Toronto Film Festival unveils stellar documentary slate

There’s some real star power in the Toronto International Film Festival’s documentary film selections for 2010. Alex Gibney, Errol Morris, Charles Ferguson and Werner Herzog are just a few of the filmmakers; subjects include Eliot Spitzer, Bruce Springsteen and an orchestra of Mumbai street children performing “The Sound of Music.”

Gibney chronicles Spitzer’s fall from the governorship of New York in “Client 9: The Rise and Fall of Eliot Spitzer” (Magnolia Pictures).

Springsteen and the E Street Band are featured in Thom Zimny’s “The Promise: The Making of Darkness on the Edge of Town.”

Herzog, always intriguing, premieres “Cave of Forgotten Dreams,” a 3D portrait of the Chauvet caves of southern France.

The Hollywood Reporter says,

War and global politics as ever figure in Toronto’s doc lineup, including a world premiere for Norwegian director Vibeke Lokkegerg’s “Tears of Gaza,” a portrait of Israel’s 2008-2009 bombings of Gaza and its impact on local civilians, British director Kim Longinotto’s “Pink Saris,” about a female enforcer of local justice on the streets of Uttar Pradesh, India, and an international premiere for Israeli director Shlomo Eldar’s “Precious Life,” about an Israeli pediatrician and a Palestinian mother balancing emotions and rival politics as they try to treat a baby with an incurable genetic disease.

And besides the Springsteen biopic, Toronto also booked music-themed docs like Sarah McCarthy’s “The Sound of Mumbai: A Musical,” about a group of young slum-dwellers in Mumbai, India, performing “The Sound of Music” with a classical orchestra, and an international premiere for Paul Clarke’s “Mother of Rock: Lillian Roxon,” about a major player in New York’s 1960s and 1970s punk scene.

Elsewhere, Toronto booked “Inside Job,” an investigation into Wall Street’s 2009 financial meltdown from Charles Ferguson (“No End in Sight”) that bowed in Cannes and is set for an upcoming Sony Pictures Classics theatrical release.

Joan Rivers speaks the truth on documentary

The documentary “Joan Rivers: A Piece of Work” has been picking up steam since it premiered at Sundance in January. It’s now on the festival circuit – this week at the Philadelphia Independent Film Festival -  and the reviews have been numerous and positive. Here’s a quote from Rivers in an interview with Philly.com that does speak the truth about the documentary art:

“How many stupid documentaries have you seen where you don’t learn anything, and it’s all about this person who is wonderful and here are nine celebrities to tell you that? If you want to see that, turn on the Biography Channel.”

In fact, of course, most of those celebrity documentaries don’t even get access to the star. There’s sort of a distant-god feel to them, whereas the Rivers film is almost too close for comfort. And to some degree, it’s testament to how the dawn of the reality show has really continued to influence the documentary, not always in good ways.

The piece says that Rivers asked that only one part of the doc be cut – her daughter Melissa speaking angrily about the 1987 suicide of her father, and Rivers’ husband, Edgar, who had been the butt of many Rivers jokes as she clawed up the comedic ladder.

But we also suspect that getting Rivers to be allowed to be seen bluntly and not always flatteringly wasn’t a huge leap – her comedy has always been that raw, and the film is clear on how far Rivers will go for fame and fortune, or at least steady work (including doing publicity for the film).

In an interview at Queersighted.com, the filmmakers, director Ricki Stern and co-director Annie Sundberg, speak to the goals of the film.

Ricki Stern: I knew Joan through family, so I had an easy introduction to her. When I was initially thinking about her, I was thinking that she was this kind of pop icon, exposed media personality, who people – the younger generation – really did not know regarding her history as a female comedian and how groundbreaking she was. She sort of morphed into this “Geico commercial” or red-carpet personality. It was really not what Joan Rivers genius was about. I also knew she was turning 75 so it was about the idea of what it would be like to be with an aging performer who’s still working at it everyday and works harder than anyone else I know at keeping in the limelight.

The third annual Philadelphia Independent Film Festival starts Wednesday and runs through next Sunday, offering dozens of shorts and docs, features, music films, cult fare, and more. With five venues in Northern Liberties and the premiere of the Martin Sheen-narrated Return to El Salvador at the Ritz East, PIFF is designed to bring filmmakers and filmgoers together, exploring political, social, and artistic themes.A few highlights: “The Making of an Anthem,” a documentary short about Philly music impresario Kenny Gamble’s “I Am an American” project featuring Patti LaBelle and the Temple University Symphony and Choir; For the Sake of the Song: The Story of Anderson Fair, about the storied Austin, Tex., music venue that nurtured budding singer/songwriters Lyle Lovett and Lucinda Williams; Auf Wiedersehen, ‘Til We Meet Again, a personal, post-9/11 doc, and a mini-animation fest, featuring eight ‘toon shorts.

Silverdocs case study: ‘The Way We Get By,’ June 22

The AFI-Silverdocs Festival will on June 22 feature a case study on distribution for the documentary “The Way We Get By,” which premiered at SXSW and has gone on to make the list of 300 all-time top-grossing docs.

