News

Britain's television landscape has often been linked with gritty characters, compelling storylines, and complex dramas, with no genre embodying those traits quite like an iconic British spy series. The British fiction's fascination with spies and espionage can be traced back to Ian Fleming's iconic James Bond character from 1953, which garnered worldwide attention and acclaim. Though other countries produce quality works in the genre, the British versions tend to have a biting dialogue mixed with intricate, layered narratives that create some of the most intense, thrilling shows of all time.

Uniquely British spy series from older generations, such as Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, shows the complexity of the genre and the underlying tension and psychological pressures that agents must endure on their missions. Modern series like the beloved Killing Eve show a different layer to the genre, with a more quirky and comical tone that is still punctuated with moments...

Vice Media has acquired a majority stake in The Witch producer Pulse Films.

The youth-skewing media firm has “dipped into” its $500m war chest to make the investment as it continues to move into the traditional television business.

The deal, which was signed on Thursday (March 24), comes more than two years after the companies agreed a strategic partnership to co-produce a number of Us-focused projects. It follows their collaboration on feature documentary Shut Up And Play The Hits [pictured], which featured LCD Soundsytem’s final show.

Vice Media president Andrew Creighton told Screen’s sister publication Broadcast that Pulse and Vice shared a “similar view of the world”.

“We’ve talked over the years about how we could work together and have tried to figure out how we could best come together,” he said.

Pulse Films chief executive Thomas Benski, who founded the firm in 2005 with Marisa Clifford, said agreeing to the deal was a “very easy decision...

Julia Peters at Deakin Edge yesterday.

Executive producer Julia Peters has won the inaugural ABC Factual Format Initiative.

The Factual Format development pitches took place at Melbourne's Deakin Edge auditorium yesterday as part of Aidc's FACTory.day, in which producers pitched their ideas - both short and long form - to a formidable lineup of local and international 'decision makers'.

They included representatives from PBS, Discovery, the BBC, World Channel, Vice, Dazed, Sbs, the ABC, Foxtel and Madman.

Peters now receives $15,000 in development funding for her format idea.Detention, in which ordinary people are sent to stay in a detention centre.

Her pitch followed another with an identical concept (and which was to have been executive produced by Pulse's Roy Ackerman).

Peters worked at Essential Media and Entertainment as an Ep between 2011-2013, and as the investment development manager for documentary at Screen Australia after that.

She also works at...

The Australian International Documentary Conference wrapped up last night, with delegates gathering for closing drinks at Acmi, where Roy Ackerman announced the winner of Aidc's Access internship.

The paid placement was awarded to Nicole Miller, who will spend a month in the London office of Ackerman's Pulse Films, working across all their strands (series, film, branded content)..

Miller, from Sa, was one of five participants in the Access program at this year's conference.

The others were Ben Croker (Wa), Andrea Distefano (Vic), Mark Harris (Vic) and Joao Dujon Pereira (Vic)..

The group attended mentorship sessions with the likes of Ackerman, The Jinx's Marc Smerling, Gayby Baby's Maya Newell and the UK's Magnus Temple (24 Hours in A&E).

Miller is a producer at Adelaide's 57 Films.

Pulse Films manager of non-scripted television, Roy Ackerman.

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The Australian International Documentary Conference has selected six candidates to take part in the 2016 Access@Aidc Early Career Mentorship Program..

The filmmakers were selected by Pulse Films.(UK) manager of non-scripted television, Roy Ackerman..

The six 2016 participants are: Ben Croker (Wa), Andrea Distefano (Vic), Brietta Hague (Nsw), Mark Harris (Vic), Nicole Miller (Sa), and Joao Dujon Pereira (Vic).

The program is run in collaboration with Pulse films..

The filmmakers will now have the chance to learn directly from established Australian and international industry professionals in exclusive mentorship sessions during Aidc 2016..

One Access participant will also be selected for a four-week paid internship with Pulse Films in London, including return economy airfare and accommodation, with the winner to be announced at Aidc 2016.s Closing Drinks on Wednesday March 2..

Ackerman said Pulse Films was very proud to offer an internship..

"I've been coming to...

Robert Durst and Marc Smerling during filming of The Jinx.

The Australian International Documentary Conference has unveiled new sessions, rounding out the program for Aidc '16.

New talks include 'The True Detective', a masterclass with writer-producer-cinematographer Marc Smerling (The Jinx, Catfish, Capturing the Friedmans), and 'Aftrs TV Talks: Pick Me!', about the fine art of casting reality TV.

'Pick Me!' will be presided over by casting agents Kirsty de Vallance (Making Australia Happy, Life at One, Great Australian Bakeoff, Masterchef, The Biggest Loser) and Jodie Brearly (Gogglebox, The Bachelor, The Bachelorette, Shark Tank, The Great Australian Spelling Bee) as well as the UK's Roy Ackerman (Dream School, Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution, How Hip Hop Changed the World)..

