Documentary Storytelling: Creative Nonfiction on Screen

New year, new website!

2012-01-01T13:31:00.002-05:00

Check it out -- http://www.sheilacurranbernard.com/.

Happy 2012, everyone!

Inside Story premieres on World AIDS Day

2011-12-05T09:13:00.000-05:00

Inside Story: The Science of HIV/AIDS, described by USAID as "one of the world's largest media-based HIV prevention endeavors" premiered on December 1, 2011 in Johannesburg, South Africa! A 90-minute fictional drama featuring science-based animation (story by credit with Roger Smith), the film was produced by Discovery Channel Global Education Partnership and Curious Pictures. The trailer can be viewed here, http://insidestorythemovie.org/?q=node/67. The film will premiere in the U.S. and Nigeria early in 2012, and will be broadcast to millions of viewers throughout sub-Saharan Africa (and also distributed via NGOs in that region), with supporting informational materials.

Report from Plus Camerimage

2011-12-05T09:00:00.000-05:00

Spent an amazing week in Bydgszcz, Poland, at Plus Camerimage 2011 -- the international festival dedicated to the art of cinematography, November 26-December 3. Served on the jury for the Short Documentary Films Competition, "Image of the World - World in Images," with Haskell Wexler, Joan Churchill, David Kwok, and Piotr Stasik, and presented the new Polish translation of Documentary Storytelling, 3rd edition (Film Dokumentalny, translated by filmmaker Micheł Bukojemski and published in Warsaw by Wydawnictwo Wojciech Marzec, under the direction of Renata Warchał.

With filmmaker Haskell Wexler

Sundance!

2011-12-05T08:44:00.000-05:00

Slavery by Another Name, a feature-length film I wrote for PBS (directed by Sam Pollard, based on the Pulitzer Prize-winning book by Douglas A. Blackmon) is one of just 16 documentaries selected for U.S. competition at the 2012 Sundance Film Festival! Nominees also include Susan Froemke, who discusses film storytelling in the first and second editions of Documentary Storytelling (her Sundance film is ESCAPE FIRE: The Fight to Rescue American Health Care, directed with Matthew Heineman) and Victoria Bruce and Karin Hayes, whose interview about storytelling is also in the third edition (their Sundance film is We're Not Broke).

Inside Story in Production

2011-06-15T16:41:00.002-05:00

Inside Story: The Science of HIV/AIDS is now in production in South Africa! Here's an article, http://mediaupdate.co.za/?IDStory=38269.

New trailer, Slavery by Another Name

2011-05-02T09:47:00.001-05:00

Click here to see the new trailer for Slavery by Another Name, coming to PBS winter 2012! (Oops -- trailer is down, but here are some images from art director Sean Murray, http://www.seanamurray.com/#1396569/PBS-Slavery-by-Another-Name.)

Slavery By Another Name

2011-04-08T18:37:00.000-05:00

On location in Alabama, March 2011

Click here for more production stills and info from the PBS documentary of Slavery By Another Name, which I'm writing based on Douglas A. Blackmon's amazing Pulitzer Prize-winning book. Directed by Sam Pollard, produced by Twin Cities PBS -- coming to broadcast 2012. Stay tuned!

New web resources from Focal Press

2011-04-05T09:57:00.000-05:00

Mastering Film -- a resource from Focal Press and its authors. With an article excerpted from Documentary Storytelling, 3rd edition!

Nick Fraser: Why Documentaries Matter

2011-03-20T20:31:00.000-05:00

From Nick Fraser, series editor of Storyville on BBC4 (and interviewed in Documentary Storytelling): "...[D]ocumentaries are among the most valuable, neglected cultural forms of our time."

Read the whole article in The Observer online, http://www.guardian.co.uk/tv-and-radio/2011/mar/20/documentaries-brian-cox-nick-fraser?CMP=twt_gu

"I can't recommend a better place to start your journey...."

2010-12-01T11:37:00.000-05:00

Thank you to Stephen Nathans-Kelly for his thoughtful review of Documentary Storytelling, 3rd edition, in EventDV.net!

