Eighty-Three Percent

Received an email today explaining that 79 of the 95 teams that entered the International Documentary Challenge finished their films on time. It went on to explain that the 12 finalists will be announced by April 2.

If you figure each team made a five-minute documentary, then the judges have to watch six-and-a-half hours of short documentaries....

Full Frame

In April I will be attending the Full Frame Film Festival in North Carolina. They've just posted the list of new documentaries that will be screened:

New Docs: Films in Competition

Done, Done, and Done

We completed the film on time and sent it off.

Details soon....

Real Life, Filmed Real Fast

I'm participating in the International Documentary Challenge.

This morning at 8 a.m. received a choice between two genres and a theme -- and now need to make a short documentary matching that. It will be about 5 minutes in length, and has to be sent off postmarked on Monday.

I've just text messaged the six members of our team, and now we have to decide what film to make and how to make it.

tf

The Numbers Game

Last year, when I received notice I had been accepted to the Graduate Certificate in Documentary Media Studies program at The New School, I began keeping track of the documentaries I watched.

"An Inconvenient Truth" was the 100th since I started that list. Of course, it won at the Academy Awards on Sunday night, and "The Blood of Yingzhou District" won in the short doc category.

That was number 94 for me.

DocuDay NY 2007

In the cab heading down to 53rd Street, I told the driver I was going to spend 14 hours watching documentaries. He seemed horrified at first, then said: "I could watch that much baseball. I guess it's good if it's what you like."

I stared out the window, watching snow-covered Central Park fly past, and thought, "Yep. It's what I like."

Each year, DocuDay screens the feature and short documentaries nominated for the Academy Award. This year's program:

Deliver Us From Evil
Iraq In Fragments
The Blood of Yingzhou District (39-minute short) 
Recycled Life (38-minute short) 
Rehearsing a Dream (39-minute short) 
Two Hands (18-minute short) 
Jesus Camp 
My Country, My Country
An Inconvenient Truth