All these wonderful things

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

 

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

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

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

2009 IN REVIEW: The Year in Nonfiction Heroes

Yes, yes, we know.  It's February 1 and we're still looking back at 2009.  Call us belated, call us procrastinators, but we still have a word or three to offer about the year that's now a month past.  Last year we offered a list of ten folks who've made the community a better place in 2008.  Here's our list of 2009's nonfiction heroes:

Cinereach

2009 marked the year that Cinereach broke through as a major grant player – but with a significant twist.  Their first high profile film, OCTOBER COUNTRY, was known less for its social justice/liberal agenda perspective than for its artistry.

Sean Farnel

Through his seafar blog, the guru of Hot Docs gave readers an unvarnished and thoroughly revealing look at the process behind programming a major documentary festival.  By examining his own process so publicly, Farnel gave filmmakers a unique opportunity to understand what happens throughout a curator’s year – from fests to submissions to hundreds of index cards thump tacked to a wall.

The Board of Film Independent

There were those who deplored the actions of Film Independent and the Los Angeles Film Festival in their handling of the controversial documentary, BANANAS!*, but we found the organization’s dedication to screening the film – even in the threat of lawsuit – courageous.  For those who believe otherwise, rest assured there are plenty of film festivals and organizations that wouldn’t have taken the risk.

The Monday Brief: Wrapping Sundance, Our Oscar Predictions and Can THE COVE Break the DGA Curse?

Holy cow, it's February already?  That means we are 1/120 of the way through the twenty-teens.

More the the point, with the wrap of Sundance yesterday, we now have a sense of where the year is heading and some of the films we'll still be talking about next year at this time.  Think about it, by this point last year we already had our first looks at Oscar shortlisters THE COVE, FOOD INC., THE BEACHES OF AGNÈS, BURMA VJ, VALENTINO and EVERY LITTLE STEP (the above a mix of Sundance and Toronto '08 titles).  Which films from this year's Sundance will we be still talking about in early 2011?

A word of caution to folks celebrating RESTREPO's grand jury win at Sundance - only 3 films in the past decade won the Sundance Documentary Grand Jury Prize and went on to be nominated for an Oscar.  Can you name them? (answer a little later in our broadcast)

If you were hearing the buzz out of IDFA (and from certain quarters it was deafening), one can't help but be surprised that Lixin Fan's LAST TRAIN HOME failed to pick up a single award in the World Cinema Documentary competition.  The jury for that strand (which included filmmaker Jennifer Baichwal, PBS correspondent Jeffrey Brown and Yamagata International Documentary Film Festival director Asako Fujioka) seemed to value films that made them laugh - aside from editing winner A FILM UNFINISHED and special jury prize recipient ENEMIES OF THE PEOPLE), they heaped prizes on three films (THE RED CHAPEL, HIS & HERS and SPACE TOURISTS) that were notable for their use of humor.

(Shorter) Monday Brief: 2009 Docs Set New Box Office Mark, IDFA Announces & Links

On location in Indiana today, so no in depth Monday Brief this week.

Meantime, check out indieWIRE's recap of this weekend at the box office.  CAPITALISM: A LOVE STORY crosses the $10M mark (it's now estimated at $11.6M), making 2009 the first year ever to have 3 nonfictions grossing more than $10M.

Peter Knegt makes some Gotham predictions (nominations announced this afternoon).

Cinema Eye announced 98 eligible nonfiction features for this year's awards.

IDFA announces its 2009 lineup. 

COOKING HISTORY, RACING DREAMS and SOUNDTRACK FOR A REVOLUTION take prizes at the Chicago Film Festival, Roger Ebert reports.

Steve Pond at The Wrap looks at this year's Oscar Shorts shortlist and ponders HBO's dominance of the category.  

Amanda Hirsch surveys the cost of documentary film websites.

And finally, the directors of the new anti-Climate Change doc NOT EVIL, JUST WRONG recap their recent confrontation of Al Gore at an environment event in Madison, Wisconsin over claims that INCONVENIENT TRUTH contained factual errors. 

David Hudson Bids Farewell to "The Daily"

For those who care about film writing, today's news from David Hudson came as a shock:

"I won't be returning to this particular spot, though you may see my byline appearing now and then elsewhere at IFC.com; the Daily, at least as we've known it and watched it evolve over the past six years, won't be returning, either. But that doesn't mean I'll stop doing what I do; I've been dreaming up a new format and, if all goes according to plan, it'll be rolling out slowly in two phases at an entity that'll be named when that entity's good and ready."

Good luck, David, we are certainly going to miss you and your tireless work.

Do or Don't: A Documentarian Dissents

Earlier today, indieWIRE featured an article by former NewFest Artistic Director Basil Tsiokos headlined "Good Advice! 8 Documentary Dos and Don'ts from a Vet Programmer".  The text of the item itself was culled from a series of tweets that Tsiokos had posted over the past several weeks to his twitter account, most of which began "Dear documentary filmmakers".

