Nelson Mandela was released from 27 years in prison twenty years ago tomorrow – February 11th 1990. I just read his extraordinary autobiography Long Walk to Freedom and have been thinking about Mandela and South Africa a great deal recently so I’m really pleased to be moderating a discussion after the screening of Mandela: Son of Africa, Father of a Nation at Union Docs on Friday, February 19th. Here’s a description of the film:

A captivating view of the indomitable spirit if one of the world’s most fascinating figures, this full-length documentary follows Nelson Mandela from his early days and tribal education to his election as South Africa’s first black president. Providing insights into his early life, the film takes us through Mandela’s childhood, adolescence, career in law and first marriage. “Mandela” is an absorbing look at the courageous life, tribulations and fortitude of Mandela the leader, while never forgetting the engaging and charismatic spirit of Mandela the man, as seen through exclusive interviews and narration from Mandela himself.

Please join us at Union Docs on the 19th!

Now I am reading Joseph Lelyveld’s Pulitzer Prize winning book on South Africa, Move Your Shadow, originally published in 1985. It opens with this terrifying extract from J.D. Bold’s Fanagalo Phrase Book, Grammar and Dictionary, the Lingua Franca of Southern Africa, 10th Edition, 1977. Fanagalo is a pidgin amalgam of Zulu, English and Afrikaans and was mainly used for communication in South Africa’s mines but according to this phrase book it can also be put to great use in a racist game of golf!

Wena azi lo golof? Mina hayifuna lo mampara mfan.
Have you caddied before? I don’t want a useless boy.
Tata lo saka gamina.
Take my bag of clubs.
Tata mabol, yena doti. Susa yena nga lo manzi.
These balls are dirty. Clean them with water.
Muhle wena tula loskati lo-mlungu ena beta lo bol.
You must be quiet when my partner plays a shot.
Tula!
Be quiet.
Noko wena lahlega lo futi bol, hayikona mali.
If you lose another ball, there will be no tip for you.
Susa lo-mtunzi gawena. Hayikona shukumisa lo saka.
Move your shadow. Don’t rattle the bag.

Errol Morris posted this hilarious letter from Harvey Weinstein on his website.

You gotta love someone who says: “If you continue to be boring, I will hire an actor in New York to pretend that he’s Errol Morris. If you have any casting suggestions, I’d appreciate that.” RIP Miramax.

A huge congratulations to everyone who won last night at the 2010 Cinema Eye Honors for Nonfiction Filmmaking but more importantly, congratulations to everyone who had a film nominated and to all those who have made and supported docs over the past year. The nominee line-up was pretty darn great and included films I have really loved: Loot, Episode 3 Enjoy Poverty, The Way We Get By and Mugabe and the White African for example. As co-chair AJ Schnack said, “There are no losers here.” But here’s the list of winners anyway (via indieWIRE):

Outstanding Achievement in Nonfiction Feature Filmmaking:
“The Cove,” directed by Louie Psihoyos, produced by Paula DuPre Pesman and Fisher Stevens

Outstanding Achievement in a Debut Feature Film:
“October Country, directed by Michael Palmieri and Donal Mosher

Outstanding Achievement in Direction:
Agnes Varda, “The Beaches of Agnes”

Outstanding Achievement in Production:
Paula DuPre Pressman and Fisher Stevens, “The Cove”

Outstanding Achievement in Cinematography:
Brook Aitken for “The Cove”

Outstanding Achievement in Editing:
Janus Billeskov-Jansen and Thomas Papapetros for “Burma VJ”

Outstanding Achievement in Grapic Design and Animation:
Tie: Big Star for “Food, Inc” and “RIP – Remix Manifesto”

Outstanding Achievement in Original Music Score:
“October Country”: Danny Grody, Donal Mosher, Michael Palmieri and Kenric Taylor

Outstanding Achievement in an International Feature:
“Burma VJ,” directed by Anders Ostergard, produced by Lise-Lense Moeller

Audience Choice Prize:
“The September Issue,” directed by RJ Cutler

Spotlight Award:
“Beetle Queen Conquers Tokyo,” directed by Jessica Oreck

Cinema Eye Legacy Award:
“Sherman’s March, directed by Ross McElwee

Cinematographer Kirsten Johnson taught us an excellent trick for taking photos like a model – here she demonstrates it in action with Michael Palmieri (co-director of Debut Feature winner October Country)

The Way We Get By producer Gita Pullapilly with filmmaker Doug Block who presented an award

October Country also won for Original Music Score. Here’s some of the people who made that happen.

