November 19, 2009
Third Thessalonians: a time and a place
It's not as simple as it could be dropped into the middle of a film festival and keeping up with a blog and the off-campus outside world... but there's stuff I'm adding at my Twitter feed, and of course, the headlines upfront at Movie City News. Werner Herzog walks among the Thessalonians... Report to follow.
[Photos © Ray Pride]
Posted by Ray Pride at 07:40 AM | Comments (0)
November 17, 2009
The Exiles (1961, ****)
Milestone Films, one of the most important distributors of gone-missing films from international film heritage, including Killer of Sheep and I Am Cuba, releases Kent McKenzie's The Exiles presented by Charles Burnett and Sherman Alexie, a restoration of an almost-unseen 1961 fiction film in film noir tradition, the story of Native Americans in Los Angeles' Bunker Hill District as they struggle during the Bureau of Indian Affairs “relocation period." Glistening with bright light and darkening sorrow, the no-budget Exiles, shot in 1958 on short ends, was indie decades before the slapdash label was applied to many an undernourished project. It's a narrative based on extensive documentary research that plays out as a day in the life of several native Americans in their twenties who have left the reservation for the big city, and the result is mood and moment, anthropology and melancholy. The sound design is unusually strong, creating a sense of a bustling, vital world now passed, and the general enterprise bears modest comparison to the early work of Cassavetes. It's also a fugitive capsule of a moment, shaped, heightened, at small remove from its practical locations captured on-screen. It's an action movie, in the best sense of the phrase. The double-disc edition includes scenes from Bunker Hill in 1956 and "Bunker Hill: A Tale of Urban Renewal"; clips from Thom Andersen's Los Angeles Plays Itself, commentary by Sherman Alexie and Sean Axmaker; shorts by Mackenzie, and "the first Native American Film," "White Fawn's Devotion," as well as a stills gallery, an episode of the Leonard Lopate Show with Sherman Alexie and Charles Burnett. Text material includes a production history, a 1956 funding proposal, the final script and original publicity material from 1963, along with Mackenzie's master's thesis on the making of the film and his last resume. [Ray Pride.] Film website. And a tribute skateboard design.
Posted by Ray Pride at 03:04 AM | Comments (0)
November 16, 2009
"You must have a collection of posters from the world's worst movies," Jane Birkin says.
... To the man with the oversized bag of paper.
Posted by Ray Pride at 08:19 AM | Comments (0)
November 15, 2009
Alexandre Desplat on working with Terrence Malick, more
At a masterclass at the 50th Thessaloniki International Film Festival, Alexandre Desplat talks about working with Terrence Malick on 2010's Tree of Life. "The most important thing for me, for music to express," the composer, who's worked on nine features in 2009, says, "is the invisible, to show what is not in the film, whether outside the frame, or in the depth of field." He offers a cooking analogy about when the score and the film finally work together. When spaghetti is cooked just right, he says, throwing his arms up toward the blank screen behind him, "It sticks to the wall. You know it's right when the music sticks to the scene." Asked if there are scores he wishes he could have written to earlier films, he thought for a moment, and answered, "Thousands... Polanski, Chinatown, Malick's Days of Heaven, Hitchcocks... Color! The things Polanski and Jerry Goldsmith did with silence in Chinatown... Un Peau Douce, I would love to have been able to do a Truffaut."
Below, Desplat answers a question from the audience about Tarantino's soundtracks; describes the "exaltation" and "crap" of the film composer's life; and talks about working with light and "color" on Vermeer-based fantasy "The Girl With The Pearl Earring."
