This!

Genius.

It’s Werner Herzog’s birthday today so we are celebrating with an ad for chocolate on YouTube. You know it makes sense.

Crossing the Line is a 3-day festival coming up in London later this month investigating films that defy easy categorization as either fact or fiction. Filmmakers speaking include Nick Broomfield, Peter Kosminsky, Stephen Frears, Brian Hill, Pawel Pawlikowski, and Penny Woolcock. Screenings include Rome Open City, Cathy Come Home, The Battle of Algiers, The War Game, Twockers and Tina Goes Shopping.

Done well, these hybrid films can reach a sort of Herzogian ecstatic truth that really make us look at ourselves and our society with fresh eyes, and it is arguably British filmmakers in particular who have pushed the boundaries in this area.

On a related note, Agnes Varnum has written a recent article for indieWIRE that investigates the history of narrative and documentary coming together in film, starting with Nanook of the North and Man with a Movie Camera and evident in recent films like The Road to Guantanamo, Strange Culture, Radiant City and Zoo.

Crossing the Line takes place September 21-23 at Rich Mix in London.

There are a bunch of really interesting podcasts online from BRITDOC 07. I just listened to John Bates from the London Business School talking about How to Kill a Growing Creative Business which has some incredibly useful info for people who are trying to navigate the precarious territory where commerce and art intersect. This is not just about how to avoid starving in a garret but about how to build a business that is creative, innovative and sustainable.

You can also learn about online distributors, turning your film into a campaign, how to pitch, and the secrets behind the docs that have made big money.

Click here to download the podcasts.