'Virtual Reality: Documentary Outside the Frame' unites local and international innovators in Vr storytelling, including Astrid Scott (Senior Producer/Experience Strategist, ABC), Katy Morrison (Producer, Vrtov) and Jess Linington (Researcher/Producer,...

On Sunday evening, the 58th BFI London Film Festival announced this year’s Festival Awards winners. Top honors went to Andrey Zvyagintsev’s “Leviathan,” Russia’s Best Foreign Language Film submission. At Cannes, the small town political drama picked up a Best Screenplay award and was considered a frontrunner for the Palme d’Or. After naming “Leviathan” with Lff’s Best Film award, Jeremy Thomas, BFI Fellow and President of the Official Competition jury said: ”We were all very engaged by the 12 films selected for Competition and really admired many of them, there were extraordinary stories and impressive images. But there was one film that we were unanimous in wanting to award Best Film, Leviathan directed by Andrey Zvyagintsev. Its grandeur and themes moved all of us in the same way.” Celine Sciamma’s Girlhood, which premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival, was also commended by the jury. This...

Other winners include The Tribe, a documentary about Syria and Catch Me Daddy actress Sameena Jabeen Ahmed.

Andrey Zvyagintsev’s Leviathan has been crowned Best Film at the 58th BFI London Film Festival (Oct 8-19).

It saw off competition from the likes of Peter Strickland’s The Duke of Burgundy, François Ozon’s The New Girlfriend and Julius Avery’s Son of a Gun, starring Ewan McGregor (click here for full list).

Leviathan tells the tragic tale of conflict between an individual and a corrupt system in a small Russian town.

It marks the fourth feature from Zvyagintsev and is Russia’s submission for the Best Foreign-Language Oscar. The film debuted at the Cannes Film Festival in May, where many expected it to win the Palme d’Or, instead winning Best Screenplay.

It will be released in the UK by Curzon.

The award was announced at a glitzy ceremony held in London’s Banqueting Hall, Whitehall, and hosted...

Other jurors across London’s competitions include Sally Hawkins, James McAvoy, James Corden and Dexter Fletcher.

British producer Jeremy Thomas to to head the Official Competition jury at the 58th BFI London Film Festival (Oct 8-19).

Thomas’s career as producer and executive producer spans Nicolas Roeg’s Bad Timing (1978), Bernardo Bertolucci’s Oscar-winner The Last Emperor (1987), David Cronenberg’s Crash (1996), Wim Wender’s Pina (2011) and Jim Jarmusch’s Only Lovers Left Alive (2013).

He will preside over a jury that comprises last year’s Best Film Award nominee Ahmad Abdalla (Rags & Tatters), actress Sally Hawkins (Blue Jasmine), film producer and programme advisor Lorna Tee (Postcards from the Zoo), actor James McAvoy (X-Men: Days of Future Past) and film critic Scott Foundas.

Jury members who will present work at the festival include Abdalla, whose film Decor receives its world premiere; Hawkins, who features in Morgan Matthews’ debut feature X + Y; and James McAvoy who stars in The Disappearance...

Sundance TV has greenlit a second season of non-fiction original series Dream School for a fall premiere. Curtis ’50 Cent’ Jackson and Chuck D will executive produce and serve as instructors. Series format was created by Jamie Oliver, who also is exec producing under his Fresh One shingle. The six-part hour-long series creates a place for troubled teens to turn their lives around in a place of learning where the educators are achievers and leaders. This season’s instructors include: chef and restaurateur David Chang, Olympic figure skater Johnny Weir, Emmy-winning screenwriter and director Cliff Dorfman (Entourage), survival expert Les Stroud, journalists Young Turks (Cenk Uygur and Ana Kasparian), financial educator Alvin Hall, fitness instructor Nicole Winhoffer, historian David Eisenbach, Rabbi Shmuel “Shmuley” Boteach (author of Kosher Jesus and Kosher Sex), actor Dean Winters, and lawyer and rights activist Gloria Allred. Dream School is produced by Oliver’s Fresh One Prods...

By Mark Cerulli

Everyone in the west knows the name – Gaddafi. For over 40 years he was an international riddle, visiting world capitals yet sleeping in a bulletproof tent; a statesman who surrounded himself with female bodyguards and, of course, a pariah scorned by the west for acts of international terror…

In Mad Dog: Inside The Secret World of Muammar Gaddafi , a remarkable Showtime documentary premiering April 11th, director Christopher Olgiati and his team went deep inside the late despot’s hidden world. The resulting portrait is chilling, horrifying and impossible not to watch.

The film’s Executive Producer, Roy Ackerman spoke with Cinema Retro about putting together this daunting and dangerous project. “Chris (Olgiati) and I had worked together before… and he came to me about doing a film on the Lockerbie Crash and we spent a lot of time developing that but for various reasons we came to focus on Gaddafi.

