The Blog-Health-o-Meter™ reads Wow.

Crunchy numbers

A Boeing 747-400 passenger jet can hold 416 passengers. This blog was viewed about 7,900 times in 2010. That’s about 19 full 747s.

In 2010, there were 55 new posts, growing the total archive of this blog to 76 posts. There were 59 pictures uploaded, taking up a total of 17mb. That’s about 1 pictures per week.

The busiest day of the year was June 27th with 276 views. The most popular post that day was Silverdocs Movie Review: La Isla.

Where did they come from?

The top referring sites in 2010 were silverdocs.com, twitter.com, silverdocs.bside.com, facebook.com, and wgaeast.org.

Some visitors came searching, mostly for donal mosher, troll 2, silverdocs blog, microcosmos, and silverdocs.

Attractions in 2010

These are the posts and pages that got the most views in 2010.

Silverdocs Movie Review: La Isla June 2010

Best Worst Party Follows BEST WORST MOVIE June 2009
1 comment

About May 2009
2 comments

FCC Chairman Extols Internet’s Distribution Opportunities for Filmmakers June 2010
1 Like on WordPress.com,

Schröder’s Dr. Nakamats begs the question: Do Wes Anderson characters exist in real life?? June 2010

By Gary Arlen

In a wide-ranging conversation that encompassed the Internet’s value to filmmakers, piracy, the future of journalism and even his own favorite movie, the nation’s top communications policy maker and enforcer offered his vision of what broadband means to the creative community.

“High-speed Internet is really our platform for 21^st—century growth,” said Federal Communications Commission Chairman Julius Genachowski

during a Thursday conversation at the SilverDocs conference. He cited the Internet’s potential role in bringing new programming to larger audiences.

“The more people who have access to high-speed broadband, the more people who can access film online,” he said early in the hour-long conversation with Michael Winship, president of the Writers Guild of America, East.

“The most important thing we can do with this new medium … is to make sure … the Internet is open for content creators,” he said.  “Were also looking at other ideas that this world of … technologies can support.”

Genachowski focused on the FCC’s massive, visionary National Broadband Plan, unveiled three months ago, which offers an aggressive blueprint for developing wired and wireless Internet infrastructure and services. The Plan envisions near-universal access of high-speed Internet access across America.

He cited the Internet’s role in tackling health care, education, energy and other applications, including “engaging with our government and each other for civic discourse,” as top priorities identified in the Plan.

Singling out the ways in which broadband connectivity can help education, Genachowski said, “In our digital economy, kids need to have the opportunity to get these broadband skills.”

He also touched passionately on the role of “public media,” which includes the world of public TV.  Noting that the sector brings “important ideas” to the conversation, Genachowski said it’s important to “Take advantage of the Internet to create more opportunities, more value.”

“We’re exploring ideas together with the public media world…to increase the role of public media as an outlet,” he added.

He also acknowledged that the response from industry and public interest organizations has been diverse.

“One extreme says, ‘Our broadband challenges will solves themselves’; the other extreme says the government need to be heavily [involved in] regulation of the broadband infrastructure,” Genachowski summarized.  He pointed out that Congressional overseers recently said they would examine a revision of the Communications Act, which he called “desirable” to sort out issues, including the flap about “Network Neutrality.”

Michael Winship, WGA-East (left) and Julius Genachowski, FCC Chairman

Genachowski seemed particularly at ease in chatting with Winship in front of about 150 SilverDocs’ attendees.  I’ve seen him at several industry conferences in the past few months, often delivering tough messages to executives directly affected by proposed FCC regulations.  On Thursday, allowed to expound on a broad array of topics, the Chairman refrained viewpoints he has offered previously, and he comfortably touched on issues, ranging from wireless technology to support from his Harvard Law School classmate Barack Obama.

Among Genachowski’s perceptions:

• Piracy: “It’s essential that we solve the piracy problem. There is nothing inconsistent about Net Neutrality with that goal. We need an Internet that is open to innovators, entrepreneurs and everyone in the audience.  But it also must be open [for companies and producers] to feel it is … safe.  All these issues are related.”  He observed that content creators should be able to put their content online and “determine what business model [to use] to protect it from piracy.”

