All these wonderful things

LA Judge Rules Dole Must Pay BANANAS!* Filmmakers for Wrongful Lawsuit

In a victory for documentary filmmakers and First Amendment advocates, an LA judge has ruled that food giant Dole must pay $200,000 to cover the legal expenses of the filmmakers of the 2009 documentary BANANAS!* after filing a defamation suit against the filmmakers that Dole later dropped in the face of international outcry.

The long and twisted case began last summer when Dole tried to stop the world premiere screening of BANANAS!* at the Los Angeles Film Festival after a different judge ruled that the court case profiled in the film (which accused Dole of sterilizing Nicaraguan workers) was based on fraudulent activity by the film's protagonist lawyer.  The LA Film Festival went ahead with the screening, despite threats from Dole, but removed the film from competition and set it amidst a conversation about documentary filmmaking practices, all of which set off a controversial debate over that very question.  Throughout, BANANAS!* director Fredrik Gertten sought to rally filmmakers to his cause, finding more success internationally than in the US, particularly in his home country of Sweden, where a concerted effort by the country's parliament and business-led boycotts of Dole led to the company dropping its suit against the filmmakers.

Gertten, who told us at the recent CPH:DOX festival in Denmark that he is at work on a documentary about the case, released a statement celebrating the judge's decision:

"We are extremely happy and relieved with the court's ruling after this year-long struggle. Corporations such as Dole must respect freedom of speech and the freedom of the press. These conglomerates have unlimited resources available to them to get their messages out, while independent filmmakers who are under attack while trying to uncover the truth, have very limited means to defend ourselves."

One of the Biggest Weeks of the Year Hits Full Steam in Sheffield Tonight

We're in the midst of a pretty momentous week for documentary film: imminently, two major, established international documentary fests kick off their latest edition, a promising newcomer unveils itself in New York City and we’ll be announcing this year’s Cinema Eye nominees.

When you think about it, this week also marks the beginning of perhaps the most jam-packed, three-month stretch during our documentary year.  Think about it, before the next 92 days are through we will know this year’s Oscar nominees, this year’s Spirit Award nominees and the Cinema Eye, IDA & Gotham award winners.  We’ll have gotten our first look at the major docs of 2011 via their premieres in Amsterdam and Park City.  And we’ll know the names of the films that are set to premiere in Austin.

It all begins today when the international documentary contingent braves the London tube strike to travel to Sheffield for the last November edition of Doc/Fest (it moves to June next year – yep, they’ve got another fest to plan starting right about yesterday).  Ricki Stern and Annie Sundberg’s JOAN RIVERS: A PIECE OF WORK will launch this year’s Doc/Fest, with Stern, Sundberg and Rivers all in person.

Tomorrow night, at the Cinema Eye Roller Disco, we’ll announce the 2011 Cinema Eye nominees in 12 categories: 11 feature and the new award for Nonfiction Short Film.  Each year, the Cinema Eye nominators manage to come up with a pretty remarkable mix of big ticket docs and slightly less heralded, artistic efforts.  In a year heralded by many as the second coming of documentary (due to the huge number of major new works), it will be interesting to find out which films are called out on Thursday.

The Monday Brief: Berlinger Supporters Number More Than 400, EXIT Hits $1M and Cannes In Progress

We're more than half-way through the fifth month of 2010.  Can summer be far behind?...

The Joe Berlinger/Chevron/CRUDE raw footage-subpeona situation continues to resonate throughout the nonfiction community.  An open letter of support for Berlinger, spearheaded by Patrick Creadon and Doug Blush - and supported by the IDA, was released on Wednesday and signed by nearly 200 folks in the documentary community.  Oscar winner Errol Morris signed onto the letter on Thursday, along with another 200 people (as of Monday) in the comments section here and 40 on the IDA's website.

Bill Moyers and Michael Winship, who both signed the letter, wrote in an opinion piece that while all eyes are on the oil spill in the gulf, "there's another important story involving Big Oil and pollution -- one that shatters not only the environment but the essential First Amendment right of journalists to tell truth and shame the devil":

"Some of the issues and nuances of Berlinger's case are admittedly complex, but they all boil down to this: Chevron is trying to avoid responsibility and hopes to find in the unused footage -- material the filmmaker did not utilize in the final version of his documentary -- evidence helpful to the company in fending off potential damages of $27.3 billion.

