DOC COLUMN | Arts Engine Celebrates 10 Years

Ten years can either be a blip or an eternity depending on your perspective. The year 1997 saw President Bill Clinton inaugurated for his second term, James Cameron's "Titantic" was the top movie and a book about a young wizard named Harry Potter first hit shelves. It was before the Internet stock bust and "information superhighway" was still a promise. The world of documentary in the U.S. was one of foundation funding, public television broadcast and educational distribution with precious few docs breaking into any kind of commercial success. It was in that entrenched world that then-new filmmakers Katy Chevigny and Julia Pimsleur felt like they had little opportunity.
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Nonfiction Campaign: Can Errol Morris's "Standard Operating Procedure" Break the Political Doc Deadlock?

Election years are typically strong for political documentaries. Capitalizing on citizens' hunger for issues that the mainstream media is either ignoring or mishandling, audiences flock to theaters to get a deeper sense of what's going on in the world. At least that was the thinking in 2004, with the blockbuster sales of "Fahrenheit 9/11" and also given the multi-million-dollar grosses of "The Fog of War," "Control Room," "Super Size Me," and "The Corporation." Even "Going Upriver: The Long War of John Kerry" wasn't swift-boated in theaters, earning more than $614,000.
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"Manda Bala" Wins Big at First Cinema Eye Awards

Born out of anger, to use the words of filmmaker Jason Kohn, the inaugural Cinema Eye Honors for documentary films awarded three prizes to "Manda Bala (Send A Bullet)" on Tuesday night in New York City. Kohn's doc, nominated in six of the nine Cinema Eye categories, was honored as best picture and also received awards for cinematography and editing.
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Docs Across America: Can Michael Moore Save the Theatrical Nonfiction Market?

After a dismal year for the theatrical nonfiction business, when aside from Michael Moore's "Sicko," only two documentaries - "No End in Sight" and "In the Shadow of the Moon" - made just over a million dollars, the iconoclastic documentary filmmaker wants to change all that. Last month, at the International Documentary Association's annual Oscar documentary celebration, Moore called for "Doc Night in America" (see related indieWIRE article), a plan which would see major theater chains dedicating one screen, one night a week, to non fiction film. While the proposal remains in its nascent stages, it has already spurred talk, both positive and negative, within the documentary community and the industry, at large. Will Moore's plan take off? And if it does, is it a good or bad thing for documentary releasing?
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DOC COLUMN | Documentary Shorts Are Seeing New Opportunities For Life

Tim Sternberg's wife was working in India and while visiting, he stumbled onto a story--an aging father and his son who project old films into a darkened box for poor kids to watch--that he wanted to film. As is often the case with creative folks, he bounced ideas off of friend Francisco Bello who was also captivated and traveled to India to help Tim capture the story. "It was a classic 'go for it' moment," said Sternberg. "We connected to the subject matter but we made it quickly and somewhat by the seat of our pants."
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15 Documentaries Named to New Shortlist; Festival Programmers, Doc Insiders Unveil New Nonfiction Awards

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences' recent announcement of the short list of films competing for the best documentary Oscar stirred frustration among a community of filmmakers and insiders back in November. Fueled by online discussion via blogs, a coalition within the nonfiction and film festval community is launching a new outlet to celebrate the best documentary films of the year. Seeking to challenge the results of other institutions, filmmaker AJ Schnack, a vocal critic of the Oscar list, has enlisted the support of online independent film distributor IndiePix and the opinions of a host of North American film festival programmers to launch a new nonfiction filmmaking awards event, set for March 18, 2008 at IFC Center in New York City.
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DOC COLUMN | Expectations Exceed Business for Docs in 2007

A quick glance at the box office numbers for documentaries released this year shows Michael Moore's "Sicko" as the top doc, but at $24.5 million, the take is significantly lower than recent hits "Fahrenheit 9/11" and "March of the Penguins" at $120 million and $77 million. You have to scroll pretty far down Box Office Mojo's top 100 list of docs to find the next 2007 entry, "No End in Sight," Charles Ferguson's critical debut about U.S. policy around the Iraq war, at $1.4 million in the #55 slot. Says veteran doc maker Doug Block, producer of this year's Berlinale Teddy winner "A Walk Into the Sea," "As far as feature docs are concerned, all signs are pointing to it being a very grim time for theatrical distribution."
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DOCS MONTHLY | The Doc Blogs: Part of a Thriving Online Film Community

Ever wonder how the term "blog" was coined? Most people know it comes from the word "weblog", which was first used by Jorn Barger back in December of '97, but the shortened version came into use when Peter Merholz cleverly turned "weblog" into "we blog" in the sidebar of his brilliant Peterme.com in 1999. Since blogs as we know them have only existed for about a decade, it's remarkable that the number of people maintaining a personal website is expected to reach about 100 million this year, according to Gartner Research. It's not surprising then, that there are now blogs about every subject imaginable and then some - from robots to supernatural phenomena to brownies - and yes, even documentary film.
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DOC COLUMN: Oscar Gets Political, Salutes Women: Tracking the Oscar Short List

Two weeks ago, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announced the 15 feature-length documentaries that made their "short list"--of which five will be nominated at the 79th Annual Academy Awards. Appropriately, this year's list is a timely snapshot of where we are as a country, mirrored in both the subject matter of the films and in who directed them. Remarkably, of the 20 directors represented (due to co-director titles), 15 are female--signaling that it wasn't just Congress that was ready to see women better represented.
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Fall Release Planned for "Dixie Chicks" Doc As Weinsteins Close Worldwide Deal