The filmmakers – Aron Gaudet, director, and Gita Pullapilly, producer, will talk about the film, which its website’s synopsis describes this way: “Beginning as a seemingly idiosyncratic story about troop greeters – a group of senior citizens who gather daily at a small airport to thank American soldiers departing and returning from Iraq, the film quickly turns into a moving, unsettling and compassionate story about aging, loneliness, war and mortality.”

Join these intrepid creative entrepreneurs for the nitty gritty as they share the innovative business model, developed with the help of the Harvard Business School, that allowed them to leverage key opportunities within public broadcasting: a stint as WGBH Filmmakers in Residence; the securing of an ITVS LINCS grant with public television partners WGBH and Maine Public Broadcasting Network; broadcast acquisition by the PBS prime–time strand P.O.V.; a unique self–implemented theatrical roll–out with corporate partner Bangor Saving Bank; and the creation of an innovative online companion resource to help troops called RETURNING HOME PROJECT that attracted funding from the MacArthur Foundation and CPB as well as additional funding from ITVS and POV.

Silverdocs film announced

Silver Spring, Maryland, May 25, 2010—AFI-Discovery Channel Silverdocs Documentary Festival today announced the competition films for the 2010 Festival, taking place June 21-27, 2010 in the Washington, D.C. area.  Films will screen in five sections: Sterling US Feature Competition, Sterling World Feature Competition, Sterling Short Film Competition, and the to-be-announced Silver Spectrum and Spotlight Programs. New this year is a retrospective series of films by Guggenheim honoree Frederick Wiseman and a special “Peacebuilding On Screen” strand organized in collaboration with the United States Institute of Peace.  AFI-Discovery Channel Silverdocs 2010 will present films from around the globe selected from a record 2,163 submissions and featuring exciting new work and festival favorites from the world’s top documentarians.

“This year we received more high-quality submissions than ever before, making it harder than ever to select the films for the 2010 program.  This Festival slate represents the very best the documentary form has to offer, covering a wide range of issues and voices, and focusing on cinematic excellence,” said Sky Sitney, Artistic Director.

In addition to the three competitive screening sections, AFI-Discovery Channel Silverdocs will confer awards in four additional categories:

Audience Awards will be bestowed upon films based on the results of ballots cast by festival attendees after theatre screenings. Features and short films playing in the Competition and Silver Spectrum sections are eligible for Audience Awards.

The Cinematic Vision Award will be given to a feature film that exhibits excellence and innovation in the craft of visual storytelling.

WGA Documentary Screenplay Award will be awarded to the qualifying screenwriter (or screenwriters) of a feature-length film who demonstrates excellence in screenwriting in the documentary genre.

The Witness Award, in honor of Joey R.B. Lozano, will be awarded to a theatrical documentary that addresses human rights and social justice issues. Lozano was a respected independent human rights activist in the Philippines and one the country’s leading investigative reporters.

The winners from films eligible for the Audience Awards for Best Feature and Short will be announced on Sunday, June 27, 2010, the closing day of the Festival; all other award winners will be announced at the AFI-Discovery Channel Silverdocs Awards presentation on Saturday, June 26, 2010.

STERLING US FEATURE COMPETITION

BEYOND THIS PLACE / USA/Switzerland, 2010, 92 minutes (Director: Kaleo La Belle)—Cloud Rock La Belle is the quintessential hippie, still living a perpetually stoned and carefree lifestyle 40 years after the ‘60s ended. His son attempts to re-connect with his absentee father by taking a 500-mile bike trip together around the Pacific Northwest. US Premiere.

CAMERA, CAMERA / USA/Laos, 2009, 60 minutes (Director: Malcolm Murray)—In Laos, the digital camera is the universal sign of the tourist, but when westerners take photos in seemingly exotic locals, what are they really capturing? A snapshot of reality, or a highly-distorted caricature that reveals more about the photographer than the landscape? This poetic film invites you to reconsider what it means to be a stranger in a strange land. East Coast Premiere.

CIRCO / Mexico/USA, 2010, 75 minutes (Director: Aaron Schock)—CIRCO is an intimate look at a family’s struggle to preserve the institution of their small traveling circus in rural Mexico.  At once producers, performers, and roadies, the Ponce family—the driven owner-father, his questioning wife, and their dedicated children—forms the heart of CIRCO, which explores the inner workings of the circus business as well as family sacrifice, loss of childhood, and the preservation of a fading art form. East Coast Premiere.

THE DISAPPEARANCE OF MCKINLEY NOLAN / USA/Cambodia/Vietnam, 2010, 85 minutes (Director: Henry Corra)—Forty years after Pvt. McKinley Nolan vanished in Vietnam, his family learns there is hope the beloved brother, husband and father is alive and the decades-long mystery of his disappearance may be solved. World Premiere.

HOLYWARS / USA/UK/Spain, 2009, 72 minutes (Director: Stephen Marshall)—The film follows two deeply committed men of faith–a Muslim and a Christian–as they travel the world spreading messages they both feel represent “the truth.” What happens when the men are put in the same room? This thought-provoking film is sure to push buttons and instigate discussions about the nature of religion, extremism and tolerance. World Premiere.

THE KIDS GROW UP / USA, 2009, 91 minutes (Director Doug Block)—In his previous film, 51 BIRCH STREET, director Doug Block examined the marriage between his parents and, in particular, his relationship with his father. In this film, Block turns the camera on his daughter Lucy, meticulously documenting her life from birth, with the hopes that this will be a gift she one day enjoys, and that it might somehow help stave off the looming separation he hopes to avoid as she grows older and more independent.

