Jaie Laplante has been tapped as the new artistic director of Doc NYC, America’s largest and arguably most influential documentary festival. He will replace Thom Powers, the festival’s founding artistic director, who will move into a previously announced new role as director of special projects.
In addition, the festival is unveiling its wider programming team for features and shorts. The festival will hold its 13th edition from Nov. 9 to Nov. 17. The 2022 version will be both in person in New York and accessible online across the U.S.
Laplante offers more than 20 years of festival experience. For the past 12 years, he served as the Miami Film Festival’s executive director and co-director of programming, where he oversaw a major expansion of that festival’s documentary selections, as well as launched a digital screening platform and the Google Talks on Gender & Racial Gaps in Film & Technology. He simultaneously oversaw year-round...
In addition, the festival is unveiling its wider programming team for features and shorts. The festival will hold its 13th edition from Nov. 9 to Nov. 17. The 2022 version will be both in person in New York and accessible online across the U.S.
Laplante offers more than 20 years of festival experience. For the past 12 years, he served as the Miami Film Festival’s executive director and co-director of programming, where he oversaw a major expansion of that festival’s documentary selections, as well as launched a digital screening platform and the Google Talks on Gender & Racial Gaps in Film & Technology. He simultaneously oversaw year-round...
- 6/2/2022
- by Brent Lang
- Variety Film + TV
On the eve of the start of the 10th annual Women in the World Summit, Women in the World and IFC Center have announced the creation of 51Fest, a brand-new film festival dedicated to uplifting women artists, filmmakers, and creatives. The inaugural festival will take place from July 18 – 21 in New York City at the IFC Center and the Sva Theatre. A full line-up of film screenings and other events will be announced in June.
The festival takes its name from the fact that women make up 51% of the U.S. population — one that is not reflected in the vast majority of media. From 2007 to 2018, fewer than 5% of directors from the 1,200 top-grossing films were women. Thanks to mounting pressure from audiences and advocates within the industry, the number of top-grossing films with women protagonists jumped significantly in 2018.
A study by USC’s Annenberg Inclusion Initiative found women were main characters or...
The festival takes its name from the fact that women make up 51% of the U.S. population — one that is not reflected in the vast majority of media. From 2007 to 2018, fewer than 5% of directors from the 1,200 top-grossing films were women. Thanks to mounting pressure from audiences and advocates within the industry, the number of top-grossing films with women protagonists jumped significantly in 2018.
A study by USC’s Annenberg Inclusion Initiative found women were main characters or...
- 4/10/2019
- by Jude Dry
- Indiewire
Women in the World and the IFC Center are teaming up to create a new kind of film festival that will be dedicated to highlighting female artists and their work. Dubbed 51Fest, the event will take place from July 18-21 in New York City at the IFC Center and the Sva Theatre.
The festival’s name is a nod to the fact that women comprise more than half of the U.S. population. However, that demographic representation isn’t reflected in movies and other forms of media. From 2007 to 2018, less than 5% of directors from the 1,200 top-grossing films were female — that’s a ratio of 22 men to every one woman with a directing credit. With pressure building to become more inclusive, Hollywood did back more movies with female leads. The percentage of films featuring female protagonists rose to 31% in 2018, an increase of seven percentage points, according to a new report from...
The festival’s name is a nod to the fact that women comprise more than half of the U.S. population. However, that demographic representation isn’t reflected in movies and other forms of media. From 2007 to 2018, less than 5% of directors from the 1,200 top-grossing films were female — that’s a ratio of 22 men to every one woman with a directing credit. With pressure building to become more inclusive, Hollywood did back more movies with female leads. The percentage of films featuring female protagonists rose to 31% in 2018, an increase of seven percentage points, according to a new report from...
- 4/10/2019
- by Brent Lang
- Variety Film + TV
Doc NYC, the largest documentary festival in America, kicked off its latest edition this week with its annual Visionaries Tribute. Co-founder Thom Powers opened the ceremony with the following speech.
One year ago, our community was gathered at the Visionaries Tribute two days after Donald Trump was elected. In that dark moment, I know many people in this room took strength from being among great storytellers, feeling that documentary-making had an important role to play.
See More:doc NYC 2017: 13 Films We Can’t Wait to See At the Festival, From ‘EuroTrump’ to ‘David Bowie: The Last Five Years’
We were living through a historic moment then, and now we’re living through a different one as we witness the cascading exposure of sexual harassment endemic to our culture.
To an extent, this is something we all knew happened. Only now we have a much more vivid image of what it...
One year ago, our community was gathered at the Visionaries Tribute two days after Donald Trump was elected. In that dark moment, I know many people in this room took strength from being among great storytellers, feeling that documentary-making had an important role to play.
See More:doc NYC 2017: 13 Films We Can’t Wait to See At the Festival, From ‘EuroTrump’ to ‘David Bowie: The Last Five Years’
We were living through a historic moment then, and now we’re living through a different one as we witness the cascading exposure of sexual harassment endemic to our culture.
To an extent, this is something we all knew happened. Only now we have a much more vivid image of what it...
- 11/10/2017
- by Eric Kohn
- Indiewire
Omar Broadway, the co-director and subject of the 2008 HBO documentary “An Omar Broadway Film,” killed himself earlier this month as police were attempting to arrest him for the murder of his 18-year-old nephew. The 35-year-old Broadway shot himself in the basement of an Essex County, New Jersey residence as authorities surrounded the house. Police are still looking for Kenneth Durant, 36, another subject in the May 4 murder of Najee Broadway.
Read More: Sundance Institute Announces 8 Projects for Annual Documentary Edit and Story Lab
Omar Broadway made the transition from incarcerated gang member to filmmaker after arranging for a camera to be smuggled into a state prison and surreptitiously shooting footage for roughly six months, capturing everything from the boredom of life behind bars to corruption among the prison guards, some of whom would use excessive force and physically abuse inmates. Broadway had hoped that getting the tapes out of prison and...
Read More: Sundance Institute Announces 8 Projects for Annual Documentary Edit and Story Lab
Omar Broadway made the transition from incarcerated gang member to filmmaker after arranging for a camera to be smuggled into a state prison and surreptitiously shooting footage for roughly six months, capturing everything from the boredom of life behind bars to corruption among the prison guards, some of whom would use excessive force and physically abuse inmates. Broadway had hoped that getting the tapes out of prison and...
- 6/20/2017
- by Graham Winfrey
- Indiewire
Tinker Bell fan Brianna Perez meets Joseph Feingold in Joe's Violin
In my conversation at Radical Media with Kahane Cooperman, director of this year's Oscar-nominated Joe's Violin, she explained how Doc NYC Executive Director Raphaela Neihausen, Richard Linklater and Dazed And Confused, Jon Stewart and The Daily Show, and Letters From Baghdad co-director Zeva Oelbaum supported bringing to the screen the moving story of Holocaust survivor Joseph Feingold and young musician Brianna Perez from the Bronx Global Learning Institute for Girls.
On being with Joseph Feingold: "I learned in that hour that the violin had a poignant story attached to it and also that he was a capable storyteller."
When an object changes hands, commonly its story dies. We might speculate about the previous owner of a piece of vintage jewelry that catches our eye, or wonder who sat in an antique chair 100 years ago. Joe's Violin was born...
In my conversation at Radical Media with Kahane Cooperman, director of this year's Oscar-nominated Joe's Violin, she explained how Doc NYC Executive Director Raphaela Neihausen, Richard Linklater and Dazed And Confused, Jon Stewart and The Daily Show, and Letters From Baghdad co-director Zeva Oelbaum supported bringing to the screen the moving story of Holocaust survivor Joseph Feingold and young musician Brianna Perez from the Bronx Global Learning Institute for Girls.
