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At the end of last month I went to a Copyright and Fair Use Workshop with Attorney Karen Shatzkin, sponsored by Emerson College’s department of Visual and Media Arts. Karen focused on the basic ideas of copyright and Fair Use as they apply to documentary filmmakers, and I took notes. Filmmakers – don’t quake under the threat of legal action, read up on your rights!

Earlier this year, we decided a party was in order as part of celebrating the 10th Anniversary of the LEF Moving Image Fund.  Due to capacity issues, we were limited to inviting those filmmakers we had funded and colleagues we work closely with.  But the spirit of the event was to celebrate the filmmaking community as a whole—not just those in the room-- and to affirm that none of us does this work alone.

The LEF staff has been out and about! Following up Sara’s post about True/False, I’m reporting back on my time at the Big Sky Film Festival in Missoula, Montana where the Big Sky team headed by Mike Steinberg put together some really wonderful programming.  Highlights for me included the Jury Prize winner Chasing Ice, about photographer James Balog and his beautiful/devastating glacier photography (audience members were audibly gasping) and getting to see one of my favorites, DA Pennebaker’s Don’t Look Back, on a big screen. I was also really impressed with how well the shorts blocks pulled films together under thematic headers that provided a context for the movies to interact. 

After an amazing weekend in Columbia, Missouri at the True/False Film Fest, I was prepared to write a full-on public Love Letter (capitals intended) to the festival praising its spirit, its vision and its whimsy. 

YOU ARE INVITED TO A CONVERSATION WITH YOUR COLLEAGUES IN CREATIVE DOCUMENTARY.

WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 11, 11.00am - 12.30pm

ELINOR BUNIN FILM CENTER 
Ampitheater, 144 W. 65th St, New York, NY
http://www.filmlinc.com/about/get-directions

Cinema Eye invites directors and producers with at least one feature doc credit to participate in this open conversation about key issues impacting our community.

The Balagan Film Series had its final screening of the season earlier this week with "Our Departed," a program comprised of work from filmmakers who passed away in 2011.  As co-curator Jeff Silva noted, it's been a rough year for the film community in terms of losses, and he likened the Balagan program to another take on the "in memorium" section of the Oscars - a flipside to the usual Hollywood tribute since it featured work from very independent filmmakers like George Kuchar, Robert Breer, Owen Land, Karen Aqua (whose film Twist of Fate was screened on a great 35mm print), Ricky Leacock, Raúl Ruiz and Omar Amiralay. 



Some of the films I'd heard of and was eager to see - like Leacock's Chiefs, about a police chief convention in Hawaii right after the 1968 riots at the Chicago Democratic Convention - and others, like Owen Land's 3-minute No Sir Orison, were pleasant surprises. 

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As part of the ongoing Frederick Wiseman retrospective happening at the Harvard Film Archive,
this week brings us screenings of the Cambridge-based filmmaker's Belfast, Maine (1999) (Sunday 20 Nov. at 6pm) and Titicut Follies (1967) (Monday 21 Nov at 7pm). Belfast, Maine is "serenely composed of the illuminating routines and intimate minutiae" of a New England town, while Titicut Follies, Wiseman's first film (also set in New England, in Massachusetts), "proved so shocking in its unadorned rendering of a state mental institution that it remains the only American film to have been completely censored for reasons other than obscenity or national security."  No matter what slice of American life he chooses to film, Wiseman's documentaries are engrossing - this is a chance to see a part of his panorama of work on a big screen.

In a special event on 2 Dec, the filmmaker will be at the HFA in person to talk about The Last Letter (La Dernier Lettre), his only fiction film. The last movie of the series is State Legsislature on 2 Dec - a film that LEF supported with a Production grant.

