All these wonderful things

Steve James' Epic Nonfiction THE INTERRUPTERS Takes Sheffield Jury Prize

The hugely successful, first summer edition of the Sheffield Doc/Fest wound to a close this morning as delegates began to take trains back to London and as the festival's presented it's awards in a lively ceremony at the Showroom Cinema.

And when it was all over, it was THE INTERRUPTERS, Steve James' extraordinary look at a team of gang violence preventers in Chicago, that took home the Special Jury Prize, the top award at Sheffield.  It was the first major festival award for THE INTERRUPTERS, which premiered out of competition at Sundance and which received the Jury Prize from the Miami Film Festival in March (Full Disclosure: I was a member of the Miami jury, along with Sheffield Director Heather Croall).

The jury win by THE INTERRUPTERS solidifies the belief that the film will be a strong, and perhaps the leading, contender for end-of-the-year awards and honors.  The film is certainly one of the best nonfiction features in recent years and a classic example of verite filmmaking that has largely been supplanted by the more constructed work of the past decade.

The Special Jury also an honorary mention to Alma Har'el's BOMBAY BEACH, which received the World Documentary Competition prize at Tribeca earlier this year.  BEACH and fellow Special Jury competition title CALVET, a world premiere here, were two of the most buzzed about films at this year's festival.  Other films in the Special Jury competition included AT NIGHT I FLY, Barbara Kopple's GUN FIGHT, Sundance award winner HELL AND BACK AGAIN and IDFA 2010 champ POSITION AMONG THE STARS.

Sheffield Doc/Fest Takes JUSTIN BIEBER Seriously, and So Should You

Let's get one thing straight, right off the bat.  Jon Chu's JUSTIN BIEBER: NEVER SAY NEVER will not cure disease.  It's a bit long (there's a saggy middle section that could have been whipped into better shape) and the central conceit - a build-up to the tween heart-throb's big concert at Madison Square Garden - is, as they say, paper-thin.

Further, most music docs have the benefit of an artist's long history to reflect on, a career and personal arc that includes the ups and downs of year's of hard touring and music biz shenanigans.  Halfway through NEVER, I came to the abrupt realization that Justin Bieber's entire career has been shorter than production on my current film. 

That said, NEVER SAY NEVER, which had its major film festival debut here at the Sheffield Doc/Fest in the UK after a hugely successful stateside theatrical release (#4 all time), is a film that announces early on that it intends to be much, much better than it has to be.  And by the end, the film delivers so many moments of pure, giddy joy that most of the docmakers who saw it (including more than a few repeat viewers) were bouncing through the streets of Sheffield for hours afterward.

I say most, but I did not say all.  At least a couple seemed to view the film with hostility and there were a number of others I spoke to later in the evening who openly scoffed at the film.  Indeed, check the film's IMDb page and you will see a string of 1-star reviews from folks who hate NEVER SAY NEVER, hate Justin, hate the screaming girls who love him so much.

So why did I and a number of others (who have not, as far as I can tell, taken leave of their senses) fall for this 3-D ode to a 16 year old whose music I did not recognize (nor did I find it particularly catchy)? 

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!

Sheffield 2011: MeetMarket Director Charlie Phillips on the State of the Festival Pitch

[WINNEBAGO MAN director Ben Steinbauer pitches at the 2009 MeetMarket at Sheffield Doc/Fest. Photo from the Sheffield Flickr stream by Jacqui Bellamy.]

One of the things that made Sheffield stand out a few years ago was their deviation from the traditional pitching forum concept and a move toward a more personalized, one-on-one exchange between filmmakers and potential funders.  They called it the MeetMarket.

The concept was brought to Sheffield by Festival Director Heather Croall, a creation from her time at the Australian International Documentary Conference.  Since then, the MeetMarket concept - having decision makers prepare in advance by watching clips of films and reading proposals, followed by meetings with filmmakers on projects they have interest in - has begun to spread to other festivals, leading many to wonder if the days of the IDFA-style pitch forum are behind us (or should be, in any case).  Amongst the MeetMarket success stories: THE ENGLISH SURGEON, KINGS OF PASTRY, THE SOUND OF MUMBAI, ONLY WHEN I DANCE and this year's festival favorite, GIVE UP TOMORROW.

We exchanged some questions and answers with MeetMarket Director Charlie Phillips recently - talking about the current state of festival pitching concepts as well as the MeetMarket's European focus.

All these wonderful things: When you were first talking about having this kind of industry, pitching element, how important was it to you to not do a traditional pitching forum?  And how has it changed since it's inception?

Charlie Phillips: I can't take all the credit for the format of it because Heather invented it when she was at the AIDC in Australia, and then brought it to the UK in 2006 for her first Doc/Fest. But I can certainly say that since I organised my first MeetMarket in 2008, we've intensified the personal and bespoke attention we give to everyone. I know that in '06 and '07 there were a lot of educated guesses going into the matchmaking, whereas from '08 onwards, it's been more 'true' matchmaking in the sense of spending all year gathering information on the needs of buyers and documentary-makers, seeing what they're doing, and what they need, and then using that long-term intelligence as well a short-term wishes for meetings to create something that's really reacting to specific personal needs and not some general idea of what the industry needs or what will play well on a stage.

