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.
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.
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.
Thinking back over this past year, I started to ponder those who had made our community a better place. Whether they supported films and filmmakers, launched new initiatives or just spoke plainly, these folks are creating and sustaining a universe wherein those of us who make and watch nonfiction can benefit.
Here's to the nonfiction heroes of 2008 (in alphabetical order):
Heather Croall Heather works as hard as anyone in the festival world and has (nearly) singlehandedly pulled Sheffield into the top ranks of international doc fests. And when BritDoc was on the ropes, she found ways to pull some of the best of BritDoc into her own festival.
Matt Dentler Matt ended his stint at SXSW having made that festival a premiere showcase for diverse nonfiction. In his new role at Cinetic Rights Management, he's taking his patented promo skills and devoting them to getting docs (new and old) seen online.
Anthony Falzone At Standford's Center for Internet and Society, Falzone has led efforts to expand fair use rights in documentary film. His work representing the producers of EXPELLED against suits by Yoko Ono and EMI led to major victories for all filmmakers.
Let's get one thing out of the way. There will be no outraged commentary this year. For one, we've tried to swear that kind of thing off after last year's debacle and our subsequent response. For another, despite the numerous flaws in the Academy's process (and Lord knows they are legion), it's not a terrible shortlist this year, despite some high profile omissions.
In fact, the Academy, through no fault of its own, managed to include veterans (Errol Morris, Werner Herzog, Steve James & Peter Gilbert, Stacy Peralta) as well as first timers (Ellen Kuras, Jeremiah Zagar) and still found room for the two front-runners (James Marsh's MAN ON WIRE and Carl Deal & Tia Lessin's TROUBLE THE WATER). This despite a process that made it ever increasingly simple to qualify for Academy eligibility.
Here is our annual in-depth look at the 15 films that have been shortlisted by the Motion Picture Academy in the Best Documentary Feature category and the facts and figures behind them.
THE NEW RULES
There was, as usual, a lot of talk going into this year's Oscar season about the new Academy eligibility rules. In this case (as opposed to the last few years), the rules were loosened to allow films to qualify more easily - and this (along with a glance at some of the heretofore unheard of titles that were suddenly in contention) made some wonder if this year's Shortlist might be strewn with a bunch of films that most had never heard of.
This turned out to be unfounded as 14 of the 15 films (BLESSED IS THE MATCH being the exception) made a dent either at one of the year's top festivals or in theatrical release.
That doesn't mean that the new rules actually work. After all, five of the year's highest profile films - [email protected], WALTZ WITH BASHIR, STANDED (all nominated by the IDA), UP THE YANGTZE and SURFWISE were ineligible for this year's awards.
LAST HURRAH FOR MATT DENTLER
While SXSW has long been a launching pad for successful docs, this year 3 of the films on the list premiered this March in Austin - AT THE DEATH HOUSE DOOR, IN A DREAM and THEY KILLED SISTER DOROTHY a nice going-away present to departed SXSW programming chief Matt Dentler. That compares favorably to returning (and usual) champ Sundance, which premiered 6 films (up from five in 2006 & 2007). Toronto 2007 first screened two of the films, with one each for Silverdocs, Tribeca, Berlin and the Toronto Jewish Film Festival.
SNUBBED
Through the year, many Oscar prognosicators speculated that Marina Zenovich's ROMAN POLANSKI: WANTED AND DESIRED, a Sundance award winner acquired by HBO, would be a certain shortlister (this despite the Academy's long tendancy to overlook celebrity pics, music or otherwise).
The other big surprise is the absence of RELIGULOUS, which is hands down the top box office nonfiction of the year, a stat that usually gets a film shortlisted and ultimately nominated.
Lots of other disappointments, including Margaret Brown's THE ORDER OF MYTHS and Nanette Burstein's AMERICAN TEEN, which leads us to...
