a sneak peek of her self-produced new project called Out of Our Minds, a multimedia concept that includes a musical album, comic and film directed and edited by Tony Stone.  It's breathtakingly beautiful with mesmerizing imagery, and of course, sonically stunning.  Take a look and a listen here.

The film program will open with Merle Becker's ode to American rock poster art, American Artifact: The Rise of American Rock Poster Art, one of several New York premieres.  To take a gander at other filmic fare on offer, click here.  Cool program, eh?  Come join festival directors Jim Muscarella (film), James Galus (music), and Josh Bernstein (art) for a fun-filled four days featuring thirteen New York feature film premieres, six live rock, metal and hip-hop shows, three exclusive art events and a closing night burlesque bash.

I'm also very excited about the stellar filmmaker panel I'll be moderating on Sunday the 18th at 1:30 p.m. called Docs Under Duress at the Soto Clemente Vélez Cultural and Educational Center's Milagro Theater on Suffolk Street.  I will be joined by Ross Kauffman (Born Into Brothels), Andrew Berends (Delta Boys), Eric Daniel Metzgar (Reporter), Ian Olds (Fixer: The Taking of Ajmal Naqshbandi), and Laura Poitras (Flag Wars, My Country, My Country).  We will talk about doc filmmakers who take great personal risks to tell important stories from war-torn or impoverished places around the world.  These five artists will share their own personal experiences making their films and how these works impact domestic and international audiences. 

The two other panels will take place on Saturday the 17th in the same location.  The first, at 2:00 p.m., is called How Green Was My Production? with Tony Stone, director of Out of Our Minds, Jesse Ash of GreenerMedia.com, M.J. Magbanua of White Collar, Kerin Ferallo of FX's Damages and Rooftop Films' program director, Dan Nuxoll.  At 4:00 p.m., John Holmstrom of PUNK Magazine will moderate Blog This Panel with Michael K of Dlisted.com, Brandon Harris (Hammer to Nail, FILMMAKER Magazine), Heidi McDonald of Publisher Weekly's The Beat, and Brandon Kim of IFC.com's Indie Ear.  Definitely not the usual suspects at a film fest; praise be for a little originality.

Come out and join the fun and support a hometown fest.  I'll have more updates as Royal Flush approaches and hopefully, if he has a bit of time, a chat with film festival director, Jim Muscarella.

We've Drunk the Kool-Aid: The CIFF Experience

Following hot on the heels of AJ Schnack's laudatory post about the Camden International Film Festival today, I'll weigh into the mix, too.  Thom Powers introduced me to festival founder, Ben Fowlie, and festival producer, Leah Hurley, this past spring when they came to New York to co-host a screening of Aron Gaudet and Gita Pullapilly's crowd-pleasing and deeply moving documentary, The Way We Get By, with Stranger Than Fiction and P.O.V. 

This film had been a work-in-progress screening at last year's CIFF.  Realizing that they had the burgeoning programming chops and the potential to nurture important films such as this one, Fowlie and Hurley were intent on upping the ante a bit and really putting their small, regional nonfiction festival on the map as a circuit destination.  I heard from many local supporters during the fest this year that, indeed, they were well on their way to doing just that; it was a thrilling event for the whole community to have access to a such a powerful slate of films.  Man, the people are friendly there!  (Pictured, still of downtown Camden from the film Peyton Place, shot on location there in 1957.)

For the first time this year, they had juried competitions with cash prizes, starting with a best feature category and an emerging vision category.  Next year, they will also include an Audience Award, a truly meaningful prize to any filmmaker.  Fowlie and Hurley also brought on producer, Dominic Musacchio, to help put on the inaugural Points North forum, bringing a few select industry guests and independent filmmakers together to talk about the current state of things.  It was informal and it was real and it was pertinent.  But more than that, it was fun.  I'm one of those who think the panel presentation format should be put out to pasture.  I have come to loathe the words "paradigm shift" and other phrases of that ilk that have nothing to do with a filmmaker's daily existence.  There was an engaged, smart local audience and we let them into the conversation.

So this year CIFF caught fire and I'm so glad I got to be a part of that.  It's exciting to have another domestic nonfiction fest in such a beautiful spot, run by such talented people.  I call "the princess room" at The Inn at Camden Place.  The ducks and swans are awaiting my return next year.

