indieWIRE INTERVIEW | "Hollywood Chinese" Director Arthur Dong

Documentary director Arthur Dong has been working since the early 1980s, when one of his first shorts, "Sewing Woman," was nominated for an Academy Award. Since then, he has directed a series of docs on political and social issues, including 1994's Peabody Award winning "Coming Out Under Fire" and 1997's Sundance favorite "Licensed To Kill," which took a chilling look at the lives of people convicted of violent hate crimes against gay men (Dong himself was a victim of gay bashing in 1977). His latest work, "Hollywood Chinese," goes in a different but certainly not less imperative direction, examining the placement of Asian-Americans in Hollywood cinema. Premiering at last year's Toronto International Film Festival, the doc shines a light on decades of underwhelming representations. The film opens Friday, May 2 at New York's Quad Cinemas.
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indieWIRE INTERVIEW | "Standard Operating Procedure" Director Errol Morris

Boston-based Errol Morris is that rarity among filmmakers: an intense documentarian (he has worked as a private investigator) and a great aestheticist. Harper's called him "the most obsessive and relentless forensic documentary filmmaker of our time." He probes thoroughly, interviewing his exceptionally candid subjects through a device he invented known as the Interrotron, a two-camera set-up allowing the interviewee to see Morris but also inviting the viewer into an eyeline rapport with the witness. "Standard Operating Procedure" is in the tradition of Morris's "The Thin Blue Line" (1988), in which he spoke to many people in pursuit of the truth about a murder case, rather than, say, "The Fog of War" (2003), in which he deconstructed top decisionmaker Robert McNamara's role in the Vietnam War.
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indieWIRE INTERVIEW | "Glass: A Portrait of Philip in Twelve Parts" Director Scott Hicks

Director Scott Hicks' documentary "Glass: A Portrait of Philip in Twelve Parts" traces an eventful year in contemporary composer Philip Glass's life as he stages the opera "Waiting for the Barbarians," writes his eighth symphony, scores several films, travels the world and maintains a family with his fourth wife, Holly. Given unprecedented access to Glass' working process, family life, spiritual teachers and long time collaborators, Hicks gives us a unique glimpse behind the curtain into the life of a surprising and complex man. Koch Lorber Films opens the film Friday, April 18 at New York's IFC Center with subsequent release dates to be announced.
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indieWIRE INTERVIEW | "Body of War" Co-Director Ellen Spiro

Director Ellen Spiro, whose slew of documentaries have played in film festivals and won awards across the world, most recently teamed up with ex-talk show host Phil Donahue for "Body of War." "War" chronicles the story of Tomas Young, a young U.S. soldier who returns from Iraq paralyzed from a bullet in his spine. After premiering at the Toronto International Film Festival last September, the film won the National Board of Review's best documentary award and the audience award at the Hamptons International Film Festival, and begins a limited release in New York this weekend.
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Pondering Polanski in New Doc (Not Coming to a Theater Near You)

Reportedly set for an HBO cable TV premiere in June, Marina Zenovich's "Roman Polanski: Wanted and Desired" quietly opened in two movie theaters over the weekend. To qualify for Oscar consideration -- as originally reported by Defamer.com -- the documentary is currently on screen for afternoon showings at theaters in Pasadena, CA and in Manhattan's Washington Heights neighborhood. indieWIRE first covered the film shortly after its Sundance Film Festival debut.
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indieWIRE INTERVIEW | "Planet B-Boy" Director Benson Lee

Director Benson Lee's doc "Planet B-Boy" is set in the international world of B-boying, the urban dance known as "breakdancing." With backdrops in Osaka, Japan, Paris, France, Seoul, Korea and Las Vegas, NV, the film follows the stories of dancers who stlarger society and even their own families. An American dancer in Vegas looks for his big break; a Korean son seeks his father's approval; a twelve-year-old boy in France confronts his family's racism and all the b-boys' lives collide in Germany where their skills are put to the ultimate test: the "Battle of the Year" finals, with crews from 18 nations vying for the title of World Champion. Lee directed "Miss Monday," which won the emerging filmmaker award at the St. Louis International Film Festival as well as an special mention for acting at the Sundance Film Festival. Elephant Eye opens the film at the Landmark Sunshine in New York and the Nuart in L.A. Friday, March 21 followed by other cities.
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indieWIRE INTERVIEW | "Wetlands Preserved" Director Dean Budnick