ATWT: Did you feel like the forum concept was broken?

CP: It wasn't so much that there was a feeling of the pitching forum being broken, more that every festival and its dog was hosting a public forum, and they needed to be complimented by meetings that actually got business done and allowed for candid conversations. You'll notice at any public forum how many times buyers will react to a pitch by saying "well, we're meeting later to talk about this" or "we met yesterday and we talked in detail about this" and it just seems like you might as well cut out that showcasing of stagey reactions and go straight to the personal meetings instead. That's not to say that every public pitch only has 'pretend' reactions but there is a lot of disingenuousness in reactions around the table, and that comes from a fatigue about feeling like you should be there rather than it actually being useful. I know that earlier in the decade before MeetMarket existed in its current form, that feeling was even more acute. Now that we're offering these personal matchmade meetings, I think it's actually empowered the big public forums, which now themselves feel more relaxed, smaller and more relevant.

A Few Thoughts About This Year's Miami Film Festival

This was the second year in a row that I didn't make it to Park City for Sundance.  I had been toying with the idea of going pretty much even as the festival was starting up, but what with Sundance coming directly on the heels of this year's Cinema Eye Honors (and the multiple snow storms that struck New York while I was on the east coast), the notion of getting myself to Utah and more snow in the midst of recuperating from a months-long project was too daunting.

So, like last year, I eagerly awaited my first opportunity to see this year's new batch of films, no matter if word on the street was that this year wasn't shaping up to be on par with last (when 4 Sundance premieres would eventually make it to the Oscars and a handful of others were considered high profile snubs).

Luckily I'd been invited to participate in two different film festival juries in the first quarter of 2011.  Between the two, I'd end up seeing 13 of the docs that had premiered at Sundance.

I saw the majority of these while at the Miami Film Festival, which I attended last week.  Toronto International Film Festival doc programmer Thom Powers (also responsible for DOC NYC, Stranger Than Fiction and my co-hort in getting the Cinema Eye Honors off the ground) joined the team in Miami this year and invited me to be part of a jury that included Sheffield Doc/Fest Director Heather Croall and Jeremy Kay, the US Editor for Screen International.

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.

Jeff Malmberg on His Artistic Process & Inspirations for MARWENCOL and Bypassing the Oscars

Note: This is the fifth in a series of interviews with the makers of some of my favorite documentaries of 2010.

It's almost becoming traditional that there is a documentary each year that is the SXSW breakthrough, a portrait film that comes from nowhere to take the Grand Jury Prize in Austin and then comes to define the new wave of intimate, personal documentary filmmaking.  First Jennifer Venditti's BILLY THE KID, then Bill and Turner Ross' 45365, and now Jeff Malmberg's MARWENCOL, the latter a humanistic portrait of a man who, following a massive brain injury, finds himself creating new worlds out of G.I. Joe and Barbie dolls and World War II fantasia.

Malmberg, an editor by trade, came to his debut film the way many novice filmmakers do - a few weekends at a time, shooting a bit and then going back to make enough money to return to shoot some more.  Whatever the process, his final product - an intimate and layered portrait of his subject, Mark Hogancamp - would remind of the films and filmmakers that inspired many of us to make nonfiction (from the Maysles to Errol Morris).

We emailed with Jeff about his process, his relationship with Hogancamp and his decision to bypass the Academy Awards.

All these wonderful things:  One of the things I love about focusing on documentary each year are the discoveries, the folks who just a year ago were still hard at work tying up the edit on their first film - and then, it seems instantaneous, they are an ingrained part of the community.  This is to say that this past year must have felt like a whirlwind to you.

It seems like a natural thing that these discoveries are coming out of SXSW.  What do you think it is about that festival, and about Janet, that a.) finds these films and b.) gives them such a good launch?

Jeff Malmberg: I think Janet is really adventurous in her film taste and really brave in what she programs. It’s easy in retrospect to say that MARWENCOL was a good fit for SXSW, but at the time, it was just this strange little movie that no one had stood up for yet. No one knew how it was going to be received, but she brought the audience to it and shined a light on it. I’ll never forget what she said to the audience when it first premiered – “this is why I do what I do.” She walks the walk, man. Same thing with 45365 the year before – this beautiful film that’s not quite like anything else. Plus Janet’s taste seems like the perfect match for that audience which is really hungry for something fresh and new – and doc seems to be flowering that way these days. My wife [MARWENCOL producer Chris Shellen] is doing a panel at SXSW this year so I get to tag along and watch a bunch of films at the Alamo – I kind of can’t wait to experience that festival as an audience member this time around. When I was in it with a film, I didn’t have enough time or headspace to see all the films I should have.

ATWT: I asked you this question when I dragged you up onstage for the A to Z Chat Show in Sheffield, but can you talk some about your festival experiences this year.  What was your best experience?

Heidi Ewing and Rachel Grady on Making 12TH AND DELAWARE, How They Divide the Work & Collaborating with HBO

Note: This is the fourth in a series of interviews with the makers of some of my favorite nonfiction films of 2010...

