If you are reading this, you've no doubt heard by now that Roe v. Wade has fallen at the hands of the Supreme Court. Eric Kohn spoke with doc filmmakers about their reaction to the news. In other topical happenings, doc filmmakers continue to play a major role in the January 6th hearings, with British doc-maker Alex Holder subpoenaed to turn over footage from an unreleased doc series on the final 6 weeks of Trump's presidency. As it turns out, documentation is important.
– Jordan M. Smith
HEADLINES
Meet the Press Film Festival with DOC NYC The Meet the Press Film Festival, now in its sixth year, will take place in New York City for the first time ever, screening Tuesday, November 15, 2022 at Cinépolis Chelsea in a new partnership with DOC NYC. The Meet the Press Film Festival with DOC NYC will continue the festival’s award-winning legacy as the preeminent showcase for issue-based short-documentary films. The one-day-only showcase, presented as a standalone festival in conjunction with DOC NYC’s 13th edition, will feature multiple concurrent screenings showcasing a carefully curated selection of critical stories highlighting the most consequential issues of the day. Thought-provoking, exclusive conversations with acclaimed filmmakers and industry professionals will follow each film, moderated by NBC News correspondents and anchors, including Meet the Press Moderator and NBC News Political Director Chuck Todd. The partnership with DOC NYC furthers Meet the Press’ investment in amplifying the best in short documentary film making. The festival will provide an expansive, one-of-a-kind platform for non-fiction filmmakers across the country to connect Meet the Press and NBCU News Group audiences with the film community beyond the one-day festival. This builds on NBC News Studios’ existing relationship with DOC NYC, which will continue throughout 2022. Film submissions for the Meet the Press Film Festival with DOC NYC opened earlier this month and will remain open through July 1 via FilmFreeway. All entrants to be notified via email of their status by Sept. 30, 2022. For terms and eligibility requirements, please visit FilmFreeway or email [email protected].
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Abortion Rights Documentarians Speak Out: It’s Time to Get to Work Eric Kohn reports at IndieWire: “After the Supreme Court decision to overturn Roe v. Wade, it might seem crass to talk about the movies. This week’s column is not here to offer listicles about must-see cinema on a subject that causes such immediate pain and hardship. However, the people who produced documentaries on abortion rights provided essential context— and a few hours after the court’s decision, they told me we need more. ‘We need all hands on deck,’ said filmmaker Heidi Ewing, speaking over Zoom from the Nantucket Film Festival. ‘I’ve never claimed that movies can change the world, but I do feel movies should be part of all the conversations we’re having about this.’ As Ewing and others explained, this work can have measurable impact. With her regular co-director Rachel Grady, Ewing made the 2010 documentary 12th & Delaware, which looked at both sides of the divide by contrasting an abortion clinic in Fort Pierce, Florida with the 'crisis pregnancy center' across the street designed to talk women out of the procedure. Ewing said that after making the movie, which includes harrowing scenes of anti-abortion protestors harassing women as they enter the clinic, they found audiences stirred to take action.”
Firelight Media Names Leticia Peguero as Senior Vice President Matt Grobar reports at Deadline: “Leticia Peguero has been appointed as Senior Vice President at Oscar-nominated documentarian Stanley Nelson’s (Attica) Firelight Media. Peguero comes to Firelight with nearly two decades of experience working in social justice philanthropy. She has worked most recently as an executive coach and organizational consultant, and prior to that served as Vice President of Programs at the Nathan Cummings Foundation, where she developed programmatic strategies responsive to the complex nature of social change. Her resume also includes leadership positions at the Andrus Family Fund, the Posse Foundation and Planned Parenthood of New York City, among other nonprofit organizations. Nelson and Marcia Smith founded the company, focused on nonfiction cinema by and about communities of color, in 1998. Its programs include labs and fellowships like the Documentary Lab and Groundwork Regional Lab, grantmaking initiatives including the Williams Greaves Research and Development Fund and the Impact Campaign Fund, and documentary short film productions including the recently announced collection Homegrown: Future Visions.”
New York, 1962–1964: Underground and Experimental Cinema, July 29-August 4 Announced via press release: “Film at Lincoln Center announces New York, 1962–1964: Underground and Experimental Cinema spotlighting the rise of the New American Cinema, running from July 29–August 4. 1962 to 1964 was a pivotal moment in the evolution of American arts and culture, especially in New York City. These years, crucial to the development of Pop, Minimalism, and performance, saw the emergence of a new generation of radical artists, as well as venues that gave their iconoclastic work a home and a context. Movies, meanwhile, were undergoing a transformation of their own: the rise of a truly independent cinema, of works unencumbered by the medium’s aesthetic conventions and commercial imperatives.”