Desplat vs. Tarantino
"Exaltation and Crap"
"Light, Color and Vermeer"
Posted by Ray Pride at 03:07 AM | Comments (0)
No Subtitles Necessary, (2009, ***)
James Chressanthis' No Subtitles Necessary premieres Tuesday night on PBS' "Independent Lens" series: it's an anecdote-rich documentary about lifelong friends, cinematographic greats Laszlo Kovacs and Vilmos Zsigmond, from their youthful escape from Hungary in 1956 with footage of the Russian invasion of Budapest to the glory days of Hollywood in the 1960s and 1970s and into their mature careers. One hopes there's hours more teachable material in the unused material; there's always more to hear about movies like Deliverance. Five Easy Pieces, McCabe and Mrs. Miller, Paper Moon, Close Encounters and Deliverance. Conversations with (and between) Kovacs and Zsigmond are the beating heart of this assemblage, and there's enthusiastic testimony from directors Bob Rafelson, Dennis Hopper, Peter Bogdanovich, John Boorman, Richard Donner, William Richert, Mark Rydell, composer John Williams and actors including Sharon Stone, Jon Voight, Peter Fonda, Sandra Bullock and Karen Black. Not the most neatly structured of films, No Subtitles Necessary's highlights include clips from the Budapest footage, early no-budget productions and a general feeling that deep feeling is conducive to great work. Kovacs died in 2007, which is noted in the film. [Photo of Vilmos Zsigmond by Ray Pride.]
A background is provided for photographing James Chressanthis, Vilmos Zsigmond and Despina Mouzaki at the 11th Thessaloniki International Documentary Festival, March 2009.
Posted by Ray Pride at 01:06 AM | Comments (0)
November 14, 2009
Is this the end of The Road as we know it? A long Hillcoat-McCarthy interview
In an extensive interview in the Wall Street Journal, John Hillcoat and Cormac McCarthy talk about The Road and the fragmentation of culture. "Viewers are being hardwired differently," Hillcoat observes. "In film, it's harder and harder to use wide shots now. And the bigger the budget, the more closeups there are and the faster they change. It's a whole different approach. What's going to happen is there will be the two extremes: 
the franchise films that are now getting onto brands like Barbie, and Battleship and Ronald McDonald; then there are these incredible, very low-budget digital films. But that middle area, they just can't sustain and make it work in the current model. Maybe the model will change and hopefully readjust."
McCarthy thinks there's too much of ordinary things. "Well, I don't know what of our culture is going to survive, or if we survive. If you look at the Greek plays, they're really good. And there's just a handful of them. Well, how good would they be if there were 2,500 of them? But that's the future looking back at us. Anything you can think of, there's going to be millions of them. Just the sheer number of things will devalue them. I don't care whether it's art, literature, poetry or drama, whatever. The sheer volume of it will wash it out. I mean, if you had thousands of Greek plays to read, would they be that good? I don't think so." Hillcoat follows with an example of gatekeepers of culture tightening the process. "No, you're absolutely right. Just as an example, the Toronto Film Festival is one of the biggest in film festivals. They have made it, for the first time ever, much more difficult to submit a film. They charge an entry fee and they still had 4,000 submissions just this year and they boiled that down to 300." Now imagine the twinkle in McCarthy's eye: "This is just entry level to what's coming. Just the appalling volume of artifacts will erase all meaning that they could ever possibly have. But we probably won't get that far anyway."
Posted by Ray Pride at 10:28 AM | Comments (0)
Fatih Akin deejays
Thessaloniki International Film Festival, Warehouse C, early hours November 14, 2009.
Posted by Ray Pride at 08:33 AM | Comments (0)
November 12, 2009
[PR] Announcing the 2009 IDA Awards nominees
The International Documentary Association Announces Nominees for The 2009 IDA Awards
LOS ANGELES, November 12, 2009– The nominees for the International Documentary Association’s 2009 IDA Documentary Awards competition were announced today, including many of the year’s most buzzed-about titles and festival favorites. Winners will be feted on December 4th at the Directors Guild in Los Angeles, in a ceremony hosted by This American Life’s Ira Glass.
“As the boundaries of documentary film continue to be fearlessly shattered by the creativity of nonfiction filmmaking, 
IDA is proud to be honoring not only the best films of the year, but also many of those who have led the way,” said IDA Executive Director Michael Lumpkin. “The future of nonfiction storytelling could not be better represented by our outstanding host, Ira Glass, who continues to inspire and entertain across a number of media platforms.”
