International Documentary Association Names Top Docs of 2005
FAVELA RISING and OUR BRAND IS CRISIS Share Honors in Features Category
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LOS ANGELES, November 16, 2005 – The International Documentary Association (IDA) announced today that FAVELA RISING, OUR BRAND IS CRISIS, THE CHILDREN OF LENINGRADSKY, CNN PRESENTS, and THE STAIRCASE have earned Distinguished Documentary Achievement Awards. Presentations will be made during the 21st Annual IDA Awards Gala Benefit here on December 9 at the Directors Guild of America (DGA) Theatre.
“These documentaries were chosen by a jury of peers out of hundreds of films that were submitted from around the world,” says IDA Executive Director Sandra Ruch. “Each of them tells an important story that makes an unforgettable impression. It is encouraging to see the diversity of high-quality documentaries made by so many talented filmmakers around the world.”
FAVELA RISING and OUR BRAND IS CRISIS shared top honors in the Feature competition. THE CHILDREN OF LENINGRADSKY won for the Short category (films under 40-minutes). THE STAIRCASE won the Limited Series competition for segments of a series with a specific continuing theme or subject. CNN PRESENTS won the Continuing Series competition for documentaries that are part of an ongoing series.
FAVELA RISING follows Anderson Sá, a former drug-trafficker turned social revolutionary in Rio de Janeiro’s most feared slum. Through hip-hop music, the rhythms of the street, and Afro-Brazilian dance he rallies his community to counteract the violent oppression enforced by teenage drug armies and sustained by corrupt police. Matt Mochary and Jeff Zimbalist directed the film.
In OUR BRAND IS CRISIS, director-producer Rachel Boynton examines what happens when America’s brand of political message-making is transported overseas. Bolivia’s former president, Gonzalo Sánchez de Lozada, also known as Goni, hired spin-doctors Greenberg-Carville-Shrum to help him win back the presidency he lost in 1997. With astounding access, the film unravels like a political thriller as the consultants and the candidate are confronted with disaster the first polls never predicted.
CHILDREN OF LENINGRADSKY was nominated for an Oscar® earlier this year. The film is an intimate portrait of children living in Moscow train stations. They panhandle or prostitute themselves for money, yet many consider life on the streets a better alternative to what they experienced at home. It was co-directed and co-produced by Andrzej Celinsky and Hanna Polak.
THE STAIRCASE was directed by Jean-Xavier de Lestrade and produced by Denis Poncet and Allyson Luchak. The program, which aired on Sundance Channel, followed the trial of author Michael Peterson who is accused of murdering his wife in their North Carolina home in December 2001. The team of de Lestrade and Poncet earned an Oscar® in 2002 for MURDER ON A SUNDAY MORNING.
CNN PRESENTS showcases in-depth programming for a worldwide audience about the people, places and events defining their world. The series has included programs about gang violence terrorizing small communities across America, questionable standards in forensics labs, and the impact on survivors and those affected by suicide bombings. Sid Bedingfield is the executive producer and Judy Gottleib is the executive director.
The 2005 Pare Lorentz Award will be presented to director David O’Shields and executive producer Daryl Smith for AMERICA’S LOST LANDSCAPE: THE TALLGRASS PRAIRIE. This award is presented by the Pare Lorentz Foundation to one or more individuals whose work best represents the democratic sensibility, activist spirit and lyrical vision of the legendary documentarian. The film depicts changes in the Midwestern landscape during the past 150 years and highlights prairie preservation efforts, including how a tallgrass prairie ecosystem may serve as a model for a sustainable agriculture of the future.
RWANDA: DO SCARS EVER FADE? took top honors in the IDA/ABCNEWS VideoSource competition. The award recognizes documentarians who make the best use of historic news footage to tell a non-fiction story. Director Paul Freedman visited Rwanda 10 years after the 1994 genocide. The film, produced by Bill Brummel, includes interviews with participants and survivors, and explored the catastrophic effects of the genocide, and the progress made in rebuilding during the past decade.
The IDA will present Marshall Curry with the Jacqueline Donnet Emerging Documentary Filmmaker Award, which goes to an individual who has made at least one documentary and shows great promise. Curry’s first feature-length documentary STREET FIGHT follows the 2002 mayoral campaign in Newark, New Jersey, when Cory Booker attempted to unseat longtime mayor Sharpe James.
The IDA Awards Gala’s founding sponsor is Eastman Kodak Company. The company has sponsored the IDA Awards since their inception in 1984, and also hosts DocuFestâ„¢, where all of the award-winning films will be presented followed by discussions with the filmmakers. DocuFest will be held in the company’s screening room at 6700 Santa Monica Blvd., in Hollywood, on December 10 from 9:00 a.m.-midnight.
Tickets for the 2005 Distinguished Documentary Achievement Awards are available at www.documentary.org or by calling 213-534-3600, ext. 0.
Netflix is a major sponsor of the Gala.
ABCNEWS VideoSource and Google are presenting sponsors.
The event sponsor is Director Guild of America.
Supporting sponsors are Chubb, French Embassy in Los Angeles, Daily Variety, The Hollywood Reporter, Stella Artois and Marriott’s Residence Inn.