A British Filmmaker Gave Congress Unreleased Footage of Trump and His Family Rachel Treisman reports at NPR: “British documentary filmmaker Alex Holder confirmed on Tuesday that he had complied with a subpoena from the Jan. 6 committee to turn over never-before-seen footage of former President Donald Trump in the leadup to the insurrection. The committee will also conduct a deposition of Holder on Thursday, he said in a statement shared on Twitter. Holder had access to Trump, as well as his family members and associates, while directing a documentary series surrounding the final six weeks of the former president's reelection campaign in 2020. He said the footage he turned over includes interviews with Trump and his family leading up to the election, as well as never-before-seen footage of the Capitol riot. Holder said his team would never have predicted their work would be subpoenaed by Congress when they started the project in September 2020, but are cooperating fully.”
Muhammad Ali, Sparks Brothers Take Honors at FOCAL Int’l Awards Barry Walsh reports at Realscreen: “Ken Burns’ exploration of boxing legend Muhammad Ali, Edgar Wright’s acclaimed doc on the rock band Sparks, and Wildbear Entertainment’s Disney+ original Playing With Sharks all claimed prizes at this year’s edition of the FOCAL International Awards. The ceremony, presented by UK-headquartered archive and stock footage association FOCAL International, recognizes the best achievements in the use of archival materials across genres. The 2022 awards, which were hosted by Sally Phillips, were held last night (June 23) in London and awarded 16 prizes across production, restoration & preservation and personnel categories. Some of the non-fiction categories and their winners are listed below, with credits supplied by FOCAL International.”
Catapult Announces the First Development Grantees of 2022 Announced via press release: “It is with great pleasure that we announce the filmmakers receiving Catapult Film Fund's first round of Development Grants for 2022. This extraordinary slate of projects tells a wide range of stories, including a widespread mysterious illness linked to government malfeasance in Canada, one woman’s life or death attempts to escape Afghanistan, the only in-house cable TV station set inside a Florida county jail, and an environmental entanglement and the complexities of stewardship as seen in Badlands National Park in South Dakota. These wildly diverse projects reflect Catapult’s firm commitment to championing distinctive nonfiction films from around the world. Meet the projects and filmmakers below and read more about them on our website. Applications for the next round of Development Grants will open July 1st.”
Sons of Rigor Films & ScreeningRoom Launch Grants for Short Docs from Ukraine Announced via press release: “Sons of Rigor Films and ScreeningRoom are pleased to announce a series of four $5000 grants to support documentary filmmakers working on films shot in Ukraine. The four selected short documentary films-in-progress will each receive $5000 to support the creation of a short documentary film, a one-year ScreeningRoom Pro account, and mentorship. 'It is so critical to provide support now for those working to tell stories from Ukraine,' says Douglas Choi, Founder of Sons of Rigor. Being on the ground here in Ukraine, I’m seeing first-hand every day how incredibly brave and inspiring the Ukrainian people are. 'Our goal at ScreeningRoom is to help build a sustainable ecosystem in the independent filmmaking space. Increased funding and mentorship is essential to that,' says Micah Garen, a founder of ScreeningRoom. Applications will open on June 1, and will be accepted through August 1st. There is no fee to submit to the grant. Visit screeningroom.org/grants for more information on how to apply.”
Summer is here, and so are we — with three DOC NYC PRO Summer events, including our first in-person workshop of the year!
This summer, we're excited to launch DOC NYC PRO's first in-person event of the year with a two-part workshop on scheduling and budgeting, July 19 & 20 at IFC Center in New York. Online programming continues with sessions offering an inside look at a key nonfiction funder, ITVS, and remote collaborations between editors and directors.
If you have questions about registration, please email [email protected]. For questions about accommodations and accessibility, including requests for live ASL interpretation, please email [email protected].
DOC NYC PRO is co-presented by Apple Original Films. Read on for more details about the lineup.
ON THE FESTIVAL CIRCUIT
Docudays are Launching Ukraine War Archive Website Announced via press release: “Our team is launching the website of the Ukraine War Archive initiative. It will help us upload materials in a more convenient way and share information about the project. Access to the Archive itself will be available later upon request. We continue collecting video and audio evidence of war. Our team collects, verifies, categorises and systematises large volumes of video footage so that evidence of crimes is not lost in information streams and is available for fighting in the media, cultural, and legal fields. NGO Docudays has a network of regional partners and film club managers all over Ukraine who can collect and provide evidence even from the cities which are currently under temporary occupation. In documenting the crimes, we are working together with CO Charity and Health Fund, VGORU Media Platform, Ukrainian Helsinki Human Rights Union. ‘In order to document as comprehensive and as accurate a picture as possible, to collect evidence of war crimes, we need to consolidate and work together. The War Archive aims to combine the efforts of those who work on the side of truth, justice, and protecting Ukraine’s interests,’ says Maria Buchelnikova, Project Coordinator for the Ukraine War Archive.”
