Corina MacLean's Blog

Posted by Corina MacLean

2006 IDA Award Feature Finalists are:

• Can Mr. Smith Get To Washington Anymore? Frank Popper, Matt Coen, Mike Kime Mr. Smith Movie, LLC, Sarah Jo Marks/At Risk Films, Independent Lens, PBS
• Deliver Us From Evil Amy Berg, Frank DonnerDisarming Films, Lionsgate
• Iraq in Fragments James LongleyTypecast Pictures, Typecast Releasing, HBO Documentary Films
• SHOWBUSINESS: A Season to Remember Dori BerinsteinDramatic Forces
• Sierra Leone’s Refugee All Stars Zach Niles, Banker WhiteSodaSoap Productions, P.O.V./American Documentary, PBS

2006 IDA Award Short Finalists are:

• ANGEL’S FIRE (Fuego de Angel) Marcelo Bukin, Julio de la Parra, Francesc TorrensRec Stop and Play, Global Humanitaria
• The Blood of Yingzhou District Ruby Yang, Thomas LennonThe China AIDS Media Project, Thomas Lennon Films, Inc.
• The Diary of Immaculee Peter Le Donne, Steve KalaferNew Jersey Studios, LLC
• A Short History of Sweet Potato Pie & How It Became a Flying Saucer Nina Gilden SeaveyThe Documentary Center at George Washington University, Team Sound and Vision
• The Wild Sheep, The Fox and Love Anne MagnussenEmbla Film As

Posted by Corina MacLean

Current TV and Third Millennium Foundation seek 3-5 minute non-fiction videos exploring the theme of tolerance. Edward Norton, Paul Haggis, Melissa Etheridge and Margaret Cho are guest judges. Grand prize: $100,000. Deadline: October 2, 2006. Current TV is seen in 28 million homes, dedicated to short-form films made by viewer creators from all over the world. Go to Seeds of Tolerance and check it out!

Posted by Corina MacLean

FourDocs has teamed up with Resfest and Sheffield Doc Fest to bring you a day long workshop on all aspects of documentary. It's on Tuesday 31st October in Sheffield and we want you there.

The event is a full-on, interactive, fun learning experience for students interested in making documentaries. You can get access to hands-on mentoring from some of the best documentary practitioners in the country. And Doc Day Afternoon is challenging students and young documentary makers to create a four minute documentary for FourDocs as part of the fun.

It'll be a great day's learning and practical docmaking, but that's not all it'll be. After you've spent the day in the workshop (from 10 til 5), you will also get to see a film in the Sheffield International Documentary Festival for free as part of your Doc Day Afternoon ticket. You can see Black Gold, a new powerful British documentary about the coffee trade, with the film-makers there to take your questions.

And after that? They're taking you dancing at an event with some RESFEST-curated VJ's!

What a day! Read more about it and how to book by going to Doc Day Afternoon.

Posted by Corina MacLean

For those of you who are youtubed-out, there's a refreshing collection of documentary shorts at a site called FourDocs, a clever project initiated and maintained by the UK's public-broadcaster Channel Four Television. The premise of the site is to encourage the making of documentary films by challenging filmmakers to make documentary films that are only four minutes long, and allowing those films to be uploaded onto the site for public viewing. If you are a new filmmaker, the site also has a constructive guide to making documentary films as well as a timeline that chronicles the history of documentary films in the UK.