NO LOVE FOR THE LADIES
Two years ago, women filmmakers dominated the shortlist. This year, just two films (the aforementioned BLESSED IS THE MATCH and PRAY THE DEVIL BACK TO HELL) were credited solely to a female filmmaker. Last year, only one film had that distinction. (TROUBLE THE WATER and THE BETRAYAL have one woman sharing credit with a man, although Ellen Kuras gets the primary credit on THE BETRAYAL.) Brown, Burstein and Zenovich are among the filmmakers missing from this year's list.
THE 2007 SHORTLIST - PART THE FIRST
This year, we'll be splitting what is always a pretty gargantuan task into 3 parts, so starting off - and in alphabetical order - here are the first five films from this year's Shortlist:
Festival premiere - SXSW Additional festivals of note - Full Frame, Hot Docs, BritDoc Festival laurels - Inspiration Award, Full Frame
Cinema Eye Eligible? - Yes IDA Nomination - Gotham Nomination - No
Distribution: Produced by IFC, aired on the network in May Theatrical gross to date -
Sample review: "(T)he confluence of (subject Carroll Pickett's) crisis of conscience with old-fashioned,
investigative journalism allows the film to examine questions about
justice and morality without seeming didactic. - Loren King, Chicago Tribune
Our thoughts: "Gilbert and James fill the frame with Pickett's weathered face, to the
point where one senses the emotion that remains bottled up inside from
the smallest glance. It's heartbreaking when, later in the film,
Pickett's wife wonders aloud whether that these audio records (which
fill several boxes, such is the frequency of Pickett's task) are
essentially his tears."
Notes: Famously shunned by the Academy for their landmark HOOP DREAMS, James was shortlisted several years ago for his very personal STEVIE. A slight surprise only because it was unclear whether the film's IFC broadcast would jeopardize its eligibility. Although made for TV, reflects IFC's desire to make back theatrical-quality docs. The network's previous strong contender in this category - Kirby Dick's THIS FILM IS NOT YET RATED - never advanced to the shortlist.
Festival premiere - Sundance Additional festivals of note - Berlin, Full Frame, Hot Docs, Silverdocs, IDFA Festival laurels - Spectrum Award, Full Frame
Cinema Eye Eligible? - Yes IDA Nomination - No Gotham Nomination - No
Distribution: Cinema Guild. Will air on PBS' P.O.V.
Sample review: "More than two decades in the making, this heartfelt debut docu feature by veteran cinematographer Ellen Kuras brings an affecting personal dimension to a sprawling sociopolitical narrative, intimately detailing how the agendas designed to advance the interests of nations can destroy individual lives." - Scott Foundas, Variety
Notes: The first nonfiction feature for indie film stalwart Kuras was greatly talked about when it premiered in Park City, not just for what many took for granted would be beautiful images from the acclaimed DP. Audiences were inspired by the 23-years-in-the-making, emotional tale of one man's life (the co-director Phrasavath) amidst the Laotian refugees of the Vietnam war.
Directed by Roberta Grossman IMDb page Rotten Tomatoes page - No
Festival premiere - Toronto Jewish Film Festival
Cinema Eye Eligible? - No IDA Nomination - No Gotham Nomination - No
Distribution: Appears to be self-distributed
Notes: Filling the annual slot of the film that seemingly comes out of nowhere is, not surprisingly, also this year's Holocaust documentary on the shortlist. The film was featured in the memorable NY Times article from late August titled "Documentaries Court the Academy, Not Viewers" which led to strong responses from Toronto Film Festival programmer Thom Powers as well as from these parts. In that article, director Grossman said, "I didn't advertise, I didn't seek reviews. My goal for this run was to qualify for the Academy Awards, period."
