All these wonderful things

Sean Farnel Steps Down at Hot Docs

[Sean Farnel, right, with Hot Docs' Executive Director Chris McDonald and filmmaker Morgan Spurlock at Opening Night of Hot Docs 2011.  Photo from the Hot Docs website by Joseph Michael.]

In what accounts for major news around here, Sean Farnel announced last night, via his blog, that he was stepping down from his role as Hot Docs' Director of Programming.  After six years at Hot Docs, which followed a six year run programming documentaries at the Toronto International Film Festival, Farnel said that it was time to move on:

"Five years is usually enough to get the job done (give or take a bonus year). As at tiff, I depart with pride, having significantly advanced the programmes on which I worked. It seems unlikely that we could’ve put together a better festival then we did with this past Hot Docs...

Few, if any, international film festivals have enjoyed more growth then Hot Docs since 2005. Having just announced another record event, with over 150,000 admissions and a 24 per cent increase in earned revenues, the Festival has more then tripled its audience over the past six years. With that, Hot Docs is now a close second to IDFA as the world’s largest documentary film festival. The Festival has become one of Toronto’s most significant and beloved cultural events."

Although Farnel is departing, he is not exiting the scene.  This week he'll serve as a juror at the Silverdocs Film Festival (which kicks off tonight). 

HOT DOCS 2011: Sundance Audience Faves SENNA and BUCK Among Best Films of Year

It's been a little over a week since I returned home to Los Angeles after this year's edition of Hot Docs.  I'm a big fan of Hot Docs - it's my fourth year running at the Toronto festival - and I think it might have been my best experience yet.

Part of this is due to the opening of the TIFF Bell Lightbox.  I wasn't at TIFF last year (in fact, cost and timing has combined to make it impossible for me to attend since my own ABOUT A SON premiered there in 2006), so this was my first opportunity to view the new space.  Let me add my voice to the chorus of those who find the new(ish) building remarkable.  In spite of the fact that the gleaming cinema complex is a bit of a hike from the central action of the Hot Docs festival (which remains the Rogers Industry Center on the Victoria College Campus) and seems completely removed from any industry hobnobbing, I was more than content to hunker down in the space for a full day, taking time to get great food and wine in the midst of screenings in the building's technically top-notch theaters.

In fact, being completely removed from industry hobnobbing was actually a selling point.

One of the things that I've found at festivals, and I only have myself to blame here, is that when I actually tuck myself into back-to-back-to back screenings, I have some of my best experiences.  I'm as guilty as anyone of being attracted to the shiny allure of the undiscovered mixer or meal or moment to rest.  But my day at the Lightbox and away from the industry element of the festival helped crystalize this for me.

It didn't hurt that I saw some terrific films.  In fact, I've been pretty lucky this year in that I was asked to serve on juries for the Miami and Ashland Film Festivals and that afforded me the opportunity to see a number of this year's most talked-about films - particularly a majority of this year's Sundance crop.  The two juries I was on gave awards to THE INTERRUPTERS (Grand Jury) and IF A TREE FALLS (Special Jury) at Miami and to HOW TO DIE IN OREGON (Grand Jury) at Ashland.  From these fests, I was also a big fan of James Marsh's latest, PROJECT NIM.  All four were on the docket at Hot Docs as well.

But in Toronto, my great favorites were two terrific portrait films: Asif Kapadia's SENNA, about the Formula One champion racer Ayrton Senna, and Cindy Meehl's BUCK, the audience favorite about Buck Brannaman, the "real life horse whisperer".

Thoughts on This Year's Cinema Eye Honors

Well, that was fun. 

We wrapped the fourth annual Cinema Eye Honors 6 days ago at the newly re-opened Museum of the Moving Image (where we were still inaugurating some of their equipment and where not everything, including the thermostats, were fully operational) and now things are slowly but surely getting back into regular gear, at least around these parts.

I'm beginning to think that I should just hang a sign on the blog come the top of January that reads "Gone Fishin'" or something...

For the rest of the doc world, Cinema Eye was but one event (or series of events), a stop en route to Sundance or to tomorrow's Oscar nominations or to whatever the next festival or party or envelope opening comes to call.

