All these wonderful things

The Great Lost Opportunity of Current's 50 Docs List

Our long national nightmare is finally over.

Current TV, the still-finding-its-identity network co-founded by Al Gore and newish home to left wing commentator Keith Olbermann, concludes its 5-week documentary film countdown - "50 Docs to See Before You Die" - tonight with the naming of its top 10 choices.

Revealed yesterday by the NY Times' Mike Hale, the top choice of the show's expert panel is Steve James' 1994 classic HOOP DREAMS, with Errol Morris' THE THIN BLUE LINE and Michael Moore's ROGER & ME coming in 2nd and 3rd.  The latter two films had previously been identified by the show as the demarcation of the beginning of the current "golden age" of documentary filmmaking on which the "50 Docs" list would focus.

It's this take on the modern age of documentary that seems to have brought the list and the series the most criticism: the late '80s cutoff forms a handy but ultimately confusing way for the series to eliminate any of the classic films by the Maysles, Robert Drew, Fred Wiseman, early Pennebaker, KOYAANISQATSI, HEARTS AND MINDS, HARLAN COUNTY, SHERMAN'S MARCH and any number of other influential works from contention. 

Despite the fact that the Times' Hale notes the "modern documentary" angle and bemoans the focus on "a relentless preference for the story-based or issue-based films that people now seem to think define the documentary field", commenters on the story still wrestle with the series/list's artificial construct - where is WOODSTOCK? THE LAST WALTZ? 7 UP? THE TIMES OF HARVEY MILK? SHOAH?  The fact that potential viewers are still confused or find the current (get it) focus impractical suggests a basic problem with the premise.

Still, these are lists and lists are supposed to be fun, right?  Get past the confusion and the Times' comment section is filled with people's righteous indigation that their modern favorites have been overlooked.  Or those who argue that something should be higher on the list or lower or not on the list at all.

So if it gets people talking about documentaries, then who's to quibble, right?

Allow us.

Richard "Ricky" Leacock, 1921-2011

Richard "Ricky" Leacock, the London-born filmmaker whose work with Robert Drew and D.A. Pennebaker would revolutionize and come to define a generation's view of documentary film, has died in Paris at the age of 89.

Reports of Leacock's death began to circulate on Twitter several hours ago and the French film site Allocine.com confirmed Leacock's passing.  The Paris-based documentary festival Cinéma du Réel, which opens today, is planning to dedicate a portion of the festival to Leacock.  Leacock and his partner/collaborator Valerie Lalonde moved to Paris in 1989 where they made such films as LES OEUFS ET LA COQUE.

Born in 1921, Leacock would make his first film, CANARY BANANAS (about his father's banana plantation on the Canary Islands) at the age of just 14.  As Leacock recounted on his exceptional website:

"I wrote a detailed script with little drawings of each shot. Polly was script-clerk, Noel was my assistant. My father provided us with an ancient Morris-Oxford touring car. We made reflectors of plywood covered with silver paint, and we smoked cigars because that is what they did in Hollywood! Back at school I edited with rewinds and cement splices. Then we projected. I knew even then that the script was not sacred, that in filming you found things to be different and adjusted accordingly."

Soon after making CANARY BANANAS, Leacock would have the opportunity to meet Robert Flaherty, who happened to be the father of two of Leacock's classmates.

"He was outside in the schoolyard with a 16mm Kodak Cine-Special (a very fancy camera) mounted on a huge tripod (an Akeley-Gyro) and was filming Barbara McDermott combing her long blond hair. He went on and on. He changed angles, he changed lenses, but he went on and on and I thought, “He must be mad!” and she just kept on combing her hair. Later that day, Bill Hunter brought me to his room and introduced me to Mr. Flaherty and his wife Frances. Hunter had shown them my film and they said some nice things about it, though Mrs. Flaherty mentioned that they were not that impressed by the chop-chop editing of the water sequence. Mr. Flaherty concluded by saying that “Someday we will work together...” or some such, which I took with a huge pinch of salt."

Nearly 200 Top Doc Makers Sign Open Letter of Support for Joe Berlinger

In the aftermath of a judge's ruling that may force filmmaker Joe Berlinger to hand over the outtakes from CRUDE to energy giant Chevron, nearly 200 top documentary filmmakers have signed "an open letter of support", protesting the breadth of the decision by Judge Lewis A. Kaplan to allow Chevron to subpeona all of Berlinger's raw footage.