On being with Joseph Feingold: "I learned in that hour that the violin had a poignant story attached to it and also that he was a capable storyteller."
When an object changes hands, commonly its story dies. We might speculate about the previous owner of a piece of vintage jewelry that catches our eye, or wonder who sat in an antique chair 100 years ago. Joe's Violin was born...
- 4/12/2017
- by Anne-Katrin Titze
- eyeforfilm.co.uk
From Left: Host Rory Kennedy with Documentary (Feature) nominees Gianfranco Rosi and Donatella Palermo, “Fire at Sea”, Hébert Peck, Raoul Peck and Rémi Grellety , “I Am Not Your Negro”, Roger Ross Williams and Julie Goldman, “Life, Animated”, Ezra Edelman and Caroline Waterlow, “O.J.: Made in America” and Spencer Averick and Howard Barish, “13th”.
On Wednesday February 22, the Samuel Goldwyn Theater hosted a celebration for ten powerful stories with this year’s nominees in the Documentary Feature and Documentary Short Subject categories. Introducing the five Documentary Short Subject contenders, Academy Documentary Branch Governor Kate Amend pointed to the heroism that united their subjects: people who saved drowning refugees or victims of airstrikes, faced end-of-life decisions and created new lives in a foreign country.
After screening clips of each film, Amend brought up “Extremis” director Dan Krauss, “4.1 Miles” director Daphne Matziaraki, “Joe’s Violin”’s Cooperman and producer Raphaela Neihausen, “Watani: My Homeland...
On Wednesday February 22, the Samuel Goldwyn Theater hosted a celebration for ten powerful stories with this year’s nominees in the Documentary Feature and Documentary Short Subject categories. Introducing the five Documentary Short Subject contenders, Academy Documentary Branch Governor Kate Amend pointed to the heroism that united their subjects: people who saved drowning refugees or victims of airstrikes, faced end-of-life decisions and created new lives in a foreign country.
After screening clips of each film, Amend brought up “Extremis” director Dan Krauss, “4.1 Miles” director Daphne Matziaraki, “Joe’s Violin”’s Cooperman and producer Raphaela Neihausen, “Watani: My Homeland...
- 2/24/2017
- by Melissa Thompson
- WeAreMovieGeeks.com
There wasn’t a dry eye in the house when Jon Stewart took the stage after a screening of the Oscar-nominated short film “Joe’s Violin” in New York on Monday, but Stewart quickly had the crowd in stitches — all at President Donald Trump’s expense.
“Joe’s Violin” tells the story of a 91-year-old Holocaust survivor who donates his violin to an instrument drive and later connects with the 12-year-old schoolgirl from the Bronx who receives it.
The improbable friendship between the Polish refugee Joe Feingold and Brianna Perez, whose family is from the Dominican Republic, feels especially timely in light of the Trump administration’s continued efforts to turn away refugees and crack down on immigrants entering the U.S.
Read More: Denzel Washington Is Serenaded by Teen Violinist Brianna Perez, the Subject of ‘Joe’s Violin’ — Watch
“It’s a shame that a film like this — in...
“Joe’s Violin” tells the story of a 91-year-old Holocaust survivor who donates his violin to an instrument drive and later connects with the 12-year-old schoolgirl from the Bronx who receives it.
The improbable friendship between the Polish refugee Joe Feingold and Brianna Perez, whose family is from the Dominican Republic, feels especially timely in light of the Trump administration’s continued efforts to turn away refugees and crack down on immigrants entering the U.S.
Read More: Denzel Washington Is Serenaded by Teen Violinist Brianna Perez, the Subject of ‘Joe’s Violin’ — Watch
“It’s a shame that a film like this — in...
- 2/14/2017
- by Graham Winfrey
- Indiewire
Ever since his brilliant and understated turn as Harry in the 2011 film version of Stephen Sondheim’s “Company,” fans have been impressed by Stephen Colbert’s lovely singing voice. Whether he’s crooning Irving Berlin with Anna Kendrick, or subbing in for Jay-z with Alicia Keys on “Empire State of Mind”, the comedian’s dulcet tones are always a welcome and earnest addition to his jokes.
Read More: ‘Stephen Colbert’ From ‘The Colbert Report’ Says Goodbye To Barack Obama
Over the weekend, Colbert got the chance to go a little funkier when her performed a cover of The Talking Heads’ “Once in a Lifetime” at a benefit for the Montclair Film Festival in New Jersey.
A proud Montclair resident, Colbert is on the advisory board for the festival, along with such industry heavyweights as J.J. Abrams, Jon Stewart, and Chiwetel Ejiofor. Colbert’s wife, Evelyn McGee Colbert is Vice Chairman of the Board.
Read More: ‘Stephen Colbert’ From ‘The Colbert Report’ Says Goodbye To Barack Obama
Over the weekend, Colbert got the chance to go a little funkier when her performed a cover of The Talking Heads’ “Once in a Lifetime” at a benefit for the Montclair Film Festival in New Jersey.
A proud Montclair resident, Colbert is on the advisory board for the festival, along with such industry heavyweights as J.J. Abrams, Jon Stewart, and Chiwetel Ejiofor. Colbert’s wife, Evelyn McGee Colbert is Vice Chairman of the Board.
- 2/6/2017
- by Jude Dry
- Indiewire
Of the five films Oscar-nominated for Documentary Short Subject, three address the Syrian civil war and refugee crisis: “4.1 Miles,” a New York Times Op-Doc about a Greek Coast Guard Captain and the boatloads of refugees he rescues daily; “Watani: My Homeland,” about one family’s migration from front-line Aleppo to a small town in Germany; and “The White Helmets,” Netflix’s portrait of the volunteer first responders in Aleppo, from the director/producer team behind the 2015 Oscar-nominated feature documentary, “Virunga.”
Read More: Oscars 2017 Live-Action Shorts: Jane Birkin vs. Six-Time Nominee Kim Magnusson
The other two films also skew serious, but tell more intimate stories. “Joe’s Violin” is the touching story of the unlikely friendship between a 92-year-old Holocaust survivor and the 12-year-old girl from the Bronx who receives his beloved violin after he donates it. “Extremis” follows a palliative care doctor as she walks her patients and their loved...
Read More: Oscars 2017 Live-Action Shorts: Jane Birkin vs. Six-Time Nominee Kim Magnusson
The other two films also skew serious, but tell more intimate stories. “Joe’s Violin” is the touching story of the unlikely friendship between a 92-year-old Holocaust survivor and the 12-year-old girl from the Bronx who receives his beloved violin after he donates it. “Extremis” follows a palliative care doctor as she walks her patients and their loved...
- 2/3/2017
- by Jude Dry
- Indiewire
Doc NYC Artistic Director Thom Powers at the IFC Center Photo: Anne-Katrin Titze
This year's Doc NYC will open with Valentino: The Last Emperor director Matt Tyrnauer's latest, Citizen Jane: Battle For The City, and close with John Scheinfeld's Chasing Trane: The John Coltrane Documentary. Thom Powers and I covered a wide range of films including Dawn Porter's Trapped, Kirsten Johnson's Cameraperson, Werner Herzog's Into The Inferno, Roger Ross Williams's Life, Animated, Ben Bowie and Geoff Luck's Naledi: A Baby Elephant's Tale, Jon Nguyen, Rick Barnes and Olivia Neergaard-Holm's David Lynch: The Art Life, Claire Simon's Le Concours, Richard Ladkani and Kief Davidson's The Ivory Game, Tom Hanks, John Mayer and Sam Shepard in Doug Nichol's California Typewriter, Lara Stolman's Swim Team, Adam Irving's Off The Rails and scads more when I sat down with the...