MONICA AND DAVID / USA, 2009, 67 minutes (Director: Alexandra Codina)—Like many couples blissfully in love, Monica and David are getting married. Yet unlike most married couples, Monica and David have Down syndrome. The film offers an intimate glimpse into the first year of marriage for this charismatic young couple and reveals the joys and struggles that are much the same as that of any newlyweds.

MY PERESTROIKA / USA/UK/Russia, 2010, 87 minutes (Director: Robin Hessman)—The film’s intimate and heartfelt portrait of the last generation of Soviet children brought up behind the Iron Curtain presents a complex picture of the challenges, dreams and disillusionments of this cross-over generation.

ON COAL RIVER / USA, 2010, 81 minutes (Directors: Francine Cavanaugh and Adams Wood)—When residents of the Coal River Valley begin noticing that a host of medical problems are linked to a Massey-owned coal-waste dumping ground that sits above the local elementary school, they demand action. World Premiere.

SONS OF PERDITION / USA, 2010, 85 minutes (Directors: Tyler Measom and Jennilyn Merten)—The film offers an eye-opening look into the world of The Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (FLDS), a branch of Mormonism that has continued the practice of polygamy since its emergence in the early 20th century.  Far too often they exile young men, who are forced to find their way in a world previously unknown.

WO AI NI MOMMY (I LOVE YOU MOMMY) / China/USA, 2009, 76 minutes (Director: Stephanie Wang-Breal)—Eight-year-old Chinese Fang Sui Yong is adopted by a Jewish couple from Long Island who name her ”Faith.” The film follows Faith and her parents’ twist-and-turn journey over a year and a half. East Coast Premiere.

US Feature Jury: Steve Bognar, Filmmaker (A LION IN THE HOUSE); Michael Palmieri, Filmmaker (OCTOBER COUNTRY); Jenna Rosher, Filmmaker (JUNIOR) and Cinematographer (JESUS CAMP)

STERLING WORLD FEATURE COMPETITON

THE ARRIVALS / France/French Embassy, (2009), 111 minutes (Directors: Claudine Bories and Patrice Chagnard)—Arriving on the shores of France is merely the beginning of a labyrinthian journey for more than 50,000 refugees seeking asylum through the municipal reception center in Paris each year. North American Premiere.

AS LILITH / Israel, 2009, 78 minutes (Director: Eytan Harris)—After a 14-year-old Israeli girl commits suicide, her mother, Lilith, wants the body cremated. Before she can proceed, she must fight ZAKA, one of Israel’s most powerful religious organizations, which is fundamentally against cremation. East Coast Premiere.

BUDRUS / Israel/Palestinian Territories/USA, 2009, 81 minutes (Director: Julia Bacha)—This rousing film about one Palestinian village and its unlikely hero—humble family man turned activist Ayed Morrar—reveals the power of ordinary people to peaceably fight for extraordinary change.

FAMILIA / Sweden/Peru/Spain, 2010, 82 minutes (Directors: Mikael Wiström and Alberto Herskovits)—Swedish filmmaker Mikael Wiström captures the emotional ups and downs of an impoverished Peruvian family struggling to create a better life and stay together in the midst of great difficulty. US Premiere.

A FILM UNFINISHED / Germany/Israel, 2009, 87 minutes (Director: Yael Hersonski)—In never before seen footage from a lost reel of an incomplete Nazi-produced propaganda film about Warsaw’s Jewish ghetto in 1942, the film captures images of manipulated and staged ghetto life mixed with stunning photographic evidence and testimony—all making for a riveting experience.

INTO ETERNITY / Finland, (2010), 73 minutes (Director: Michael Madsen)—This film ponders how to caution explorers from future civilizations who may be driven by curiosity, or a desire to understand their distant past, to stay clear of buried nuclear waste.

PRESUMED GUILTY / Mexico, 2009, 92 minutes (Directors: Roberto Hernández and Geoffrey Smith)—In its stunning indictment of Mexican jurisprudence, the film invites unsettling suspicion that legions of hapless prisoners face groundless decades behind bars. East Coast Premiere.

REGRETTERS / Sweden, 2010, 59 minutes (Director: Marcus Lindeen)—Mikael and Orlando are two aging Swedes with something unusual in common: They are both biological males who have undergone sex reassignment surgery but now wish to ‘change back.’  The pair’s startling testimony forms a complex philosophical interrogation of gender performance and selfhood.

SPACE TOURISTS / Switzerland, 2009, 98 minutes (Director: Christian Frei)—Amid the crumbling infrastructure of the former Soviet military space program, Russians allow civilians to travel into space for the low, low price of $20 million. Meanwhile, poor herders in Central Asia wait expectantly for the discarded remains of the rocket to sell on the black market. East Coast Premiere.

STEAM OF LIFE / Finland, 2010, 82 minutes (Director: Joonas Bergh?ll and Mika Hotakainen)—It’s neither a therapist’s office nor a lover’s bed where Finnish men’s deepest feelings about life, love and family are brought to the surface: It’s the sauna.  The film allows the viewer to become a fly on the wall as it listens in on men—naked men—talking to other men (or occasionally a grizzly bear) in the sanctuary of the country’s ubiquitous saunas. US Premiere.