Festival premiere - Toronto 2007 Additional festivals of note - IDFA, Full Frame, Silverdocs
Cinema Eye Eligible? - Yes IDA Nomination - Yes, Career Achievement Award for Herzog Gotham Nomination - Yes, Best Documentary Feature
Distribution: THINKFilm Theatrical gross to date -$944,933
Sample review: "That great eccentric poet of cinema Werner Herzog (GRIZZLY MAN, THE WHITE DIAMOND) trains his cameras on Antarctica and finds visual splendor and seductive danger on the frozen continent, from those who dive below the sea to penguins who consider prostitution. Herzog gets inside the minds and hearts of the people who live there and study its mysteries. Herzog is one of a kind. His new doc is an event you watch in awe as you marvel at its wonders." - Peter Travers, Rolling Stone
Notes: Surprisingly left off the shortlist for GRIZZLY MAN, Herzog now seems to be one of the frontrunners for an Oscar nomination for ENCOUNTERS. If so, it would be his first - in fiction or nonfiction. There's been a newfound appreciation in the documentary establishment for Herzog since the GRIZZLY snub and this year's IDA career award is yet one more sign that Herzog's stock is rising amongst that crowd. The film may also be remembered as one of the last successes of THINKFilm, which released the film successfully in the midst of financial and corporate turmoil.
Festival premiere - Sundance Additional festivals of note - Full Frame, Hot Docs, BritDoc Festival laurels - Audience Award, Sundance
Cinema Eye Eligible? - Not currently. IDA Nomination - No Gotham Nomination - No
Distribution: Currently on a tour of selected theaters . Theatrical gross to date - Not reported.
Sample review: "Fields of Fuel isn't one of your artsy documentaries, but the clear, concise way in which Tickell presents the information and its relevance given the situation with the oil supply, the war in Iraq, and prices at the gas pump, seem to resonate with audiences." - Kim Voynar, Cinematical
Notes: Tickell was an activist before he was a filmmaker. The founder of the Biodiesel America Organization, he has written two books and was one of the first proponents of vegetable oil for fueling diesel cars. His film, which screened at Sundance as FIELDS OF FUEL, is equally activist in nature and features interviews with numerous celebrities and politicians. It's the big green doc in this year's race and that may be of interest to the folks to honored the teachy INCONVENIENT TRUTH.
Trailer:
Ten more documentary features, including frontrunners MAN ON WIRE and TROUBLE THE WATER coming soon in part 2 & part 3 of our IN DEPTH look at this year's documentary feature race.
Come the new year, we will sit down for the second time to compose our summaries of the best festivals for documentary (here's the first), and when we do, this may well be the text of my thoughts on BritDoc, which on Friday wrapped its third edition in Oxford:
BritDoc is not for you. And by you, we mean Americans.
After two years of including us Yanks in an International Competition and showcase, they have shown us the door, focusing instead on their first priority, connecting British filmmakers with funders, festival programmers and networking opportunities. Their Facebook profile might as well have been changed to read: "Looking for: Friendship, Networking, Whatever I Can Get (Brits preferred)."
Further cementing the focus on the home team, the 2008 edition was stripped of its international competition and replaced by a "Best of Fests" sidebar, featuring films from a handful of world class film festivals: Sundance, Toronto, IDFA, SXSW & Berlin. So, keep it moving, nothing to see here. No need for you to go to BritDoc.
And yet....
What if we said that despite the fact that there's not really a place for the Americans at BritDoc, that there's no room for you (the fest might have reached full capacity in '08), that there's no hue and cry for you to show, that you should think of going anyway.
And by saying you should think of going, we absolutely mean that you should stay home, because we like it just as it is, actually, and more Americans trying to upset the apple cart might just make the whole thing a little less, dare we say, awesome.
Yes, BritDoc is the True/False of the UK, and saying that is both a compliment as well as selling both True/False and BritDoc a wee bit short. While it shares True/False's sense of college town collegiality, it lacks T/F's manic and enthusiastic crowds (most of the screenings at BritDoc are well attended but it's rare to find a sell out), but it bares a few things that T/F does not, mainly an enviable list of industry types in a heretofore uncluttered setting. The pitches (as we wrote about previously) are the best of their kind and Oxford is small enough that you can actually get some face time with people who may have the power to greenlight (or contribute toward your new project).
