There was a host of news about the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) this week. In a post at the POV blog, Tom Roston spoke with TIFF programmer (and STF Artistic Director) Thom Powers about the festival’s Doc Conference. Writing for Realscreen, Adam Benzine reported on details of the Doc Conference, and also had the news that the new Martin Scorsese doc THE 50 YEAR ARGUMENT would screen at TIFF. Benzine also reported that the doc MAIDAN about the Ukrainian revolution would also show at TIFF.

In a post at the National Film Board of Canada (NFB) blog in early August, Jovana Jankovic wrote on the four basic types of documentary films.

The staff of the International Documentary Association (IDA) website mediated some questions submitted via Twitter for Lisa Chanoff and Bonni Cohen about the Catapult Film Fund.

Sight and Sound Magazine published an interactive interface for its recent list/poll of the greatest documentaries of all time which you can find here.

Writing for DocumentaryTelevision.com, Peter Hamilton shared a number of breakdowns for fees, budgets and rights related to the PBS documentary show POV.

The folks behind the Freep Film Festival released a pair of episodes of The Documentary Podcast in August, with one focusing on the Traverse City Film Festival and an earlier one centering on the Roger Ebert doc LIFE ITSELF.

Scott Macaulay of Filmmaker Magazine had the news that the Camden International Film Festival (CIFF) had partnered with Al Jazeera’s new digital platform AJ+ for a short doc pitch session at this year’s festival. Eric Eidelstein of Indiewire and Adam Benzine of Realscreen also had the news.

Writing for Nonfics.com, Daniel Walber had an analysis of how film critics had failed LGBT cinema through a misreading of the doc THE DOG.

In distro news, Kevin Ritchie of Realscreen reported that Blue Ice Docs had picked up 11 docs for distribution in Canada. Also, Cinedigm signed a deal to distribute the documentary film collection of the Simon Wiesenthal Center for home entertainment platforms.

At Indiewire, Ryan Lattanzio reported that the Sundance Institute was hosting a seminar on short documentaries in Los Angeles in mid-September; Nick Krewen of Realscreen had the same news.

Also at Indiewire, Paula Bernstein reported on the news that SeaWorld’s stock had taken a hit since the release of Gabriela Cowperthwaite’s investigative film BLACKFISH. Justin Bachman of BusinessWeek also spoke with Cowperthwaite about SeaWorld’s attempts increase the size of their orca pools.

Back at Filmmaker Magazine, Randy Astle considered Netflix’s recent push into social issue documentary.

At Nonfics.com, Dan Schindel reviewed A WILL FOR THE WOODS by giving the film four stars; writing for The Dissolve, Jen Chaney bestowed the film with a similarly positive review.

In early August, the Washington Post announced the launch of its first online documentary series, titled FIRST AND 17.

Writing for the IDA website, Corinne Gaston shared a recap of a panel focusing on five ways that nonfiction practitioners could break into cable television.

The Hot Docs festival and several partners published a report titled “Documentary Impact: Social Change Through Storytelling” on the ways in which documentaries could inspire various types of change.

In the latest episode of the Filmwax Radio podcast, Adam Schartoff spoke with filmmaker and editor Sam Pollard.

Dennis Toth R&R Consulting released the results of a poll of indie narrative and documentary filmmakers, as well as a handful of animators, on subjects including funding and social media use.

At Indiewire, Brandon Latham shared a list of his 13 favorite sports documentaries.

Writing for the DocGeeks blog, Michael Prescott reviewed the film 1971, about the theft and release of FBI documents.

At his What (Not) to Doc blog, Basil Tsiokos provided an overview of Dokufest, along with a similar scan of docs playing at this year’s Sarajevo Film Festival.

Back at the IDA website, Jane Dubzinski profiled the new business Storyhunter, which pairs video journalists with media outlets looking for content.

At the ITVS Beyond the Box blog, staff posted a look at the experience of filmmaker S. Leo Chang at the ITVS Producer Orientation.

Just a note that the Monday Memo will be on hiatus for the next two weeks for summer vacation, but will return in early September.

As always, tips and recommendations can be sent to the Memo via email here, or by Twitter to @GuerrillaFace. Have a great week all.