Noting that "it is understood that First Amendment protection of the journalist's privilege is never absolute", the letter goes on to note that "(t)ypically, if such privilege is successfully rebutted in court, a turn-over order demanding a document or other thing is issued..."

"Therefore, it is astounding to us that Judge Kaplan demanded that all of the footage shot during the production of the film be handed over to the attorneys of Chevron, given that the privilege exists primarily to protect against the wholesale exposure of press files to litigant scrutiny...

At the heart of journalism lies the trust between the interviewer and his or her subject.  Individuals who agree to be interviewed by the news media are often putting themselves at great risk, especially in the case of television news and documentary film where the subject's identity and voice are presented in the final report.  If witnesses sense that their entire interviews will be scrutinized by attorneys and examined in courtrooms they will undoubtedly speak less freely.  This ruling surely will have a crippling effect on the work of investigative journalists everywhere, should it stand."

Spearheaded by filmmaker Patrick Creadon and editor Doug Blush (who worked together on WORDPLAY and I.O.U.S.A.), the letter has been signed by a veritable who's who of the documentary community, including at least 20 Oscar winners (among them: Michael Moore, Alex Gibney, Rob Epstein, Barbara Kopple, Peter Davis, Davis Guggenheim, Freida Lee Mock, James Marsh, Louie Psihoyos, Ross Kauffman, Kevin Macdonald, Jessica Yu, Cynthia Wade, Mark Harris, Steven Okazaki and Leon Gast), and even more Oscar nominees (including DA Pennebaker, Morgan Spurlock, Laura Poitras, Kirby Dick, Heidi Ewing, Rachel Grady, Jeff Blitz, James Longley, Tia Lessin, Carl Deal, Ellen Kuras, Robert Kenner, Julia Reichert, Steven Bognar, Scott Kennedy, Hupert Sauper, Liz Garbus and Amy Berg) as well as dozens of the community's top filmmakers (Kim Longinotto, Jehane Noujaim, Chris Hegedus, R.J. Cutler, Nick Broomfield, Haskell Wexler, Steve James, Peter Gilbert, Ken Burns, Lucy Walker, Doug Pray and Amir Bar-Lev, among them).

[Full disclosure: I am also a signer on the letter.]

Work began on the letter on Saturday when Creadon reached out to a handful of filmmakers calling for a united community response in support of Berlinger.  A first draft on the letter was completed Sunday, with the IDA joining the effort and working with Creadon and others to finesse the language regarding the case's complex legal issues.  IDA President Eddie Schmidt took the letter to his Board of Directors, which decided to sign the letter en masse to make a statement on behalf of the organization. 

"Advocacy is an area where an organization like IDA can make a difference - and we should try to lead as much as we can," Schmidt told me.  "It seemed important to come out early and instrumentally, and luckily, we have a forward-thinking Board of Directors and an Executive Director who believe in making a stand."

Schmidt said that he was amazed at the support the letter garnered within the community in just a few short days.  "Those names say it all: who can argue with the greatest cinematic arguers of our time?"

In an email exchange, Creadon wrote about his reaction to the news as it broke last Thursday:

"I read the story in the New York Times Saturday morning and was stunned when I realized Joe was likely going to have to turn over all of his footage.  What many outside of our community do not realize is that of all the challenges facing documentary filmmakers, it's often the legal hurdles that prove to be most difficult.  And of course legal difficulties usually lead to big legal bills -- a particularly acute kind of pain that doesn't just hurt the individual but can often hurt that person's family and livelihood."

And earlier today, Blush described the chain of events that unfolded after the judge's decision was announced:

"I've worked on several films with critical interview confidentiality issues, and when I first saw the story Thursday, I was profoundly shaken by its implications.  Patrick called on Friday, and he was on fire.  He proposed bringing together doc community filmmakers around a statement of support, and wrote a first draft.  Since then, with many great suggestions and the incredible tidal wave of signatures, the statement is out there and Joe knows he's not alone in this.  My gratitude goes out to Eddie, the IDA, and this amazing global group of artists, and I believe this can be a first step to amend and increase the vital legal protections for our work."

