CATFISH

I saw the nonfiction film CATFISH last week and it was the first time in a good long while that when the lights came up, I looked around … and I said out loud, “I loved it.”

Cinema, cinema, cinema. AO Scott said the movie looks like crap and is ethically suspect, and guess what? He’s wrong. New York Magazine said it’s a scam and guess what? Who cares! It’s an incredibly compelling story, real or imagined. And isn’t that the point? Our real and our imagined selves, due to media saturation, are getting closer and closer together; they’re overlapping, so that lives are part performance, part “time off” (that’s the “real”). We perform for Facebook; we perform because someone in the room just turned on a video camera. We perform. That’s not news; we humans have been doing this forever. It’s simply more prominent now that social networking provides the 24 hour stage. THAT’s the point, not where the film falls on the scale of “real.” But I digress.

Green documentary maker asks “What does sustainability mean?”.. after failing to live it

“Young, creative, passionate college student wants to save the world…” Having been in this line of work for years now, I’ve received multiple emails that could’ve used some variation on those words for a subject line. So, when Caroline Savery first got in touch with me in 2008 about her Sust Enable project, a documentary series that would feature her efforts to live in a 100% sustainable manner, the usual two conflicting thoughts arose: “How inspiring!” and “Good luck with that…”

National school lunch program comes to the big screen

LUNCH: THE FILM may sound like a spoof of some kind, but filmmaker Avis Gold Richards, and her team at Birds Nest Productions couldn’t be more serious about their exploration of the National School Lunch Program, and its potential connections to childhood obesity, and the illnesses related to it.

Online gonzo documentary SOUTHERN TIER explores environmental attitudes… on bikes

Project: Southern Tier PROMO from Jeff Hyland on Vimeo.

Traveling cross-continent by human power isn’t new: Peter Jenkins walked across the US in the seventies, and Terry Fox attempted a run across Canada in 1980. Producer Jeff Hyland, along with long-time friend Mike Tryon set out on January 1, 2008 to do something similar: cross the continent by bike along the Southern Tier of the United States. And just as Jenkins and Fox set out on their journeys to answer questions and support causes, Hyland and Tryon’s nearly four month bike ride was dedicated to exploring the question “In a world of environmental change, where are we at?”

Support grows for CRUDE team

More organizations have come forward to voice their support for documentary filmmaker Joe Berlinger. The director was ordered by a judge earlier this month turn over 600-plus hours of footage shot for his film CRUDE to the oil giant Chevron, which hopes to use the footage to defend itself from the litigation efforts chronicled in the film. Berlinger’s lawyers have argued that the filmmaker’s material should be protected under journalistic privilege and that, by turning over the footage, he would be violating an understanding of confidentiality with his subjects.

Last week, as Berlinger sought to appeal the court’s decision, the Writers Guild of America, East, threw its support behind the director, just as the Independent Documentary Association and 20 Oscar-winning directors had done before it. “To accede to such a demand is tantamount to a reporter being told to turn over all of his or her notes and to violate confidentiality agreements with sources,” the Writers Guild wrote in an open letter. “As with the members of the IDA, our WGAE members working in the documentary field ‘hold ourselves to the highest of journalistic standards in the writing, producing, and editing of our films.’ Those standards include the protection of our outtakes, script drafts, research and sources.”

Documentary: What happened to the $%!#ing Winnebago Man?

For YouTube’s 5 year anniversary celebration, guest curator Conan O’Brien selected the Winnebago Man (see above) as a noteworthy video. With over 1.6 million views to date on YouTube, this (hilarious) video compilation of profanity laced outtakes from a 1988 Winnebago commercial starred a very frustrated salesman Jack Rebney, or better known as the Winnebago [...]

Will CRUDE director be forced to surrender his footage?

As the world struggles to absorb the devastating implications of the oil spill currently glugging untold barrels of crude into the Gulf of Mexico, while the companies involved point fingers at each other and decline to fully admit their mistakes, another oil-related drama has been playing out in a federal court in New York.

