Wishing you all a safe and reflective Martin Luther King Jr. Day. To help celebrate, Showtime has decided to share Stanley Nelson and Traci A. Curry's Attica for free via YouTube and Sho.com. In other news, a new national collective called Color Congress has launched ahead of Sundance as a means to support POC-led organizations and doc organizations, the 2022 Bafta longlists were revealed, Slamdance launched a new streaming platform, and much more.
– Jordan M. Smith
HEADLINES
Color Congress Launches POC-Led and Supporting Documentary Organizations Scott Macaulay reports at Filmmaker Magazine: “Color Congress, a national collective of majority people of color (POC) and POC-led organizations aimed at centering and strengthening nonfiction storytelling by, for and about people of color in the US, has launched in advance of the 2022 Sundance Film Festival. Founded by documentary impact and field-building strategists Sahar Driver and Sonya Childress, the collective will invite POC-led doc-serving organizations to apply for unrestricted two-year funding from a $1.35 million fund, and later in the year, they’ll be invited to join the Congress and direct over $1 million in grants aimed at addressing field challenges. Of the selection criteria for the two-year unrestricted grants, the website informs, ‘We aim to support those organizations with the smallest budgets that have not benefited from national funding, but which offer critical support to the documentary field and to their communities (based on geographic location, racial and ethnic identities, roles and functions in the field, etc.).’”
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Is This the Year a Documentary Finally Gets Nominated for Best Picture? David Canfield writes in Vanity Fair: “We’re living in an era of Oscar firsts. In just the last two years, Parasite became the first non-English-language film to win best picture, and Chloé Zhao the first woman of color to win best director. But one particular milestone has remained stubbornly out of reach. In the 80 years that the Academy has recognized documentaries, not once—once!—has the form received a best-picture nomination. Separate categories have long existed for international and animated movies, too, and both have repeatedly crossed over. Docs are still waiting for their turn…In 2004, Michael Moore made a big push for his Cannes-winning Fahrenheit 9/11, backed by an estimated $200 million–plus box office haul; he didn’t even submit for the doc category, partly in the hope that voters would recognize it for the big award instead. (They did not.) Ezra Edelman’s O.J.: Made in America, widely considered among the very best projects of 2016, withstood debates over whether it was film or TV for an Academy run but inevitably had to settle for the documentary prize. There are other examples, and all met the same ending.”
Documentaries in Bafta 2022 Longlists Nick Cunningham reports at Business Doc Europe: “Fifteen films have been selected for the Bafta 2022 Documentary longlist. These include five films that feature in the 15-film Documentary Feature ‘shortlist’ of the Academy Awards: Billie Eilish – The World’s A Little Blurry, Flee, The Rescue, Summer of Soul and The Velvet Underground. Elsewhere, Flee is additionally listed both in the Animated Film and Film Not in English Language categories while Summer of Soul appears in the Best Editing longlist. The Swedish The Most Beautiful Boy In The World is also listed in non-English Language category while the Outstanding Debut By A British Writer, Director Or Producer category welcomes Dying To Divorce and Keyboard Fantasies. The second round of voting opens on January 14, and closes January 27, with nominations to be announced February 3. The third round of voting is scheduled to take place February 9 to March 8. The Bafta ceremony will take place on March 13.”
IF/Then Shorts and Emergence Magazine Announce Yearlong Shorts Lab Announced via press release: “Emergence Magazine and IF/Then Shorts, an initiative of Field of Vision, launch today the inaugural SHIFTING LANDSCAPES - Emergence Magazine x IF/Then Shorts Lab. Marking the first partnership between IF/Then Shorts and Emergence Magazine, this lab celebrates storytellers and stories that explore these widespread shifts in movement from both human and nonhuman perspectives, and on both human and nonhuman timescales. Selected short documentary films will receive $25,000 in grant support, individual project mentorship, and career advancing public activations to assist in the completion and distribution of high profile projects, as well as a secondary distribution window with Emergence Magazine.”
Long Story Short: Join Kickstarter’s Celebration of Short Films this March Announced via press release: “Join our annual celebration of short films and the people who make them. Back a short film and bring it to life. Or launch a project of your own. More than 7,000 bold and brilliant short films have been funded on Kickstarter, including three Academy Award winners. These films illuminate and entertain with their beauty and depth. They tell unknown stories and amplify lesser heard voices. Long Story Short is an opportunity to give love, encouragement, and support to short filmmakers—and bring even more of their incredible and inspiring work into the world.”
ON THE FESTIVAL CIRCUIT
Slamdance Launches Streaming Platform 'Slamdance Channel' Announced via press release: “Slamdance, an artist-led, disruptive co-operative run 'by filmmakers, for filmmakers,' today announced the launch of its new streaming platform for independent films, The Slamdance Channel. Audiences worldwide will now have 24/7 access to the future of filmmaking. Subscriptions to Slamdance Channel are available today at slamdancechannel.com. The Slamdance Channel expands the organization’s mission of providing creators with maximum opportunities to ignite the curiosity of audiences. The streaming platform will be a curated selection of content that allows artists to gain more visibility and recognition for their work, as well as monetary compensation for their creative endeavors. Slamdance will actively support filmmakers on the platform by sharing any profits fairly among its contributing artist community.”
