By MCN Editor editor@moviecitynews.com

AFI-DISCOVERY CHANNEL SILVERDOCS DOCUMENTARY FESTIVAL ANNOUNCES DOCUMENTARY CONFERENCE PROGRAM

Posted Tuesday, June 14th, 2011 - Comments Off on AFI-DISCOVERY CHANNEL SILVERDOCS DOCUMENTARY FESTIVAL ANNOUNCES DOCUMENTARY CONFERENCE PROGRAM
Be Sociable, Share!

Conference Designed With Emphasis on Mid-Career Filmmakers Includes
Popular Pitch Sessions and Advanced Sessions on Craft and Funding

Silver Spring, Maryland, June 14, 2011 –AFI-Discovery Channel Silverdocs Documentary Festival today announced highlights of its Documentary Conference taking place June 21-25, 2011 at the new Silver Spring Civic Building, just steps away from the Festival’s home at the AFI Silver Theatre and Cultural Center.  The Conference provides five full days of essential discussion, strategic professional development and cutting-edge market intelligence, with over 50 panels and workshops, 20 Silver Sessions (small group meetings with international media executives and funders), plus one-on-one access to key industry decision-makers.  This year’s Conference theme, “Framing the Future: Fresh Perspectives in Documentary,” is oriented to the mid-career filmmaker, while also featuring advanced sessions on craft, outreach and funding, and newly-designed pitch sessions that employ the latest tools and technology for filmmakers to develop their careers and maximize their film’s success.

“Silverdocs is the only event in the U.S. that combines the experience of a documentary festival with a complete professional conference, celebrating the art and business of non-fiction storytelling.  This year’s Conference program was curated in collaboration with a number of luminaries in the documentary arena and combines advanced sessions exploring today’s leading topics with the intimate setting designed for creative and business connections that our industry guests have come to expect,” said Sky Sitney, Festival Director.

Conference content falls into five categories: (1) Dollars and Cents: Funding and Distribution, which includes numerous pitch sessions and workshops; (2) Audience Engagement and Impact; (3) Hands-On Storytelling: Craft and Aesthetics, which includes master classes, DSLR camera workshops and a new Transmedia Lab; (4) Insider’s Guide to Public Broadcasting; and (5) Schooldocs: Innovative Media in the 21st Century Classroom.

Topics to be explored include:

  • The Relationship Between Journalism & Documentary Filmmaking
  • The Future of Non-Social Issue Documentaries
  • Changing the Public Perception of Documentaries
  • The Great Debate – three filmmakers debate esteemed members of the documentary community about today’s most pressing issues

Conference Highlights:

DOLLARS AND CENTS: FUNDING AND DISTRIBUTION

Examining the business of documentary filmmaking, participants will hear from leaders in the field, including representatives from A&E IndieFilms, Americans for the Arts, Balcony Releasing, Bay Area Video Coalition, Chicken & Egg Pictures, Cinereach, Cinetic Media, CNN-Special Investigations, Crowdstarter, Discovery Channel, ESPN Films, Fledgling Fund, The Ford Foundation, HBO Documentaries, Magnolia Pictures, National Endowment for the Arts and Humanities, ro*co films international, Working Films and more.

INSIDER’S GUIDE TO PUBLIC BROADCASTING

These workshops and case studies are designed to educate established and emerging independent filmmakers about the public broadcasting system and its opportunities.  Conference delegates will join executives from PBS, CPB, ITVS, the Center for Social Media, POV and major producing stations.  PBS Panel Highlights include: Producing for Public Media and ITVS and the Art of the Short Story: Half Hour Television Documentaries.

HANDS-ON STORYTELLING: CRAFT AND AESTHETICS

A series of Doc Talks and Master Classes with award-winning editors, producers and directors, including filmmaking duo Heidi Ewing and Rachel Grady (BOYS OF BARAKA, JESUS CAMP, 12TH AND DELAWARE), who will present a Master Class on directing, illustrating their filmmaking process.

Workshop Highlights:

TRANSMEDIA LAB (Co-presented by The Tribeca Film Institute)

This one-day workshop will delve into the development of a cross-platform and/or transmedia project, beginning with the concept of a social issue documentary film.  Six projects will go through a mini transmedia workshop in the morning, rotating through a panel of experts who will provide advice for the projects.  In the second half of the day, the transmedia experts will make 20-minute presentations on their areas of expertise, followed by a 10-minute pitch by each of the project stakeholders.

DSLR CAMERA WORKSHOP

Filmmaker Steven Bognar (A LION IN THE HOUSE, THE LAST TRUCK: CLOSING OF A GM PLANT) will present a two-part workshop and panel discussion exploring all aspects of DSLR cameras, from equipment and accessories to documentary aesthetics.

STATE OF THE ARTS

Public media and federal arts funding-key sources of support for filmmakers-remain a bête noire for some policy-makers who view the results as non-essential or politically slanted.  With the 2012 budget battle looming, arts funding remains a target.  Silverdocs convenes a panel with key funders, policy-makers and advocates to present their programs and discuss agendas in this challenging political climate.

PITCH SERIES

In addition to the transmedia lab, Silverdocs presents a series of pitch sessions, including: PBS “Speed Pitch” and “One-On-One with NEH,” as well as pitch forums with ITVS, Discovery and the San Francisco Film Fund.  Silverdocs will also host a Pitch Training Workshop.

SCHOOLDOCS: INNOVATIVE MEDIA IN THE 21ST CENTURY CLASSROOM

AFI Silver Screen Education presents a strand of hands-on workshops, panel discussions and screenings directed to the needs of 21st Century educators and their students.  Topics include “Painless Blending of Media into Curricula,” “Collaborative Composing,” “Critical Literacy: Making Connections with Film,” “Using Filmmaking in the Classroom to Engage Student Understanding of Subtext,” “Best Practices and Fair Use for Education,” “Web Content for Educators” and “The Role of New Technologies in Education Reform.”  In addition, the voices of youth filmmakers from all over the world will be represented in panels, pitch sessions and workshops with master filmmakers.

The full Conference schedule and participants can be found at silverdocs.com/conference/conference-highlights/

# # #

Be Sociable, Share!

Posted in Movie City News, Press Releases | Comments Off on AFI-DISCOVERY CHANNEL SILVERDOCS DOCUMENTARY FESTIVAL ANNOUNCES DOCUMENTARY CONFERENCE PROGRAM

Comments are closed.

Quote Unquotesee all »

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

“That was the most disappointing thing to me in how this thing was played. Is that I’m on the phone with you now, after all that’s been said, and the fundamental distinction between what James is dealing with in these other cases is not actually brought to the fore. The fundamental difference is that James Franco didn’t seek to use his position to have sex with anyone. There’s not a case of that. He wasn’t using his position or status to try to solicit a sexual favor from anyone. If he had — if that were what the accusation involved — the show would not have gone on. We would have folded up shop and we would have not completed the show. Because then it would have been the same as Harvey Weinstein, or Les Moonves, or any of these cases that are fundamental to this new paradigm. Did you not notice that? Why did you not notice that? Is that not something notable to say, journalistically? Because nobody could find the voice to say it. I’m not just being rhetorical. Why is it that you and the other critics, none of you could find the voice to say, “You know, it’s not this, it’s that”? Because — let me go on and speak further to this. If you go back to the L.A. Times piece, that’s what it lacked. That’s what they were not able to deliver. The one example in the five that involved an issue of a sexual act was between James and a woman he was dating, who he was not working with. There was no professional dynamic in any capacity.

~ David Simon