THE WOMAN WITH THE FIVE ELEPHANTS / Germany/Switzerland/Ukraine, 2009, 92 minutes (Director: Vadim Jeydrenko)—Witness to unspeakable horrors, eighty-five-year-old Svetlana Geier has dedicated her life to language. Considered the greatest translator of Russian literature into German, Svetlana has just concluded her magnum opus, completing new translations of Dostoyevsky’s five great novels—known as the five elephants. US Premiere.

World Feature Jury: Simon Kilmurry, Executive Director, American Documentary | POV; Havana Marking, Filmmaker (AFGHAN STAR); Andrea Meditch, Executive Producer (MAN ON WIRE, GRIZZLY MAN)

STERLING SHORT COMPETITION

ALBERT’S WINTER / Denmark, 2009, 30 minutes (Director: Andreas Koefad)—A young boy in Germany struggles to deal with his mother’s devastating terminal cancer. As the illness lingers unspoken in the background, Albert goes through the motions of his day-to-day life but knows that something is terribly wrong.

ARIRANG – LETTER TO BARACK / Germany/North Korea, 2010, 8 minutes (Director: Gerd Konrad)—The world appears very different from inside the hermit kingdom of North Korea. Huge mosaics created by one hundred thousand schoolchildren holding aloft colored cards in unison are a source of national pride, but so is the nation’s stockpile of nuclear weapons. Pageantry and atomic blasts are juxtaposed in this chilling thought piece.

ARSY-VERSY / Slovakia, 2009, 24 minutes (Director Miro Remo)—Lubos is a happy-go-lucky 50-something who lives with his aging mother in what some would call a codependent relationship. The film takes a unique look at a mother-son relationship and the way in which Lubos lives his free-spirited life, like the title says, upside down.

BETWEEN DREAMS / Finland/France/Russian Federation, 2009, 11 minutes (Director: Iris Olsson)—A hundred souls lost in dreams in the dead of night cross a Siberian moonscape aboard a battered Russian train. A fortunate few dream happily and carefree, but most toss uneasily, gripped by fears for the future or guilt about the past.

BIG BIRDING DAY / USA, 2010, 13 minutes (Director: David Wilson)—Competitive bird watching comes alive in this delightful short. As three friends attempt to catch a glimpse of as many species as possible within the course of 24 hours, the special camaraderie that emerges between friends who enjoy the rituals of a unique hobby together is highlighted.

BORN SWEET / USA/Cambodia, 2010, 28 minutes (Director: Cynthia Wade)—Vinh, a rural Cambodian teen, dreams of falling in love, moving to the city and becoming a karaoke star. Alas, for Vinh and the millions of other children worldwide suffering from chronic arsenic poisoning, even reaching adulthood is a dream in doubt.

BYE BYE NOW / Ireland, 2009, 15 minutes (Director: Aideen O’Sullivan)—The film offers a charming look at the gradual disappearance of phone booths in Ireland. With the advent of modern technology, the phone booth has all but vanished all over the world. In a loving tribute to this soon-to-be relic of the past, the film is a nostalgic reminder of yesteryear.

CORNER PLOT / USA, 2010, 11 minutes (Director: Ian Cook)—In this heart-warming short, 89-year-old Charlie Koiner cares for a one-acre piece of farmland that rests just inside urban Washington, D.C. With help from his daughter, Charlie works the land and shares his crops at the local farmer’s market. In a rapidly changing modern world, this unique farmer remains dedicated to the life he has always known.

THE DARKNESS OF DAY / USA, 2009, 25 minutes (Director: Jay Rosenblatt)—This moving and thought-provoking meditation on depression and suicide stretches the boundaries of “documentary.” Built from found footage, and using both biographical details from Rosenblatt’s life and readings from a journal of someone who committed suicide, the film gently spurs you to ask exactly what it aims to document.

THE FAUX REAL / USA, 2010, 21 minutes (Director: Suzanne Hillinger)—This engaging short documentary introduces three biologically born females who identify as drag queens. Challenging traditional ideas of gender and drag, these unconventional women don wigs, false eyelashes, heavy makeup and chokers to perform burlesque as women trying to pass as men in drag.

FLAWED / Canada, 2010, 12 minutes Director: (Andrea Dorfman)—Unfolding like a graphic novel, director and artist Andrea Dorfman illustrates her way through her unlikely pairing with a cosmetic surgeon. This animated short is a lovely meditation on falling in love, when the most trying battle is the one fought between the heart’s desires and the mind’s insecurities.

FOUND / Canada, 2009, 6 minutes (Director: Paramita Nath)—For Laotian-Canadian poet Souvankham Thammavongsa, a discarded scrapbook sheds light on a harsh infancy in Southeast Asia emphasizing how family memory is often an aggregation of disparate pieces.

THE HERD / Ireland, 2008, 4 minutes (Director: Ken Wardrop)—One of these things is not like the other. But don’t tell that to the newest addition to the cow herd on the filmmaker’s family farm. When a little fawn finds herself out of place amid the sole company of cows, she attempts to fit in unnoticed. Can she succeed?

