All these wonderful things

TORONTO 2011: Thom Powers on Mavericks Premieres from Maysles & Demme Plus PALIN, PARADISE LOST 3 and "the sexiest Wiseman film ever made"

Earlier today, the Toronto International Film Festival announced the line-up for its Mavericks program, and our eye went immediately to THE LOVE WE MAKE, a decade-in-the-making look at Paul McCartney's organizing of The Concert for New York, a charity response to 9/11, directed by Albert Maysles and Bradley Kaplan. 

The film is set to air on Showtime on September 10 (TIFF opens on the 8th), and McCartney showed up via satellite recently at the Television Critics Association summer press tour to talk about the film - and about his history with the Maysles:

"I first met Albert and his brother David," McCartney recalled, "when we came to America, came to New York, and they were filming us." Their manager, Brian Epstein, had been approached by the Maysles brothers with a pitch to film them in a new way: cinema verite.

"Well, we were very big fans of that," McCartney continued. "That was kind of happening in Europe at the same time it was happening in America. So we loved the idea." And when the quartet met the duo, the Maysles brothers sealed the deal when the Beatles asked what the filmmakers wanted them to do. The reply: "We want you to just ignore us."

McCartney smiled widely. "We thought that was the best piece of direction we'd ever received. 'Oh, ignore you? Yeah, we can do that. I can ignore anyone.' So we did, and we just had a great time. And they were right to direct us in that way, because we completely forget they were there. And so the film is very natural. We'd be in our hotel rooms, talking to deejays, talking to each other. And they would just be behind the couch, filming very quietly."

We talked with Mavericks Programmer (as well as the Documentary Programmer at TIFF) Thom Powers about the new Maysles film, plus the latest collaboration between Jonathan Demme and Neil Young, as well as some of the major titles in the previously announced TIFF documentary line-up, including the very current - and apparently in furious re-edit mode - PARADISE LOST 3.

All these wonderful things: The thing that jumped out at me immediately in the things that you are announcing (today) is, of course, the Maysles/Paul McCartney film.  Do you have any more to say about that?

Thom Powers: Well, you know, it's not often that I see a 16mm, black and white film these days that's brand new.  It's kind of exciting and even more exciting when Al Maysles is behind it.  I really think one of the things that stands out in this film is that quality of Maysles' camera work.  It's shot just a few weeks after September 11, and everyone is a little dazed.  One of the most memorable moments of the film to me is the scene where Bill Clinton comes backstage to say hello to McCartney.  And you have to remember that Clinton has only been out of office for 8 or 9 months and Maysles has a way of capturing that moment that feels very loaded with subtext.

TORONTO 2011: Doc Premieres from Herzog, Wiseman, Demme, Gibney, Spurlock, Yu, Hustwit, Fricke, Broomfield & Churchill and Berlinger & Sinofsky

[A scene from Davis Guggenheim's new U2 documentary FROM THE SKY DOWN, which was previously announced as this year's TIFF Opening Night film.]

[Editor's Note: Charlotte Cook checks in from London with her thoughts on this year's Toronto International Film Festival documentary line-up.  We'll have more on this in the coming days.]

The majority of documentaries playing at this year’s Toronto International Film Festival were announced Wednesday. We had already learned that this year’s festival would be special for documentaries when Davis Guggenheim’s U2 doc, FROM THE SKY DOWN was announces as the first documentary ever to open TIFF.  Also previously announced was Cameron Crowe’s 20-year history of another popular rock band, PEARL JAM TWENTY.

As we have come to expect, TIFF pulls no punches with a programme full of big name directors such as Werner Herzog, Jonathan Demme, Morgan Spurlock, Alex Gibney and Fred Wiseman.

Gary Hustwit brings the final part of his design trilogy (which began with HELVETICA and OBJECTIFIED) with URBANIZED, which ventures into how the design of our cities and buildings affects our lives. Another Part Three joining the line-up is PARADISE LOST 3: PURGATORY by Joe Berlinger and Bruce Sinofsky which is already building anticipated buzz.

Mark Cousins’ THE STORY OF FILM: AN ODYSSEY clocks in at 900mins (15 hours), but is likely to be a joy for the completist documentary nerds among us.

It’s great to see the excellent THIS IS NOT A FILM (IN FILM NIST) by Mojtaba Mirtahmasb and Jafar Panahi, which premiered at this year’s Cannes after being smuggled into the country on a USB stick buried inside a cake due to Jafar Panahi’s incarceration and current working ban.