This is a serious matter for reporters, filmmakers and frankly, everyone else. Tough, investigative reporting without fear or favor -- already under siege by severe cutbacks and the shutdown of newspapers and other media outlets -- is vital to the public awareness and understanding essential to a democracy. As Michael Moore put it, "The chilling effect of this is, [to] someone like me, if something like this is upheld, the next whistleblower at the next corporation is going to think twice about showing me some documents if that information has to be turned over to the corporation that they're working for.""

More coverage of the letter at The Wrap, firedoglake blog and the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press.

At the theatrical box office, it was more of the same that we've seen the past couple weeks.  The Banksy/Shepard Fairey/Mr. Brainwash documentary EXIT THROUGH THE GIFT SHOP continued its stellar DIY run - taking in another $230K for an estimated cume-to-date of $1,284,000.  That makes EXIT the third million-dollar-doc of 2010, following the success of Disneynature's OCEANS ($17.7M and counting, although now seemingly less likely to reach $20M) and Focus' BABIES, which declined a respectable 53% in its second weekend, still taking in just over $1M.  BABIES is now just shy of $4M.

Disney's OCEANS Kicks Off Busy Spring Documentary-Theatrical Season

A slow year at the theatrical documentary box office (only the Oscar-nominated THE MOST DANGEROUS MAN IN AMERICA and the late-in-2009 release of Frederick Wiseman's LA DANSE have made an impact) ends today with the opening of Disneynature's OCEANS, the second year-in-a-row Earth Day release from the company.  Last year's EARTH was the biggest nonfiction title of 2009, grossing more than $32M after opening on over 1,800 screens.

OCEANS release is not that ambitious - it debuts on 1,200-plus - but it still will mark the first big documentary hit of the year, with like the first $1M weekend that we've seen since GOOD HAIR and CAPITALISM: A LOVE STORY were battling it out in October.

OCEANS marks the beginning of a stretch of important (and possibly successful) nonfiction titles hitting theaters in the next several weeks.  May 7 sees the debut of Alex Gibney's CASINO JACK & THE UNITED STATES OF MONEY, Laura Poitras' THE OATH and Thomas Balmés' BABIES.  The latter film, from Focus, could be one of the biggest nonfiction successes of the year.  (All three will screen at Hot Docs concurrent with their US openings.)  It should be noted that Harmony Korine's TRASH HUMPERS, the winner of the jury prize at CPH:DOX, also opens that day.

The following week, Jessica Oreck's Cinema Eye-winning BEETLE QUEEN CONQUERS TOKYO and Michael Paul Stephenson's festival fave BEST WORST MOVIE will make their debuts, followed by the release of Emmanuel Laurent's doc about François Truffaut and Jean-Luc Godard, TWO IN THE WAVE, on May 16.

2009 IN REVIEW: The Year in Nonfiction Heroes

Yes, yes, we know.  It's February 1 and we're still looking back at 2009.  Call us belated, call us procrastinators, but we still have a word or three to offer about the year that's now a month past.  Last year we offered a list of ten folks who've made the community a better place in 2008.  Here's our list of 2009's nonfiction heroes:

Cinereach

2009 marked the year that Cinereach broke through as a major grant player – but with a significant twist.  Their first high profile film, OCTOBER COUNTRY, was known less for its social justice/liberal agenda perspective than for its artistry.

Sean Farnel

Through his seafar blog, the guru of Hot Docs gave readers an unvarnished and thoroughly revealing look at the process behind programming a major documentary festival.  By examining his own process so publicly, Farnel gave filmmakers a unique opportunity to understand what happens throughout a curator’s year – from fests to submissions to hundreds of index cards thump tacked to a wall.

The Board of Film Independent

There were those who deplored the actions of Film Independent and the Los Angeles Film Festival in their handling of the controversial documentary, BANANAS!*, but we found the organization’s dedication to screening the film – even in the threat of lawsuit – courageous.  For those who believe otherwise, rest assured there are plenty of film festivals and organizations that wouldn’t have taken the risk.

The Top 25 Film Festivals for Documentaries, 2nd Edition - #11. CPH:DOX

Previously: #10. Los Angeles Film Festival

#11. CPH:DOX

Our take: The game changer on the European late fall doc circuit, Copenhagen famously opens up the definition of documentary to program one of the most provocative and stimulating slates around.  Not for nothing did Harmony Korine's TRASH HUMPERS take the Grand Jury Prize this year.  What's more, Copenhagen seems to be constantly rethinking the elements surrounding the film festival - a forum geared toward international advice not sales, full tilt game shows and imoprtant face time with a who's who of the international documentary circuit.  It's a great introduction to the thriving Danish doc community and the accommodations are first class.  Plus it's Copenhagen, which is pretty awesome in its own right.

