All these wonderful things

HBO's Barack Doc BY THE PEOPLE Tops Features in Running for 2010 Primetime Emmys

The wild and wacky Primetime Emmy documentary nods are back upon us, with their eclectic mix of true television documentaries, acquired nonfiction feature films (some of which premiered at festivals 2+ years ago) and episodes of nonfiction series, all vying for trophies that will be handed out at the Creative Arts Emmys in September.

Of the true feature docs, Amy Rice and Alicia Sams behind-the-scenes look at the 2008 presidential campaign, BY THE PEOPLE: THE ELECTION OF BARACK OBAMA - which was picked up during production by HBO - led all comers, netting three nominations: for Outstanding Nonfiction Special, Direction and Editing. 

For most features, however, namely festival favorites from 2008 (THE BETRAYAL, PATTI SMITH: DREAM OF LIFE, PRESSURE COOKER) and 2009 (SERGIO), a single nomination would have to suffice.  All four of those films will vie for the Emmy for Exception Merit in Nonfiction Filmmaking, up against Sundance Channel's BRICK CITY and PBS' MY LAI.

In most of the tech categories, the true features were mostly knocked out by episodes of Discovery Channel's Life and Deadliest Catch, CBS's The Amazing Race and History Channel's America: The Story of Us.

Still, the list of Emmy nominees is heavy on bold-faced names (or as bold-faced as we get in the doc world), with Sheila Nevins, Nancy Abraham, Cara Mertes, Simon Kilmurry, Sam Pollard, Ellen Kuras, John Battsek, Julie Goldman, Morgan Spurlock (nominated for his Simpsons documentary for Fox) and Ken Burns (nommed for his National Parks series, though notably not for his direction).

A full list of doc-centric nominees after the jump, not a Glee cast member among them...

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.

About Friday Night (or Cinema Eye 2010)...

It's been a momentous start to 2010.

Over New Year's my partners and I wrapped the film that we've been shooting in Branson, Missouri for the past two+ years.

And once I got back to Los Angeles, I had a week of mostly nonstop preparations for this year's Cinema Eye Honors, followed by a return to New York and a few days of last minute details before Friday's ceremonies and celebrations.

[You can read about the event in reports by Eric Kohn at The Wrap, Jeffrey Wells at Hollywood Elsewhere, Brian Geldin at the Film Panel Notetaker and Matt Dentler on his blog, .  Ingrid Kopp has a bunch of pictures over at the Shooting People blog as does the Stranger Than Fiction blog.   indieWIRE has a full accounting of this year's winners.]

The night itself was pretty wonderful.  Following an afternoon of rehearsals, I walked out into the reception at the Times Center and nearly immediately spotted Barbara Kopple, Ross McElwee and Albert Maysles talking to one another.  Then I turned and saw nominees RJ Cutler (who would later win the Audience Choice Prize for THE SEPTEMBER ISSUE) and James Toback, presenters Ellen Kuras, Peter Davis, Amir Bar-Lev, Jason Kohn, Carl Deal & Tia Lessin.  And in the midst of it all, some of the folks who've made the films that made me so excited to be a nonfiction filmmaker in 2009 - Bill and Turner Ross, Darius Marder, Jessica Oreck, Michael Palmieri, Donal Mosher and Aron Gaudet (all with their debut films).

Forgive me if it sounds a bit like hyperbole, but the moment kind of took my breath away.

Later that night, standing in the midst of the afterparty, seeing the community of filmmakers, programmers, producers, distributors, writers, critics and friends all gathered together, more than one person waved their arm out at the crowd and said, "seeing that must feel pretty good."

And, yes, it truly did.  

I am happy to see that an idea has germinated and continues to grow into an event that I think we can all be proud of and take ownership of.  And I'm honored to see so many folks bring their own skills and talents to the table to make the event successful.

So kudos to the team at Indiepix - Sally Plourde, Arielle DiGiacomo, Matt Posorske, Jason Tyrrell, Paige Gregor, Nico Doldinger and Bob "Big Daddy" Alexander for their great production talents and amazing support.

