A week ago in Cannes, the American Pavilion hosted a panel called “Documentary: The New Journalism”. In a world where print journalism is collapsing and long-lead stories are becoming a luxury of the past, what role can documentaries play in providing an alternative to traditional journalism? The panel was moderated by Thom Powers and included distributor Richard Lorber (Alive Mind), filmmaker Anne Aghion (MY NEIGHBOR, MY KILLER – playing at Cannes) and David Fenkel (Oscilloscope Laboratories).
The panel started off on a lighter note with Thom Powers reassuring the audience that there would be “no genital mutilation on our panel this morning” (a reference to Lars Von Trier’s ANTI-CHRIST that premiered the prior night) “and if it were to happen – true to documentary, it would be real”. On a more serious note, Powers then went on to trace recent developments in journalism. He observed that as one media form truncates, we see a different form of media move-in and expand: namely that of documentary filmmakers. He posited that documentarians can follow a story longer than deadline-driven journalists to get at a more nuanced truth.
Last night, STF hosted a tribute to Peter Davis, a filmmaker and a gentleman, a scholar and writer best known in documentary circles for his classic 
For a second year, the Marche Du Film hosted a Documentary Brunch to bring together the documentary community attending the Cannes Film Festival. The brunch was presented along with the National Film Board of Canada and attended by over 125 filmmakers and industry professionals from around the world. In honor of the 70th anniversary of the National Film Board of Canada, the NFB shared a clip of their latest film CAPTURING REALITY: THE ART OF DOCUMENTARY. (Photo: Tom Perlmutter – Government Film Commissioner and Chairperson of the National Film Board of Canada, with Louise Blais – Director of Canadian Cultural Center.)
Among all the tents in Cannes International Village, my favorite is the Irish Pavilion where coffee, Guiness and Jameson’s are poured for free. On Saturday, Mr & Mrs Stranger attended the Irish Film Board’s beach side party where the country’s reputation for a good time was upheld. Here are some photos:
Our very own Thom Powers with Noah Cowan (head of TIFF Bell Lightbox).
John Cooper and Trevor Groth of the Sundance Film Festival.
Tom Bernard of Sony Pictures Classics with James D. Stern (codirector of