The full text of the letter after the jump.

Filmmakers and others in the documentary community are invited to add their names to this open letter in the comments section of this post.

The Monday Brief: IT Does GET LOUD in Theatres, A Tough Week for THE COVE and WOODSTOCK At 39

Good morning.  We're more than halfway through August and just under three weeks away from the World Premiere of Michael Moore's CAPITALISM: A LOVE STORY at La Biennale di Venezia...

But the big documentary news of the weekend is the stellar debut of the new film from another Oscar winner.  Davis Guggenheim's IT MIGHT GET LOUD, the story of the electric guitar as seen through Jimmy Page, The Edge and Jack White, broke out this weekend - and big.  Playing at just 7 theaters, the Sony Pictures Classics release made more than $100K, marking the best release for a documentary this year that was playing on more than 2 screens. 

IT MIGHT GET LOUD continues the sensational nonfiction streak for SPC this year, coming on the heels of WALTZ WITH BASHIR (just under $2.3M) EVERY LITTLE STEP ($1.6M and still going) and even TYSON ($886K).

It also marks the latest nonfiction feature from the 2008 Toronto International Film Festival to become a hit with moviegoers (following BASHIR, VALENTINO: THE LAST EMPEROR, EVERY LITTLE STEP and FOOD, INC.  Together, those five titles (including IT MIGHT GET LOUD) have taken in nearly $8.5M.  The highest grossing Sundance film this year is ANVIL! THE STORY OF ANVIL from the 2008 fest (although many haven't been released yet).

One 2009 Sundance title that entered theatres with lofty expectations - huge box office, Oscar nominations, changing maritime law - was THE COVE.  But this was not a good week for that film in terms of the things that worry filmmakers and distributors - box office and press. 

First, despite strong reviews and a new promotional push - including an appearance by director Louie Psihoyos on the Today Show - the film slipped to a per theater average of just $1,660 this weekend and a total cume of $424K.  It now looks like the film will have to struggle to make it to $1M at the box office Worse was a piece in the LA Times by John Horn that used THE COVE as the poster child for why environmental docs aren't working at the box office (we wondered why Horn never bothered to mention Disney's EARTH in his story).  It's never a good sign to have your distributor (in this case, Roadside Attractions' Howard Cohen) quoted as saying, "It's not what we would have hoped" and "the concept of the movie is much more off-putting than the experience of watching it".

COMMENTARY: A Dark Day for Documentary as the Academy Changes Course, Fights the Future

Just three months ago, as filmmakers gathered at the Arclight Theatre in Los Angeles, the coming Oscar season seemed remarkably clear cut.  There was already a front runner and a likely winner: David Sington's IN THE SHADOW OF THE MOON. 

In an ordinary year, the failure of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences to name a film like SHADOW to its Shortlist would be a fairly major story.  But this year, it's but one film from a long list of omissions.  Singularly, each film is a head scratcher, perhaps even a shock.  Yet, each is also probably something that you could dismiss with a single line and a shake of the head.   "I can't believe THE DEVIL CAME ON HORSEBACK isn't on that list" or "I kind of thought they'd skip over KING OF KONG, but still...". 

But as word began to leak last week about which films had not been named to the Academy Shortlist and, later, which films had, emails and text messages and phone conversations flew with words like "sad", "disgusted", "appalled" and "abomination".  The feeling of anger and despair was not based in the exclusion of a single film but in a whole group of films, many of which pushed creative and stylistic boundaries or marked the arrival of a major new talent.

Instead of recognizing a few of these films, the Academy - following in the footsteps of the IDA just days before - ignored nearly every single one of them.  And in doing so, put the lie to a year's worth of bluster that the Academy only desired to nominate "truly theatrical films". 

In one fell swoop, the Academy's decade-long campaign to repair its scandal-plagued 1990s reputation of nominating television-styled or extremely conventional films, was reversed.  And, combined with the Academy's recent announcement that it will no longer require a theatrical rollout, made one wonder if the bad old days of Oscar are truly here again.