• Journalism:  The Internet “hasn’t yet developed into a place where a lot of news gathering reporters are being economically supported, and that’s a real problem.  It’s a particular problem in respect to local accountability journalism.  It’s a serious one, and it’s not easy to know if we’re in the middle of a transition that will take care of itself .., [if it’s] or a more deeply rooted problem.”  Genachowski said that the current controversial FCC examination of journalism seeks to identify the scope of the issue.

• Spectrum policy: Responding to my question about the plan to “reclaim” TV airwaves for use in other wireless services – and its impact on program distribution – Genachowski cited “a lot of unlocked value” from the “new technologies that provide new opportunities for broadcasters to share spectrum.”  He focused on the “public media part.”  “I found in my conversations with people in the public media world … there’s a lot of healthy conversation about what happens…. . More and more, there are innovators in that space who are looking at digital media.  We have to find ways to support that because it won’t be cheap, and it is important.”

• Favorite movie:  During the audience Q&A segment, I asked Genachowski to name his favorite film not made by his filmmaker wife Rachel Goslins (expecting him to cite a documentary).  Smiling, he quickly said, the “movie version of ‘1776,’” a 1972 film based on a Broadway musical about American’s creation. Genachowski recalled the stars Ken Howard and Blythe Danner (who played Thomas and Martha Jefferson) in his politically correct entertainment choice.

• Transition:  Genachowski repeatedly acknowledged that the Internet is fundamental in the overhaul of the economy, including media and entertainment.  He noted that “change is constantly happening,” but the Internet shift represents a particularly major realignment.  He said that in the media world, there were significant differences in the pre-cable and post-cable eras, and also in the pre- and post-Internet worlds.  Now, he thinks the demarcation point between pre- and post-high-speed wireless service are of major significance.  Policy-makers’ challenge is “picking the sound from the noise to figure out which changes are fundamental” in this evolution, he said.

At the end, Genachowski said he’d prefer to see business models develop and “it would be great if we could identify policies” to support the best solutions.

Then, shrugging his shoulders, he confessed, “We don’t have all the answers.”

– Gary Arlen is President of Arlen Communications

The shooting style is almost amateurishly casual with wide framings revealing all of the technical trappings and suggesting, “See, we’re not hiding anything.

Oliver Stone as the Voice of (Latin) America

Stone says the film is getting better reception and distribution than they expected, so look for it later this year.

Time is running out, and so are the tickets. So make plans to see as many films as you can during the last three days of Silverdocs 2010.

4 things to remember when making a documentary about your family (Documentary Ethics Inside The Family):

Garnered from the filmmakers speaking at the Documentary Ethics Inside The Family panel at the International Documentary Conference.
There is a difference between the “personal” and the “private.” The personal is the part of the story that the audience can relate to in some way, a detail that brings out an element of universal truth. The private are the details that are self-indulgent for the filmmaker to include. Kaleo LaBelle, director of BEYOND THIS PLACE, highlighted the distinction.

Ethics are always a matter of what is not on the screen, either because it is off-camera, cut during the editing, or was never filmed to begin with. Words of wisdom from Ali Codina, director of MONICA AND DAVID.

You, the filmmaker (yes, you), need to be willing to share and reveal yourself as much as your characters. That gem was shared by the director of FAMILY AFFAIR, Chico Colvard.

Making your film should not be a substitute for therapy, for you or your family, even though it may be therapeutic. So offered Doug Block, the director of THE KIDS GROW UP
MONICA AND DAVID screens 6/25, 8pm, and 6/26, 11:30am

Posted by WIFV.org

Uli Stelzner’s film, LA ISLA – ARCHIVES OF A TRAGEDY, is in the probably unusual position of being nominated for both the Witness Award (for docs about human rights violations) and the Cinematic Vision Award. It is a deserving nominee for both awards. Exposing the secret archives of former Guatemalan dictatorships, LA ISLA gives a voice to those who were “disappeared” by combining the power of visual images with the words from the archived files.

