There is a lot to sift through today! Notable doc news from the past week includes Emmy-winning filmmaker Nick Quested becoming a key witness to the January 6th attack on the Capitol, a trio of new members being appointed to the IDA board, this year's Peabody award winners, controversy over the fictionalization of The Staircase and the announcement of Tabitha Jackson's departure from the Sundance Film Festival in her role as the festival director. It's Monday, so grab a coffee and read on!
– Jordan M. Smith
HEADLINES
How a Documentary Filmmaker Became the January 6 Panel’s Star Witness Hugo Lowell reports for The Guardian: “When the House select committee investigating the January 6 Capitol attack on Thursday got to the witness testimony at its inaugural hearing, it heard from an individual with first-hand knowledge about how the far-right Proud Boys group came to storm the Capitol. The panel’s star witness, Nick Quested, is an Emmy award-winning British documentary film-maker who founded the indie film company Goldcrest and embedded with the Proud Boys in the weeks after Donald Trump lost the 2020 election as part of a project about division in America. ‘We chose the Proud Boys because they’ve been so vociferous in rallies and protests around America, and they’ve emerged as a political voice and force, particularly in the summer of 2020,’ Quested told the Guardian. ‘We felt they were a group worth following.’ Quested spent much of the post-2020 election period following around the Proud Boys and is considered by the select committee as an accidental witness to the group’s activities and conversations about planning to storm the Capitol on January 6.”
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IDA Names Three New Board Members, Appoints Director Of Development Matthew Carey reports at Deadline: "The International Documentary Association has added three new board members and hired a director of development. Joining the board are Maria Agui-Carter, a filmmaker, founder of Iguana Films, and professor at Emerson College; Michael Turner, director and senior counsel-original documentary films at Netflix, and Ina Fichman, a documentary producer whose credits include Fire of Love and The Oslo Diaries. The trio will fill a void left by board members James Costa, Fonda Berosini, Lauren Lexton, and Caroline Libresco, who completed their terms. Fichman’s appointment is especially noteworthy because her production company, Intuitive Pictures, is based in Montreal and she serves on the board of the Hot Docs festival in Toronto and chairs the national board of the Documentary Association of Canada.”
Raoul Peck’s Exterminate All the Brutes Wins Peabody, as Does Mayor Justin Anderson reports at Realscreen: “Raoul Peck’s documentary series Exterminate All the Brutes has been honored with a Peabody Award in the documentary category. The award was presented by filmmaker Stanley Nelson. The series, which utilizes animation as well as scripted sequences alongside documentary footage and archival material, explores the brutality of European colonialism from America to Africa, as well as its impact on contemporary society. Earlier this week, the docs High on the Hog: How African American Cuisine Transformed America, Mr. SOUL!, In the Same Breath, My Name is Pauli Murray, A Thousand Cuts and Philly D.A. were also presented with Peabody Awards.”
How The Staircase Is Stirring Up Debate About the Ethics of Fictionalizing Docs Addie Morfoot reports at Variety: "Disputes over Antonio Campos’ HBO Max adaptation of The Staircase have some in the documentary community questioning whether they would readily allow a narrative director to turn their facts into fiction…Shortly after the May 5 premiere of the HBO Max miniseries, in a Vanity Fair story, de Lestrade and Brunet both went public with their unhappiness with the miniseries, which depicts each acting in ethically questionable ways. Michael Peterson has since expressed his own unhappiness about the role de Lestrade had as a co-executive producer in the miniseries, telling Variety that the filmmaker 'pimped out' his family for financial gain. Campos did not respond to a request for comment for this story, and HBO Max declined to comment. In a series of emails sent to Variety, published this week, Peterson took issue with the way HBO Max’s The Staircase depicted him and his family, accusing the series of 'egregious fabrications and distortions of the truth.' While de Lestrade maintains that he was paid just €7,500 ($9370) for the materials he sold to Campos, Peterson asserts that the director should have been wary of the deal and concerned for the Peterson family.”
Doc Society Partners with London Screenings, Doc Strand in Breakthrough Section Nick Cunningham reports at Business Doc Europe: “Film London announced a new London Screenings partnership with Doc Society, with Head of Film Shanida Scotland to showcase a special presentation of Doc Society titles. In addition, Mia Bays, Director of the BFI Film Fund, will present BFI’s Work in Progress showcase. For the first time, there will also be a specific doc strand in the Breakthrough section featuring La Sagrada Familia, My Everest, The Oil Machine and One Bullet. Mia Bays, Director, BFI Film Fund, commented: ‘As well as presenting the upcoming slate of fiction features supported through the BFI Film Fund at London Screenings, I’m delighted Doc Society will also be presenting their slate of BFI National Lottery funded documentaries.’”