Icarus Films Acquires Fanlight Productions

In major distribution news, Jonathan Miller sends word today that his company, Icarus Films, has acquired the 28-year-old educational distributor, Fanlight Productions, and its collection of 350 award-winning films and DVDs on health, mental health, aging and disability issues.  Fanlight is one of the leading distributors of independent documentary films on these issues in North America. 

Miller's plan is to maintain Fanlight as a free-standing label, but most of their titles will be integrated into the Icarus Films collection.  You can visit the Icarus site to see the first fourteen titles, listed under New Releases, by clicking here.

CIFF '09 Jury Selections

At the '09 Camden International Film Festival award ceremonies this evening at the beautiful Camden Opera House (which preceded the closing night film, Robert Stone's Earth Days), the recipients of the Harrell Award for Best Documentary Feature and the CIFF Award for Emerging Cinematic Vision were announced, with prizes of $1,000 each.  The CIFF Award winner also receives a free course at the Maine Media Workshops. 

The Harrell Award went to Jean-Pierre Duret and Andrea Santana's Because We Were Born (Puisque Nous Sommes Nés).  Camden was the French-Brazilian film's US premiere and it's about to launch its theatrical run in France in a few days.  Here's what I and fellow jurors, Ryan Harrington and Dana Rae Warren, had to say about Duret and Santana's exquisite work:  "The jury gives Jean-Pierre Duret and Andrea Santana's Because We Were Born the Harrell Award for Best Documentary Feature for its excellence in cinematic craft and for its rigorously pure vérité aesthetic.  The filmmakers have created a work that challenges the viewer on many levels.  Told with a quiet intensity and deep love and respect for their subjects, in our opinion, this piece represents the best of what nonfiction cinema has to offer." 

The CIFF Award went to Patrick Shen's The Philosopher Kings, a journey through the corridors of the most prestigious colleges and universities in America to learn profound life lessons from the custodians that clean and maintain these hallowed halls of academe.  You can watch the trailer here.

I will have much more from CIFF in the coming days, along with several film reviews from the outstanding program.  Congratulations to Ben Fowlie, Leah Hurley, Dominic Musacchio and the entire festival team for putting on a really magical event.  We were duly impressed and look forward to visiting again in the years to come. 

OCTOBER COUNTRY at Stranger Than Fiction

Still deep into this jewel of a festival called Camden International in Maine and will be writing more in the days to come, but wanted to mention that Donal Mosher and Michael Palmieri's award-winning film will be screening at a special Stranger Than Fiction evening on Monday night, the 5th. 

Palmieri and Mosher will be there for a Q&A and drinks gathering in the West Village afterward .  Do not miss this opportunity to see one of the best films of the year.

THE HORSE BOY Opens in New York

Today, September 30, a truly wonderful and uplifting film opens at the IFC Center.  Originally called Over the Hills and Far Away, The Horse Boy, directed by Austin-based Michel Orion Scott and released by Zeitgeist Films, is a thrilling piece of cinema, and should definitely be seen on the big screen. 

Read my review on the Hammer to Nail site here.  Be sure to go see it--it's gorgeous.

Points North

This week, the 5th iteration of the Camden International Film Festival begins, October 1 - 4 in Camden, Rockport and Rockland, Maine.  I will be heading up to jury one of two competitive categories, the "Harrell Award" for Best Documentary.  The films in competition are Jean Pierre Duret's Because We Were Born (Puisque Nous Sommes Nés), AJ Schnack's Convention (also the opening night film, still from film pictured), Joe Berlinger's Crude, Rupert Murray's The End of the Line, David Redmon and Ashley Sabin's Invisible Girlfriend, Marshall Curry's Racing Dreams, Vassiliki Khonsari and Sevan Matossian's Pulling John, Vikram Jayanti's Snowblind, and Geralyn Pezanoski's Mine.  My fellow jurors will be Ryan Harrington, head of Bugle B Productions and the Tribeca Gucci Documentary Fund and Maine-based filmmaker and consultant, Dana Rae Warren of Moody Mountain Media.

