Hard to believe 2011 is almost over already. It’s been another great year of notes from film panels and filmmaker Q&As, but I have to give most of the credit to my contributing notetakers Erin Scherer, Liz Nord, Erin Essenmacher, and Rebecca Banach, all of whom have an incredible knack for transforming source discussion into compelling summations and analysis. We also had the great privilege to be chosen by The Christian Science Monitor as a blog partner in its Culture Cafe.
While I did have the opportunity to post some of my own notes this year, I personally had to take a back seat from posting due to my very fortunate almost non-stop work on many incredible film publicity projects. I want to thank the people who’ve been very generous to me giving me these amazing opportunities.
First and foremost, Thessa Mooij of Silversalt PR. Thessa is such a warm and kind person, and extremely hard working. She’s also a busy jet setter having traveled all over the world this past year from her home country of The Netherlands to the far reaches of Kazakhstan where she’s been doing unit publicity on the largest film to come out of that country ever, Myn Bala. We all need to look out for that film next year!
Big thank you’s to AJ Schnack, Esther Robinson and Nathan Truesdell for having me on their team at the Cinema Eye Honors for Nonfiction Filmmaking! We’re doing it again on January 11, 2012 at the Museum of the Moving Image. Some more thanks and praise to Thom Powers and Raphaela Neihausen for putting on another incredible DOC NYC and having me back as publicity liaison. And to all of the filmmakers and press who attended, as well as to the staff of DOC NYC including John Vanco, Harris Dew, Dana Krieger and Denise Hughes, publicist Susan Norget, photographer Simon Luethi, and all of our volunteers!
I also worked with some terrific filmmakers this year who I must also thank. Thank you Deborah Kaufman and Alan Snitow with whom I worked during their Stranger Than Fiction screening of Between Two Worlds. Thank you to Alexandra Roxo, director of Mary Marie, which premiered at the Brooklyn Film Festival where it won Best Cinematography for DP Magela Crosignani, and later screened at NewFest. It was great to work with Alexandra, as well as producer Rachel Earnest, and co-writer/co-star Alana Kearns-Green. I had such a wonderful time seeing Rachel, Alana, and Magela in Los Angeles during the time another film I repped, Honest Man: The Life of R. Budd Dwyer was making its L.A. debut. Speaking of which, huge thanks to Honest Man director James Dirschberger and to the Dwyer family. We had an incredible and emotional sold-out screening of Honest Man in Meadville, Pennsylvania, and of course again in L.A.
I’ve also had the good fortune to work with Alma Har’el on social media during her film Bombay Beach’s Tribeca Film Festival premiere, where it won Best Documentary! Thanks, Alma! Shout outs also go out to Alex Cirillo and Dani Faith Leonard of Big Vision Empty Wallet and David Teague of Flicker NYC!
And something a little different this year for which I had the great honor of working was Canadian artist John Coburn’s Healing Hearts art exhibition, a tribute to the families, first responders, and recovery workers of 9/11, at Sciame Construction. Thank you to everyone at Sciame, as well as Healing Hearts artist John Coburn, curator Thomas Beckett, producers Tom Powers & Gordon Smeaton, Toronto publicist Ingrid Hamilton, and gallery coordinator Melissa Silvestri.
Instead of our normal Top 10 Panels of the Year, I’ve set aside some highlights below from our notetakers who contributed in 2011.
Happy upcoming holidays and new year to all!
2011 Highlights
Sex It Up! Keepin’ It Kinky @ SXSW
Austin, TX – March 14, 2011
Notes by Erin Scherer
Summary:
The line between art and porn are becoming increasingly blurred. Independent filmmakers are gravitating toward graphic sex with films like 9 Songs and Shortbus, with both featuring unsimulated sex. Porn Directors like Vivian Darkbloom (featured in the panel) are doing more to incorporate edgy narrative into their work.
Discussion with Director Julie Taymor from 360/365
Rochester, NY – April 30, 2011
Notes by Rebecca Banach
Summary:
Director Julie Taymor has never followed the rules. In a discussion held at Rochester’s annual 360/365 film festival moderated by local film critic Jack Garner, Taymor said she “always jumped off the cliff instead of just standing on the cliff.” Her latest film, William Shakespeare’s ‘The Tempest’, is a perfect example of this. Taymor casts Helen Mirren as ‘Prospera,’ a female rework of the original male character.
Fins Encounter Landscape of Documentary Distribution in New York
New York, NY – June 9, 2011
Notes by Brian Geldin
Summary:
As part of its 10th anniversary, the Helsinki-based DocPoint festival celebrates Finnish documentaries with DocPoint NYC – a program of 47 films hosted by its New York partners: The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), Scandinavia House, 92YTribeca, UnionDocs and the Tribeca Film Institute. DocPoint is the largest documentary festival in the Nordic region. Finnish documentaries are enjoying an international boom, picking up awards, sales agents and distribution deals.
Grady and Ewing “Master” Silverdocs
Silver Spring, MD – June 25, 2011
Notes by Erin Essenmacher
Summary:
Heidi Ewing and Rachel Grady are fierce. As Loki Films they have produced countless works for television and four feature length documentaries, with a fifth currently in production. Their work has taken them from inner city Baltimore to East Africa, from the jungles of Sri Lanka to a non-descript looking corner in Florida that is actually ground zero for the fierce debate around abortion rights. They have snuck into abandoned buildings and the country of Cuba, fearlessly following where the story takes them. Their work has premiered at Sundance, appeared on networks like HBO A&E and Al Jazeera and been nominated for an Academy Award.
Telling Global Stories at DOC NYC
New York, NY – November 5, 2011
Notes by Liz Nord
Summary:
“Does humanity have the possibility of doing better than this?” That question is posed as a guiding principal of the International Criminal Court in the captivating trailer for Pamela Yates’s recent film, The Reckoning. I would argue that the same question motivates many documentary filmmakers, particularly those represented on DOCNYC’s Telling Global Stories panel.