Writing for a readership that primarily includes event videographer/filmmakers, Nathans-Kelly asks, "And why should this book matter to you...? For several reasons. One is that the line between event filmmaking and other filmmaking genres is increasingly blurred as event filmmakers continue to absorb influences from outside the event world, as tools and filmmaking techniques converge, and as event filmmakers aspire to achieve the same sort of impact with their event films that the best documentarians do. Another reason is that for most of us in this industry, shooting events is only one of the things we do; we’re also doing corporate and commercial work, legal videography, biography films, or other types of video production that edge us ever closer to the documentary world. What’s more, when many event filmmakers think about the movie they really want to make, outside of the commissioned work that’s the lifeblood of their businesses, that movie is a documentary on some topic of great personal significance. The information and techniques presented in Bernard’s book may well fill the gaps (probably sizeable, but manageable) between the technical chops they’ve developed in their event work and the storytelling techniques they’ll need to master to produce the feature they aspire to create."

Read the entire review at: http://www.eventdv.net/Articles/ReadArticle.aspx?ArticleID=72060.

Mon 8-23 and Tues 8-24: Spike Lee's Katrina sequel

2010-08-23T10:19:00.002-05:00

If God is Willing and Da Creek Don't Rise, the 5-year Katrina anniversary sequel to When the Levees Broke, is airing tonight and tomorrow night on HBO. Produced by Sam Pollard and Spike Lee and directed by Lee, the film has been widely reviewed -- in the Huffington Post, the New York Times, and elsewhere. Sam Pollard is among those interviewed in Documentary Storytelling.

History, Documentary, iPod -- a walking tour in Boston

2010-08-20T10:51:00.003-05:00

From the July/August 2010 issues of "Humanities" (National Endowment for the Humanities), a report by Craig Lambert on Walking Cinema: Murder on Beacon Hill -- an iPod app offering a walking tour that explores an 1849 murder in Boston. The tour was co-produced by Eric Stange, director of Murder at Harvard, a broadcast documentary (PBS's American Experience) -- which in turn is built around historian Simon Schama's book, Dead Certainties, which looks at the murder and how historians piece together narratives.

The app is available from Untravel Media. (See also Ryan Gilbey's article for The Guardian: "The first film made for the iPhone: Is this the start of a whole new cinematic genre"?)

SAY NO TO THE VERIZON-GOOGLE BLOW TO NET NEUTRALITY

2010-08-05T15:58:00.002-05:00

"The Internet and other digital media offer an unprecedented opportunity for creators to reach consumers and for people to watch and read what they want, when they want," notes the Writers Guild of America, East, in demanding that the Federal Communications Commission and Congress NOT allow the Verizon-Google deal to move ahead.

Should it pass, they warn, "the Internet will resemble television and the movies: completely dominated by a handful of multinational conglomerates that decide what the public will watch based, not on the quality of the programming, but on the margin of profit." READ THE FULL ACCOUNT.

Included in Apple's "A Curriculum for Digital Media Creation"

2010-08-01T14:14:00.002-05:00

Sponsored by Apple Inc., Marco Antonio Torres and Ross Kallen's 84-page "A Curriculum for Digital Media Creation: Sixteen Lessons, from Storyboarding to Producing a Documentary" (2008) -- see page 10:

"Many books focus on the post-production side of the process. Also, some great reference books exist for documentary moviemaking classes. We recommend two of them, both of which look at the whole picture of documentary moviemaking:
Directing the Documentary, *Fourth Edition (Paperback) by Michael Rabiger
Documentary Storytelling for Video and Filmmakers by Sheila Curran Bernard"

Thanks! (Link: http://images.apple.com/education/docs/Apple-Moviemakingcurriculum.pdf)

Documentary Storytelling for Government Agencies

2010-08-01T13:49:00.003-05:00

Documentary Storytelling is one of two books on visual storytelling recommended in the "Do It Yourself Video Guide for Government Agencies" -- available online (January 2010).

Now available in Korean!

2010-07-24T14:00:00.003-05:00

Translation Elsevier Korea LLC

CommunicationBooks, Inc.

Seoul

www.commbooks.com

ISBN 978-89-8499-555-0

Want to work in documentary? Study drama.

2010-07-19T12:41:00.004-05:00

Just back from 10 days in Washington, DC at the Kennedy Center Playwriting Intensive, reminded once again of the value of exploring a range of art forms to truly understand what it means to tell a story.

Documentaries -- to outsiders -- offer a parade of facts on screen. They're those 5th grade film strips that taught hygiene or bicycle safety; they're the aggressive recitation of carefully-chosen facts that provide additional ammunition to people who've already formed an opinion; they're the bland presentation of information -- about history, science, people, places, you name it -- in an order that is factually dutiful and creatively dull. No matter how interesting the basic subject matter is, if this is what you think a documentary is, the film you make will be the equivalent of a stranger's home movies.

But this is not what today's best documentaries -- or yesterday's, for that matter -- are.