The "CIFF Award" for emerging cinematic vision is awarded from a category of filmmakers coming to CIFF with their first or second feature documentary.  Competing in this category are Monika Navarro's Lost Souls (Animas Perdidas), Noah Hutton's Crude Independence, Will Hyler's The Fish Belong to the People, Mai Iskander's Garbage Dreams, Donal Mosher and Michael Palmieri's October Country, Luciano Blotta's Rise Up, Rivkah Beth Medow and Gregory O'Toole's Sons of a Gun, Patrick Shen's Philosopher Kings, and Gabriel Noble's P-Star Rising.  Jury members are program manager of the LEF Foundation, Sara Archambault, filmmaker Ian Cheney, and IFP's community manager, Danielle DiGiacomo.  You can read about all the films in competition, as well as the rest of the fine program, by clicking here.

Also, I will be moderating one of two roundtable workshops for Maine filmmakers for the inaugural Points North Documentary Film Forum on Friday afternoon, October 2, at the Maine Media Workshops in Rockport.  The first section will be led by Maine-based sales agent, Louise Rosen, called A New World: Nonfiction Film Funding, Trends and Players.  She will moderate this roundtable featuring HBO's Greg Rhem, Sundance Documentary Institute's Patricia Finneran, PBS' Jalyn Henton, LEF Foundation's Sara Archambault, and Ryan Harrington.  Next up, I will be leading a discussion called The Survivor's Guide, Sustainable Filmmaking, with Ian Cheney, Danielle DiGiacomo, David Redmon, Ashley Sabin, AJ Schnack and Dana Rae Warren.  This will be the first time many Maine-based emerging filmmakers will have access to industry professionals of this calibre.  If you're in the area, please come by and join us.  To learn more about Points North details, click here.

Look for my interview with CIFF founding director, Ben Fowlie, on the Hammer to Nail site early this week.

Pitch Fever at Sheffield Doc/Fest

Sheffield Doc/Fest Marketplace Producer, Charlie Phillips, writes to say that submissions for this year's main market event, The Meet Market, have gone "haywire," with loads of projects coming in.  There are, however, five other pitch forums that take place during the festival.

Canada's National Film Board (NFB) will have the Crossmedia Pitch.  They're looking for innovative, interactive, socially engaging projects with applications for mobile and broadband.  The theme is "Migrations," and the prize for the best pitch will be C$5,000.  The deadline for submissions is the 9th of October.

The Wellcome Trust Pitch, with a very generous prize of £10,000, is looking for documentary films, games and other online ideas around health, biology or medical themes, also with a deadline of October 9.

The Channel 4 pitch prize comes with a 10 - 12 week commitment to direct a 30-minute film with a £50,000-budget for the channel's critically-acclaimed doc strand, "First Cut."  The deadline for applications is September 25.

The Mini MeetMarket is for emerging filmmakers looking for advice on their projects-in-development and executive producers.  That deadline is October 14.

Lastly, Current TV will host a pitch forum with a prize of £5,000 for the best ideas on UK-based, investigative current affairs pieces.  The deadline is October 16.

So start shuttling all those brilliant ideas over there.  Information and other details for all pitches, plus details on the main market, are on the Sheffield site.  Click on "Marketplace."  Good luck!

Doxita Season II at IFC Center Tonight

Programmer extraordinaire, Karen Cirillo, is bringing her little bag of tricks to the IFC Center tonight at 8:00 p.m.  Doxita, Cirillo's traveling shorts program, is in its second season and the films she's showcasing tonight are little-gem discoveries she's culled over the years at festivals and in her other circumambulations around the globe, making her a long-time member of the Poverty Jet Set.  (Is that in the dictionary yet, Mark?)

Tonight, she brings to New York audiences a fine program of short documentaries called All In A Day's Work.  (Cirillo's criteria for a film to qualify as a short is a running time of under 40 minutes.)  The featured films are China's Wild West, Urszula Pontikos, Breadmakers, Yasmin Fedda, Wood (film still, pictured), David Fenster, Shika Shika, Stephen Hyde, and The Tailor, Oscar Perez.  They are all high recommends in my book.  The show's from 8:00 - 10:00 and tickets are $12.50; $8.50 for seniors.