But for those of us who've been working behind the scenes on this year's ceremony, this year was something really quite special.

While I always love the event/ceremony, and it's great to see so many friends, colleagues and people I admire, this year was particularly important to us as it marked the first time that we produced the event entirely by ourselves.  We obviously had a lot of help - people who gave of their time and talents, sponsors who contributed cash and bottles of gin and spaces in which we could hand out very heavy, seemingly-dangerous trophies.

But this year was a truly hand-made event and it resonated personally because I knew how much work we all had put into it.

I so fortunate to have a great team, particularly my partners Nathan Truesdell and Esther Robinson.  The three of us have been meeting and talking and conspiring over ways to pull off Cinema Eye 2011 pretty much since the day after Cinema Eye 2010.  And I'd be lying if I said that we weren't already talking about Cinema Eye 2012.

For us, Cinema Eye is about celebrating collaborations and recognizing the work of the entire team that makes these movies that we love.  So, it's kind of essential that the three of us know how to riff off of each other, to know when to push and pull, and to trust in the others' core belief about the thing that we are doing (which, in our minds at least, is more than about handing out trophies).  Because Esther and I get to stand on the stage and crack-wise, it's important to emphasize that this is truly a 3-headed monster and that Nate's contributions to Cinema Eye throughout the year have been intrinsic to its success.

Beyond my two co-conspirators, we have a great crew of extended family, led by our nominations chair Sean Farnel and our advisory board chair Andrea Meditch.  The two of them, as well as our numerous advisors (special shout outs to Matt Dentler, Thom Powers, Rachel Rosen, Debra Zimmerman and Ryan Harrington), keep steering us down the right path.

This year, we had special assists from Brian Geldin, Lainey Hughes, Jennifer Razor, Ingrid Kopp, Natalie Difford, Maxyne Franklin, Robert Greene, James Benson, Bernardo Britto and Michael Forstein.  We had our amazing design team - our art director Ryan Nelson and our lead illustrator Ben Chlapek who created all the amazing graphics for this years films.  Plus we had the onstage talents of The Quavers (T. Griffin, Catherine McRae and Dennis Cronin) who kicked off the show with an excerpt from Sam Green and Dave Cerf's UTOPIA IN FOUR MOVEMENTS, narrated by Mr. Green himself.

Finally, I can't forget our sponsors, without whom there would have been no Cinema Eye this year - particularly our partners at the Museum of the Moving Image (David Schwartz and Rachael Rakes) who dealt with us even as they were still opening their doors, but also everyone at the Documentary Channel, the Economist, HBO Documentary Films, A&E IndieFilms, SnagFilms, POV, Abel Cine Tech, Sheffield Doc/Fest, Hot Docs, Camden International Film Festival, Hudson Hotel, Danish Film Institute, Maine Distilleries and the Film Sales Company.

You'll get to see the fruits of this labor - in slightly abbreviated form - when the ceremony airs on the Documentary Channel (available on DirectTV, Dish and some cable systems) this Sunday night at 8 PM eastern and pacific.

I don't think it matters if the winners are known; the on-camera reactions and the speeches - particularly the one you may have read about from Banksy - are more fun to watch than just reading the recaps, as good as many of them were.

But if you're interested in other's thoughts/recaps about this year's event, you can find them from Brian Brooks at indieWIRE, Matt Singer at IFC, Steve Pond at The Wrap, Scott Macauley at Filmmaker Magazine, Jennifer Merin at about.com and Melena Ryzik at The New York Times' The Carpetbagger blog.

One last, personal, note:  As I said before we announced the final award of the evening, I want to congratulate all of this year's nominees.  We talk a lot about what an extraordinary year it was, but I don't talk as often - here on the blog, at least - about how inspiring, how personally rejuvinating, the artistic achievements of this year have been.  So while Cinema Eye is centered around this idea of voting and winning and being nominated, I want to send my personal thanks to the filmmakers of 2010 and thank them for the numerous ways in which they call on me to be a better filmmaker.