The IDA Documentary Awards will also recognize filmmakers and film journalists who displayed conspicuous bravery in the pursuit of truth -- and put Freedom of Speech above all else, including their own personal safety, in a special “Courage Under Fire” tribute to be presented by Current Media journalists Laura Ling and Euna Lee. In March of this year Ling and Lee were reporting on the trafficking of North Korean women who are fleeing poverty and repression only to end up being exploited across the border in neighboring China. Ling and Lee were apprehended by North Korean soldiers while filming along the Tumen river, which separates China and North Korea. They were sentenced to 12 years in a North Korean labor prison for illegal entry and unspecified hostile acts. After 140 days in captivity, Ling and Lee were eventually pardoned, and they returned to the United States following an unannounced visit to North Korea by former US President Bill Clinton on August 4, 2009.
The five nominated films for Distinguished Documentary Achievement in IDA’s feature category are: AFGHAN STAR, the timely and moving film following the dramatic stories of four young finalists—two men and two women—as they hazard everything to compete in Afghanistan’s version of American Idol; ANVIL! THE STORY OF ANVIL, the hilarious and unexpectedly moving account of an obscure Canadian metal band’s last-ditch quest for elusive fame and fortune; DIARY OF A TIMES SQUARE THIEF, which documents the search for the writer of a mysterious diary that the filmmaker finds on EBay; FOOD, INC., that lifts the veil on our nation's food industry, exposing the highly mechanized underbelly that's been hidden from the American consumer with the consent of our government's regulatory agencies; and MUGABE AND THE WHITE AFRICAN, the story of Michael Campbell, a tough, humorous 74-year-old fifth-generation white African farmer who withstands land invasions and violence in his stand against Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe’s land seizure program. MUGABE AND THE WHITE AFRICAN participated in IDA’s DocuWeeks program in 2009.
The four nominated short films are: THE DELIAN MODE, an exploration of the life and work of electronic music pioneer Delia Derbyshire; SALT, a journey with photo-artist Murray Fredericks as he tries to capture the heart of the world's most featureless landscape on Lake Eyre, South Australia; SARI'S MOTHER, a mother’s navigation of Iraq’s health-care system in search of care for her son who is dying of AIDS; and THE SOLITARY LIFE OF CRANES, a visual poem–24 hours in life of a city seen through the eyes of crane operators. SALT and THE SOLITARY LIFE OF CRANES participated in IDA’s DocuWeeks program in 2009.
In the Limited Series category, the four nominees are: THE ALZHEIMER'S PROJECT, ARCHITECTURE SCHOOL, IN THEIR BOOTS, TIME FOR SCHOOL and WE SHALL REMAIN. Continuing Series nominees are AMERICAN EXPERIENCE, ICONOCLASTS and POV.
Other IDA competition categories include the IDA Music Award (now in its third year), the David L. Wolper Student Documentary Award, the ABC News Video Source Award, for best use of television news footage as an integral component, as well as the Pare Lorentz Award, presented to the filmmaker whose documentary best represents the activist spirit and lyrical vision of the acclaimed Pare Lorentz. For a complete list of nominees and finalists, please see the attached.
In addition to competitive awards for the year’s current crop of outstanding documentaries, IDA also acknowledges exemplary creative contributions to the field at large. IDA announced today that the 2009 Jacqueline Donnet Emerging Documentary Filmmaker Award will honor Natalia Almada. Born in Mexico, Almada's directing credits include ALL WATER HAS A PERFECT MEMORY, an internationally recognized experimental short, AL OTRO LADO, an award-winning feature documentary about immigration and drug trafficking, and EL GENERAL, her latest feature, which won the U. S. Directing Award: Documentary at the 2009 Sundance Film Festival. As previously announced, this year’s IDA Career Achievement honoree, to be celebrated during December’s event, is legendary and innovative filmmaker Errol Morris. Also to be honored are Nicolas Noxon, receiving the Pioneer Award, and attorney Michael Donaldson who is receiving IDA’s Amicus Award.
A departure from recent IDA Documentary Awards, this year’s evening will begin with an 8pm Awards ceremony followed immediately by an Awards Celebration at 10pm.
ABOUT IDA
The IDA is a nonprofit, membership organization based in Los Angeles. The organization was founded in 1982 to promote and celebrate nonfiction filmmakers and is dedicated to increasing public awareness and appreciation of the documentary genre. For more information about IDA visit www.documentary.org or call 213-534-3600.