October Country directors Donal Mosher and Michael Palmieri flank Loot director Darius Marder

Jean-Pierre Duret, director of Because We Were Born (nominated for a Spotlight Award)

Renzo Martens, director of Episode 3: Enjoy Poverty (nominated for a Spotlight Award) with co-chair Esther Robinson

DJ and hat-wearer extraordinaire: Ion

The Union Docs gang

David Nugent looking slightly less happy than Matt Dentler

A glowingly pregnant Raphaela Neihausen and a very dapper Hugo Perez

AJ Schnack and Magnolia’s Eamonn Bowles at the after-party

Festivals unite! David Nugent (Hamptons International Film Festival) and Ben Fowlie (Camden International Film Festival)

Angela Tucker and Trish Dalton

Me and Laure Parsons

Ion doing what he does best (play great music and wear great hats)

Danny Grody holding the spiky Cinema Eye award for Original Music Score (October Country)

Below is the trailer for Michael Moore’s new film Capitalism: A Love Story, coming to theaters October 2nd. I am curious to see this but agree with people who say that it seems somewhat dated and that perhaps now would be a much better time for Sicko instead. Was Sicko released too early and Capitalism too late?

This was originally published on the Shooting People Festival Focus blog.

I had the privilege of being on the Sterling Short Film Jury at SILVERDOCS, along with Angela Tucker and Bryan Stamp. The films were superb, Angela and Bryan were fantastic fellow jurors and Sky Sitney and the entire SILVERDOCS staff did a really impressive job this year. We awarded the shorts prize to 12 Notes Down by Andreas Koefoed, a beautiful and moving portrait of talent, music and adolescence. We also felt compelled to give an honorary mention to Michael Angus and Murray Fredericks for the cinematic Salt, which follows photographer Fredericks as he works on his lonely and awesome (I mean this in the literal sense) photos in the remote salt flats of Australia.

Other big winners were October Country by Michael Palmieri and Donal Mosher (good friends and super-talented filmmakers) and Mugabe and the White African by Lucy Bailey and Andrew Thompson. Congrats to Luciano Blotta for winning a music documentary award for Riseup, a very accomplished and enjoyable film about contemporary reggae mucians in Jamaica that I really hope more people will get the chance to see. You can see the full list of winners here. Audience awards went to The Cove and 12 Notes Down.

Here are some photos from my adventures in Silver Spring, Maryland.

Albert Maysles is honored at the Guggenheim Symposium

Debbie Zimmerman, Simon Kilmurry and Danielle DiGiacomo

AJ Schnack shows how it’s done. King of Karaoke Michael Lerman is behind him.

Trish Dalton and Brendan Canty enjoy nuclear drinks

The audience sing along

The rocking short film jury at the awards ceremony: me, Angela Tucker, Bryan Stamp

Juror Margaret Brown flanked by October Country award-winners Donal Mosher and Michael Palmieri

Ion gets political with the ladeeeeeees…

…while Pamela Cohn shares a moment with Obama

Yoav Shamir opens a bottle of bubbly for us

Michael Palmieri, Sandi DuBowski and Donal Mosher show me their tonsils

I’m really thrilled that Shooting People is involved in so many fantastic events this month – from the Rooftop Films panels on Saturday June 13th to the Short Sighted event at the Edinburgh International Film Festival on Sunday June 21st. And now we are also doing a special screening of the powerful documentary Pray The Devil Back To Hell with producer (and all round amazing person) Abigail Disney in attendance. Please join us at DCTV on Thursday, June 25th – space is very limited so get tickets soon: http://www.dctvny.org/dctvpresents/praythedevil.html

Here’s the trailer:

We (Shooting People) have gotten together with Rooftop Films, Cinereach and IndiePix to bring you some really great filmmaking panels before the screening of Persona Non Grata at Rooftop Films this Saturday, June 13th. This is part of the Rooftop Films 4-day Panorama Weekend which runs from Wednesday to Saturday this week with fantastic films screening each night: www.rooftopfilms.com

Panel Schedule:

