Article on Command Z

The Command Z show is installed and opens March 31.

Here's an article from The Daily Breeze:

Art: Pixel Perfect

Eighty-Three Percent

Received an email today explaining that 79 of the 95 teams that entered the International Documentary Challenge finished their films on time. It went on to explain that the 12 finalists will be announced by April 2.

If you figure each team made a five-minute documentary, then the judges have to watch six-and-a-half hours of short documentaries....

Full Frame

In April I will be attending the Full Frame Film Festival in North Carolina. They've just posted the list of new documentaries that will be screened:

New Docs: Films in Competition

Done, Done, and Done

We completed the film on time and sent it off.

Details soon....

Five Days to Five Minutes

Over at Actualities I will be tracking my participation in The International Documentary Challenge.

That should be fun.

Real Life, Filmed Real Fast

I'm participating in the International Documentary Challenge.

This morning at 8 a.m. received a choice between two genres and a theme -- and now need to make a short documentary matching that. It will be about 5 minutes in length, and has to be sent off postmarked on Monday.

I've just text messaged the six members of our team, and now we have to decide what film to make and how to make it.

tf

The Numbers Game

Last year, when I received notice I had been accepted to the Graduate Certificate in Documentary Media Studies program at The New School, I began keeping track of the documentaries I watched.

"An Inconvenient Truth" was the 100th since I started that list. Of course, it won at the Academy Awards on Sunday night, and "The Blood of Yingzhou District" won in the short doc category.

That was number 94 for me.

Actualities

I've started posting about Documentary on a blog called
Actualities.

DocuDay NY 2007

In the cab heading down to 53rd Street, I told the driver I was going to spend 14 hours watching documentaries. He seemed horrified at first, then said: "I could watch that much baseball. I guess it's good if it's what you like."

I stared out the window, watching snow-covered Central Park fly past, and thought, "Yep. It's what I like."

Each year, DocuDay screens the feature and short documentaries nominated for the Academy Award. This year's program:

Deliver Us From Evil
Iraq In Fragments
The Blood of Yingzhou District (39-minute short) 
Recycled Life (38-minute short) 
Rehearsing a Dream (39-minute short) 
Two Hands (18-minute short) 
Jesus Camp 
My Country, My Country
An Inconvenient Truth

Sundance Winners

Documentary Awards, Sundance 2007:

Grand Jury Prize, Documentary:
Manda Bala
Jason Kohn

Audience Award, Documentary:
Hear and Now
Irene Taylor Brodsky

Independent Film Competition, Directing, Documentary:
War/Dance
Sean Fine and Andrea Nix Fine

The World Cinema Jury Prize, Documentary:
Enemies of Happiness
Eva Mulvad and Anja Al Erhayem

The World Cinema Audience Award for Documentary:
In the Shadow of the Moon
David Sington

World Cinema Competition Documentary Special Jury Prize:
Hot House
Shimon Dotan

Independent Film Competition Documentary Special Jury Prize:
No End in Sight
Charles Ferguson

Excellence in Cinematography, Documentary:
Manda Bala
Heloisa Passos

Independent Film Competition Documentary Jury, Editing:
Nanking
Hibah Sherif Frisina, Charlton McMillian, and Michael Schweitzer

The Shorts Special Jury Prize for Short Filmmaking:
Freeheld
Cynthia Wade

Sundance Video Blog Number Something or Other

Academy Award Nominations, 2007

Documentary Feature:

Deliver Us From Evil
An Inconvenient Truth
Iraq in Fragments
Jesus Camp
My Country, My Country

Documentary (short subject):

The Blood of Yingzhou District
Recycled Life
Rehearsing a Dream
Two Hands

Sundance Rolls On

And on...

Sundance Video Blog Number 5

Number 5:

Sundance Video Blog Number 4

Part the fourth:

Sundance Statistics, 2007

Some Sundance Film Festival statistics:

films:
196 from 7,732 submitted (1 in 40, 2.5%)

documentary features:
42 from 1,362 submitted (1 in 32, 3.0%)

shorts:
71 from 4,445 submitted (1 in 62, 1.5%)

Even More Sundance Documentarians

Even more Sundancers speaking about their documentaries:

Jason Kohn talks about his film "Manda Bala."

Jessica Yu talks about her film "Protagonist."

Dan Sturman and Bill Guttentag talk about their film "Nanking."

More Sundance Documentarians

More Sundancers speaking about their documentaries:

Amir Bar-Lev talks about his film "My Kid Could Paint That."

Andrea Nix Fine and Sean Fine talk about their film "War Dance."

Charles Ferguson talks about his film "No End in Sight."

Daniel Karslake talks about his film "For the Bible Tells Me So."

Rory Kennedy talks about her film "Ghosts of Abu Ghraib."

Sundance Video Blog Number 3

Number 3:

Sundance Video Blog Number 2

I like this one. I hope they can keep this up....