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The 2011 Cinema Eye Honors

Posted Wednesday, January 19th, 2011 - Comments Off on The 2011 Cinema Eye Honors
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EXIT THROUGH THE GIFT SHOP Takes Top Award at 2011 Cinema Eye Honors

Laura Poitras named Outstanding Director, Jeff Malmberg Outstanding Debut

LAST TRAIN HOME wins three awards including Production and Cinematography

Audience Choice goes to JOAN RIVERS: A PIECE OF WORK

New York – January 18, 2011 – EXIT THROUGH THE GIFT SHOP, the self-tagged “world’s first street art disaster movie”, took the top award at the 2011 Cinema Eye Honors for Nonfiction Filmmaking tonight at the Museum of the Moving Image in Astoria, New York.

The film, directed by the acclaimed and provocative British artist Banksy and produced by Jaimie D’Cruz, was named the year’s Outstanding Achievement in Nonfiction Feature Filmmaking. EXIT also won the Cinema Eye for Outstanding Editing for Chris King and Tom Fulford.

Filmmaker Laura Poitras received the Outstanding Achievement in Direction award for her work on THE OATH, which follows the surprisingly different paths of two former members of Al Qaeda. Poitras is the second woman in a row to receive Cinema Eye’s directing prize, following the award last year for Agnès Varda.

Lixin Fan’s LAST TRAIN HOME took home three awards, including Outstanding Production for Mila Aung-Thwin and Daniel Cross, Cinematography for Fan and International Film, which was shared by Fan, Aung-Thwin and Cross.

With nearly 10,000 votes – and just 58 votes separating the top two finishers, the Audience Choice Prize went to Ricki Stern and Annie Sundberg’s JOAN RIVERS: A PIECE OF WORK.

The Debut Film award was given to Jeff Malmberg for MARWENCOL.

Two awards were presented for the first time: the Nonfiction Short award went to Vance Malone for THE POODLE TRAINER and the inaugural Heterodox Award, for narrative films that blur the lines between fiction and nonfiction, went to Matt Porterfield’s PUTTY HILL.

The 4th Annual Cinema Eye Honors were held at the Museum of the Moving Image in Astoria, New York, just 4 days after the Museum’s grand re-opening after years of renovation and expansion. The event will be broadcast on the Documentary Channel on January 30, 2011 with Esther Robinson and AJ Schnack as this year’s co-chairs and co-hosts. Nathan Truesdell was the producer.

Among the highlights of the evening, Cinema Eye Honorees Lixin Fan (LAST TRAIN HOME), Jeff Malmberg (MARWENCOL) and Laura Poitras (THE OATH) presented the Legacy Award to GREY GARDENS filmmakers Albert Maysles and Muffie Meyer.

Academy Award and Cinema Eye winning filmmakers James Marsh (MAN ON WIRE) and Louie Psihoyos (THE COVE), actor/filmmaker Harry Shearer and musician John Flansburgh of They Might Be Giants were amongst this year’s other presenters.

The Cinema Eye ceremony included tributes by Academy Award nominee Morgan Spurlock to George Hickenlooper, the director of the documentaries MAYOR OF THE SUNSET STRIP and HEARTS OF DARKNESS, who died in October 2010; and by filmmakers Liz Garbus, Lucia Small and Greg Barker to their editor Karen Schmeer, who died in January 2010.

In addition to Documentary Channel and the Museum of the Moving Image, this year’s Cinema Eye sponsors included The Economist, HBO Documentary Films, A&E IndieFilms, SnagFilms, POV, Sheffield Doc/Fest, Hot Docs, Camden International Film Festival, Abel Cine Tech, Danish Film Institute, Hudson Hotel, Maine Distilleries and Film Sales Company.