Sheffield Doc Fest '09 Announces Highlights

The full film program for the 2009 Sheffield Doc/Fest won't post until early October, but the press office has released a teaser roster of films that will be showing there this year.  Added to this year's showcases will be a whole category devoted to Comedy docs and one on Cross-platform docs, in addition to the existing Music, Green, Arts and "Bent" doc strands.  There will also be a special focus on Russian nonfiction cinema. 

Sheffield is fast-becoming one of the top-tier places to go for an authentic market atmosphere, one in which filmmakers, producers, funders, programmers, sales agents and commissioning editors have highly structured time together.  The Meet Market component has been lauded by the likes of executive producer, Julie Goldman of Cactus Three, writer and Austin Film Society communications manager, Agnes Varnum and SXSW head of programming, Janet Pierson, for its organization and proficiency in making productive meetings happen between all interested parties.  And speaking of parties, they're apparently legendary there and that has a lot to do with its feisty director, Heather Croall, a party girl supreme with good strong brain matter between her ears.  The documentary world is lucky to have her.  And Marketplace Producer, Charlie Phillips, keeps everyone up-to-date on the latest and greatest by hosting Sheffield's informative blog site.

In its 16th year, Sheffield will screen more than 100 films from November 4 - 8, including 16 world, and 10 EU premieres.  Film programmer, Hussain Currimbhoy, acknowledges that, "The appetite for documentary is still voracious and changing viewing habits are proof of this with new online platforms for watching docs.  Financial crises or not, it seems like documentary is the one genre in film that is constantly evolving and responding to changes in its environment and adapting to its audience."

The Music doc strand will feature Barbara Kopple's Woodstock: Now and Then (Kopple, pictured), its EU premiere and Gabriel Noble's P-Star Rising, its UK premiere.  The Green doc strand will feature Robert Stone's Earth Days, its UK premiere, and Louis Psihoyos' The Cove.  And the inaugural Comedy strand will feature Ben Steinbauer's heart-warming Winnebago Man, its EU premiere, and Jenna Rosher's delightful and powerful, Junior, its international premiere after débuting domestically at SILVERDOCS this past June.  Some of the slated world premieres are Jawed Taiman and Sharon Ward's Addicted in Afghanistan, Michel Negroponte's I'm Dangerous With Love and Erasing David by David Bond.

Tickets for the public go on sale Monday, October 5.  Click here for more info and to keep updated on the fest's offerings.  Let's see if Cinderella can pack up her slippers and ballgown and jettison herself over the Atlantic in November.  Stay tuned for more news from Sheffield in the coming weeks.

Camden International Film Festival Announces Line-Up

Exactly one month from yesterday, the Camden International Film Festival (CIFF) will host its fifth iteration by showcasing a small selection of some of the best nonfiction cinema being made today.  From October 1 - 4 (unfortunately, coinciding with the excellent Woodstock Film Festival, celebrating its 10th anniversary in upstate New York), Maine audiences throughout Camden, Rockport and Rockland will be shown 55 films from both the domestic and international markets.  CIFF will present "a snapshot of the cultural landscape through the year's best nonfiction storytelling, connecting filmmakers and industry folk with audiences to discuss documentary film as an art form [yes!], a catalyst for change and an outlet for the independent voice."  Those voices will consist of some of the most recognized artists working in the medium today, as well as new and emerging talent.

New this year for CIFF will be the roll-out of its inaugural Points North Documentary Film Forum, enabling local and visiting artists to connect with industry leaders and major funders in the documentary community.

The opening night film will be AJ Schnack's new documentary Convention, its New England premiere.  Schnack assembled an all-star crew of filmmakers to tell the story behind the 2008 Democratic Presidential  Convention in Denver, Colorado.  Read Karina Longworth's laudatory review here.  The closing night film will be Robert Stone's Earth Days, where Stone [Oswald's Ghost] crafts a look back at the genesis and resultant burgeoning of the modern-day Save-the-Planet! environmental social and political movements.   

