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‘The Cove’ Team’s Sting Operation Revealed

IDA Editorial Staff — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 08:56:37 +0000

While attending the first evening of DocuDays LA 2010, The Cove director Louis Psihoyos more than hinted that while he and his Oceanic Preservation Society team were in town for Oscar-related events, they were also working on some covert operations with law officials to bust up an illegal ring of some sort. He even told us to keep an eye on the newspapers.

Now we know what he was talking about.

The Oscar-winning crew discovered that popular Santa Monica sushi restaurant Hump, was serving whale. A sting operation involving tiny cameras, surveillance equipment and the whole bit revealed that the restaurant ...

Ross Rogers Williams (Finally) Delivers Acceptance Speech

IDA Editorial Staff — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 08:25:41 +0000

While appearing on Larry King Live, the now famously "Kanye'd" Academy Award-winner for Best Documentary Short Subject, Roger Ross Williams got another shot at delivering his acceptance speech. See it here:

Awards Roundup: March 2-8, 2010

twhite — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 05:00:00 +0000

OK, we've heard all about the Oscars and the Independent Spirit Awards, but the world did keep spinning last week, and a fairly significant number of kudos rolled in from outside of LA--from Ireland, the Czech Republic, Iceland, Switzerland and New Zealand. And from the Bay Area, where San Jose-based Cinequest had the temerity to program its 20th edition this past week. In addition, the San Francisco Film Society announced its Film Arts Foundation Documentary Grant Finalists, including Steve James (Hoop Dreams) and Nancy Buirski, founder and former artistic director of the Full Frame Documentary Film Festival.

1) Awards

Czech Lions Awards Best Documentary: Forgotten ...

Academy Hosts DOCS! for Oscars Nominees

twhite — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 05:00:00 +0000

Above Photo: Matt Petit/(c) AMPAS
Academy Award-winner Rob Epstein (The Times of Harvey Milk; Common Threads) opened the DOCS! event at the Academy's Goldwyn Theater Wednesday night by thanking the IDA for hosting the Oscar nominees in the doc categories for the past 27 years. And with that, the torch was passed to its rightful owner.

According to IDA Founder Linda Buzzell, in a piece she wrote for Documentary Magazine on the occasion of IDA's 20th anniversary, the Oscars Reception was one of IDA's first public events, spurred by the fact that Nigel Nobel, winner for the 1981 short Close Harmony, ...

Video: Oscar Winners at DocuDays

IDA Editorial Staff — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 02:46:04 +0000

Regardless of the Kanye West-like activity when Music by Prudence producer Elinor Burkett grabbed the mic from director Roger Ross Williams during his acceptance speech for winning the award for Best Documentary Short Subject, the two played sorta nicely at the IDA's DocuDays 2010 Los Angeles event (even if Burkett was, shall we say, quicker, to answer questions--even when they were directed toward Williams).
See the full Music by Prudence post-screening Q&A which features Williams, Burkett, the film's subject Prudence Mabhena and others right there:

We had another Oscar-winner to-be in our company on Friday, March 5 when The Cove director Louie ...

‘The Cove,’ ‘Music by Prudence’ Take Doc Oscars

twhite — Sun, 07 Mar 2010 05:00:00 +0000

Culminating an awards-laden year that began with the Audience Award at Sundance 2009, The Cove, directed by Louis Psihoyos and produced by Fisher Stevens and Paula DePre Pesman, won the Academy Award for Best Documentary. Stevens accepted the honor we tried to make an entertaining film that also tried to enlighten everybody. Rick O'Barry whose not only a hero to this species but to all species. And just as Stevens introduced Psihoyos as "the man who came up with the idea," Rick O'Barry, the man devoted to saving the dolphins, held up a sign, "Text...Dolphin," and the Academy denied the ...

DocuDays LA, Day 1: Activism Takes Center Stage

IDA Editorial Staff — Sat, 06 Mar 2010 22:37:54 +0000

If there was a theme to 2010 DocuDays L.A.'s first night it was activism.
The two films which screened at the three-day, multi-city event focused on individuals who stood up for what they believed in, even if it meant facing off against a larger and seemingly-insurmountable foe. (See pictures from the night here and here on our Flickr pages.)
The first movie of the night, The Most Dangerous Man in America: Daniel Ellsberg and the Pentagon Papers, tells the story of former war planner Daniel Ellsberg and how his decision to leak 7,000 pages of a top secret Pentagon report to ...

‘Anvil,’ ‘45365′ Take Nonfiction Honors at Spirit Awards

twhite — Sat, 06 Mar 2010 05:00:00 +0000

In a journey that began at the 2008 Sundance Film Festival with lots of acclaim but no distribution offers, the story of Anvil! The Story of Anvil reached a rousing crescendo last night with an Independent Spirit Award for Best Documentary, capping an Awards Season that garnered a bevy of kudos, including an IDA Award in December.

"I think we're both going on, having spent these incredible few years together on this amazing journey," director Sacha Gervasi exclaimed backstage. "I feel a sense of completion. I wanted to make a movie I was proud of, with people I liked-I did that. ...

Award Noms, IDA Members Meet at Mixer

IDA Editorial Staff — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 18:46:48 +0000

The International Documentary Association held a special awards week mixer last night at The Standard Hotel, Hollywood. Independent Spirit Award and Oscar nominated filmmakers, IDA members and staff mixed and mingled in the swanky setting.
Enjoying the night were the filmmakers behind More Than a Game, Which Way Home, The Cove, Rabbit a la Berlin, Music by Prudence, Burma VJ (most docs which can be seen at DocuDays™ 2010) and IDA Board Members, Marjan Safinia, Senain Keshgi, Bob Niemack, Eddie Schmidt, Adam Chapnick, Steve Reich, Gilda Brasch and more!
See great pictures from the night below and then check ...

The Big Screen: March 2010

twhite — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 05:00:00 +0000

DocuWeeks 2009 alums Severe Clear (Dir.: Kristian Fraga) and Kimjongilia (Dir.: NC Heikin) open in theaters this month, as does IDA Fiscal Sponsoree See What I'm Saying (Dir.: Hilari Scarl). Also on tap for March are a couple of Hollywood-oriented docs: Peter Hanson's Tales from the Script, about the art and business-and travails-of the screenwriting trade; and Don Hahn's Waking Sleeping Beauty, a chronicle of golden age of animated blockbusters, from The Little Mermaid through The Lion King. New York's Film Forum brackets the month with Felix Moeller's Harlan: In the Shadow of Jew Süss, about Third Reich era filmmaker Veit ...