At this point, it's time for full disclosure.  My own film, KURT COBAIN ABOUT A SON, qualified this year under the Academy's rules.  We were not Shortlisted.  You can be excused if you can only view this commentary as a reaction to a personal rejection.  If I say to you that I thought the odds ran against us being Shortlisted, that I am well aware of the Academy's tendency not to recognize films about popular music figures - or biographical films in general, and if you still think this is a major case of sour grapes, I can accept that.

But, longtime readers of this blog can hopefully attest to something larger in what I am write today.  That here, in the midst of one of the most creatively exciting and expansive periods in nonfiction filmmaking, the Academy has made a choice between two kinds of filmmaking:

When presented with the following choice - do we prefer a competent, conventionally-styled film that maintains a even keel or do we prefer a film that swings for the fences, a film whose highs hit us in unexpected ways, even if it occasionally falters in its risk-taking - the Academy and the IDA have chosen to stand on the side of conventional and competent. 

And when faced with a second, even more important, choice - do we favor issues and message or filmmaking craft - both the Academy and the IDA have answered resoundingly.  Craft comes in dead last.

That's why there's not a single craft award at the longtime Full Frame Film Festival.  Not a single craft award given annually by the IDA.  Nothing for editing.  Nothing for cinematography.  Nothing for music.  Nothing for direction.  And when the IDA chose to bestow an one-time award for cinematography this year, who did they choose as a recipient?  The longtime DP for Ken Burns.  And when the IDA had the opportunity to give an award to an emerging filmmaker, did they tap Jennifer Venditti or Seth Gordon or Jason Kohn or Paul Taylor or the team of Sundberg and Stern?  No, they went with a guy whose resume boasted a couple of basic cable productions, a position as assistant professor of screenwriting and a debut film that has received unimpressive reviews.  But at least the film was about a serious subject.

Inside this realm, there's no room for a film like MANDA BALA (SEND A BULLET) or MY KID COULD PAINT THAT or BILLY THE KID or PROTAGONIST or KING OF KONG or WE ARE TOGETHER or DEEP WATER or MANUFACTURED LANDSCAPES or JOE STRUMMER or any number of other films that took big risks or didn't tackle a sanctioned, serious subject or made films that wanted to be more than conventional approaches to the form.

That's not to say that every film on the Shortlist is an outrage, although there are those.  Some were clearly never more than television pieces and rushed through their required theatrical release in order to get to their already scheduled date with cable TV.  At least a handful are completely deserving - led by Alex Gibney's TAXI TO THE DARK SIDE. 

But I was recently involved in looking at some of the documentaries of this year and when these films were narrowed down to a dozen or so, we had what I am convinced are truly the cream of 2007.  And not a single film, not one, made it to the Academy's Shortlist.

Not one.

That, my friends, makes today a dark day.  And not dark for the loss of single film - a GRIZZLY MAN or a CRUMB or even a HOOP DREAMS - but for the cream of the year's talent and filmmaking vision.  The Academy and the International Documentary Association have both chosen to pretend that much of the past year never happened, that the future is not here and that conventional and competent are good enough.

Who gives a shit, you may say.  And you may well be right.  Why should an artist of any stripe put focus and effort into the whims of organizations that have proven over time to be more interested in recognizing the right cause rather than the best filmmaking.  I suppose its a little like whining when the American Music Awards doesn't do the right thing.

But this year doesn't seem like an oversight.  It seems like a deliberate, purposeful choice.  After all the hand-wringing over Oscar qualifying rules that mandated a true theatrical release, the Academy first reverses completely, eliminating requirements for a rollout and then names a Shortlist littered with films made by and for and of television. 

It's as if the Academy's grand experiment to select only true theatrical releases has been called off. 

At this point, I feel it necessary to call out one of the Academy's choices - the HBO financed, backed and already broadcast WHITE LIGHT/BLACK RAIN, perhaps the most embarrassing film on the list, even if it is not the most surprising.  Everything about the film - from its standard interviews with atomic bomb victims intercut with what clearly appears to be B-Roll footage of the subjects walking around in their neighborhoods on the same day as the interview - is borrowed from the oldest trappings of the interview/B-Roll/archival documentary form.  It is filmmaking at its most conventional and competent. 