One of my favorite surprises in a year of great filmmaking came when I sat down at Hot Docs in May to watch Heidi Ewing and Rachel Grady's 12TH AND DELAWARE.  A film positioned literally in the middle of the abortion debate could have easily been bombastic or one-sided in favor of a pro-choice position.  Instead their film is a subtle, stunningly crafted work that watches as characters on both sides of the divide deal with the women who come to them with unwanted pregnancies. 

As I wrote about the film for Sheffield Doc/Fest:

 

"There is a moment in Heidi Ewing and Rachel Grady’s new film where their protagonist – a staunchly pro-life woman who counsels pregnant women in hopes that they will decide to keep their babies – drops her cover.  In most of the conversations that Ewing and Grady capture, the woman proves masterful at masking her true intent – she seems almost motherly in offering the possibility that there are options other than abortion.  Their subject knows that if she reveals her true feelings, she risks alienating the very women she hopes to convince.  Her effort is all about the soft sell.

But one particular case proves stubborn.  And in trying to sway her, Ewing and Grady’s subject slips.  She pushes too hard, too dogmatically.  And in that moment, she loses her case – and, she fears, an innocent fetus will be sacrificed for her failure.

This moment proves that the power of nonfiction film remains as potent and as vital in 2010 as it has ever been. "

I emailed with Ewing and Grady about their characters, about the process of making 12TH AND DELAWARE - particularly their partnership with HBO Documentary Films, and how they divide up labor when they work together.

All these wonderful things: One of the things that I love about your films is that you tackle a subject that we think we know, one that might be easy to stereotype, and you give us a much deeper picture of that topic than one may expect going in.  I'll admit to wondering what you could bring to the abortion topic before I saw the film, but the truth is that you brought levels of shading that I've never seen before.  What was your process going into the film?

Heidi Ewing and Rachel Grady: We never set out really to make a film “about abortion,” as we didn’t think we had anything new to add to the discussion, which has become deafeningly loud by both extremes that hijacked the debate long ago. But thanks to the JESUS CAMP kids we had become aware of Crisis Pregnancy Centers, these low profile, anti-abortion centers that have quietly proliferated all over the United States. We had entered one during the making of that film and were confused as to what was happening here. There were ultrasound machines and ”medical” pamphlets but there was something else going on here.  But what? We are so glad we go the opportunity to go back to this subject and get to the bottom of it.

IDFA Unveils Finalists for 2010 Fest Awards

This afternoon in Amsterdam, IDFA named the films that will move forward in competition for the fest's various awards.  From three nominees for each award, winners will be announced on Friday.

For perspective, last year's finalists for the fest's top award included eventual winner LAST TRAIN HOME (which leads nominations at this year's Cinema Eye Honors) and ENEMIES OF THE PEOPLE (which was just named to the Academy's feature documentary shortlist).  Both films went on to play in Park City, Full Frame and were mainstays on the fest circuit.

This year's nominees for Feature-Length Documentary are Stephen Marshall's HOLYWARS (which screened earlier this year at True/False), Gemma Atwal's MARATHON BOY (which premiered at Sheffield Doc/Fest) and Leonard Retel Helmrich's POSITION AMONG THE STARS.  STARS, which is also nominated for the Dutch Documentary prize, was IDFA's opening night film.

Aside from the Dutch, who get their own category, and the Germans, who are represented on three different films, the nominations seem almost purposefully even-handed.  No other country is represented more than twice.

Full list of announced nominees after the jump.

One of the Biggest Weeks of the Year Hits Full Steam in Sheffield Tonight

We're in the midst of a pretty momentous week for documentary film: imminently, two major, established international documentary fests kick off their latest edition, a promising newcomer unveils itself in New York City and we’ll be announcing this year’s Cinema Eye nominees.

When you think about it, this week also marks the beginning of perhaps the most jam-packed, three-month stretch during our documentary year.  Think about it, before the next 92 days are through we will know this year’s Oscar nominees, this year’s Spirit Award nominees and the Cinema Eye, IDA & Gotham award winners.  We’ll have gotten our first look at the major docs of 2011 via their premieres in Amsterdam and Park City.  And we’ll know the names of the films that are set to premiere in Austin.

It all begins today when the international documentary contingent braves the London tube strike to travel to Sheffield for the last November edition of Doc/Fest (it moves to June next year – yep, they’ve got another fest to plan starting right about yesterday).  Ricki Stern and Annie Sundberg’s JOAN RIVERS: A PIECE OF WORK will launch this year’s Doc/Fest, with Stern, Sundberg and Rivers all in person.

Tomorrow night, at the Cinema Eye Roller Disco, we’ll announce the 2011 Cinema Eye nominees in 12 categories: 11 feature and the new award for Nonfiction Short Film.  Each year, the Cinema Eye nominators manage to come up with a pretty remarkable mix of big ticket docs and slightly less heralded, artistic efforts.  In a year heralded by many as the second coming of documentary (due to the huge number of major new works), it will be interesting to find out which films are called out on Thursday.