Barbara Kopple and Cecilia Peck's "Dixie Chicks: Shut Up and Sing" has been acquired by The Weinstein Company, in a worldwide rights deal announced Monday ahead of the doc's upcoming debut at the Toronto International Film Festival. The film follows the female country music trio's ollercoaster three-year experience from popularity to pariah status in the wake of brief critical comments about George W. Bush on the eve of the U.S. invasion of Iraq. The Weinstein Company is planning a release in U.S. theaters this fall.
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Al Franken Doc, "God Spoke," Coming to Theaters This Fall; Balcony Planning Pre-Election Release

Fresh from the festival circuit, Nick Doob and Chris Hegedus' "Al Franken: God Spoke" is set for a theatrical release later this year from Balcony Releasing. The film, shot over the course of two years, is a mostly verite look at the life of author and political satirist Al Franken.
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IFC Bringing "This Film is Not Yet Rated" to Theaters

Sundance 2006 feature "This Film is Not Yet Rated" will open September 1st in New York and Los Angeles via IFC Films, the company announced Monday afternoon. Directed by Oscar-nominated director Kirby Dick ("Twist of Faith"), the IFC Television production examines the Motion Picture Association of America's (MPAA) film ratings system and takes a look at its impact on American culture. IFC Films will release the movie unrated.
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Focus Takes Worldwide Rights to Foulkrod's Doc, "The Ground Truth"

Focus Features has acquired worldwide rights to Patricia Foulkrod's documentary feature "The Ground Truth: After the Killing Ends," which screened at the 2006 Sundance Film Festival, Focus president James Schamus announced Monday. Cinetic brokered the deal with Focus, and the film is slated for a theatrical release later this year.
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Four-Letter Word Film Acquired by THINKFilm; Doc Set for Theatrical Release, Showtime Deal Also Inked

THINKFilm has acquired worldwide rights to Steve Anderson's "FUCK," the doc about the four-letter expletive that debuted last year at the AFI FEST and screened last week at SXSW. The film features interviews with Pat Boone, Drew Carey, Billy Connolly, Sam Donaldson, Janeane Garofolo, Ice-T, Ron Jeremy, Bill Maher, Michael Medved, Alanis Morrisette, Kevin Smith and the late Hunter S. Thompson, all talking about the word. ThinkFilm will release the movie later this year, and TV partner Showtime will air the movie in 2007.
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LOOKING BACK AT '05: Despite Challenges, Documentaries Thrive

[EDITORS NOTE: This is the third in a series of 5 articles looking back at some of the notable people, trends and companies of 2005. Additional articles in this series will be published all next week.]

In a flooded marketplace faced with increasing competition from DVDs, pay-per-view television, and shiny new gaming consoles, the film industry was faced with some tough challenges in 2005. As the year wore on and summer finally arrived, the release of each blockbuster was cause for renewed hope that Hollywood would finally save face - but critics complained and grosses waned. The films just weren't connecting. One genre, however, seemed to have a banner year overall, both critically and at the box office, despite a few disappointments.

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Koch Lorber Acquires Boynton's "Our Brand Is Crisis"

Koch Lorber Films has announced a deal for U.S. and Canadian theatrical and DVD rights to Rachel Boynton's "Our Brand Is Crisis." The film, produced by Steve Shainberg, shared the International Documentary Association's top prize for best documentary this year, to be presented tonight (December 9th) in Los Angeles. The doc, with inside access over three years, follows James Carville and a group of U.S. political consultants to Bolivia where they advise a presidential candidate in his bid for re-election.

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"Capote" and "Murderball" Win Top Gotham Awards; "Squid" & "Sex Addict" Also Honored

Bennett Miller's "Capote" and Henry-Alex Rubin and Dana Adam Shapiro's "Murderball" were among the big winners Wednesday night at the annual Gotham Awards, nabbing the Best Feature and Best Documentary awards respectively at a ceremony hosted this year by actress Kyra Sedgwick and presented by the Independent Feature Project (IFP). In addition to best feature, Miller also received the Gotham for "Breakthrough Director" for the Toronto '05 feature, starring Philip Seymour Hoffman, while the Gotham award for "Best Film Not Playing at a Theater Near You" went to Caveh Zahedi's "I Am a Sex Addict."

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15 Films Selected for Oscar Short List in Doc Feature Category

Fifteen documentary films have been selected for the "short list" of titles competing for one of five nominations for the 78th Academy Awards. Eighty-two eligible films were submitted for consideration for the Best Documentary Feature category this year, according to the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.

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THINKFilm Takes "The Boys of Baraka" to Theaters

THINKFilm has acquired theatrical rights to Heidi Ewing and Rachel Grady's doc "The Boys of Baraka." They will roll it out with an initial two-week run at New York's Film Forum beginning November 30. The doc focuses on a group of boys from the tough streets of inner city Baltimore who leave home to attend an experimental boarding school in rural Kenya. After enrolling in the program at the Baraka school, the kids, who come from a school with a drop out rate for African-Americans as high as 70%, begin a new path.

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THINKFilm Gets "Awesome" Beastie Boys Doc

A new Beastie Boys performance doc, shot by their fans and directed by the band's Adam Yauch, a.k.a. M.C.A. (using the pseudonym Nathaniel Hornblower), has been nabbed by THINKFilm. The movie, dubbed "Awesome; I Fuckin' Shot That," features footage filmed by 50 fans at a Madison Square Garden concert. THINKFilm has acquired all worldwide rights to the movie. They are eyeing a Spring '06 release, after what they said will be "significant festival presentations early next year."

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