The tweets were responses to films that Tsiokos had been watching for an unnamed purpose (festival? grant program? broadcaster?) and varied between sound advice ("Dear filmmakers: when submitting your DVD for festival/broadcast consideration, do not affix labels. They affect playability. Negatively.") and bemused criticism ("Dear documentary filmmakers: your incessant narration is driving me to drink. Shut up already and let the images tell the story.").

Over the past week or so, several tweets lost their humor and began targeting the anonymous films & filmmakers whose screeners happened to land in Basil's lap:

"Dear Documentary Filmmaker Whose Short I Just Watched: watching your 20 minute "art" film = watching paint dry. at least it wasn't longer."

"Dear Documentary Filmmakers: Next time, please try to have a point before making your film. Filming your search for one is not new or fun."

"Dear Documentary Filmmakers: Next time, hire a good sound person so that I won't have to hear background noise or dead air in every scene."

This string of tweets resulted in a mea culpa that Basil posted last Saturday morning:

"Dear Documentary Filmmakers: My comments seem to be coming off less instructive/funny and more asshole-ish. Not my intent. Will watch that."

Twittering the Palme

We've only been paying peripheral attention to this year's Cannes Film Festival, a.) because we're up to our necks in preparing for our World Premiere, and b.) because the doc developments haven't exactly been what you'd call breathtaking, although Raphaela has done a good job keeping up with the social scene (here, here, here and here) and breaking the news - to me at least - that Bulgarian superstar docmakers Andrey Paounov (THE MOSQUITO PROBLEM AND OTHER STORIES) and Boris Depodov (CORRIDOR 8) were seeking money for a new animated film.

But I have been kept abreast by the twitter feeds of a few colleagues who have been steadfastly reporting their thoughts, reviews and whereabouts during their days in the south of France.  So, today, I was getting the prize winners in somewhat real time as I had my morning coffee, and I was interested to note that @FilmmakerMag, @alisonwilmore, @KarinaLongworth, @MattDentler, @erickohn, @laurex, @dwhtwit, @BRM and @The_AV_Club all had Michael Haneke's THE WHITE RIBBON as this year's Palme D'Or winner earlier - and in some cases hours - before @nytimes.  Not an earth-shattering revelation, I grant you.

Blog Traffic Peculiarity - Why Was Sunday Our Biggest Day Ever

Spikes in blog traffic are an interesting thing (maybe only as interesting as recounting one's dreams - that is, fascinating to oneself but of only passing interest to everyone else).  Usually these spikes make some degree of sense - for instance, in late February we had our biggest day ever on the site in the 24 hours following the Oscars.  This made sense because our traffic was already elevated leading up to the Oscars and it made sense that this would all climax on the day after.

But our traffic this past week has been higher than normal, particularly of interest to me because I've been such a slacker (as I put finishing touches on my new film), culminating in Sunday - by far our biggest day ever on the blog.

The reason?  The photo on this 2-year old post.  Apparently, interest in the new HBO narrative version of the classic Maysles' Brothers documentary GREY GARDENS (with Jessica Lange and Drew Barrymore) has sent thousands of folks scrambling to Google Images where our post is one of the top results.

Peter Scarlett Out at Tribeca; Varnum Departs Re:sources

The film world, still reverberating from the shock of Geoffrey Gilmore's Sundance-for-Tribeca trade, had been wondering this past week how long Tribeca Festival Director Peter Scarlett would remain at the helm.  Today, the answer came:

"The term ‘The Seven-Year Itch’ always evokes that famous still of Marilyn Monroe standing on a NY subway grating with her skirt blowing up around her thighs,” Scarlet said in a statement today. “But as my 7th Tribeca Film Festival loomed, I realized simply that it’s time for me to seek new challenges. I’m enormously grateful for the terrific experiences I’ve been able to share with colleagues and viewers here, and I’ll never stop being grateful to Martin Scorsese, Robert De Niro and Jane Rosenthal for having invited me along for such a glorious ride. I wish them and the Festival all success."

The NY Post's Lou Lumenick wonders who's next:

"(W)as Scarlet pushed or did he jump? Whaddya think? I have no idea, but would anybody be surprised if Tribeca's executive director Nancy Schafer and lead programmers David Kwok and Genna Terranova have their resumes out?"

Meanwhile, Agnes Varnum (who's own doc it out site is a personal favorite), announced today that she was stepping down from the Tribeca Film Institute's Re:sources Blog:

"It’s with mixed feelings that I tell you this will be my last post here at Resources for the time being. I had a great time doing this blog. Reading other people’s thoughts and ideas and putting my own spin on it, alerting folks to new grants, programs and studies they may not have heard of, and on occasion, thinking about the art of filmmaking, are all pursuits I enjoy. But it was also a frustrating experience because talking about policy and technology issues to filmmakers is a little like banging one’s head against a wall...