This year's Doc NYC will open with Valentino: The Last Emperor director Matt Tyrnauer's latest, Citizen Jane: Battle For The City, and close with John Scheinfeld's Chasing Trane: The John Coltrane Documentary. Thom Powers and I covered a wide range of films including Dawn Porter's Trapped, Kirsten Johnson's Cameraperson, Werner Herzog's Into The Inferno, Roger Ross Williams's Life, Animated, Ben Bowie and Geoff Luck's Naledi: A Baby Elephant's Tale, Jon Nguyen, Rick Barnes and Olivia Neergaard-Holm's David Lynch: The Art Life, Claire Simon's Le Concours, Richard Ladkani and Kief Davidson's The Ivory Game, Tom Hanks, John Mayer and Sam Shepard in Doug Nichol's California Typewriter, Lara Stolman's Swim Team, Adam Irving's Off The Rails and scads more when I sat down with the...
- 11/3/2016
- by Anne-Katrin Titze
- eyeforfilm.co.uk
Barbara Kopple's glorious Miss Sharon Jones! opened Doc NYC Photo: Anne-Katrin Titze
2015 Doc NYC Lifetime Achievement Award honoree at the second annual Visionaries Tribute luncheon, Best Documentary Oscar winner for Harlan County, USA and American Dream, Barbara Kopple, presented Miss Sharon Jones! with Sharon Jones, who sang a gospel song for the audience.
Doc NYC Executive Director Raphaela Neihausen, Artistic Director Thom Powers, Director of Programming Basil Tsiokos and Senior Vice President and General Manager of the IFC Center, John Vanco, hosted the evening at the Sva Theatre in Chelsea.
John Vanco kicks off Doc NYC with Thom Powers, Raphaela Neihausen and Basil Tsiokos Photo: Anne-Katrin Titze
Sharon Jones has a powerful voice and an even more impressive personality. Barbara Kopple filmed the singer's battle with cancer, her comeback show at the Beacon Theater in New York and what lead up to the successful new album with her band The Dap-Kings.
2015 Doc NYC Lifetime Achievement Award honoree at the second annual Visionaries Tribute luncheon, Best Documentary Oscar winner for Harlan County, USA and American Dream, Barbara Kopple, presented Miss Sharon Jones! with Sharon Jones, who sang a gospel song for the audience.
Doc NYC Executive Director Raphaela Neihausen, Artistic Director Thom Powers, Director of Programming Basil Tsiokos and Senior Vice President and General Manager of the IFC Center, John Vanco, hosted the evening at the Sva Theatre in Chelsea.
John Vanco kicks off Doc NYC with Thom Powers, Raphaela Neihausen and Basil Tsiokos Photo: Anne-Katrin Titze
Sharon Jones has a powerful voice and an even more impressive personality. Barbara Kopple filmed the singer's battle with cancer, her comeback show at the Beacon Theater in New York and what lead up to the successful new album with her band The Dap-Kings.
- 11/14/2015
- by Anne-Katrin Titze
- eyeforfilm.co.uk
The Toronto International Film Festival is in its 40th year, and the Tiff CEO and Artistic Director this morning announced the programmers for 2015’s festival.
Tiff runs from September 10 to September 20. Stay tuned in the coming weeks for a reveal of the full film lineups. Read the press-release for this year’s festival programmers below:
****
40th Toronto International Film Festival Announces Its Programmers
Toronto — Piers Handling, Director and CEO of Tiff, and Cameron Bailey, Artistic Director of the Toronto International Film Festival, reveal the team of 22 programmers who will make the selections for the 40th Toronto International Film Festival®, which runs Thursday, September 10 through Sunday, September 20, 2015.
Piers Handling
Europe, City to City: London, Special Presentations, Gala Presentations
Handling is the Director and Chief Executive Officer of Tiff. He has held this position since 1994, and is responsible for leading both the operational and artistic growth of the organization. Under Handling’s direction,...
Tiff runs from September 10 to September 20. Stay tuned in the coming weeks for a reveal of the full film lineups. Read the press-release for this year’s festival programmers below:
****
40th Toronto International Film Festival Announces Its Programmers
Toronto — Piers Handling, Director and CEO of Tiff, and Cameron Bailey, Artistic Director of the Toronto International Film Festival, reveal the team of 22 programmers who will make the selections for the 40th Toronto International Film Festival®, which runs Thursday, September 10 through Sunday, September 20, 2015.
Piers Handling
Europe, City to City: London, Special Presentations, Gala Presentations
Handling is the Director and Chief Executive Officer of Tiff. He has held this position since 1994, and is responsible for leading both the operational and artistic growth of the organization. Under Handling’s direction,...
- 5/11/2015
- by Brian Welk
- SoundOnSight
With so many worthy documentaries entering the awards fray, high-profile programs such as America's largest documentary festival, Doc NYC, are a crucial gateway to getting the right people in the documentary community--and media--to focus attention on the cream of the crop. Among over 150 films and events, artistic director Thom Powers and executive director Raphaela Neihausen's expanded program for the fifth edition includes 19 world premieres and 7 Us premieres including David Thorpe's "Do I Sound Gay?" as the opening night selection on November 13 and Laura Nix and The Yes Men's "The Yes Men Are Revolting," which will close the festival on date November 20 with The Yes Men on hand. Both films debuted at the Toronto International Film festival. The screenings of 92 features, 37 shorts and 24 panel discussions and master classes will be held at the IFC Center in Greenwich Village...
- 10/15/2014
- by Anne Thompson
- Thompson on Hollywood
Thom Powers is a friend of ours in the business and amazes us by his acumen, generosity, range of activities and devotion to what many of us consider the most frequently relevant, creative and earth changing form of feature length cinema - the documentary. I came upon this fascinating dialogue on his website (link below) where he ruminated most eloquently about what actually went on at Sundance business wise with documentaries. Fascinating. Please check out his 'Stranger Than Fiction' website which is of great value to any filmmaker wanting clarity on the business of documentary film. Two fascinating reports (for example) listed on the site among others were these two - Guide to Documentary Buyers at Tiff and Guide to Documentary Sales Agents at Tiff. Every docu filmmaker should start here. Thom Powers has been an International Documentary Programmer for the Toronto International Film Festival® since 2006. He is also responsible for Mavericks, the Festival’s discussion series with cinema innovators. Powers is the Artistic Director for the weekly documentary series, “Stranger than Fiction” at Manhattan’s IFC Center and for the Doc NYC festival in November. He also consults on programming for the Miami International Film Festival. He has directed documentaries for HBO and PBS; and is a founding member of the documentary production company Sugar Pictures. He teaches documentary courses at New York University’s School of Continuing Professional Studies and the School of Visual Arts. He is a co-founder of the Cinema Eye Honors, an annual award for documentary excellence; and the Garrrett Scott Development Grant. He has served as a juror for Sundance, SXSW, Cph: Dox and DocAviv festivals; as well as the Emmy, Ida and Independent Spirit Awards. He has written extensively on documentary filmmaking for The Boston Globe, Real Screen, and Filmmaker Magazine. Stranger than Fiction Exclusive documentary film screenings, hosted by Raphaela Neihausen and Thom Powers. Winter Season: Jan 8 - Feb 26, 2013 IFC Center 323 Sixth Ave. @ West Third St.
A Conversation With Thom Powers on the Sundance Film Festival
by Rahul Chadha | Sunday, February 3rd, 2013
For most people on the indie film circuit, the Sundance Film Festival marks the start of the new year. Park City is where filmmakers go to earn buzz for their projects, get some press and maybe even ink a distribution deal. On Jan. 30 I spoke with Thom Powers about the documentary films at Sundance that garnered the most chatter and the biggest checks, among other subjects.