HOLDING STILL / Germany/USA, 2010, 26 minutes (Director: Florian Riegel)—Imagine if the last 20 years of your life were lived entirely in one room, yet you have the ability to see and photograph the world outside. This is the story of Janis, a woman whose artistic voice is remarkably unconstrained by physical obstacles or tragedies in her past.

THE HOUSEKEEPER / Scotland, 2009, 13 minutes (Director: Tali Yankelevich)—The care bestowed on a venerable priest by his elderly Greek housekeeper may at first blush appear to be all in a day’s work, but beneath the surface flow strong currents of platonic love and mutual need.

IF THESE WALLS COULD TALK / Ireland, 2009, 12 minutes (Director: Anna Rodgers)— This haunting and visually stunning short film explores several desolate and abandoned psychiatric hospitals throughout Ireland. The voices of former long-term patients permeate the corridors, still struggling to understand the circumstances that brought them there.

I’M JUST ANNEKE / USA, 2010, 11 minutes (Director: Jonathan Skurnik)—Anneke is a 12-year-old girl who has begun taking a hormone blocker so that she can delay puberty to ultimately decide for herself whether or not she wants to grow up as a woman or a man. This thought-provoking film brings to light the choices of a new generation facing gender identity issues with remarkable sensitivity and respect.

KEEP DANCING / USA, 2010, 21 minutes (Director: Greg Vander Veer)—Well into their ninth decade of life, dance icon Marge Champion and Tony-winning choreographer Donald Saddler became fast friends while performing in the 2001 Broadway revival of Follies.  Now 90, the two continue to rehearse and choreograph original work, revealing a passion for dance undimmed by the passage of time.

LAST ADDRESS / USA, 2009, 9 minutes (Director: Ira Sachs)—A series of exterior shots of buildings that all have one thing in common: they were the last residential addresses of some of New York’s most prominent artists who lost their lives to AIDS-related illnesses. This simple yet poignant short film is an elegant tribute to those remarkable people whose voices were silenced much too soon.

LIES / Sweden, 2009, 13 minutes (Director: Jonas Odell)—With playful animation and lively narration, three people share their individual stories of lying, and the surprising consequences of their deception.

LISTENING TO THE SILENCES / UK, 2009, 11 minutes (Director: Pedro Flores)—What does it feel like to hear voices inside your head? Roy Vincent attempts to explain. Living alone in the isolated countryside, Vincent’s battle with mental illness is a daily struggle. This quiet, penetrating film presents a sympathetic portrait of a man accepting his inner demons.

MARIA’S WAY / Scotland/Spain, 2009, 15 minutes (Director: Anne Milne)—A feisty elderly woman’s sole purpose in life appears to be setting up an isolated roadside stand along the historic Camino de Santiago pilgrim route. A seemingly mundane daily task soon evolves into a humorous and charming observation on the importance of purpose, commitment and tradition.

MISSED CONNECTIONS / USA, 2010, 9 minutes (Director: Mary Robertson)—This delightful film is an amuse-bouche for anyone who has ever perused the ‘Missed Connections’ section of the classifieds in the hope they will recognize themselves as the ‘missed connection’ in question.

A MOTH IN SPRING / USA/Canada, 2010, 26 minutes (Director: Yu Gu)—While attempting to produce a film in China inspired by her parents’ involvement with the Student Democracy Movement of the 1980s, a young filmmaker’s life and work quickly begin to parallel her parents’ trials and alienation when the film is shut down and she is ordered to leave the country.

MRS. BIRK’S SUNDAY ROAST / UK, 2009, 6 minutes (Director: Kyoko Miyake)—This beautifully shot slice-of-life short introduces Mrs. Fukio Birks, a Japanese woman living in England with her British husband. Embracing the new life she has created, Mrs. Birks dedicates herself to embracing English culture—beginning with its cuisine. As she prepares a delectable English Sunday dinner, Mrs. Birks shares her thoughts on cooking, home, culture and family.

NOTES ON THE OTHER / Spain, 2009, 13 minutes (Director: Sergio Oksman)—Ostensibly about Ernest Hemingway, this intriguing short is more a meditation on reality and simulation—like a Baudrillard lecture, except more fun. Contrasting Hemingway with his impersonators in Key West, the film questions the writer’s account of the running of the bulls, moving quickly to challenging the concept of the Real.

ON THE RUN WITH ABDUL / UK/France, 2009, 24 Minutes (Directors: James Newton, Kristian Hove Sorensen and David Lalé)—When sixteen year old Abdul’s life is suddenly in jeopardy because of his involvement with a film on refugees, the filmmakers take it upon themselves to protect the boy. Exploring the delicate balance of how involved documentarians should become with their subjects, the film is a remarkable reassessment on the craft of non-fiction filmmaking.

OVERNIGHT STAY / USA, 2009, 9 minutes (Director: Daniela Sherer)—Using hand-drawn animation, the film illustrates an 83-year-old woman’s vivid memory of an event during World War II that likely saved her life when she was a young girl. On a cold night in Nazi-occupied Poland in 1941, she was taken in by strangers and given a place to sleep.

PARA FUERA: PORTRAIT OF DR. RICHARD J. BING / USA, 2010, 9 minutes (Director: Nicholas Jasenovec)—How could a centenarian who is an accomplished doctor and musician sum up the totality of experiences in his life in one word? Dr. Richard Bing is able to do so—and along the way you will learn what motivated and assisted him in living his challenging yet charmed life.