Chevron, the oil giant at the center of Joe Berlinger’s documentary CRUDE, which opened at the Sundance Film Festival in January 2009, has petitioned the court to allow it to subpoena more than 600 hours of footage shot for his film. The film tells the story of a group of Ecuadoreans who are suing the oil company, contending that it poisoned their people by dumping 18 billion gallons of toxic oil waste into their rivers and onto their land in what has become known as “Amazon Chernobyl.”

Chevron is seeking a dismissal of the suit, which has dragged on for years, and believes that the footage may help its case. But Berlinger’s attorneys have argued that the director should be offered the same privileges that all investigative journalists receive, allowing them to protect confidential sources and information. They insist that forcing him to turn over the footage would violate his rights under the First Amendment and constitute a breech of the confidentiality agreements he’d established with the people who appear in the film.

A little more than a week ago, the ruling came back.

1989 NYU student documentary, “Who is Chris Rock?”

From the documentary vault, the Internets uncovered possibly the earliest documentary profile on then up-and-coming, but relatively unknown controversial comic and occasional actor, Chris Rock. This 12 minute-long 1989 NYU student film interweaves clips from his (bitingly hilarious) stand-up performances with street interviews with random pedestrians. You also gets to meet his proud mother who [...]

Behind Burlesque With Leslie Zemeckis’s Fleshy New Film

Behind the Burly Q, a look back at the glory days of burlesque from writer/director/producer Leslie Zemeckis, fascinatingly strips away at the myths surrounding the most popular American entertainment form of the first half of the 20^th century. On the eve of the documentary opening in New York on April 23 en route to other cities, I phoned Leslie (whose husband, Robert Zemeckis of Forrest Gump fame, executive produced the doc) for some burly talk.

MM: Hi, Leslie. How was Behind the Burly Q born?

LZ: I’m an actress and did a show that had elements of burlesque in it. I started to research it and realized no one had done a comprehensive documentary about burlesque, told by the performers. I thought, ‘I’ve got to record this for posterity.’

MM: When you interviewed the former strippers—many of them now in their 80s–did some of them start re-enacting their old competitive patterns?

LZ: Not really. But some wanted to strip again! I thought, ‘I’m not sure where you’re gonna find a job, but God bless you.’ For a lot of them, it was the high time of their life and they wanted to recreate that.

YOUSSOU N’DOUR – Everyone is bringing love

Chai Vasarhelyi’s documentary YOUSSOU N’DOUR: I BRING WHAT I LOVE was released on DVD recently, and the film opens widely today in France. I had a chance to sit down and screen this hit doc on the Senegalese mega-star, although admittedly I was longing for a big theatre with big speakers, in order to revel in the singular sound of Youssou’s voice.

Of course I’m a dumb American and all I can do since I saw the film is sing Peter Gabriel’s “In Your Eyes” over and over and over in my head, thinking of Youssou’s great back up riff. (If you’re over 30, it’ll come to you – you know, right after one of the many “the light and heat’s” – Youssou comes in strong – and I’m transported instantly to my small liberal arts college self, blasting it out my dorm room window.) Vasarhelyi’s film is rich, rich, rich – and as is usually the case, also has problems. But who doesn’t these days, really?

Interview with Cynthia Wade, director of LIVING THE LEGACY: THE UNTOLD STORY OF MILTON HERSHEY SCHOOL

Oscar-winning documentary director Cynthia Wade.

On May 17th, Sundance Channel will screen LIVING LEGACY: THE UNTOLD STORY OF MILTON HERSHEY SCHOOL which follows three young students as they separate from their parents and enroll in Milton Hershey School, a residential school in Pennsylvania. The film follows the children during their first school year – a turbulent, dramatic and eye-opening experience for the students and their families. Director Cynthia Wade speaks with Sundance Channel about her experience working on this film.

SUNDANCE CHANNEL: What first drew you to the story of Milton Hershey School?