[Q&A has been edited for content and clarity]
Rahul Chadha: It seemed like so much of the press attention around Sundance was focused on sales. The Hollywood Reporter said that four docs sold for at least seven figures and I read a report that Blackfish elicited a bidding war from four or five distributors. Did you get the sense that sales were better this year, and if so, why do you think that was?
Thom Powers: Some of those figures are slightly inflated. I know at least one of those films that is being reported as a million dollar sale is a little under a million dollars. But the fact remains that there were some very strong doc sales, and notably the emergence of a new player in The Weinstein Company’s RADiUS brand run by Tom Quinn and Jason Janego. Tom previously worked for Magnolia, where he worked on several successful docs such as Food Inc. and Man On Wire. Months ago RADiUS announced involvement in the new Errol Morris film about Donald Rumsfeld, The Unknown Known, due out later this year. Tom told me they would be very selective about docs which left me unprepared for their recent buying streak. Their first Sundance acquisition was the opening night title 20 Feet From Stardom, set in the music industry that gives it a solid commercial hook. Then RADiUS acquired Inequality For All, which struck me as less obvious. But if you imagine it following in the footsteps of An Inconvenient Truth you can see the commercial appeal. Then they announced Cutie And The Boxer, which has no celebrity connection and on the surface feels less obviously commercial, although it had strong word of mouth. So it seems RADiUS is trying out a wide range of docs and it’s good for the industry to have a new player in the mix. In addition to their strong showing, there was notable acquisitions by mainstay distributors including Sundance Selects, which bought Dirty Wars and The Summit, and Magnolia Pictures, which bought Blackfish.
Chadha: It seemed like Submarine had a strong presence this year.
Powers: For years Submarine–run by Josh Braun and his brother Dan–has been the dominant doc sales agent making the biggest doc deals at both Sundance and Toronto. There are certainly other big sales agents, including Cinetic and big agencies like Wme, CAA, UTA, or ICM taking on the occasional doc. But no one carries as big a slate of high prestige documentaries as Submarine. This year their lineup included 20 Feet From Stardom, Blackfish, The Summit, Dirty Wars and Cutie And The Boxer, all of which were high-profile deals. Their slate includes other films that have yet to announce deals, including God Loves Uganda, Muscle Shoals, Who Is Dayani Cristal? and Citizen Koch.
Chadha: Do you think this underscores that filmmakers really do need a sales agent at a festival the level of Sundance?
Powers: I think for a film that has real theatrical potential a sales agent is key. For a film that may find it tougher in the American marketplace, such as many of the docs in the world competition that may not be competing for deals – any subtitled film has a harder time in this marketplace – for those films I don’t know that a sales agent necessarily helps for the kinds of smaller deals that may or may not be offered.
Chadha: Do you think that as digital becomes an increasingly important distribution channel that festivals will take on a new importance?
Powers: I do. In an old model, the way a film would imprint itself on the public’s consciousness is to get a theatrical run. But now there are more documentaries and more films in general being released than ever before. There are weeks when the New York Times is reviewing 15 films, so it’s harder to leave an impression on the public. A lot of these films are seeing their financial future on digital platforms. Because viewers aren’t hearing as much about films in theatrical release, I think the festival circuit is going to have increasing importance for the life of a film.
Chadha: There were a few films at Sundance that dealt with the legacy of 9/11. You mentioned Dirty Wars but there was The World According To Dick Cheney and Which Way Is The Front Line From Here? The Life And Time Of Tim Hetherington and We Steal Secrets: The Story Of Wikileaks.
Powers: Yes that thematic cluster absolutely stood out. The legacy of 9/11 and the response to it through wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, as well as other kinds of counter-terrorism actions played out in other countries, remains a key subject for documentary makers to grapple with. I think the distance of 12 years from 9/11 gives us time to reflect. In the film Manhunt about the hunt for Osama bin Laden, there’s a clear connection. The World According To Dick Cheney is about the chief architect of post-9/11 counter-terrorism actions. It came in for criticism that the filmmakers weren’t hard enough on Dick Cheney, weren’t asking tough enough questions. And while I shared some of those frustrations, I certainly learned a lot about Cheney’s career from watching it.
Chadha: Anthony Kaufman recently wrote a piece that singled out Dirty Wars and the Alex Gibney film We Steal Secrets: The Story Of Wikileaks as two films that he thought might presage a wave of films by left-leaning filmmakers that are critical of Obama and his policies? Do you agree with that assessment or see a similar trend?
Powers: It’s a smart observation. Dirty Wars – which is one of the films I was most impressed by at Sundance – takes a long view of American foreign policy after 9/11 in the hands of the journalist at the center of that film, Jeremy Scahill, who’s best known for his book on Blackwater, and who now has a new book coming out that ties into this film. Alex Gibney’s Wikileaksfilm looks at the harsh response of the Obama administration to Bradley Manning, the U.S. soldier who had leaked the headline grabbing documents to Wikileaks. Those two films make an interesting contrast to documentaries of the past decade which comfortably coincided with a liberal critique of the Bush administration. I’m thinking of docs like Farhenheit 9/11 or No End In Sight that liberals rallied behind to point a finger at their political opponents. These new films force a more uncomfortable confrontation with an administration that those same liberals helped get elected.
Chadha: You previously mentioned to me that you thought that filmmakers screening unfinished films at Sundance were taking a risk. Why is that?
Powers: For some reason at Sundance, more than other festivals that I’m aware of, you find filmmakers rushing to screen works that sometimes aren’t completed. In my seven years of programming at Toronto, I’m not aware of any documentaries that went back for serious editing after their premiere – other than those presented as works-in-progress. But at Sundance every year there seems to be a few films that push the deadline so hard that they get taken back to the edit room afterwards. A notable example a couple of years ago was The Interrupters which played at Sundance in a version close to three hours before getting re-edited and having nearly an hour of material taken out of it. The question is, how much does that hurt a film, to have its first presentation before critics and industry be a version of itself that’s not the best. You can point to The Interrupters as a positive example. A lot of people, myself included, appreciated the long version of that film, and it didn’t diminish our interest at all. A fresh example this year was The Square, Jehane Noujaim’s film about the last two years of protest in Egypt around Tahrir Square. In this case the film arrived without any credits on it and Jehane told audiences that she was going back into the edit room. Normally that would sound to me like a challenging strategy. However, The Square came away from Sundance with an audience award. There’s clearly a power to that film, and a power that touched me watching that film, that transcended any rough edges that it contained. So I’ve just given two examples of films that made it work for them. I wouldn’t want to call out films where I think that strategy has not worked. But there certainly are cases and I’d strongly caution filmmakers not to assume that they’ll be the happy exceptions if they’re rushing their films for a festival deadline.
Chadha: There was a lot of talk this year about how well-represented women were on the doc side. I was wondering why you think this difference exists between the doc side and the fictional narrative side, where women still are underrepresented?
Powers: You can start a documentary with just a camera, as opposed to a fiction film where you need actors, a crew, a script, a lot more start-up resources. It may be self-perpetuating. Because there have been more prominent female doc makers, dating back to Barbara Kopple winning an Academy Award in the mid-70s, they’ve become role models for other women.
Chadha: What lost opportunities do you think filmmakers are struggling through at Sundance in terms of self-promotion? I know you’re a big proponent of filmmakers using Twitter.