2010 Film Fests (Part Two): Taking Another Look at Hot Docs, Sarasota and LAFF

Yesterday, we wrote about two of our top film festivals for documentaries that we traveled to for the first time in 2010.

Of course, traveling to fests isn’t just about the new discoveries.  Our visits this year to several other top festivals re-ignited our thinking on their top status.

At #4, Hot Docs is such an obvious and easy choice that it might be hard to be impressed (this year was our third trip in a row).  But something about returning to Toronto in the spring once again reminds one of just why the festival works so well.  One can’t help but be wowed by the programming - a truly thoughtful selection of international titles selected by Sean Farnel - and the way in which the festival is constantly trying to rethink the long-tired panel templates. 

This year, we were also struck by the ease of seeing both films and a global coterie of docu heavyweights.  This latter point might be our own process - for some reason Toronto is a city that took us a long while to find our legs in - and maybe this is the year that everything seemed to click.  But attending Hot Docs this year felt somehow cozy and, it goes without saying, Toronto's docu-loving crowds just cannot be beat.

Sarasota (our #20), on the other hand, might be easier to overlook – but overlooking Sarasota would be a huge mistake.  Sarasota is, in our minds at least, a kind of perfect festival: a terrific and nearly completest look at the best films of Sundance and SXSW (the latter selected by Sarasota prior to their potential breakouts in Austin) as well as a handful that either premiered earlier or had been neglected by the bigger “name” festivals that preceded it.

As is the case with many of our favorite festivals, there are travel issues (and hotels near the main festival venues are few and far between – most folks were lodged in airport hotels) and there’s going to be some considerable walking involved (unless you get smart and ride some of the free bikes the festival secured), but Sarasota remains one of the big American “experience” festivals, the kind of place you tell stories about months and years later: like when a group of (nameless) documentary filmmakers feared they might have left another (nameless) documentary filmmaker to drown in the Gulf of Mexico at 2 AM; or when the bar of the (nameless) resort hotel opened back up after closing at 1 AM when the owner realized that several (nameless) indie film stars were boozing in the lobby with hula hoopers and drag queens; or when Patti Smith belted out “Gloria” five feet in front of this (not nameless) filmmaker in a small restaurant bar.

The (Post-Holiday) Brief: Silverdocs and LAFF Previews, 86 Films Eligible for Cinema Eye and CONVENTION in NYC

Hard to believe but it's June 1...

The beginning of June is also the end of something, the end of the first half of our documentary year - one that begins with the announcement of the Sundance line-up and the annual gathering of the doc world in Amsterdam.

Six months ago we were just hearing about LAST TRAIN HOME, ENEMIES OF THE PEOPLE, THE OATH, RESTREPO, GASLAND, 12th AND DELAWARE, EXIT THROUGH THE GIFT SHOP and the rest.  Now, with last week's announcement of the Silverdocs line-up, that six month stretch starts to wrap itself up.

Not that we won't hear about the above films for the rest of the year (we will, particularly at awards season), but Silverdocs signals the changing of the guard, the last major, domestic festival gasp for many of the creme of 2010's documentary crop and the first glimpse of a few films that will be stalwarts on the fall festival tour.

And the beginning of June reminds us that the unveiling of the Toronto line-up, when the fall season really begins in earnest, is less than two months away.

Summer is here.

Silverdocs will kick off its 8th edition in just over three weeks, leading with opening night omnibus doc FREAKONOMICS and closing with Amir Bar-Lev's THE TILLMAN STORY, both of which should be of strong interest to the DC-adjacent crowd.  Competition titles include several festival favorites, including Doug Block's THE KIDS GROW UP, Alexandra Codina's MONICA AND DAVID (which won Tribeca), Robin Hessman's MY PERESTROIKA, Julia Bacha's BUDRUS, Yael Hersonski's A FILM UNFINISHED (which won Hot Docs, Roberto Hernández and Geoffrey Smith's PRESUMED GUILTY and Christian Frei's SPACE TOURISTS.

