by Dre Rivas.

A couple weeks ago documentary filmmaker Lee Storey won her case against the Commissioner of Internal Revenue after the IRS said she could not deduct expenses from her film, Smile ‘Til It Hurts: The Up with People Story.

Since her primary job is that of a lawyer, the backwards thinking went – and because her documentary (despite making the rounds at some festivals in 2008 and her continued efforts to make the film a success) failed to become profitable – her filmmaking is nothing more than a hobby and deductions were not justified. See, if her documentary did turn a profit and if the success of her documentary allowed her to quit her day job to be an actual filmmaker instead of an aspiring filmmaker, then she could deduct those expenses.

Read the rest of this article from Film.com

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by Kathy Shwiff.

Michael Moore’s success as a documentary film maker has made his job more difficult because more people refuse to talk to him on camera, he said Sunday afternoon at the Tribeca Film Festival in New York.

“They’re afraid to talk to me, so I have to send in my production assistants to do interviews,” he told actress Susan Sarandon, who interviewed him before taking questions from the audience.

Moore, whose 2004 film “Fahrenheit 9/11? is the highest-grossing documentary, said documentaries should have a point of view but “I always think it’s best to hear the other side.” However, on some issues, there are not even two sides, he said, pointing out that a film about slavery need not present arguments in favor of the practice.

Moore advised aspiring film makers to make the best movie they can—one that people would be willing to buy tickets for at a theater—then enter it in film festivals, saying, “Usually, the cream rises to the top.” Warner Bros. bought his first film, “Roger and Me,” in 1989 after it was shown at the New York Film Festival.

He also recommended that people make short films and put them on the Internet. “Worse things have gone viral,” he added.

Sarandon noted that the definition of a documentary has blurred as film makers use re-enactments and other techniques to make their points. But such techniques can undercut the impact of a film. “One false move, then you disregard the entire thing,” she said.

Moore described documentary film-making as the opposite of making a “fiction” movie because “you write it after you shoot it.” Also, “we have to get this on the first take because these aren’t actors,” he said.

Read the rest of this article from Wall Street Journal.

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by Dennis Lim.

IT has long been assumed that filmmakers should tread carefully in the wake of tragedy. Whether confronting war or genocide, a terrorist attack or a natural disaster, the importance of bearing witness bumps up against the danger of trivialization and exploitation. In the annals of catastrophe cinema Japan’s triple disaster has proved to be an unusually accelerated case.

Within months of the powerful earthquake and tsunami of March 11, 2011, which killed thousands and caused the reactor meltdowns at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant, there were already enough movies on the subject to constitute an all-but-instant subgenre.

The Berlin Film Festival last month featured three documentaries on the aftermath, dealing collectively with topics like the complications of the cleanup effort, the plight of evacuees and the resurgent anti-nuclear movement. Japan Society in New York marked the first anniversary with screenings of films like “The Tsunami and the Cherry Blossom,” a short documentary by Lucy Walker that was nominated for an Academy Award, and “Pray for Japan,” which its director, Stu Levy, made while volunteering in the stricken Tohoku region.

Read the rest of this article from NY Times.

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by Robin Bronk.

Yesterday, Academy Award-nominated documentarian Josh Fox was arrested by U.S. Capitol police while trying to film a public Congressional Hearing. Isn’t this the kind of chilling free speech episode we Americans condemn when it happens in other countries?

The U.S. House Science Committee’s Subcommittee on Energy and the Environment was holding a public hearing, and Fox was there with his camera crew to get footage for a documentary film. According to press reports, the Subcommittee’s Chairman exercised his authority to bar filming by individuals without proper House of Representatives’ press credentials. Fox persisted, was arrested by Capitol Police, and charged with unlawful entry.

Read the rest of this article from Huffington Post.

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by Susan Du.

Evanston resident May Tchao is a filmmaker whose current project, “Rise of the Phoenix,” casts the issue of women’s rights in China in the context of the country’s rapid progress in recent years. Born in China, Tchao immigrated to the U.S. as a student and had a career in the advertising industry until she gave it up to pursue storytelling through film.

Based on her mother’s difficulties as a Chinese woman, Tchao’s primary interest in filmmaking was to explore what her own life would have been like if she didn’t have the opportunity to immigrate. She is currently raising publicity for her upcoming documentary and fundraising for a follow-up trip to China through Kickstarter.