Powers: I continue to be surprised by filmmakers who spend thousands of dollars on a publicist, but don’t take more advantage of social media which isfree. The Sundance docs that I saw making strong use of Twitter were Sound City which had 20,000 followers at the end of the festival; and 99% – The Occupy Wall Street Collaborative Film which had 15,000 followers. Then there’s a sharp drop-off. Films such as After Tiller, Dirty Wars and American Promise had around 1,500 followers each – they are getting off to a good start. Whenever possible, filmmakers need to begin their Twitter strategy well before their first festival in order to accumulate followers who can spread what’s happening at the festival.
Chadha: Which film were you most surprised by, and why?
Powers: It’s a reality of film festivals that you can’t see everything. You’re dividing your time between seeing films and utilizing that unique space to have meetings with people that you can’t otherwise. There were around 40 docs at Sundance and I’ve now seen roughly half. I think the film Blood Brother that won the audience prize and the jury prize took a lot of people by surprise because there was hardly any chatter about it in the corridors where press and industry exchange tips. It shows you that in a big festival, things can always surprise you.
I think certain filmmakers going into Sundance or other big festivals should consider screening more for press and tastemakers before the festival. The traditional wisdom has always been the opposite: to not screen for anyone prior, let your film be seen by an audience, and generate the buzz from there. That works for a film like Supersize Me – where the description made people put it on their priority list. But for a film that doesn’t have an obvious hook – including a lot of the films in the world documentary competition – those filmmakers might be better served trying to strategically screen for certain press and tastemakers so they can enter the festival with people already talking about them.
Chadha: Are there any films that are now on your “can’t miss” list?
Powers: Some of my favorite Sundance titles I’ve programmed for the Miami International Film Festival, which just announced its line-up last week. They include 20 Feet From Stardom, Blackfish, Gideon’S Army, The Crash Reel, Valentine Road, Which Way To The Front Line From Here? and Who Is Dayani Cristal?. There were many other strong films at Sundance that I look forward to showing at the Montclair Film Festival and Stranger Than Fiction. The Square I admire a lot. Muscle Shoals really took me by surprise. It played late in the festival and didn’t gain as much buzz as I thought it deserved. The director, who I believe is a first time director, made all kinds of smart creative decisions. Another film that went under the radar but made a big impression on me was The Stuart Hall Project about the U.K.-based black intellectual Stuart Hall. The film is wholly constructed out of archival sources, primarily from the BBC.
Chadha: What were the lessons about funding that came out of Sundance?
Powers: Sundance is a good survey of how docs are getting funded. This year reflects the important influence of Kickstarter. Recently Kickstarter introduced a tag for its projects that have a Sundance affiliation, and skimming that list I was impressed to see that Inequality For All had raised $83,000 and American Promise had raised $50,000 on Kickstarter. Other documentaries raised more modest sums. What’ so significant about Kickstarter is that those filmmakers did not need to wait around for a grant application committee to give them a green light. They could take matters into their own hands. Other funding players who were prominent are the Sundance Institute, the Tribeca Institute and the Ford Foundation which last year announced a $50 million commitment through the Just Films program. That Ford initiative supported projects like Gideon’S Army, Valentine Road, American Promise, Who Is Dayani Cristal?, God Loves Uganda and Citizen Koch.
Another important player is the equity group Impact Partners, who for several years have had a strong showing of their catalog at Sundance. This year their involvement included American Promise, The Crash Reel, Who Is Dayani Cristal? and Pandora’S Promise. The last group that I would mention is Cinereach, who were the heroes of Sundance last year for their funding of Beasts Of The Southern Wild, and who were back this year with four docs: Cutie And The Boxer, Citizen Koch, God Loves Uganda, and Narco Cultura.
When you look at the kinds of films that are showing up at Sundance, you see the names of some key producers re-occurring. This year the producer Julie Goldman, whose recent Sundance titles include Buck was back with three projects – Gideon’S Army, Manhunt and God Loves Uganda. The producer John Battsek from the U.K. who last year came with Searching For Sugar Man, was back this year with The Summit and Manhunt. And Jess Search, also based in the U.K., who is the founder of Britdoc and the Good Pitch had her name attached to the films Dirty Wars and Who Is Dayani Cristal? Clearly those producers and others like them have a good eye for spotting what makes a strong documentary in development. Those producers perform a variety of roles for filmmakers, whether it’s connecting them to financial support or supplying editorial perspective or connecting them to the other kind of industry players who can take a project further.
Chadha: Going back to Kickstarter for a minute, do you think films that have success on Kickstarter have the added benefit of showing to grantmaking institutions that their films are viable and that there’s an audience for them?
Powers: Absolutely. One bit of industry news this past week was that the HotDocs Forum, which has been a key place for documentaries to raise money, mainly in the broadcast world, announced that they will now accept projects on the basis of a certain amount of funds raised on Kickstarter. It used to be that you had to demonstrate a portion of your budget, like a quarter, was already being supported by a broadcaster or other traditional grantmaking institution. This change in policy signals the way in which Kickstarter funding is being taken more seriously.
In the case of The Square, the producers launched a Kickstarter campaign at Sundance to help finish their film. That seems like a very smart strategy for other filmmakers to consider. When you’re at a film festival, you have a rapt and enthused audience and if you can point them to a Kickstarter campaign, that’s a great way to leverage that enthusiasm. Even if you don’t need finishing funds, it’s a way to get outreach funds. I also saw the team from The Square selling t-shirts. After one screening they came away with few hundred dollars of cash in hand, which can help defray costs of attending a festival. These are strategies that filmmakers like Gary Hustwit have long practiced, emulating the way rock musicians sell t-shirts and posters at live performances. The film community has been slow to catch on. Maybe filmmakers are so busy getting their films made that they don’t have time to think about merchandise. But every bit of revenue helps.
Chadha: Any final thoughts?
Powers: We’ve talked about theatrical and digital distribution and new trends in crowdfunding. But it has to be said that the most long-standing and reliable place for documentary makers to get money is the broadcast world. HBO, which usually has a strong presence at Sundance, had the most overwhelming presence that I can remember, coming with six feature length documentaries. Plus during Sundance HBO bought Pussy Riot-a Punk Prayer. When you consider that HBO also has the film that was the 2012 winner at Idfa, Alan Berliner’s First Cousin Once Removed, and had two films at the Toronto festival – Mea Maxima Culpa by Alex Gibney and First Comes Love by Nina Davenport – that’s an impressive slate of films. There was news generated by other broadcasters getting active in the documentary field, including Showtime, which came with The World According To Dick Cheney. Just before Sundane, The New York Times reported about Showtime’s announcement of several documentaries in progress, including a film about Richard Pryor by Marina Zenovich, who made the Roman Polanski film, that I am personally looking forward to. In addition, CNN made an announcement during Sundance about a slate of feature-length docs, including a film by Alex Gibney. Another major player in that realm is A&E IndieFilms, which didn’t have any films in Sundance this year, but they’re already attached to Errol Morris’s Donald Rumsfeld documentary coming out later this year. All in all, the year is off to a good start.
Link to the original article here...
A Conversation With Thom Powers on the Sundance Film Festival
by Rahul Chadha | Sunday, February 3rd, 2013
For most people on the indie film circuit, the Sundance Film Festival marks the start of the new year. Park City is where filmmakers go to earn buzz for their projects, get some press and maybe even ink a distribution deal. On Jan. 30 I spoke with Thom Powers about the documentary films at Sundance that garnered the most chatter and the biggest checks, among other subjects.
[Q&A has been edited for content and clarity]
Rahul Chadha: It seemed like so much of the press attention around Sundance was focused on sales. The Hollywood Reporter said that four docs sold for at least seven figures and I read a report that Blackfish elicited a bidding war from four or five distributors. Did you get the sense that sales were better this year, and if so, why do you think that was?