However, and this is big - and perhaps necessary before someone is allowed to set foot on the grounds of Keble College, BritDoc's HQ for the week - it would be a good idea if attendees were given a few more rules re: the approaching of commissioners and others. Cringe-worthy it was to view one-on-one pitch meetings, whether in formal or informal settings (and it's hard to think of a meeting space more lovely than the main lawn at Keble - well there is a certain social club in east London, but that is besides the point), interrupted by overzealous filmmakers.
Word to the unwise filmmaker: you're a rude bastard, you are. Not only are you making a terrible first impression with the commissioner or producer, but you're betraying a fellow filmmaker who already figured out how to do it the right way. So do one and all a favor: observe, make small entreaties - potentially through someone else (a festival representative? another filmmaker?), be patient. If you're really in it for the long haul, there's no good reason to to lead with your worst foot forward.
But I digress...
I was fortunate enough to be invited to BritDoc last year with ABOUT A SON (when they still had that international competition - I didn't win, by the way, but neither did eventual Oscar winner TAXI TO THE DARK SIDE or Cinema Eye winners MONASTERY or BILLY THE KID) and even more fortunate to be asked back to serve on this year's British Feature Jury with Sheffield Doc/Fest director Heather Croall and filmmaker Pawel Pawlikowski.
I've been honored to serve on a number of juries during the past year (I seem to be on the "year after tour", invited back one year after screening my film - which one hopes reflects well on my behaviour in 2007). While the jury selected James Marsh's MAN ON WIRE as the competition winner (my initial thoughts on the film from Sundance are here), there were a number of films that screened in Oxford that are worth looking out for.
We awarded an Honourable Mention to John Dower for his film THRILLER IN MANILLA, a re-examination of the classic boxing match between Muhammad Ali and Smokin' Joe Frazier, that dared to up-end our current hero worship of Ali (fomented in no small part by the Oscar winning WHEN WE WERE KINGS and the decision by Sports Illustrated to name Ali the top sportsman of the 20th century (not to mention the Michael Mann/Will Smith vehicle). By focusing on Frazier's story, rather than Ali's, Dower successfully cracks at Ali's veneer of perfection and reveals how its possible that one superstar athlete is accorded fame and adulation while another scrapes by.
While THRILLER is presented in a straightforward manner (and, in my opinion, should lose the distracting "British TV" narration in such a classic American story - at times you'd think they were examining the lost tribes), it's fast-paced, incredibly suspenseful and could have a theatrical life in the US. In any case, HBO should grab the film (if they haven't already).
Another film that caught our attention was Richard Parry's BLOOD TRAIL, the examination of a young, unfocused man who travels to war-torn Sarajevo in the early 1990s in hopes of becoming a war photographer. Following the man's story over more than a decade, Parry constructs a film that succeeds on a number of levels, not least as it deals with memory, war and the passage of time. Parry, who also served as a journalist during the war in Yugoslavia, lingers throughout with his own camera, somehow always observing without invading. The images are so stunningly rendered that it's often difficult to believe that some of the footage was actually shot more than 15 years ago.
Jerry Rothwell, who co-directed last year's DEEP WATER, returned to BritDoc with HEAVY LOAD, a film that he pitched at the first BritDoc two years ago (where IFC's Evan Shapiro came aboard with financing). The film received a rapturous response from BritDoc audiences (it was not a surprise it took the Audience Award) and it's easy to see why. Rothwell uses the conventions of the music doc - meet band, band has troubles, band perseveres, band triumphs, close credits - to great affect in a film that has an unusual subtext - 3 of the members of Heavy Load have learning disabilities.