The downside: The fest can sometimes seem chaotic and several filmmakers have told us that they never got a rejection response from the festival - just silence.  It's placement on the calendar can spell convenience if you're planning on staying in Europe for the entire month of November or it can feel like overkill sandwiched between Sheffield and IDFA.  Leans toward more experimental or music-based US titles.

Important recent premieres: BURMA VJ, THE INVENTION OF DR. NAKAMATS

Selection of US films screened at 2009 Fest: THE WINDMILL MOVIE, TRASH HUMPERS, O'ER THE LAND, WHEN YOU'RE STRANGE, ALL TOMORROW'S PARTIES

Our coverage of CPH:DOX here.

The Monday Brief: Sundance! Spirits! IDA! Gothams! Is This the Biggest Week of the Year?

The Monday Brief is back and just in time - as a month full of European mega-fests comes to a close (and VIDEOCRACY takes Sheffield, TRASH HUMPERS shocks Copenhagen and LAST TRAIN HOME conquers Amsterdam) and what may just be the biggest week of the year...

The Gothams kick off the award season in New York tonight as high profile docs FOOD, INC., GOOD HAIR and TYSON take on underdogs MY NEIGHBOR, MY KILLER and PARADISE.  In addition to those, festival favorite OCTOBER COUNTRY is up as the sole nonfiction title in the Films Not Yet Playing at a Theater Near You category. 

Here's a piece of trivia - in the five years that the Gothams have awarded a Best Documentary prize, the winning film has never gone on to win the Oscar, which is pretty good news if you're betting on THE COVE in March.

For the first time, the Gothams will be streaming live here, starting at 8 PM eastern tonight.

Then early tomorrow - probably before some Gotham revelers have gone to bed - Film Independent will announced nominations for its Spirit Awards.  Worth watching - will FOOD, INC. sweep the major doc award nominations prior to the Oscars?  Will the Spirits act (consciously or no) as a corrective on some of Oscar's snubs (I'm looking at you ANVIL, WE LIVE IN PUBLIC and SEPTEMBER ISSUE)? 

Also worth watching are the nominations in the Truer Than Fiction category, which recognize films and filmmakers who have not yet received the attention they deserve.

Then, on Wednesday, the dam will fully break as the Sundance Film Festival announces its competition films for 2010.  Here's what we know already - after what many agreed was a lackluster 2009 festival, next year's Sundance is shaping up (on paper at least) to be a barn-burner for docs.  At least three films from Oscar nominated filmmakers are on tap, along with 2 new films from folks who took Sundance by storm with their previous features, plus a veteran Sundance filmmaker is back as producer on a debut feature.

And that's not even including LAST TRAIN HOME, the IDFA-champ that everyone and their mother expects to show in Park City (along with 2 or 3 or more titles from the just-wrapped European doc circuit).

By the way, if you haven't checked it out yet, gander at the newly re-designed Sundance fest website, which leads off with a retro graphic manifesto:

"REBEL.  This is the renewed rebellion.  This is the re-charged fight against the establishment of the expected.  This is the rebirth of the battle for brave new ideas.  This is Sundance, reminded.  And this is your call to join us."

That's a whole lot of "re" words. 

And what does it say, exactly, that John Cooper's first year at the helm begins with the declaration that Sundance needed a rebirth and a re-charge?  (Although, again, after last year, you won't get much argument from these's parts.)  Slogans aside, the week's first peak at this year's line-up will give our first clues as to whether there's a true revolution (a "re" word they didn't use) afoot.

In Praise of Sean Farnel's European Doc Tour Blogging

One of our recent joys has been digging into the relatively new and frequently awesome blog of Hot Docs programmer Sean Farnel, particularly last month as he was sending nearly daily dispatches from a non-stop tour of European documentary festivals.  The whole blog is great, filled with fascinating insights into the festivals themselves, as well as the way that programmers view and decide to book films for their festivals - so consider this a suggestion that you grab a coffee or a cocktail and spend the next hour digging through the blog to date. 

But, to whet your whistle, I thought I'd run a few excerpts from his European tour.