Thom Powers: Some of those figures are slightly inflated. I know at least one of those films that is being reported as a million dollar sale is a little under a million dollars. But the fact remains that there were some very strong doc sales, and notably the emergence of a new player in The Weinstein Company’s RADiUS brand run by Tom Quinn and Jason Janego. Tom previously worked for Magnolia, where he worked on several successful docs such as Food Inc. and Man On Wire. Months ago RADiUS announced involvement in the new Errol Morris film about Donald Rumsfeld, The Unknown Known, due out later this year. Tom told me they would be very selective about docs which left me unprepared for their recent buying streak. Their first Sundance acquisition was the opening night title 20 Feet From Stardom, set in the music industry that gives it a solid commercial hook. Then RADiUS acquired Inequality For All, which struck me as less obvious. But if you imagine it following in the footsteps of An Inconvenient Truth you can see the commercial appeal. Then they announced Cutie And The Boxer, which has no celebrity connection and on the surface feels less obviously commercial, although it had strong word of mouth. So it seems RADiUS is trying out a wide range of docs and it’s good for the industry to have a new player in the mix. In addition to their strong showing, there was notable acquisitions by mainstay distributors including Sundance Selects, which bought Dirty Wars and The Summit, and Magnolia Pictures, which bought Blackfish.
Chadha: It seemed like Submarine had a strong presence this year.
Powers: For years Submarine–run by Josh Braun and his brother Dan–has been the dominant doc sales agent making the biggest doc deals at both Sundance and Toronto. There are certainly other big sales agents, including Cinetic and big agencies like Wme, CAA, UTA, or ICM taking on the occasional doc. But no one carries as big a slate of high prestige documentaries as Submarine. This year their lineup included 20 Feet From Stardom, Blackfish, The Summit, Dirty Wars and Cutie And The Boxer, all of which were high-profile deals. Their slate includes other films that have yet to announce deals, including God Loves Uganda, Muscle Shoals, Who Is Dayani Cristal? and Citizen Koch.
Chadha: Do you think this underscores that filmmakers really do need a sales agent at a festival the level of Sundance?
Powers: I think for a film that has real theatrical potential a sales agent is key. For a film that may find it tougher in the American marketplace, such as many of the docs in the world competition that may not be competing for deals – any subtitled film has a harder time in this marketplace – for those films I don’t know that a sales agent necessarily helps for the kinds of smaller deals that may or may not be offered.
Chadha: Do you think that as digital becomes an increasingly important distribution channel that festivals will take on a new importance?
Powers: I do. In an old model, the way a film would imprint itself on the public’s consciousness is to get a theatrical run. But now there are more documentaries and more films in general being released than ever before. There are weeks when the New York Times is reviewing 15 films, so it’s harder to leave an impression on the public. A lot of these films are seeing their financial future on digital platforms. Because viewers aren’t hearing as much about films in theatrical release, I think the festival circuit is going to have increasing importance for the life of a film.
Chadha: There were a few films at Sundance that dealt with the legacy of 9/11. You mentioned Dirty Wars but there was The World According To Dick Cheney and Which Way Is The Front Line From Here? The Life And Time Of Tim Hetherington and We Steal Secrets: The Story Of Wikileaks.
Powers: Yes that thematic cluster absolutely stood out. The legacy of 9/11 and the response to it through wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, as well as other kinds of counter-terrorism actions played out in other countries, remains a key subject for documentary makers to grapple with. I think the distance of 12 years from 9/11 gives us time to reflect. In the film Manhunt about the hunt for Osama bin Laden, there’s a clear connection. The World According To Dick Cheney is about the chief architect of post-9/11 counter-terrorism actions. It came in for criticism that the filmmakers weren’t hard enough on Dick Cheney, weren’t asking tough enough questions. And while I shared some of those frustrations, I certainly learned a lot about Cheney’s career from watching it.
Chadha: Anthony Kaufman recently wrote a piece that singled out Dirty Wars and the Alex Gibney film We Steal Secrets: The Story Of Wikileaks as two films that he thought might presage a wave of films by left-leaning filmmakers that are critical of Obama and his policies? Do you agree with that assessment or see a similar trend?
Powers: It’s a smart observation. Dirty Wars – which is one of the films I was most impressed by at Sundance – takes a long view of American foreign policy after 9/11 in the hands of the journalist at the center of that film, Jeremy Scahill, who’s best known for his book on Blackwater, and who now has a new book coming out that ties into this film. Alex Gibney’s Wikileaksfilm looks at the harsh response of the Obama administration to Bradley Manning, the U.S. soldier who had leaked the headline grabbing documents to Wikileaks. Those two films make an interesting contrast to documentaries of the past decade which comfortably coincided with a liberal critique of the Bush administration. I’m thinking of docs like Farhenheit 9/11 or No End In Sight that liberals rallied behind to point a finger at their political opponents. These new films force a more uncomfortable confrontation with an administration that those same liberals helped get elected.
Chadha: You previously mentioned to me that you thought that filmmakers screening unfinished films at Sundance were taking a risk. Why is that?
Powers: For some reason at Sundance, more than other festivals that I’m aware of, you find filmmakers rushing to screen works that sometimes aren’t completed. In my seven years of programming at Toronto, I’m not aware of any documentaries that went back for serious editing after their premiere – other than those presented as works-in-progress. But at Sundance every year there seems to be a few films that push the deadline so hard that they get taken back to the edit room afterwards. A notable example a couple of years ago was The Interrupters which played at Sundance in a version close to three hours before getting re-edited and having nearly an hour of material taken out of it. The question is, how much does that hurt a film, to have its first presentation before critics and industry be a version of itself that’s not the best. You can point to The Interrupters as a positive example. A lot of people, myself included, appreciated the long version of that film, and it didn’t diminish our interest at all. A fresh example this year was The Square, Jehane Noujaim’s film about the last two years of protest in Egypt around Tahrir Square. In this case the film arrived without any credits on it and Jehane told audiences that she was going back into the edit room. Normally that would sound to me like a challenging strategy. However, The Square came away from Sundance with an audience award. There’s clearly a power to that film, and a power that touched me watching that film, that transcended any rough edges that it contained. So I’ve just given two examples of films that made it work for them. I wouldn’t want to call out films where I think that strategy has not worked. But there certainly are cases and I’d strongly caution filmmakers not to assume that they’ll be the happy exceptions if they’re rushing their films for a festival deadline.
Chadha: There was a lot of talk this year about how well-represented women were on the doc side. I was wondering why you think this difference exists between the doc side and the fictional narrative side, where women still are underrepresented?
Powers: You can start a documentary with just a camera, as opposed to a fiction film where you need actors, a crew, a script, a lot more start-up resources. It may be self-perpetuating. Because there have been more prominent female doc makers, dating back to Barbara Kopple winning an Academy Award in the mid-70s, they’ve become role models for other women.
Chadha: What lost opportunities do you think filmmakers are struggling through at Sundance in terms of self-promotion? I know you’re a big proponent of filmmakers using Twitter.
Powers: I continue to be surprised by filmmakers who spend thousands of dollars on a publicist, but don’t take more advantage of social media which isfree. The Sundance docs that I saw making strong use of Twitter were Sound City which had 20,000 followers at the end of the festival; and 99% – The Occupy Wall Street Collaborative Film which had 15,000 followers. Then there’s a sharp drop-off. Films such as After Tiller, Dirty Wars and American Promise had around 1,500 followers each – they are getting off to a good start. Whenever possible, filmmakers need to begin their Twitter strategy well before their first festival in order to accumulate followers who can spread what’s happening at the festival.
Chadha: Which film were you most surprised by, and why?
