The first half of June and it's numerous film festivals is now behind us, with the big Los Angeles Film Festival kicking off this Thursday in Westwood Village, and a number of films have won honors.
AFI's Silverdocs, which is quickly becoming the top documentary festival in the country, closed its 2006 edition with a grand jury award going to Jesus Camp, the latest film from Boys of Baraka filmmakers Heidi Ewing and Rachel Grady. Jesus Camp premiered at Tribeca, where it received a special jury prize and was the subject of much talk and some controversy.
Frank Popper's Can Mr. Smith Get to Washington Anymore took the Audience Award, while Rolling Like a Stone, which centers on an 8mm home movie of Mick Jagger and Co. circa 1965, received something called the Music Grand Jury Award (considering my feelings about music-related documentaries getting constantly shafted off into sidebars, this award - best of the displaced! - seems a relatively depressing development).
A full list of award winners, including shorts, are available on the Silverdocs website, with additional coverage on Chuck Tyron's blog and, sooner or later, there will be more up at the Documentary Insider.
Meanwhile, The Trials of Darryl Hunt, Annie Sundberg and Ricki Stern's decades-long tale of a miscarriage of justice, won no less than three Audience Awards at the early June festivals, including the Audience Award at Newport (where it also received a Jury Prize), the Audience Award at Seattle and the Audience Award at Nantucket. Darryl Hunt was a previous audience winner at Full Frame and Sedona. It premiered at Sundance 2006.
Another Sundance alum, Lauren Greenfield's Black Sun. (It's worth noting that Old Joy - still my favorite film I've seen this year - director Kelly Reichardt picked up the Best Director award.)
At the Provincetown fest, the Best Documentary Audience Award winner (there are no juried prizes in P-town) was Mike Roth and John Henning's Saving Marriage, which might have had an edge in its subject matter - a look at the battle over gay marriage in Massachusetts. The narrative prize went to Richard Glatzer and Wash Westmoreland's double Sundance winner Quinceanera, which Sony Pictures Classics will release this August.
Michael Colford has a full report on the Provincetown Fest over on the Chlotrudis blog.
Seattle handed out a number of prizes at the close of its nearly month-long festival. The doc jury prize went to Erik Gandini and Tarik Sale's Gitmo: The New Rules of War, with a special jury prize going to Linas Phillips' Walking to Werner. The top prize at Seattle - the Golden Space Needle for Best Feature went to the French spy spoof OSS 117: Nest of Spies.
Anne Thompson was in Seattle, as was Jeffrey Wells and, of course, the entire crew at the Stranger.
You'll also find numerous reports on Seattle and the other fests at must-read-daily GreenCine.
I was sad to miss out on Seattle this year, both because of having spent so much time there this past annum, but also because I had such a great time there when Gigantic played in 2002.
Also was disappointed to miss out on Cinevegas (I was back in the midwest all last week), which is always a great, if somewhat surreal time in the desert. They handed out their top (narrative) prize to G.I. Jesus. While Cinevegas had a documentary audience award when we were there (again in '02), they now seem to only have juried prizes, which seem to be for narratives only.
Will be around the LA Fest a bunch this week and will post what I can when I can.
Jesus Camp was impressive, as were Mr. Smith and Black Sun. I'm hoping I get a chance to see Darryl Hunt because it sounds like an important film. I had a prior commitment, so I couldn't see it at Silverdocs.
Posted by: Chuck Tryon | June 20, 2006 at 07:37 AM
The thing about Darryl Hunt that is interesting to me is that it makes sense why it wins these Audience Awards - you are so engrossed in Darryl's story that you really want it to have some kind of happy ending. But I hope that the quality of filmmaking skill is not lost. I don't want this to be one of those movies where people look at it and say - well, yeah, it's a compelling story, anybody could have made that interesting. Annie & Ricki have a deft ability to walk the viewer through the various ups and downs and other suspects.
Posted by: AJ Schnack | June 20, 2006 at 11:43 AM
I think those stories are much harder to make than many critics realize. Even when the narrative is that compelling, it takes a skilled filmaker to really make ths story resonate. Really looking forward to seeing it now.
Posted by: Chuck Tryon | June 20, 2006 at 07:02 PM
I don't think you have to worry about people not recognizing the filmmaking skill. I was at the NY HBO screening and again at their Newport screenings (did you see the pics of me with Darryl?!), and comments abound about how wonderfully crafted it is.
Posted by: Agnes Varnum | June 22, 2006 at 04:43 AM