Stelzner uses archive footage from the different time periods under consideration, all of which had only existed outside of Guatemala. The footage is projected onto the walls of the bunker where the archived files were found, as the workers continue going through the notes and scanning them so that surviving relatives can find out, maybe, what happened to their family. It is as if the walls of the bunker are talking, telling the history of what happened. The country has been repressing the memory of the “disappearances,” in an attempt to move on (or to avoid charges). In a cinematic twist, the archives were revealed through an accidental explosion; what we repress will find a way to come to light, and in this case, it was a literal explosion.

The main part of the film, though, is the young workers who are preserving and digitizing the archives. Working in the half-demolished bunker, they wear surgical garb to protect them from the dust (and also because the government wouldn’t allow their faces to be shown on film). The clothes match the mood, that of a cultural autopsy. The workers share with us the stories of their own families who had suffered under the former government. And as they work, in the middle of the training grounds for the police force, they here the rifle shots and marching chants of new young recruits. And we are left to wonder, will the country be able to face its past and heal itself?

La Isla plays Thursday, 6/24, at 1:45 pm

– Post by WIFV – DC

Another Day @ Silverdocs…

Well the conference is off to a flying start! Fantastic conversations in and out of the sessions.

It was great seeing Women of Vision Heidi Ewing and Rachel Grady as part of the opening night panel about “Freakonomics”! Even more fun to see other Women of Vision in the audience supporting the festival.

Today I concentrated on sessions about distribution. Tips will be shared as soon as I sort out all the comments from the sessions. Monetization remains elusive, but seems a little closer at hand with good stories, conscious marketing and audience development. Also more likely for true
self-productions. Not a shocker, but good to have some more concrete examples. Everyone wants more for less (“Ephemeralism” according to Buckminster Fuller)

Counting on WIFV members to share their comments about the films. When not in a session today, I was deep in conversation with filmmakers. Truly enjoyed getting caught up on projects, making introductions, and thinking about things with new insights.

Help us celebrate the one year anniversary of The Scoop podcast at Ben & Jerry’s on June 23 from 5:00 to 7:30 pm. The interiews and topics covered, thanks to Human Factor, are astounding. Listen, subscribe, get a single scoop ice cream cone on us! (Actually, you’ll get it on a cone.)

Breakfast on June 24 about how to develop audiences for doc tv is full. We’ll be taking notes and sharing what Peter Hamilton (documentarytelevision.com) and Stephen Harris (A&E) reveal.

– Post by Melissa Houghton, Executive Director of WIFV – DC

I’ve been waiting for a chance to see PRESUMED GUILTY for months. The movie is, as expected, a Law & Order film and, as unexpected, an uplifting story of empowerment and personal justice. It’s one man’s struggle through the Mexican legal system after he gets convicted of a homicide he didn’t commit. It’s gotten critical acclaim internationally and, now, it’s showing at Silverdocs.

The visuals pulled me in and the strong storyline kept my attention. I also have to point out the detail spent on sound design and the sound track. It was superb. And, I found out that all of the hip hop songs were written and performed by the main character, Tono. Each character was perfectly crafted – as if they were in a Mexican Soap – each cast by an agent. There was a annoying shifting judge, crooked detective with excellent facial expressions, and a pregnant fiance. There was injustice, drama, and joy.

As I started absorbing everything I was seeing and feeling I was hit by the film’s access. The cameras were everywhere that cameras have never been before. The cameras followed the main character – Tono – behind bars in every corner of the prison and recorded the entire trial.

My personal pet peeve is with documentaries that take on a specific issue and then don’t explain what can be done to join the “mission”. This film has a clear message and just as clear directions for those who want to help “the cause”.

As it happens – yesterday the directors Roberto Hernández & Geoffrey Smith were in attendance. They answered questions from the audience. And while it’s always interesting to get additional background on the film, the most interesting part of the Q&A was that each question was preceded by and exclamation about the film’s excellence. Also notable was the emotion that was still evident in Roberto as he held back tears when discussing his experience with Tono (the main character of the film).

