All these wonderful things

Gail Dolgin, Oscar-Nominated Director of DAUGHTER FROM DANANG, Has Died

Gail Dolgin, who along with co-director Vincente Franco, was nominated for the Best Documentary Feature Oscar in 2003 for DAUGHTER FROM DANANG, has died from cancer at 65.

Although Dolgin passed away on October 7, word is just now reaching some in the documentary and independent film community, following obituaries yesterday in Variety and the LA Times.  ITVS' Beyond the Box Blog featured a tribute by Senior Programming Manager Richard Saiz one week ago:

"Personally, it was always a pleasure to work with Gail.  She was a complete professional who not only created powerful documentaries, but also contributed to ITVS as a skillful and insightful panelist and reader for Open Call.

Beneath the cool intellect and measured demeanor, was the fervent spirit of a woman motivated by a desire to examine America’s history through the documentary. Gail believed in the power of  television to enlighten and educate American audiences about our character as a nation."

DAUGHTER FROM DANANG won the Grand Jury prize at the 2002 Sundance Film Festival prior to its Oscar nomination in what ended up being a turning-point year for documentaries and the Academy.  Dolgin, along with her fellow nominees, joined Oscar winner Michael Moore onstage as he attacked the Bush administration in the early days of the Iraq war. 

Balcony Releasing co-founder Connie White wrote us today of her experience working with Dolgin on DANANG:

"I guess I could simply say that Gail was so special to me. DAUGHTER FROM DANANG was the first film Balcony Releasing distributed - in fact the company was created in order to distribute her film - and we both learned as we went along. She actually revelled in that situation, seemed to enjoy being our first project and encouraged me to pursue other distribution projects after DFD was finished in theaters. She was so energetic and engaged in her work and her friendships. What a loss for all of us!"

Interview: Previewing Sundance 2010 with Doc Programmers David Courier and Caroline Libresco

Last week I sat down with David Courier and Caroline Libresco, Sundance's team leaders for the documentary line-up.  We talked at length about this year's amazing slate of films, changes brought about by the departure of Geoffrey Gilmore and the ascension of John Cooper & Trevor Groth, and look back on a breakthrough decade for documentary and Sundance's role in creating an environment for that breakthrough.

Perhaps most interesting to filmmakers (or to me at least) is the discussion of the thin line between getting into Sundance and not getting in to Sundance.  

It was a great conversation with a lot of laughter - I'm going to run it in two parts because it got fairly extensive.

All These Wonderful Things:  First I want to ask, because the list is so amazing on paper – did you know you were going to get submissions from that caliber of A-list directors, did you know they were coming or were you like, “oh my God, here’s another great film from another great filmmaker”?

David Courier:  Yeah, we kind of did.  We’d been tracking them for a while.  In the case of certain ones like (Alex Gibney’s) CASINO JACK, he’s been working on that for years, and we knew he was ready so it was likely, I mean we were hoping it was going to come our way and not go elsewhere.  And sure enough, it’s what he wanted to do.  Laura Poitras’ film, same thing.

Caroline Libresco:  Totally, and Davis Guggenheim and Amir (Bar-Lev), we'd been tracking.  Those I feel were in our consciousness already.

DC:  A couple of those – CASINO JACK and (Bar-Lev’s PAT) TILLMAN film – we were hoping to get last year.

ATWT:  Yeah, I think Amir had said that one point they thought they might have been ready…

CL: Yeah, I remember that.

DC:  Glad they waited.  It’s really exciting.

CL:  But I think that it’s a really tough competition, that’s kind of the underlying question under your question, because there are so many consummate American documentarians.  And if each of them has a film every 3 or 4 years, there’s a lot of great films out there.

ATWT:  We just did the new film festival survey and Sundance is number one, not surprisingly.  But one thing I noticed, I kind of have this theory that Sundance is that its almost like the Cannes of documentary to the extent that the list of people – Oscar winners, Oscar nominees, the crème de la crème of the American documentary scene – that when these people are making films they want to come to Sundance, in the way that if the Coen Brothers make a film or if Soderburgh makes a film, maybe they’re aiming for Cannes as a premiere.  Do you think that’s because Sundance offers a good Oscar platform?  Is it because the distributors are expecting to find the great docs there?  Why has Sundance stepped in to fill that position in a way that it doesn’t really do on the narrative side?

DC:  Well, I think partly because Sundance, years ago, elevated documentaries to be on a par with narrative films which is unlike so many festivals.  In fact, not only “on a par”, they’re first in our catalog.  They get so much attention.  We just have given documentary filmmakers the respect that they’re due and not that many festivals do.  I mean, it’s always like, if you’re at another festival, it’s like "the other".

Do You Know Grace Lee?

Last night I was able to check out the film The Grace Lee Project at the Los Angeles Film Festival. The director, Grace Lee (of course) goes out in search of other women who share her name to discover if they also share similar character traits and experiences. Specifically, she focuses on 5 or 6 Asian-American women named Grace Lee and finds that while they may have outward similarities, if you dig a little deeper you find some complex individuals (although they do all seem to be very nice, a common character trait of "Grace Lee's", says the film.)

Grace (the filmmaker) and I went to college together and had a number of friends and activities in common. I had this vague idea that she was a filmmaker but was never sure if the Grace Lee I kept hearing about was indeed the woman I knew back in Columbia, Missouri. I was excited to see the film and glad to enjoy it as much as I did. She acutely navigates the difficulties of a personal narrative documentary and manages to come across in a way that is both light-hearted and introspective.