Yesterday, I was at the Film Independent Filmmaker Forum talking about - dum, Dum, DUM - the state of documentary film with Matt Tyrnauer (director of VALENTINO: THE LAST EMPEROR), Laura Gabbert (NO IMPACT MAN), Scott Hamilton Kennedy (THE GARDEN) and distributor/consultant Richard Abramowitz.
It was no mistake that Tyrnauer and Abramowitz were there. VALENTINO and ANVIL, a film that Abramowitz worked with the filmmakers to distribute, are two of the most successful docs of the year. Neither got the offers that they (or their investors) were looking for upon their festival debuts, so they chose to go it alone (or alone with help).
While the big box office doc stories of 2009 will probably be written by Disney, Michael Moore and a certain forthcoming Sony concert film, it's the ways in which some filmmakers have successfully forged their own paths that may have the most lasting impact.
But for this weekend, tradition reigns - or at least the traditional success of the star-powered doc. And what's more star-powered than GOOD HAIR, Chris Rock's look at black women and their relationships with their tresses, which took in a reported $1,117,000 on just 186 screens. Averaging just over $6K per theater, the Jeff Stilson-helmed doc, drew healthy audiences and at least one ridiculous lawsuit.
The success of GOOD HAIR made this a very rare weekend - in fact, has it ever happened before? - one in which two different nonfiction titles grossed at least $1 million dollars at the box office. Michael Moore's CAPITALISM: A LOVE STORY continued it rapid push toward the $10 million dollar plateau, taking in an estimated $2.7 million for a total cume of just over $9 million.
Two of the fall's other documentary hits - THE SEPTEMBER ISSUE and IT MIGHT GET LOUD are starting to slow down a bit, but hanging in with week-to-week declines of just 22% and 10% respectively. SEPTEMBER now stands at $3,184,000 and IT MIGHT GET LOUD has taken in $1,345,000. The results were a little less rosy for the second week of MORE THAN A GAME, the LeBron James high school basketball team doc. The film added 30 screens but still fell 30% from last week's high flying opening, grossing $128,000 for the weekend.
Friday's announcement of the Academy shortlist for Documentary Short Subject (see our complete in-depth rundown here) have a lot of folks looking ahead and wondering who will make the shortlist for Feature Documentary, which is traditionally announced in mid-November. Anne Thompson and I kicked around this very topic on Thursday.
Folks at the Film Independent Filmmaker Forum were also talking about it, with a number commenting on the very surprising gambit by the makers of ANVIL! THE STORY OF ANVIL, who made sure they were the first to get their DVD into the hands of the nearly-6,000 member Motion Picture Academy. The first screener sent is both a kickoff to Oscar season as well as tip-off of which smaller film might get a little extra love come nominations - it's been utilized successfully for both JUNEBUG, LITTLE MISS SUNSHINE and FROZEN RIVER.
But unless the ANVIL makers think they have a shot at Best Picture (has the expansion to ten made everyone think that they're a competitor?), not one person I spoke to on Saturday had any idea why the backers of ANVIL would distribute their film Academy-wide. In addition to the screener gambit, the ANVIL team also boasted high profile receptions for the film hosted by the likes of Tilda Swinton and Michel Gondry.
Now I love ANVIL. I gave it an award when I was on the jury in Copenhagen last year. I was on the Truer Than Fiction committee last year that nominated it for that award. And I may have been one of the only people to write about the film when I saw it at Sundance last year. I'd love to live in a world where it was obvious that a film as good as ANVIL was practically a shoo-in for an Oscar nomination. But really. The Academy members who will watch ANVIL will see it when they pull it from their box of 20 or so DVDs, which they will rank. How is any of the above - Tilda Swinton's awesomeness notwithstanding - going to help move ANVIL to the shortlist?
The folks behind ANVIL are wicked smart (I've just been in Maine), but last week's Oscar-focused PR blitz is really a head scratcher.
The fall festival frenzy continued this weekend as the Hamptons held their annual soiree. Three docs, including one of the films on this year's Oscar short doc shortlist, received awards - Magnus Gertten and Elin Jonsson's LONG DISTANCE LOVE received the Best Documentary prize while Don Hahn's Toronto favorite, WAKING SLEEPING BEAUTY received the Audience Award. Bartek Konopka's short RABBIT A LA BERLIN received a prize for Best Film of Conflict and Resolution.
Stuff to read: Tom Roston looks at Impact Partners and other potential grant funders. Scott Macauley remembers writer/filmmaker Shari Roman at Filmmaker Magazine, plus reviews of two recent film critics forums - one at Woodstock featuring Godfrey Cheshire, Karina Longworth and Owen Gleiberman from Brian Geldin and one from Mike Tully in which Armond White, John Anderson and Karen Durbin talk at the Hamptons about Karina Longworth (and whether the internet is any darn good). Karina responds to Armond here.
Coming this week: Cinema Eye closes eligibility this Friday. Right now, 93 films are up for the 2010 awards (to be held in New York City in January). Nominations won't be announced until November 5, but when they are announced, it will be at a roller disco party at Sheffield Doc/Fest.
And finally - spare a good thought for our pal Kim Voynar, who details her experience at this year's Toronto Film Festival over at Voynaristic:
"I woke up throughout the night, alternately cold and hot, and finally got up around 8:30AM because the night sweats were so bad I was completely drenched and shivering. I noticed that I felt oddly weak on the right side. Thinking I'd perhaps pinched a nerve tossing in my sleep, I tried taking a warm shower but kept feeling weaker and weaker. I realized the right side of my face and my right arm felt numb, and when I couldn't hold a glass of juice with my right hand I grabbed my laptop, the house phone and my cell and moved to the couch. I quickly reached a couple friends to let them know what was up, and to get some help getting to a hospital, because by then my right leg was going numb too and I didn't think I could make it on my own. I was afraid I was having a stroke."
She's got a battle ahead. Our prayers are with her.
Please take a moment to check out my documentary film BLACK HAIR
It is free at youtube. 6 parts including an update from London, England.
It explores the Korean Take-over of the Black Beauty Supply and Hair biz..
The current situation makes it hard to believe that Madame C.J. Walker once ran the whole thing.
I am not a hater, I am a motivator.
Plus I am a White guy who stumbled upon this, and felt it was so wrong I had to make a film about it.
self-funded film, made from the heart.
Can it be taken back?
Link
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p96aaTSdrAE
Posted by: aron ranen | October 12, 2009 at 09:51 AM