By Ray Pride Pride@moviecitynews.com

International Documentary Association’s New Screening Series To Replace DocuWeeks Qualifying Showcase

Posted Thursday, April 11th, 2013 - Comments Off on International Documentary Association’s New Screening Series To Replace DocuWeeks Qualifying Showcase
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LOS ANGELES, April 11, 2013 — The International Documentary Association announced today the launch of the IDA Documentary Screening Series, invitation-only screenings of fifteen documentary features to take place annually between September and January.  The new series will replace IDA’s DocuWeeks™ Theatrical Documentary Showcase, a program designed to help filmmakers qualify their works for Oscar® consideration. IDA is making these changes in response to both the evolving needs of documentary filmmakers and recent changes in the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences’ (AMPAS) qualifying rules for documentary features and shorts.

Over the last year, the IDA has undergone an extensive internal audit, surveying its membership and the documentary community to gauge their needs and wants.  Based on this feedback the IDA concluded that in addition to education, funding and advocacy, filmmakers are best served with a program that extends throughout the awards season and works in harmony with industry guilds and organizations to raise awareness for documentary films overall.

From 1997 through 2012, IDA’s DocuWeeks™ Theatrical Showcase helped to qualify outstanding new feature and short documentaries for Academy Award® consideration, by providing its participants a commercial theatrical exhibition in Los Angeles and New York. During its sixteen year run, 30 films from DocuWeeks™ were nominated for an Academy Award® with 7 winning the Oscar®, including Smile Pinki (2008), Taxi To The Dark Side (2007) and The Blood of Yingzhou District (2006).

The new screening series will bring some of the year’s best documentary films to IDA members as well as members of AMPAS and industry guilds with the goal of increasing voting participation in the documentary award categories. Each screening will include a Q&A with the filmmakers, which will be recorded and made available on documentary.org, YouTube and through the filmmakers themselves. The IDA will share additional details about this new program in the coming months.

“As the industry evolves so will we,” said IDA Executive Director Michael Lumpkin. “With this new screening series, along with programs like our annual IDA Documentary Awards and DocuDay, we will continue to celebrate and champion the art of documentary filmmaking worldwide.”

About the International Documentary Association

Founded in 1982, the International Documentary Association (IDA) is a nonprofit 501(c)(3) organization that supports documentary filmmaking worldwide. At IDA, we believe that the power and artistry of the documentary art form are vital to cultures and societies globally, and we exist to serve the needs of those who create this art form. IDA is the portal into the world of documentary filmmaking. We provide up-to-date news, information and community through our website, documentary.org, our various special events, and our quarterly publication, Documentary Magazine. Our main program areas are Advocacy, Filmmaker Services, Education and Public Programs & Events.

 

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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