All these wonderful things

DOCNYC 2010: Thom Powers Previews the Inaugural Edition of the New Nonfiction Festival in New York

In just 9 days, New York will see the launch of DOCNYC, the new festival birthed from the folks behind NYC's Stranger Than Fiction series (Toronto International Film Festival Documentary Programmer Thom Powers, STF Executive Director Raphaela Neihausen, IFC Center head honcho John Vanco and IFC Center Director of Programs Harris Dew).  It's perhaps the biggest documentary festival launch in over five years and it's grabbing the prime real estate in early November that's soon to be vacated by primo UK Doc/Fest Sheffield.

The first edition is marked by tributes to doc superstars Werner Herzog and Errol Morris, a retrospective of work by one of this year's Honorary Oscar recipients, Kevin Brownlow, and two competition sections - Metropolis, which focuses on New York-set stories, and Viewfinders, which includes the US Premieres of Janus Metz' ARMADILLO, Kim Longinotto's PINK SARIS and Bjarte Mørner Tveit's DISCOVERIES OF A MARIONETTE and the World Premiere of Robert Greene's KATI WITH AN I (following a sneak preview earlier this year at True/False).

We talked to Thom Powers (who was, full disclosure, my co-chair for the first two editions of the Cinema Eye Honors and who serves on Cinema Eye's Advisory Board) about the inaugural festival, his broader ideas for a "nonfiction festival" and what's exciting and scaring him nine days out.

ATWT: I guess I want to start with the other stuff, the non-film elements, because that's one of the things I think is so exciting about DOCNYC and what you're doing, because it's not just films and it's not just panels about films.

Thom Powers: It's not.  Film I would say is an 80 or 90 percent core of what we're doing this year but the longterm goal of this festival is to enrich the other aspects over the years.  And the heart of this is the daylong symposia that we have called Doc Convergence.  That's kind of where I laid down an initial structure for ways in which I want to invigorate this festival with all kinds of different documentary voices, not just filmmakers.  At Doc Convergence we have photographers, including Pulitzer Prize winner David Turnley, we have cartoonists, such as Joe Sacco, Linda Barry, we have people from the world of performance and also writing, such as Lawrence Wright, who did "My Trip to Al Qaeda", which was turned into a film by Alex Gibney, and Moises Kaufman, who's done these documentary-based theatrical works, including The Laramie Project, that was turned into a film.

Gail Dolgin, Oscar-Nominated Director of DAUGHTER FROM DANANG, Has Died

Gail Dolgin, who along with co-director Vincente Franco, was nominated for the Best Documentary Feature Oscar in 2003 for DAUGHTER FROM DANANG, has died from cancer at 65.

Although Dolgin passed away on October 7, word is just now reaching some in the documentary and independent film community, following obituaries yesterday in Variety and the LA Times.  ITVS' Beyond the Box Blog featured a tribute by Senior Programming Manager Richard Saiz one week ago:

"Personally, it was always a pleasure to work with Gail.  She was a complete professional who not only created powerful documentaries, but also contributed to ITVS as a skillful and insightful panelist and reader for Open Call.

Beneath the cool intellect and measured demeanor, was the fervent spirit of a woman motivated by a desire to examine America’s history through the documentary. Gail believed in the power of  television to enlighten and educate American audiences about our character as a nation."

DAUGHTER FROM DANANG won the Grand Jury prize at the 2002 Sundance Film Festival prior to its Oscar nomination in what ended up being a turning-point year for documentaries and the Academy.  Dolgin, along with her fellow nominees, joined Oscar winner Michael Moore onstage as he attacked the Bush administration in the early days of the Iraq war. 

Balcony Releasing co-founder Connie White wrote us today of her experience working with Dolgin on DANANG:

"I guess I could simply say that Gail was so special to me. DAUGHTER FROM DANANG was the first film Balcony Releasing distributed - in fact the company was created in order to distribute her film - and we both learned as we went along. She actually revelled in that situation, seemed to enjoy being our first project and encouraged me to pursue other distribution projects after DFD was finished in theaters. She was so energetic and engaged in her work and her friendships. What a loss for all of us!"

JACKASS Keeps Rolling but FAHRENHEIT Keeps the Monday Record

After a record-smashing weekend, Jeff Tremaine's JACKASS 3D continued its box office success on Monday, taking in another $4,448, 427 to extend its total to $54M.  But for those who are wondering if JACKASS can ultimately top Michael Moore's FAHRENHEIT 9/11 as the top nonfiction grosser of all time, it's interesting to note that JACKASS' Monday total comes shy of FAHRENHEIT's Monday gross - $5,745,082.

