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Doc Linkage | IDA Awards-All XY; "Chisholm '72" For Next Week's STF

[Mark Rabinowitz] Here, for your reading pleasure, is another lovely collection of letters and manybe the occasional number, as they are put together into an order which may (or may not) make some sense about documentary films and whatnot.

IDA Doc Nods: Whither The Women?
The International Documentary Association announced their annual award nominees earlier this week and while AJ Schnack was applauding them for nominating five noteworthy and known films, others have been wondering where the female doc directors are. While it's true that "Trouble the Water" by Carl Deal and Tia Lessin was not nominated, were there other docs directed or co-directed by women that deserved a nod? Weigh in, won't you?

» Continue reading "Doc Linkage | IDA Awards-All XY; "Chisholm '72" For Next Week's STF"


Doc Briefs | St. Clair Bourne Tribute At STF; New Face At Hot Docs

[Mark Rabinowitz] Once again, it's time for a few doc news nuggets. Stranger Than Fiction pays tribute to the late filmmaker St. Clair Bourne on October 28th and Hot Docs names a new director for the Toronto Documentary Forum.

stclair.jpgStranger Than Fiction To Tribute St. Clair Bourne
Next Tuesday, weekly doc screening series Stranger Than Fiction is guaranteed to be a special experience for all attending. A Tribute to St. Clair Bourne, will feature a special screening of Bourne's documentary "Making 'Do the Right Thing'" and guest speakers Danny Glover, Bourne's sister Judith Bourne and editor Sam Pollard. Saint, as his friends called him, passed away quite suddenly of a pulmonary embolism last December at the age of 64. Those of us lucky enough to have known him were and still are shocked by his untimely death and I urge you all to try and attend this special evening.

At the risk of getting a little too personal here, Saint was an old friend and comrade of my mother Joanne Grant from the days of the Movement and was, for a while, producing a documentary project she was directing. She passed away, also before her time, in January of 2005. Tickets can be bought here.

» Continue reading "Doc Briefs | St. Clair Bourne Tribute At STF; New Face At Hot Docs"


Doc Linkage | EFA Doc Winner; New Doc Club Films

[Mark Rabinowitz] Today's links bring you back to Europe for an award announcement and then to the Web for some hot and sweaty (not really) Doc Club action. Dig it, Cats and Kittens!

EFA Doc Award Winner
So...two days ago I posted the European Film Academy doc nominations (they were announced on Thursday, October 16th). The release noted that "the winner will be presented at the 21st European Film Awards Ceremony on Saturday, 6 December, in Copenhagen." Silly me, I took that to mean that the winners would also be announced then. However, today I checked my email and found this press release that announced the doc winner as being "René," by Czech director Helena Trestikova. Ok, then.

rene_01.jpg

» Continue reading "Doc Linkage | EFA Doc Winner; New Doc Club Films"


Doc Alert: Flaherty NYC Series Kicks Off Tonight!!!

259.jpg [Mark Rabinowitz] Tonight, October 13th, marks the kick off of the new monthly screening series, Flaherty NYC at Anthology Film Archives. Created by The Robert Flaherty Seminar, the new series will feature works from the 2008 Robert Flaherty Film Seminar, The Age of Migration, according to the Flaherty website and the fall 2008 schedule will showcase films by Flaherty Seminar guest artists, Oliver Husain (left, Canada/Germany), Alison Kobayashi (Canada), and Lee Wang (USA). Each session will include post-screening discussions with the filmmakers.

Tonight's session spotlights Mr. Husain and features the New York City premiere of six of his short docs and tickets can be purchased here.



Berends Back Home, George Still In Custody

[Mark Rabinowitz] Word spread quickly yesterday that filmmaker Andrew Berends was released on Wednesday and according to the Help Andy blog, was escorted to the airport and basically kicked out of Nigeria with no explanation as to why. According to the blog, he was still in possession of a valid Nigerian work visa. He was never formally charged with a crime, but his translator Samuel George was required to return to State Security Services (SSS) offices on Friday, along with a third man. From the blog:

» Continue reading "Berends Back Home, George Still In Custody"


Stranger Than Fiction Announces Fall Season

At-the-Edge-of-the-World.jpg[Mark Rabinowitz] Oh lord. Fall has done sneaked up on me, once again. Don't get me wrong, I love that I'll be able to wear suits without sweating, the occasional sweater or jacket. I can break out my wool fedora, even. That said, the end of summer makes me sad, a sadness tempered somewhat with the recent news that the Thom Powers-curated Stranger Than Fiction documentary screening series is returning for another go round. One of the things that makes New York City the greatest city in the world for cinema viewing (a thoroughly unscientific claim, I grant you) STF is a weekly must-go-to for the NYC indie crowd and offers up a screening, Q&A and post show cocktail gathering each week.

The series kicks off on September 23rd with Dan Stone's "At the Edge of the World," about the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society and includes Steve Cantor's "What Remains: The Life and Work of Sally Mann," Jody Lambert's "Of All the Things" about his composer father Dennis Lambert ("Ain't No Woman Like The One I've Got," "Rhinestone Cowboy," "Baby Come Back" and "Nightshift") and John Walter's "How to Draw a Bunny," among other. See the complete lineup and buy tickets, here.



