Documentaries

In its eighth annual iteration, the IFP Independent Filmmaker Lab program provides first time directors and their creative teams with a year-long fellowship to guide them through post-production and towards the marketing and distribution of their projects. There are ten fellowships for documentary projects, ten for narrative projects. Projects must be budgeted at less than $1-million. This year's selection was made from about 200 submissions.

The documentaries selected for 2012 are:

• Alias Ruby Blade - Fellows: Alex Meiller (Director), Tanya Ager Meillier (Producer) - Brooklyn, NY
• Big Joy Project: The Adventures of James Broughton - Fellows: Stephen Silha (Director/Producer), Eric Slade (Director/Producer), Dawn Logsdon (Editor) - Vashon, WA
• For Thousands of Miles - Fellows: Mike Ambs (Director, Writer); Erica Hampton (Production Manager) - North Hollywood, CA
• The Last Wild Mountain - Fellows: Oakley Anderson-Moore (Director/Writer), Alexander Reinhard (Producer) - Los Angeles, CA
• Lucky - Fellows: Laura Checkoway (Director/Producer), Neyda Martinez (Producer) - Brooklyn, NY
• Our Nixon - Fellows: Penny Lane (Director/Producer), Brian Frye (Director) - Claryville, NY and Kentucky
• Purgatorio: A Journey into the Heart of the Border - Fellows: Rodrigo Reyes (Director/Producer), Justin Chin (Director of Photography), Manuel Tsingaris (Editor) - Merced, CA
• Survival Prayer - Fellows: Benjamin Greené (Director/Producer), P. Corwin Lamm (Editor); Michael Beharie (Composer) - Bellingham, WA
• These Birds Walk - Fellows: Bassam Tariq (Director/Producer), Omar Mullick (Director/Producer), Valentina Canavesio (Producer) - Brooklyn, NY
• Where God Likes to Be - Fellows: Nicolas Hudak (Director/Writer), Anna Hudak (Producer/Writer) - Berlin, Germany

The Independent Filmmaker Labs are immersive mentorship programs with workshops in the technical, creative and stategic elements necessary to launch independent films. Three intensive and progressive Lab sessions are held during May, September and December of the fellowship year. Additionally, all Lab projects participate in IFP's Project Forum of Independent Film Week in September.

For additional information on the Independent Filmmaker Labs and the projects selected for 2012, visit the IFP Website.

Thanks to Rooftop Films 2012 Summer Series, New York moviegoers will be treated to a trifecta of documentary screenings on the weekend of Thursday, May 31 through Saturday, June 2.

The three winning films include:

• Bovines - Directed by Emmanuel Gras - France - This gentle, meditative, and beautifully filmed study about the lives of cows from the perspective of cows has a surprisingly captivating quality. It is somewhat like Sweetgrass in it's meditative quality, but it is, of course, about bovines and not sheep, and there are fewer people who enter into the frame -- until the end. It's fascinating. Screening on Thursday, May 31, on the roof of the Old American Can Factory, 232 3rd St. @ 3rd Ave. (Gowanus/ Park Slope, Brooklyn). Doors open at 8 PM. Live music by Mutual Benefit begins at 8:30 PM, and the film is at 9:00 PM, followed by a reception in the courtyard.
• This Ain't California - Directed by Marten Persiel - Germany - In fact, the documentary is set in East Germany, where the filmmaker and his friends grew up as rebellious skateboarders who defied the rigid Communist lifestyle and government by engaging in radical sport, punk music and other anti-establishment cultural expressions, reunite, reminisce and reevaluate their lives. A wonderful compilation of archival Super 8, animation and contemporary footage, this film is smart and spirited, provocative and entertaining. Screening is on June 1, and what could be better? It's at Open Road, the rooftop skate park above the New Design High School at 350 Grand St. @ Essex (Lower East Side, Manhattan). Doors open at 8:00 PM, live music at 8:30, film at 9:00 and after-party from 11:30 PM to 1 AM at R Bar (218 Bowery @ Rivington).
• The Tsunami and the Cherry Blossom - Directed by Lucy Walker - Japan - This documentary short that shows how despair gradually yielded to hope in post-tsunami Japan, where so many people lost their lives during the terrible tsunami. The 2012 Academy Award nominated film is a beautiful tribute to the human spirit. The evening's program is filled out with a variety of additional short films. Showing on June 2 on the Open Road Rooftop above New Design High School at 350 Grand St. @ Essex (Lower East Side, Manhattan). Doors open at 8:00 PM, live music begins at 8:30, the films start at 9:00PM, and there's an after-party at Fontana's (105 Eldridge St. @ Grand St.