Sunny Side 2022: And the Winners Are… Nick Cunningham reports at Business Doc Europe: “As doors closed on 33rd Sunny Side of the Doc, organisers revealed that 2000 industry professionals from 67 countries (including almost 400 decision-makers) and 1100 accredited companies took part in the online event. This year, 48 projects from 22 countries were presented across 8 pitching sessions split into three major categories. ‘We are delighted that we were able to bring together international industry leaders this year to celebrate and champion the genre, which in recent years has experienced both a greater audience demand and increased difficulties in terms of financing and production,’ said Mathieu Béjot, Director of Strategy and Development at Sunny Side of the Doc.”
MISCELLANEOUS
Reimagining the Archives of a Revolution Dan Schindel writes at Hyperallergic: “Like many leaders in the decolonization movements of the mid-20th Century, the Cape Verdean and Bissau-Guinean revolutionary Amílcar Cabral understood the power of cinema. Amidst their struggle to break free of Portuguese rule in the early 1970s, he encouraged young aspiring filmmakers like Flora Gomes and Sana Na N’Hada to travel to Cuba to learn the craft. They then returned home to document their struggle, shooting a wealth of footage — some of it was later exhibited, but a great deal of it went on to molder in poorly maintained storage. In her 2017 debut feature Spell Reel, Portuguese director Filipa César collaborates with Gomes, Na N’Hada, and their contemporaries to rescue this lost footage, reawakening these remnants of the revolution through restorative and preservation techniques. Such practice informs a great deal of the rest of César’s work. She uses filmic essays to critically scrutinize the stories around objects and contrast them with living memory, much of it focused around the cinema and history of Guinea-Bissau. Spell Reel is now the namesake of an online screening series that Metrograph is hosting featuring César’s films.”
Nanfu Wang on HBO Docuseries Mind Over Murder Lauren Wissot writes for Filmmaker Magazine: “One of the more surprising revelations in the provocatively titled six-part docuseries Mind Over Murder has nothing to do with the sad tale presented onscreen of the 'Beatrice Six,' as the three men and three women convicted (and ultimately absolved) of killing a beloved grandma in Beatrice, Nebraska back in 1985 came to be known. Instead, the surprise comes when the end credits disclose the story is being revisited by none other than critically-acclaimed director Nanfu Wang (In the Same Breath, One Child Nation), not exactly a usual suspect for the sensationalist true crime genre. Then again, Wang doesn’t seem much interested in adhering to any tabloidesque playbook, tossing cinematic tropes of both heroes and villains straight off the screen, a choice that ingeniously swings Mind Over Murder in a far more consequential—and ultimately existential—direction. Unlike the current crop of sleuthing journos bent on becoming the next Errol Morris, Wang is not looking to prove or disprove anything. The case has already been exhaustively laid out in numerous, decades-spanning trials and investigations (from which she deftly deploys footage), resulting in a 2009 DNA acquittal for every single member of the Beatrice Six. Rather, Wang’s come to the small-town scene of the crime to conduct contemporary, on-the-ground interviews, patiently probe the minds of all the living players and document the amateur players in a local theater production as they develop, wholly from courtroom transcripts, what they hope will be a source of truth and reconciliation.”
Beba and the Collaboration of Self Christopher Campbell spoke with Rebeca Huntt for Nonfics: “With Beba, her feature directorial debut, Rebeca Huntt has created one of the most extraordinary autobiographical portraits in years. It is the kind of personal film that would seem to dispute the idea of cinema as a collaborative art, yet it’s also a film that reminds us that everything is collaborative. Not just the production of a documentary, even one as intimate and subjective as this one, but also the ongoing assembly involved in one’s identity. As individualistic as we may strive to be, all of us are influenced by outside forces, and that goes for even the most unique and internally focused artistic works as well. Ahead of the theatrical release of Beba, I talked to Huntt about her collaboration with her producers (including Sofia Geld and executive producer Petra Costa), her cinematographer (Sophia Stieglitz), her editor (Isabel Freeman), and the film’s composer (Holland Andrews) and the making of both the self-portrait and her own self. Here is our conversation.”
Emmy Predictions: Amy Poehler’s Directorial Doc Debut Tops a Competitive Race Clayton Davis writes at Variety: "Director Amy Poehler displays the rise of the comedic icon Lucille Ball and her relationship with husband and musician Desi Arnaz which led to their groundbreaking television sitcom. With the backing of Amazon Prime Video and coming off the feature Being the Ricardos, the classic Hollywood pocket of the TV Academy could go all-in for Lucy and Desi, this look at love and fame. George Carlin’s American Dream, the two-part documentary about the famed comedian offered the world an incredible reminder of the power of laughs and love, told through the passion of directors Judd Apatow and Michael Bonfiglio. Dropping on HBO at the tail end of the eligibility period, recency bias could help it snag a nom.”
FUND THIS PROJECT
Crowdfunding has become an integral means of raising capital for documentary filmmakers around the globe. Each week we feature a promising new project that needs your help to cross that critical crowdfunding finish line.
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.
As always, if you have any tips or recommendations for next week's Memo, please contact me via email here or on Twitter at @Rectangular_Eye.