Forget the fact that it never had a theatrical bone in its body.  Can anyone, seriously anyone, make a case that WHITE LIGHT is a better film than KING OF KONG on any level?  Better than MANDA BALA?  Better than BILLY THE KID?  Better than PROTAGONIST?  Better than any of the films named above?  Better filmmaking?  More of a challenge?  More successful?  Or is it just the so-called seriousness of an atomic bomb story?  Is it just "more important"?

We have come to a crossroads in documentary once again.  Those of us who are the children of Morris and Moore and Zwigoff and Pennebaker and Maysles and Reggio have seen it happen to our elders and mentors, filmmakers whose best work was often ignored by their peer groups because it played with form or tackled less "important" topics. 

But supposedly these peer groups had learned a lesson.  They would become more open.  They would bring in new blood.  They would recognize the filmmakers they had previously shunned. 

Yet, given the chance, at the height of a new wave of documentary filmmaking, the Academy and the IDA closed their eyes, their ears, their doors.  And now, one must look to organizations like Film Independent and their Spirit Awards to somehow close the gap between craft and recognition/encouragement.

And one must look to a new body, be it the American Film Institute or some consortium of festivals or some brand new organization to stand up for, to recognize filmmaking craft, to support innovation and risk-taking.  To say damn what is important, damn the issues, we stand with artists.

And we need film critics to dig down deep within themselves and write about films from the perspective of the filmmaking, not on whether or not a subject is worthy or important.  You need to learn to write about the art of making nonfiction as much or more than you write a summary of the events that transpire in the documentary.

This year, the Academy and the IDA stand on tired notions of righteous causes.  They, along with organizations such as Full Frame, believe that nonfiction exists first and foremost to shine light on the great issues.  And while the social justice tradition has and always will (and should) exist in nonfiction, many of us believe in nonfiction filmmaking as more than a teaching tool, as something that can be entertaining, as something that can be artistic, as something that can push stylistic boundaries, as something that can reveal the human condition, as something that can be as rival narrative as a filmgoing experience. 

In that is the craft of filmmaking.

It was a bad day for documentary.  And while the anger was just and the sadness was real, we should not waste time in despair.  Because the future of nonfiction is to stand with artists. 

And the future is now.

Update - January 7, 2008: From this post, a groundswell of support within the documentary community has led to the announcement of a new award for nonfiction filmmaking. You can read the initial news, see our inaugural shortlist and read how we got from this commentary to today's announcement.

IDA Feature Nominees: Crazy Love, Operation Homecoming, Sicko, Taxi to the Dark Side, Walk to Beautiful

One week after announcing the ten films that were shortlisted for their feature film award, the IDA has narrowed their list to five finalists and has also announced nominees for several other awards.

Making the final five in the Best Feature Documentary Category are:

CRAZY LOVE
Directed by Dan Klores

OPERATION HOMECOMING: WRITING THE WARTIME EXPERIENCE
Directed by Richard E. Robbins

SICKO
Directed by Michael Moore

TAXI TO THE DARK SIDE
Directed by Alex Gibney

A WALK TO BEAUTIFUL
Directed by Mary Olive Smith

Surprisingly, the nominees in two other categories - the IDA ABCNews Videosource Award and the IDA Pare Lorentz Award - do not include the names of three of the year's frontrunners for the Best Documentary Feature Oscar - NO END IN SIGHT, IN THE SHADOW OF THE MOON and THE DEVIL CAME ON HORSEBACK (although it's rumored that DEVIL may not have been submitted in time to make the IDA's deadlines).  In the past two years, both Academy Award winners in the documentary feature category were nominated for the Pare Lorentz Award even though they were left off the list of Feature Finalists.

There are a few other awards not yet announced by the IDA, including the Jacqueline Donnet Emerging Documentary Filmmaker Award and the new Alan Ett Music Documentary prize.  Details as soon as they are announced.

