Matthew Akers left the Sheffield Doc/Fest with top honors for his film MARINA ABRAMOVIC: THE ARTIST IS PRESENT.
The Sheffield Doc/Fest’s jury on Sunday, June 17 named Matthew Akers’ MARINA ABRAMOVIC: THE ARTIST IS PRESENT the winner of its special jury award. But the festival earlier in the week was drew more attention after a Chinese delegation of commissioning editors pulled out after their demands that the films AI WEIWEI: NEVER SORRY by Alison Klayman and Steve Maing’s HIGH TECH, LOW LIFE be pulled from the festival were rejected. The Chinese delegation had ostensibly taken offense to the political content of the films (AI WEIWEI follows the dissident Chinese artist of the same name, while HIGH TECH, LOW LIFE examines citizen journalists in China sometimes operating without the blessing of the state. film programmer Hussein Currimbhoy told Realscreen, “Allowing any delegation of any kind to have influence on the film program is an idea that we could never contemplate.” Indiewire reported that news of the delegation’s pullout was reported by BBC Storyville editor Nick Fraser on Wednesday afternoon.
Before the news of the Chinese pullout broke, the folks at DocGeeks spoke to Currimbhoy about his programming approach. Indiewire also culled some crowdfunding tips taken from a Sheffield Doc/Fest panel that filmmakers might find useful.
The Gucci Tribeca Documentary Fund on Monday, June 11 announced its 2012 grant recipients. Those films making the cut were E-TEAM by Katy Chevigny & Ross Kauffman; GOD LOVES UGANDA by Roger Ross Williams; FIRST TO FALL by Rachel Anderson; MERCY MERCY by Katrine W Kjær; TWO CHILDREN OF THE RED MOSQUE by Hemal Trivedi; ALIAS RUBY BLADE by Alexander Meillier; STARGAZING by Berit Madsen; and THE SUPREME PRICE by Joanna Lipper. The fund focuses on giving feature length films finishing funds. Christopher Campbell at the Documentary Channel blog took a closer look at the grants recipients.
Director Sharon Shattuck’s film PROJECT DAD is among a few documentary projects exploring the issue of transgender from different approaches.
This week Brainchild Films announced that musician Janet Jackson was set to serve as an executive producer on a documentary about transgendered people titled TRUTH, to be directed by Robert Jason. TRUTH will join a few other recent projects following transgendered subjects. Filmmaker Dan Hunt is currently in post-production on his film MR. ANGEL, an examination of trans porn star and lecturer Buck Angel. And the New York Times Op-Docs recently featured an excerpt from Sharon Shattuck’s film PROJECT DAD, about her transgendered parent. (Shattuck recently launched a Kickstarter campaign, which you can check out here.) Add that to the Sundance Channel’s show Transgeneration, and you might have the makings of a small trend.
Silverdocs released its conference agenda, which is stacked with a number of great panels and events. The festival, which runs June 18-24, will feature a keynote address from Jigar Mehta, one of the brains behind the interactive documentary/journalism project 18 DAYS IN EGYPT. Erica Ginsberg of Docs in Progress provided her own preview of the festival, which takes place in Silver Spring, MD, just outside of Washington, D.C.
The Sundance Institute and Cinereach this week announced the 15 projects to be recipients of a total of $200,000 in grant money. The doc projects selected were THE COMMISSIONER by Jarreth Merz about Ghana’s presidential elections; THE KILL TEAM by Dan Krauss about a U.S. soldier on trial for war crimes; and THE SHADOW WORLD by Johan Grimonprez about the arms industry.
From left, STF Artistic Director Thom Powers and director Andrew Berends. Photo by Tequila Minsky.