Documentaries are movies that draw strength from a simple contract between filmmaker and audience, that what is being presented as the truth -- and the evidence used -- are both honest and true.

Documentary filmmakers are artists -- skilled, seasoned artists -- whose palette includes the tools of both journalism and drama. They shape stories, rather than invent them. Watch Alex Gibney's Gonzo, or Ari Folman's Waltz with Bashir, or Deborah Scranton's The War Tapes. Tune in to Frontline or Nova, and try not to get sucked in by the content but instead to watch the craft. Better yet, watch it once for content, and three or four times for craft. Look at where the film starts, how it's structured, how it's "cast," what themes it illuminates and explores. Look at how the filmmaker shows rather than tells. And if you don't know what that means -- study drama. Playwriting, screenwriting, creative nonfiction, narrative journalism, fiction, short stories.... The answers are there.

Tribeca

2010-03-27T14:44:00.003-05:00

The Tribeca Film Festival line-up has been announced, and documentaries include:

Gerrymandering, edited by Sam Pollard (directed by Jeff Reichert) - Discovery

Earth Made of Glass, directed by Deborah Scranton (trailer is here) - World Documentary Feature Competition

Untitled Eliot Spitzer Film, a work in progress directed by Alex Gibney - Special Event

Third edition update!

2010-03-27T11:14:00.003-05:00

Coming in September, Documentary Storytelling, 3rd edition -- featuring new interviews with Alex Gibney, Deborah Scranton, James Marsh and more.

Partners in Health

2010-01-15T21:03:00.001-05:00

If you’re looking for a way to help in Haiti, I strongly recommend Partners in Health (http://standwithhaiti.org/haiti/news-entry/recent-media-coverage-on-pih-work-in-haiti/ )

PIH has been on the ground in Haiti for more than 20 years, creating a revolutionary model for health care delivery that’s since been implemented in locations as diverse as Roxbury and Rwanda. (PIH not only treats patients, but also sets out to “alleviate the root causes of disease in their communities, and to share lessons learned around the world” -- http://model.pih.org/model. As another of their web pages notes: “When a person in Peru, or Siberia, or rural Haiti falls ill, PIH uses all of the means at our disposal to make them well—from pressuring drug manufacturers to lobbying policy makers, to providing medical care and social services.”)

PIH was created by doctors Paul Farmer and Jim Kim, and was written about in Tracy Kidder’s extraordinary book, Mountains Beyond Mountains. (See Kidder’s op-ed piece in the January 13 New York Times, http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/14/opinion/14kidder.html.)

The Partners in Health hospitals were far enough from the epicenter to avoid damage, and as early as Wednesday were receiving patients; see this article in the Boston Globe; see also this clip, http://standwithhaiti.org/haiti/news-entry/tracy-kidder-on-the-rachel-maddow-show-video/

I have nothing but admiration for this organization, and urge you to consider donating.

BBC and ethics in media

2010-01-11T18:23:00.002-05:00

Doc filmmakers should plan to spend some time at the BBC's Safeguarding Trust website... From the site: "Safeguarding Trust is an editorial training programme which examines the issue of where to draw the line between legitimate media artifice and unacceptable audience deception. The BBC launched this site following the serious editorial breaches that occurred in 2007. Among these was the incident in which a child visiting the Blue Peter studio was asked to pose as a phone-in competition winner, the showing of scenes from the documentary A Year with the Queen in a wrong and misleading order and the revelation that competitions on various channels had involved audience members being asked to call premium rate numbers when they had no chance of winning." Make your own way through interactive modules and more.

So You Want to Work in Documentary - IDA

2009-12-29T17:56:00.002-05:00

An article on starting out in documentary, written for the fall issue of Documentary, published by the International Documentary Association.

Chinese edition 2010!

2009-08-24T08:54:00.002-05:00

Elsevier Science & Technology China has confirmed that Documentary Storytelling, 2nd edition is being translated into Chinese for publication in China December 2010! I will be writing a preface.

A response to "Taking History Back from the 'Storytellers'"

2009-08-05T17:26:00.004-05:00

As expected, Rick Prelinger's thought-provoking post about storytelling has gotten a number of responses, including a rather lengthy one from me. Check out the conversation!