Here is the full list of nominees in other categories announced today by the IDA:

IDA SHORT FILM NOMINEES

BLACK AND WHITE
Directed by Zam Salim

BODY & SOUL: DIANA & KATHY
Directed by Alice Elliott

THE FIGHTING CHOLITAS
Directed by Mariam Jobrani

FREEHELD
Directed by Cynthia Wade

A SON'S SACRIFICE
Directed by Yoni Brook

IDA LIMITED SERIES NOMINEES

ADDICTION (HBO)
Directed by Jon Alpert, Joe Berlinger, Kate Davis, Susan Froemke, Liz Garbus, Chris Hegedus, David Heilbroner, Eugene Jarecki, Ellen Goosenberg Kent, Barbara Kopple, Albert Maysles, DA
Pennebaker, Alan Raymond, Susan Raymond, Bruce Sinofsky and Jessica Yu

COMING OUT STORIES (LOGO)
Directed by Karen Goodman and Kirk Simon

THE HILL (Sundance)
Directed by Ivy Meeropol

THE SUPREME COURT (WNET/PBS)
Directed by Thomas Lennon

IDA CONTINUING SERIES NOMINEES

30 DAYS (F/X)
Executive Producers Morgan Spurlock, RJ Cutler, Ben Silverman and H.T. Owens

AMERICAN EXPERIENCE (PBS)
Executive Producer Mark Samels         
Series Producer Sharon Grimberg

AMERICAN MASTERS (WNET/PBS)
Executive Producer Susan Lacy
Series Producer Prudence Glass

THIS AMERICAN LIFE (Showtime)
Directed by Chris Wilcha
Executive Producers Julie Snyder, Alex Blumberg, Ira Glass, Banks Tarver, Ken Druckerman, Christine Vachon and Jocelyn Hayes

WIDE ANGLE: SEASON FIVE (WNET/PBS)
Series Producers Pamela Hogan and Andy Halper
Executive Producer Stephen Segaller

IDA ABCNEWS VIDEOSOURCE AWARD

AMERICAN/SANDINISTA
Directed by Jason Blalock

HALF-LIFE: A JOURNEY TO CHERNOBYL
Directed by Phil Grabsky and David Bickerstaff

MY KID COULD PAINT THAT
Directed by Amir Bar-Lev

NANKING
Directed by Bill Guttentag and Dan Sturman

RAPSODIA DO ABSURDO
Directed by Cláudia Nunes       

SPUTNIK MANIA
Directed by David Hoffman

STEAL A PENCIL FOR ME
Directed by Michele Ohayon

WHITE LIGHT/ BLACK RAIN
Directed by Steven Okazaki

IDA PARE LORENTZ NOMINEES

AMERICAN/SANDINISTA
Directed by Jason Blalock

GOOD MORNING DANGME
Directed by Takaya Kawasaki
    
MADE IN LA
Directed by Almudena Carracedo

OPERATION HOMECOMING: WRITING THE WARTIME EXPERIENCE
Directed by Richard E. Robbins

RAPSODIA DO ABSURDO
Directed by Cláudia Nunes       

RIBBON OF SAND
Directed by John Grabowska

STANDING SILENT NATION
Directed by Suree Towfighnia

A WALK TO BEAUTIFUL
Directed by Mary Olive Smith

WHEN THE LEVEES BROKE: A REQUIEM IN FOUR ACTS
Directed by Spike Lee

WHITE LIGHT/ BLACK RAIN
Directed by Steven Okazaki

IDA DAVID L. WOLPER STUDENT DOCUMENTARY AWARD NOMINEES

ALAGADOS: SI, NAO MAU CONDUOT
Directed by Sylvia Johnson

BISMILLAH: IN THE NAME OF ALLAH
Directed by Jolene Pinder and Sarah Zaman

BULLET PROOF VEST
Directed by May Lin Au Yong

GOOD MORNING, DANGME
Directed by Takaya Kawasaki

LONG HAUL
Directed by Erin Hudson

TIJUANA NADA MAS
Directed by Yolanda Pividal

Update October 26 - Today, the IDA announced the five nominees for its new Alan Ett Music Documentary Award.  They are:

4
Directed by Tim Slade

CHOPS
Directed by Bruce Broder

NOTE BY NOTE: THE MAKING OF STEINWAY L1037
Directed by Ben Niles

WAR/DANCE
Directed by Sean Fine and Andrea Nix/Fine

WE ARE TOGETHER (THINA SIMUNYE)
Directed by Paul Taylor

IDA Members Pick 25 Top Docs Ever: Hoop Dreams is Number One

Steve James' HOOP DREAMS, the 1994 epic nonfiction tracing the high school basketball careers of two inner-city Chicago teens, was tops on the International Documentary Association's recently announced list of the top 25 documentaries of all time, as voted on by its members in celebration of the organizations 25th anniversary from an original ballot that included 700 films.