One of the most interesting filmmaking panels at the Sheffield Doc/Fest this past weekend asked a very popular question amongst filmmakers, aspiring and new:  "How Do Filmmakers Get Paid?" The question, of course, changes from context to context, from film to film, from deal to deal.  But the panelists were able to make some worthy comments about their own experiences and the experiences in their home countries that were helpful for all. Joining the session's chair, the Canadian producer Mark Johnston, were Roy Ackerman, who works on series for Jamie Oliver's Fresh One company; Motto Pictures' Julie Goldman ("Buck," "God Loves Uganda"), an American; and Dutch producer Femke Wolting, who works on films and interactive projects. The answer to the question at hand was, of course, that filmmakers get paid when there is money to pay them.  While much film funding comes from grants and donations, much...

Curtis ’50 Cent’ Jackson will executive produce Dream School under his G-Unit Films and Television banner and also appear in the original non-fiction series aimed at helping troubled teens, Sundance Channel President Sarah Barnett announced today. It’s slated to premiere in fall 2013. The series format was created by Jamie Oliver who will also executive produce, along with Roy Ackerman, under his Fresh One shingle. Oliver joins the Dream School project through his role in the successful UK series. The six-part hour-long series creates a place for troubled teens to turn their lives around in a place of learning where the educators are achievers and leaders. In Dream School classes are taught by professionals including musicians, politicians, filmmakers, scientists, actors and artists. Andrew Jameson also will serve as executive producer with Jackson and Jonathan Grosskopf will executive produce for Sundance Channel. The network recently premiered the second season of non-fiction series...

Vol. I Issue 6

Send us links to your sizzle reels and film sites.

Note: See Issues 1, 2, 3, and 4 for reviews and clips of the Academy documentary films and short films. Additional reviews of the documentary features follow in this issue.

Best documentary feature

5 Broken Cameras Emad Burnat and Guy Davidi

The Gatekeepers Nominees to be determined *See note below

How to Survive a Plague Nominees to be determined

The Invisible War Nominees to be determined

Searching for Sugar Man Nominees to be determined

Best documentary short subject

Inocente Sean Fine and Andrea Nix Fine

Kings Point Sari Gilman and Jedd Wider

Mondays at Racine Cynthia Wade and Robin Honan

Open Heart Kief Davidson and Cori Shepherd Stern

Redemption Jon Alpert and Matthew O'Neill

Best animated short film

Adam and Dog Minkyu Lee

Fresh Guacamole Pes

Head over Heels Timothy Reckart and Fodhla Cronin O'Reilly

Maggie Simpson in The Longest Daycare David Silverman

Paperman John Kahrs

Best live action short film

Asad Bryan Buckley and Mino Jarjoura

Buzkashi Boys Sam French and Ariel Nasr

Curfew Shawn Christensen

Death of a Shadow (Dood van een Schaduw) Tom Van Avermaet and Ellen De Waele

Henry Yan England

Achievement in music written for motion pictures (Original song) from a documentary

Before My Time from The documentary feature Chasing Ice Music and Lyric by J. Ralph

Note: *Nominees to be determined* The Documentary Brand gives the nomination to the individual(s) most involved in the key creative aspects of the filmmaking process. A maximum of two persons may be designated as nominees, one of whom must be the credited director who exercised directorial control, and the other of whom must have a producer or director credit. If a producer is named, that individual must have performed a major portion of the producing functions, in accordance with Academy producer criteria. No more than two statuettes will normally be given in the Documentary Feature category. All individuals with a “Producer” or “Produced by” credit on films that reach the semifinal round will automatically be vetted.

The Documentary Branch Executive Committee will determine which producers, if any, are eligible to receive an Oscar. In the unlikely event of a dispute, filmmakers may appeal the committee’s decision. In extremely rare circumstances, a third statuette may be awarded.

Production companies or persons with the screen credit of executive producer, co-producer or any credit other than director or producer shall not be eligible as nominees for the motion picture.

DGA Documentary Award Nominations

Kirby Dick The Invisible War

This is Mr. Dick’s first DGA Award nomination.

Malik Bendjelloul Searching For Sugar Man

This is Mr. Bendjelloul’s first DGA Award nomination.

Lauren Greenfield The Queen of Versailles

This is Ms. Greenfield’s first DGA Award nomination.

David France How To Survive A Plague

This is Mr. France’s first DGA Award nomination.

Alison Klayman Ai WeiWei: Never Sorry

This is Ms. Klayman’s first DGA Award nomination.

Two Academy Nominated Documentary Features

& One Academy Short Listed Documentary Reviewed

The Gatekeepers, directed by Dror Moreh

Documentary Feature Nominee

Six former heads of Israel’s domestic secret service agency, the Shin Bet, share their insights and reflect publicly on their actions and decisions in The Gatekeepers, a film by Dror Moreh. These six heads of the Shin Bet stood at the center of Israel's decision-making process in all matters pertaining to security. They worked closely with every Israeli prime minister, and their assessments and insights had—and continue to have—a profound impact on Israeli policy. The Gatekeepers is an exclusive account of their successes and failures.