The screenings at the HFA coincide with Frederick Wiseman's Phelps Lecture at the Radcliffe Institude for Advanced Study on Dec 1:"Shooting, Editing, and Reading a Documentary Film"

"Frederick Wiseman will discuss—and illustrate with sequences from his films—his approach to documentary filmmaking. He will address choice of subject, fundraising, technical filming
issues, sound recording and editing, analysis of sequences, relation of facts to metaphor and abstraction, and the creation of a dramatic structure. Wiseman will end with a discussion
about how he applies the principles of "close reading" to film." 

The lecture is free and open to the public on Dec 1 at 4pm at the Radcliffe Gymnasium, 10 Garden St. Cambridge MA.

- Nellie

The Center for Social Media at American University has created yet another helpful and informative study examining the work of nonfiction filmmakers. This one is "Honest Truths: Documentary Filmmakers on Challenges in Their Work"; a report based on conversations with 45 filmmakers about the ethical challenges they face in the creation of their work and how they handle them.

The Media, Culture, and Special Initiatives program of the John and Catherine T MacArthur Foundation in Chicago is funding the production and distribution of documentary films with an open call that begins Nov. 1 with proposals due Dec 2.  The guidelines are fairly specific, and the deadline will be competitive, but If your project does meet the Foundation's criteria, this is a great chance to apply for some substantial funding!

A few weeks ago, I had the pleasure of attending the IFP’s Indie Film Week. It had been years since I had gone and I knew that in just the last year or so, the format had changed dramatically. LEF had one film in the market this year, Banker White’s THE GENIUS OF MARION, and so I took the opportunity to see what was new at the IFP.

I love Maine. As you cross the border into this fair state, you see the sign “The Way Life Should Be” and you learn in just moments from the fiery hills and the salty fresh air that it’s true, this is the way life should be. I am nothing but grateful that the Camden International Film Festival (CIFF) gives me an excuse every year to get up there. CIFF is an amazing festival celebrating the best, brightest, and newest ideas in nonfiction cinema, and it keeps getting better every year.

To add to the list of things to be excited about at the upcoming Camden International Film Festival: Northeast Historic Film Presents: Working Waterfronts of Maine.

This program of film clips from the Northeast Historic Film Archive promises seamoss harvesting, lobstering and boat launching, among other coastal activities. The screening takes place on Saturday, October 1 at 10:30am at the Farnsworth Museum in Rockland, ME, with NHF Executive Director David Weiss on hand to talk about the films.

For filmmakers or other interested parties attending CIFF, a side trip to check out Northeast Historic Film in Bucksport, ME might be worth investigating. This past July I attended the annual Summer Symposium at NHF – the 2011 theme was Das Wunderkino: A Cinematic Cabinet of Curiosities,...

Producer and LEF Grantee Yu Ying Chou (also known as Sally Wu) is working with director Marlo Poras on the epic tale THE MOSUO SISTERS, about two spirited daughters of China's last matriarchal society and their challenges as they balance their responsibilities to their family, their culture, and themselves. Sally and Marlo were selected to participate in the 2011 Sundance Creative Producing Summit, held recently in Utah. Here are some of Sally's thoughts about the experience....

Hats off to Channel 4 BRITDOC for taking on the huge challenge of tracking what kind of difference a documentary can make!

From July 28 through July 30, Northeast Historic Film in Bucksport, Maine is hosting its 12^thAnnual Summer Symposium: “Das Wunderkino: A Cinematic Cabinet of Curiosities.” With presentations on peepshow phenomenology, magician/taylor/filmmakers, laryngoscopes, amateur-made trick films, 1980s Australian youth culture, and much more, this is a conference that sounds like it will mentally transport participants even farther than the 227 miles it takes to get there from Boston.

Most people have a summer reading list. I have a summer screening list. Which, thanks to Mike Stoltz, has just gotten longer. LEF Flaherty Fellow Mike Stoltz gives us his "must see" list from the seminar.

Please share in the Flaherty glow. Jesse Epstein shines it brightly!

I had the privilege of attending a tribute to Ricky Leacock over the weekend at MIT's Media Lab. The program was filled with honest, funny, and moving stories from those who knew him best - his collaborators, his students, and, of course, his beloved family.

