IDA’s 9th Annual DocuWeek, formerly InFACT, formerly DOCtober kicked off on Thursday night with a simple gathering at the Arclight Café. It was good to see people I hadn’t seen in a while and a great excuse to eat too many chicken pineapple skewers (they were surprisingly good!). Here’s a pic of doc filmmaker Josh […]

Since its opening on June 24, 2005 March of the Penguins has done over $40 million at the box office domestically. Making it the second biggest documentary ticket seller of all time. After just about everyone I know asking me if I had yet seen “the penguin movie” I thought it was time to take […]

September 19, 2003 I had my first meeting with the guys from 39 Pounds of Love. It was a distribution consultation through IFP/Los Angeles (now Film Independent). I was so thrilled to see something great. Something at an early stage. Something I knew was going to be a hit…eventually. The director and producer met me […]

Last week I attended two stellar events in Los Angeles. Wednesday night it was off to the Arclight for Audi’s presentation of $10,000 and a 2006 Audi A3 to the winner of their Step Ahead with Audi filmmaking competition. They screened all 3 of the nominated documentary films. All 3 were well-made. But my personal […]

Sunday night I went to the first LA screening of a “home movie” by Jeffrey Ross, Patriot Act. He’s calling it a home movie but there is no International Home Movie Association so it screened as part of a screening series that the International Documentary Association (IDA) puts together. There was a terrific crowd. Pretty […]

How great to be inspired on a Friday afternoon. I didn’t know I could get all swept up into something I watched on the computer. But! I just watched Kristina Robbins-Higgins‘ short doc Life as You Know It about parents who bring their kids into their work. Not just bring them to work with them, […]

I am a screener for AFI Fest. That means that for the last 3 summers I have spent tons of time in front of the TV watching literally 100s of documentaries. It’s awesome, tiring, thrilling and troubling all at the same time. How it works: AFI receives 1,000s of submissions in all catagories for the […]

I’m just back from San Diego Comicon recouperating from a summer cold. So I spent the weekend getting caught up on TV docs that have accumulated on my Tivo. I could write an essay praising the Tivo for its lifechanging qualities…but I’ll stick to the docs for now. I started with HBO’s Twist of Faith […]