Other eagerly anticipated films are Jessica Yu’s LAST CALL AT THE OASIS, which looks at the current water crisis and Ron Fricke's sequel to Baraka, SAMSARA. One of the most talked about before premiering, and likely after, is SARAH PALIN - YOU BETCHA! by Nick Broomfield and Joan Churchill.

The line-up is also notably drawn from a multitude of different countries, with Bulgaria, Cambodia, Chile and Austria to name a few.

Talking to CP24, Toronto's Documentary Film Programmer Thom Powers said of this year's line-up "It's kind of an insane embarrassment of riches."

The full documentary line-up so far is below, with more to be added:

THE BOY WHO WAS KING by Andrey Paounov (Bulgaria)
CAPRICHOSOS DE SAN TELMO by Alison Murray (Argentina/Canada)
ARIRANGA by Kim Ki-Duk (South Korea)
COMIC-CON: EPISODE IV - A FAN'S HOPE by Morgan Spurlock (USA)
CRAZY HORSE by Frederick Wiseman (France/USA)
DARK GIRLS by Bill Duke and D. Channsin Berry (USA)
DUCH, MASTER OF THE FORGES OF HELL by Rithy Panh (France/Cambodia)
FATHERLAND (TIERRA DE LOS PADRES) by Nicolás Prividera (Argentina)
FIRST POSITION by Bess Kargman (USA)
FROM THE SKY DOWN by Davis Guggenheim (USA)
GERHARD RICHTER PAINTING by Corinna Belz (Germany)
GIRL MODEL by Ashley Sabin and David Redmon (USA)
I'M CAROLYN PARKER: THE GOOD, THE MAD, AND THE BEAUTIFUL by Jonathan Demme (USA)
IN MY MOTHER'S ARMS by Atia Al Daradji Mohamed Al Daradji (Iraq/Netherlands/UK)
INTO THE ABYSS by Werner Herzog (USA)
LAST CALL AT THE OASIS by Jessica Yu (USA)
THE LAST DOGS OF WINTER by Costa Botes (New Zealand)
THE LAST GLADIATORS by Alex Gibney (USA)
PARADISE LOST 3: PURGATORY by Joe Berlinger and Bruce Sinofsky (USA)
PAUL WILLIAMS STILL ALIVE by Stephen Kessler (USA)
PEARL JAM TWENTY by Cameron Crowe (USA)
PINA by Wim Wenders (Germany/France)
SAMASARA (Originally from Sanskrit) by Ron Fricke (USA)
SARAH PALIN - YOU BETCHA! by Nick Broomfield and Joan Churchill (UK)
THE STORY OF FILM: AN ODYSSEY by Mark Cousins (UK)
THE TALL MAN Tony Krawitz, (Australia)
THIS IS NOT A FILM (IN FILM NIST) by Mojtaba Mirtahmasb and Jafar Panahi (Iran)
UNDEFEATED by Dan Lindsay and TJ Martin (USA)
URBANIZED by Gary Hustwit (USA and UK)
WHORES' GLORY by Michael Glawogger (Austria/Germany)
THE YEAR OF THE TIGER (EL AÑO DEL TIGRE) by Sebastián Lelio (Chile)

Sheffield Doc/Fest 2011: Head Programmer Hussain Currimbhoy on the Move to June and This Year's Hidden Gems

[Morgan Spurlock kicked off this year's Sheffield Doc/Fest last night with the Opening Night screening of POM WONDERFUL PRESENTS THE GREATEST MOVIE EVER SOLD.  Photo by Michelle Heighway from the Sheffield Doc/Fest Flickr page.]

With the inaugural summer edition of Sheffield Doc/Fest now up and running, it's past time to run an interview that we did in the last couple of weeks with Sheffield's Head Programmer Hussain Currimbhoy. 

We were curious about how the switch to summer changed his programming process (particularly since he just did this last November) and asked him to tip off some titles from this year's programme.

We just arrived in the UK and are about to head up to Sheffield (once our bag catches up with us).  We'll have more about this year's festival in the coming days.

All these wonderful things: First, I want to ask you about the the logistics of changing to June and how it affected your programming practices.  Were there films that you saw for November but you told the filmmakers, we want to hold off on showing this until June?  And how important were festivals like Sundance or SXSW in terms of putting potential films on your radar?

Hussain Currimbhoy: There were some titles I was eye-balling, stalking if you will, starting from around June 2010. But I knew they would not be ready for November. Because of the new time slot there were a lot of unknowns from a programming point of view. Since I began in 2007 the film submissions season gradually received more and more submissions. We are used to receiving 1200-1500 unsolicited submissions a year and I figured, OK, we might get half of that since we have less time, it's over the Christmas holidays, and despite making plenty of noise about it, some sources might not know we moved to June.

