As STF prepares for its Opening Night on Tues, Sept 23 with AT THE EDGE OF THE WORLD, now is the time to get the greatest value out of a buying a season pass. You can purchase it at the IFC Center box office or on-line at Movietickets.com (Click on “At the Edge of the World,” then the time “8:00 pm” to select the season pass option). Carrying the STF card is a sign of your support for bringing great documentaries to the theater. You’ll see sneak previews months before the rest of the public, discover rare work that you might never see again, meet the filmmakers, and fraternize with NY’s documentary community. Browse the STF Archives to get a sampling of our past; and sign up for a season pass to participate in our future. If that’s not enough to motivate you, consider five more reasons:
1) Get 10 great films for $95 and save $55 off normal price.
If you missed the STF screening of A TIME FOR BURNING in fall 06, you’ll have another chance to see the Academy Award nominated classic with director Bill Jersey in person. The Academy Film Archive has completed a new restoration of the print that will be shown on Monday, Oct 20, 2008 in Manhattan at the Academy Theater at Lighthouse International. For more information and to purchase tickets, go to oscars.org.
I returned to New York City on Wednesday night after 10 weeks in Toronto. I must say it’s good to be home, even if home is the epicenter of financial crisis. Dining at an Upper East Side restaurant, I overheard a distinguished-looking gentleman on his cell phone saying that “today was the scariest day in my 30 years on Wall Street. I’ve never seen the system so close to collapse.”
Never a dull moment in New York. Another thrill to my homecoming is Scott Foundas’ review of A TIME TO STIR (pictured) in the new issue of the Village Voice. I programmed this four-hour epic documentary (still a work-in-progress) about the 1968 Columbia University student strike for the last day of the Toronto International Film Festival. Foundas writes that it was “the most vital movie I ended up seeing” at the festival. He wasn’t the only one. Time Out Chicago critic Ben Kenigsberg calls it one of “the more compelling documentaries” at TIFF.
The film is directed by Paul Cronin whose name may be familiar to STF loyalists from FILM AS A SUBVERSIVE ART shown in our Winter 08 season. Cronin is now based full time in New York, having returned to graduate school at Columbia. We hope to see him in the STF audience this season.
Yes, Paris Hilton was in the house this past week at TIFF. After a complicated journey to the festival, Adria Petty’s documentary PARIS, NOT FRANCE had just a single showing on Tuesday. I’ve never seen so many cameras on the red carpet of the Ryerson Theater. Introducing the film, I noted that when documentary makers train their camera on the super famous, they typically have to contend with a phalanx of lawyers, managers and press agents running interference. Petty navigates this terrain skillfully and brings the playful sense of style that is a hallmark of her music videos. Some reviewers have used the film to vent their feelings about Paris (guess what: they feel superior!) rather than grapple with why this young woman holds such appeal. But Paris tends to have the last laugh in these matters (as John McCain discovered). Her legions of fans aren’t likely to care what the press pack thinks. The film has strong advisers with the producer Cary Woods and the William Morris agent Cassian Elwes. I would not second guess their instinct for the marketplace.
Indiewire has two pieces of thorough TIFF doc coverage including an interview with Petty and a critical round-up by Eric Kohn.
The Toronto International Film Festival will come to a close on Saturday having launched 41 or so documentary projects. Of course, that number depends on how you define documentary. My count includes the animated WALTZ WITH BASHIR, but not Jia Zhang-ke’s hybrid 24 CITY (both coming soon to the New York Film Festival). Nor am I including the works in Short Cuts Canada or experimental titles in the Wavelengths section, so you could count even higher than 41. New Yorkers can get a sampling of Toronto’s doc line-up at STF this fall with three titles: BLOOD TRAIL, THE DUNGEON MASTERS and the opening night film AT THE EDGE OF THE WORLD (whose subject Paul Watson is pictured on the left with programmer Thom Powers and director Dan Stone at the TIFF world premiere on Monday). STF regulars will recall getting a taste of another TIFF title SOUL POWER when we screened an 8-minute preview last spring with WHEN WE WERE KINGS. Earlier this week, A.O. Scott wrote in the New York Times that SOUL POWER was “the most entertaining movie I’ve seen so far” at the festival. Stay tuned to this space for further reflections on TIFF and my brushes with Jimmy Page, The Edge, Jack White, LeBron James, Bill Maher, Valentino, Youssou Ndour, Paris Hilton, Howard Zinn and Viggo Mortensen. You can read other reviews of TIFF docs in the excellent round-up coverage at AJ Schnack’s blog All These Wonderful Things.
Meanwhile, don’t delay in buying your STF Fall Season Pass for what Indiewire blogger Mark Rabinowitz calls the “weekly must-go-to for the NYC indie crowd.”
As STF prepares for its Opening Night on Tues, Sept 23 with AT THE EDGE OF THE WORLD, now is the time to get the greatest value out of a buying a season pass. You can purchase it at the IFC Center box office or on-line at Movietickets.com (Click on “At the Edge of the World,” then the time “8:00 pm” to select the season pass option). Carrying the STF card is a sign of your support for bringing great documentaries to the theater. You’ll see sneak previews months before the rest of the public, discover rare work that you might never see again, meet the filmmakers, and fraternize with NY’s documentary community. Browse the STF Archives to get a sampling of our past; and sign up for a season pass to participate in our future. If that’s not enough to motivate you, consider five more reasons:
If you missed the STF screening of 
I returned to New York City on Wednesday night after 10 weeks in Toronto. I must say it’s good to be home, even if home is the epicenter of financial crisis. Dining at an Upper East Side restaurant, I overheard a distinguished-looking gentleman on his cell phone saying that “today was the scariest day in my 30 years on Wall Street. I’ve never seen the system so close to collapse.”
Yes, Paris Hilton was in the house this past week at TIFF. After a complicated journey to the festival, Adria Petty’s documentary 
The Toronto International Film Festival will come to a close on Saturday having launched 41 or so documentary projects. Of course, that number depends on how you define documentary. My count includes the animated