Taking history back from the "storytellers"

2009-06-23T09:32:00.003-05:00

From archivist and filmmaker Rick Prelinger, a thought-provoking rant (his word, not mine), on storytelling, history, and archival materials: http://blackoystercatcher.blogspot.com/2009/06/taking-history-back-from-storytellers.html

Women in the Industry (NYWIFT)

2009-05-31T14:57:00.003-05:00

From NY Women in Film and Television, a compilation of resources on the (not good) status of women in the film and television industries. Two highlights from the work of Dr. Martha M. Lauzen:

"Men write the overwhelming majority of film reviews in the nation's top newspapers."
"In 2007, women comprised 15% of all directors, executive producers, producers, writers, cinematographers, and editors working on the top 250 domestic grossing films. This represents a decline of 2 percentage points from 1998 and represents no change from 2006."

From the Directors Guild of America: "[O]n the 'top forty' prime time drama and comedy series in 2003-2004 ... 86 percent of the episodes were directed by Caucasian males..."

Go to NYWIFT's website for links and details.

3rd edition - let me know what you think

2009-05-20T13:23:00.003-05:00

If you use Documentary Storytelling -- whether the first or second edition -- in your own work or in teaching others, I'd love to hear from you as I work on the third edition. I'm planning to update the case studies, add some new interviews, look at new issues (the impact of budgets and schedules on storytelling, for example) and branch out to be more explicit about storytelling in a range of documentary media (and range of lengths), for a range of purposes (not only theatrical and broadcast release, but also museum and classroom use and perhaps the use of documentary storytelling to inform policy makers, advocate for change, etc.) As much as possible, I'll be referring to projects easily available for review.

Any thoughts on this, or on what else might be useful in a third edition (to be published in the fall of 2010)? Please leave a note here (understanding that all comments and suggestions become my sole property without exception) -- and thanks!

Vérité BS

2009-05-20T12:32:00.004-05:00

I'm so tired of reading about "pure" vérité and how real filmmakers just go out and shoot. Inefficient, inexperienced filmmakers just go out and shoot. Talk to long-term, award-winning vérité champs and you'll learn that they actually plan for the basics of story -- a narrative baseline, characters, the promise of relevant action -- thereby laying the foundation for powerful, important vérité films. In other words, before they shoot, they choose carefully what, how, who, and where to shoot. AND then the vérité magic happens. The outline may be a page long -- or a paragraph -- but some basic story issues have been considered right from the start. And as circumstances suggest change -- characters or situations take the film in new and better directions, for example -- they are prepared to adapt and take advantage of this change.

The filmmaker who just goes out to shoot a subject (not a story), is likely to wind up with a lot (a lot!) of weak footage, lots of hair pulling, and ridiculous amounts of time in the editing room trying to then pull a story out of marginally-relevant material . Furthermore, filmmakers who "find" a story after the fact risk crossing ethical boundaries, as they ask documentary footage to represent events, ideas, and emotions that it does not, in fact, represent.

Even films that are not vérité (or that combine vérité with other forms), are never, with extremely rare exceptions, scripted. (That's an old, news-based model that went out around the time Sputnik was launched.) As with vérité, but to a greater extent, these films are planned in advance through outlines and/or shooting treatments -- whether one page or 20 -- that suggest what the story is (not the subject, the story), who the specific characters are (if not by name, at least by type), and some baseline narrative -- beginning, middle, and end -- that will focus the shooting and infuse shots, scenes, and sequences with story information. And these filmmakers, too, usually encounter the unexpected, and their films are better for it because of, and not despite, their preparation.

In other words, documentary storytelling is NOT about scripting and is as relevant to the vérité folks as it is to anyone else. It's about applying time-tested strategies for good storytelling -- structure, character, conflict, stakes, resolution -- to the modern-day world of documentary media. And that's true even if you'd rather scratch your own eyes out than write or use narration in your film.

April 19 - "The Audition" nationwide!

2009-03-31T07:52:00.002-05:00

http://www.fathomevents.com/upcoming/details/The_Audition.html -- On Sunday, April 19, in movie theaters nationwide: ,the Metropolitan Opera’s acclaimed Live in HD series presents vérité filmmaker Susan Froemke's The Audition (3 pm ET / 12 pm PT).

The feature-length film, hosted by star soprano Renée Fleming, is a backstage look at the intense pressures young opera singers face as they struggle to succeed in one of the most difficult professions in the performing arts. The presentation then includes coverage of a live panel discussion moderated by Fleming, with fellow National Council winners Susan Graham and Thomas Hampson, filmed on location at the Met. Click here for a list of participating theatres.

GM and Ken Burns

2009-03-11T08:33:00.002-05:00

The New York Times and Detroit News have reported that because of its financial woes, General Motors will not be renewing its 22-year relationship with documentary filmmaker Ken Burns and his company, Florentine Films. The most recent contract ends this year, making The National Parks: America's Best Idea (a 12-hour history airing on PBS this fall) the last collaboration.