So what happened? We still got well over 1200 films! I admit it was rather... absorbing to get through that many films with the previewers with much less time. But we managed to get some beauties out of the submissions.

Indeed the Sundance and SXSW programmes were vital and ultimately a particularly rich well for us because we could access the films quickly and were able to capitalise on the media buzz and distributor interest the festivals raised for their films. Instant classics like BEATS, RHYMES, LIFE; THE INTERRUPTERS, HELL AND BACK AGAIN, BECOMING CHAZ – these were films I fell in love immediately and I remember just grinning like an idiot all day and feeling over the moon when I confirmed them for Doc/Fest. I also nabbed some glorious docs from Berllinale like BOMBAY BEACH and MAMA AFRICA. Hot Docs and Tribeca Film Festival were also very important to the programming pools.

Securing the films from filmmakers I look up to made me feel like the move to June was working. It felt good and it felt right, you know? It was like asking a really hot girl out, thinking there was little chance she would say yes, then – cut to: having dinner with the really hot girl and feeling like you da man!. As we got bigger, vital and powerful films I realised that this mad move to June was not so mad. it would clearly expand the profile and enhance relevance of Doc/Fest, not just in the UK but internationally. As a programmer what excited me was realising that the possibilities of programming choices seemed fresher, manifold and just more interesting. It was actually invigorating to investigate new veins for films.

ATWT: What's been the best thing about the move so far and has the short window between November's fest and next month's fest been the biggest challenge?

HC: The Doc/Fest team discussed the move to June quite some time before we announced it, so we were all mentally prepared – that is the most important thing when one embarks on an endeavour like this! The mental energy was there, but the body was saying: dude, read a book, please! It was hard to find the energy to start viewing so soon as the festival can knock it out of you for weeks after ward. That was perhaps the hardest thing for me - going straight back into vewing after November. I opened submissions right after the festival and found myself glued to the screen(s) while reassessing what filmmakers schedules were. I was on annual leave too in December, that really didn’t help the work load!

Wrapping Up the Spring Docs Box: BIEBERnaut, CATS, CAVE, CUNNINGHAM & I AM

With summer just around the corner, the spring theatrical documentary season is about to wrap up.  On the horizon are a few of the titles that made waves at Sundance this year (we expect big things for BUCK, PAGE ONE and BEATS, RHYMES & LIFE, among others), while a few late spring titles (CAVE OF FORGOTTEN DREAMS, L'AMOUR FOU) spill over their expansion into the summer months.

So far, 4 of 2011's nonfiction titles have crossed the magical $1 million threshold (with a fifth about to), including two that made it over the top this weekend: Werner Herzog's still-expanding 3D CAVE (which premiered at last year's Toronto Film Festival) and I AM, the big question docu from high concept comedy director Tom Shadyac.  The latter has been nursed by distribtutor Paladin (and is by far the micro-distrib's greatest box office success) and has drawn comparisons to the doc/fiction hybrid WHAT THE BLEEP DO WE KNOW?, which grossed more than $10M over its long release in 2004.

The other two hits are no big surprise - there's the Biebernaut, NEVER SAY NEVER, which just became the 4th biggest nonfiction hit in history, as well as AFRICAN CATS, the latest in the Disneynature Earth Day franchise.  It looks unlikely that CATS will match the dollars made by its predecessors (EARTH made $34M and OCEANS took in $19), but with a haul of nearly $15M, CATS has surpassed CAPITALISM: A LOVE STORY to become the #17 docu of all time.

Bigger Than Michael?: BieberDoc Becomes Highest Grossing Concert/Music Film of All Time

According to weekend box office estimates, the Justin Bieber 3D documentary NEVER SAY NEVER has now inched past MICHAEL JACKSON'S THIS IS IT to become the highest grossing music or concert documentary of all time.  NEVER is now estimated to have grossed $72.2M through Sunday, while the postumous Jackson film tapped out at $72.1.  NEVER, which was directed by Jon Chu, was released by Paramount; THIS IS IT was distributed by Sony in October 2009.  Official figures will be released tomorrow.

NEVER SAY NEVER now sits just half a million behind JACKASS: NUMBER TWO (another Paramount title) at number five on the all time nonfiction chart.  The number three film, MARCH OF THE PENGUINS, looks safe in its position with $77.4M, as the Bieber doc is shedding screens and ticket sales with each week.