And thanks to our Cinema Eye team - my terrific co-chair and co-host Esther Robinson; team leaders Andrea Meditch and Thom Powers; our partner-in-crime/production guru Nathan Truesdell and our stellar design team in Columbia, MO - Ryan Nelson, Ben Chlapek, Jonny Pez and Brock Williams; our musical director, Ion Furjanic; our pals at the Sheffield and Camden fests who threw two terrific parties to announce our nominations and then salute our nominees and to all of our other sponsors - HBO Documentary Films, Thompson LES Hotel, Danish Film Institute, Makers Mark and Leftfield Equipment Rentals - without whom the event wouldn't have been possible.

Finally, thanks for all who came out on Thursday and Friday - some of whom traveled cross-country and over oceans - and to all who have emailed or written or texted in the 48 hours since.  Your kindness and support to all of us is greatly appreciated.

It's you that makes the event work.  It's you that gives Cinema Eye meaning.

We're here because of the work that each of you does, and with your continued support and feedback and encouragement, we'll keep on doing it.

Wiping the Sleep from My Cinema Eyes

Am back in Los Angeles, still in recovery mode from the whirlwind of the past month, which began with awards week in LA in late February, followed by True/False, a week of shooting in Branson, Austin for this year's SXSW and finally, the full flung head race toward Sunday's event at the Times Center in New York. 

As the curtain came down on this year's Cinema Eye Honors, I felt that somewhat predictable mix of happiness, satisfaction, bleary-eyed confusion and outright post-partum that comes when all the work of the previous year suddenly comes to a quick conclusion.

I'll be posting a bit in the next week on this year's awards, but wanted to offer a few - still in the midst of it all - reflections...

I loved our new venue at the Times Center.  It's a great room - wide but not terribly deep - and from the stage you could see everyone in the audience (which, for me, was a crazy mix of old home week and documentary all-stars).  Everything about the ceremony flowed extremely smoothly - a credit to our stage manager Matt Posorske and technical director Jason Tyrell, as well as the enthusiastic, professional team at the Times Center.  Look forward to returning there for future Cinema Eye ceremonies.

It was wonderful to have so many of last year's honored filmmakers in attendance - James Marsh, Margaret Brown, Ellen Kuras, Thavi Phrasavath, Yung Chang, Jermiah Zagar, Chris Bell, Geoffrey Smith, Morgan Spurlock, Sascha Paladino, Jody Shapiro, Jinx Godfrey and Sara Cross, amongst them - and terrific to have so many from the NYC documentary community turnout, particularly our presenters - Jennifer Venditti, Gary Hustwit, Laurie Anderson, Jean Tsien, Nina Davenport, Spurlock, Andrea Meditch, Jehane Noujaim, Albert Maysles, DA Pennebaker and Chris Hegedus.

I'll admit to somewhat conflicted feelings about this year's winners.  When I first thought of these awards, I imagined an event that would honor films that excelled at the creative arts, rather than tipping a hat to a movie solely because it had "done good".  So, on one level, one can't help but argue that it's entirely appropriate that a film like WALTZ WITH BASHIR, with its innovative use of animation and music in its story-telling, should walk off with four Cinema Eye Honors.  Or that a film like MAN ON WIRE, would conclude its sweep of the year-end awards with a speech at the Times Center podium.

In short, WALTZ and WIRE - beloved by audiences, critics and certainly our voters - are exactly the kinds of films I was thinking of when I pondered Cinema Eye.  Still, I wouldn't have minded if voters had spread the love to include something for MY WINNIPEG, ORDER OF MYTHS, BETRAYAL or any other of this year's exceptional nominees - nor, I suspect, would WIRE director James Marsh or WALTZ animator David Polonsky - called to the stage four times (and each time with a hilarious anecdote - that's him, below, in Times Square with a box full of Cinema Eyes on his shoulder) have minded to hear other names called from the envelopes.  That speaks, I think, to the generosity of feeling that existed in the room on Sunday - which Marsh referenced during the filmmaker panel when he spoke of a feeling of community in the nonfiction world that he finds absent in the narrative/fiction world.

As I mentioned in my exchange with Matt Dentler, last year's awards felt like a crazy express train barrelling down the track.  This year, we had more time to think about the kind of event that Cinema Eye will be in the future, and I suspect that we will have more conversations about that as we begin to plan CEH2010. 

