While Stranger Than Fiction hibernates for the summer, our programmer Thom Powers is hard at work curating the documentary section of the Toronto International Film Festival. The documentary slate was announced earlier this week and according to Thom, “this year’s documentaries have a sense of immediacy like never before. Current events are getting a fresh perspective in films about the post-crash economy, Iran, Berlusconi, surrogate mothers, U.S. Army veterans and more. These films are sure to generate a lot of debate.” For an in-depth interview about this year’s line-up, visit AJ Schnack’s blog “All These Wonderful Things”.
(Above film still from the documentary INFERNO – in which French film restoration specialist Serge Bromberg brings to light astonishing footage from an unfinished film by Henri-Georges Clouzot, the director of DIABOLIQUE and WAGES OF FEAR.)
Director Hamid Rahmanian and producer Melissa Hibbard presented their film THE GLASS HOUSE to a sold-out crowd at STF last Tuesday. The film had its North American debut at Sundance earlier this year and explores the lives of marginalized young women in modern Tehran who cohabitate in a day center. Battling numerous obstacles including abuse, drug addiction, and general oppression, these women face the challenges with dignity and grace. One of my favorite quotes of the night was during the Q&A when Hamid was asked how the women felt upon seeing the finished film. Hamid said they didn’t think it was “dramatic enough”. Life in Tehran!
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 HEARTS AND MINDS that earned him the 1975 Oscar for Best Documentary. Much less known today is his landmark television series MIDDLETOWN, a series of six verité documentaries which aspired to create a portrait of life in America by telling stories that reflected 6 different aspects of American life: Getting a Living; Making a Home; Training the Young; Using Leisure; Engaging in Religious Practice; and Engaging in Community Activities. The series was shot entirely in Muncie, Indiana from 1979 to 1982 with a team that included Peter Davis as Executive Producer and Director, Ricky Leacock as a Director, now A-List Hollywood DP John Lindley, editor Tom Haneke and others. Originally aired in 1982, the MIDDLETOWN series has become increasingly hard to see.** Doc geeks like myself have only had the chance to see the films from the series on blurry VHS copies passed around from doc enthusiast to doc enthusiast like Russian Samizdat literature. (One hopes that a company like Criterion might someday step in to make the films available as a DVD box-set.)
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.)
While Stranger Than Fiction hibernates for the summer, our programmer Thom Powers is hard at work curating the documentary section of the Toronto International Film Festival. The documentary slate was announced earlier this week and according to Thom, “this year’s documentaries have a sense of immediacy like never before. Current events are getting a fresh perspective in films about the post-crash economy, Iran, Berlusconi, surrogate mothers, U.S. Army veterans and more. These films are sure to generate a lot of debate.” For an in-depth interview about this year’s line-up, visit AJ Schnack’s blog “All These Wonderful Things”.
Director Hamid Rahmanian and producer Melissa Hibbard presented their film 
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 (
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.)