PLASTIC AND GLASS / France, 2009, 9 minutes (Director: Tessa Joosse)—In a recycling factory in the north of France, workers settle into the daily grind of reprocessing plastic and glass. In an effort to transcend the routine, the workers playfully adapt the steady rhythm of the machines into a melody for a song and dance.

THE POODLE TRAINER / USA/Russia, 2009, 8 minutes (Director: Vance Malone)—Irina Markova is a Russian poodle trainer who has dedicated her life to training her 20 colorfully costumed poodles to perform clever acrobatic tricks. Fueled by a childhood tragedy that sparked a fierce desire to avoid people, Markova welcomes the solace of her animals and the isolation she finds behind the red velvet curtain of the circus.

PRAYERS FOR PEACE / USA, 2009, 8 minutes (Director: Dustin Grella)—Through the use of stop-motion animation, a man reflects on the memory of his younger brother, recently killed in Iraq. This deeply personal film offers an elegant introspection about a brother and soldier whose loss is deeply felt by those who loved him.

QUADRANGLE / USA, 2010, 20 minutes (Director: Amy Grappell)—In the ’70s, two “conventional” couples embark on a most unconventional arrangement when they attempt to ward off marital ennui by swapping partners. Moving into the same home, merging families, sharing in a group marriage, can this four-way affair ever work?

SELTZER WORKS / USA, 2010, 7 minutes (Director: Jessica Edwards)—New York’s last seltzer bottler makes for a refreshing subject in this effervescent look at a tradesman who refuses to compromise on taste while facing the inevitable decline of a dying commercial tradition.

THE SPACE YOU LEAVE / UK, 2009, 10 minutes (Director: James Newton)—Thoughts of their long-vanished children are never far off for several British parents whose lives seem all but consumed by overarching loss. The daunting impact of an estimated 200,000 annual disappearances in the UK is brought to scale in three gripping portraits of lives now defined by the presence of absence.

THEY ARE GIANTS / Netherlands, 2009, 13 minutes (Director: Koert Davidse)—The Bibliotheca Thurkowiana Minor is a breathtakingly beautiful old world library filled with hand-crafted leather tomes nestled in exquisite mahogany bookcases.  No human has ever walked its halls, climbed its stairs, or sat at its tables because this library is no more than eight feet long and four feet high; its books no taller than your little finger.

THIS CHAIR IS NOT ME /UK, 2010, 10 minutes (Director: Andy Taylor Smith)—While cerebral palsy confines Alan Martin to a wheelchair and inhibits his speech, he refuses to limit himself.  When he gains access to technology that enables him to find a voice, his life is transformed.  Utilizing stunning visual vocabulary and subtle re-enactment, the film presents a cinematic experience as unique as the subject himself.

TRASH-OUT / USA, 6 minutes (Director: Maria Fortiz-Morse)—This deeply affecting and simple short shows workers cleaning out a house that has been foreclosed. What do the things left behind say about a family? What does an empty house that was once a home say? In a mere six minutes, TRASH-OUT makes a poignant statement on a timely subject.

UNEARTHING THE PEN / UK/Uganda, 2009, 12 minutes (Director: Carol Salter)— Beautifully photographed, this film poignantly tells the story of a young Ugandan boy’s desperate desire for an education in the face of seemingly insurmountable odds: most daunting is the possibility that the symbolic burying of a pen decades earlier by tribal elders has resulted in a curse on formal education.

THE VEIL / Italy, 2009, 18 minutes (Director: Mattia Colombo)—A young postulant prepares to enter the convent. Older nuns go about their quotidian routines. This intimate portrait of Franciscan sisters in a small Venetian convent reveals the vibrant lives played out beneath the subdued cloth of their vocation.

WORLD CHAMPION / Estonia, 2009, 35 minutes (Director: Moonika Siimets)—Eighty-two-year-old Herbert Sepp is a man’s man. He works out, he speaks his mind, and he knows what he wants in life: a world masters title in pole vaulting. For him, it’s all about the run, the plant… and the very, very short amount of time in the air.

Short Film Jury: Ben Fowlie, Founding Director, Camden International Film Festival; Elena Fortes, Director, Ambulante Documentary Film Festival; Aron Gaudet, Filmmaker (THE WAY WE GET BY)

The Festival, which takes place at the AFI Silver Theatre and Cultural Center in the Washington, DC area, presents seven days of programming plus special screenings, music performances and dozens of panel discussions featuring hundreds of filmmakers, diverse topics and media professionals.  Now in its eighth year, AFI-Discovery Channel Silverdocs—along with its concurrent AFI-Discovery Channel International Documentary Conference—is the pre-eminent documentary Festival in the US.

Two ‘rich’ docs get the buzz at Cannes

The Cannes Film Festival is about star power, something most documentaries aren’t, or shouldn’t be. But amid “Robin Hood” and a “Wall Street” sequel, two docs at Cannes are gathering momentum, with more than a little star power helping them along.