Anything for a buck? Two views of advertising in the entertainment industry

2009-02-21T11:34:00.005-05:00

Click here to read a 2005 white paper from the WGA east and west, "Are You SELLING To Me?": Stealth Advertising in the Entertainment Industry. "...[T]ens of millions of viewers are sometimes being sold products without their knowledge, sold in opaque, subliminal ways, and sold in violation of governmental regulations. Professional writers are now required to be complicit in these practices, and it is for these reasons that the Writers Guild of America, west and East have published this white paper. We seek to explain just what product integration is, why it has recently become so prevalent, and what we think can and should be done about it."

And here's a link to a discussion (lament?) about a far more overt form of cashing in, "Songs from the Heart of Marketing Plan," a 2008 The New York Times piece by Jon Parele. "Musicians have to eat and want to be heard, and if that means accompanying someone else’s sales pitch or videogame, well, it’s a living," Pareles writes. "Why wait for album royalties to trickle in, if they ever do, when licensing fees arrive upfront as a lump sum? It’s one part of the system of copyright regulations that hasn’t been ravaged by digital distribution, and there’s little resistance from any quarters."

Promo for "The Audition"

2009-01-12T15:59:00.003-05:00

Just discovered a fabulous promo for Susan Froemke's new vérité film, "The Audition" -- http://www.metoperafamily.org/metupload/video/2008-09/Audition/index.html.
The feature-length film offers a behind-the-scenes look at the career-launching competition hosted by the New York's Metropolitan Opera and features extraordinary talent. Coming soon!

The myth of "unscripted" TV

2009-01-03T10:22:00.006-05:00

Check out the December 2008 issue of the Writers Guild of America's Written By (non-members can subscribe for $40/year -- well worth it!) -- for an excellent article, Does Reality Still Bite?, by Jim Milio & Melissa Jo Peltier, writers of Dog Whisperer. These industry veterans look at ongoing problems that writers face when they seek recognition -- and compensation -- for the scripting that goes on behind the scenes of so-called "unscripted" shows. (The Dog Whisperer is considered scripted, and is covered by the WGA.) Also check out Joel Stein's 2004 Los Angeles Times piece, The New Quiz Show Scandal, referred to in the article. "Through sources I cannot reveal but would definitely not go to jail to protect, I got hold of a 19-page, single-spaced outline of an upcoming episode of Queer Eye for the Straight Guy," Stein wrote. "Every moment is planned in advance, including a few specific lines for the straight guy to deliver, which Bravo says is not unusual for any reality show. It’s something that people in Hollywood know and think is no big deal." (Partipants in reality shows generally sign very broad releases; see for example the casting applications for a new CBS series, Block Party and ABC's Supernanny.)

Archival tips

2008-12-22T15:35:00.003-05:00

For those who haven't checked it out, please visit http://archivalstorytelling.blogspot.com, the blog that Kenn Rabin and I established as a companion to the book, Archival Storytelling. Some news, tips, and resources on the use of third-party materials by media makers working in a range of platforms -- worth a look!

When to work for free? Almost never.

2008-11-10T08:30:00.002-05:00

Here's a link to When to Work for Free, a November 9 article in The New York Times by freelance writer Michelle Goodman. Her conclusion: It doesn’t matter if you’re a dog walker, a Web designer or a tax preparer. When you agree to work for free, you reinforce people’s misguided ideas that the self-employed are independently wealthy hobbyists. Don’t degrade your profession by letting a cheap client take advantage of you.

Objectivity and balance in public broadcasting

2008-10-12T10:31:00.003-05:00

"In October of 2007, CPB announced a Request for Proposals on seven mutually-exclusive research topics regarding objectivity and balance in public broadcasting..." -- read more, and find the resulting reports, at http://www.cpb.org/aboutcpb/goals/objectivity/whitepapers/

The Accountable Guardian: Concepts in Tension - The Challenge of Ensuring both Objectivity and Balance and Editorial Independence by Jeffrey A. Dvorkin and Alan G. Stavitsky, Ph.D.
Objectivity and Balance: Conceptual and Practical History in American Journalism by Alan G. Stavitsky, Ph.D. and Jeffrey A. Dvorkin,
Objectivity & Balance: How Do Readers and Viewers of News and Information Reach Conclusions Regarding Objectivity and Balance? by Natalie Jomini Stroud, Ph.D. and Stephen D. Reese, Ph.D.
Objectivity & Balance: Today's Best Practices in American Journalism by Joel Kaplan

Archival Storytelling is published!