I find The Gatekeepers remarkable. Not for its craft but for its concept and vision. Imagine

J Edger Hoover talking about his tenure at the FBI, his successes and his failures, his interactions with the Presidents and members of Congress, and his critical self-evaluation of his mission and how his agency’s work affected our nation. Imagine. Dror Moreh accomplished this feat when he convinced these six surviving members of the Shin Bet, to speak on camera.

The film provides a historical perspective of Israel that is both candid and critical of the successive governments in this rare Middle Eastern democracy. The Shin Bet was created in 1949 by David Ben-Gurion’s government to focus on the internal affairs of Israel and evolved into dealing with counterterrorism and intelligence gathering in the West Bank and Gaza.

These intelligence heads, like ours, report to the President/Prime Minister. They are not part of the military complex. It is this context that gives this work its power. We hear the story of Israel’s struggle to protect itself from both its internal and external enemies; the bombers, terrorists, agents and others who worked to destroy this small country. These men are not glamorous or like the fictional heads of the spy agencies we have seen in James Bond and Bourne films. They are bald or balding grandfather-types. Articulate, highly educated, calm and yet we know that they protected Israel from its enemies even if they had them killed.

This is one of the strongest of the nominated docs. It raises significant issues of personal responsibilities. Despite the lack of oversight we don’t feel that this is an organization gone amuck like the Catholic Church not protecting children or the Us Military not protecting its members from sexual harassment. We see these articulate men as guardians and protectors of their nation steadfastly doing their duty within the confines of their moral beliefs. What is scary about The Gatekeepers is that clearly there could have been abuses and wrongs done by the Shin Bet if these six had less character or their mission was redefined by the government without regard to moral or ethical standards. The film on reflection is troubling for regardless of how the spectator might feel about Israel it forces us to look at this conflict through the lenses of these six guardians and we can only wonder what they don’t tell us about what they did in the name of their country.

Credits:

Director: Dror Moreh

Camera: Avner Shahaf

Producers: Dror Moreh, Estelle Fialon, Philippa Kowarsky

Co Producer: Anna Van Der Wee

Sound: Amos Zipori

Sound Design: Aex Claude

Music: Ab Ovo, Jérôme Chassagnard, Régis Baillet

Editor: Oron Adar

Production Companies: Dror Moreh Productions, Les Films du Poisson, Cinephil

In Co-Production with: Mac Guff, Wild Heart Productions, Arte France, Iba, Ndr, Rtbf

With the support of: Cnc, Media, Région Ile-de-France, Procirep, Angoa, The Rabinovich Foundation for the Arts – Cinema Project

Distribution: Sony Classics

Trailer: http://www.sonyclassics.com/thegatekeepers/

The House I Live In, directed by Eugene Jarecki

Short Listed Documentary Feature for Academy Award nomination

The House I Live In looks at how America has waged war on some of its poorest citizens, costing countless lives, destroying families, and inflicting untold damage on future generations of Americans. It posits that over the last forty years, the War on Drugs has accounted for more than 45 million arrests and shows how America became the world’s largest jailer, damaging poor communities at home and abroad. Yet today drugs are cheaper, purer and more available than ever before. It shows that drug abuse is a public health issue. Despite this, it is treated by our society as a criminal matter and a vast machine has been created that feeds on the men and women who are incarcerated. Because of this, the prisoners are not offered help or a cure for their underlying problems, so they return to prison in a never ending cycle.

Eugene Jarecki, whose previous films looked at the military industrial complex (Why We Fight and The Trials of Henry Kissinger), won the Grand Jury Prize for Documentary at Sundance in both 2005 and 2010. The film tackles difficult material. Material that has been in scores of documentaries and television shows over the years. Yet Jarecki, using his personal experience, a wealth of interviews and strong case studies, builds a compelling case for changing the sentencing guidelines for crack (and cocaine) and for dealing with both addiction and the underlying causes of addiction. Jarecki is a skillful filmmaker who has picked a vast and complex subject and has created a work that while rich in content moves along at a good pace although it might have been stronger if it had tried to do less. The film editor Paul Frost and the composer Robert Miller do an excellent job building strong sequences with evocative music. It was nicely shot by Sam Cullman and Derek Hallquist. Richard Abramowitz’s Abramorama handled the distribution and was successful getting the work out which is never easy for such an issue oriented film.