The program includes three world premieres, three east coast premieres and seven New England premieres, including Donal Mosher and Michael Palmieri's wondrous October Country (Sterling US Feature award-winner at SILVERDOCS), Gabriel Noble's P-Star Rising (Brooklyn-ites, there will be a free outdoor screening of this film with Ms. Priscilla Star Diaz performing live in Fort Greene Park this Thursday the 3rd), Marshall Curry's Racing Dreams, and Luciano Blotto's Rise Up, winner of the Music Documentary award at SILVERDOCS.  To see the rest of the line-up and more info on the Points North program, keep checking the CIFF site throughout the month. 

I will be participating in this year's fest for the first time and I'm really looking forward to attending.  I will be chatting with CIFF founder and director, Ben Fowlie, this week.  Look for our conversation on the Hammer to Nail site soon.

Where Can I See CITY OF CRANES?

Several readers responding to an old post have asked me where they can watch Eva Weber's award-winning short film, City of Cranes.  You can still watch it on the P.O.V. site here.  You can also visit Odd Girl Out's website and see where her films are currently playing and/or order them online.  Click here for more info.  She's based in the UK, so if you're having problems finding where else the films might be distributed, drop them a line and they can direct you to your local distributor.

Teen Angst: A Style War

With the recent tragic passing of filmmaker John Hughes (dubbed the "bard of teen angst" in one obit headline), I thought this an optimum time to write about a film I saw at SILVERDOCS back in June.  I haven't quite figured out why this is so, but certain films, like this one, that affect me very deeply and profoundly with their beauty and truth--well, it takes me forever and a day to write about them.  While one part of me wants to shout to the skies and tell everyone and their mom about it, another part wants to savor it privately, clandestinely, like a delicious secret.

But then, seemingly, everything else I see and read and take in makes the experience resonate even more and, eventually, helps me to form coherent thoughts about why this small nonfiction piece called Let's Be Together by Danish filmmaker (the Danes!!) Nanna Frank Møller, thrilled me so much.  Maybe it's my own particular version of a film reviewer's angst, I guess, since I don't believe in the excuse of writer's block--much.

Clinically speaking, angst can be a kind of free-floating anxiety, often accompanied by depression or a profound disorientation in the face of a meaningless existence.  Our teen years are rife with that kind of stuff--at least mine were.  Instead of waking up as a cockroach one morning, 14-year-old Hairon, the main subject of Møller's fine film, seems to be morphing into a being entirely of his own making--not fully boy, not fully girl, not fully child, not fully adult, not fully Brazilian, not fully Danish, and entirely uncertain about how he wants to present himself to the world.  The only thing he's certain of is his searing need for 250 euro Dior sunglasses and Baby Phat mules with rhinestones.  Typical teenager. 

The biggest problem for the family that loves and cherishes and accepts this capricious cross-dressing creature, of course, is that he is well on his way to being a target of sadistic bullies and perpetrators of hate crimes, people who would take one look at him and lash-out mostly out of sheer terror that another human being is wearing his insides on the outside--outrageous and unacceptable, meant to be destroyed, my god, it might be catching! 

These three parents--his mother, Creuzina Gomes Jensen, his birth father, Marchello Pretti, and stepfather, Jimmy Jensen--adore this boy and want the best life possible for him.  They are also afraid for him, and so do the best they can to go about waking him up a bit to what the real world might have in store for someone like him, despite his crabby, bratty protestations that he can do what he wants and they can all sod off.  Typical teenager.

Hairon is a soon-to-be 15-year-old Brazilian boy who has lived most of his life in Denmark in a small provincial town with his Brazilian mother and Danish stepfather.  But it is only to his birth father, Marchello, whom he goes to visit in Brazil after not seeing him for several years, that he can say, "Now that I've started this, I don't know where to draw the line.  Or when to stop.  I'll have to learn."  And it is Marchello who becomes his teacher and mentor in the ways one can gracefully navigate between inner and outer lives.  For it is Marchello who knows better than most what it is to live a dual existence; for almost his entire life, he is someone who has had to traverse the dicey territory between being true to himself and protecting himself from those who would destroy him if they knew the truth.  It is a harsh, but honest, lesson in self-preservation, rendered in the most gentle and loving way a parent can teach a child something they'd prefer that child never had to face.