2008-09-27T12:29:00.004-05:00

Archival Storytelling, written with Kenn Rabin, has been published!

Copies can be ordered through Focal Press, Amazon, and other bookseller. And if you like the book, please be sure to post a review on Amazon -- thanks!

Thanks to WEVA

2008-08-13T08:48:00.004-05:00

A big thank you to the folks at the Wedding & Event Videographers Association International, who invited me to their 18th annual expo to talk about the tools of documentary storytelling!

Ingrid Betancourt rescued

2008-07-06T09:13:00.003-05:00

As was widely reported last week, Ingrid Betancourt, a candidate for president in Colombia when she was kidnapped in 2002, has been freed, along with three Americans held hostage since 2003. For those of you who have not seen the film, now would be a good time to buy ($29.95 home vide0) or rent The Kidnapping of Ingrid Betancourt, a powerful, feature-length documentary released in 2003 by filmmakers Victoria Bruce and Karin Hayes, who were interviewed about the film in the 2nd edition of Documentary Storytelling. The filmmakers also produced Held Hostage in Colombia about the Americans; see their website, www.urcuninafilms.com.

Getting Paid for Content

2008-06-12T14:21:00.004-05:00

A post I made to the Doculink listserve got a bit garbled, so I'm revising it here. There was a discussion about Current TV relying heavily on user-generated content, holding out the promise to "have your voice broadcast in 51 million homes in the US." It appears that some completed productions are rewarded after the fact (i.e., the filmmaker assumes all upfront costs and risk, on the chance of getting some pay later). But other programming offers no payment at all. The "make TV in <10 minutes" solicitation, for example, says, "We generally don't pay for these (look for those that do) but they're the easiest way to TV! "

If this were an issue at this one site, it would be one thing. But it's a problem across the new media landscape, and it's mirrored by a growing problem within more traditional cable and broadcasting venues as well. Independent producers creating works for hire for television (virtually all documentary programming is outsourced) face ever-shrinking budgets and schedules. They're expected to bear not only the cost of self-employment but also the burden of production insurance, overhead, licensing fees and more.

And then, as independents working on their own films, as many are, these same producers may find that they have no choice but to ask others to accept minimal or deferred salaries, because what little money they've earned as freelancers or raised from funders has to go to equipment , licensing, and other "unavoidable" expenses: it costs money to make documentaries.

And so the cycle continues, and the sense that the content creators can and even should be the last paid (if at all) becomes ingrained.

But here's the thing: This is not a low-earning industry. The revenue just goes to more prioritized areas. How many of the advertisers, marketers, lawyers, salespeople, and executives working in broadcast and cable venues would be willing to forego living wages and benefits for the sake of working in television? According to today's Washington Post, Discovery's new CEO, David Zaslav, was paid more than $18 million in 2007. Chairman Jon Hendriks was paid in excess of $30 million. Isn't the thrill of bringing nonfiction media to 1.5 billion cumulative subscribers around the world enough? And Current TV, founded only in 2002, has yet to make a profit, according to the Financial Times, but founder Al Gore earned $1 million from the company in 2007.

Some documentaries can be made inexpensively. But many cannot; their subject matters and complexity require time and skill if they are to be meaningfully researched, with innovative, relevant, and up-to-date content. It takes additional time and skill to tell these stories both effectively and ethically; to find drama within the story, and not simply warn of sharks around every corner. All of this requires that the content creators -- the filmmakers -- have sufficient resources. That they, too, earn a reasonable living in the ever-expanding media marketplace. In fact, most can't; the number of talented, senior producers leaving the field is disheartening, or at least it should be.

In a speech made fifty years ago, reporter Edward R. Murrow warned about the danger that excess commercialism posed to a medium that had tremendous potential: "This instrument can teach, it can illuminate; yes, and it can even inspire. But it can do so only to the extent that humans are determined to use it to those ends. Otherwise it is merely wires and lights in a box. There is a great and perhaps decisive battle to be fought against ignorance, intolerance and indifference. This weapon of television could be useful."

Fifty years later, with a multitude of channels and media outlets Murrow couldn't possibly have imagined, the potential remains. But only if those creating meaningful content are given the resources they truly need to do the job. It's up to us as documentary creators to insist on being paid fairly for our work, and to do a better job of educating audiences, teachers, and policy makers about the work we do--and what it takes to do it well.

