Yesterday AJ Schnack announced the launch of a new nonfiction filmmaking awards event to take place at the IFC Center in NYC on March 18th this year. Readers of Schnack’s blog will know that he has been a very vocal critic of the Oscar shortlist for being too issue-based and not recognizing the importance of the craft of filmmaking and storytelling. These new awards are designed to correct this and the lovely folk at Indiepix have come on board to…

Esther Robinson’s documentary about her uncle Danny Williams is currently screening at Cinema Village and has been getting some rave reviews. I haven’t seen it yet but I’m really looking forward to it, mainly because I am such a huge fan of Esther. She was instrumental in setting up the amazing Creative Capital Foundation and is also the woman behind ArtHome, an organization that helps artists buy homes and get on top of all things financial. Esther has spent a…

Fernanda Rossi, The Documentary Doctor, analyzes a documentary problem every month on Documentary Educational Resources. This month’s issue discusses what to do if you have used different format cameras to make your film. She calls this “irregular camera syndrome.”

From D-Word: Applying for ITVS? Want to avoid some of the pitfalls? Starting today at The D-Word, ITVS leading executives Joy-Marie Scott, Cynthia Kane, Karim Ahmad and Kathryn Washington join us online to take us through the complexities of applying for ITVS funds. This moderated “ITVS Special Conference” runs from 17th to 22nd December. The D-Word, co-hosted by founder Doug Block in New York, Ben Kempas in Munich and John Burgan in Denmark has been hosting documentary discussion forums online…

Here’s some more useful information from The Media Conference held in London earlier this year. This panel discusses how to work with non-profits, NGOs etc to create sustainable impact with your film. Key Points The filmmaker should form strategic partnerships with relevant NGO’s early on in a film’s production to devise a long-term strategy of how best to maximise the film’s campaigning potential and resulting impact. Any broadcast dates or film festival screenings should be identified as key strategic moments…

Listen to these clips from the Adventures in Online Distribution panel from The Media Conference held by Britdoc earlier this year in London. Key Points: Online distribution models remove third party gatekeepers, connect the filmmaker directly with the audience, giving them the freedom to decide when the film is released on a global scale. Partnering with grassroots organisations to access their databases is a great way of connecting with the right audience. These people can be your film’s distributors and…

FourDocs have a series of very useful video guides to shooting, editing and uploading a short doc. While you’re there check out their awesome online archive of classic  docs. I recommend This Is A True Story by Paul Berczeller, The Lift by Marc Isaacs, Divorce Iranian Style by Kim Longinotto, The Dinner Party by Paul Watson . . . oh there are lots of gems in there, too many to name here. Check it out.

The Producer’s Institute for New Media Technologies is 10-day residency run by BAVC in San Francisco that teaches documentary filmmakers how to adapt their socially relevant work for delivery across different digital platforms from web to video. The institute will take place from May 29th to June 8th 2008 and the application deadline is February 1st 2008 so check it out now as it sounds like a great way to learn more about harnessing emerging technologies to tell your stories…

Here’s the shortlist. AJ Schnack has more information on each film on his blog including some robust criticism of the list that I find myself agreeing with. I was really disappointed that films like Billy The Kid, We Are Together, Manda Bala, and The King of Kong didn’t make the list. The King of Kong is one of the funniest and most skillfully constructed documentaries I have seen in a long time and I wish that films like this would…

A while back AJ Schnack asked a bunch of people to guess what Sicko would make at the box office. I had no idea but I guessed it wasn’t going to do the business of Farenheit 9/11 so I went for 25 million and I won! Sicko ended up taking just over 24.5 million so to be fair Jonathan Marlow was bloody close too with 24 million (but I’m holding on to my bragging rights!) Very few documentaries are crossing…