A couple caveats: that Monday gross came on July 5, 2004, arguably part of a long holiday weekend.  However, that Monday was also FAHRENHEIT's 11th day of wide release and was an indication that the Moore film had long box office legs.  Will JACKASS have the same staying power?

This week JACKASS will do battle with another sequel, one with potentially the same audience (and coming from the same studio) - PARANORMAL ACTIVITY 2.

 

Oscar Grudgematch: "Lady Kanye" Elinor Burkett Takes Her Version of PRUDENCE to IDFA

IDFA, the world's largest (by sheer numbers) documentary film festival held each November in Amsterdam, announced its line-up this morning (we'll get to more of that in a bit), but one name jumped right out at us:

Competing in the First Appearance section of the fest is Elinor Burkett, with her film ITHEMBA.  You may remember Elinor Burkett as the producer who rushed the stage at the Oscars and silenced director Roger Ross Williams, not long after their film MUSIC BY PRUDENCE won the Academy Award for Documentary Short.  Well, soon after that became the talk of the Oscars (it was even spoofed on Letterman), it became clear that the split between Burkett and Williams (with HBO siding with Williams) was over the creative direction of the project.

Now it seems that ITHEMBA - which looks to premiere in Amsterdam - might be Burkett's version of the PRUDENCE story.  A quick google search shows ITHEMBA to be a working title for the film that Burkitt and Williams were making together - both are listed as attending "meet-and-greets" for ITHEMBA: THE DOCUMENTARY as part of a tour for the group Liyana, of which Prudence Mabhena is the lead singer.   The same link shows two Los Angeles tour dates designated as "filming for ITEMBA: THE DOCUMENTARY".

In any case, Burkett, who has long argued that her version was better than the one that took home the Oscar, now appears to have the chance to prove it.

 

Spurlock Returns to Host IDA Awards, Honorary Prizes to Go to Barbara Kopple, Alan & Susan Raymond

The IDA Awards - set to announce its nominees later this month - today announced some key elements of their December 3rd event, including the return of filmmaker Morgan Spurlock as host.  Spurlock previously helmed the ceremony in 2008.

The IDA also announced this year's honorary awards, leadlined by presenting the Career Achievement Award to two-time Oscar winner Barbara Kopple (HARLAN COUNTY USA, AMERICAN DREAM, SHUT UP AND SING!) and the Pioneer Award will go to Alan and Susan Raymond, who changed the face of documentary and reality television forever with their groundbreaking series AN AMERICAN FAMILY.

With today's announcement of the 2010 Gotham nominations, the IDA is poised to become the 2nd major documentary award to reveal its hopefuls.  Cinema Eye and the Spirit Awards will unveil their nominees next month along with the Academy's shortlist of 15 features.

Gotham Awards 2010 Nominees Include Oscar Hopefuls and Scorsese's PUBLIC SPEAKING

The Gotham Awards have just announced their nominees for 2010 and the five films nominated in the Best Documentary category are:

12TH AND DELAWARE
Directed by Heidi Ewing and Rachel Grady

INSIDE JOB
Directed by Charles Ferguson

THE OATH
Directed by Laura Poitras

PUBLIC SPEAKING
Directed by Martin Scorsese

SWEETGRASS
Directed by Ilisa Barbash and Lucien Castaing-Taylor

INSIDE JOB is one of the frontrunners for next year's Academy Awards and is just now rolling out in theaters in North America.  Both THE OATH and 12TH AND DELAWARE had lower-key theatrical releases earlier this year preceding their television broadcasts (THE OATH on POV and DELAWARE on HBO).  The directors of all three films - Ferguson, Poitras, Ewing & Grady - are previous Oscar nominees and favorites to make this year's Academy shortlist.

SWEETGRASS premiered at last year's New York Film Festival while Scorsese's PUBLIC SPEAKING - a profile of quintissential New York writer Fran Lebowitz - is set to premiere on HBO next month.

