Transmedia is the word of the day! A lot of energy has been going to the newest generation of multi-platform, interactive, crowd-sourced nonfiction work. The brains behind these experiments are most often creative partnerships between producers and technologists, many hatched at the hackathons happening around the globe. Hot Docs just hosted a marvelous sampling of this work at their Hot Hacks event. Thanks to the brilliant leadership of Ingrid Kopp, Tribeca Film Institute (TFI) organized an entire day, open to the public, sampling and discussing this work at TFI Interactive: The Future of Storytelling in the Digital Age. The BAVC Producers Institute for New Media Technologies has been leading in this space since their beginnings in 2007 ( applications for their next institute open up this June). And in our own backyard in Boston, FRONTLINE teamed up with PRX to create a hack day supporting their films.
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The fantastic folks at Creative Capital have created yet another way to support the artists in their universe. For those who are unawares, Creative Capital is a national nonprofit organization that provides integrated financial and advisory support to artists of all disciplines. They are not just interested in funding a project to see it succeed; they are interested in nurturing artists to create sustainable practices so that the artists succeed. They are amazing and if you don’t know about them, please check them out. However, like most grantmaking and artist support orgs, they are limited in the number of projects they can take on each year. Which of course does not diminish the number of exciting and worthy projects that they review. For these projects that are dear to them, but do not capture that final funding gold ring, they have created On Our Radar. On Our Radar is a searchable database featuring nearly 400 projects that advanced to the second or third round in the highly competitive Film/Video and Visual Arts grant round last year. Although these projects were not ultimately funded, they felt the need to create a space to showcase this incredible work.
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At the end of last month I went to a Copyright and Fair Use Workshop with Attorney Karen Shatzkin, sponsored by Emerson College’s department of Visual and Media Arts. Karen focused on the basic ideas of copyright and Fair Use as they apply to documentary filmmakers, and I took notes. Filmmakers – don’t quake under the threat of legal action, read up on your rights!
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Earlier this year, we decided a party was in order as part of celebrating the 10th Anniversary of the LEF Moving Image Fund. Due to capacity issues, we were limited to inviting those filmmakers we had funded and colleagues we work closely with. But the spirit of the event was to celebrate the filmmaking community as a whole—not just those in the room-- and to affirm that none of us does this work alone.
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I had the privilege last week to be among a small group gathered for the New Arts of Documentary summit, a project of the Open Doc Lab at MIT.
The summit brought together a group of mediamakers, technologists,
scholars, curators and funders who are all experimenting with, thinking
about, and forging new ground in the practice of nonfiction
storytelling. Throughout the day, we shared rich discussion and saw some
amazing projects playing with the boundaries of what documentary is
and, significantly, what it can be. We also wrestled with the obstacles
and ethical issues at play in the field, leaving with more questions
than answers and a promise of more conversation to come.
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The LEF staff has been out and about! Following up Sara’s post about True/False, I’m reporting back on my time at the Big Sky Film Festival in Missoula, Montana where the Big Sky team headed by Mike Steinberg put together some really wonderful programming. Highlights for me included the Jury Prize winner Chasing Ice, about photographer James Balog and his beautiful/devastating glacier photography (audience members were audibly gasping) and getting to see one of my favorites, DA Pennebaker’s Don’t Look Back, on a big screen. I was also really impressed with how well the shorts blocks pulled films together under thematic headers that provided a context for the movies to interact.
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After an amazing weekend in Columbia, Missouri at the True/False Film Fest, I was prepared to write a full-on public Love Letter (capitals intended) to the festival praising its spirit, its vision and its whimsy.
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Last week LEF took part in a workshop for media grant seekers at New England Foundation for the Arts in downtown Boston. Dan Blask from the Massachusetts Cultural Council, MassHumanities’ Hayley Wood and LEF’s Sara Archambault were there to talk about what funding is available for film- and video-makers, demystify the grant application process and field questions from potential grant recipients .
Here are my notes from the workshop (thanks to NEFA for hosting us!)
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INVITATION AND CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS
YOU ARE INVITED TO A CONVERSATION WITH YOUR COLLEAGUES IN CREATIVE DOCUMENTARY.
WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 11, 11.00am - 12.30pm
Cinema Eye invites directors and producers with at least one feature doc credit to participate in this open conversation about key issues impacting our community.
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The Balagan Film Series had its final screening of the season earlier this week with "Our Departed," a program comprised of work from filmmakers who passed away in 2011. As co-curator Jeff Silva noted, it's been a rough year for the film community in terms of losses, and he likened the Balagan program to another take on the "in memorium" section of the Oscars - a flipside to the usual Hollywood tribute since it featured work from very independent filmmakers like George Kuchar, Robert Breer, Owen Land, Karen Aqua (whose film Twist of Fate was screened on a great 35mm print), Ricky Leacock, Raúl Ruiz and Omar Amiralay.
Some of the films I'd heard of and was eager to see - like Leacock's Chiefs, about a police chief convention in Hawaii right after the 1968 riots at the Chicago Democratic Convention - and others, like Owen Land's 3-minute No Sir Orison, were pleasant surprises. ...
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