As polls like this often go, recent releases figured heavily in the mix, with a full 2/5 of the titles having come out since 2002.  Last year's Oscar winner, AN INCONVENIENT TRUTH, landed surprisingly high at number 6, while Morgan Spurlock's entertaining fast food polemic SUPER SIZE ME (2004) placed ahead of documentary classics DON'T LOOK BACK (1967), SALESMAN (1968) and SHERMAN'S MARCH (1986).

SALESMAN was one of three titles from the David and Albert Maysles to make the all-time list - GIMME SHELTER (1970)  and GREY GARDENS (#16) were the others, thus tying the brothers Maysles with Michael Moore for filmmakers with the most films on the list.

The IDA has key crew credits for each of the films, plus synopses and essays, at their website.  As indieWIRE is reporting, Netflix has been a presenting sponsor of the IDA's program:

"The company indicated that the majority of the 700 films on the original ballot are available on their service, with the exception of #19, Frederick Wiseman's "Titicut Follies," which has never been released commercially and is only available for educational purposes."

Although I tend to think of these kinds of lists as entertaining exercises (and why not, on your anniversary, look back with some level of nostalgic pride for your successes), at least a few of my blogging compatriots have brought the hammer down upon this list.

SHAME! cries Anthony Kaufman:

"Shame on the International Documentary Association for going the facile way of the American Film Institute, with their incessant, ultimately meaningless, hierarchical lists that do more to raise the profile of the organizations and their sponsors -- in this case Netflix, provider of screeners -- than really shine a light on the best of movies.

Of course, it's not the "best" of anything here, but a few great documentaries, sprinkled in with several recent, high-profile documentaries that just happen to be on IDA members's minds...I wonder if the list is more disparaging for IDA members -- who are to blame for the votes -- than the organization itself. I would also imagine that the INTERNATIONAL Documentary Association members might have more discriminating and worldly tastes: Why is only Alain Resnais's "Night and Fog" (down low at #23) the only foreign-language doc? Ugh."

Karina Longworth takes note of the list's decidedly white-male dominance:

"Predictably, the list isn’t very interesting–as is usually the case with these things, it’s very American and very weighed towards recent releases. Box office hits and Oscar winners are well represented; non-white people are represented as subjects, but not so much as makers; there’s one film on this list directed by a woman, and another one about women. Michael Moore, Errol Morris and the Maysles own a full third of the list real estate between them."

**Just a note to add that the Maysles films in question each have at least one female filmmaker listed as co-director, including two appearances by Charlotte Zwerin.

Four and a half years ago, the IDA released a list of the top 20 Docs (celebrating their 20th anniversary).  While many of the films on the lists are the same, it's interesting to note the films that fell off (including NANOOK OF THE NORTH, 7 UP, AMERICAN MOVIE and SHOAH) as well as those that made the list this time (DON'T LOOK BACK, KOYAANISQATSI and WOODSTOCK).  Earlier this year, Boston's Chlotrudis Society came up with a list of 100 nonfiction films.

Here's the IDA's list of the Top 25 documentaries of all-time:

#1. HOOP DREAMS (1994)
Directed by Steve James

#2. THE THIN BLUE LINE (1988)
Directed by Errol Morris

#3. BOWLING FOR COLUMBINE (2002)
Directed by Michael Moore

#4. SPELLBOUND (2002)
Directed by Jeffrey Blitz

#5. HARLAN COUNTY, U.S.A. (1976)
Directed by Barbara Kopple

#6. AN INCONVENIENT TRUTH (2006)
Directed by Davis Guggenheim

#7. CRUMB (1994)
Directed by Terry Zwigoff

#8. GIMME SHELTER (1970)
Directed by Albert Maysles, David Maysles & Charlotte Zwerin

#9. THE FOG OF WAR (2003)
Directed by Errol Morris

#10. ROGER & ME (1989)
Directed by Michael Moore

#11. SUPER SIZE ME (2004)
Directed by Morgan Spurlock

#12. DON'T LOOK BACK (1967)
Directed by DA Pennebaker

#13. SALESMAN (1968)
Directed by Albert Maysles, David Maysles and Charlotte Zwerin