Meanwhile, in the Gotham's Best Film Not Playing at a Theater Near You category - which has, at least recently, featured a single nonfiction film mixed with four fiction features - three documentaries are nominated - Robert Greene's KATI WITH AN I (set to screen in the Viewfinders Competition at next month's inaugural DOC NYC), Francine Cavanaugh and Adams Woods' ON COAL RIVER (which premiered at Silverdocs and recently screened in Camden and at NYC's Stranger Than Fiction) and Lynn True and Nelson George's SUMMER PASTURE (which screened as part of the IDA's DocuWeeks Academy qualifying series this summer).  Those films will mix it up with Laurel Nakadate's THE WOLF KNIFE and LITTLEROCK by filmmaker Mike Ott.

indieWIRE has all the nominees, led by the SW Missouri-shot narrative feature WINTER'S BONE.  The awards will be handed out on November 29.

A $50M Weekend for JACKASS 3D? Best Nonfiction Debut Ever, #6 All Time. Can It Top FAHRENHEIT?

WIth a mammoth opening weekend estimated at $50M dollars, Jeff Tremaine's JACKASS 3D sent a ballistic missile to the crotch of all previous nonfiction film box office records, easily and decisively becoming the most successful launch of a nonfiction feature in history.

The $50M take - and what's one or two million, give or take - will top the previous record holder, JACKASS: NUMBER TWO, by $20M.  For perspective, that $20M difference alone is a greater haul at the box office than all but ten nonfiction features in history.

Already, JACKASS 3D stands as the 6th highest grossing nonfiction film in history (see our all time chart here), where it joins both previous JACKASS films, making the series the most successful nonfiction film trilogy ever. 

Two questions now - will JACKASS 3D become the second nonfiction feature to surpass $100M at the box office and will the film eventually top Michael Moore's FAHRENHEIT 9/11?  Each of the previous JACKASS films was able to triple its opening weekend box office.  If JACKASS 3D could do the same, it would easily surpass FAHRENHEIT.

JACKASS 3D Scores Biggest Nonfiction Box Office Day Ever, Nearly Doubling Previous Record

JACKASS 3D, the third film in a series featuring outrageous and dangerous stunts, broke huge at the box office on Friday, taking in an estimated $21M+ in a single day.  It is, by a wide margin, the single day record for nonfiction films at the theatrical box office, nearly doubling the previous record holder - JACKASS: NUMBER TWO, which took in $11.2M in its opening day. 

The number makes it a near certainty that JACKASS 3D will destroy the previous records for highest nonfiction weekend and will become the first nonfiction film to gross more than $30M in its opening weekend.  The weekend record is currently held by JACKASS NUMBER TWO, which grossed $29M in its first three days back in 2006. 

Michael Moore's FAHRENHEIT 9/11 (2004) grossed $23.92 in its opening weekend and last year's MICHAEL JACKSON'S THIS IS IT took in $23.24M last year.  The first JACKASS: THE MOVIE had an opening weekend of $22.76M in 2002.

 

Artists, Activists and The Enigma: Seven of 2010's Essential Nonfiction Features

No one is going to argue that this has been an extraordinary year for nonfiction film.

Film blogger Scott Feinberg has even gone so far as to declare 2010 "The Year of the Documentary" - "the strongest - or, at the very least, the deepest - year yet in the history of documentary filmmaking".

The other week I had a conversation with someone who I frequently discuss the various politics and maneauverings of the Oscar race for Best Documentary and we agreed that this year it was entirely possible to come up with three completely different lists of five nominees - and that each list would be not just acceptable but pretty sterling.

But let's take Oscar (and Cinema Eye and IDA and Spirits and Gothams and critics prizes) out of the equation for a little while...

I actually meant to write this post back in June, when I'd already seen so many tremendous films - by newcomers and veterans alike.  But I put it off because I had so many other films that I hadn't seen yet - and I still have not seen a number of the year's most talked about films (INSIDE JOB, CATFISH, TILLMAN STORY, CLIENT 9, LAST TRAIN HOME and ENEMIES OF THE PEOPLE).

But - as evidenced by this intro - talking about these films as we go into October changes the conversation from the stuff I loved in early 2010 to the stuff that should be considered going into awards season.  There's little to do about that other than to plunge forward.

A final caveat - just picking these seven films from the list of great and near-great stuff I saw in 2010 was a challenge in itself.  I could easily include RESTREPO, BUDRUS, MY PERESTROIKA, SPACE TOURISTS and a handful of others.

But thus far, these are the films that have settled in with me for the long haul and these are the films that have made my documentary viewing in 2010 so exceptional:

Perhaps my favorite film of 2010 thus far is Banksy’s EXIT THROUGH THE GIFT SHOP – a skillful, note-perfect dissection of art world hype and the often thorny creative process.