2009 International Documentary Association Awards
Host
Ira Glass
Honors
CAREER ACHIEVEMENT AWARD
Errol Morris
PIONEER AWARD
Nicolas Noxon
AMICUS AWARD
Michael C. Donaldson
JACQUELINE DONNET EMERGING FILMMAKER AWARD
Natalia Almada
Feature Documentary Nominees
Afghan Star
Director/Producer: Havana Marking
Executive Producers: Mike Lerner, Martin Herring, Saad Mohseni, Jahid Mohseni
Kaboora Productions; Roast Beef Productions; Red Start Media; Zeitgeist Films in association with HBO Documentary Films
Anvil! The Story of Anvil
Director: Sacha Gervasi
Producer: Rebecca Yeldham
Little Dean’s Yard; Ahimsa Films; Abramorama; VH1
Diary of a Times Square Thief
Director/Writer: Klaas Bense
Producers: Janneke Doolard, Hans de Weers, Reinout Oerlemans
Executive Producer: Janneke Doolaard
Eyeworks Film & TV Drama
Food, Inc.
Director/Producer: Robert Kenner
Producer: Elise Pearlstein
Co-Producers: Eric Schlosser, Richard Pearce, Melissa Robledo
Executive Producers: William Pohlad, Robin Schorr, Jeff Skoll, Diane Weyermann
River Road Entertainment; Participant Media; Magnolia Pictures
Mugabe and the White African
Directors: Lucy Bailey, Andrew Thompson
Producers: David Pearson, Elizabeth Morgan Hemlock
Executive Producers: Steve Milne, Pauline Burt
Arturi Films in association with Explore Films, Film Agency For Wales and Molinare Productions.
Short Documentary Nominees
The Delian Mode
Director//Producer/Writer: Kara Blake
Producer: Marie-Josée Saint-Pierre
Philtre Films
Salt
Directors: Michael Angus, Murray Fredericks
Producer/Writer: Michael Angus
Jerrycan Films
Sari’s Mother
Director/Producer: James Longley
Daylight Factory LLC; HBO Documentary Films
The Solitary Life of Cranes
Director: Eva Weber
Producer: Samantha Zarzosa
Odd Girl Out Productions
Continuing Series Award—Nominees
American Experience
Executive Producer: Mark Samels
Senior Producer: Sharon Grimberg
Coordinating Producer: Susan Mottau
Series Manager: James E. Dunford
Series Producer: Susan Bellows
WGBH; PBS
Episodes Submitted:
A Class Apart (Dirs./Prods.: Carlos Sandoval, Peter Miller; Writer: Carlos Sandoval)
The Trials of J. Robert Oppenheimer (Dir./Prod./Writer: David Grubin)
The Polio Crusade (Dir./Prod./Writer: Sarah Colt)
The Assassination of Abraham Lincoln (Dir./Prod./Writer: Barak Goodman)
Iconoclasts
Directors/Producers: Joe Berlinger, Bruce Sinofsky
@radical media; Grey Goose Entertainment; Sundance Channel
Episodes Submitted:
Desmond Tutu & Richard Branson
Stella McCartney & Ed Ruscha
Tony Hawk & John Favreau
Bill Maher & Clive Davis
Venus Williams & Wyclef Jean
Cameron Diaz & Cameron Sinclair
P.O.V.
Executive Director: Simon Kilmurry
Vice President: Cynthia López
American Documentary, Inc.; PBS
Episodes Submitted:
Inheritance
(Dir./Prod.: James Moll; Prod.: Christopher Pavlick; Exec. Prods.: Chris Malachowsky, Ryan Malachowsky)
Campaign (Dir./Prod.: Kazuhiro Soda)
Up the Yangtse (Dir.: Yung Chang; Prods.: Mila Aung-Thwin, Germaine Ying-Gee Wong, John Christou; Exec. Prods.: Daniel Cross, Mila Aung-Thwin, Ravida Din, Sally Bochner)
Limited Series Award--Nominees
Architecture School
Director/Executive Producer/Original Concept: Michael Selditch
Original Concept: Stan Bertheaud
Senior Producer: Rob Tate
Producer: Rachel Clift
Executive Producers: Lynne Kirby, Laura Michalchyshyn
Sundance Channel
The Alzheimer’s Project
Series Producer: John Hoffman
Executive Producers: Sheila Nevins, Maria Shriver
Directors/Producers: Shari Cookson, Nick Doob, Eamon Harrington, John Watkin, Bill Couturié
Producers: John Hoffman, Susan Froemke, Anne Sandkuhler
HBO Documentary Films; National Institute on Aging at the National Institutes of Health; Alzheimer's Association; Fidelity Charitable Gift Fund; Geoffrey Beene Gives Back Alzheimer's Initiative.
