Every year on the Wednesday before the Academy Awards, the International Documentary Association fetes the nonfiction filmmakers going to the big show to vie for the Golden Boy. Last night, I sat in the beautiful Samuel Goldwyn theater at the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences in Beverly Hills to be part of the documentary community's send-off for this group of talented men and women. (And, on my drive in from the beach, I got to watch that bitchin' lunar eclipse. When I pulled up to the Academy, there was a small crowd hanging off the sidewalk curb gazing up at this planetary sleight-of-hand.)
The reception was very understated and warm, more like a family gathering than some stuffy cocktail shindig. Sandra Ruch, IDA executive director and den mother, scooted around the room shuttling nominees over to meet the press corps and dispensing hugs and well wishes like a proud parent. I've never been to this function before and, since I'm currently helping to create and shepherd a brand-new ceremony for a recently-created honor for craft in nonfiction filmmaking, I was interested in seeing how the evening would play out on many levels.
What worked, of course, was the atmosphere of love and support I speak of above, plentiful good food and drink, and an unobtrusive press junket set up in the corner of the big reception area. I saw friends I haven't seen in a while like documentary magazine associate editor, Tamara Krinsky, fimmaker, Lisa Thompson, who is currently editing Patricia Foulkrod's new project and is soon off to Italy to direct something in Rimini (thatta girl!) and her lovely beau What's-His-Name (inside joke).
AJ Schnack, co-chair of the Cinema Eye Honors for Nonfiction Filmmaking escorted Danish director, Pernille Rose Gronkjaer, a Spirit Award nominee for Best Documentary. No aspersions cast to any of this year's nominees, but if ever there was an Oscar-calibre documentary, Gronkjaer's The Monastery: Mr. Vig and the Nun would be it. A casualty of one of those wild-hair Academy rules that forbids any kind of broadcast in order to be eligible to qualify, Gronkjaer's film played on Belgian television, said broadcast essentially sidelining her chances to qualify, which she was fully intending to do. More on the doc Spirit nominees coming soon, but I really want to see her walk away with that one on Saturday.
Oh, back to IDA Oscar night: up the stairs to the aforementioned humongous, red velvet-bedecked theater for the show. Once seated, I looked around and realized how sparsely attended this event was, but considering everything else going on this week awards-wise. . .
Hostess Sandra Tsing Loh, unfortunately, delivered her lines in a circus barker style that was slightly distressing and inappropriate, but once the filmmakers started coming up to deliver their emotional messages of gratitude--to their subjects, to their fellow filmmakers and to the community--everything else fell away and we all basked in the wonder and excitement that exuded from the stage (in between awkwardly edited film clips):
The shorts: Amanda Micheli and Isabel Vega told us about winning the confidence and trust of the female inmates they filmed for La Corona; Cynthia Wade and Vanessa Roth breathlessly recounted their discovery of Laurel Hester and Stacie Andree's heartrending court battle before Hester's imminent death, and the immediacy of their deep-sea dive into the project that would become Freeheld; James Longley was encouraged to extract and expand the story of Sari's Mother from his feature Iraq in Fragments by Thom Powers, to create his powerful and moving nominated short (thanks to AJS for that tidbit of info); and Tim Sternberg's equally serendipitous journey finding Salim Baba, whose main character takes DIY filmmaking to a whole new level. (For the record, I think it will be Sternberg who takes the prize.)
On to the features: Alex Gibney and Eva Orner talked about the experience of making their incredible Taxi to the Darkside, another searing indictment of our government's complicity in some pretty nasty business in the name of democracy; No End in Sight's Charles Ferguson profusely thanked his producer, Audrey Marrs, without whom he could not have made the film in the first place,he said; former news journalist and first-time filmmaker, Richard E. Robbins of Operation Homecoming: Writing the Wartime Experience gave a very emotional speech, enthralled with the support and uplift he's received this year from fellow nonfiction filmmakers, something he certainly did not experience in the news biz; the Fines, makers of War/Dance , unfortunately, did not make an appearance, but will most certainly be walking down the red carpet on Sunday; and, finally, Dog Eat Dog Films' own Michael Moore, director and star of Sicko, took the stage. Eugene Hernandez nailed this portion of the evening exceedingly well, so you can read about Moore's lengthy spiel here, but suffice to say, in typical Moore-ish bombast, he held forth on his mission to shepherd in a new dawn where documentary will be shown in every multiplex across the nation!
With a final closing sputter and honk from Loh, everyone adjourned for a coffee and dessert reception. The last conversation I overheard before saying my goodbyes was the one between Orner and Gibney coordinating their limo ride to the Kodak on Sunday. Again, my congratulations to all.
Wish I could be out there. Will hopefully get to LA soon.
Posted by: Brian | February 22, 2008 at 07:59 PM