March Marks the Start of Festival Season with True/False, Miami and SXSW About to Unspool

Now that we've got award season out of the way (I tweeted on Monday that "Moving Cinema Eye to January was the best decision ever. I can't imagine planning an awards show right now."), we can dive full force into the films of 2011.  And nothing underlines that more than the impending launch of two major US film festivals - True/False and SXSW - and the documentary rebirth of the Miami Film Festival, courtesy of doc-master Thom Powers, that festival's new documentary programmer. 

Miami kicks off unofficially tonight with an outdoor screening of Sarah McCarthy's THE SOUND OF MUMBAI, a crowd-pleasing film that premiered in Powers' 2010 Toronto line-up and has been picked up by the folks at HBO.  During the week that follows, Miami will screen a potent round-up of the best of Sundance 2011, including James Marsh's PROJECT NIM, Morgan Spurlock's THE GREATEST MOVIE EVER SOLD, Marshall Curry's IF A TREE FALLS, Steve James' THE INTERRUPTERS, Liz Garbus' BOBBY FISCHER AGAINST THE WORLD, Andrew Rossi's PAGE ONE, David Weissman's WE WERE HERE, Daniele Anastasion and Eric Strauss' THE REDEMPTION OF GENERAL BUTT NAKED, Alex Gibney and Alison Ellwood's MAGIC TRIP and Göran Hugo Olsson's THE BLACK POWER MIXTAPE.

[Full disclosure: I am on the documentary jury at the Miami Film Festival this year.]

Marsh, James, Garbus, Rossi, Ollson and Anastasion/Strauss will also be screening their films this weekend at True/False in Columbia, Missouri, where Marsh will be presented with the fest's True Vision Award (which has previously gone to Laura Poitras, Alex Gibney, Kim Longinotto and Kirby Dick) and the subjects of James' film THE INTERRUPTERS will be the beneficiaries of the fest's True Life Fund.

Banksy (Yes, Banksy) on Thierry, EXIT Skepticism & Documentary Filmmaking as Punk

Note - The second in a series of interviews with the directors of some of our favorite nonfiction features of 2010...

Whenever the subject of EXIT THROUGH THE GIFT SHOP has come up in casual or not-so-casual conversation over the past year, a vigorous discussion has followed.  I've seen master filmmakers, newcomers, film critics and non-pros all engage in excited, lengthy dissections of the film - sometimes about what's real, what they suspect is not - often about the film's profound take on art and commerce.  In the end, no matter what point of view the individual holds, the conclusion seems to always be that it's a major work in the nonfiction canon.

One would be forgiven for not expecting all this when Sundance announced EXIT as a late addition to the 2010 festival.  The debut film by Banksy - the anonymous British artist who gained notoriety and fame for his often-politically charged work that would turn up in some very unusual places (inside museum galleries, on the West Bank wall that separates Israelis and Palestinians) - EXIT would leave the festival spurring numerous distribution offers and go out on its own, working with sales agent John Sloss and distributor Richard Abramowitz to bring the film to theatres in the spring.  And after a somewhat surprising (relief was more like it) inclusion on the Academy's Documentary Feature shortlist, the film finds itself smack in the middle of Best-of-the-Year conversations.  It's nominated for the Documentary prize at the Film Independent Spirit Awards and it's up for 6 awards at next months Cinema Eye Honors, including Outstanding Feature and Outstanding Debut, not to mention the numerous film critics prizes its been garnering (yesterday, it was announced as the Best Documentary and Best First Feature on indieWIRE's annual critics poll).

Over the past month, we've had the opportunity to spend some time with the team behind EXIT - producer Jaimie D'Cruz and editor Chris King - including hosting the duo at a screening here in Los Angeles at Cinefamily earlier this month.  In their presence, I witnessed numerous others trying to find out what Banksy thinks of this or that. 

I had my own questions and Banksy and team were kind enough to get me his answers (via email, of course)...

All these wonderful things: One thing I've heard repeatedly from members of your team was that, early on, you were alone in your conviction that Thierry could and should be the narrative focus of the film - long before his show in LA that concludes the movie.  What drew you to Thierry as a film character and, aside from the fact that he had a lot of archival material about street art at his fingertips, why did you think that he could sustain the film's narrative arc?
 
Banksy: Thierry’s entertainment potential wasn’t difficult to spot - he actually walks into doors and falls down stairs. It was like hanging out with Groucho Marx but with funnier facial hair. Thierry arrived at a point when my world was becoming infested with hipsters and heavy irony, so his exuberant man-child innocence was fun to be around. Maybe I convinced myself Thierry was a good subject just because I liked him. I’d be lying if I told you the first time I met him I thought ‘this man’s life will deliver a good narrative arc’.
 
