Archive for March, 2007
A number of interesting posts have been published on this year’s “Making Your Documentary Matter” conference in New York. Organisers at the Center for Social Media have put their notes and videos on the website, and published an article about how to measure the social impact of documentary films (including a case study on the film “Sierra Club Chronicles”).
At the conference, over 200 filmmakers and non-profits talked about further strengthening ties, but also admitted that the close relationship sometimes requires compromise on the filmmaker’s artistic vision. Dennis Palmieri, director of communications at ITVS said if documentary filmmakers want to be agents of change, they have to begin to separate form and content. In other words, films might need to be customised to focus on different angles of the same theme, when presented to different audience groups.
Also read this post from the Nomads Land Blog, which offers an engaging reality check about current trends in documentary filmmaking.
OneWorld.net carries an interesting interview with John H. Biaggi, deputy director of the Human Rights Watch International Film Festival, who says that the recent boom in documentaries has caused a drop in quality.
“With so many human rights films being made, what I see is a lot of poorly produced and/or poorly conceived films. The actual percentage of each year’s films that are really good has not moved up at all. In fact, I might venture to say, it has gone down. Really strong documentaries take time and skill and tremendous effort and follow-through.”
“All of these are in shorter and shorter supply every year. The squeeze on funding sources, on people’s time and ability to tell these stories, and the frantic siren calls of festivals and television (with their deadlines and premiere demands) make it increasingly difficult for any aspiring filmmaker to actually allow the film to unfold in its true nature, in a proper length of time.”
Continue reading ‘More documentaries are made, but quality is dubious’
The new film “Manufacturing Dissent” takes criticism of Michael Moore’s work to another level. Although claiming to show a balanced representation of fact and opinion, the film seems to be an outright attack on Moore and his filmmaking.
The film, which makes its debut this week at a Texas Film Festival, is not the first to attack the filmmaker through his own medium, but it’s probably the first one to have the potential to generate international attention. Directors Debbie Melnyk and Rick Caine raise damaging questions about the credibility of Moore’s work, and explore a number of distortions and factual mistakes in his films.
On the basis of the documentary’s trailer, controversy is guaranteed, but it’s unlikely to substantially change existing pro or con views of Moore. Read more in the Herald Tribune or The Times.
One World is currently accepting nominations for its prestigious One World Media Awards until 16 March. Each year the awards attract an extensive range of high-quality entries and One World expect 2007 to be no different. They particularly welcome contributions from small or lesser known independent media companies and from individuals.
Entries should be concerned with social, political, or cultural aspects of the developing world – Africa, Asia, the Caribbean, Eastern Europe, Latin America, the Middle East or the former Soviet States. Entries must have been broadcast on terrestrial, cable or satellite TV or published in a recognised publication for the first time in the UK between 18 March 2006 and 17 March 2007. As ever, the ceremony will be hosted by Jon Snow and takes place on Thursday 14th June at The Porchester Hall in Bayswater, London.
For more info, visit the One World page.
Films from 20 countries feature in this year’s programme: Afghanistan, Algeria, Belarus, Burma, Chile, DR Congo, Costa Rica, France, Germany, Guatemala, India, Iraq, Israel, Nepal, Nicaragua, Nigeria, Mexico, Palestine, Romania and USA. For more info, check the HRW film festival website.
“The Lost Tomb of Jesus,” produced by Oscar-winning director James Cameron, has the whole world talking ahead of its Discovery premiere on March 4. The documentary film asserts that Jesus’ remains have been found in a Jerusalem suburb, together with those of Mary Magdelene and possibly their son, Judah.
Cameron, who won an Academy Award for directing “Titanic,” told CBS he was excited to be associated with the film. “We don’t have any physical record of Jesus’ existence […] so what this film shows is for the first time tangible, physical, archaeological and in some cases forensic evidence.”
Documentary director Simcha Jacobovici said they had statisticians calculate the likelihood that any other family in first-century Jerusalem would have had the cluster of names that were found on the caskets. The probability is very low, apparently only “one in a couple of million”.
Continue reading ‘New Jesus documentary mired in controversy’