Silverdocs will also share a few competition titles with it's cross-country rival LAFF, which gets the jump this year by opening five days earlier than Silverdocs.  Los Angeles is set to premiere Malcolm Murray's CAMERA, CAMERA and Aaron Schock's CIRCO, both of which will then head to Silver Springs.  The two fests will also offer Davis Guggenheim's WAITING FOR SUPERMAN, the first time we've seen that film screen since it debuted in Park City earlier this year.  They'll also share FREAKONOMICS, TILLMAN, Jeff Malmberg's MARWENCOL, Sam Green's UTOPIA IN FOUR MOVEMENTS, Mads Brügger's THE RED CHAPEL, Alexandre O. Philippe's THE PEOPLE VS. GEORGE LUCAS and others.

If I were headed to Silver Springs this year, I'd certainly want to catch Stephen Kijak's STONES IN EXILE - the 60 minute making-of "Exile on Main Street" doc which made such a splash in Cannes, as well as Francine Cavanaugh and Adams Wood's ON COAL RIVER, which chronicles a community action against Massey Energy prior to that company's coal mine disaster at the Upper Big Branch Mine in West Virginia.  Plus, there's a terrific line-up of 40+ shorts, including a few of the best shorts we've seen in years - Sergio Oksman's NOTES ON THE OTHER and Vance Malone's THE POODLE TRAINER.

Silverdocs is also gonna fete Frederick Wiseman (although they don't have his latest, BOXING GYM, which was just at Cannes) and will screen Oliver Stone's SOUTH OF THE BORDER, a profile of South American heads of state, which should make some kind of news, one suspects.

We will be covering the Los Angeles Film Fest, which will host large outdoor screenings of the GEORGE LUCAS doc and Mark Landsman's THUNDER SOUL and one of the first (if not the first) post-Sundance screening of Mark Lewis' 3-D doc, CANE TOADS: THE CONQUEST.  LAFF makes its move from Westwood to downtown Los Angeles (HQing itself at the LA Live complex) and while we weren't big fans of this year's LA Live-based Spirit Awards, we're cautiously optimistic about the relocation of the film festival.

Five months into 2010 and the Cinema Eye Honors team (full disclosure: once again I'll be a co-chair for the 2011 event) has announced the 86 films that are already eligible for next year's awards - and most of the above named film titles (save for the recent premieres) are on the list.  I can't get in the business of predicting which way Cinema Eye is going to go (not only that, I'm a relatively poor soothsayer as far as nominations for that event goes), but I'm very excited about that list of films - as well as by a bunch of stuff going on behind the scenes that we will be announcing later this summer.

The Joe Berlinger/CRUDE/Chevron case continues to unfold, as Berlinger's lawyers make their case for overturning the judge's decision (that he must turn over raw footage to Chevron) to an appeals court.  Chevron, for their part, issued a press release this week that, in part, details their arguments related to the Berlinger case:

"The U.S. federal court proceedings in which Chevron seeks hidden evidence of corruption and misconduct captured by filmmaker Joe Berlinger have also centered on evidence of collusion in connection with the (Ecuadorian court appointee Richard) Cabrera’s damages report. Parts of Berlinger’s film CRUDE show plaintiffs’ lawyers Steven Donziger and Pablo Fajardo working with Carlos Beristain, one of the supposedly neutral experts on Cabrera’s team, at a focus group meeting related to Beristain’s supposedly independent health survey Cabrera relies on Beristain’s survey for his assessment of $9.5 billion in damages for excess cancer claims. While, at the direction of the plaintiffs’ lawyers, Berlinger edited the DVD version of Crude to conceal Beristain’s involvement with the lawyers, the unedited scene remains in a recently released internet version of the film. This documentation of collusion supported Chevron’s successful argument to a federal court in New York that other Crude outtakes should be reviewed for further evidence of misconduct. In its recent order, the New York court ruled that the fact that this scene was cut from the final version of the DVD at the direction of plaintiffs’ lawyers is a fact suggestive of an awareness of questionable activity."