5:00-6:00pm

Message vs. Craft: The Art of Effective “Issue” Storytelling

When a filmmaker takes on a topic related to social justice or human rights it is often with the hope of influencing public opinion and inspiring action. To achieve that, a film must reach and engage the right audience, in the right numbers. It must also portray the human impact of the issue or problem persuasively. How does a “social issue” filmmaker balance the need to educate with the public’s desire to be entertained? How does he/she move past preaching to the choir and make a film that can become a catalyst for real change? This panel will provide advice on the above from documentary and fiction filmmakers including Justin Schein (No Impact Man), Fabio Wuytack (Persona Non Grata) and Paola Mendoza (Entre Nos), whose work successfully walks the issue/entertainment line. Leah Sapin of Arts Engine (which specializes in production and outreach for socially relevant films), and New York magazine film critic Bilge Ebiri will join the discussion, to be moderated by Lina Srivastava.

Panelists include: Lina Srivastava (consultant to non profit media companies working for social change) – moderator   Justin Schein (Co-director of No Impact Man) Fabio Wuytack (Director of Persona Non Grata) Bilge Ebiri  (film critic from New York magazine) Leah Sapin (Arts Engine) Paola Mendoza (Director of Entre Nos)

6:30-7:30pm

Filmmaking Strategy: Tips, Tools and Wisdom to Help You Make the Right Decisions For Your Film

Filmmakers have to be both artists and strategists to get their films made and seen and this is the case now more than ever as changes in funding and distribution force filmmakers to shoulder more of the crucial decisions on their own. This panel will help you learn how to be the best advocate for your film by asking all the tough questions that you will have to ask along the way. For example: How much work (and what work) do you need to achieve on your own before approaching a funder? And how can you tailor your pitch to communicate your vision to a foundation vs. an equity investor? What other funding options are there? How do you balance traditional outreach to festivals, sales agents, broadcasters, and distributors with the need to also create your own fan base? Which distribution deals do you accept? How do know when a deal is a good deal? How do you hope for the best but plan for the worst?

Panelists include: Adella Ladjevardi (Cinereach) Janet Brown (Cinetic) Liz Ogilvie (B-Side) Tia Lessin (Co-Director of Trouble the Water) Andy Bichlbaum (Co-Director of The Yes Men Fix The World) Simon Kilmurry (P.O.V.)

EVENT DETAILS:

Date: Saturday, June 13, 2009

Venue: On the roof of the Old American Can Factory Address: 232 3rd St. @ 3rd Ave. (Gowanus/ Park Slope, Brooklyn) Directions: F/G to Carroll St. or M/R to Union Ave.

Rain: In the event of rain the show will be held indoors at the same location

5:00PM: Panel discussion: “Message vs. Craft,” outside in courtyard

6:30PM: Panel discussion: “Filmmaking Strategy,” outside in courtyard

7:30PM – 9:00PM: Reception in courtyard including free sangria courtesy of Carlo Rossi

8:30PM: Live music presented by Sound Fix Records

9:00PM: Film

The film is the US premiere of Persona Non Grata, directed by Fabio Wuytack. Prosecuted as a rebel. Banned as a priest. Committed as an artist. Loved as a father. An inspiring documentary—co-funded by the Rooftop Filmmaker Fund—about the filmmaker’s father, Franz Wuytack, a radical left-wing Belgian missionary in the slums of Venezuela in the 1960s. With a new liberal movement sweeping Latin America, and people like Wuytack needing to continue the fight for social justice in the US and around the world, this film is crucially relevant today.

It’s going to be a wonderful night! Get tickets at www.rooftopfilms.com

According to indieWIRE the audience at Hot Docs jumped 42% from 2008 to 2009 and had record breaking numbers this year (122,000). This is fantastic news for a festival with such a superb line-up of documentaries. The top 10 audience votes reflect just a tiny percent (and range) of the films screened:

1. The Cove (D: Louie Psihoyos; USA)
2. 65_RedRoses (D: Philip Lyall, Nimisha Mukerji; Canada)
3. Inside Hana’s Suitcase (D: Larry Weinstein; Canada, Czech Republic)
4. Best Worst Movie (D: Michael Paul Stephenson; USA)
5. A Hard Name (D: Alan Zweig; Canada)
6. Over The Hills and Far Away (D: Michel Orion Scott; USA)
7. Winnebago Man (D: Ben Steinbauer; USA)
8. Burma VJ (D: Anders Hogsbro Ostergaard; Denmark)
9. Rough Aunties (D: Kim Longinotto; UK)
10. Prom Night In Mississippi (D: Paul Saltzman; Canada)

