By Ray Pride Pride@moviecitynews.com

POV’s Simon Kilmurry Shifts After 16 Years To Exec-Direct IDA, The Int’l Doc Ass’n

 

INTERNATIONAL DOCUMENTARY ASSOCIATION ANNOUNCES POV’S SIMON KILMURRY AS EXECUTIVE DIRECTORThursday April 30, 2015 – Los Angeles, CA – The International Documentary Association (IDA) is proud to announce the appointment of Simon Kilmurry to the position of Executive Director. Kilmurry will relocate from New York to Los Angeles to begin work on July 6, 2015.
 
Kilmurry joins IDA following an illustrious 16-year tenure at POV, the long-running PBS showcase of independent documentaries, where he has served as Executive Producer since 2006.  He also serves as Executive Director of American Documentary, POV’s non-profit parent organization.
 
“It’s hard to imagine anyone better qualified to take the reins at IDA,” said Marjan Safinia, President of IDA’s Board of Directors. “As an internationally recognized leader in our field, Simon’s name is synonymous with excellence in documentary, and his passion for the form is unrivaled. He is truly from the tribe of documentary filmmakers that we serve. This, coupled with his extraordinary track record in organizational management and deep insight into the needs of the documentary field, makes him the strongest possible leader to continue our evolution.”
 
“I’m thrilled to be joining the International Documentary Association,” said Kilmurry. “Documentary is one of the most exciting forms of cultural expression, it is absolutely vital to a thriving democracy, and I am deeply passionate about it.  The IDA has never been better positioned to play a leadership role in the field, advocating for and providing support to filmmakers, and convening an international dialogue for filmmakers telling the most relevant stories of our time.”
 
Kilmurry has won numerous accolades in his role at POV including a Primetime Emmy Award, 12 News and Documentary Emmy Awards, a Special Emmy Award for Excellence in Documentary Filmmaking, as well as more than 50 News and Documentary Emmy nominations. He is also the recipient of five Peabody Awards, three Du Pont Columbia Awards, two Overseas Press Club Awards, a Grierson Award, and is a two-time recipient of the Best Continuing Series Award from IDA. In 2011 he received the National Association of Latino Independent Producers’ Award for Corporate Commitment to Diversity.
 
Kilmurry has also served as Executive Director of American Documentary, POV’s non-profit parent organization. Under his leadership, the organization was the recipient of a $1 million MacArthur Award for Creative and Effective Institutions in 2013. In addition to POV, he is the executive producer of America ReFramed, a documentary series on the WORLD Channel. Established in 2012, America ReFramed is a year-round showcase of independent documentaries featuring contemporary American stories.
 
About IDA
 
IDA believes that documentary films create a more informed, connected and compassionate world. Founded in 1982, the IDA is a nonprofit 501(c)3 organization dedicated to building and serving the needs of a thriving documentary culture. IDA’s goal is for all nonfiction filmmakers to have access to the support and legal protections they need to successfully practice their art. Through its programs, the IDA provides resources, creates community, and defends the rights and freedoms of documentary artists, activists and journalist. Students, educators and documentary film enthusiasts also rely on IDA’s programs and services to enhance their understanding of the art form and the subjects that are illuminated in the films. IDA’s programs include the IDA Documentary Awards, now in its 31st year, Doc-U, an educational seminar and workshop series, The Getting Real documentary conference, fiscal sponsorship, funding and filmmaker services, Documentary magazine and public screening programs. Visit documentary.org for more information.

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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

“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