Stuff worth reading: 11/4/08 director Jeff Deutchman talks to indieWIRE about the collaborative filmmaking behind his doc (it screens at NYC's Stranger Than Fiction on June 15), which includes contributions from Margaret Brown and Henry Joost.  There are reports that Warner Bros. plans to turn Jody Lambert's festival hit OF ALL THE THINGS into a narrative feature, with Steve Carrell being chased to play Lambert's songwriting dad, Dennis.  indieWIRE has the scoop on the weekend indie box office and doc wise, the story continues to be EXIT THROUGH THE GIFT SHOP - now at $2M and still climbing.

Finally, point of personal privilege: CONVENTION, the film I made at the 2008 DNC with fellow filmmakers Steven Bognar, Daniel Junge, Laura Poitras, Julia Reichert, Paul Taylor, Nathan Truesdell and David Wilson (as well as producers Britta Erickson, Shirley Moyers and Jenny Chikes), opens this Friday at the IFC Center and a number of us will be on hand all weekend to toast the theatrical premiere and take your questions.  A couple press pieces to note:  indieWIRE re-runs their article from last summer with Brian Brooks quizzing yours truly on the making of the film.  NY Magazine nicely calls the film "wonderfully counterintuitive...a generous portrait of the true face of modern democracy—if Robert Altman made documentaries, this is what they might look like."  Previously, Variety's Eddie Cockrell said it was "a bipartisan, upbeat celebration of democracy's delicate membrane and can-do spirit".  There's some other raves out there, but we'll spare the piling on (you can also find a negative review or two of the "nothing newsworthy happens" variety, which one might argue is beside the point, but one might also be biased).

Hope you can come out this weekend to the IFC Center - say hello.

The Monday Brief: Debunking Brandeis Citation in Berlinger Ruling, BABIES Rule Mother's Day & Hot Docs Wrapping

With the close of Hot Docs yesterday, we can finally exhale after a non-stop stretch of key film festivals that has swallowed up most of spring thus far - and for the majority of us (certainly those not headed to the south of France), we now have a few weeks to rest before the June festival onslaught hits...

That gives us a moment to reflect on the year thus far and the film's that are making an impact.  Earlier today we posted the first edition of the 2010 Nonfiction Feature Honor Roll, our annual round-up of festival (and, later in the year, critics and end-of-year) prizes.  No surprise that Laura Poitras' THE OATH - which has seemingly shown up with raves at every major fest this year - leads this year's list, followed by Jeff Malmberg's SXSW sensation MARWENCOL and Lucy Walker's audience fave, WASTE LAND.

But it's a film from 2009 that leads The Brief today and what it may mean for nonfiction filmmakers everywhere...

Many are still trying to figure out just how to react to the surprisingly broad ruling from US District Court Judge Lewis A. Kaplan that may force filmmaker Joe Berlinger to turn over more than 600 hours of outtakes from his film, CRUDE, to the Chevron corporation.  As we noted Saturday, Chevron argued that the outtakes may help them defend themselves in a lawsuit brought by Ecuadorians over water contamination, charges which were detailed in Berlinger's film.

In his decision, Kaplan referenced former Supreme Court justice Louis Brandeis' comment that "sunlight is said to be the best of disinfectants", which didn't sit well with Frank Smyth of the Society to Protect Journalists:

"The irony in the judge’s choice of language is as thick as crude...

 

What would the late Supreme Court Justice Brandeis think? He made his famous sunlight statement about the need to expose bankers and investors who controlled “money trusts” to stifle competition, and he later railed against not only powerful corporations but the lawyers and other members of the bar who worked to perpetuate their power."

This news is sure to keep developing in the days and weeks to come.

Meanwhile, after months of slow going at the documentary box office, this weekend saw three major debuts and the continued success of the Disneynature franchise.

A FILM UNFINISHED, THE OATH and MARWENCOL Lead Hot Docs Winners

Last night in a rainy and blustery Toronto, the annual Hot Docs Awards ceremony was held with the top prize for Best International Documentary going to Yael Hersonski's A FILM UNFINISHED, which explores a long lost Nazi propaganda film about the Warsaw ghetto.  A FILM UNFINISHED had its World Premiere at this year's Sundance Film Festival, where it took the editing prize in the World Cinema Documentary competition.

The Special Jury prize went to Laura Poitras' THE OATH, the latest in a string of spring festival prizes for that film, which coincidentally opens this weekend at the IFC Center in New York.