But I can't help but be happy with Sunday's gathering and proud of the efforts of everyone involved - particularly the entire Cinema Eye team, led by Sally Plourde and Danielle DiGiacamo, our graphics wizard Kyle Walters, key team members Nicholas Doldinger, Arielle DiGiacamo and Zack Boger, everyone at IndiePix, who continued their incredible support of Cinema Eye at a time when sponsorship is drying up, specifically Bob Alexander.  And thanks, once again, to my co-chair Thom Powers for jumping aboard the express train last year and helping to keep things on track in New York for year two.

On a strictly personal note, this year's Cinema Eye allowed me to indulge in a bit of show business, which was a tremendous amount of fun.  My particular thanks to my pals Yance Ford and Dan Miller for joining me onstage in these efforts, and also to Patricia Halsell-Richardson and her daughter Carla for bringing some of the Mobile Mardi Gras to New York City.

More on this year's Cinema Eyes, including links to the thoughts of others, in the days to come.

Photos from this year's event can be found on the Cinema Eye website, with video due shortly.

Laura Poitras' Photos from the Oscars' Red Carpet

Laura Poitras was nominated for an Oscar two years ago for her excellent film MY COUNTRY, MY COUNTRY.  Sunday, she was back at the Oscars as an Academy member and viewer - and she sent along these photos:

Joe Bini, editor on the Oscar nominated ENCOUNTERS AT THE END OF THE WORLD, as well as Cinema Eye nominated for ROMAN POLANSKI: WANTED AND DESIRED, with Sundance Istitute Documentary Film Program Director Cara Mertes on the red carpet.

Mertes with some of the team from THE BETRAYAL (NERAKHOON) - Co-producer Chiemi Karasawa, Director/Producer/Cinematographer Ellen Kuras and Producer Flora Fernandez-Marengo.

Lena and Werner Herzog, the latter nominated for ENCOUNTERS, on the red carpet.

Kuras and co-director/editor/subject Thavisouk Phrasavath brave the red carpet guantlet.

Poitras and Bini.

Thanks to Laura for her dispatch from the Kodak.

Spirit Awards 2009 in Photos

Per usual, it was a nice afternoon in Santa Monica yesterday, enjoying both the Spirit Awards and the IFC Afterparty.  As evening approached, we noted that for such a big deal event, it always feel pretty homey.  Maybe it's the tent.

In any case, good to see lots of folks from the indie film community in attendance and congrats to James Marsh, Simon Chinn and Margaret Brown on their wins in the documentary categories.

Marsh accepts the Best Documentary Feature award for MAN ON WIRE as producer Chinn looks on.  Subject Philippe Petit was the subject of a good part of host Steve Coogan's monologue, who quipped at one point that the only thing that would have made MAN ON WIRE better would be if Petit had fallen.  More indie, said the host.

Margaret Brown displays her Truer Than Fiction prize in the press tent.  She won for her film ORDER OF MYTHS, which was also nominated for Best Doc Feature.

Doc Feature nominees Yung Chang and Mila Aung-Thwin, director and producer of UP THE YANGTZE.

Doc nominees - also up for an Oscar this afternoon - Thavisouk Phrasavath and Ellen Kuras, nominated for THE BETRAYAL (NERAKHOON).

Doug Jones of the Los Angeles Film Festival, with Truer Than Fiction nominee Darius Marder.  Marder's film, LOOT, took the Grand Jury Prize at LAFF, was picked up by HBO and screens next week at True/False.

HBO's Sara Bernstein with filmmakers Morgan Spurlock and Ondi Timoner at the IFC Afterparty.  Bernstein will be at the Oscars this afternoon - supporting the entire slate of Documentary Short nominees, which all will have a home at HBO (along with Doc Feature Oscar nominee TROUBLE THE WATER).

Lynn Shelton, director of MY EFFORTLESS BRILLIANCE (and the Sundance smash HUMPDAY) received the Someone To Watch Award.

Awards Weekend Predictions

Gearing up for a busy awards weekend and thought we should lay down our marker as to our predictions for this year's documentary prizes. 