The weekend's scheduling is part of Rooftop Films' 2012 summer series, 23 feature length films and 183 shorts on rooftop venues throughout NYC on weekends through August 18.

All screenings cost $12, and the evenings include live must. Additionally, most have after-parties with complimentary drinks, and many have Q&As with directors and the characters in the films, and/or experts on their subjects.

For tickets, full schedule and other information, visit the Rooftop Films Website.

The UK-based Grierson Awards recognize outstanding documentaries and factual programing that demonstrate integrity, originality and technical excellence, and social or cultural significance.

The prestigious award are presented in ten categories:

• Deluxe 142 Best Documentary on a Contemporary Theme - Domestic (UK)
• Shell Best Documentary on a Contemporary Theme - International
• DocHouse & The Bertha Foundation Best Cinema Documentary
• Best Documentary on the Arts
• ITN Source Best Historical Documentary
• Best Science Documentary
• Most Entertaining Documentary
• Envy Best Documentary Series
• CTVC Best Newcomer Documentary (with a cash prize of BPS 3000 or around $4750)
• Sky Arts Best Student Documentary (with a cash prize of BPS 3000 or around $4750)

The Grierson Awards are open to documentaries made anywhere in the world, provided that they've had a first UK screening during the qualifying period from May 1, 2011 to April 30, 2012.

Submissions for consideration much be received by June 1, 2012 at 6:00 PM. The fee for each submission is BPS 234 (about $370), except for the Newcomer and Student categories, for which the submission fee is BPS 60 (about $95).

A shortlist of eight submissions for each category will be announced on July 31. The final four nominees in each category will be announced on September 25. The winners will be announced on Nevember 6, at the Grierson Awards ceremony at The Empire Leicester Square, in London.

For more information on the awards and how to submit projects for consideration, visit the Grierson Awards Website.

The 23rd annual Human Rights Watch Film Festival's New York edition, scheduled to take place from June 14 - 28, 2012 at New York Film Society's Walter Reade Theater at Lincoln Center, will presents sixteen films, each telling a unique and compelling human rights-related story that reveals oppression, injustice, and resilience around the world.

Of the sixteen films on this year's program, thirteen are documentaries.

Read the annotated list of films.

In Patience (After Sebald), British documentary filmmaker Grant Gee follows the writings of renowned author W.G. Sebald in The Rings of Saturn.

The highly acclaimed book is partly a travelogue through England's East Anglia, partly a personal memoir and partly the outward expression of profound internal musings.

To capture Sebald's unique and rich stream of consciousness style, Gee presents photos and footage of places visited by the author on his literary journey -- with actor Jonathan Pryce reading passages of the book as voice over narration -- and intercuts these with on camera interviews with other writers who comment on the meaning of Sebald's work and its importance.

The resulting montage is a fascinating, mesmerizing and innovative essay documentary.

Patience (After Sebald) opens in theaters in limited release on May 9, 2012. Read my full review.

(PHOTO: A still from 'Patience (After Sebald),' showing the East Anglia coast. Courtesy of Cinema Guild.)

In First Position, first time filmmaker Bess Kargman follows six extremely talented, remarkably dedicated and decidely appealing tween and teenage ballet dancers in their grueling preparations for the Youth America Grand Prix, an international competition that rewards the winners with coveted scholarships to top ballet training programs or jobs with professional ballet companies.

Few aspirants have a chance at achieving a career as a professional ballet dancer, but judging by their astonishing leaps and pirouettes, these boys and girls will soon soar to stardom.

First Position is now playing in theaters in limited release. Read my full review.

('First Position' Poster Art. Courtesy of Sundance Selects/IFC Films).

IDFA (International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam) has had to cancel the second round of grants due to be distributed by its Jan Vrijman Fund (JVF) in 2012 because of cuts in government subsidies for the program.

IDFA is the world's largest documentary film festival and marketplace, and arguably its most important, and JVF is an essential source of support for documentary filmmakers from developing countries, where nonfiction films are crucial to raising local and international awareness about cultural, political and social issues that might otherwise be overlooked.

Since its establishment in 1998, JVF has funded 335 creative documentaries, each offering a unique, revealing and important perspective on something we need to know about the world in which we live. JVF-funded films have their premieres at IDFA, and then screen at other festivals, being enjoyed and stimulating public discussion at Sundance, Toronto, Berlin, Locarno and around the world.