Hats off to Lesley Norman, Jen Kaplan and the whole Filmmakers Collaborative team for their hard work in creating a fantastic event!

With all of the new documentaries in town this week for the Independent Film Festival Boston (don't miss the LEF-sponsored panel When Does a Story Become a FIlm? From Idea to Documentary), it's also good to remember some older nonfiction films that have been screening at the Harvard Film Archive - the Middletown Film Project, which conclude this Sunday with SEVENTEEN.

A diverse group of screenings, from LEF grantees and other filmmakers of interest, to help get from the current lion-like part of March to the lamb-like part at the other end:

The Salem Film Fest, not to be confused with the Salem (Oregon) Film Festival, is happening soon – March 4 – March 10 in Salem MA.

It’s exciting to have a relatively new (this is it's fourth year), all-documentary festival in New England, one with a carefully-chosen program of 30 films.

I’ve been meaning to talk about movie posters since this post at Mubi.com’s daily notebook naming the SWEETGRASS poster as one of the top 10 of 2010 (one of the few documentaries to make the list).

With lots of festivals happening now and in the near future, plenty of filmmakers are getting their promotional materials ready to go. It’s an exciting opportunity to create an interesting and good-looking poster or flier that stands alone as a visual - all the more exciting for being a finishing touch once the work of making the actual film is done.

Below are some of the posters we’ve been collecting from LEF-funded filmmakers: it’s not just to pep up the walls in the LEF office - it's a great reminder for us of the variety of work that the Moving Image Fund has helped support. - Nellie

 

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Here at LEF we’re preparing for a busy couple of months. There’s our LOI deadline – only a week away – plus the upcoming  season of The DocYard.  Still, we’re always trying to keep one ear open for news about films LEF has supported in the past.  Next week, work from two LEF-funded filmmakers is being showcased:

The Cinema Eye Honors for Nonfiction Filmmaking were founded in late 2007 to recognize and honor exemplary craft and innovation in nonfiction film.  Cinema Eye’s mission has been to advocate for, recognize and promote the highest commitment to rigor and artistry in the nonfiction field.

I have to say that when the online fundraising hype-machine first got started, I didn’t buy it.

We here at the LEF office were saddened to hear that Massachusetts Film Office maestro Nick Paleologos is leaving his post.

Always looking around for New England documentaries, even if we have to go inside other movies that aren't New England documentaries, like The Fighter...

It's time to start thinking about applying for LEF's upcoming deadline: production and post-production LOIs are due on Friday, 28 January at 5pm.

The LEF Foundation is proud to contribute to the KAREN SCHMEER FILM EDITING FELLOWSHIP. As described in the Fellowship’s mission statement:

“The Karen Schmeer Fellowship is a year-long experience that encourages and champions the talent of an emerging editor. It creates opportunities to help cultivate an editor’s artistry and craft, and expand his or her professional and creative community. Awarded annually, the Fellowship was created to honor the memory of gifted editor, Karen Schmeer.”

At Coolidge on December 6: IDA and the Center for Independent Documentary are presenting AN EVENING WITH JULIA BACHA - a Boston Installment of IDA's Doc U Seminar Series Tickets »

Right before that: the BITAHR FILM FORUM, which is bringing films and speakers to the Brattle Theatre from December 2-5 in order to raise awareness of human sex trafficking.

"Recognizing the need for greater public and academic awareness of sex trafficking, Human Rights and Sex Trafficking: A Film Forum will explore the power of film in effectuating a movement to combat commercial sexual exploitation and modern-day slavery"

Here's the Facebook event -...

Political Documents: Marlo Poras' Run Granny Run and the official White House Videographer Arun Chaudhary.

In the wake of the midterm elections I’ve been thinking about political movies. It’s a familiar genre that taps into those stirring clichés about democracy that make us get excited and patriotic around election times.

It's a long way from New England, but back in the Olde Worlde the Sheffield Doc/Fest is happening now. Check out their website for a long list of films, pitch sessions and forward-thinking learning opportunities of all stripes.