Credits:

Director, Producer, Screenwriter: Eugene Jarecki

Producers: Melinda Shopsin, Sam Cullman, Christopher St. John

Executive Producers: Eugene Jarecki, Nick Fraser, Joslyn Barnes, Danny Glover, Russell Simmons, Roy Ackerman, John Legend, Sally Jo Feifer, Nick Fraser

Camera: Sam Cullman, Derek Hallquist

Sound: Matthew Freed, Art Jaso

Music: Robert Milller

Editor: Paul Frost

Production Companies: Charlotte Street Films, Zdf Enterprises, Independent Television Services, BBC, Aljazeera Documentary Channel, Vpro, Special Broadcasting Service Corporation, Louverture Films, Nhk

Distribution (Us): Abramorama Entertainment, Snag Films

How to Survive a Plague, directed by David France

Documentary Feature Nominee

How to Survive a Plague by writer and filmmaker David France tells the story of how two coalitions came together to lobby for effective treatments and funding for treatments of AIDS in the late 1980s when it was evident that the Us government and its health and other agencies were not being very effective dealing with the AIDS epidemic. The coalitions, Act Up and Tag (Treatment Action Group) helped to make AIDS more treatable. While there is still no cure for AIDS and thousands of people globally still die from the virus, it is now possible to prolong life with treatments that have been developed.

Despite having no scientific training, these self-made activists infiltrated the pharmaceutical industry and helped identify promising new drugs, moving them from experimental trials to patients in record time. With access to never-before-seen archival footage from the 1980s and '90s, filmmaker David France puts the viewer smack in the middle of the controversial actions, the heated meetings, the heartbreaking failures, and the exultant breakthroughs. Faced with their own mortality an improbable group of young men and women, many of them HIV-positive took on Washington and the medical establishment.

While there have been a handful of outstanding films dealing with the AIDS epidemic including Common Threads: Stories from the Quilt, The Broadcast Tapes of Dr. Peter and Silverlake Life, to name a few, How to Survive a Plague picks up on the story begun in the landmark Common Threads and updates the struggle, looking at the quest to find a treatment and possibly a cure for this vicious disease. The film weaves together stories of activism and shows how a small determined group can effect change not just nationally but globally. While the film is not as well made as Common Threads or Dr. Peter, it’s powerful. The archival footage manages to capture some of the key figures of Act Up and Tag showing actions as they take place. Instead of relying on talking heads to tell this amazing story, it is presented with footage shot as the story unfolded. This footage and its solid editing distinguishes this film from so many of the works that have tried to tell this story.

Few documentaries have such powerful antagonists, the government, incompetence, a lack of urgency on the part of the medical community and fear. Throw in homophobia and it is evident that the dramatic actions of these heroes saved hundreds of thousands of possible victims from this mostly sexually spread plague.

My only serious criticism of this documentary is its failure to be clearer that the plague continues, that there is no cure for HIV/AIDS and that the community continues to give a false sense of hope. Currently the Cdc states:

” ..estimates that 1,148,200 persons aged 13 years and older are living with HIV infection, including 207,600 (18.1%) who are unaware of their infection1. Over the past decade, the number of people living with HIV has increased, while the annual number of new HIV infections has remained relatively stable. Still, the pace of new infections continues at far too high a level—particularly among certain groups.

HIV Incidence(new infections): The estimated incidence of HIV has remained stable overall in recent years, at about 50,000 new HIV infections per year.2 Within the overall estimates, however, some groups are affected more than others. Msm (men who have sex with men) continue to bear the greatest burden of HIV infection, and among races/ethnicities, African Americans continue to be disproportionately affected.”

This information could have been contained in the last few minutes of this powerful work, to inspire and warn the audience that testing is critical and that safe sex is still the only way to contain AIDS.

The Filmmaker

David France, Director, Producer

David France is an award-winning journalist and New York Times best-selling author who has been writing about AIDS since 1982 and today is one of the best-known chroniclers of the epidemic. His work has appeared in the New York Times, Newsweek, GQ, and New York magazine, where he is a contributing editor, and has received the National Headliner Award and the GLAAD Media Award, among others. Several films have been inspired by his work, most recently the Emmy-nominated Showtime film Our Fathers, for which he received a WGA nomination. He is at work on a major history of AIDS, due from Alfred A. Knopf in 2013. Based on decades of reporting, How to Survive a Plague is his directorial debut.

Credits

Director: David France

Writers: David France, Todd Woody Richman, Tyler H. Walk

Producers: David France, Howard Gertler

Executive Producers: Dan Cogan, Joy A. Tomchin

Co-Producer: Todd Woody Richman

Camera: Derek Wieshahn

Sound: Stuart Deutsch, Topher Reifeiss

Original Music: Stuart Bogie

Editor: Todd Woody Richman, Tyler H. Walk

Production Companies: Public Square Films, Ninety Thousand Words

Distribution (Us): Sundance Selects

Short Notes and Update:

The International Documentary Association in Los Angeles presents Doc U: The Doc Reporter

Navigating the Intersection of Documentary and Journalism

Moderated by: Karin Skellwagen (The Brooks Institute)

With Panelists:

Sarah Burns (The Central Park Five)

Michael Donaldson (Partner, Donaldson & Callif)

David France (How To Survive A Plague)

For information: http://doc-u-jan-2013-la.eventbrite.com/

Sundance Announces 2013 International Documentary Competition:

