MAKE YOUR DOCUMENTARY FILM

One of my documentary students, Judith, is coming to the documentary filmmaking process later in life. Instead of taking a nice, easy retirement, she is unpacking personal home video she shot years ago with her partner Jess, as Jess was dealing with extremely painful and isolating chronic illnesses. The subject is very emotional and the footage, although now several years old, is still very raw for Judith.

SUNDANCED

The documentary winners are.....Grand Jury Prize for Documentary: Sebastien Junger and Tim Hetherington, Restrepo; World Cinema Jury Prize: Documentary – Mads Brügger, The Red Chapel; Audience Award: U.S. Documentary – Davis Guggenheim, Waiting for Superman; World Cinema Audience Award: Documentary – Lucy Walker, Waste Land; U.S. Directing Award: Documentary – Leon Gast, Smash His Camera; World Cinema Directing Award: Documentary – Christian Frei, Space Tourists; U.S. Documentary Editing Award – Penelope Falk, Joan Rivers: A Piece of Work; World Cinema Documentary Editing Award – Joëlle Alexis, A Film Unfinished; Excellence in Cinematography Award: U.S. Documentary – Kirsten Johnson, Laura Poitras, The Oath; World Cinema Cinematography Award: Doc – Kate McCullough and Michael Lavelle, His & Hers; U.S. Documentary Special Jury Prize – Josh Fox, Gasland; World Cinema Doc Special Jury Prize – Rob Lemkin and Thet Sambath, Enemies of the People

Congrats to everyone, winners as well as those who competed. Its a triumph to get into the fest in the first place. Best of luck to all the films.

Some final SFF2010 thoughts:

Hey Doc, Am I Gonna Be OK?

To kick off the “Doctors Are In the House” Distribution Panel at Prospector Square, the moderator Eugene Hernandez of Indiewire quoted Manohla Dargis of The New York Times: “Independent filmmaking has never been for the faint of heart. But the consensus is that the past few years have been especially brutal. Sales have slowed, deal prices have dropped, and most of the major studios have retreated from the independent scene, closing or scaling back divisions like Warner Independent Pictures and Paramount Vantage, which released the kinds of movies that win critical hearts and awards. And good films are going unsold.” (1/14/2010)

Kind of bleak.  So Doc, is it terminal?

After having a drink with Ronna Wallace, our rep for Shakespeare Behind Bars, I wandered out to the lobby of the Marriot HQ, and wondered what to do next. As I began to slip into a people-gawking haze, I suddenly recognized someone: Caroline Libresco, Senior Programmer for SFF.  After catching up with her—she had just come from doing an interview for Latin America TV—she asked what I was up to now.

“I was just getting ready to do some blogging,” I said.

“Would you rather go to the HBO party?” she asked.....