While there were mixed feelings about Rothwell's presence in the film (it opens and closes on him, with the ostensible rationalization that Rothwell is discovering something about finding one's bliss as he spends time with the band), HEAVY LOAD works ultimately because Rothwell is able to get the band to be honest about their hopes, fears and ultimately their frustrations. It's on that last point - as the band begins to launch a campaign to allow the developmentally disabled to stay out later than 9 PM - that the film transcends the conventions of a typical music doc.
While I was favorably inclined toward all of the films that I saw (including the popular US hit [email protected]), I want to briefly note two other titles - Nicola Collins' THE END, a stylish (it was not a surprise that she acted in Guy Ritchie's SNATCH, since the film sometimes feels like a compilation of excerpts from that film's cutting room floor) and concise look at East End gangsters in sunset years, and Jerermy Gilley's THE DAY AFTER PEACE, a sequel to his earlier PEACE ONE DAY, which chronicled his attempt to launch an International Peace Day. Now that the U.N. has officially adapted IPD, the new installment looks at Gilley's efforts to get nations around the world to commit to recognizing the day with cease fires or other humanitarian endeavours. The film is very British (it has that unquantifiable mix of social justice, reality television and, oh look, it's Jude Law!), but it's effectively structured and polished. While the audience may initially be wary toward Gilley (who directs and serves as lead crusading character), he throws enough skepticism toward his efforts to pay off in the end. But, man, a little Jude Law sure goes a long way.
By Friday night, the films and panels and pitches and keynotes (see Matt Dentler's notes on Larry Charles unveiling of RELIGULOUS clips here and his summary for indieWIRE here) and eyeliner (again see Dentler -- and, frankly, for the Brits as well as the Americans, if you have to ask, you apparently didn't get the memo) began to cluster around the participants as they boarded trains and coaches back to London. Conventional wisdom was that despite tweaks and changes (and the loss of the beloved punk rock karaoke), BritDoc 3.0 was an unqualified success.
Keep that in mind when we inform that BritDoc '09 is not for you.
Via Eugene, a send-off from the Austin Chronicle as Matt Dentler officially hangs up his badge:
"He likes to say he came of age alongside SXSW Film (when he moves to New York in June for the Cinetic job, he'll still be well shy of 30). When Dentler took the reins, SXSW Film was considered something of an afterthought in the crowded festival landscape – larky and "Austin weird." Dentler made sure to retain those elements that drew people in the first place but to also hustle hard – what he calls 'getting the vote out.'
'I [would go] door to door with all the distributors, all the agents, all the press, all these people, and just be like: 'Hey! Please pay attention to us.''"
The article goes on to credit Matt with the mumblecore phenomenon and the career of Eli Roth, which some might think are fairly dubious distinctions.
So let me add the third: Matt played the major role in making SXSW one of the most important festivals for documentary film in the world.
As I noted in my film festival survey in February:
"One could watch the doc lineups from Sundance and SXSW and get a pretty comprehensive idea of what's happening in the world of nonfiction filmmaking. But whereas Sundance may weigh more heavily on the side of serious topics, SXSW lets its hair down with what is probably the most diverse line-up of all the major full spectrum festivals."
With Janet Pierson taking the reins now in Austin, the festival is in good hands, as is it's nonfiction future. But it's worth taking a moment to man the rails for Dentler as he sets sail for NYC and our collective digital future.
Longtime SXSW Film Festival Producer Matt Dentler is leaving his position at the popular Austin festival to take a new position at Cinetic Media in New York City. Janet Pierson, a fixture in the Austin indie film community (not to mention the larger indie film world), has been named the new producer of the festival. indieWIRE's Brian Brooks has the story:
"I've been a huge fan and supporter of SXSW Film since its inception," commented Pierson in a statement. "I'm thrilled now to take on the challenge of continuing its exciting growth."