Wade: I’d recently finished FREEHELD, a 38 minute film (which won the Academy Award for Best Short Documentary in 2008 and 15 other film festival awards). I was directing another short documentary in Cambodia (BORN SWEET, which won Honorable Mention at the 2010 Sundance Film Festival). With those two short films as my latest endeavors, I was eager to move back into long-form documentary and direct another feature-length film.

It’s a completely different experience directing a feature-length film, as it demands so much more material, time, patience, and energy — think “marriage” as opposed to “long term relationship.” I was ready for another “film marriage.” When I was approached by the Milton Hershey School as a director for this project, I jumped at the chance. It was exciting to think about staying with a project on a long-term basis, following characters over an extended period of time.

PRODIGAL SONS and superlative filmmaking

Kimberly Reed’s documentary PRODIGAL SONS expanded to a few cities over the weekend, one of which is my Athens-Ohio-Main-Street-USA theatre, the Athena. The winner of a number of recent festival awards (two with “bravery” in the titles), the film is a jaw-dropper, the kind of “you can’t write this!” content that only, and I mean only, exists in life. Stranger than fiction, indeed, and more tragic, more superlative: More more more.

Film Forum turns 40

Bruce Weber’s 1988 LET’S GET LOST, one of 30 films in the Film Forum screening at MoMA. When Film Forum opened in 1970 in Manhattan’s Upper West Side it operated with one projector, 50 folding chairs and a $19,000 annual budget, but when Karen Cooper was hired on as director in 1972, things changed. Now, [...]

Sundance environmental films: the natural environment

They’re big! They’re ugly! And they might give you warts! They’re cane toads… in 3D! Mark Lewis’ CANE TOADS: THE CONQUEST, which premieres at the 2010 Sundance Film Festival, isn’t your typical nature documentary. This follow-up to 1988′s CANE TOADS: AN UNNATURAL HISTORY portrays the “horror” of an invasive species with a heavy dose of comedy, but still provides a provocative illustration of the ecological damage a non-native “invader” can wreak. Imported to Australia in the 1930s to deal with pests decimating the Queensland sugar crop, cane toads represent “Australia’s most notorious environmental blunder”: they didn’t eat the Greyback Cane Beetles, but did multiply like crazy…

A Sundance Channel premiere: Rufus Wainwright’s PRIMA DONNA

During the last 12 years, Rufus Wainwright has established himself as one of music’s most mercurial talents, fearlessly challenging convention and famed for soaring melodies and haunting lyrics. While preparing his most ambitious project, a full-fledged opera entitled PRIMA DONNA, Wainwright and his famous family — father Loudon Wainwright III, mother Kate McGarrigle and sister [...]

A Sundance Channel Original Documentary : THE GLASS HOUSE

Documentarian Hamid Rahmanian lifts the veil on a segment of Iranian society with inspiring profiles of four independent women coping with poverty, repression and physical brutality. At Tehran’s unique Omid e Mehr rehabilitation center for women, Nazila, an aspiring rap singer; Samira, a 14-year-old with a drug addiction; and Mitra and Sussan, who have endured insults, beatings and rape at home, learn the importance of self-esteem, personal expression and tools to take control of their lives.

Mutant documentary: Intervention

The other night, not unlike Monday nights a-many in the past, I found myself glued to the television, sucked in by a vortex commonly known as Intervention, the television series. Have you watched it? It’s a show about addiction. Beware, you’re liable to become addicted. (And I don’t feel very good about my problem, either, and I think I need help. Where’s my TV show for that?) Watching, I couldn’t help but think about a few colleagues I know in the NY documentary community who’ve begun to direct Intervention. Is this, could this be, is it anything near … documentary?

Well, documentary is a slippery term, as you know, already. Many filmmakers prefer “non fiction film.” Or just plain and simple, “movies.” The Intervention folk wouldn’t dare – they call their thing … a television series. A reality television series.