Documentary Club, Round II

[Mark Rabinowitz] The Documentary Club that has been mentioned a few times on this blog and which had its first round of doc discussions in August has extended the time for members (What!? You're not a member? Get thee to the site and sign up!) to vote on the next two films to watch and discuss. The are: Aaron Woolf's "King Corn," James D. Sculock's "Maxed Out: Hard Times, Easy Credit and the Era of Predatory Lenders," Terry Zwigoff's "Crumb," Jamie Johnson's "Born Rich" and Seth Gordon's "King of Kong."

Me? I voted for "Maxed Out" or rather my wallet did and "Crumb."

As an odd aside, when I did an IMDb search on "King Corn," the first result was "Media of Ron Jeremy" and then...oh hell, take a look:

KingCorn-porn.jpg

I get it. "corn" and "porn" rhyme, so when I was looking for "King Corn," the IMDb search engine decided I was actually looking for The Porn King. Not exactly precise searching results, are they?



Style, Substance And The Documentary: The Debate Continues

[Mark Rabinowitz] Over at All These Wonderful Things, AJ Schnack posts about his favorite (and worthy) topic, craft in documentary films, this time using Lynne Hershman Leeson's excellent "Strange Culture" as a subject as written about in Shaun Huston's post on PopMatters. There are two main questions surrounding this film, one of which being "when is a doc not a doc and does 'Strange Culture' take too many liberties with re-enactments for it to be called a documentary?" The other one, which AJ seems more concerned with is about the art in the filmmaking process itself, to wit:

» Continue reading "Style, Substance And The Documentary: The Debate Continues"


infinicine Interview: D-Word's Doug Block

[Mark Rabinowitz] Keeping on the theme of the ever changing word of distribution (are we ever not on that theme around here?) I figure I should point out a new site that recently launched called infinicine (clever name, no? And no, it's not pronounced "infini-scene.") and their latest post is an interview with D-Word founder and filmmaker Doug Block. Doug's a smart guy and has been at this streaming/day-and-date doc thing for longer than many of you have been the doc addicts I know you are and he has definite thoughts on some of the new models being tried out, to wit:

"Is having a 50/50 split of advertising revenue a good deal? It sounds like one, but there's no way of telling in advance how much advertising your film will generate and how much revenue that will ultimately bring in. And I don't see any companies offering sizable minimum guarantees in the way that theatrical distributors often do."

» Continue reading "infinicine Interview: D-Word's Doug Block"


Doc Club Pics First Two Docs: "Heavy Metal Parking Lot" And "Future By Design"

[Mark Rabinowitz] Do remember that online doc club that I wrote about a couple of times? No? WTF, dudes? Read up on it here and here, then continue. I'll wait. Done? Ok. Well, they've picked their first two films and are even screening one on the main page of the club! How cool is that? Seems John Heyn and Jeff Krulik have given the club permission to stream "Heavy Metal Parking Lot" for a limited time. How cool is that? The other film up for discussion is William Gazecki's "Future By Design." So head over the club and discuss film with some of your contemporaries, like Docurama's Liz Ogilvie, director David Redmon and doc Jane of All Trades Tamara Krinsky. Oh and me.



A New Film Geek Is Born! Or "May Your First Child Be a Masculine Child"

We here at Docsider would like to congratulate Sarasota Film Festival director of programming/blogger Tom Hall and his wife, wardrobe supervisor Jessica Smith Hall ("Law & Order: Criminal Intent") on the birth of their son, Nicolas Eamon Hall (yer first boldfaced name, kiddo!) on Monday, July 28th, 2008. Nicolas is the first child for the Halls and knowing his pappy, his first word will likely be either Desplechin or Gerrard. Or maybe Herzog.

We couldn't be more happy for the couple!



Documentary Club Redux: And So Shall It Be!

[Mark Rabinowitz] And yea, as I walk through the valley of dying opportunities for documentaries, I shall pounce on the good things, too. And so we spoke and it was. A Documentary Club is born....

All kidding aside, we didn't do anything except write about this here idea and well, DocPop.org went and done it! You go, Doctor Popular!

So to all the doc makers and doc fans out there in Docsiderland (should that just be "to all those docside?") get thee to the Doc Club, sign up and get people watching and talking (maybe even about your films)!



Like A Book Club...But With Docs!

[Mark Rabinowitz]Over on DocPop.org (described as "Doctor Popular’s online repository and blog"....say what?) the good doctor poses a nifty idea: Why not start a documentary club. Like a book club, but with docs. It would be virtual, so as to be more inclusive (what? No bundt cakes and brandy in the Petersen's living room while fighting over Erica Jong's The Fear of Flying? Bummer!)

All kidding aside, more of these kinds of grass roots initiatives might get more poeple watching more docs and here at Docsider, we're all up IN that idea!