Jeff Malmberg's MARWENCOL and Josh Fox' GASLAND were the two other films named as the jury's shortlist of films in the International competition.  Both of those films were runners-up to THE OATH at festivals in April (MARWENCOL getting the Special Jury prize in Boston and GASLAND receiving the same award in Sarasota).

[Personal note, I had twittered en route to Toronto that my three favorite docs of the year thus far were GASLAND, MARWENCOL and THE OATH.  I haven't seen A FILM UNFINISHED yet although am certainly keen to now that it has been singled out with those other three films.]

In addition to MARWENCOL being named a finalist in the international competition, director Malmberg received the HBO Emerging Artist award from the jury at Hot Docs (which included filmmakers Chris Hegedus and Gonzalo Arijon and DGA Canada President Sturla Gunnarsson).

The Canadian jury gave their top award to Shelley Saywell's IN THE NAME OF THE FAMILY, a film about young Muslim women in Canada.  The Special Jury prize went to John Zaritsky's LEAVE THEM LAUGHING, which profiles the comedian Carla Zilbersmith as she battles ALS.

Best short film was awarded to TUSSILAGO, an animated film by Swedish director Jonas Odell.  Best Mid-length Doc went to Tomer Haymann's I SHOT MY LOVE.

indieWIRE's Peter Knegt has more, including jury statements, from Toronto.

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.

The Monday Brief: MARWENCOL Victorious, Hot Docs Lineups & What to Say About Elinor Burkett, Film Critics & The Conversation

Flying back to Los Angeles from Cleveland, where locals are putting the wraps on the latest edition of their staggeringly successful regional film festival.  With jammed corridors like I’d never seen before and uniformly packed screenings (a new record of 71,000 tickets sold), the Cleveland International Film Festival has developed an exceptionally loyal and curious fan base (one that reaches far outside the Cleveland metropolitan area), resulting in a festival that sets a high benchmark on the regional circuit and…

It was in Cleveland last night where two docs stood in the spotlight.  First and foremost, Jeff Malmberg's MARWENCOL continued its hot streak, picking up its second Jury Prize in less than two weeks – it took the title at SXSW last week (see our summary of the early reviews of the film here.  The film will next go to top fests Ashland in Oregon, IFFBoston and San Francisco International.

In addition, another documentary, LOUDER THAN A BOMB, a world premiere that follows participants in a poetry slam in Chicago, took two prize in Cleveland - the coveted Audience Award as well as the Greg Gund Memorial Standing Up Prize, given to the top social justice film.

As Cleveland was wrapping, another spring festival favorite, Don Hahn’s WAKING SLEEPING BEAUTY (which screened at True/False and SXSW) kicked off its theatrical run, opening on five screens for a solid weekend estimate of $6,620 per screen.  The Disney distributed film on the fall and rise of the studio’s animation unit in the late ‘80s/early ‘90s is heading to Full Frame and Sarasota in the next few weeks.

While we've been on a bit of an extended hiatus (or at least slowdown), several top fests have posted their line-ups.  Hot Docs announced this past week that they will open with Thomas Balmès’ French doc BABIES - which was acquired by Focus Features at last year's Cannes Film Festival.  Said Focus topper James Schamus at the time:

“Seeing these little heroes during their formative moments makes Baby(ies) an extraordinarily entertaining experience, one that will appeal to any viewer of any age in any part of the world.  With this movie, Thomas is re-defining the nonfiction art form.”

Hot Docs has slated 25 films in its International Spectrum section of the festival, including festival favorites THE OATH, THE INVENTION OF DR. NAKAMATS, MARWENCOL, HIS & HERS and GASLAND.  Here's the full list:

HOT DOCS 2010
INTERNATIONAL SPECTRUM

AISHEEN (STILL ALIVE IN GAZA)
Directed by Nicolas Wadimoff (Qatar/Switzerland)

AUTUMN GOLD
Directed by Jan Tenhaven (Austria/Germany)

CHEMO
Directed by Pawel Lozinski (Poland)

DADDY'S GIRLS
Directed by Lily Sheffy (Isreal)