ON THE FESTIVAL CIRCUIT
Sundance Film Festival Director Tabitha Jackson Is Leaving the Organization Eric Kohn reports at IndieWire: “Tabitha Jackson is departing from the Sundance Film Festival in her role as director, the festival announced today. CEO Joana Vicente is leading a search for a new festival director, while director of programming Kim Yutani has joined the senior leadership team of the Sundance Institute. The news comes just over two years after Jackson replaced longtime festival director John Cooper, who worked in that capacity for over a decade. Jackson was the first woman, the first person of color, and the first person from outside the United States to hold the position at the festival. She is a Sundance veteran who headed up the festival’s Documentary Film Program and advocated for adventurous forms of non-fiction storytelling. She will depart the festival following the latest edition of Sundance Film Festival: London 2022, which takes place June 9- 12. No specific reason was provided for Jackson’s abrupt departure, though rumors of internal discord have circulated in recent months, including tensions between the Institute and the festival programming team.”
IDFA, Sundance, True/False to Join Second 2022 dok.incubator Workshop Session Reported by Modern Times Review: “Representatives of top international festivals will meet at the second dok.incubator workshop session in Olomouc, Czech Republic from June 19 to 26. The event brings together over 100 documentary industry professionals from over 25 countries to watch promising international documentaries in progress, with top programmers seeking the best fit for their competitions. Included across the programmer roster are Basil Tsiokos from Sundance, Madeline Robert from Visions du Réel, Laura van Halsema from IDFA, and Amir George from True/False. Together with sales agents from Deckert Distribution, Cinephil, Lightdox, broadcasters from ARTE and HBO and others, they will share their knowledge of the current state of the documentary industry and the effects of the pandemic on film distribution. The group of industry figures will also attend meetings with the filmmakers from the eight international, four Czech, and four Slovak projects taking part in the 2022 edition of dok.incubator and also 7 film teams participating in the open programme.”
Adventures in Festival Babysitting: The Need for Day Care at Film Festivals Tiffany Pritchard writes in Filmmaker Magazine: “Being a parent and working in the film industry is tough. Being a parent at a film festival, with your child in tow, is another matter. Thanks to a fully supported day care facility in Cannes called The Red Balloon, or Le Ballon Rouge, after Albert Lamorisse’s popular children’s film, I just about conducted 'business as usual' on the Croisette. I’m still reeling from this opportunity, as are the other participating parents who continue to converse in a long ‘parents in Cannes’ WhatsApp group chat. Some variation of ‘I couldn’t have attended Cannes without this service’ is the most common takeaway. With child support such an essential need for many working professionals, I thought it was interesting that most of the industry guests I spoke with had no idea the service existed at Cannes, nor could many even imagine how it might exist at other festivals. It’s a fair point, given post-COVID funding issues, but even before the pandemic the lack of child care at entertainment industry events has been an ongoing issue. Indeed, when I’ve asked various festivals about child care, the respective industry heads have given me a look of exasperation. They would love to provide child care, but how? And where would the money come from?”
BlackStar Film Festival Unveils 2022 Lineup Andrew Jeffrey reports at Realscreen: “The Philadelphia-set BlackStar Film Festival unveiled the lineup for its 11th edition on Wednesday (June 8). The festival, which is a celebration of Black, Brown and Indigenous film, runs this year from August 3 to 7. The festival will include virtual programming for the festival’s global audience, as well as in-person screenings and events. In total, the 2022 BlackStar Film Festival will include 76 films from 27 countries. The festival boasts 16 world premieres this year, eight North American premieres and eight 8 U.S. premieres. Topping the festival’s documentary lineup is the feature Aftershock directed by Paula Eiselt and Tonya Lewis Lee, which follows two families galvanizing activists birth-workers and physicians about the U.S. maternal health crisis, after having lost loved ones to childbirth complications.”