Word is that JVF's government subsidy will cease as of 2013.

Instead of taking on additional projects, IDFA will use the 2012 government subsidy to meet commitments to projects already on the JVF roster. The festival is currently seeking alternative sources for financing JVF.

"We expect to hold the next selection round in 2013. Details will follow later this year. We regret this situation but see no alternative, except to focus on the future of the Fund." says Ally Derks, IDFA Director and co-founder.

This year marks the 25th anniversary of IDFA (November 14-25 2012). For this special festival edition, JVF will premiere a crop of new documentaries -- in celebration, too, of its own 15th anniversary.

Having long served the public, IDFA and JVF clearly deserve government subsidy. Together, they are the focal point for a local and international community of filmmakers and audiences who look to documentary films as a singular source of credible information in our world's confusing media glut.

IDFA not only brings great honor to Amsterdam, it attracts numerous cultural leaders and countless tourists whose spending surely stimulates the local economy.

At 25 years of age, IDFA is well established, but it must still be protected.

Hopefully these cuts in government subsidy will not push festival administrators to accept and, ultimately, rely upon funding from rich international corporations seeking to improve the negative public images they've earned through the sort of egregious corporate behavior that's exposed in documentary films.

It's extremely important that IDFA's public funding be restored, so the festival can steer clear of corporate partnerships that can undermine its integrity and discredit it as a bastion of truth-telling in cinema, arguably today's most influential media.

Hot Docs 2012 was attended by a record-setting 165,000 people, many of whom voted for the festival's People's Choice Award.

The winner is Chasing Ice, directed by Jeff Orlowski (USA), a feature length documentary that follows National Geographic photographer James Balog on a harsh Arctic expedition where he captures a multi-year record of the world's changing glaciers.

New this year, a cash prize for the People's Choice Award winner was crowd-funded from audiences through Hot Docs' Doc Ignite platform. The prize is currently in excess of $4000, and the film's supporters can continue to contribute to the cash prize until Monday, May 14, 2012.

Additionally, Hot Docs invites attending filmmakers whose films are included in the festival's official selections to vote for their favourite film.

The winner of the 2012 Filmmakers Award is The Imposter, directed by Bart Layton (UK), which tells the astonishing story of a young Frenchman who convinces a grieving Texas family that he is their 16-year-old son who went missing for 3 years.

Read my full report about Hot Docs 2012.

ITVS Intreactive and Mozilla have been partnering on the Living Docs Project to help documentary filmmakers to create "Web native" interactive content that can further engage audiences in the issues raised in their films.

The latest iteration of their program was Hot Hacks, the program's most recent two day intensive workshop, held April 28-29, was staged at Hot Docs 2012 in Toronto.

Six documentarians with nonfiction works in progress were paired with six Web developers who used Mozilla's Popcorn program and other burgeoning technologies to create interactive 'Web native' content prototypes. Read more...

With The Weight of the Nation, HBO presents a multimedia marathon to fight America's epidemic of increasing obesity.

The interactive program includes a five part documentary series that shows the effects of obesity in adults and children, and how to take measures to prevent them.

Here's the program breakdown:

• Part 1: Consequences (Premiering Monday, May 14, 2012)
• Part 2: Choices (Premiering Monday, May 14, 2012
• Part 3: Children in Crisis (Premiering Tuesday, May 15, 2012)
• Part 4: Challenges (Premiering Tuesday, May 15, 2012)
• The Weight of the Nation For Kids: The Great Cafeteria Takeover (Premiering Wednesday, May 16, 2012).

The series is chock full of scary statistics, as well as expert advice and daunting warnings from doctors and health experts about what's necessary to reverse the growing numbers of obese Americans and what's at risk -- prevalent diabetes, a contributing factor in the top five death-dealing illnesses, and a very costly factor in the public health budget -- if the trend isn't turned.

The on camera commentaries and confessions by obese men, women and children are sometimes shocking and always motivational.

There's nothing surprising about the solutions doctors and nutritionists suggest: a healthy diet, good portion control and sufficient physical exercise. And, there are plenty of useful tips to help kickstart correct eating and exercise habits.

Everyone knows someone near and dear who is waaay overweight. This series will encourage interventions, changes in personal lifestyle.

So, watch all the segments of Weight of the Nation, and get with the full program.