The jury winners are here. Embarrassingly I hadn’t seen many of the jury winners but I’m very glad that Chung-ryoul Lee won the HBO Documentary Films Emerging Artist Award for Old Partner, one of my favorite films of the fest and one I had been longing to see ever since I heard people singing its praises at Sundance. The film I have been absolutely obsessed with is Renzo Martens’ Episode 3 – Enjoy Poverty. I’m waiting for Hot Docs to post video of the Q&A Martens gave after the first screening and I’m formulating a longer post about making documentaries about Africa and the politics of impact and aid. To this end I’ll be attending the Envision event on Thursday at the DGA in NYC to watch Rough Aunties and Pray the Devil Back to Hell. We’ll see how the panel Seeing Africa Through African Eyes tackles the issue!

I had a chance to attend the first North American Good Pitch at the TDF at Hot Docs – many of the issues around social change and documentaries came up during this event too so more thoughts on this to come shortly as well. The next Good Pitch will be at SILVERDOCS in June by the way – you can see the 8 projects selected on the BRITDOC website.

For now here are some photos documenting various Hot Docs hi-jinks.

Jess Search and Katie Bradford from BRITDOC (over from London to run the Good Pitch) talking to SXSW’s Janet Pierson at the British party hosted by Sheffield Doc/Fest and BRITDOC. The party took place the night I arrived and in true British style much booze was consumed!

Judith Helfand (Working Films, Chicken & Egg, filmmaker – this woman wears many amazing hats!) with Julie Goldman from Cactus Three.

Danielle DiGiacomo (indiePix), Yung Chang (director of the brilliant Up the Yangtze who had a short called Ali Shan at Hot Docs this year), Pamela Cohn (if you’re into docs and you don’t read her blog Still in Motion you’re a fool!) – this photo was taken at the hilarious Winnebago Man party. We got moved from the original hotel room where we were being a bit loud and ended up in a conference room in the wee hours.

Judith Helfand, Mark Atkin (SBS, Australia) and Joel Heller (one of the producers behind Winnebago Man which is definitely becoming a must-see doc this year. It’s a great film, full of complexity and warmth which you may not expect if you’ve only seen the original viral video.)

We took over the blackboard in the conference room and added some of our own 1AM thoughts to the corporate nonsense that was already on there. “ARTISINAL CHEESE” is my contribution in case you’re wondering.

I’ve just been watching Dominic DeJoseph’s wonderful film, Johnny Berlin, and I’m looking forward to seeing the sequel, Johnny Berlin 2, tonight at the Anthology Film Archives where it is screening as part of the fantastic Flaherty NYC monthly series.  Jon Hyrns (aka Johnny Berlin), the subject of both films (and the star of Alex Karposky’s Woodpecker), tells sad, hilarious, wonderful stories about his life. The films are essentially monologues but don’t let this put you off because Jon sees and talks about the world and his place in it in a way that will keep you absolutely rapt throughout – he is one of those people who looks at life sideways (and backwards and upside down). He sees the humor and the sadness, but also the utter ridiculousness. One of my favorite scenes in Johnny Berlin 2 involves Jon exploring the notion of crazy wisdom with a water pistol. Come discover some of your own crazy wisdom at Anthology tonight – 7.30pm. I’ll be hosting a discusssion with Dominic DeJoseph after the screening.

There is something about people singing all over the world that just makes me happy (Where the Hell is Matt did a similar thing with dancing). The video below is from a multimedia project called Playing for Change.

From the website:

The idea for this project arose from a common belief that music has the power to break down boundaries and overcome distances between people. No matter whether people come from different geographic, political, economic, spiritual or ideological backgrounds, music has the universal power to transcend and unite us as one human race. And with this truth firmly fixed in our minds, we set out to share it with the world.

I feel a little too cynical to be able to fully embrace this idea but I like it despite myself. There is something magical about music after all.

I have just segued from Tribeca to Hot Docs and plan to post reports on both festivals very soon. Work is kicking my butt right now so apologies for my slack blogging.