In Their Boots
Executive Producer: Richard Ray Perez
Line Producer: Sandi Williams
Producers: Amanda Spain, Abe Greenwald
Brave New Foundation
Time for School
Executive Producer: Pamela Hogan
Producer/Writer: Oren Rudavsky
Producer: Tamara Rosenberg
Wide Angle; WNET Thirteen; PBS
We Shall Remain
Executive Producers: Mark Samels, Sharon Grimberg
Directors/Producers/Writers: Ric Burns, Dustin Craig, Sarah Colt
Director/Producer: Stanley Nelson
Director: Chris Eyre
Producer/Writer: Mark Zwonitzer
Producer: Rob Rapley
Writers: Anne Makepeace, Marcia Smith
American Experience; WGBH; Native American Public Television
ABCNews VideoSource Award--Finalists
Earth Days
Director/Producer/Writer: Robert Stone
Executive Producer: Mark Samels
American Experience Films; Zeitgeist Films
Mugabe and the White African
Directors: Lucy Bailey, Andrew Thompson
Producers: David Pearson, Elizabeth Morgan Hemlock
Executive Producers: Steve Milne, Pauline Burt
Arturi Films in association with Explore Films, Film Agency For Wales and Molinare Productions.
Sergio
Director: Greg Barker
Producers: John Battsek, Julie Goldman
Executive Producers: Samantha Power, Sheila Nevins, Nick Fraser
HBO Documentary Films; BBC Storyville
Shouting Fire: Stories from the Edge of Free Speech
Director/Producer: Liz Garbus
Producers: Rory Kennedy, Jed Rothstein
Executive Producers: Sheila Nevins, Nancy Abraham
Moxie Firecracker Films; HBO Documentary Films
Soundtrack for a Revolution
Directors/Producers/Writers: Bill Guttentag, Dan Sturman
Producers: Joslyn Barnes, Jim Czarnecki, Dylan Nelson
Executive Producers: Danny Glover, Gina Harrell, Mark E. Downie, Marc Henry Johnson
Louverture Films; Freedom Song Productions; Goldcrest Films International; Wild Bunch
Studs Terkel
Directo: Eric Simonson
Producers: Josh Veselka, Lisa Heller
Executive Producers: Sheila Nevins, Linda Ellerbee, Rolf Tessem
Lucky Duck Productions, Inc.; HBO Documentary Films
Thank You, Mr. President: Helen Thomas at the White House
Director/Producer: Rory Kennedy
Producers: Liz Garbus, Jack Youngelson
Executive Producer: Sheila Nevins
Moxie Firecracker Films; HBO Documentary Films
Valentino: The Last Emperor
Director/Producer: Matt Tyrnauer
Producer: Matt Kapp
Executive Producer: Carter Burden
Acolyte Films; Truly Indie; Vitagraph Films
Wounded Knee
Director/Producer: Stanley Nelson
Executive Producers: Sharon Grimberg, Mark Samels
Writer: Marcia Smith
Firelight Media; American Experience; WGBH; Native American Public Television
IDA Music Documentary Award – Nominees
Anvil! The Story of Anvil
Director: Sacha Gervasi
Producer: Rebecca Yeldham
Little Dean’s Yard; Ahimsa Films; Abramorama; VH1
Archaeology of Memory: Villa Grimaldi
Directors/Producers: Quique Cruz, Marilyn Mulford
Interfaze Productions
The Audition
Director/Producer: Susan Froemke
Producer: Douglas Graves
Metropolitan Opera
It Might Get Loud
Director/Producer: Davis Guggenheim
Producers: Thomas Tull, Lesley Chilcott, Peter Afterman
Executive Producers: Bert Ellis, Mike Mailis
Steel Curtain Pictures; Sony Pictures Classics
Soundtrack for a Revolution
Directors/Producers/Writers: Bill Guttentag, Dan Sturman
Producers: Joslyn Barnes, Jim Czarnecki, Dylan Nelson
