My Indiewire article on IDFA’s international co-production financing market, the FORUM, is now up here. Beyond spotlighting some notable new projects, it hopefully offers some useful information to filmmakers about the qualities of an effective and engaging pitch.
Category Archives: Film
IDFA 2011: The FORUM in Brief
Filed under Documentary, Film, Film Festivals, In Brief
In the Works: MISS TIBET: BEAUTY IN EXILE
A multifaceted exploration of a “beauty pageant with a difference.”
Using Western ideas as a vehicle to draw attention to the plight of his nation, a Tibetan promoter has run a beauty pageant for young Tibetan women for the past decade. Drawing participants from around the world to Dharamsala, the Miss Tibet Pageant aims to help the non-violent protest against Chinese occupation of Tibet by appealing to more populist and modern tastes – a tactic that has not escaped criticism. In their documentary, director/producer Norah Shapiro and producer Kelly Nathe explore the controversial event over its entire history, focusing on would-be Miss Tibets in three separate pageants. Continue reading
Filed under Documentary, Film, In the Works
Indiewire @ Hulu Docs: Thanksgiving 2011
This week’s Indiewire-curated Hulu documentaries ties into Thanksgiving, with a focus on food. View all of these docs for free now!
For more information about the selections, see my Indiewire article.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Indiewire @ Hulu Docs, Recommendations
Dear Documentary Filmmakers: Reportage
Dear Documentary Filmmakers: Call me crazy, but when I watch a doc, I don’t expect to see an overlong news segment.
While television in many cases can provide documentary filmmakers with a much larger audience than festival screenings and small theatrical releases, this doesn’t mean you should necessarily adopt the conventions of TV news reporting in the hopes of being more appealing to potential broadcast sales. Usually what’s appealing about documentaries on TV is that they are different from the standard TV news report or news magazine segment – the best of them employ different approaches to storytelling and character development, ones distinct from a typical news set-up that usually involves an onscreen host/interviewer, voice over and/or onscreen narration, sit-down interviews, and sometimes vox pops, and of course, for the nightly news, anchors providing intros and banter with reporters. Continue reading
Filed under Dear Documentary Filmmakers, Documentary, Film
On DVD: CAVE OF FORGOTTEN DREAMS
Coming to DVD next Tuesday, November 29: CAVE OF FORGOTTEN DREAMS
Werner Herzog brought his 3-D doc on the Chauvet caves to Telluride and Toronto last year. After numerous additional festival engagements, Sundance Selects released the film in the Spring to overwhelming audience support.
I wrote about the doc out of Toronto here.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Recommendations, Releases
On Cable: THE SOUND OF MUMBAI: A MUSICAL
Premiering on HBO this Wednesday, November 23: THE SOUND OF MUMBAI: A MUSICAL
Sarah McCarthy premiered this enjoyable and smartly realized portrait of performing slum kids at Toronto last year. It has since screened at notable fests like Miami and DOC NYC.
I included the film in my Toronto roundup last year here.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Recommendations, Releases
On DVD: THESE AMAZING SHADOWS
Coming to DVD tomorrow, Tuesday, November 22: THESE AMAZING SHADOWS
Paul Mariano and Kurt Norton premiered their doc on the National Film Registry at Sundance at the beginning of the year. Since then, it has screened at nearly two dozen additional festivals, picking up awards in Savannah and Louisville, and enjoyed theatrical engagements all over the country.
I profiled the film before Sundance here.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Film Festivals, Releases, Sundance
In the Works: ALICE WALKER: BEAUTY IN TRUTH
The maker of the acclaimed documentaries A PLACE OF RAGE and WARRIOR MARKS turns her camera on the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of THE COLOR PURPLE.
British filmmaker Pratibha Parmar previously collaborated with Alice Walker on both the documentary and book versions of WARRIOR MARKS, which deals with female genital mutilation. For the present project, the two women rejoin as director and subject respectively, telling Walker’s story. At the same time, the project is conceived as not only a biography of the celebrated author/activist, but the story of race, class, gender, and social change in America during her lifetime. Continue reading
Filed under Documentary, Film, In the Works
In Theatres: GARBO: THE SPY
Coming to theatres tomorrow, Friday, November 18: GARBO: THE SPY
Edmon Roch’s engaging examination of the career of a WWII double agent has screened at Rome, IDFA, San Francisco, and Karlovy Vary among others since its debut in 2009. The film opens in NYC this weekend, expanding to LA next week, with further engagements in December and January.
The figure at the center of Roch’s film, Juan Pujol Garcia, was dubbed “Garbo” by British intelligence in recognition of his remarkable acting abilities. The Nazis knew him as “Arabel,” and, unbeknownst to them, several other names – Pujol Garcia invented a whole network of imaginary operatives to fool his German handlers, even going so far as to plant an obituary notice for one of them as part of a larger ruse. Though he was turned away repeatedly by MI5, when he revealed the extent of his deception of the Germans, he was welcomed as a double agent, and was put to use feeding the Nazis always plausible misinformation that ended up helping the Allies. Roch peels away at the layers of Garbo’s identities, revealing the little-known story of perhaps one of the most important spies of the era, instrumental in keeping the Axis in the dark about the impact of D-Day. Adding to the intrigue, the film, through historian Nigel West, reveals the additional twists and turns Pujol Garcia’s life took after the war, resulting in further surprising revelations that fit perfectly within the scope of the cipher’s life, who the viewer may still feel s/he doesn’t really know by the end of the film.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Recommendations, Releases
Special Screening: CINEMA KOMUNISTO
Coming to NYC as the closing night screening of Stranger Than Fiction‘s Fall season next Tuesday, November 22: CINEMA KOMUNISTO
Mila Turajlic’s masterful and engaging look at Yugoslavia’s national mythmaking through its cinema made its world premiere at IDFA a year ago. It went on to screen at numerous international festivals, including Tribeca, San Francisco, Hot Docs, Doc Aviv, Transylvania, and Sarajevo, to name just a handful.
I included the film in my IDFA roundup here.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Recommendations