A full list of winners follows:

OUTSTANDING ACHIEVEMENT IN NONFICTION FEATURE FILMMAKING

Exit Through the Gift Shop

Directed by Banksy, Produced by Jaimie D’Cruz

Presented by James Marsh

OUTSTANDING ACHIEVEMENT IN DIRECTION

Laura Poitras

The Oath

Presented by Louie Psihoyos

OUTSTANDING ACHIEVEMENT IN PRODUCTION

Mila Aung-Thwin and Daniel Cross

Last Train Home

Presented by Bingham Ray

OUTSTANDING ACHIEVEMENT IN EDITING

Chris King and Tom Fulford

Exit Through the Gift Shop

Presented by Greg Barker, Liz Garbus and Lucia Small

OUTSTANDING ACHIEVEMENT IN CINEMATOGRAPHY

Lixin Fan

Last Train Home

Presented by Steven Bognar

OUTSTANDING ACHIEVEMENT IN ORIGINAL MUSIC SCORE

Norbert Möslang

The Sound of Insects: Record of a Mummy

Presented by John Flansburgh Jury: Paul Brill, John Flansburgh, Darius Marder, Sascha Paladino and Allison Willmore

OUTSTANDING ACHIEVEMENT IN GRAPHIC DESIGN AND ANIMATION

Juan Cardarelli and Alex Tyson

Gasland

Presented by Emily Hubley

OUTSTANDING ACHIEVEMENT IN AN INTERNATIONAL FEATURE

Last Train Home

Directed by Lixin Fan Produced by Mila Aung-Thwin and Daniel Cross Presented by Jess Search

OUTSTANDING ACHIEVEMENT IN A DEBUT FEATURE FILM

Jeff Malmberg

Marwencol

Presented by Bill Ross and Turner Ross

OUTSTANDING ACHIEVEMENT IN NONFICTION SHORT FILMMAKING

sponsored by The Economist

The Poodle Trainer

Directed by Vance Malone Presented by Patrick Creadon Jury: Shaz Bennett, Patrick Creadon, Mark Olsen and Ondi Timoner

AUDIENCE CHOICE PRIZE

Joan Rivers: A Piece of Work

Directed by Ricki Stern and Annie Sundberg Presented by Harry Shearer

LEGACY AWARD

Grey Gardens

Albert Maysles, David Maysles, Ellen Hovde, Muffie Meyer and Susan Froemke Presented by Lixin Fan, Jeff Malmberg and Laura Poitras

SPOTLIGHT AWARD

The Autobiography of Nicolae Ceaucascu

Directed by Andrei Ujica Presented by Margaret Brown Jury: Kirby Dick, Laura Gabbert, Karina Longworth, Mike Plante and Doug Pray

HETERODOX AWARD sponsored by Filmmaker Magazine

Putty Hill Directed by Matt Porterfield

Presented by Yance Ford and Ross Kauffman

Jury: Yance Ford, Julie Goldman, Ross Kauffman, Joshua Marston and Astra Taylor

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It shows how out of it I was in trying to be in it, acknowledging that I was out of it to myself, and then thinking, “Okay, how do I stop being out of it? Well, I get some legitimate illogical narrative ideas” — some novel, you know?

So I decided on three writers that I might be able to option their material and get some producer, or myself as producer, and then get some writer to do a screenplay on it, and maybe make a movie.

And so the three projects were “Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep,” “Naked Lunch” and a collection of Bukowski. Which, in 1975, forget it — I mean, that was nuts. Hollywood would not touch any of that, but I was looking for something commercial, and I thought that all of these things were coming.

There would be no Blade Runner if there was no Ray Bradbury. I couldn’t find Philip K. Dick. His agent didn’t even know where he was. And so I gave up.

I was walking down the street and I ran into Bradbury — he directed a play that I was going to do as an actor, so we know each other, but he yelled “hi” — and I’d forgot who he was.

So at my girlfriend Barbara Hershey’s urging — I was with her at that moment — she said, “Talk to him! That guy really wants to talk to you,” and I said “No, fuck him,” and keep walking.

But then I did, and then I realized who it was, and I thought, “Wait, he’s in that realm, maybe he knows Philip K. Dick.” I said, “You know a guy named—” “Yeah, sure — you want his phone number?”

My friend paid my rent for a year while I wrote, because it turned out we couldn’t get a writer. My friends kept on me about, well, if you can’t get a writer, then you write.”
~ Hampton Fancher

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~ David Simon