The presence of docs at Cannes this year was commanding the attention of Melanie Goodfellow of ScreenDaily, who reported that docs were booming there, both onscreen and in distro deals. Writing for the AFP, Richard Ingahm reported that docs were an increasing portion of the films being marketed at Cannes. At the Chicago Tribune, critic Michael Phillips spoke with director James Toback and Alec Baldwin, the forces behind the film SEDUCED AND ABANDONED, a doc about the state of the film industry. Matt Mueller of Indiewire also interviewed Baldwin and Toback on the new film.

The top prize at Cannes Un Certain Regard went to the autobiographic doc A MISSING PICTURE by Cambodian director Rithy Panh. Read a review at The Hollywood Reporter. Other docs playing in Cannes official selection include Claude Lanzmann’s THE LAST OF THE UNJUST reviewed in Variety, Indiewire, and The Guardian; and Mark Cousins’ A STORY OF CHILDREN AND FILM reviewed in Variety, The Hollywood Reporter and The Guardian. Playing in Directors Fortnight, Marcel Ophuls’ memoir doc AIN’T MISBEHAVIN was reviewed by Ben Kenigsberg on Roger Ebert’s website and Jordan Mintzer in The Hollywood Reporter.

Jane Mayer of The New Yorker made waves this week with a piece suggesting that ITVS had withdrawn funding for the film CITIZEN KOCH for fear of angering right-wing billionaire David Koch. Anthony Kaufman weighed in on the implications in a piece for Indiewire, while Bryce J. Renninger reported on the Mayer piece for the publication. Brendan Fischer of the Center for Media and Democracy also reported on the developments for Michael Moore’s website. At the Think Progress website Alyssa Rosenberg considered the effect of private donations on public media.

The AFI Docs Film Festival this week announced its lineup. Adam Benzine of Realscreen covered this year’s lineup along with news of its gala presentation of the film HERBLOCK: THE BLACK & THE WHITE. Erin Ruberry also pointed out some festival highlights at The Huffington Post.

In his Docutopia post Anthony Kaufman took on the documentary filmmaking institution that is Alex Gibney, while Daniel James Scott of Filmmaker Magazine interviewed Gibney about his new film WE STEAL SECRETS: THE STORY OF WIKILEAKS. Zorianna Kit of Reuters also wrote up Gibney’s new film, as did Daniel James Scott of the International Documentary Association.

In distro news, Adam Benzine of Realscreen reported that Dogwoof had picked up INREALLIFE from Beeban Kidron for UK distro and global representation. Realscreen colleague Kelly Anderson reported that First Run Features had snagged North American rights for 16 ACRES by director Richard Hankin.

Basil Tsiokos had a few recaps of Hot Docs on his What (Not) to Doc blog: one on films in the competition section, one on the special presentations and films in the world showcase and one on films in the nightvision and rule breakers categories. Tsiokos also had an overview of the docs screening at the Seattle International Film Festival.

Writing for The Huffington Post, Tracey Harnish reviewed Lucien Castiang-Taylor and Verena Paravel’s LEVIATHAN, as did James Franco (yes that James Franco) over at Vice.

Over at NPR, Joel Rose reported on the film PLIMPTON!: STARRING GEORGE PLIMPTON AS HIMSELF. And Andy Webster of the New York Times anointed the film a Critics Pick.

Eric Harvey of Pitchfork did us all the favor of listing 20 essential music docs, while Michael Hann of The Guardian published his own list of the 10 best music documentaries of all time.

At the Film Independent website, Tracy Droz Tragos shared some great tips on being a documentarian gleaned from personal experience.

Back at Indiewire, Kevin Jagernauth shared five tidbits of information one could learn from watching the doc JODOROWSKY’S DUNE.

Over at the NFB’s blog, Alexandra Yanofsky explained the importance of visual research, and how filmmakers could stay on top of the clearance rights associated with it.

Peter Knegt of Indiewire took a look at Shawn Cohen’s film THE MANOR, which has been doing relatively well in release at Toronto’s Bloor Cinema. And fellow Indiewire writer Eric Kohn reviewed Claude Lanzmann’s latest film for the site, THE LAST OF THE UNJUST.

At the Documentary Channel blog, Christopher Campbell had a list of this week’s notable theatrical releases in two installments, with the first one found here and the second found here. Campbell also penned a post on notabale documentary trailer releases. And earlier in the week Campbell published an interview with director Dan Setton and producer Elise Pearlstein on their recent project STATE 194.

Over at the POV blog, Tom Roston sought to draw attention to the film STUCK from director Thaddaeus Scheel. The POV blog also interviewed filmmaker Lucy Winer on her distribution practices for the film KINGS PARK.

Back at Filmmaker Magazine, Nick Dawson published a five question interview with Andrew Cohn and Davy Rothbart, the directors of the film MEDORA. Also at Filmmaker, the MIT Open Doc lab published an interview with IDFA DocLab’s Casper Sonnen.

The British site DocGeeks kept busy this week, with Alexandra Zeevalkink publishing an interview with director Sarah Gavron, who made the film VILLAGE AT THE END OF THE WORLD. Zeevalkink also profiled the Sheffield Doc/Fest for interested parties in a separate post.

At the Globe and Mail, Kate Taylor wrote a piece on how Tom Perlmutter helped the NFB evolve in the new media landscape.

Back at the IDA’s website, Michael Galinsky recapped the Tribeca Film Festival.

At his Kino-Eye website, David Tamés spoke with Maria Agui Carter about her film REBEL, a profile of Civil War fighter Loreta Velazquez.

Kevin Ritchie of Realscreen interviewed Rick Beyer, director of THE GHOST ARMY.

That’s it for this week, but remember to send tips for the Memo via email here, or by Twitter to @GuerrillaFace. Thanks and enjoy the holiday weekend everyone.