Fallen City/ China (Director: Qi Zhao) — Fallen City spans four years to reveal how three families who survived the 2008 Sichuan earthquake to embark on a journey searching for hope, purpose, identity, and to rebuild their lives in a new China torn between tradition and modernity. North American Premiere

Fire in the Blood/ India (Director: Dylan Mohan Gray) — In the late 1990s and early 2000s, Western governments and pharmaceutical companies blocked low-cost antiretroviral drugs from reaching AIDS-stricken Africa, causing 10 million or more unnecessary deaths. An improbable group of people decided to fight back. North American Premiere

Google and the World Brain/ Spain, United Kingdom (Director: Ben Lewis) — In the most ambitious Internet project ever conceived, Google is working to scan every book in the world. Google says it is building a library for mankind. But some are trying to stop it, claiming that Google may have other intentions. World Premiere

The Machine Which Makes Everything Disappear/ Georgia, Germany (Director: Tinatin Gurchiani) — A film director casting a 15-23-year-old protagonist visits villages and cities to meet people who answer her call. She follows those who prove to be interesting enough through various dramatic and funny situations. North American Premiere

The Moo Man/ United Kingdom (Directors: Andy Heathcote, Heike Bachelier) — A year in the life of heroic farmer Steve, scene stealing Ida (queen of the herd), and a supporting cast of 55 cows. When Ida falls ill, Steve’s optimism is challenged and their whole way of life is at stake. World Premiere

Pussy Riot – A Punk Prayer/ Russian Federation, United Kingdom (Directors: Mike Lerner, Maxim Pozdorovkin) — Three young women face seven years in a Russian prison for a satirical performance in a Moscow cathedral. But who is really on trial: the three young artists or the society they live in? World Premiere

A River Changes Course/ Cambodia, U.S.A. (Director: Kalyanee Mam) — Three young Cambodians struggle to overcome the crushing effects of deforestation, overfishing, and overwhelming debt in this devastatingly beautiful story of a country reeling from the tragedies of war and rushing to keep pace with a rapidly expanding world. World Premiere

Salma/ United Kingdom, India (Director: Kim Longinotto) — When Salma, a young girl in South India, reached puberty, her parents locked her away. Millions of girls all over the world share the same fate. Twenty-five years later, Salma has fought her way back to the outside world. World Premiere

The Square (Al Midan)/ Egypt, U.S.A. (Director: Jehane Noujaim) — What does it mean to risk your life for your ideals? How far will five revolutionaries go in defending their beliefs in the fight for their nation? World Premiere

The Stuart Hall Project/ United Kingdom (Director: John Akomfrah) — Antinuclear campaigner, New Left activist and founding father of Cultural Studies, this documentary interweaves 70 years of Stuart Hall’s film, radio and television appearances, and material from his private archive to document a memorable life and construct a portrait of Britain’s foremost radical intellectual. World Premiere

The Summit/ Ireland, United Kingdom (Director: Nick Ryan) — Twenty-four climbers converged at the last stop before summiting the most dangerous mountain on Earth. Forty-eight hours later, 11 had been killed or simply vanished. Had one, Ger McDonnell, stuck to the climbers' code, he might still be alive. International Premiere

Who is Dayani Cristal?/ United Kingdom (Director: Marc Silver) — An anonymous body in the Arizona desert sparks the beginning of a real-life human drama. The search for its identity leads us across a continent to seek out the people left behind and the meaning of a mysterious tattoo. World Premiere. Day One Film

Producer’s Guild Announces Nominations for the Award for Outstanding Producer of Documentary Theatrical Motion Pictures and Non-Fiction Television:

A People Uncounted(Urbinder Films)

Producers: Marc Swenker, Aaron Yeger

The Gatekeepers(Sony Pictures Classics)

Producers: Estelle Fialon, Philippa Kowarsky, Dror Moreh

The Island President(Samuel Goldwyn Films)

Producers: Richard Berge, Bonni Cohen

The Other Dream Team(The Film Arcade)

Producers: Marius Markevicius, Jon Weinbach

Searching For Sugar Man(Sony Pictures Classics)

Producers: Malik Bendjelloul, Simon Chinn

Nominations for the Award for Outstanding Producer of

Non-Fiction Television:

American Masters(PBS)

Producers: Prudence Glass, Susan Lacy, Julie Sacks

Anthony Bourdain: No Reservations(Travel Channel)

Producers: Anthony Bourdain, Christopher Collins, Lydia Tenaglia, Sandy Zweig

Deadliest Catch(Discovery Channel)

Producers: Thom Beers, Jeff Conroy, Sean Dash, John Gray, Sheila McCormack, Bill Pruitt, Decker Watson

Inside the Actors Studio(Bravo)

Producers: James Lipton, Shawn Tesser, Jeff Wurtz

Shark Tank(ABC)