I started this blog back when most filmmakers weren’t even sure of how to create community online. Even just two years ago, the tools were rougher and the knowledge was just trickling in from the new media communities. Geesh, who says new media anymore? That’s how far along things have come in a short period of time. I’ve done what I set out to do here."

For my purposes, Varnum's personal site (which continues) was always the better read, but that's probably because I am not attuned to tech stuff in ways that I probably should be (I tend to hope that the folks I rely on won't mind my asking to be led through the processes for the third, fourth and fifth times).

And while Varnum's exit won't cause the reverberations that Gilmore and Scarlett's moves have made, the constant flux at Tribeca - just days before the festival announces this year's line-up certainly puts a question mark on the festival.

COMMENTARY: Big Dreams for Filmanthropy at SnagFilms, But is it the Cure For What Ails Nonfiction?

As has been reported here and elsewhere, Ted Leonsis, the co-founder of AOL and, more recently, a documentary film producer whose films include NANKING and KICKING IT, took the indie film world (and particularly the doc sub-genre of same) by storm last week by announcing the launch of a new docu-centered online/alt-distribution platform called SnagFilms, and the simultaneous announcement that SnagFilms would be the new owners of indieWIRE.

As the burgeoning deal came to light late Wednesday night, many indie film watchers were trying to make sense of the developments.  One must qualify that because of the multiplicity of personal friendships involved, no one I spoke to wished anything but good for the new venture, particularly for the partnership with indieWIRE as well as hopes for more distribution options for documentary films.  But that didn't mean there weren't questions, some of them obvious - like how, aside from a deep-pocketed benefactor (specifically one with some doc producing chops), would this online venture stand out from previous efforts?

Further, a jaded blogger/filmmaker/craft advocate might hope that SnagFilms would contribute to the growing focus on the filmmaking of nonfiction features - in addition to an admirable goal of advocating for films and causes (not necessarily in that order).  The site's seeming focus on filmanthopy (as promoted by SnagFilms' founder) and social justice films may raise red flags among some filmmakers (including yours truly) who note that there already exists a substantial support structure for projects with an activist bent.  While SnagFilms execs Stephanie Sharis and Andrew Mer told me that SnagFilms was interested in the "full breadth of documentary filmmaking", they also said that SnagFilms' mission involved outreach and a focus on films that are "on the front lines of new journalism". 

One wouldn't want to dismiss "Filmanthropy" - a buzz word at festival panels over the past few years - outright.  For one thing, it's a source of funding when other mouths of monetary flow have been stilled.  Further, the ability of a film to shine a light on an issue oft ignored is a laudable goal.  But after all the sturm und drang over Errol Morris' revelation earlier this year that he occasionally gives money to his subjects, is there no one raising an eyebrow over the increasingly direct link between some nonfiction films and charity?  Has no one else been bothered by seeing "join our cause" or "sign our petition" or "go to the charity's website to give" in the closing credits of an increasing number of films lately?

Shouldn't the film itself spur someone to act by its skillful making rather than by proximity of a "donate now" button?

Regular readers of this spot know that I'm not arguing that we are journalists or that we are required to take an unbiased view of the world.  Hell, advocate for your subject to your heart's content, with my blessing (not that you'd need it).

But - and this is just a theory, so be sure to treat it as such - if there was a downturn for docs last year, it might be argued that some art house audiences weren't interested in paying good money at theatres for taking their medicine.  This may, in fact, be a great reason to advocate for what SnagFilms hopes to become.  Films could be seen directly - and more immediately - by an audience limited not by their plans for a Saturday night, but rather only by their acceptance of SnagFilms' widget.  Those looking for a  "Women's Issues" film can seek one out, same for those in search of titles related to "Health" or the "Environment".  Is it bad form to wonder aloud if instead of breaking films down by issues, we broke them down by style - Comedy, Drama, Suspense, Musical, Educational, Investigative, Cinema Verite, Reality - not unlike we do with the other film art forms.  If we're trying to broaden the acceptance and/or definition of what nonfiction can be, should we not make clear that nonfiction is not solely (or primarily) about solving the world's problems?

So, somewhat unusually for my occasional commentaries: I'm going to end on a somewhat neutral note as I raise a cautious glass in toast to friends on all sides.  Here's a hope that SnagFilms can indeed shine a light on great, neglected films, and on art generally, and bonus points if occasionally an issue or cause (or a great artist or an interesting character) gets attention in the process.  And may the indieWIRE we've come to rely on for its editorial independence and have come to admire for its transparency gain everything it needs and lose nothing it has.