And to those tempted to uplink documentary material for free, I'll end with a reference to an opinion piece in The New York Times by computer scientist Jaron Lanier: "Pay Me for My Content." There's got to be a way.

Archival Storytelling!

2008-04-05T13:08:00.003-05:00

Archival Storytelling, a new book I've written with Kenn Rabin, is out of our hands and into the publisher's! Focal Press, a division of Elsevier, will be releasing it in October 2008.

Featuring conversations with industry leaders including Patricia Aufderheide, Hubert Best, Peter Jaszi, Jan Krawitz, Lawrence Lessig, Stanley Nelson, Rick Prelinger, Geoffrey C. Ward and many others, Archival Storytelling is an essential, pragmatic guide to one of the most challenging issues facing filmmakers today: the use of images and music that belong to someone else.

Much more than a how-to, it explores practical, creative, and ethical issues surrounding the use of third-party materials, and defines key terms—copyright, fair use, fair dealing, public domain, orphan works and more. And it challenges filmmakers to become not only archival users but also archival and copyright activists, ensuring their ongoing ability as creators to draw on the cultural materials that surround them.

For a preview review, go to Spoke Digital Films. Thanks, Dustin!

It took almost a million dollars...

2008-01-16T18:19:00.000-05:00

...to clear the rights and get ALL 14 hours of the landmark civil rights series Eyes on the Prize back to air -- if your local PBS station isn't carrying the rebroadcast of Eyes II (airing on four consecutive Sundays, Feb 3, 10, 17, and 24), call and ask them to do so.

Eyes II begins in 1965, picking up where Eyes I left off. "Eyes on the Prize II covers a divisive period in American history that is highly relevant to what is happening in the political landscape today," said Judi Hampton, sister of the series' late creator, Henry Hampton, in PBS press materials.

Sam Pollard and I produced, directed and wrote two films for Eyes II, "Two Societies" and "Ain't Gonna Shuffle No More." The latter film won Emmys for both writing and editing (they were edited by Betty Ciccarelli), and the series won the George Foster Peabody Award for Excellence in Broadcast Journalism. It's worth tuning in!

Watch EYES II on PBS in February!

2008-01-01T10:30:00.001-05:00

Finally, the second season of Eyes on the Prize will return to public television -- tell everyone you know! These eight hours cover a range of stories, from Malcolm X and Muhammad Ali to the Black Panther Party, the Black Arts Movement, Martin Luther King, Jr.'s Poor People's Campaign, and more. The series is being aired as a special presentation of American Experience.

Eyes I (six hours, covering events from 1954 to 1965) premiered on PBS in 1987 and was rebroadcast on American Experience in October 2006). Eyes II (eight hours, 1965-1984) premiered in 1990, and returns for the first time this February.

As has been widely reported, both seasons fell out of distribution as underlying rights to third-party visuals and music expired--a routine occurrence in the world of documentary. (For more information, click here.) In the case of Eyes, however, public outcry and grants totalling nearly a million dollars (from the Ford Foundation and others) enabled rights to be renewed, allowing for rebroadcast and for educational release of the series on DVD. (Print materials for teachers wanting to use Eyes in the classroom are available online; see also Facing History's website.)

ITVS announces International Call

2007-11-09T18:20:00.000-05:00

From the Independent Television Service, a February 1, 2008 deadline to submit "programs that bring international perspectives, ideas, events, and people to U.S. television." Looking for "single documentaries of standard broadcast-hour length...that have already begun producton and can be realistically completed within one year of contract" and "co-production projects." Must be "independent producers"... Students not eligible; U.S. residents "not eligible to apply as a primary applicant. International Call funds must be used as production completion funds for the project." Visit ITVS for details.

Pollard interview at MediaRights.org

2007-10-17T17:05:00.000-05:00

An interview with Sam Pollard about When the Levees Broke (produced with Spike Lee), excerpted from the second edition of Documentary Storytelling, has been posted online by Media Rights.org. ("MediaRights is a project of the 501(c)(3) nonprofit Arts Engine, Inc., an organization committed to producing, distributing and promoting independent media of consequence.")

Writers Guild call for entries

2007-09-25T14:06:00.000-05:00

The Writers Guild of America, West (WGAW) and the Writers Guild of America, East (WGAE) -- call for submissions for the WGA's Documentary Screenplay Award. Submissions are due between September 14 and December 4, 2007, with the Documentary Screenplay Award to be presented at the Los Angeles ceremony of the 2008 Writers Guild Awards on Saturday, February 9, 2008.