DAVID WANTS TO FLY
Directed by David Sieveking (Germany/Austria/Switzerland)

DISORDER
Directed by Huang Weikai (China)

FEATHERED COCAINE
Directed by Thorkell Hardarsson and Orn Marino Arnarson (Iceland)

A FILM UNFINISHED
Directed by Yael Hersonski (Isreal)

FLOWERS IN THE DESERT
Directed by José Alvarez (Mexico)

GASLAND
Directed by Josh Fox (USA)

GENERAL ORDERS NO. 9
Directed by Robert Persons (USA)

HIS & HERS
Directed by Ken Wardrop (Ireland)

I SHOT MY LOVE
Directed by Tomer Heymann (Isreal/Germany)

INTO ETERNITY
Directed by Michael Madsen (Sweden/Finland)

THE INVENTION OF DR. NAKAMATS
Directed by Kasper Astrup Schröder (Denmark)

ITO - A DIARY OF AN URBAN PRIEST
Directed by Pirjo Honkasalo (Finland)

MARWENCOL
Directed by Jeff Malmberg (USA)

THE OATH
Directed by Laura Poitras (USA)

THE PLAYER
Directed by John Appel (Netherlands)

THE REGRETTERS
Directed by Marcus Lindeen (Sweden)

SONA, THE OTHER MYSELF
Directed by Yang Yonghi (Japan/South Korea)

STEAM OF LIFE
Directed by Joonas Berghall and Mika Hotakainen (Finland)

TANKOGRAD
Directed by Boris Bertram (Denmark)

THIEVES BY LAW
Directed by Alexander Gentelev (Isreal/Germany)

WISTFUL WILDERNESS
Directed by Digma Sinke (Netherlands)

In addition to Hot Docs, IFFBoston also announced their strong line-up, including nearly 40 nonfiction features.  THE OATH, MARWENCOL and HIS & HERS will screen here as well - along with a number of other notable titles, including BANANAS!*, CASINO JACK AND THE UNITED STATES OF MONEY, COLONY, ERASING DAVID, FAMILY AFFAIR, HOW TO FOLD A FLAG, I'M DANGEROUS WITH LOVE, JOAN RIVERS: A PIECE OF WORK, SATURDAY NIGHT, WAR DON DON and our own CONVENTION.

In one more bit of spring festival news, Tribeca announced today that they will close their 2010 festival with the ensemble doc FREAKONOMICS, featuring new work from an all-star line-up of docmakers, including Morgan Spurlock, Alex Gibney, Heidi Ewing and Rachel Grady, Seth Gordon and Eugene Jarecki.

And one more thing...  Part of the reason why I’ve been so slack over the past few weeks is that I’ve been editing my new film (and I’m desperately trying to keep my priorities in order).  But another reason why I haven’t been able to muster together Monday Briefs the past three weeks is that I’ve been at somewhat of a loss to add anything of substance to the various debates du jour.  

I mean, what really is there to say about Elinor Burkett that wasn’t said by the late night comedians?  And seriously, are any of us happy that the most famous documentarian on Oscar night is a loud-mouthed punchline?  Or that after months of THE COVE’s steady march to Oscar glory, that film’s director wasn’t allowed to speak about the reason that he made the film – unfurled banner or second speaker rules be damned.

And what to add to the latest rounds of film critic wars and woes?  Armond White vs. J. Hoberman?  Glenn Kenny vs. Eric Kohn?  The pink-slipping of sometime documentarian and longtime film critic Todd McCarthy by the imploding Variety?  The cancellation of “At the Movies”, just as the series seemed to have a rebirth (and more focus on documentaries) with the hiring of the NY Times’ A.O. Scott and the Chicago Tribune’s Michael Phillips.  And the less said about Kevin Smith, the better.  All this in just three weeks. I mean, it was nearly four years ago when I wrote “Dog Days for Film Critics”, but who could imagine it would get so much worse so quickly.