Powers: It’s a reality of film festivals that you can’t see everything. You’re dividing your time between seeing films and utilizing that unique space to have meetings with people that you can’t otherwise. There were around 40 docs at Sundance and I’ve now seen roughly half. I think the film Blood Brother that won the audience prize and the jury prize took a lot of people by surprise because there was hardly any chatter about it in the corridors where press and industry exchange tips. It shows you that in a big festival, things can always surprise you.
I think certain filmmakers going into Sundance or other big festivals should consider screening more for press and tastemakers before the festival. The traditional wisdom has always been the opposite: to not screen for anyone prior, let your film be seen by an audience, and generate the buzz from there. That works for a film like Supersize Me – where the description made people put it on their priority list. But for a film that doesn’t have an obvious hook – including a lot of the films in the world documentary competition – those filmmakers might be better served trying to strategically screen for certain press and tastemakers so they can enter the festival with people already talking about them.
Chadha: Are there any films that are now on your “can’t miss” list?
Powers: Some of my favorite Sundance titles I’ve programmed for the Miami International Film Festival, which just announced its line-up last week. They include 20 Feet From Stardom, Blackfish, Gideon’S Army, The Crash Reel, Valentine Road, Which Way To The Front Line From Here? and Who Is Dayani Cristal?. There were many other strong films at Sundance that I look forward to showing at the Montclair Film Festival and Stranger Than Fiction. The Square I admire a lot. Muscle Shoals really took me by surprise. It played late in the festival and didn’t gain as much buzz as I thought it deserved. The director, who I believe is a first time director, made all kinds of smart creative decisions. Another film that went under the radar but made a big impression on me was The Stuart Hall Project about the U.K.-based black intellectual Stuart Hall. The film is wholly constructed out of archival sources, primarily from the BBC.
Chadha: What were the lessons about funding that came out of Sundance?
Powers: Sundance is a good survey of how docs are getting funded. This year reflects the important influence of Kickstarter. Recently Kickstarter introduced a tag for its projects that have a Sundance affiliation, and skimming that list I was impressed to see that Inequality For All had raised $83,000 and American Promise had raised $50,000 on Kickstarter. Other documentaries raised more modest sums. What’ so significant about Kickstarter is that those filmmakers did not need to wait around for a grant application committee to give them a green light. They could take matters into their own hands. Other funding players who were prominent are the Sundance Institute, the Tribeca Institute and the Ford Foundation which last year announced a $50 million commitment through the Just Films program. That Ford initiative supported projects like Gideon’S Army, Valentine Road, American Promise, Who Is Dayani Cristal?, God Loves Uganda and Citizen Koch.
Another important player is the equity group Impact Partners, who for several years have had a strong showing of their catalog at Sundance. This year their involvement included American Promise, The Crash Reel, Who Is Dayani Cristal? and Pandora’S Promise. The last group that I would mention is Cinereach, who were the heroes of Sundance last year for their funding of Beasts Of The Southern Wild, and who were back this year with four docs: Cutie And The Boxer, Citizen Koch, God Loves Uganda, and Narco Cultura.
When you look at the kinds of films that are showing up at Sundance, you see the names of some key producers re-occurring. This year the producer Julie Goldman, whose recent Sundance titles include Buck was back with three projects – Gideon’S Army, Manhunt and God Loves Uganda. The producer John Battsek from the U.K. who last year came with Searching For Sugar Man, was back this year with The Summit and Manhunt. And Jess Search, also based in the U.K., who is the founder of Britdoc and the Good Pitch had her name attached to the films Dirty Wars and Who Is Dayani Cristal? Clearly those producers and others like them have a good eye for spotting what makes a strong documentary in development. Those producers perform a variety of roles for filmmakers, whether it’s connecting them to financial support or supplying editorial perspective or connecting them to the other kind of industry players who can take a project further.
Chadha: Going back to Kickstarter for a minute, do you think films that have success on Kickstarter have the added benefit of showing to grantmaking institutions that their films are viable and that there’s an audience for them?
Powers: Absolutely. One bit of industry news this past week was that the HotDocs Forum, which has been a key place for documentaries to raise money, mainly in the broadcast world, announced that they will now accept projects on the basis of a certain amount of funds raised on Kickstarter. It used to be that you had to demonstrate a portion of your budget, like a quarter, was already being supported by a broadcaster or other traditional grantmaking institution. This change in policy signals the way in which Kickstarter funding is being taken more seriously.
In the case of The Square, the producers launched a Kickstarter campaign at Sundance to help finish their film. That seems like a very smart strategy for other filmmakers to consider. When you’re at a film festival, you have a rapt and enthused audience and if you can point them to a Kickstarter campaign, that’s a great way to leverage that enthusiasm. Even if you don’t need finishing funds, it’s a way to get outreach funds. I also saw the team from The Square selling t-shirts. After one screening they came away with few hundred dollars of cash in hand, which can help defray costs of attending a festival. These are strategies that filmmakers like Gary Hustwit have long practiced, emulating the way rock musicians sell t-shirts and posters at live performances. The film community has been slow to catch on. Maybe filmmakers are so busy getting their films made that they don’t have time to think about merchandise. But every bit of revenue helps.
Chadha: Any final thoughts?
Powers: We’ve talked about theatrical and digital distribution and new trends in crowdfunding. But it has to be said that the most long-standing and reliable place for documentary makers to get money is the broadcast world. HBO, which usually has a strong presence at Sundance, had the most overwhelming presence that I can remember, coming with six feature length documentaries. Plus during Sundance HBO bought Pussy Riot-a Punk Prayer. When you consider that HBO also has the film that was the 2012 winner at Idfa, Alan Berliner’s First Cousin Once Removed, and had two films at the Toronto festival – Mea Maxima Culpa by Alex Gibney and First Comes Love by Nina Davenport – that’s an impressive slate of films. There was news generated by other broadcasters getting active in the documentary field, including Showtime, which came with The World According To Dick Cheney. Just before Sundane, The New York Times reported about Showtime’s announcement of several documentaries in progress, including a film about Richard Pryor by Marina Zenovich, who made the Roman Polanski film, that I am personally looking forward to. In addition, CNN made an announcement during Sundance about a slate of feature-length docs, including a film by Alex Gibney. Another major player in that realm is A&E IndieFilms, which didn’t have any films in Sundance this year, but they’re already attached to Errol Morris’s Donald Rumsfeld documentary coming out later this year. All in all, the year is off to a good start.
Link to the original article here...
- 2/19/2013
- by Peter Belsito
- Sydney's Buzz
New York City’s Doc NYC Festival comes to a close Thursday, and woven in among the films in the official program are ten movies highlighted with an unmistakable wink to the Academy: they are part of a sidebar called The Short List. And while Thom Powers, head programmer for Doc NYC, slyly denies any such bias or prognostication, he also knows that he’s doing Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences members a huge service. When the documentary committee of the Academy changed its rules earlier this year in a way that requires members to consider (or even watch) the entire list of 130-plus qualified docs before voting, the groan could be heard from Malibu to Nova Scotia. Even prime mover Michael Moore has had second thoughts. That decision’s effects continue to ripple outward, and Powers and his crew — including senior programmers and Doc NYC executive director Raphaela Neihausen...
- 11/14/2012
- by Jay A. Fernandez
- Indiewire
With their Stranger than Fiction series at New York City’s IFC Center, Thom Powers and Raphaela Neihausen have been curating, programming and advocating for documentary film going on eight years now. Their Tuesday-night events are typically packed, drawing audiences with not only great films but human interaction — Q&A’s with directors, collaborators, and even the film’s subjects. Three years ago, Powers and Neihausen wondered why there wasn’t a major, all-doc festival in New York and decided to embrace the challenge of creating one. The resulting Doc NYC is now in its third year (November 8 – 15), with a new, second theater and its largest program yet (115 events, 61 films and 22 panels and classes). Opening night November 8 features Bartholomew Cubbins’ Artifact, about Jared Leto’s band 30 Seconds to Mars and its legal battle with label Emi (Leto will be in attendance) and Venus and Serena, Michelle Major and Maiken Baird...