Executive Producers: Danny Glover, Gina Harrell, Mark E. Downie, Marc Henry Johnson
Louverture Films; Freedom Song Productions; Goldcrest Films International; Wild Bunch
Tibet in Song
Director/Producer/Writer: Ngawang Choephel
Executive Producer: Anne Corcos
Guge Productions; Tashi Sholpa Productions
Pare Lorentz Award—Finalists
The Cove
Director: Louis Psihoyos
Producers: Fisher Stevens, Paula DuPre Pesmen
Co-Producer: Olivia Ahnemann
Executive Producer: Jim Clark
Oceanic Preservation Society; Diamond Dogs; Skyfish Films; Roadside Attractions; Lionsgate
Earth Days
Director/Producer/Writer: Robert Stone
Executive Producer: Mark Samels
American Experience Films; Zeitgeist Films
The Final Inch
Director/Producer: Irene Taylor Brodsky
Producer: Tom Grant
Vermilion Pictures; Google.org; HBO Documentary Films
Food, Inc.
Director/Producer: Robert Kenner
Producer: Elise Pearlstein
Co-Producers: Eric Schlosser, Richard Pearce, Melissa Robledo
Executive Producers: William Pohlad, Robin Schorr, Jeff Skoll, Diane Weyermann
River Road Entertainment; Participant Media; Magnolia Pictures
The Last Mermaids
Director/Producer: Liz Chae
Executive Producers: Kenneth K. Chae, Nam Im Yoon
Chae Films; Columbia University
Mugabe and the White African
Directors: Lucy Bailey, Andrew Thompson
Producers: David Pearson, Elizabeth Morgan Hemlock
Executive Producers: Steve Milne, Pauline Burt
Arturi Films in association with Explore Films, Film Agency For Wales and Molinare Productions.
Soundtrack for a Revolution
Directors/Producers/Writers: Bill Guttentag, Dan Sturman
Producers: Joslyn Barnes, Jim Czarnecki, Dylan Nelson
Executive Producers: Danny Glover, Gina Harrell, Mark E. Downie, Marc Henry Johnson
Louverture Films; Freedom Song Productions; Goldcrest Films International; Wild Bunch
We Shall Remain
Executive Producers: Mark Samels, Sharon Grimberg
Directors/Producers/Writers: Ric Burns, Dustin Craig, Sarah Colt
Director/Producer: Stanley Nelson
Director: Chris Eyre
Producer/Writer: Mark Zwonitzer
Producer: Rob Rapley
Writers: Anne Makepeace, Marcia Smith
American Experience; WGBH; Native American Public Television
Youssou N'Dour: I Bring What I Love
Director/Producer/Writer: Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi
Co-Producers: Sarah Price, Scott Duncan, Hugo Berkeley, Gwyn Welles
Executive Producers: Jennifer Millstone, Patrick R. Morris, Edward Tyler Nahem, Kathryn Tucker, Jack Turner, Miklos C. Vasarhelyi
Groovy Griot; 57th & Irving Productions; Shadow Distribution
IDA/David L. Wolper Student Documentary Award—Nominees
Arresting Ana
Director/Producer: Lucie Schwartz
University of California at Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism
Famous 4A
Director/Producer: Mike Atie
Stanford University
The First Kid to Learn English from Mexico
Director/Producer: Peter Jordan
Localfilms; Stanford University
The Last Mermaids
Director/Producer: Liz Chae
Executive Producers: Kenneth K. Chae, Nam Im Yoon
Chae Films; Columbia University
My Name is Sydney
Director/Producer: Melanie Levy
Stanford University
Posted by Ray Pride at 12:30 PM | Comments (0)
November 11, 2009
A deep thought from graphic novelist Warren Ellis...
