SILVERDOCS Screens Documentary Gold
Silver Springs, Maryland (a lovely city in a beautiful part of the country) is the place to be this weekend if you're a fan of documentary films. Now in it's fourth year, the AFI/Discovery Channel Documentary Festival presents six days of programming showcasing 100 feature-length and short films, plus special screenings. The Festival will take place June 13–18 at the AFI Silver Theatre just outside Washington, DC. SILVERDOCS provides business and creative connections between filmmakers, broadcasters, distributors, and funders from both established and emerging media markets at the concurrent International Documentary Conference, June 14-17.
Of great interest to me is the Celebrate South Africa! segment of the program; it's a special program of new South African documentaries plus discussions featuring South African artists and a concert. In the Fall of 2005, SILVERDOCS organizers presented Festival highlights and a series of documentary film workshops to filmmakers in Cape Town and Johannesburg, South Africa as part of a US Department of State cultural exchange program. Moved by the passion and talent of the South African filmmakers, and the diversity and richness of their stories, Festival organizers determined to create a special program celebrating the work of South African filmmakers. It sounds very similar to what we're doing with FilmZambia!