The Lawrence Bender-produced doc “Countdown to Zero” about nuclear disarmament, includes what The Daily Beast calls “a who’s who list of those involved in nuclear negotiations for the past half-century: Jimmy Carter, Mikhail Gorbachev, Tony Blair, Robert McNamara, Pervez Musharraf, and even Valerie Plame Wilson comment on the nebulous state of nuclear arms in today’s world.” Bender previously produced “An Inconvenient Truth,” so rustling up such people was likely made easier (although ex-politicians are notoriously easy to get interviews with as their stars fade).

Matt Damon narrates Charles H. Ferguson’s “Inside Job,” about the global financial meltdown. Ferguson entered documentary filmmaking as a wealthy man, having sold his software company Vermeer to Microsoft in 1996 for $133 million. His first film, “No End in Sight,” was financed personally for $2 million and according to The Numbers grossed $1.4 theatrically, a success a rich man can afford.

Ferguson may be widely seen as a hobbyist, but he can hire the best talent money can buy (Alex Gibney was on his list of employees, as well as an all-star team of PBS shooters and editors)). But, according to the Boston Globe’s Wesley Morris, reporting from Cannes,

“Inside Job” is a masterpiece of investigative nonfiction moviemaking — a scathing, outrageous, depressing, comical, horrifying walk through what brought on the crisis. In much the same way he did in his previous film, “No End in Sight,” about the run-up to the Iraq war, Ferguson finds many of the key players of the crisis and many people — economists, lobbyists, journalists, Eliot Spitzer — who have special knowledge about how it happened. The use of footage from last month’s instantly legendary Senate cross-examination of suits from Goldman Sachs (hello, C-SPAN Classics?) gives the movie a hot-off-the-hard drive feel.

One of the things that has kept most documentaries off the Cannes boards is the festival’s requirement that screening copies be 35mm prints – an HD-to-35 conversion for a 90-minutes film is roughly $30,000, keeping everything but star-power, star-funded docs a non-starter on the Riviera.

For the number of times we read or are told (Matt Damon works hard as our narrator) that so-and-so declined to be interviewed for this film, the movie has a deep bench of experts, several of whom seem likely to regain their integrity or the respect of their peers upon the film’s release.

Enlisting your audience as ‘PR soldiers’

David Becker at Documentary.org points out that film festivals are much less a place for distribution possibilities and much more a venue to begin to build an audience. Documentaries usually bring together audiences with a strong interest in the topic at hand; Becker writes that,

As filmmakers take on a more proactive role in the distribution of their films, audience building is replacing deal signing as the primary goal at festivals. “Six-or seven-figure deals are not as available as they were in the past,” Magdael notes. “But as a way to launch your film, film festivals are still important and a way to position the film for a larger audience. I’m into letting core audiences embrace the film and make them our new soldiers of PR.”

Building and nurturing an audience at film festivals can provide filmmakers with a valuable resource. This army of fans spreads the word about films online and by word of mouth. They are essential to the success of any distribution plan.

One of the ways those audience members can be enlisted is through a variety of social media. Social events around the screenings, such as meetups, can bring audience members together in a way that doesn’t always happen in walk-in, walk-out movie screenings.

Festivals are often the place where filmmakers first meet local organizations, activists and others who want to partner for screenings or outreach. Different from traditional distributors, the relationships formed at festivals can become what Smithline calls “distribution partners.” For filmmakers who are embarking on self-distribution, these partners are important parts of the outreach, advertising and word-of-mouth that will drive broader audiences to theatrical runs and non-theatrical events.

Documentarian Corra’s work-in-progress chases a ghost

Notes on Video has an interview piece with documentary filmmaker Henry Corra, who showed work in progress at the Boston International Film Festival of his film “Disappearance of McKinley Nolan,” about a Texan who disappeared into the fog of war 40 years ago in Vietnam, and may still be out there.

Corra is New York-based; his award-winning films Umbrellas (1995), George (2000), Frames (2004), Same Sex America (2005) and the Emmy-nominated film NY77: The Coolest Year in Hell (2007). His company is Corra Films.

Corra’s film began as a hunt for Nolan, who had reportedly been spotted recently by another war veteran visiting the country, but eventually became a psychological study on loss.

NOV’s Michael Murie details the interview Corra did at the festival’s panel “Discussing the Documentary.” Corra is looking to premiere his film in June and discussed not just chasing Nolan, but also funds to complete the film. In that vein, he talked about his trailer for the project.

When asked whether, when putting together trailers for incomplete movies to show funders, he feels any obligation to show an accurate representation of the complete movie he demurs:

“The early trailers are: ‘this is the notion, here are what I think the characters are, here’s what I think the story is going to be, and here’s the kind of feel I think that I’m going for at this stage,’ and again you’re kind of faking it.

“I show teasers or trailers or little works in progress, like that weekend in Texas on the Disappearance of McKinley Nolan. From those two days I cut together a six minute piece that I actually ended up being very similar to the first ten minutes of the film are now, but that’s kind of an anomaly.”

Have a Heineken!

“Rush: Beyond the Lighted Stage,” has won the Heineken Audience Award for documentary at the recent Tribeca Film Festival.

The film, by Scot McFadyen and Sam Dunn, gets $25,000. The film has its International Premiere at Hot Docs in Toronto.

Here’s Tribeca’s program note on the 106-minute film:

Tribeca documentary award to ‘Monica & David’

A documemtary film about a Down-syndrome couple preparing for married life has won the best documentary award at Tribeca.