Producers: Rhett Bachner, Becky Blitz, Mark Burnett, Bill Gaudsmith, Yun Lingner, Brien Meagher, Clay Newbill, Jim Roush, Laura Skowlund, Paul Sutera, Patrick Wood

BAFTA Short and Documentary Feature Nominations (British Academy of Film and Television Arts, London)

Documentary Feature

The ImposterBart Layton, Dimitri Doganis

Marley Kevin Macdonald, Steve Bing, Charles Steel

McCullin David Morris, Jacqui Morris

Searching for Sugar Man Malik Bendjelloul, Simon Chinn

West of Memphis Amy Berg

Short Animation

Here to Fall Kris Kelly, Evelyn McGrath

I’m Fine Thanks Eamonn O'Neill

The Making of Longbird Will Anderson, Ainslie Henderson

Short Film

The Curse Fyzal Boulifa, Gavin Humphries

Good Night Muriel d'Ansembourg, Eva Sigurdardottir

Swimmer Lynne Ramsay, Peter Carlton, Diarmid Scrimshaw

Tumult Johnny Barrington, Rhianna Andrews

The Voorman Problem Mark Gill, Baldwin Li

The Broadcast Film Critics Association (Bfca)

Documentary Feature Nominations

Bully

The Imposter

Queen of Versailles

Searching for Sugar Man (Winner)

The Central Park Five

West of Memphis

________________________________________________________________________

Credits: Editing by Jessica Just for SydneysBuzz

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Block Doc Workshops in Los Angeles February 2013 Ida Doc U

The International Documentary Association will be hosting Documentary Funding and Documentary Tune-Up Workshops with Block on February 9/10. http://www.documentary.org/news/february-documentary-producing-workshops-mitchell-block

Mitchell Block specializes in conceiving, producing, marketing & distributing independent features & consulting. He is an expert in placing both completed works into distribution & working with producers to make projects fundable. He conducts regular workshops in film producing in Los Angeles and most recently in Maine, Russia and in Myanmar (Burma).

Poster Girl, produced by Block was nominated for a Documentary Academy Award and selected by the Ida as the Best Doc Short 2011. It was also nominated for two Emmy Awards and aired on HBO. He is an executive producer of the Emmy Award-winning PBS series Carrier, a 10-hour series that he conceived & co-created. Block is a graduate of Tisch School and Columbia University’s Graduate School of Business. He is a member of Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences, the Television Academy, a founding member of BAFTA-la and has been teaching at USC School of Cinematic Arts since 1979. Currently Block teaches a required class in the USC Peter Stark Producing Program.

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If you thought this was all settled back in 1776, you were wrong. BBC America announced today that Chef Race: U.K. Vs. U.S. will kick off on October 2 with back-to-back episodes starting at 9 Pm Edt. The Jamie Oliver-produced series will have a preview September 29 at 10 Pm Edt just after the Dr. Who mid-season finale. Chef Race pits 8 Brits against 8 American in both their cooking and business skills in a contest spanning L.A. to New York. The winner gets $100,000. The series will air in its regular 10 Pm time slot starting October 9. MasterChef‘s Richard Corrigan will serve as the show’s mentor and judge, while Food Network’s Claire Robinson will host. The unscripted series is being produced by Oliver’s Fresh One Prods. The chef is executive producing with The Amazing Race‘s Amy Chacon, Undercover Boss‘ Stef Wagstaffe, Roy Ackerman, Sebastian Grant and Jo Ralling.

The newly greenlighted Chef Race: UK Vs. U.S. follows 16 chefs — eight British and eight Americans — who race from Los Angeles to New York for a $100,000 prize. The contestants have no money and minimal resources, so they must use their resourcefulness, ingenuity, leadership and finesse along with their cooking skills to win. MasterChef‘s Richard Corrigan will serve as mentor and judge and Food Network’s Claire Robinson will host. The unscripted series is being produced by UK chef Jamie Oliver (ABC’s Jamie Oliver’s Food Revolution) and his Fresh One Prods and is set to premiere in the fall. Oliver is executive producing with The Amazing Race‘s Amy Chacon, Undercover Boss‘ Stef Wagstaffe, Roy Ackerman, Sebastian Grant and Jo Ralling.

Better This World, The Tiniest Place and the other nominations for the 2011 Ida Awards have been announced. The 27th Annual Ida Awards (documentary awards) are presented by the International Documentary Association (Ida) “a non-profit organization promoting documentary film, video and new media, to support the efforts of documentary filmmaking and video production makers around the world and to increase public appreciation and demand for the art of the documentary…the Ida has approximately 2,800 members in 53 countries, providing a forum for supporters and suppliers of documentary film making.”

This years presentation will see “the 2011 Career Achievement Award [awarded] to legendary documentary filmmaker Les Blank. He will be presented his award by Werner Herzog. Director Danfung Dennis (Hell and Back Again) will receive the 2011 Jacqueline Donnet Emerging Documentary Filmmaker Award.”

The full listing of the 2011 Ida Awards nominations is below.