FROM THE WGAE WEBSITE: SCREEN DOCUMENTARY ELIGIBILITY REQUIREMENTS
To be eligible for entry, films must have been exhibited theatrically in Los Angeles or New York during 2006. Scripts need not be written under WGA jurisdiction... At the time the script is submitted, all credited writers on the film must be or apply to become members of the WGAW Nonfiction Writers Caucus or the WGAE Nonfiction Writers Committee. ...The script must be of feature length (over 45 minutes). Films which receive their first public exhibition on broadcast or cable television are not eligible for Screen Awards. Foreign language films are not eligible. Documentaries produced through the International Affiliation of Writers Guilds will be accepted.

For more info, go to www.wga.org or www.wgaeast.org.

New book from Onyekachi Wambu

2007-08-21T10:13:00.000-05:00

Under the Tree of Talking: Leadership for Change in Africa, edited by Onyekachi Wambu, is being published by Counterpoint and will be available after September 1 from Amazon in the U.K., U.S. and elsewhere. Wambu, a filmmaker and journalist, was interviewed in chapter 25 of Documentary Storytelling, Second Edition (2007).

Save the BBC's Storyville

2007-08-20T17:50:00.000-05:00

In an email sent August 17, 2007, the International Documentary Association reported: "The BBC is conducting an intensive internal spending review and, according to well-placed sources, the Corporation is planning to reduce Storyville’s annual budget from £2.2m to £1m - a 60% cut. The impact will turn Storyville into an acquisition strand by abolishing funding for its UK co-productions. This means there will be some 25 less documentary commissions a year for UK directors and producers."

Readers of Documentary Storytelling, Second Edition (2007) may remember the interview with Storyville ommissioning editor Nick Fraser (chapter 20), and discussion of the many films the strand has helped bring to air, including So Much So Fast, Murderball, and Trembling before G-d.

The IDA asks those concerned to sign a petition protesting the cuts, at http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/savestoryville, and in addition to contact fellow media professionals, the BBC, and others.

P.O.V. Season Underway

2007-06-28T17:00:00.001-05:00

The 2007 season of the PBS series P.O.V, television's "longest-running showcase for independent non-fiction films" is underway and well worth checking out. It runs on Tuesdays at 10 (check local listings), starting June 19.

June 10 review

2007-06-19T18:09:00.000-05:00

Thank you to Spoke Digital Films for their review of Documentary Storytelling (the first edition; an updated edition is now available), along with four other documentary books! Click on the link to read the reviews.

Foreign language edition - Portuguese

2007-06-08T13:59:00.000-05:00

Elsevier Brazil is translating Documentary Storytelling, Second Edition (Focal Press 2007) into Portuguese! Stay tuned for publication date.

New article online - Writers Store

2007-05-08T12:21:00.000-05:00

"Nonfiction filmmakers can’t take creative license with factual stories, but instead must limit their artistry to what media historian Erik Barnouw described as the creative arrangement of factual material. What’s the difference?" See new article, Creative License vs. Creative Arrangement, in the Writers Store ezine!

"Documentary" magazine archive

2007-04-14T19:09:00.000-05:00

Documentary, a publication of the International Documentary Association, has put its magazine archive online. There's a 2005 article by me about efforts to renew the rights to Eyes on the Prize and the cost of using archival materials.

Speaking of Eyes, when is PBS going to re-broadcast the rest of the series? The first six hours (which premiered on PBS in 1987) were shown on PBS in October 2006. Tell PBS if you want to see the remaining eight hours (which premiered on PBS in 1990), covering events from 1965 to 1984 and including stories about Malcolm X, Muhammad Ali, Attica, the Black Arts movement, Carl Stokes, Harold Washington, and much more.

Interview with Onyekachi Wambu

2007-03-29T12:30:00.000-05:00

The Spring/Summer 2007 issue of the very elegant DoubleTake/Points of Entry magazine includes an excerpt from the second edition of my book, Documentary Storytelling: Making Stronger and More Dramatic Nonfiction Films -- an interview with filmmaker and journalist Onyekachi Wambu. Born in Nigeria, he moved with his family to London and is currently the information officer at the African Foundation for Development (www.afford-uk.org).

Interview with Kenn Rabin

2007-03-29T12:15:00.000-05:00

Zoom in Online excerpted an interview with archival expert Kenn Rabin, also from the second edition of Documentary Storytelling (Focal Press, January 2007). Thanks to Annie Frisbie for the post, and to GreenCine Daily for picking up on it -- they dubbed the excerpt "fascinating"!