The Scottish Documentary Institute is premiering some of the documentary shorts from its Bridging the Gap Program at Sheffield. The program provides funding, training and guidance for new Scotland-based filmmakers:

“The scheme aims to bridge the gap between training/graduation and a first broadcast by offering the opportunity to work closely with BBC Scotland, and all those filmmakers who have not made documentaries for the big screen.”    

A place-specific mentorship/talent incubation/grants program that receives...

Creepy experimental animators the Quay Brothers (Brothers Quay?), have been commissioned to make a film at the Mutter Museum in Philadelphia. I visited the Mutter recently - it's the museum of the Surgeon's College of Philadelphia and full of antique medical curiosities originally used for teaching medical students. It's really neat - I liked the drawers that catalogue objects extracted in patients airways, sorted by size and type.

The Quay Brothers film is using the museums' artifacts as the basis for stories in "the latest attempt by a museum to expand its audience by enlisting artists to interpret its collection" and is being funded by a $287,000 grant from the Pew Center for Arts and Heritage (this is all from the New York Times article about the project). It's a very fitting, Halloween-appropriate collaboration between the filmmakers and the museum's collection. Maybe more...

When even A.O. Scott is having a hard time defining contemporary documentary, imagine how difficult it must be for the rest of us:

New York Time Article: "Documentaries (in Name Only) of Every Stripe" » 

We're used to seeing home movie footage, or faked home movie footage, used in all kinds of movies - personal documentaries and fiction film credits come to mind right away, and I'm pretty sure that the opening sequence of Toy Story 3 was an animated home video sequence, which just goes to show what a powerful moviemaking standard they are.

Home Movie Day, on Saturday, October 16, is a unique opportunity to see this most common and beautiful form of non-fiction filmmaking screened in its own right. Audiences can bring their own home movies to show, whether on 16mm, 8mm, super 8 or video (VHS and DVD clips limited to 5 minutes).

Part 2
Independent Film Week

Prior to my trek north to Maine, I spent time in New York City at Independent Film Week, 19-23 September. Two LEF funded projects were part of Spotlight on Documentaries: Betting the Farm (Jason Mann, Cecily Pingree) and Ivan and Ivana (Jeff Silva). The works-in-progress screenings are the highlight for me at IFW. I met and saw the work of many filmmakers outside the NE region, as well as being introduced to some NE filmmakers I didn’t yet know.

At both IFW and Points North, similar notes were struck related to distribution and financing. Some food for thought:

Part 1
Camden International Film Festival: Points North and Pitching

 

In its second year, Points North at the Camden Film Festival is the place for New England filmmakers to connect with people in the documentary film industry. The impetus behind Points North was to connect New England filmmakers to the industry, and the industry to New England filmmakers.  And it’s succeeding at both.

Hopefully soon we'll have some updates from the Camden International Film Festival (happening now!) and IFP week, but like so many falling autumn leaves, there are lots of October events to keep track of:

It's September already. If you haven't had the chance to get to a Docyard screening at the Brattle this past summer, the last film is Lixin Fan's Last Train Home on Monday, 13 September.

It's already time to start thinking about the fall film festivals and your hit list of "must attends," ESPECIALLY for New England filmmakers, should include the Camden International Film Festival (CIFF) taking place Sept. 30th through Oct. 3rd! 

If it’s too late for you to start bilingual-immersion kindergarten like the kids in Speaking in Tongues, second-language films are one way to get exposure

Among the many satisfying elements of working in the world of documentary funding is seeing a project that your foundation supports gain further recognition, grant support, and accolades from the industry broadly. At LEF, one name that we frequently see stand out in the crowd of funders is CINEREACH.

Watching Fred Wiseman’s Hospital at the last Docyard screening, as patients at New York’s Metropolitan Hospital bled and vomited their way into our hearts, I kept wondering “How is he filming this?”

Cooling off visually with one of LEF's grantees...

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