Tribeca announced that ‘Monica & David,” directed by Alexandra Codina, was awarded the best doc prize. Codina, a Minami-based filmmaker, is a cousin of the film’s Monica.

Prostitute as editor: Is it ever good to give a subject approval?

The unfinished, as-yet-untitled Alex Gibney documentary on Eliot Spitzer screened at Tribeca, and the most curious note was that the prostitute involved in Spitzer’s fall as governor of New York wasn’t in it, because, according to Gibney, she had demanded editorial control.

According to the Associated Press, call girl Ashley Dupre turned down the interview request,

Dupre said in an e-mail that she didn’t want to grant an interview without “approval over the edit.”

“I didn’t think it was smart to participate after what I’ve seen with editing,” said Dupre. “I think everyone is trying to move on with their lives and by me participating in their project would only open old wounds.”

Dupre, by the way, is working to move on from these trying events by posing for Playboy and becoming a sex columnist for the New York Post. It’s good to see her trying to get back to basic values.

But it begs the question of whether such edit approval should ever be granted.

There’s a long and complicated history to such approvals, and the main question is always, “How badly do I need this person in my film,” and “how compromised will it be if I gave it?” For example, it would seem unlikely (and foolish) if Gibney gave Spitzer himself control – Spitzer sat for interviews, undoubtedly, as a ritual cleansing before he attempts to re-enter politics; Gibney has too much of a reputation at stake to allow that. But lesser-known filmmakers sometimes can’t get their subject without some control by the subject, which can be negotiated on many levels. Is the subject allowed to see his own clips? Is the subject allowed to view the interviews done of others? Can the subject reserve the right to withdraw?

One landmark documentary, PBS’s 1973 series “An American Family,” was shown to the subjects prior to completion. Amazingly, the subjects, the Loud family, were happy with it. In a study by Dartmouth College film historian Jeffrey Rouff,

The Louds themselves eventually became reviewers and critics of the series, influencing its reception, an uncommon occurrence for a documentary and a seeming impossibility for a fictional work. During the editing, the Louds viewed and gave their approval, both tacitly and explicitly, of the twelve episodes (Loud, 1974, p. 124). Before the broadcast, their responses to An American Family were positive. Pat Loud told Vogue that ”Divorce happens to so many people that I really don’t mind having it televised” (Brown, 1973). Bill Loud mentioned to a journalist from Newsweek that ‘he thought the series would make them look like the ‘West Coast Kennedys” (1973a). Shocked by the hostility of so many of the reviews, the Louds entered the debate shortly after the broadcast of the first episodes. They took exception to the advertising campaign for the series, arguing that it sensationalized their lives for entertainment purposes. When Pat Loud complained to Craig Gilbert about the publicity for An American Family, he remarked that these aspects of promotion were out of his control and not normally the responsibility of a producer at WNET (Loud, 1974, p. 142). The family members felt antagonized by the publicity for the series and were scandalized by the critical reception of the documentary. Throughout the controversy, the Louds tried to direct attention towards the point of view of the series, especially the editing.

The irony for Gibney, of course, is that Spitzer, long known as an iron-fisted politician, chose to prostrate himself before the filmmaker while the (literal and figurative) fame whore, Dupre, decided she wanted to control her image. The most likely types to generally demand approval are the people used to controlling other people – CEOs, police chiefs, politicans, college presidents.

Editorial control can include not only approval of what goes in, but also what can’t be cut. If a subject says, “I’ll say what you want if you promise me you’ll leave in what I feel I want to have said,” is that fair?

Approval might also be not only for content, but for appearance. In the still-photo world, one of the most famous examples of image manipulation was Arnold Newman’s 1963 image of German industrialist Alfried Krupp, who had during World War II used slave labor to man his factories as they supplied the Nazi war effort. Krupp, who consented to the story and photo in LIFE magazine as an image-restoring effort, posed politely for Newman, who set up the lights in a way that showed Krupp as a face of evil.

Newman, of course, felt fully justified in this. In the New York Times obituary of Newman said of the photo,

The impression it leaves was no accident: Mr. Newman knew that Krupp had used slave labor in his factories during the Nazi reign and that he had been imprisoned after World War II for his central role in Hitler’s war machine.

“When he saw the photos, he said he would have me declared persona non grata in Germany,” Mr. Newman said of Krupp.

Ultimately, filmmakers and journalists should as themselves what motivates someone to ever sit for an interview. It’s rarely a selfless choice. It might be to feel important, to express a view one feels is important, or to be associated with an important cause, message or even production. The degree to which they will accede often has much to do with the degree of control they think they might have. It also has to do with whether they’ve been burned before. All it takes is one journalist twisting your words or misquoting you to make you feel very leery about letting that happen again.

Gibney’s film “Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room,” did quite well without the top Enron guys, Jeffrey Skilling and Kenneth Lay, being in it. That’s because no one would have ever expected them to be in it. But when you can’t land an interview with Ashley Dupre as she does everything she can otherwise to get in front of cameras, that’s a plot twist.

For filmmakers, the basic question is: How badly do I want this interview, and how badly will granting approval of any kind compromise the real or perceived integrity of the work? Because at Tribeca, Alex Gibney was having to explain why one of the key players in the Spitzer scandal was not in his film.

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