From the writer of "Crooked Little Vein," a print-on-demand experiment with seven years of random scraps, bits and bobs, entitled "Shivering Sands."
Posted by Ray Pride at 12:39 PM | Comments (0)
November 10, 2009
The Matrix, a film by Charlie Chaplin
Russian television satirists imagine a silent-era Matrix. Via Boing-Boing.
Posted by Ray Pride at 09:54 AM | Comments (0)
November 09, 2009
OnePiece: Richard Curtis on happiness
A one minute summa from writer-director Richard Curtis on why his films, including Love Actually Pirate Radio, don't shy from happiness.
Posted by Ray Pride at 12:52 PM | Comments (0)
November 08, 2009
[PR] Sheffield Doc/Fest Awards 2009
The Sheffield Doc/Fest, one of the premiere confabs for documentarians to meet, announce the 2009 Award winners: "Hosted by filmmakers Roger Graef OBE and AJ Schnack, six awards were presented: the Sheffield Green Award, the Wallflower Press Student Doc Award, the Sheffield Innovation Award, the Sheffield Youth Jury Award, the new Special Jury Award and also, presented for the first time, the Sheffield Doc/Fest Inspiration award, which went to filmmaker Adam Curtis. The Sheffield Green Award honours the documentary from the Doc/Fest programme which best addresses major environmental challenges, such as global warming. The award went to The Blood of the Rose, directed by Henry Singer. The film investigates the life of filmmaker and conservationalist Joan Root.
The Sheffield Innovation Award honours a documentary which exhibits originality in approach to form and delivery of its story. The award went to LoopLoop, directed by Patrick Bergeron. The film combines images, sounds and encounters captured on a train journey through Vietnam. An Innovation Special Mention went to The Big Issue, directed by Olivia Colo and Samuel Bollendorff. The Big Issue invites users to confront the multiple factors causing the modern obesity epidemic.
The Wallflower Press Student Doc Award, introduced last year, honours the best student-made documentary as part of coursework from UK and International Universities. The award went to Arsy-Versy, directed by Slovakian student, Miro Remo. The film looks at a subject that decides to escape a world full of people and elects to live in harmony with nature.
The Jury was impressed with the quality and innovation of all the nominated films, and were excited that a new generation of filmmakers with their own ideas is emerging.
The Sheffield Youth Jury Award was given to the film that is most engaging for young audiences, and is chosen by a jury of young people ages 16-21. The award went to Sons of Cuba, directed by Andrew Lang. The film follows boys of the Havana City Boxing Academy who are learning to become communist fighting machines and fight in the Under 12s National Championships.
The Youth Jury said, “It was a tremendously difficult decision, all the nominated films had their own merits and we debated for many hours. We chose Sons of Cuba because we all loved it the first time we saw it and that didn’t change on a second viewing. The film evoked a range of emotions which stayed with us long after the film had ended.”
Director, Andrew Lang commented, “It is such an honour to win this award, talking to the Youth Jury was a highlight of Doc/Fest for me. To be awarded by such a discerning group is really gratifying.”
The Special Jury Award, new for this year, honoured a film selected from highlights of the Doc/Fest programme that displayed excellence in style, substance and approach. The Doc/Fest Special Jury was made up of leading filmmakers AJ Schnack, Kim Longinotto, Nick Broomfield, RJ Cutler and Vice President of Programming at ITVS, Claire Aguilar.
The award went to Videocracy, directed by Erik Gandini who exploits his position as an insider and ex-pat to make incisions into the new consciousness of Italy under Berlusconi, pointing a lens at three stories that centre on the country’s obsession with fame, a sardonic new sexuality and greed.
Jury member, RJ Cutler (The September Issue), said, “This category had an extraordinary group of films to choose from. We admired the craftsmanship, boldness, courage and memorable moments of I’m Dangerous with Love which we gave an honourable mention. We chose Videocracy as our winner because it was entertaining, masterfully made and featured some awesome characters.”
The Sheffield Inspiration Award, introduced for 2009, celebrates a figure in the industry who has championed documentary and helped get great work into the public eye. The award went to Adam Curtis who is embracing the digital future – most recently in the news for his collaboration with Punchdrunk, on It Felt like a Kiss – an interactive live multiplatform project.