Unfortunately, there are no additional showings of PRESUMED GUILTY at Silverdocs. But, I have good news. A one hour version of the film will be aired on July 27th on PBS – for all to enjoy. Check your local listings to times. I also encourage everyone to check out the film’s website for future screenings and details.

Festival Tip of the Day: You can join the stand-by line before the movie and extra seats will be released 15 minutes before the movie starts.

5 out of 5 Cheers –

– Becky Beamer, Writer, Doc & a Drink

We got there early to find a decent seat,  sat next to our neighbors and started up a conversation.

“What brought you here?” I asked the gentleman on my left.  “Oh, we know Sally.  She’s in this film!” he said.   I wasn’t quite sure who Sally was and racked my mental databanks for her – the authors of FREAKONOMICS were both Stevens, pretty sure none of the filmmakers were Sally.  Hm.   I asked a couple of follow up questions, but wasn’t clear.  Instead we talked about other things – how the area has changed, what other films we planned to watch, what we knew about the movie. Meanwhile, audience filled in around us, with cameras filming folks everywhere.

Once the movie started – after a few speeches welcoming all of us to the festival, we settled in.  FREAKONOMICS was kind of a series of shorts – with different famous doc filmmakers taking a different segment of the book.  I found out who “Sally” was during the last segment.

The last segment is about an experiment to try to get kids to graduate from high school by paying them for their grades in 9^th grade. It takes place in a school in Chicago – and we meet two young students who are currently not making passing grades – and follow to see if they are motivated by the experiment.  Directed by local filmmakers Rachel Grady and  Heidi Ewing of Jesus Camp and Boys of Baraka fame, this was my favorite segment by far.  You wanted so much for the characters to pass!  Especially the one young man who had a tendency to joke more than apply himself – but he was so smart!  He had so much he could do with his life!  You kind of wanted to go in and give him a push!  And Sally?  It was her experiment!  She was the one filling the best role – trying to find key ways to motivate students to achieve everything they could in life.  Smiling and doling out cash in front of the students, and behind the scenes staring at charts of progress and wondering if it will have an effect – that’s Sally.  She seemed like an excellent person to know!

Cheers to Sally – and to all the audience that make attending Silverdocs great! There are more premiers over the next couple of days so get dressed up and join the glitz and glamour in downtown Silver Spring.

—Katy B. Jones

www.docandadrink.com
“Watch a doc, grab a drink.”

To Read More:

Steven Levitt – the Author of Freakonomics and his take on the documentary

NYT article about the movie “Freakonomics”

– Joe Warminsky, Member, Silverdocs 2010 Screening Committee

For anyone not familiar with Good Pitch, it is a partnership between Channel 4 BRITDOC Foundation and the Sundance Institute Documentary Film Program. It travels around to various film festivals and gives documentary film makers an opportunity to present their projects to a variety of potential stakeholders: NGOs, foundations, media, etc.

At SilverDocs yesterday, eight teams were given the floor. The proposals included a film about a man who has been in solitary confinement for more than 30 years, a film about shit (seriously), and the story of three shack dwellers trying to save their community in post-Apartheid South Africa.

The approximately five hour session went like this: the filmmakers presented their film, showed a trailer and then Jess Search from the Channel 4 BRITDOC Foundation (fantastically) moderated the subsequent discussion, during which the invited potential stakeholders spoke about how they could possibly get involved and their thoughts about the project.

It seemed like a lot of the invited panelists were quite familiar with the projects prior to Good Pitch, which is a testament to the filmmakers who have obviously put a lot of work into getting word out about their film.

Although I am not a filmmaker, I can see how Good Pitch would be a great resource to anyone in the audience who is working on a film. The contacts in the room are great and it is a wonderful opportunity to see what others are doing and how they are doing it. Definitely a good thing for the documentary film community.

And here is my attempt to capture Good Pitch (I had promised you photos, after all). Sad, I know. But it’s all my little phone can do. @africaten called it “Arty”

– Preeti Balakrishnan