Documentary Summit Boston

I enjoyed speaking on a panel about the art of editing at the Documentary Summit Boston last weekend (above, the camerapeople's panel). It was fun to reconnect with colleagues I only get to see occasionally, including Fernanda Rossi (the "Story Doctor"), who gave an inspiring talk about presenting your story in loglines, synopses, and demo tapes for funders.

CIFF and Points North Forum

I made the 4-hour trek up to Camden, ME with my friend and colleague Marie-Emmanuelle Hartness to attend the Camden International Film Festival and the Points North Documentary Film Forum.

 I was attracted by the small scale of the event, combined with the strong industry representation - making for a great opportunity to get to know folks casually over a drink or meal.

One of the highlights of the forum was the Points North Pitch (pictured above), in which eight filmmakers presented their projects to a panel of 11 funders, broadcasters, and distributors.  I was impressed by both the professionalism of the pitches - super well-crafted trailers and tight verbal pitches, even by the first-time filmmakers - and the panel's supportive, constructive feedback provided.

The project that most intrigued me, Mike Attie and Meghan O'Hara's In Country, won a $1,000 prize as the most compelling pitch.  It's about Vietnam War re-enactments going on around America, put on by a combination of military enthusiasts, Gulf and Iraq War veterans recovering from recent traumas, and even Vietnam War veterans.  One Vietnamese-American re-enactor featured in the film, who served in the South Vietnamese army, still considers those his glory days.  Their trailer was very powerful, and raised complex questions about what happens when a more recent, and unpopular, foreign war is recreated in contemporary America.

I also really enjoyed the Hands-on with Zeega workshop, in which I got to try this brand-new online platform for collaborative multi-media storytelling (still in alpha mode which, they reminded us, "comes before beta"). I have been following what Jesse Shapins, Kara Oehler, and their crew have been doing - especially since they won the Knight News Challenge - and now I actually understand how easy they are making it to edit together all types of media from one's own files and from across the web.  It's very interesting how this open-source platform enables an infinite new realm of media-mashing possibilities within the bounds of fair use, since it is all non-commercial, does not involve any actual duplication (you can't export your Zeega project - it is only re-streaming the media, with citation, from other sources), and carefully follows all of the source sites' terms of use.

With all the great forum events and the chance to socialize with colleagues and friends (including those from Boston I don't see enough of), I am embarassed to say that we didn't get to see as many films as we would have liked.  I enjoyed Only the Young, which Variety described as the "most human and affecting" of the past decade's many films about skateboarding culture.

The (quite young) filmmaker Jason Tippet was there, and rather articulately described the aesthetic choices they made - making what seem like good use of the strengths and limitations of shooting docs with a DSLR (see my previous post on this topic).  There was definitely a staged feeling to the whole film - teenagers performing for the camera - but at least it was consistent and felt intentional. Jason said that he wanted to make a film that was "easy to watch" - he certainly did that, and also managed to capture the feeling of youth inhabiting a very post-2008 landscape of foreclosures, overdeveloment, unemployment, Facebook, cell phones, and skateboards...

Behind the Doc Lens

Like a lot of filmmakers, I normally don't enjoy being in front of the camera.  But on Saturday I had a great time doing an interview with Olga Medvedev-Young for the new "Behind the Doc Lens" series.  Executive Producer Isabel Garcia is doing a great job organizing interviews with more than a dozen of Boston's doc makers.  I ran into my mentor and friend Robb Moss on my way out, there to do an interview about his and Peter Galison's film SECRECY.

It was a lot of fun talking about INDELIBLE LALITA, and about the filmmaking process in general.  They had a very professional crew (3-camera shoot), who had watched the film and had great questions.  Looking forward to the series launch later this fall!

INDELIBLE LALITA in Providence Oct. 15

My new documentary INDELIBLE LALITA will have its Providence premiere on Monday, October 15 at 7pm at the Rhode Island School of Design Auditorium at 17 Canal Street.  I am teaching Intermediate Filmmaking at RISD this year, and am excited by the opportunity to show my work to my new students and the Providence community.

MY LOUISIANA LOVE on the Road

Sharon Linezo Hong's documentary MY LOUISIANA LOVE, which I edited and co-produced, is making the rounds.  Here are the upcoming screenings:

September 11- November 25, 2012 FUTURA Centre for Contemporary Art, PRAGUE, Czech Republic. Continuously looped Daily screenings

September 29, 2012 Crested Butte Film Festival, Crested Butte, CO, 3:00 pm Saturday.

October 21, 2012 ImagineNative Film + Art Festival, Toronto, Canada

November 30, 2012 New Orleans Museum of Art, New Orleans, LA

December 6, 8 2012 National Museum of American Indian, New York, NY

Sparc! the Artmobile

On one of those 95+ degree days last month, I traveled with Massachusetts College of Art and Design's ArtMobile to Brigham Circle, where they set up a tent at the local farmer's market.  Within minutes, community members were stopping by to do some printmaking - despite the burning heat.  Art mobile director Ekua Holmes and two MassArt students helped people with their art and chatted about the neighborhood.

The Artmobile seems like a great program, bringing art and design to the people!  And the van itself, sparc!, is pretty cool - the beautiful wrap was designed by MassArt student Mariah Siegmann

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HDSLRs in Maine...

I had a great time teaching Storytelling with Canon HDSLRs at the Maine Media Workshops last week. It was an intense course, with just four students working all day and night in that beautiful setting.  After overcoming the challenges of doing verite documentary work on HDSLRs - audio issues, stability, shot length, etc. - we got down to the deep questions of what makes a story resonate in film.  The students cranked out a 6-mninute film (Loveaholic, above) in just 48 hours.  It profiles Deb Derecktor, who is counting down the days to her 50th birthday after finally overcoming her "love addiction."