Best Feature Award

Better This World

Directors/Producers/Writers: Katie Galloway & Kelly Duane de la Vega...

Ronald Reagan, Nancy Reagan in Eugene Jarecki's Reagan Euthanasia, Political Repression, Liberian Warlord: International Documentary Association Nominations David L. Wolper Student Documentary Award This award recognizes exceptional achievement in non-fiction film and video production at the university level and brings greater public and industry awareness to the work of students in the documentary field. GUAÑAPE Sur Director/Executive Producer/Writer: János Richter Executive Producers: Heidi Gronauer, Lorenzo Paccagnella Producer: Georg Zeller ZeLIG- School for Documentary, Andanafilms, Icarus Films Heart-quake Director/Writer: Mark Olexa Executive Producers: Heidi Gronauer, Lorenzo Paccagnella Producers: Georg Zeller, Nadia Caruso ZeLIG – School for Documentary River Of Victory Director/Producer: Trevor Wright Executive Director: Jack Emery Producers: A. Todd Smith, Jordan Augustine Full Mountain Pictures, Brigham Young University Smoke Songs Director/Producer/Writer: Briar March Executive Producers: Jan Krawitz, Jamie Meltzer, Kris Samuelson On the Level Production Transit Director/Writer: Regina Tan Producers: Haley Quartarone, Juvia Chua,...

PARK CITY -- The term "military-industrial complex" was coined by Dwight D. Eisenhower in his farewell address to the nation at the end of his second term as president in 1961. In ensuing years the phrase has become so commonplace, it has ceased to have any meaning. Now Eugene Jarecki's shattering documentary Why We Fight examines the extent to which the military-industrial complex not only profits from war, but also becomes a force that makes war happen. Winner of the best American documentary prize at Sundance, the thoughtful and extremely well-made film could find a sizable audience of concerned citizens in theaters and later on video.

Before the credits are over, the film jumps to life with the surprising presence of the grandfatherly Eisenhower, the five-star general who led allied forces in Europe during World War II, warning the nation of "the grave consequences" of creating a permanent arms industry. Using that as a starting point, Jarecki argues that the wars of the last 50 years -- Korea, Vietnam and now Iraq -- have been motivated more by profits than policy. Interviews with Eisenhower's son John and granddaughter Susan highlight the president's growing concern that the military build-up following World War II was a dangerous precedent for the country. Weighing in from two sides of the political spectrum are Sen. John McCain, who notes that "the complex is so pervasive, it's become invisible," to William Kristol, head of the neo-con think tank the Project for the New American Century, an architect of American foreign policy. Chalmers Johnson, an ex-CIA operative and critic of current developments, and Richard Perle, former adviser to the Bush administration, square off for and against.

Jarecki, who directed the revealing The Trials of Henry Kissinger, has learned to allow the material to speak for itself, so when Perle simplistically argues that pre-emptive strikes are akin to defending yourself against personal attack, he seems merely foolish. Summing up American foreign policy of the last 50 years, author Gore Vidal says this is "the United States of Amnesia," where everything is forgotten by Monday morning.

But the impact of Why We Fight, a title taken from the name of Frank Capra's WWII propaganda films for the State Department, goes well beyond a collection of talking heads. Jarecki personalizes the effects of war by including individual stories. One of them is Wilton Sekzer, a retired New York City cop who lost a son on Sept. 11 and petitioned the government to put his son's name on a bomb destined to be dropped on Iraq. When President Bush finally admits that Iraq had no hand in the terrorist attacks, Sekzer is disillusioned and feels that the government "exploited my feelings of patriotism for the death of my son."

Jarecki captures the price of the military-industrial complex in human terms, but sometimes the film's focus seems to wander to presenting arguments against the war. It is necessary to accept Jarecki's premise that the Iraq war is the result of America's imperialistic agenda in order to see corporate greed as the underlying cause.

But he makes his case convincingly, pointing out that we spend more on defense than all other parts of our budget combined. When war becomes that profitable, we have seen and will continue to see more of it. Jarecki uses graphic war footage, a visit to a weapons trade show and interviews with retired military officers -- stitched together seamlessly by editor Nancy Kennedy -- to dispel the notion advanced by presidents Johnson, Reagan and Bush, that America has been a force for peace in the world. Instead, what we see is a militaristic nation in which capitalism is at war with democracy -- and capitalism is winning.

WHY WE FIGHT

A BBC Storyville presentation of a Charlotte Street film in association with BBC and Arte

Credits:

Director: Eugene Jarecki

Writer: Jarecki

Producer: Susannah Shipman, Jarecki

Executive producers: Roy Ackerman, Nick Fraser, Hans Robert Eisenhauer

Directors of photography: Etienne Sauret, May-Ying Welch, Brett Wiley, Foster Wiley, Chris Li, Sam Cullman

Music: Robert Miller

Editor: Nancy Kennedy

No MPAA rating

Running time -- 90 minutes...