Urban environment: Timothy Beatley’s THE NATURE OF CITIES

If you’re an urbanite, you likely think of nature as something that exists outside of the city limits. That thinking is prevalent, and may contribute to the growth of nature deficit disorder among our kids… and ourselves. “Nature,” however, is all around us, and city government officials, planners, and community advocates are realizing that actively incorporating green spaces into urban settings makes for more livable environments (remember the High Line?).

A Sundance Channel Original Documentary : EVENTUAL SALVATION

Founded in 1847 as a home for former African-American slaves, the West African nation of Liberia has welcomed generations of expatriate Americans fleeing racism. One such immigrant was Earnestine “Amma” Smith, who settled in the capital, Monrovia, in 1958. An educator and landowner, Amma fled her new home during the recent deadly civil wars.

Blitz the Ambassador

I’ve been watching on repeat lately the music video for Brooklyn rapper Blitz the Ambassador’s single “Breathe” from his new album Stereotype, an iTunes Hip-Hop top ten chart (without label support! Dang, someone sign him UP! ). Before moving to the States for college at Kent State University, Blitz’s musical style was strongly informed and influenced by his experience growing up in Ghana surrounded by the sounds of Afro-Beat and Highlife, as well as playing djembe in drum circles. Speaking of style, if “Breathe” is any indication, he’s got that and then some. The music video and the sound, backed by his band Embassy Ensemble, is brimming with head-nodding, shoulder-shaking, foot-tapping energy.

Blitz recently composed the original score to the PBS documentary, BRONX PRINCESS, which chronicles a Bronx-bred teenager, Rocky Otoo’s journey from New York City to Ghana to reunite with her chief father.

A CHEMICAL REACTION comes to the film festival circuit

When dermatologist June Irwin first stood up in 1985 to speak at a Hudson, Quebec, town council meeting about the potential link between synthetic lawn pesticide and herbicide use and human and animal illnesses, she was written off as a flake. Irwin persisted, though, attending “every single town meeting in Hudson for six consecutive years [...]

Everyone forever now

“Everyone Forever Now” is an “episodic motion-based media project” that “is an examination of the collective wisdom and expression of human actions.” Creators Will Hoffman & Daniel Mercadante attempt to document and capture the mundane experiences of everyday like suntanning to the provocative such as shooting a gun. I particularly enjoyed their effort to document [...]

Michael Moore’s CAPITALISM: A LOVE STORY

Populist director Michael Moore takes a stab at the fat cats of Wall Street in his latest film CAPITALISM: A LOVE STORY, a documentary about the financial crisis of 2007-2009 and the subsequent stimulus and bailout packages. CAPITALISM echoes similar themes from a 2003 Canadian documentary THE CORPORATION, a critical examination of the modern-day corporation and its behavior towards society.

Documentary vs. fiction … and how to use an inverted tool

I went to see Marshall Curry’s new documentary, RACING DREAMS, last week. It’s an engaging, intimate film that follows three adolescent kids through one year of Extreme Go-Kart Racing competitions – a sort of warm-up little league to the big time of NASCAR. Annabeth Barnes of Hiddenite, North Carolina, pictured below with her dad, is one of the film’s charming stars. In one pivotal year, we witness her move away from childhood and toward the precipice of adulthood, a subtle and moving transformation.

The two other protagonists, Josh and Brandon, have significant dramatic arcs as well. As I was watching, I couldn’t help but think about the old reliable adage about doc versus fiction storytelling: while fiction film must strive for an organic, complicated reality that allows the audience to ‘buy’ the authenticity of the imagined world, the documentary must strive for an heightened, almost simplified sense of the purely dramatic. Archetypes embraced!

Bruce Weber: Gone Fishing online exhibition

Last night Sundance Channel launched the first online exhibition from acclaimed filmmaker and photographer Bruce Weber entitled GONE FISHING – A LITTLE JOURNEY IN MY BACKYARD. The exhibition includes more than 70 photos, video from many of his films, and a wealth of information on Weber himself. You can even watch his short film YOU [...]