Sundance’s Second Virtual Festival Puts Art Films in an Online Bind Anthony Kaufman reports in Filmmaker Magazine: “‘Heartbreaking,’ ‘disappointed,’ ‘crushing’—those are just some of the ways that filmmakers described the news that the 2022 Sundance Film Festival was going entirely virtual for a second year in a row. While lots of producers, directors, and sales agents were counting on in-person presentations to elevate their premieres in the buzzy environment of Park City, the shift to online-only was particularly stinging for filmmakers and sellers with artier, cinematic, or more challenging films that may get lost amid the Netflixification of the festival. ‘It’s a bummer,’ admits Sam Green, director of opening night film 32 Sounds, which is described as a 'live cinema' documentary that had been set to premiere simultaneously at Park City’s Egyptian Theatre and online. ‘The best way for people to see the film, and to sell it, is through a packed screening at the Egyptian,’ says Green, who notes the film has equity investors looking to recoup and ICM representing the project for sales. ‘It’s hard to replace that with, ‘Hey, I’m going to send you a link.’ For Green, who enjoys relating to a live audience as he did with his Kronos Quartet documentary A Thousand Thoughts, which toured performance spaces, he is now trying to remain hopeful that the new work, a collection of 32 audio experiences, will resonate with new media companies moving into spatial sound experiences such as Apple and Amazon.”
Announcing the 19th Annual Big Sky Documentary Film Festival Lineup Announced via press release: “The nonprofit Big Sky Film Institute announced today the full lineup of official selections for the 19th annual Big Sky Documentary Film Festival (BSDFF). A hybrid exhibition in 2022, the festival will screen films in-person February 18-27 in theaters across downtown Missoula, Montana in addition to online screenings February 21 through March 3 in Big Sky’s virtual cinema. The film lineup includes 50 features and 95 short documentary films including 50 World Premieres and 21 North American Premieres. Over 90% of the annual Big Sky program is selected from the festival's open call, which drew over 2,000 submissions from 84 nations in 2022. Reflecting a remarkable moment in human history, the films embrace stories of survival, personal strength, volatile environments, relationships with nature, lessons in resilience, Indigenous voices and the existential power of art.”
Cinéma du réel Previews Programme for 44th Festival Edition Modern Times Review reports: “Following the two online editions, the 44th Cinéma du réel aims to return to theatres with guests, events, and discussions with the public offering an enhanced version of the festival. Now, Cinéma du réel has unveiled some of its early information for 2022 (11 – 20 March). The Official Competition will feature 20+ International selections and French selections, respectively. The Opening Film of this year’s festival will be by Régis Sauder’s En Nous, a continuation a decade on from Nous, Princesses de Clèves. Additionally, the First Window programme features a selection of filmmakers’ documentary debuts, in partnership with Media- part. Six students are invited to take part in the selection process. Further special sessions include a Public Space session each day dedicated to exploring the public space. How do we experience the public space? How can we discover it, think about it, dream it, reclaim it, and recreate it?”
MISCELLANEOUS
Showtime Offers Attica for Free Ahead of MLK Jr. Day Announced via press release: “Leading into Martin Luther King Jr. Day, Showtime is releasing its Oscar-shortlisted documentary feature Attica for free, beginning today. Available for viewing through the end of Black History Month, Attica is on Sho.com and YouTube, as well as across multiple Showtime streaming and on demand platforms. Showtime delves deep inside the bloodiest prison rebellion in U.S. history with Attica, a feature-length documentary from Emmy-winning filmmaker Stanley Nelson (Freedom Riders, The Murder of Emmett Till) and co-director Traci A. Curry. Named one of the National Board of Review’s Top 5 Documentaries of 2021, the film recounts in vivid detail the five-day 1971 prison rebellion at the Attica Correctional Facility in upstate New York, which took the lives of 29 inmates and 10 hostages – the deadliest single day of violence Americans inflicted on each other since the Civil War.”
Doc Lab Fellow Jessica Kingdon Talks About Her Film Career Matt Warren reports at Film Independent: "It goes without saying that the China of 2019 is very different than the China of today, in early 2022. Two full years of the COVID-19 pandemic made sure of that. But the even greater transformation is the one that has been steadily occurring in the Asian megastate for the past 30 years, as the nation has continued to wrap its arms around late-stage capitalism as both juggernaut producer-exporter and consumer; and with this alteration of character, an alteration of daily life. The paradox of modern China is at the heart of 2020 Film Independent Documentary Lab Fellow Jessica Kingdon’s Ascension, released last year and currently nominated for a Film Independent Spirit Award. An experimental collection of vignettes gathered from moments across the industrial landscape, the film is an arresting snapshot of the lifecycle of consumption.”
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The articles linked to in Monday Memo do not necessarily reflect the opinions of DOC NYC.
They are provided as a round up of current discussions in the documentary field.
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