Which is not to say that this stuff doesn’t matter.  It does.  It matters that the biggest platform that documentary filmmakers have all year was hijacked by a lucky-to-be-nominated producer (don’t run off at the mouth about how you don’t like the finished film and how your vision isn’t on the screen at the same time that you clutch your little gold man) and an overeager activist/show director.  Looking idiotic on television is not good for our brand, if that must be said aloud.

And the state of our film criticism union is not strong.  And that matters to us as well.  Check out Rotten Tomatoes year end lists of the best reviewed films of the year.  It’s consistently dominated by nonfiction features.  Now, as much as I love docs, I gotta admit I find it a little hard to believe that we are really that much better than narrative films, but I will take any bit of leverage I can to get our films out before an audience that needs to be convinced that we are entertaining, cinematic and theatrical.

And what to make of The Conversation, a much tweeted about gathering of the usual suspects in New York and the latest attempt to grasp hold of some sense of balance as the ground keeps shifting underneath our industry.  Maybe one day one of these events will come up with the big answers, but for now it seems like a constant cry for filmmakers to find more ways to be innovative (and spend more time marketing and promoting their films - for free, naturally) while the "industry" types pontificate.  How many of the folks speaking at The Conversation actually pay filmmakers and vendors what they say they will? And they charge filmmakers to watch this stuff?

So, alas and alack, I have thoughts but no answers.  And I'm probably as much of a usual suspect as those on the dais in New York.  But I'm quickly looking forward to some new things to have conversations about.

The Monday Brief: VIDEOCRACY & OCTOBER COUNTRY Open Well, More Sundance Sales & Can Anything Stop THE COVE?

Happy President's Day and Happy Day After Valentines Day as the Sundance sales and THE COVE's onward march toward Oscar continues.  But first...

It was a good (if not mind-blowing) weekend at the box office for two of our favorite documentaries of 2009, both kicking off exclusive runs at New York's IFC Center. 

Erik Gandini's VIDEOCRACY, which premiered at Toronto and took the Jury Prize at Sheffield, opened with a 3-day take of $10,000, according to figures at indieWIRE.  While the film had mixed reviews (at least Manohla gets it, while most of the other reviews seem to be at a loss to explain what they've just watched), the Lorber Films release was the top doc (per screen) of the weekend.

Meanwhile Michael Palmieri and Donal Mosher's OCTOBER COUNTRY, nominated for Best Doc at the Spirit Awards, winner of two Cinema Eye Honors and recipient of nearly unanimous positive notices, made $7,500 at the same theatre.  The film explands to Los Angeles and Portland, Oregon this week.

Last night, at the ACE awards (no, not the old Cable Ace awards, the American Cinema Editors), THE COVE continued its sweep of the 2010 documentary prizes.  While the film came up empty in the early going (including getting shut out of Best Doc nominations at the Gothams, Spirits and IDA Awards), the film began a December film critics' sweep that has carried well over into 2010.  Adding the Documentary Editing prize after awards from the Producers Guild and Directors Guild (not to mention three wins at Cinema Eye), it's pretty hard at this point not to expect the film to go the distance and win the Oscar.

Add to the awards bounty the fact that THE COVE continues to make news - announcing this week that a Japanese theatrical release had finally been secured - and a Oscar vote for that film suddenly becomes a vote for making real change.  Even though each of the other four nominees plays to the Academy's liberal heartstrings, none seems to offer the seemingly visceral chance to make a difference that THE COVE does.  Even the NY Times' Carpetbagger gets into the act:

"The filmmakers behind THE COVE have been open about their goal: not to win an Oscar – though they wouldn’t mind – but to stop the dolphin slaughter that the documentary depicts. They may have moved one step closer to that goal with the news that the Oscar-nominated film, which shows a secret dolphin-killing field in Taiji, Japan, will now be distributed in Japan...

"'To me the awards are the collateral in hopefully trying to create this awareness to stop what’s going on there,” [director Louie Psihoyos] said, though he did acknowledge that the Oscar nomination has made his next feature, about the effect of acidification on the oceans, easier to finance. “Career-wise, just having a nomination is an amazing achievement for everybody associated with the film,” he said. “But the real reason to try to win, for me, is that then you have 45 seconds to talk to the Japanese people. You have a platform.'"