Director Dean Budnick's feature directorial debut, "Wetlands Preserved," is a documentary that details "activist nightclub" The Wetlands Preserve. In 1989, Larry Bloch and his collective opened a nightclub just south of the Holland Tunnel in the then-underdeveloped Tribeca neighborhood of Manhattan. The club had been the first venue for New York performances of bands like Pearl Jam and Rage Against The Machine, and fused music with environmental activism in an entirely unique manner. Budnick's doc portrays a critical moment in recent music history, and is a tribute to a club that closed prematurely on September 10, 2001. Budnick, who is also the senior editor of Relix Magazine, talked to indieWIRE about the film.
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SXSW '08 INTERVIEW | "We Are Wizards" Director Josh Koury

EDITORS NOTE: This is part of a series of interviews, conducted via email, profiling directors who have films screening at the 2008 South By Southwest Film Festival. Screening in the Documentary Feature Competition, Josh Koury's "We Are Wizards" is having its world premiere at the South By Southwest Film Festival. The doc is a portrait of the unusual and passionate culture of Harry Potter fans. As the SXSW catalog describes the film, "The 'Harry Potter' mythos allows the nerdy, the average, the young, the downtrodden, and the bored a chance to borrow a little inspiration and step out of their respective worlds to be a part of something 'big.'"
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SXSW '08 INTERVIEW | "Full Battle Rattle" Directors Jesse Moss & Tony Gerber

EDITORS NOTE: This is part of a series of interviews, conducted via email, profiling directors who have films screening at the 2008 South By Southwest Film Festival. Screening in the Feature Documentary Competition, Jesse Moss and Tony Gerber's "Full Battle Rattle" will be having its North American premiere at the South By Southwest Film Festival after premiering in Berlin last month. The follows lives inside the US Army's Iraq Simulation in California's Mojave Desert. The film takes on one Army Battalion's efforts to pacify the town of Medina Wasl, one of thirteen villages in the simulation, as it lies on the brink of civil war. indieWIRE talked to Moss and Gerber about the film and their goals for SXSW.
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indieWIRE INTERVIEW | "Fighting for Life" Director Terry Sanders

Two-time Academy Award winning director-writer-producer Terry Sanders has accumulated a long and eclectic resume in his six decades in the film industry. From directing 1966's "The Legend of Marilyn Monroe" to producing 1994's "Maya Lin: A Clear Strong Vision," Sanders has brought much to the history of American documentary filmmaking. His latest film, which he co-wrote, directed and produced, is "Fighting For Life," which follows American military doctors, nurses and medics on the front lines of the Iraq War. Sanders talked to indieWIRE about the film, which is opening in New York this Friday, March 7, before expanding across the United States throughout the rest of the month.
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indieWIRE INTERVIEW | "Chicago 10" Director Brett Morgen

Brett Morgen's "Chicago 10" revisits the tragic events outside the 1968 Democratic National Convention, when Yippie protestors were brutally beaten by police officers during a protest riot. Morgen, who co-directed "The Kid Stays in the Picture," takes an unconventional route in re-counting this tragic piece of American history in the '60s, telling the story of the subsequent trial as a cartoon (with voiceover work by Hank Azaria, Nick Nolte, Mark Ruffalo and others), and blending it with footage of the riots. In the interview, Morgen shares his experince with showing the film to both the young and mature alike, and why he' sick of why people ask him about Chicago 10 vs. 7. The movie opened the Sundance Film Festival in 2007 and hits theaters this weekend via Roadside Attractions.
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indieWIRE INTERVIEW | "Trouble the Water" Co-directors Tia Lessin and Carl Deal