I am reticent and slow to reveal all the fascinating layers this film has in store because I think I'm simply trying to mirror the tantalizing and patient way that Møller reveals the details of this family story.  With refined camera work and infinite patience that pays off big, with not one whit of exposition, narration, explanation--not a peep--she gazes from behind her lens and waits for the riches she knows she will be able to mine with her subjects.  It is such a rewarding, exhilarating viewing experience, and sadly, so damn rare in this verbose, tele-crap, play-to-the-dumbest-guy-in-the-room, world.  If you're a human being, you get what's going on.  And I like it when filmmakers make films for human beings.

Western culture seems to be having a problem holding on to the propensity for affinity and empathy for our fellow selves, inner, outer and other.  We are so busy imposing structure and common identity, defining that identity out of some misconstrued imperative for a common experience.  (We're more label-crazy than the worst fashionista.)  Møller's subjects show us beautifully that the parent-child relationship can hold phenomenal empathic qualities, an uncanny ability to see inside the person your child is, to see how they see the world and help them articulate how they see the world, to "be together."  It can give the most confused, bereft being hope that they can navigate successfully in a world that is far from welcoming to difference or diversity.  Here is a parent who has lived through much personal pain and his own angst and come out the other side intact enough to give his own child faith in himself, the belief that there are possibilities in his life.  Hairon knows how hard life is--of course he already knows that, all of us do by the time we're five.  The kid needs hope.  In her film, Møller captures Hairon's understanding and discovery of the fragile nature of human identity.  However spoiled and silly and narcissistic and temper-tantrum-y he gets, he's searching desperately for his true self and I admire him greatly for that.  And, ultimately, so does his family.

In his interview with Mary Zournazi in her wonderful book, Hope: New Philosophies for Change (2003, Routledge), Greek/Australian writer, Christos Tsiolkas, says, "One of the tasks of anyone who finds themselves writing or producing film or ideas in our culture at the moment is to describe exactly, as best as we can, what alienation is and to give it a voice, and then turn it into the idea of hope and faith--that is, how to go beyond those experiences of alienation."  The shared commitment and the shared responsibility of every member of Hairon's family ensure that this will be a nurtured human being, someone who will be able to truly believe the words in the song that runs over the final credits as he and Marchello dance together ecstatically under a summer sky:  No beauty is greater than the one we're born with.

142 Iranian Filmmakers Boycott the Cinéma Vérité Festival in Tehran

Shortly before its third iteration, one of Iran's most talented and prolific filmmakers, Mehrdad Oskouei, writes from Iran about a boycott of 142 documentary filmmakers against the Cinéma Vérité International Documentary Film Festival that has taken place in Tehran for the last two years.  This follows closely upon the heels of International Festival Director Massoud Bahkshi's resignation from the nascent festival. 

The Cinéma Vérité festival is the only film event devoted exclusively to documentaries in Iran, its third edition due to be held this October.  In the last two years, the festival has been able to establish itself in the world with the help of both the Iranian and international documentary communities.  I was privileged to be a guest at last year's fest, an impressive event that screened close to 300 films.  The 142 artists (listed below) are asking members of the international community to join and support their boycott.  Here, verbatim, is the letter that Oskouei sent:

Documentary filmmakers in Iran have recorded valuable traces of realities about the contemporary Iranian society in the last century.

This cinema has been able to overcome many obstacles throughout the years. During the times of the revolutions, wars and conflicts and also in the last two decades, Iranian documentaries gave us treasures of social and historical documentations of life in Iran.

Cinéma Vérité is an important festival and has managed in its previous 2 years, to invoke an atmosphere of debate and reflection, which is essential to documentary filmmaking.

Unfortunately, extreme restrictions that have recently been placed on documentary filmmakers, in capturing what is occurring in our turbulent society, are unprecedented.

We can see so many films that potentially could have been made these days, but we are not allowed to make them.  Therefore, due to our commitment and respect for the truth and the reality, we have come to the decision to not take part in the forthcoming festival, either as documentary filmmakers, critics or viewers.