FIDMarseille 2022 Unveils Lineup Ellie Calnan reports at Screen Daily: "Lav Diaz’s A Tale Of Filipino Violence will make its world premiere as part of the international competition line-up of the FIDMarseille international film festival taking place in France from July 5-11. Further world premieres in the selection include Sofia Bohdanowicz, Burak Çevik and Blake Williams’ A Woman Escapes and Spanish film Aftersun by Lluís Galter. Atlantics director Mati Diop is the president of this year’s international jury which includes João Pedro Rodrigues. FIDMarseille’s 33rd edition will screen 123 films, including 49 world premieres, of which 40% are by female filmmakers. The festival is screening a selection of free films by Catalan filmmaker Albert Serra, including his Cannes official selection title Pacification, as well as a curated exhibition by French director Mathieu Amalric.”
Tribeca Documentaries Tackle Urgent Subjects Addie Morfoot writes in Variety: “Timely topics including abortion, freedom of the press, the opioid crisis and the Boy Scouts of America bankruptcy case serve as the subject matters of four documentary features premiering at this year’s Tribeca Festival. In Battleground director Cynthia Lowen follows three women in charge of anti-abortion organizations, who are devoted to overturning Roe v. Wade. While the efforts of pro-choice women determined to safeguard access to safe and legal abortions are also featured in the doc, Lowen felt it necessary to focus on ‘anti-choice actors.’ ‘In 2019 I went down to Alabama and originally was filming with several pro-choice advocates in the state about the abortion ban,’ Lowen says. ‘But I quickly realized that to really understand what was happening at the local clinic and state level I needed to take a step back and get this bird’s eye view of the power structures that were in play that were enabling the anti-abortion movement to be so successful, even though they represent the minority of what Americans believe and want.’”
MISCELLANEOUS
HBO’s New Documentary Is About the Early 1970s, but It Couldn’t Be More Timely Dana Stevens writes for Slate: "Getting stuff done was the stock-in-trade of the Janes, 'Jane' being the umbrella name, and the public code word, for a grassroots network of Chicago-area activists who, in the last five years before the Roe v. Wade decision in 1973, ran a kind of underground railroad for women seeking illegal but safe abortions. Over the course of five years, between 1968 and 1973, the group was responsible for facilitating something like 11,000 abortions, yet they went under the radar of the legal system until 1972, when seven of the group’s members were arrested after a Chicago cop’s sister-in-law was caught seeking to terminate her pregnancy. Shortly afterward, the Roe v. Wade decision made the group’s existence happily superfluous. Now, nearly 50 years later, Americans’ reproductive choice is again in jeopardy, making The Janes not only a crucial part of the historical record but a searingly contemporary film about the power of mutual aid and collective action.”
Subject Examines Ethics in Documentary Filmmaking Addie Morfoot reports in Variety: “For anyone aiming to be a documentary filmmaker, Jennifer Tiexiera and Camilla Hall’s 90-minute doc Subject should be required viewing. Subject explores the ethical responsibilities nonfiction filmmakers face when they decide to capture people, often at their most vulnerable, thereby forever locking them in a moment in time that will live on through the ages no matter how much a person grows or changes. Tiexiera (P.S. Burn This Letter Please) and Hall (Copwatch) focus on some of the most successful documentaries of the past three decades and the “stars” they created and left in their wake. The directing duo explore the psychological impact of being unpaid key participants in commercially successful projects including The Staircase, Hoop Dreams, Wolfpack, The Square and Capturing the Friedmans. Below, Tiexiera and Hall discuss the making of the documentary before its June 11 premiere at Tribeca.”
13 Essential Music-Festival Documentaries Elle Carroll writes in Vulture: “Festival films are constantly reminding you that it’s never just about the music. (Gladys Knight says this verbatim in Summer of Soul.) Wattstax splits its screen time between the actual performances and interviews with Black Angelenos on life in America. Under the Electric Sky declares Electric Daisy Carnival the domain of kids who sat alone at lunch, finally free to be who they are. Even Made in America, which is more of an elongated commercial for Jay-Z than a festival film, attempts shallow meditations on the American Dream in the aftermath of the financial crisis. That said, they’re not that serious. Festival movies do not demand devoted concentration. Festival movies are also fashion movies, from Theolonius Monk’s bamboo clubmasters in Jazz on a Summer’s Day to Mama Cass’s saucer-size butterfly ring in Monterey Pop to Rufus Thomas’s pinker-than-pink short suit and cape combo in Wattstax. Above all else, festival movies are vibe movies, which is to say a successful one replicates how it felt to be there. The very best ones go one step further. Not only is this a whole vibe, they contend. It’s a vibe of enormous historical and cultural significance.”
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