EDITORS NOTE: This is part of a series of interviews, conducted via email, profiling first-time feature directors who have films screening at the 2008 Sundance Film Festival. Directors Tia Lessin and Carl Deal's Sundance doc competition film "Trouble the Water" humanizes a voiceless population silenced after the devastation of Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans. In the film, the filmmakers (who worked with Michael Moore on "Bowling for Columbine" and "Fahrenheit 9/11") team up with native New Orleans filmmaker and musician Kimberly Rivers and her husband to create an account of the effects of Katrina has had on the city's population. "'Trouble the Water' makes unapologetically clear that Hurricane Katrina rages on as an unnatural disaster of governmental and journalistic failure," writes Sundance's Shari Frilot of the film in the '08 Sundance catalog. "What is also truly amazing is that the levee protecting Kimberly's humanity against this devastating storm remains firmly grounded in her deep-rooted love for New Orleans, her family, and her art, and her enduring faith in her fellow human beings."
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PARK CITY '08 INTERVIEW | "Secrecy" Co-Director Peter Galison

EDITORS NOTE: This is part of a series of interviews, conducted via email, profiling first-time feature directors who have films screening at the 2008 Sundance Film Festival. Competiting in the Documentary program at Sundance '08, Peter Galison and Robb Moss' "Secrecy" takes on the world of hidden national security policy and analyses the implications of this secrecy, both for government and individuals. It combines animation, installations, music and interviews to, as Sundance's Cara Mertes explains, "take us inside the inverted world of government secrecy as we share the experiences of lawyers, CIA analysts, and the ordinary people for whom secrecy becomes a matter of life and death."
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PARK CITY '08 INTERVIEW | "Traces of the Trade" Director Katrina Browne

EDITORS NOTE: This is part of a series of interviews, conducted via email, profiling first-time feature directors who have films screening at the 2008 Sundance Film Festival. Competiting in the Documentary program at Sundance '08, Katrina Browne's "Traces of the Trade: A Story From The Deep North" is an exploration of the first-time filmmaker's family history. Browne's ancestors, the deWolfs, were the largest slave-trading family in United States history. From 1769 to 1820, three generations of De Wolfs brought over more than 10,000 Africans. Browne wrote to more than 200 family descendents, inviting them to join her in on a journey to trace the family's legacy in a trip from Ghana to Cuba. Nine accepted the invitation. Sundance's Geoffrey Gilmore says of "Trace": "In this bicentennial year of the abolition of the slave trade, "Traces of the Trade" makes a potent statement about privilege and responsibility."
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PARK CITY '08 INTERVIEW | "The Linguists" Directors Seth Kramer, Daniel A. Miller and Jeremy Newberger

EDITORS NOTE: This is part of a series of interviews, conducted via email, profiling first-time feature directors who have films screening at the 2008 Sundance Film Festival. Featured in the Spectrum section at Sundance '08, "The Linguists" marks the feature debut of producing-directing team Ironbound Films, made up of Seth Kramer, Daniel A. Miller and Jeremy Newberger. Their film follows two academic, David Harrison and Greg Anderson, as they travel to places around the world in search of "endangered languages." Speaking 25 languages between them, the two men seek to discover the many disappearing languages threatended by "colonialism and economic unrest." As Sundance's Lisa Viola notes, "these humble ethnographers are in a race against time to preserve the increasingly rare words, which are intricately linked to the vanishing traditions and heritage of Indigenous populations. Well-paced and laced with humor, 'The Linguists' serves as an insightful, contemporary adventure film with a strong emphasis on cultural history."
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PARK CITY '08 INTERVIEW | "Up The Yangtze" Director Yung Chang

EDITORS NOTE: This is part of a series of interviews, conducted via email, profiling first-time feature directors who have films screening at the 2008 Sundance Film Festival. Premiering at Sundance '08 in the Documentary Competition program, Yung Chang's "Up The Yangtze" examines the effects of the construction of the massive Three Gorges Dam on the Yangtze River. The dam is to become the largest hydroelectric power station in the world, but with this comes the displacement of millions of residents and the destruction of landmarks. Yang follows two young people effected by the project, and the result provides "a final snapshot of a rapidly disappearing cultural landscape," says Sundance's Rosie Wong. Wong notes that "juxtaposing the Yangtze's stunning panorama with the reality of Yu Shui's poignant story, Chang shows the tenuous balance between China's rich cultural past and its modernized future."
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PARK CITY '08 INTERVIEW | "Anvil! The True Story of Anvil" Director Sacha Gervasi