It’s doubtful that Andrew Berends settled on the name of his latest film, DELTA BOYS, lightly. An examination of the Niger Delta Vigilante, an anti-government militia in the oil-rich Niger Delta region populated by self-described freedom fighters, the film is largely a portrait of children in the Nigerian wilderness playing at soldier. Absent from all of the militants’ gunplay and posturing is any attempt by to elucidate a considered political ideology—instead they seem content to define themselves in terms of their opposition to the Nigerian government. Stuck between these two parties are the poverty-stricken fisherman of the Delta region who are ignored by the government and subject to the whims of militants, whose actions leave at least some of them in a state of perpetual terror. What emerges from Berends film is an examination of a conflict with many sides, but none that could objectively be considered good. Following the screening, Berends spoke with Stranger Than Fiction Artistic Director Thom Powers. Click “Read more” below for the Q&A.
This year’s Silverdocs will feature the film BAD BRAINS: A BAND IN DC by Mandy Stein and Benjamen Logan.
The Silverdocs Documentary Festival on Tuesday, May 29 announced the lineup for its 2012 festival, set to take place June 18-24. Now in its 10th year, the festival will showcase 114 films and honor filmmakers Joe Berlinger and Bruce Sinofsky as 2012 Guggenheim Honorees. The Washington Post’s Ann Hornaday rounded up some of her picks from the festival, which included BAD BRAINS: A BAND IN DC, about the hardcore punk band Bad Brains, and DON’T STOP BELIEVIN’, about a Filipino fan’s transformation into the lead singer of the band Journey. Kelly Anderson at Reelscreen also took an in-depth look at the festival’s slate.
Directors Heidi Ewing and Rachel Grady grabbed some digital ink this week after launching a kickstarter campaign to independently distribute their film DETROPIA. The pair are looking to raise $60,000 “into regions, theaters and venues that want to see the movie but can’t—unless we bring it directly to them with your help.” Tom Roston talked to the filmmaking duo for the POV blog about their decision to take on the task of distribution.
Freelance film writer Anthony Kaufman started a new documentary column on the SundanceNOW blog titled Docutopia. In his inaugural post, Kaufman took a look at the films 5 BROKEN CAMERAS and THE LAW IN THESE PARTS, both of which examine the ongoing tensions between Israel and the Occupied Territories.
Ken Burns’ new film THE CENTRAL PARK FIVE premiered at this year’s Cannes.
Cannes’ storied Camera d’Or may have left France with BEASTS OF THE SOUTHERN WILD filmmaker Benh Zeitlin, but there was still plenty of doc-related news going down at the French Riveria. David Rooney of The Hollywood Reporter reviewed the Ken Burns doc THE CENTRAL PARK FIVE, which premiered at Cannes, finding it “relatively conventional in style and structure,” but conveying “a shocking story in eloquent, even-handed and affecting terms.” At the LA Times, Kenneth Turan dug into the obstacles Burns, who made the film with his daughter Sarah and David McMahon, faced in making the film.
Jordan Mintzer of The Hollywood Reporter took a look at another doc that screened at Cannes, JOURNAL DE FRANCE. an examination of filmmaker and photographer Raymond Depardon by the man himself. Mintzer describes the film as an “engaging and somewhat droll self-study.” In another review for The Hollywood Reporter, David Rooney writes up LES INVISIBLES, Sebastian Lifshitz’s take on the changes faced by gay men and lesbians entering middle age. Lifshitz found the film to have “a real coziness to the interviews and some gorgeous pastoral imagery to punctuate them,” but that it’s “repetitive at two hours and could stand to lose as much as 30 minutes.”
Also, French intellectual Bernard-Henri Lévy spoke with Britain’s The Guardian newspaper about his film THE OATH OF TOBRUK, which premiered at Cannes and documents the overthrow of Col. Muammar Gaddafi in Libya. Stephen Dalton of The Hollywood Reporter also reviewed the film, describing it as “a more engaging experience than it may sound on paper.” And at Indiewire, Peter Belsito provided a breakdown of The Doc Corner at Cannes, which links prospective buyers with documentaries screening at the festival.