Signatures (142):

Mohsen Abdolvahab - Sepideh Abtahi - Farhang Adamiyat - Mahnaz Afzali – Amir Aghababaiean - Abbas Amini - Hiva Aminnezhad - Mohsen Amiryousfi - Mansoureh Arbabi - Mehdi Asadi - Mehrnaz Asadi - Ehsan Asgharzadeh - Majid Asheghi - Ashkan Ashkani - Houshang Azadivar - Bahram Azimpour - Mostafa Azizi - Milad Bahar - Amir Bahari - Mehdi Bagheri - Reza Bahraminezhad - Hasan Bahramzadeh - Rakhshan Banietemad - Misagh Banimahd – Habib Bavi Sajed - Ali Dadras - Reza Dorostkar - Esmaeil Emami - Homayoun Emami - Farshad Fadaieyan - Farshid Faraji - Mohammad Reza Fartosi - Kourosh Farzanegan - Bayram Fazli - Farshad Fereshteh Hekmat - Mehdi Ganji - Amin Ghadami - Mohsen Ghaderi - Rokhsare Ghaem Maghami - Alireza Ghasemkhan - Mehdi Ghorbanpour - Reza Haeri - Maryam Haghpanah - Khatreh Hanachi - Sirous Hesari - Amirhosein Hojat - Mahboubeh Honarian - Elham Hosinzadeh - jila Ipakchi - Hamid Jafari - Mehdi Jafari - Mohammad Jafari – Parviz Jahed - Farnaz Jamshidi moghadam - Ali Kalantari - Pirooz Kalantari - Mitra Karagah - Mehdi Karampour - Behfar Karimi - Mahmoud Karimi - Mahmoud Kazemi - Mina Keshavarz – Loghman Khaledi - Majid Khaleghi Soroush - Mostafa Kherghepoush - Banafshe Khoshnoudi – Firouzeh Khosravani - Keyvan Kiani - Bahman Kiarostami - Parviz Kimiavi - Mehdi Koohiyan - Ramtin Lavafipour - Ali Loghmani - Arastoo Madahi Givi - Mitra Mansouri - Anoushirvan Masoudi - Azar Mehrabi - Farhad Mehranfar - Makan Mehrpouya - Ahmad Mirehsan  - Mojtaba Mirtahmasb - Lida Moeini - Mahnaz Mohammadi - Ala Mohseni - Soudabeh Mojaveri - Ebrahim Mokhtari - Esmaeil Monsef - Mohammad Reza Moghadasian - Mahmoud Moghadas Jafari  - Majid Movaseghi - Soudabeh Moradian  - Soudabeh Mortazaie - Saeed Naderi - Nasim Najafi - Javad Najmedin - Mohammad Nami - Parivash Nazariyeh  - Majed Neysi - Mehrdad Oskoui - Mohsen Ostadali Makhmalbaf - Mehdi Parizad - Vahid Parsa - Maani Petgar - Morteza Poursamadi - Arash Raeisian - Mahmoud Rahmani - Mohamad Rasoulof - Shadmehr Rastin - Mohammad Razdasht - Nahid Rezaie - Panahbarkhoda Rezaie - Fariba Rostami - Ebrahim Saeedi - Naser Safarian - Babak Salek - Saman Salour - Amirhosein Sanaie - Ahmadreza Sedghi Vaziri - Katayoun Shahabi - Pouyan Shahrokhi -  Vahid Sheiykhlar - Mahvash Sheiykholeslami - Kamran Shirdel - Mohammad Shirvani – Ahmad Soleymani – Behrouz Soleymani - Abdolkhalegh Taheri - Ahmad Talebinezhad - Saeed Tarazi - Javad Tavana - Shahrouz Tavakol - Reza Teymori - Farzad Tohidi - Yasaman Tourang - Farhad Varahram - Ahmad Zahedi - Mehrdad Zahedian - Orod Zand - Mona Zandi - Hamid Zargarnezhad - Mohsen Zarifipour - Mehran Zinatbakhsh.

 

Newfest Comes to BAM

The last weekend of August, 29th and 30th, will bring a special program to the Brooklyn Academy of Music, courtesy of Newfest.  The LGBT festival, which made a splash in June at the new SVA Theatre in Chelsea, is bringing its "best of the fest" selection to the BK as part of this summer's BAMcinématek series. 