From the outset there are problems with any movie about graffiti because all the good artists refuse to show their face on camera. I needed the film to be fronted by a personality the audience could engage with. The producer Robert Evans said that ‘vulnerability’ is the most important quality in a movie star and that’s a hard thing to portray if all your interviewees have masks over their faces.
 
ATWT: It's clear in the film that you rely on a team of people to create your artwork.  What, if anything, was different about the filmmaking process, and the work you did with that team - Jaimie and Chris and others?  And how did you know when you'd found the right collaborators?
 
B: I paint my own pictures but I get a lot of help building stuff and installing it. I have a great little team, but I tell you what - they all hate this fucking film. They don’t care if its effective, they feel very strongly that Mr Brainwash is undeserving of all the attention. Most street artists feel the same. This film has made me extremely unpopular in my community.

Sundance 2011: Where The Stars Are - Spurlock, Garbus, James, Jarecki, Bailey & Barbato All Set to Debut New Films in Premieres Section

After announcing a documentary competition slate last Wednesday that was surprisingly light on big names, the Sundance Film Festival announced a new section on Thursday called Documentary Premieres (seemingly replacing the inclusion of nonfiction films in last year's Spotlight section) and voila, there were some of the big names we'd been expecting.  New films from Morgan Spurlock, Steve James, Eugene Jarecki, Liz Garbus, Fenton Bailey and Randy Barbato were all announced as heading to Park City for their World Premieres.

Last year's festival had some wondering if the US Documentary Competition should feature films from a trio of Oscar winners (Davis Guggenheim's WAITING FOR 'SUPERMAN', Alex Gibney's CASINO JACK AND THE UNITED STATES OF MONEY and Leon Gast's SMASH HIS CAMERA).  I asked documentary programmers about it when we spoke last year, just after the line-up was announced.  Reportedly, others continued to rasie this issue to Sundance programmers.

In Sundance's press release announcing the Premiere line-up, Festival Director John Cooper addressed the topic head on: "The decision to create a Documentary Premieres section was a natural evolution to shine a light on films with prominent filmmakers or anticipated subjects without distracting from documentaries in competition."

Here's this year's Documentary Premieres line-up (with descriptions provided by the festival) followed by nonfiction features screening in other announced sections of this year's fest.:

WASTE LAND Takes Top Prize at IDA Awards

A long night at Los Angeles' DGA Theater - punctuated by warm and sometimes biting humor from host Morgan Spurlock and an ace acceptance speech by Pioneer Award winners Alan and Susan Raymond - ended with the International Documentary Associations Documentary Feature Award going to Lucy Walker's WASTE LAND. 

It was the first time that the IDA had opened up its final voting to its general membership (nominees were determined by blue ribbon panels), which gave an edge to the audience pleasing WASTE LAND over its fellow nominees EXIT THROUGH THE GIFT SHOP, THE OATH, STEAM OF LIFE and SWEETGRASS.

In fact, it's the latest in a long series of awards - including numerous Audience prizes - for WASTE LAND, which chronicles what happens when Brazilian artist Vik Muniz creates large scale portraits of garbage dump pickers using materials found at the dump.  We've long been forecasting a Best Documentary Feature Oscar nomination for the film, which was shortlisted last month.  WASTE LAND also received the IDA's Pare Lorentz Prize, one of several awards whose winner was announced prior to the event.

The award for Documentary Short went to Kiran Deol's WOMAN REBEL, which is also on the Academy's short list in its category. 

Spurlock Returns to Host IDA Awards, Honorary Prizes to Go to Barbara Kopple, Alan & Susan Raymond

The IDA Awards - set to announce its nominees later this month - today announced some key elements of their December 3rd event, including the return of filmmaker Morgan Spurlock as host.  Spurlock previously helmed the ceremony in 2008.

The IDA also announced this year's honorary awards, leadlined by presenting the Career Achievement Award to two-time Oscar winner Barbara Kopple (HARLAN COUNTY USA, AMERICAN DREAM, SHUT UP AND SING!) and the Pioneer Award will go to Alan and Susan Raymond, who changed the face of documentary and reality television forever with their groundbreaking series AN AMERICAN FAMILY.

With today's announcement of the 2010 Gotham nominations, the IDA is poised to become the 2nd major documentary award to reveal its hopefuls.  Cinema Eye and the Spirit Awards will unveil their nominees next month along with the Academy's shortlist of 15 features.