I just clicked on the Help Andy blog this am to see that he was provisionally released
to US Embassy personnel, but has to return to State Security Services (SSS) for "routine" processing. The accounts
of Andrew's arrest, detainment, poor treatment and daily interrogation have been very disturbing. My thoughts are with his friends and family for a safe return to the U.S.

The First Annual Impact Film Festival has been a smashing success and Festival founders Jody Arlington, Kimball Stroud and Jamie Shor also know how to throw a party. Click here to read all the dish on last night's Bennifer, Dunst, Glover, booze and schmooze-laden festival fete.

Believe it or not, DC is ahead of the curve and has become the first U.S. city to launch a high-tech bike sharing program. I'm really surprised that green cities such as Portland haven't already done this, but hey, we will take a first for DC. The first bike station is right in front of my bus stop, so eventually I'll guilt myself into trying it out. The program is similar to Zip Car. You purchase an annual account for forty bucks and can check out a bike for three hours. All this talk of bikes makes me miss Amsterdam.

Hello Indiewire community - it's been awhile - here I am back in Silver Spring. It has been eight months since I left SILVERDOCS but when I walked up on opening night, it felt like I had never left. The AFI Sliver Theatre will always be my home and the old historic theater my version of church. And the fact that I still get free popcorn doesn't hurt. The staff did a great job - Sky Sitney put together a stunning, heartbreaking, complex lineup of films, Adrian Spencer and Cindy Miller make the Festival run smooth and Jody Arlington as always makes sure the films get the press attention they deserve. The International Documentary Conference had its strongest year yet with Diana Ingraham at the helm. I had fun talking with my old boss Patricia Finneran at the Cinema Lounge and congratulating her on her fifth Silverdocs success. Funny how time flies. Since they added two days to the Festival, there's still more to come, but our industry friends from other towns have mostly left. It was a treat to be a guest at the Festival and be able to actually sit in the theater and watch documentaries the way they should be enjoyed. A few film highlights for me were Sascha Paladino's THROW DOWN YOUR HEART, with a post-screening performance by Bela Fleck and Malwian legend Cheick Hamala Diabate; Tia Lessin & Carl Deal's TROUBLE THE WATER - a heartbreaking and hopeful film about hurricane katrina. I also was lucky enough to catch the world premiere of HERB & DOROTHY by Megumi Sasaki - a film about legendary civilian art collectors Herb and Dorothy Vogel. I want to write more about this charming film later, but I must share the film's tagline: "You don't have to be a Rockefeller to collect art. He was apotal clerk. She was a librarian. With their modest means, the couple managed to build one of the most contemporary art collections in history."

There was an abundance of parties, with a more swanky, centrally located Cinema Lounge and the essential Moose Lodge and Quarry House late night gatherings. I also caught Peter Broderick's enlightening talk and took a 1/2 day workshop on social marketing and outreach.

I am a product of the power of documentary - the characters of films I have seen along the way have changed my life and made me want to be a better person. When I worked for SILVERDOCS, we would always wax poetic about the power of docs to inspire and call you to action. I ended up being a living example of this, as Oliver Hodge's 2007 film GARBAGE WARRIOR moved me so much that I decided to work on the biggest environmental issue of our time - building pollution. I landed at the U.S. Green Building Council, a non-profit working for healthy buildings and communities within a generation. I haven't really left the film world, so I'll try to pop back in here from time to time and focus a bit on a cross-section of film and the environment. If you live in D.C. there is still time to catch the award-winning films through Tuesday eve.

Documentary film industry darling Pat Aufderheide, Professor of Communications, American University; author,"Documentary Film: A Very Short Introduction" (Oxford)
She is doing great work for documentary filmmakers, fair use and so much more.
Listen to her talk about the future of documentary one day post-Oscars on D.C's public radio / NPR affiliate, WAMU.

Good luck to all of the filmmakers showing their docs at DocuWeek and to those who are going for it on their own, such as the SILVERDOCS 2007 Sterling Award Winner, Best Feature, PLEASE VOTE FOR ME
by Weijun Chen, who lined up a theatrical rollout in LA at the Laemmle Grande, 7/27 - 8/2 and Laemmle Regency LIDO, 7/23 -7/25. Don't miss this film!

Also, be sure to check out the SILVERDOCS panel OSCAR IN THE FUTURE: New Qualifying Rules for Docs,
which is streaming on IDA's home page
courtesy of Joel Heller/Docs That Inspire.

For those of you who made it to SILVERDOCS and caught FRANK AND CINDY,
G.J. Echternkamp's doc about his Mom and beer swilling 80's band OXO pop star step dad, this will be even sweeter, but even if you didn't make it, this is a sweet read! The film subjects had such a blast at SILVERDOCS, that Cindy thinks Frank may put it above his Oxo exprience in the 80's as an alltime high. By no means can we compete with 80's pop, but I am glad that we delivered on the experience for them. Save this read for when you really need a good laugh. Her prose does live up up to the phrase 'stranger than fiction.' I heart Frank & Cindy!
Cindy's Blog
(Start at the bottom and read up)