We must admit that we can't quite imagine the scenario by which MAN ON WIRE doesn't win on Saturday at the Spirit Awards.  This is, after all, a bit of a popularity contest, with Film Independent members voting, often for the most popular film in the category.  It's hard to think that they will bypass James Marsh's film, even if many of them have actually seen some of the other nominees - both ENCOUNTERS AT THE END OF THE WORLD and UP THE YANGTZE have grossed more than the combined box office tally of the ten films nominated in 2007 and 2008.

The Spirit Awards will also be handing out the Truer Than Fiction Award to either Sascha Gervasi for ANVIL! THE STORY OF ANVIL, Darius Marder for LOOT or Margaret Brown for ORDER OF MYTHS.  As a member of the jury for this award, I will skip predicting a winner in this category.

On Sunday, I fully expect MAN ON WIRE to complete the sweep by winning the Documentary Feature Oscar.  If there's an upset, and don't be fooled, it would be an upset, it will likely come from TROUBLE THE WATER. 

For weeks, I'd been predicting a two-film race between WIRE and ENCOUNTERS, the latter primarily because of Herzog's long cinematic history.  But nearly everyone I have spoken to has told me that there's no way Herzog will win.  I find this vaguely crazy - is there still a deep vein of anti-Herzog resentment running through those who'd sit through all 5 Academy nominees?  Wasn't that very real disappointment at the IDA event Wednesday when Herzog was a no show.  Don't people want to hear what he'd say if he won?

And, frankly, if I had to bet on a longshot, I'd throw some money down on THE BETRAYAL, a film that a lot of people like a great deal, made by someone who they absolutely adore.  More than one person told me of the long hugs and enthusiastic greetings that director Ellen Kuras received at the Academy luncheon a couple weekends ago.  Another person told me that a lot of people were coming out for Ellen to see her film.  But did they see the other 4 nominees?

A win for THE BETRAYAL would run counter to recent Academy trends in the category - it's barely made a dent theatrically (still under $20K) despite the high profile attention from the Oscars and Spirits - but it does play to the themes of American intervention abroad that have often found favor with the Academy.

But it seems that a strong fondness for TROUBLE THE WATER - for the perserverence of the main characters, for saying something about Hurricane Katrina - has made put that film in the slot to win if, for some reason, MAN ON WIRE falters.  Like Phillipe Petit on the tightrope, I don't expect it will.

I must admit that I can't make much of a wager in the short film category, having only seen SMILE PINKI.  Steven Okazaki (THE CONSCIENCE OF NHEM EN) won the Oscar almost two decades ago for DAYS OF WAITING (this is his fourth nomination), and each of the other nominees is a first timer, but whether that affects Oscar voters in this category is beyond me.  I'm gonna make the totally uneducated guess that THE WITNESS - FROM THE BALCONY OF ROOM 306 wins the prize - although none of the films in this category would surprise me in victory.

1000th Post - Spirit Awards Nominee Reception

A brief note tonight...

A terrific evening in Santa Monica celebrating this year's Spirit Awards nominees.  Arriving tonight and seeing the white tent set up on the beach, preparing for Saturday's festivities was a kind of in-your-face confirmation that this week's award season was in full bloom. 

Inside the reception, a reminder of what a fine job Film Independent does in recognizing those who are working with limited means - not just on the doc side, but fine folks like Lynn Shelton, Barry Jenkins, Sean Baker, et al.

So, here's to all of this year's nominees, including those up for Best Documentary Feature:

From left: Ellen Kuras and Thavisouk Phrasavath (THE BETRAYAL), Yung Chang (UP THE YANGTZE) and Margaret Brown (THE ORDER OF MYTHS). 

Truer Than Fiction nominee Darius Marder (LOOT) introduces James Marsh (MAN ON WIRE) as nominees Michael Simmonds (DP on CHOP SHOP and ORDER OF MYTHS), and Margaret Brown look on.

A final note before we hit the sack.  This is our 1000th post on the blog.  That kind of blows our minds.   We had no idea when this began that such a thing was possible, much less likely. 

Our continued thanks for your encouragement. 

Awards Week Launches With IDA's Salute to Oscar Nominees

As Matt Dentler put it so nicely over on his blog, this week in Los Angeles "feels like Mardi Gras for Hollywood and Indiewood, the long Super Bowl weekend of events and screenings and parties and awards."