He began in late October in Jihlava in the Czech Republic:

"Jihlava has also been presenting the works of several photographers, and in the evening I attended a presentation by Adam Broomberg, featuring his work with collaborator Olivier Chanarin. I found Broomberg’s  slideshow talk completely engaging and compelling, and it  sparked many thoughts about the relationship of still photography to moving image documentary. Broomberg and Chanarin have a stated mistrust of their form, an anxiety or doubt about images (see Errol Morris). They particularly grappled with ways of representing conflict, including that between Israel and Palestine. During the section of the presentation where Broomberg discussed photographs from their “Chicago” project, documenting an artificial Arab town built by the Israeli Defense Force, a man in the audience shouted: “Why don’t you stop this propaganda, this is a film festival!” Another shouted back at the man to let Broomberg speak, and Broomberg himself asked the heckler to stay and that he be pleased to answer questions during the Q&A. “Fuck off!” the man yelled, storming out."

Next it was off, by bus, to Leipzig:

"The Jihlava and Leipzig festivals collaborated to charter a bus, lugging about twenty-five documentary vagabonds from one event to the other. So, here we are, reality addicts on a German tour bus. Weary from long days of screening and pitching, and long nights of everything else. Jan Rofekamp, snugly attired with his black addidas jumper, pecks away on his laptop, preparing his IDFA brochure; a Ukranian producer screens a colleague’s trailer; we all gossip a little and the business melts into pleasure, personal stories. A pit stop brings some Czech beer on board, and snacks, sweet and salty, to fuel the camaraderie for the remainder of the five hour journey."

And offers insight to the programmer's methodology:

"I’ll screen in the market for four hours today, and as always will jot notes on 4×6 inch index cards. I have ten years of these cards in my home office. I capture quick initial impressions, content reminders, and subjective remarks. Most of the time I use one card, front and back, for each film. In the case of (Heddy Honigmann's) OBLIVION card above, the back has most of my subjective thoughts (”deeply human,” “sublime” “an engaging people’s history” are some of musings on this particular card). I try to clear my head with each blank card as I press play. I ask Hot Docs programmers to be open and generous to each film, and follow my own advice. Yet I admit some (many?) of the cards have thoughts which aren’t so generous. The volume of work we see is overwhelming, and most often comes in very concentrated spurts, at the festivals we visit, and then during the intensive ten week process which ultimately yields the Festival programme..."

CPH:Dox 2008: København Jury Toilettet Fotos

Last weekend after a day of screenings in Copenhagen for CPH:Dox, a few of my fellow jurors and I stormed the graffitied bathroom walls of Freetown Christiania and took a series of photographs of one another with my iPhone:

Yours truly.

Eduardo Thomas of the great Mexican traveling festival Ambulante.

Rikke Frisk of the Danish electronic music festival Str¿m.

Filmmaker Khavn de la Cruz.

Jessica Tolf Vulpius, photographer, concert booker and Danish indie music impresario.

My filmmaking compatriot (on the forthcoming CONVENTION and Branson documentaries) Nathan Truesdell.

Cinetic's online guru Matt Dentler - before the Tricky show.

CPH:Dox 2008: BURMA VJ Takes Top Prizes, Garners Major Buzz

Greetings from Copenhagen, where on Saturday night Anders Østergaard's BURMA VJ took two major awards at this year's Copenhagen International Documentary Festival - the Grand Jury Prize and the CPH:DOX Amnesty Award.  The film - which screens next week in competition for the Joris Ivens Award at IDFA - was one of the most talked about during the festival, with some speculating about the film's eventual American premiere in early 2009.

Anders Østergaard receives the CPH:Dox Award as jury member Jonathan Caouette looks on during Saturday night's award ceremony.

Østergaard's victories capped an elegant award ceremony that preceded a screening of Steven Sebring's PATTI SMITH -- DREAM OF LIFE and an extraordinary live performance by that film's subject, the legendary punk poet Patti Smith.  Other award winners included ANVIL! THE STORY OF ANVIL!, which received the festival's Sound & Vision Jury Prize. 

Patti Smith performs in Copengagen at CPH:DOX.

Geoffrey Smith and James Marsh, directors of two of this year's most acclaimed nonfiction films - THE ENGLISH SURGEON and MAN ON WIRE - following the Patti Smith performance.

CPH:Dox' director extraordinaire Tine Fischer at the Saturday awards ceremony.

Much more to come this week on Copenhagen, a great few days in Paris and the upcoming Oscar shortlist.