#14. KOYAANISQATSI (1983)
Directed by Godfrey Reggio

#15. SHERMAN'S MARCH (1986)
Directed by Ross McElwee

#16. GREY GARDENS (1976)
Directed by Albert Maysles, David Maysles, Ellen Hovde and Muffie Meyer

#17. CAPTURING THE FRIEDMANS (2003)
Directed by Andrew Jarecki

#18. BORN INTO BROTHELS (2004)
Directed by Zana Briski and Ross Kauffman

#19. TITICUT FOLLIES (1967)
Directed by Frederick Wiseman

#20. BUENA VISTA SOCIAL CLUB (1999)
Directed by Wim Wenders

#21. FAHRENHEIT 9/11 (2002)
Directed by Michael Moore

#22. WINGED MIGRATION (2002)
Directed by Jacques Perrin

#23. GRIZZLY MAN (2005)
Directed by Werner Herzog

#24. NIGHT AND FOG (1955)
Directed by Alain Resnais

#25. WOODSTOCK (1970)
Directed by Michael Wadleigh

"Iraq in Fragments", "...Darryl Hunt" Take Top Prizes at Full Frame

Two films that debuted in competition at this year's Sundance Film Festival took the top prizes at last weekend's Full Frame Film Festival in Durham, NC. James Longley's "Iraq in Fragments" won the Grand Jury Award (it previously swept the craft awards at Sundance, winning prizes for directing, cinematography and editing), while Ricki Stern and Annie Sundberg's The Trials of Darryl Hunt picked up the Audience Award.

I'm sure the award for The Trials of Darryl Hunt must have been particularly gratifying as the events portrayed in the film - a two-decades long miscarriage of justive - all occured just down the tobacco road from Durham in Winston-Salem. As I wrote after seeing the film at Sundance, the film is both inspiring and infuriating and the filmmaking craft by Stern and Sundberg is particularly noteworthy.

At just 8 years old, Full Frame is one of the nation's foremost documentary film festivals and is particularly enjoyed by many east coast filmmakers. As Eugene Hernandez writes in his recap of this year's fest:

     (A) number of doc directors made the trip to North
     Carolina just to hang out, see some movies, and
     support fellow filmmakers. A festival that embraces
     both emerging and established directors, this year
     the event welcomed a legendary list of filmmakers,
     including Robert Drew, D.A. Pennebaker, Richard
     Leacock, and Albert Maysles.

In addition, documentary filmmaker Doug Block was in Durham with his film 51 Birch Street and lavishes the fest with high praise on his excellent blog:

     Try to imagine standing before a wildly cheering
     audience after the showing of your very personal
     film at the country's most prestigious documentary
     film festival. You look off to the right and there's D.A.
     Pennebaker and Chris Hegedus. Right up front in the
     first row sits Ross McElwee (whose Sherman's March
     inspired you to make personal documentaries in the
     first place). To your left sits the Al Maysles (with
     those unmistakeable glasses). And there hovering
     in the back is Ricky Leacock.

     Only in your dreams, right?

     Maybe that's why the 51 Birch Street screening at Full
     Frame seemed like the stuff of fantasy. But it really
     happened, and two days later I'm still basking in the
     afterglow.

Full Frame is an interesting festival and clearly Doug and a lot of other folks feel the full-on love. But I've also talked to a bunch of documentary filmmakers who have really mixed feelings about it. Many feel that the festival is jawlocked into a more serious, issues-based, social justice-style of programming. One reason for this may be that the festival is programmed by a selection committee that is chaired by David Paletz, a professor of political science at Duke, which is kind of remarkable for such a major festival. For my part, I prefer a more curatorial approach - where the vision of one or two or three programmers comes through in their choices. Perhaps that's one of the reasons I'm such a fan of both True/False and Silverdocs.

It will be interesting to see what happens in the next few years as all these festivals grow with the popularity of documentary films (and new festivals sprout up). Will there be a schism between those that favor the serious with those that welcome all comers? And will Full Frame, with it's growing connection to Duke, continue with its programming by non-filmmaker selection committee?