- 11/8/2012
- by Scott Macaulay
- Filmmaker Magazine - Blog
Montclair, NJ, has 37,669 residents - one of them is Stephen Colbert - but no film festival. Until now, that is. The inaugural Montclair Film Festival will launch May 2nd and it is moving closer to its deadline by adding two important contributors -- its directors: Raphaela Neihausen and Thom Powers, best known for starting up New York's documentary film festival Docnyc as well as the IFC Center's documentary series Stranger than Fiction (Powers is also a programmer at the Toronto International Film Festival). The board of directors also includes Colbert and his wife Evelyn McGee-Colbert. The festival will include both fiction and documentary films and Colbert told The New York Times that it was likely he would be participating in plenty of festival events. Colbert hosted the festival's first major benefit last week at Montclair's Wellmont Theater. The Montclair Film Festival board, chaired by Wnet VP Bob Feinberg, was established.
- 12/8/2011
- Indiewire
The living room-sized lobby of the IFC Center was teeming with people over the past two weeks as Doc NYC concluded its second year. With more days, more films, more panels and more filmmakers in attendance, the festival was a veritable feast of documentaries.
Among the faces passing through the crowd — including Albert Maysles, Werner Herzog, D.A. Pennebaker and Barbara Kopple — were those of festival directors Thom Powers and Raphaela Neihausen. Wearing the titles of artistic director and executive director, respectively, the husband and wife team conceived Doc NYC from their Manhattan apartment. Though involved in their own endeavors — Powers is the documentary programmer for the Toronto International Film Festival; Neihausen is an independent film producer — the couple’s weekly documentary series “Stranger Than Fiction” has established them as a creative force.
Throughout Doc NYC’s nine days, Powers and Neihuasen were ubiquitous. When they weren’t introducing the festival’s 52 features and 40 shorts,...
Among the faces passing through the crowd — including Albert Maysles, Werner Herzog, D.A. Pennebaker and Barbara Kopple — were those of festival directors Thom Powers and Raphaela Neihausen. Wearing the titles of artistic director and executive director, respectively, the husband and wife team conceived Doc NYC from their Manhattan apartment. Though involved in their own endeavors — Powers is the documentary programmer for the Toronto International Film Festival; Neihausen is an independent film producer — the couple’s weekly documentary series “Stranger Than Fiction” has established them as a creative force.
Throughout Doc NYC’s nine days, Powers and Neihuasen were ubiquitous. When they weren’t introducing the festival’s 52 features and 40 shorts,...
- 11/10/2011
- by Daniel James Scott
- Filmmaker Magazine - Blog
Doc filmmaker Werner Herzog, and Doc NYC executive director Raphaela Neihausen and artistic director Thom Powers at the opening night film of Herzog's "Into the Abyss" Wednesday night at Nyu. Herzog's latest follows conversations with death row inmate Michael Perry and those affected by his crime serve as an examination of why people - and the state - kill. Doc NYC takes place November 2 - 10 in New York City. Check out the lineup here.
- 11/3/2011
- Indiewire
Stranger Than Ficiton, a weekly documentary series held at the IFC Center in New York and hosted by Thom Powers and Raphaela Neihausen, this year launches its first summer edition that runs from June 2 - August 9. The summer slate includes "Senna," winner of the Sundance Audience Award, and the U.S. premiere of "You've Been Trumped," which went over well at Hot Docs in Toronto. Below is the full ...
- 5/26/2011
- Indiewire
For most curators, programming the Toronto Film Festival would be a full plate, but Thom Powers’ appetite for documentary knows no bounds. In between programming and promoting Stranger than Fiction, his weekly documentary series at the IFC, he and Raphaela Neihausen, his wife and business partner, have co-founded Doc NYC, a New York based documentary festival.
It’s a festival of riches for documentary lovers — five days of documentary screenings, panels and stars (Werner Herzog and Errol Morris will be in attendance). A celebration of documentary media of all kinds, in addition to the many screenings there are also panels on the current state of radio and interviews with photographers. I spoke to Powers this weekend to find out more about the festival. For a full schedule of all events from November 3rd – November 9th, click here.
Filmmaker: What spurred you to create a new documentary… Read the rest...
It’s a festival of riches for documentary lovers — five days of documentary screenings, panels and stars (Werner Herzog and Errol Morris will be in attendance). A celebration of documentary media of all kinds, in addition to the many screenings there are also panels on the current state of radio and interviews with photographers. I spoke to Powers this weekend to find out more about the festival. For a full schedule of all events from November 3rd – November 9th, click here.
Filmmaker: What spurred you to create a new documentary… Read the rest...
- 10/31/2010
- by Mary Anderson Casavant
- Filmmaker Magazine - Blog
Doc NYC unveiled details of its upcoming inaugural festival spotlighting documentary in New York, with Werner Herzog's new 3-D film, "Cave of Forgotten Dreams" slated to open the seven day event November 3rd. IFC Films acquired the title at the recent Toronto International Film Festival. Spearheaded by Toronto doc programmer, Thom Powers, IFC Center’s John Vanco and Raphaela Neihausen, the new event’s executive director, organizers unveiled NYC's latest film event last ...
- 9/29/2010
- Indiewire
Stranger Than Fiction, the weekly documentary series at New York's IFC Center hosted by Thom Powers and Raphaela Neihausen, will start its fourteenth season September 28, 2010 with a screening of Jeff Malmberg's SXSW winner "Marwencol." Most of the fall's screenings will feature Q&A's with filmmakers and key figures in the film. "Marwencol," which tells the story of Mark Hogancamp, a man who, after suffering from a brutal beating, begins to ...
- 8/16/2010
- Indiewire
That was the question asked a group of about 40 filmmakers and members of the filmmaking community at an IFC Center Friday breakfast by Thom Powers (artistic director), John Vanco (managing director) and Raphaela Neihausen (executive director) about their new event, Doc NYC. Powers, Vanco and Neihausen are teaming to present the inaugural edition of this new Gotham doc fest this November, and their first step has been to reach out to the community for opinions on what’s needed to distinguish their festival. From their initial release: “Doc NYC will fill an important void in New York City and will be a cornerstone for documentary storytellers from all over the world to showcase premieres, hold panels and give audiences the thrill...
- 4/17/2010
- by Scott Macaulay
- Filmmaker Magazine - Blog
Two months after bringing a new child into the world, Thom Powers and Raphaela Neihausen, the dynamic duo of docs, whose weekly Stranger Than Fiction series at the IFC Center is a true gem, have conceived again. Announced yesterday, on the eve of the Full Frame Documentary Film Festival in Durham and weeks away from Hot Docs in Toronto, Doc NYC Festival of Documentary Storytelling will run November 3 through 7 at the IFC Center and the New York University Skirball Center in downtown Manhattan. Powers and Neihausen are the ...
- 4/7/2010
- by twhite
- International Documentary Association
Filling an extended gaping hole for non-fiction filmmakers and fans that has existed in New York City, a new documentary festival is being launched in downtown Manhattan this fall. Toronto International Film Festival doc programmer Thom Powers, IFC Center's John Vanco and Raphaela Neihausen, the new event's executive director, have unveiled Doc NYC, the first documentary film festival of it's kind in the city since filmmaker Gary Pollard's Docfest effectively closed ...
- 4/6/2010
- Indiewire
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