Films will include the Johnny Weir crowd-pleaser, Pop Star on Ice (I know several people that are absolutely obsessed with this film), to another John Hurt-inspired tour-de-force performance reprising his portrayal of Quentin Crisp in An Englishman in New York.  There will also be top festival award-winners and a fantastic shorts program.  Don't miss Kimberly Reed's Prodigal Sons (which took the prize for Best Feature Documentary), playing at 6:50 p.m. on Sunday evening the 30th.  It's your chance to catch it before its imminent theatrical launch. 

Click here to preview the entire Newfest@BAM program and to purchase advance tickets.

Happy 30th Birthday to First Run Features

Since 1979, First Run Features has built an amazing catalog by working with some of the world's greatest filmmakers to bring groundbreaking and provocative cinema to the masses.  As part of the celebration of this significant anniversary, FRF is putting thirty of their classics on sale for 30% off through the end of the month.  Titles include Greta Schiller and Robert Rosenberg's Before Stonewall, Anthony Giaccchino's The Camden 28, Daniel G. Karslake's For the Bible Tells Me So, Weijun Chen's Please Vote For Me, and Ross McElwee's Sherman's March, among others.  Click here to see the rest of the titles on sale. 

Founded by a group of filmmakers, led by the late Fran Spielman, to advance the distribution of independent film, First Run quickly gained a reputation for its controversial catalog of daring fiction and nonfiction titles and, today, remains one of the largest independent theatrical and home video distributors in the US, releasing twelve to fifteen films annually in theaters nationwide and between forty and fifty DVDs per year.  They have also formed a non-theatrical division that sells directly to the educational market.  If you're a filmmaker lucky enough to have a film picked up by FRF, you are surely in good (and experienced) hands and you will join the ranks of such auteurs as Spike Lee, Michael Apted, Sven Nykvist, Jane Campion, Michael Winterbottom, Barbara Kopple, Peter Jackson, Lizzie Borden, Claude Chabrol, Claire Denis, Victor Nunez, The Brothers Quay and Satyajit Ray.  Not too shabby a group.

Another component of the anniversary celebration will bring "Keeping the Independent Flame: Thirty Years of First Run Features" at the Film Society of Lincoln Center from August 26 through September 4, a specially curated tribute to FRF and its founder, Seymour Wishman, with special guest appearances throughout the run.  Visit the Film Society's site to see the entire program and to purchase advance tickets. 

Here's to at least thirty more years.  Salut!

Strength in Numbers: A Little Goes a Long Way

If you value the ability to watch fantastic, hard-to-find films from all over the world on the rooftops of New York City (and beyond); if you value getting to listen to fantastic local bands play live before these cinematic wonders; if you would like to see independent cultural entities that are invaluable to their communities survive through this economic climate and be there waiting for you on the other side; if you would think about donating that twenty-five dollars to that cultural entity instead of spending it on overpriced cocktails at some divey bar, then you'll want to join Rooftop Films' Strength in Numbers campaign--because they need you. 

By becoming one of the 1,000 donors by September 1st, you can help Rooftop soldier through.  They are already more than halfway there since 527 people have joined the campaign thus far.  With just under a month remaining, think about adding your name to the list of people who have shown support for Rooftop's mission and work.  Or just send it to me, I'll take my fifty percent commission, and pass on the rest.  Kidding.

Rooftop is a non-profit org which means that they rely on their constituency's support to operate.  If you've attended just one screening and all the attendant free wine and beer that comes with that, ahem, that means you.  The campaign is not about the dollar amount, but about the numbers of people who join, so even if it's five bucks, pay it forward.  And then ask five or ten of your friends to do the same.

Rooftop is in the midst of their 13th season staging more than 40 nights of incredible films in wonderful outdoor locations whilst having to shill like crazy in the middle of putting all this on and cutting some vital expenses.  Have you seen how skinny Mark Rosenberg is getting?!

In the spirit of community, which is one of the rare things getting all of us through at this time, think about helping out where you can and assist them in reaching their goal of 1,000 donors by September 1.  You can also contact Development Director, Lauren Faria, at lauren@rooftopfilms.com to find out about other ways to support Rooftop Films. 

To make your tax-deductible donation, you can mail a check to 232 3rd Street, #D101, Brooklyn, New York, 11215; or you can make a credit card donation online via PayPal by visiting the site and clicking on the DONATE button.