Hey, have you had a chance to catch By the People, the HBO documentary about Barack Obama‘s presidential campaign that began airing this month? Yeah, me too. Did you shed some tears? Uh-huh. Did you marvel at the momentousness of that time? Yep. And isn’t it fantastic to have that all on record, so we
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Independent journalist Tom Roston checks in and writes about the world of documentaries in his column, Doc Soup.You can follow Tom on Twitter @DocSoupMan.
Doc Soup: Two More Films for Veteran’s Day
Having given a good think to Veteran’s Day and the film Hearts and Minds, I came across two other veteran-related films, one old and one new, that I think are worth tracking down. First, the new: Dan Cogan, from Impact Partners, whom I interviewed several weeks ago, tells me that Impact’s How to Fold a
Continue reading this entry »Doc Soup: Looking Back at “Hearts and Minds”
Someone once told me that there’s a historical rule that the greatest eras of documentary filmmaking have coincided with the times that the United States has been at war. So, we’d have to look at 1940-1945, 1950-1953, 1965-1973 (give or take a few years), and then 2003 to now. I suppose there’s truth to this
Continue reading this entry »Doc Soup: A Conversation with Alyce Myatt, Grantmakers in Film + Electronic Media
A few weeks ago, I spoke with Tod Lending, director of The Principal Story, about how he hit the jackpot by getting money from the Wallace Foundation to make a series of nonfiction films. I asked him if there were other goldmines for filmmakersout there, and he directed me to Alyce Myatt, the head of
Continue reading this entry »Doc Soup: Have the Great Titans Moved On?
Have the great doc titans lost their oomph? And if so, is that such a bad thing? I got to ruminating over these questions when I began considering how, this September, we saw the two most popular documentary filmmakers release new works practically right on top of each other: Ken Burns‘ The National Parks: America’s
Continue reading this entry »Doc Soup: The Wallace Foundation and “The Principal Story”
I continue here my exploration into foundations funding documentaries with a discussion with The Principal Story‘s Tod Lending, a director who pretty much won the doc filmmakers’ sweepstakes with a giant grant from Chicago’s Wallace Foundation. Doc Soup: You received a grant from the Wallace Foundation to make The Principal Story. Did you go to
Continue reading this entry »Doc Soup: Foundations and Documentary Funding
Everyone has less these days. Money is disappearing. Doc distributors like ThinkFilm, Warner Independent Pictures and Paramount Vantage are vanishing. And the recession continues to roll on. In this climate, where does a doc filmmaker turn for financing? In the past, one of the best go-to resources was the diverse realm of foundations. The big
Continue reading this entry »Doc Soup: So You Think You Can Doc
OK, so it wasn’t exactly the United Nations General Assembly, but the power in the room was palpable. Last week, while President Obama and other world leaders met further uptown, I attended The Good Pitch, the climactic event of IFP’s Independent Film Week of panels and screenings in New York City. The Good Pitch is
Continue reading this entry »Doc Soup: In Search of the Honest Truth About Docs and Ethics
Leave it to The New York Times to fail to get the facts straight. Or, rather, to presume that there’s such a thing as an immutable fact and that its journalists have the rarified ability to relay facts without prejudice. No documentary filmmaker worth his or her salt would ever make such a claim, but
Continue reading this entry »Doc Soup: Politics and the Message of “The Principal Story”
Education is a hot-button issue, both politically and personally. But I still couldn’t believe the reaction to President Obama‘s Back-to-School speech two weeks ago. Right-wing zealots raging about how it should be boycotted? School districts in Illinois, Minnesota, Missouri, North Carolina, Texas, Virginia and Wisconsin actually complying and boycotting the broadcast of the speech? The
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Señorita Extraviada
May 22, 2013
7:00 pm
Irvine, California
Phi Lambda Rho is pleased to host their first annual Semana De La Mujer, a week-long event on the University of California, Irvine campus celebrating the complex and unique identity of Latinas. Through a series of events, including a screening of Señorita Extraviada, they hope to inform students about the issues affecting Latina students on campus, as well as issues affecting the Latina/o community as a whole. For more information, call (323) 246-8437.
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