This weekend, I had the pleasure of serving on the Best Documentary Feature jury at the Sarasota Film Festival. It was the fourth time that I've been on a jury and was a very enjoyable experience with my friends and colleagues Liesl Copland and Matt Dentler. When we gathered on Saturday for our juror deliberation lunch, we had a wonderfully thoughtful conversation about the eight films in competition - a diverse and well-considered group of films programmed by Tom Hall and Holly Herrick - and after much back and forth, we mutually agreed to give the grand jury prize to STRANDED: I HAVE COME FROM A PLANE THAT CRASHED ON THE MOUNTAINS and a special jury prize to TO SEE IF I'M SMILING.
The latter film I will write about from Hot Docs next week, but wanted to make quick note about the former film, which I had written about when I saw it at True/False in late February. In Columbia, I had a strong reaction to the film's running time (which is over two hours), but noted that I was still deeply impressed with elements of the film, particularly the interviews. Since I was going to be judging it in Sarasota, I wanted to take another look at the film, so I watched a portion of it again when I arrived at the festival. This time, I was less definitive about the film's deliberately slow pacing (although I still would argue for the film to cut down for its rumored theatrical release), sensing that perhaps the filmmaker was conveying something about the length of time that these men were, in fact, stranded. I also recognized that my own feelings about the film's length may be part of my current mindset that almost every film could be shorter. In any case, with some new perspective I went into our deliberations with STRANDED as one of the films that I'd support for the award.
I won't go into more detail about our discussions, but I wanted to write about this because I think it points to something about the jury process that I believe is important for other filmmakers to understand.
Last year, when ABOUT A SON was on the festival circuit, we were in competition at approximately 10 festivals. We won three times. In most cases when we received a prize, we were awarded over a film that had been recognized over us in a previous festival. Different juries talking about different ideas came to different conclusions.
There are all kinds of reasons why filmmakers care about festival awards. There's the branding that a jury award can give you, a set of laurels on your poster or a new talking point that you can use with a distributor. There's often a cash prize (it was $5,000 in Sarasota), which can obviously be of great benefit to a documentary filmmaker. In that context, it can be a bit maddening sometimes on the filmmaker end of this process, wondering why juries make the choices they do. Even as someone who also writes about nonfiction films and covers the festival circuit (with and without my own film in the mix), I get a bit baffled at some jury choices. I'm sure more than one juror has wanted to slug me when I look at them and ask, "How did that happen?"
The truth is, three other jurors in Sarasota (or elsewhere) might have come up with other films to award. I say this not to undercut our own choices, but to recognize that the process is ephemeral and, dare I say, a bit mysterious even to the participants. It's possible that if Liesl, Matt and I gathered a week from now we might have different choices, films having had a longer chance to sit with us.
But in each of the times I've been on this side of the jury process, I've been impressed by the care with which the jurors take in their deliberations. Serving on the Truer Than Fiction nominating committee this past fall made me supremely honored that another committee had chosen to nominate ABOUT A SON the previous year. For filmmakers who have never been on this side, I think it's an important thing to know and to understand.
So my thanks to Liesl, Matt, Tom and Holly and all the filmmakers whose work we got to watch, discuss, consider and debate over. More soon about this year's festivities on the gulf coast...
In one final edition of Catching Up!, we survey the nonfiction landscape headed for the close of 2007:
Paul Thomas Anderson's THERE WILL BE BLOOD, finally in select theaters, topped the 2007 indieWIRE Critics Poll
by a wide margin. David Fincher's ZODIAC and the Coen Brothers NO
COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN were numbers 2 and 3. Not a single nonfiction film
made the top 20. The highest ranking doc on the film chart was INTO GREAT SILENCE, tied at #36. But, when asked for their choices for Best Documentary,
Charles Ferguson's NO END IN SIGHT tops the list (it tied for #47 on
the main chart), followed by INTO GREAT SILENCE at #2, Seth Gordon's
THE KING OF KONG: A FISTFUL OF QUARTERS and Tony Kaye's LAKE OF FIRE
tying at #3 and Jason Kohn's MANDA BALA (SEND A BULLET) at #5. NO END
IN SIGHT also appeared on the Best First Film list, tying for the 11th
spot. Not a single critic named a nonfiction filmmaker as Best
Director (which was handily taken by P.T. Anderson).