Alex Graham (Wall to Wall) who presented the award said, “I was transfixed by Pandora’s Box seventeen years ago and have followed Adam’s work with excitement ever since. It is impossible to be neutral watching his work as it evokes a range of emotions. I think Adam sits in the great British tradition of TV, with savage wit and passion, while embracing the digital world and the future. It is more important than ever to have truth-seekers like Adam working in our industry.”
Adam commented, “For a long time I told people I was a journalist and not a filmmaker as I saw journalism as a more focused discipline. I’ve found journalism has now become more fantasy-like and a semi-truth. Documentaries have a real role to play. I am now proud to say that I’m a documentary maker, I just do journalism in a documentary way.”
Heather Croall, Doc/Fest Festival Director said, “This year’s film programme was the best selection of films we have ever had at Sheffield. Our Jury deliberators all had a very big challenge and I know they were debating for many hours, long into the night. It reflects the high standard of nominees in each category.”
The Channel 4 Pitch winner was also revealed at the ceremony as Lucy Bennett with One Under. Jen Botting form Channel 4 said, “The pitch gets bigger and better each year. Five of last year’s finalists went on to make the First Cuts stand. Lucy Bennett said, “I am really looking forward to making this film and I hope to bring it to Doc/Fest next year, so see you then!”
Ciaran Deeney from El Zorrero films won the NFB Crossover pitch with Thilafushi: Lost in Paradise.
The Sheffield Doc/Fest Audience Award is voted for by the delegates and public that attend the screenings. Votes are cast after each screening and the winner will be announced on Monday 9 November.
About Doc/Fest
The Sheffield International Documentary Festival (Doc/Fest) is the UK’s premier event for international documentary professionals. It comprises of a film festival, industry session programme and marketplace, offering pitching opportunities, controversial discussion panels and in-depth filmmaker masterclasses, for both established and debut filmmakers.
Now in its 16th year, Doc/Fest will be held 4-8 November 2009 and for the third year running, will be partnered with The Independent.
This year Doc/Fest presents films produced in 21 countries, with 19 World premieres, 2 International premieres, 8 EU premieres and 45 UK premieres.
The festival, which runs from 4-8 November, will boast more than 100 films from some of the world’s most acclaimed directors, including RJ Cutler, Chris Hegedus & D.A. Pennebaker, Nick Broomfield, Penny Woolcock, Michel Negroponte, Franny Armstrong and Leslie Woodhead, among others.
The festival attracts around 1200 filmmakers, executives, critics and entrepreneurs from all over the world, and screens over one hundred new international documentaries during the five intense days.
As a major highlight of Sheffield’s cultural scene, all films are open to the public and a limited number of free standby tickets are available to students and senior citizens on all screenings (excluding opening night). Some industry sessions and masterclasses will also be available to the public.
Doc/Fest has teamed up with Carbon Planet and for the fourth year running Doc/Fest will be CO2-free.
www.sheffdocfest.com
Posted by Ray Pride at 09:17 AM | Comments (0)
November 07, 2009
When Lars von Trier met Max Fischer...
A doodle by designer and drummer Sam Smith. His giant-cat motif in this poster for the Japanese film House is actually inspired; he's been doing it a while for Nashville's arthouse, The Belcourt.
Posted by Ray Pride at 07:31 AM | Comments (0)
November 06, 2009
Bruno's scissored La Toya Jackson scene
Posted as a promo for the upcoming homevideo release.
Posted by Ray Pride at 04:42 PM | Comments (0)
November 05, 2009
Jason Reitman
Jason Reitman, Peninsula Hotel, Chicago, 3 November 2009.
Posted by Ray Pride at 08:19 PM | Comments (0)
November 03, 2009
#unseenprequels: another Twitter meme
I'm amazed when Twitter memes break out overnight and it's late late late on some coast and a flurry of a dozen or more rush from the fingertips of a single writer. Although I was tempted by #unseenprequels to suggest "Jason Reitman's Stalled On The Tarmac," "The Blastocysts Karamazov" and "When Harry Stared At Sally's Neck."
Posted by Ray Pride at 09:42 AM | Comments (0)