Can Your Documentary Change the World?

If you're in the Los Angeles area, check out a panel discussion presented by the International Documentary Association: "Can Your Documentary Really Change the World?"

Topics:

* How can you make sure that your documentary has the greatest possible impact?
* What kinds of outreach and marketing campaigns are the most effective?
* How can you best partner with non-profits to get your message out?
* What do funders and broadcasters expect from documentary filmmakers?
* What's the best way to build a successful social action campaign?

Panelists:

* Jennifer Arnold, Director, A SMALL ACT
* Robert Kenner, Director, FOOD, INC.
* Cara Mertes, Director, Sundance Institute Documentary Film Program
* Dennis Palmieri, Director of Communications, ITVS
* Sara Hutchison (moderator), IDA Board of Directors

It's Monday, December 20, 7-9pm, at The Silent Movie Theater on Fairfax, with audience Q&A and wine reception to follow. Tickets are $15 for IDA members, $20 for non-members.

The event is part of the IDA's Doc U series of educational seminars and workshops for aspiring and experienced documentary filmmakers. "Taught by artists and industry experts, participants receive vital training and insight on various topics including fundraising, distribution, licensing, marketing, and business tactics."

Info and tix at Documentary.org .

'Anvil!' & 'Salt' Win Top 2009 IDA Awards

The International Documentary Association awarded 'Anvil! The Story of Anvil' (pictured) the top prize in its Distinguished Feature category. The documentary about a struggling heavy metal band, directed by Sacha Gervasi, last week won the IDA's Music category as well.

'Salt,' directed by Michael Angus and Murray Fredericks, took home the prize for Distinguished Short film. It documents photographer Fredericks' annual solo pilgrimage to the heart of Lake Eyre in a remote corner of South Australia.

It is a piece on the personal journey of the artist, the creative process and the landscape itself. Alone on the most featureless landscape on earth, Murray’s personal video diary captures the beauty of this bleak, empty and desolate environment – and provides the catalyst for an unexpected personal transformation.

The awards ceremony was hosted by Ira Glass ('This American Life' host/producer). "Watching the documentaries being honored tonight, I was struck over and over with how rare it is to enter the lives of these strangers so intimately," he said. "The filmmakers spend so much time with these people, it's rare to get so far inside somebody else's experience."

Complete list of IDA nominees and winners here.

Int'l Documentary Ass'n Awards Announced

The 2009 International Documentary Association's Awards ceremony will take place on Friday, Dec. 4 in Los Angeles.

Winners were announced today in several major categories, including Limited Series (Sundance Channel’s Architecture School); Continuing Series (PBS' POV, in its 22nd season); and Music (Anvil! The Story Of Anvil).

Anvil! The Story Of Anvil also competes against Afghan Star, Diary Of A Times Square Thief, Food, Inc. and Mugabe And The White African for IDA's top feature prize, which will be revealed at the event.

More winners:

The IDA/Humanitas Award, a new prize established this year and recognizing a film that strives to unify the human family, goes to Mai Iskander’s Garbage Dreams, which follows three teenage boys born into the trash trade and growing up in the world’s largest garbage village, on the outskirts of Cairo. Here, the Zaballeen, Arabic for ‘garbage people,’ are suddenly faced with the globalization of its trade.

The IDA/Pare Lorentz Award, in homage to the pioneering filmmaker’s legacy, goes to Irene Taylor Brodsky’s Oscar nominated short The Final Inch, about a vast army of health workers who go door-to-door in some of India’s poorest neighborhoods, ensuring every child is vaccinated for polio.

IDA continues to recognize the next generation of documentary filmmakers with its prestigious David L. Wolper Student Documentary Achievement Award. This year’s prize has been awarded to Stanford University’s Peter Jordan for his short documentary The First Kid To Learn English From Mexico, the story of 9-year-old Pedro's reluctant journey through elementary school in pursuit of the American Dream.

Errol Morris will receive a Career Achievement Award. This American Life host/producer Ira Glass (a former IDA Award recipient) returns as host.

More info at Documentary.org .