“Rise of the Phoenix” (the phoenix is a traditional Chinese symbol for women) will cover the lives of five Chinese women of different socioeconomic backgrounds. Tchao has already filmed three, including a rural teacher, a Beijing migrant worker and a successful international lawyer. Despite major differences in those women’s financial situations and education backgrounds, they each struggle to overcome a gender biased society that continues to experience extensive trafficking of women and female infanticide.

Read the rest of this article from Daily Northwestern.

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from PR Newswire.

Are you passionate about sharing your documentary and having it broadcast on television? With just five weeks to go, TVO is calling upon Ontario’s new generation of documentary filmmakers to exhibit their creative skills with the introduction of the inaugural Doc Studio Contest.

TVO is challenging aspiring and accomplished filmmakers, artistic visionaries and amateur film buffs across Ontario to think about all that can happen in five minutes, and then to capture it on film. Inspired by filmmaker-in-residence Alan Zweig (Vinyl, I Curmudgeon, Lovable, A Hard Name), TVO’s Doc Studio Contest dares participants to reveal “Life in 5″ – a memorable moment, a shift in perception, a secret no one else could uncover – through an interview-based, five-minute film.

“Asking filmmakers to submit a documentary under five minutes in length forces them to hone in on the true essence of a story,” says TVO’s supervising producer, Jane Jankovic. “The Doc Studio Contest is all about capturing what moves us and illuminates our lives and our world. There are thousands of untold stories out there. I can’t wait to see what we get.”

Read the rest of this article from PR Newswire.

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by Geoffrey Macnab.

It is not often that film companies preparing new movies need to set aside thousands of dollars in bribes, and for buying blood-diamonds, in their budgets. This was what happened to Lars von Trier’s Zentropa when the Danish outfit set to work on its new feature documentary, The Ambassador (which premieres in Sundance this month).

The film, largely shot in Liberia and the Central African Republic, follows the faltering attempts of its director, the satirical journalist Mads Brugger, to gatecrash the nefarious world of African diamond-smuggling.

Brugger’s plan was to “operate freely beyond all moral boundaries while still being a respected member of society… what I am talking about of course is life as an African diplomat.”

Read the rest of this article from Independent.

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by Linda Barnard.

American filmmaker Robin Hessman says the best part of making a documentary is “the detective work.” And her spadework paid off with reels and reels of home movies that opened a window on life for the last generation of kids to grow up in the Soviet Union.

Her film, My Perestroika, opening Friday, follows five former elementary school classmates in Moscow who are now approaching or in their 40s as they look back on their Soviet childhoods and coming-of-age under glasnost in the new Russia.

Read the rest of this article from Toronto Star.

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by Marcia G. Yerman.

From October 11 through November 8, PBS has showcased the five-part groundbreaking series Women, War & Peace– an examination of the impact of armed conflict upon the lives of women. With narration by actors Matt Damon, Tilda Swinton, Alfre Woodward, and Geena Davis, each hour profiles individual accounts about Bosnia, Afghanistan, Liberia, and Colombia.

The final episode presents an overview of how the landscape of war has shifted from combat between nations-states and their soldiers, to a scenario of “intimate killings” in which women “bear the brunt of small arms and light weapons” devastation.

A co-production of THIRTEEN and Fork Films, in association with WNET and ITVS, the series was created by executive producers Abigail E. Disney, Pamela Hogan, and Gini Reticker. I had the opportunity to speak with Hogan by telephone about her role in the series, and to learn the back story on the project.

Read the rest of this article from Huffington Post.

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by A. O. Scott.

Much of the time, a documentary is a movie with something to say and a lot of people talking. The current boom in nonfiction filmmaking has been fed, to a large extent, by the impulses of advocacy journalism, according to which the job of the filmmaker is to bring attention to a problem in the world and to assemble experts and eyewitnesses qualified to explain it.

While there is nothing wrong with this model — and much to admire about films that seek to instruct and inspire their audiences — it can be wearying and limited. There is so much social concern, so many talking-head interviews wrapped around snippets of archival footage, and, too often, not enough art.

Read the rest of this article from the NY Times.

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