The indieWIRE staffers have contributed their own top 10 lists for 2007. Documentary Columnist Agnes Varnum offers non-ranked, non-alphabetical top 10 that includes BILLY THE KID, MANDA BALA, CAT DANCERS, FOREVER, NANKING, PLEASE VOTE FOR ME, THE SUICIDE TOURIST, SICKO, LAKE OF FIRE and OPERATION HOMECOMING.
Speaking of year-end lists, our friends at SXSW have each chosen a Top 7 of '07, and like the festival they run, documentaries are not served as a side dish. Werner Herzog's ENCOUNTERS AT THE END OF THE WORLD topped Lya Guerra and Jarod Neece's Top 7. Neece and Matt Dentler also take note of THE KING OF KONG, with Dentler adding IN THE SHADOW OF THE MOON and Hillary Kirby giving second slot to SXSW premiere HELVETICA.
One of our favorite bloggers, USA Today's Whitney Matheson weighs in with her annual Top 100 People of 2007, and true to form as a big nonfiction booster, there are a number of doc-related individuals on the list. Michael Moore is the top ranked at #31, Ira Glass lands at #51 with the Showtime adaptation of This American Life, KING OF KONG uber-villain (or is that hero) Billy Mitchell comes in at #67, and in the lower 5th of her survey you'll find Tom Petty (he of the lengthy Peter Bogdonavich-helmed doc on the Heartbreakers) at #87, Rev. Billy (the star of WHAT WOULD JESUS BUY?) at #94 and, in what must have been a clerical error, yours truly at #88. Bigger than DJ Lance? How is that possible?
Meanwhile, Focus Features launches a new website for cineastes, manned in part by our friends from Filmmaker Magazine as well as the smart folks at Faber and Faber. It's called FilmInFocus and, set aside the in house promos for Atonement, it looks pretty great. Of specific interest is their Behind the Blog segment, which kicks off appropriately with a look at our common hero, GreenCine Daily's hard working David Hudson.
Michael Tully rejoices in the long awaited DVD releases of the films of Frederick Wiseman.
Lots of doc stuff from earlier this month: the NY Times had an interesting article on AOL's Ted Leonsis and his involvement in bringing forth NANKING. Leonsis hints that his experience with NANKING at Sundance last year has made him think that a new mode of documentary distribution might be very viable:
"Mr. Leonsis declined to elaborate on his own plans, but suggested that
a confluence of Internet technology and advertising dollars might soon
allow for documentaries to be seen by wider audiences outside
traditional theaters and DVDs. “There’s $30 billion of advertising in
search revenue, and they want to put it into YouTube videos, so you
know there’s going to be some breakout things here,” he said."
Dennis Lim talked to Jennifer Venditti about BILLY THE KID - also for the Times.
Politico noted that Oscar shortlisted film BODY OF WAR is still without a buyer. If you loathe Phil Donahue, the comments section (courtesy of the ever-literate readers of the Drudge Report) is a veritable cornucopia of conservative bile.
Late last month, Dixie Chick Natalie Maines asked the band's fans to rally in support of the West Memphis 3, subjects of the Berlinger and Sinofsky films PARADISE LOST.
Variety
writes - once again, JEEZ! - on the slow box office returns of this
year's crop of nonfiction titles and wonders if that will affect the
market at Sundance.
On a similar note, GreenCine Daily's David D'Arcy called for wider release of Nina Davenport's OPERATION FILMMAKER:
"It's a comic documentary allegory of the US adventure in Iraq, seen
through the misadventures of a would-be Iraqi filmmaker who learns that
American charity can be the black hole that nourishes the right
con-man.
Where are the distributors on this one? Huddling somewhere, wondering
why almost nobody went to theaters to see documentaries this past year."