EDITORS NOTE: This is the first in a series of interviews, conducted via email, profiling first-time feature directors who have films screening at the 2008 Sundance Film Festival. At 14, Toronto school friends Steve "Lips" Kudlow and Robb Reiner made a pact to rock together forever. Their band, Anvil, went on to become the "demigods of Canadian metal," releasing one of the heaviest albums in metal history, 1982's Metal on Metal. The album influenced a musical generation, including Metallica, Slayer, and Anthrax, and went on to sell millions of records. But Anvil's career took a different path--straight to obscurity. Director Sacha Gervasi, according to the Sundance Film Festival's John Cooper, has "concocted a wonderful and often hilarious account of Anvil's last-ditch quest for elusive fame and fortune. His ingenious filmmaking may first lead you to think this a mockumentary, but it isn't...'Anvil! The True Story of Anvil' is a timeless tale of survival and the unadulterated passion it takes to follow your dream, year after year." The film will screen in Sundance's Spectrum section.
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Remembering St. Clair Bourne: 1943 - 2007

Acclaimed filmmaker St. Clair Bourne passed away yesterday (Saturday) at the age of 64. The documentarian, who died from complications following surgery, had been working on a film about civil rights photographer Ernest Withers, according to an obituary by Richard Prince (fourth item), in addition to a film about the Black Panthers. Bourne's many films included "Making 'Do the Right Thing'," "Paul Robeson: Here I Stand!," Let the Church Say Amen," "In Motion: Amiri Baraka," "The Black and the Green," "Langston Hughes: The Dream Keeper," "New Orleans Brass," and "John Henrik Clarke: A Great and Mighty Walk," among numerous others. A biography on his own website indicates that St. Clair Bourne was born in Harlem on February 16, 1943. After a time in the Peace Corps, Bourne studied filmmaking at Columbia University, but was subsequently expelled for demonstrating on campus. Shortly thereafter, he produced public television's first Black public affairs program, "Black Journal," later forming the film collective, Chamba. He served as a guest lecturer at the UCLA film department in the mid-70s, created documentaries for L.A.'s KCET and was on the selection committee of the Los Angeles film festival, FILMEX.
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indieWIRE INTERVIEW | "A Walk Into The Sea" Director Esther Robinson

Winner of the 2007 Teddy Award for best documentary at the Berlin International Film Festival, Esther Robinson's "A Walk into the Sea: Danny Williams and The Warhol Factory" is a personal journey into the story behind Esther's uncle Danny Williams 1966 disappearence. At the time, Danny was Andy Warhol's lover and a promising filmmaker, and "Walk into the Sea" explores the discovery of 20 never-before-seen films that Danny made during his time working at the Factory (which included subjects like Warhol, Edie Sedgwick and Paul Morrissey) and combines them with interviews with surviving Factory members. The result is a "dismantling of the Warhol myth-making machine, allowing a deeper examination of the human fragility on which Andy Warhol's empire was built." The film indieWIRE talked to first-time director Esther Robinson about the film, which opens December 14 in limited release.
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indieWIRE INTERVIEW | "Nanking" Producer Ted Leonsis

Producer Ted Leonsis' "Nanking" (directed by Bill Guttentag and Dan Sturman) tells the story of the Japanese invasion of Nanking, China, in the early days of World War II. As part of a campaign to conquer all of China, the Japanese subjected Nanking, which was then China's capital, to months of aerial bombardment, and when the city fell, the Japanese army unleashed murder and rape on a horrifying scale. In the midst of the rampage, a small group of Westerners banded together to establish a Safety Zone where over 200,000 Chinese found refuge. Unarmed, these missionaries, university professors, doctors and businessmen, including a Nazi named John Rabe, bore witness to the events, while risking their own lives to protect civilians from slaughter. Leonsis is Chairman of Revolution Money as well as Vice Chairman Emeritus at AOL. In this interview he reveals what drove him to undertake the project as well as learning the filmmaking process by doing... ThinkFilm opens the film in limited release Wednesday December 12.
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