Last night was the kickoff for five days of celebratory gatherings, as the IDA hosted its annual Oscar Nominee Reception at the Motion Picture Academy.  A few observations:  Lily Tomlin was a terrific host.  It was clear that she's a admirer of documentaries and documentary filmmakers and considers herself part of the extended community.  She was funny and charming, perhaps only outdone by MAN ON WIRE subject Phillipe Petit, who inspired the only thing that came close to a standing ovation from the assembled crowd.

The crowd itself was younger than I'd ever seen at an IDA event, prompting me to wonder if the youth contigent had been "bused in".  New IDA Executive Director Michael Lumpkin confirmed some of this in his short introductory speech, noting that students of the IDA's Docs Rock program were in attendance.  No matter the origin, the vastly lowered average age of attendees gave the whole evening a energy boost.

Also in attendance, for the first time that I can remember (but maybe I wasn't paying attention in the past) was nearly the entire Sundance programming team, bravely stepping out in public in the face of nonstop questions about the surprising departure of Geoffrey Gilmore for Tribeca.

A highlight for me of the night was IDA President Eddie Schmidt's acknowledgement of Spirit Award nominees Margaret Brown (ORDER OF MYTHS) and Yung Chang (UP THE YANGTZE), as well as Foreign Language Oscar nominee Ari Folman (WALTZ WITH BASHIR).  While I'd love to for the IDA to find a way to incorporate the Spirit Award nominees into the program as a whole, making the event a celebration of all the nonfiction nominees of this weekend, Schmidt's tip of the hat was a nice first step.

Amongst the nominees, particularly the shorts filmmakers, there was a chorus of thanks to HBO, reminding of their annual, strong support of short nonfiction (they are also the future home of nominated film TROUBLE THE WATER and Spirit Award nominee LOOT).  Not lost, however, was Eddie Schmidt's dig at HBO filmmaker-in-residence Alexandra Pelosi, whom he criticized for her recent New York Times comments that documentaries "are boring".  Although Schmidt didn't name Pelosi, he did encourage the audience to look on google to see who he was talking about.

If one is to try to guage Sunday's winners from the audience reaction in the theater, you'd have to give the enthusiasm edge to MAN ON WIRE, perhaps narrowly over TROUBLE THE WATER, which certainly had strong support in the Beverly Hills auditorium.  Of the clips themselves, the audience laughed uproariously at the scene from Werner Herzog's (who was not in attendance) ENCOUNTERS AT THE END OF THE WORLD.  The audience also had a huge response (gasping, oohs and ahs) to the still photographs of Petit walking on the wire between the Twin Towers, prompting some of us to wonder whether there were really that many folks in the audience who hadn't seen that film yet.

Tonight, the Spirit Awards nominees gather in Santa Monica for their kickoff celebration.  More on that event tomorrow.

Here are pictures from last night's gala at the Motion Picture Academy (lots more after the break):

From left, TROUBLE THE WATER co-cinematographer PJ Raval, Oscar nominated director/producers Carl Deal and Tia Lessin and co-producer Amir Bar-Lev.

Oscar nominated filmmaker Scott Hamilton Kennedy (THE GARDEN).

Pencils Down. Time to Turn in Your Oscar Ballots...

Oscar ballots are due tomorrow (Tuesday) at 5 PM west coast time.  If you're still mulling over your choice in the documentary feature category (or you just want to bone up on the nominees for filling out your own Oscar pool), here's a round-up of our interviews with this year's Oscar nominees:

THE BETRAYAL (NERAKHOON)

Director Ellen Kuras

Ellen Kuras writes about the two decades of equipment used in the making of the film

ENCOUNTERS AT THE END OF THE WORLD

Director Werner Herzog

THE GARDEN

Director Scott Hamilton Kennedy

MAN ON WIRE

Director James Marsh

Open Letter from Producer Simon Chinn

TROUBLE THE WATER

Director/Producers Tia Lessin and Carl Deal

And while the Spirit Awards ballot deadline has already passed, you can check out coverage of these nominees:

LOOT (nominated for Truer Than Fiction)

Director Darius Marder

ORDER OF MYTHS (nominated for Best Documentary and Truer Than Fiction)

Director Margaret Brown

Margaret Brown's Indie Film Tour Diary

UP THE YANGTZE (nominated for Best Documentary)

Director Yung Chang