Finally, Danish directors Pernille Rose Gronkjær (THE MONASTERY) and Eva Mulvad (ENEMIES OF HAPPINESS) have launched a beautiful new website - Danish Documentary - where you can buy their DVDs and even book them for lectures.
A few more posts coming soon as we close out the year, including our own 10 Best Nonfiction Films of 2007, a Review of the Year in Nonfiction News, a Recap of the Nonfiction Honor Roll and a Look Ahead to 2008.
SXSW guru Matt Dentler and filmmaker Bryan Poyser have both weighed in recently on the week the looms before us, which Poyser describes as
"the worst, most anxious week for the entire American independent film community."
The cause? Sundance, the holy grail of indie filmmaking, is making its lists, checking them twice, and your gonna find out whether your film is welcomed into the cool embrace of indiewood's elite, or whether you are consigned to the scrap heap of worthless and failed attempts.
Or so one would have us believe.
As Poyser goes on to note:
"(I)f you don't hear anything by maybe Sunday night, you're not in. I've
had at least four Thanksgiving's ruined by waiting for a phone call
that never came - Thanksgiving 2000 (waiting to hear about
Pleasureland), 2003 (Dear Pillow), 2005 (The Cassidy Kids), and 2006
(Grammy's). Of course, great things happened with all of those films
after those sweaty-palmed Turkey Days, but the disappointment when the
line-up announcements did pop up on Indiewire was still thick and
undeniable. A sign of personal growth - the sting was less with each
successive year."
Dentler adds:
"Here's the thing: Sundance will no doubt have an incredible lineup this
year. But, for all those filmmakers who don't make the cut, fear not.
This doesn't spell the end of your film's life, let alone yours. Year
after year, I see filmmakers make themselves sick over this week. Stop
it."
Here's the thing. For so many years, the Sundance myth has been drilled into our heads. Anyone who wants to make independent films sees Sundance as a make-or-break moment for their film, for their careers, for all that is good and holy in the world. But the truth is, while the Sundance brand can be great for a film, it doesn't guarantee success anymore than not premiering at Sundance guarantees failure. Look (if you can) at the controversial Oscar Shortlist. Sure, Sundance premiered more of the films than any other festival, but 2/3 of the list came from elsewhere.
I've been turned down by Sundance almost more times than I can count - films, grants, labs, you name it. And I seem to be doing OK. There actually came a day when I realized, huh, I'm going to do this without Sundance. With that I realized that perhaps I didn't recognize that such a thing was possible.
Oh sure, I'm planning on making enough films that I'll probably screen in Park City at some point. There will be a clerical error or somehow they'll mistake my film with the latest from Cam Archer.
But here's something funny. You can keep a secret, right? Because I've made two films that, generally, people are aware of, there's been so many times when someone has assumed that my films have screened at Sundance. For instance, earlier this year someone said to me, "I loved Gigantic. I saw it at Sundance."
Me: "Oh, on the Sundance Channel?"
Them: "No, at the festival. I think I saw it at the Library."
Me: "Oh. Oh sure. The Library. That's great. Thanks."
Remember, it's a secret.
For me, the excitement of this week is that it begins to close the book on one year's worth of films while teasing you with titles that will soon become second nature to us. MANDA BALA, WAR/DANCE, HEAR AND NOW, NANKING, NO END IN SIGHT, FOR THE BIBLE TELLS ME SO, IN THE SHADOW OF THE MOON, THE UNFORESEEN - all of them completely unknown to us just a year ago, then just a list for a solid month and a half. So to will it be Wednesday and Thursday as the first names of the Class of 2008 are unveiled. And whatever the knocks that Sundance takes occasionally for the films it doesn't program, I tip my hat to the programming team there, all of whom are supremely decent people who have one of the most impossible jobs in indie film yet somehow manage to make it seem sort of effortless.
In the meantime, we must hasten the departure of 2007, and that comes first, with Tuesday's early morning announcement of the nominees for the 2008 Independent Spirit Awards. Much more on those nominations this week.
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