Doc Conference
Doc Conference is an in-depth series of panels and discussions about the current landscape for documentary production, financing and distribution.
Watch the Filmmaker Dialogue between Werner Herzog and Errol Morris.
Line-Up of Speakers
Introduction
Tom Perlmutter – Government Film Commissioner and Chairperson of the National Film Board (NFB) of Canada
Alex Gibney – Director of Client 9: The Rise and Fall of Eliot Spitzer will talk about the process of making non-fiction films, and his approaches in profiling controversial figures.
- Moderator: Pat Aufderheide - Professor, Film and Media Arts, School of Communication at American University
New Frontiers in Doc Distribution
Examining the online options and opportunities that are available to non-fiction filmmakers, a panel of experts from the fields of Production and Distribution to Fundraising and Marketing convene to discuss the alternatives.
Part 1
Part 2
Case Study: War Torn 1861-2010
HBO's forthcoming documentary War Torn 1861-2010, executive produced by James Gandolfini, is an ambitious production exploring combat stress in American soldiers from the Civil War to the present. This case study takes us behind the scenes of the complex project, presenting sneak preview clips, and a discussion with the film team Jon Alpert, Ellen Goosenberg, Matthew O'Neill and Sheila Nevins.
The stars have aligned at TIFF, bringing together two visionary directors Werner Herzog (Cave of Forgotten Dreams) and Errol Morris (Tabloid) whose connections date back to the 1970s. TIFF Doc programmer Thom Powers will moderate a dialogue exploring their filmmaking philosophies.
*More panelists to be announced soon.
Panelists
Introduction
Tom Perlmutter
Tom Perlmutter was named the 15th Government Film Commissioner and Chairperson of the National Film Board (NFB) of Canada in 2007. He first joined the NFB in December 2001 as Director General of English Program and has spearheaded a sweeping digital transformation at Canada’s public film producer: introducing the NFB’s hugely successful <NFB.ca> online Screening Room and iPhone app, launching a range of interactive digital projects and expanding the NFB’s e-cinema network. Under his leadership, the NFB has garnered a number of prestigious honours and awards, including four Academy Award® nominations, two Academy Award® wins and a record five nominations at the 2010 Webby Awards, the Internet’s highest honour. Prior to joining the NFB, Perlmutter enjoyed a distinguished career in the Canadian film industry. As the founding head of documentaries at Barna-Alper Productions (now E1 Television), he created and produced award-winning documentary series, and initiated the company’s first international co-productions. In 1999, he became a partner in Primitive Entertainment, where he created, produced and directed a number of distinctive documentaries. Perlmutter was born in Sárospatak, Hungary. He was educated at McGill University in Montreal and Magdalen College in Oxford, and holds an MBA from the University of Toronto.
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Filmmaker Talk – Alex Gibney
Alex Gibney
Alex Gibney was born in New York and studied at Yale University before attending UCLA film school. His works as director include Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room (05), for which he received an Academy Award® nomination for best documentary feature, The Human Behavior Experiments (06), Jimi Hendrix and the Blues (01) and Taxi to the Dark Side (07), which won the Academy Award® for best documentary feature. Client 9: The Rise and Fall of Eliot Spitzer (10) is his latest feature.
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Pat Aufderheide
Patricia Aufderheide is a professor in the School of Communication at American University in Washington, D.C, and director of the Center for Social Media there. She is the author of, among others, Documentary: A Very Short Introduction, The Daily Planet and Communications Policy in the Public Interest. She has received career achievement awards from the International Documentary Association, Women in Film and Video (DC), and the International Digital Media and Arts Associations.
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New Frontiers in Doc Distribution – Part 1
Stephanie Bruder
Stephanie Bruder joined New Video in 2007 to spearhead the Docurama Films partner sales program. In her subsequent role as Head of Digital Sales & Marketing New Video has released over one thousand independent features (from the industry-first digital premiere of Edward Burns’ PURPLE VIOLETS) and one hundred television seasons, including (Farscape, Highlander and 21 Jump Street) to digital stores. Now the Senior Director of Marketing, her responsibilities have expanded to oversee corporate publicity and marketing strategy for home video as well as digital.
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Matt Dentler
Matt Dentler is the Head of Programming for Cinetic Rights Management, a New York-based company that releases independent films into the marketplace on broadband and cable VOD worldwide through a label called “Filmbuff.” He also sits on the Board of Directors of the Austin Film Society and the Advisory Board for DOC NYC. He is the executive producer of the documentary feature film Trinidad, directed by PJ Raval and Jay Hodges. Prior to this, he spent five years producing the SXSW Film Conference and Festival in Austin, Texas.
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Nolan Gallagher
Nolan Gallagher is CEO and Founder of Gravitas Ventures. In 2010, Gravitas Ventures will release over 500 movies and documentaries on Video On Demand through over 50 cable, satellite, telecommunications and online companies. Previously, Nolan worked at industry leaders Comcast, Warner Bros. and General Cinema.
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Damon Smith
Damon Smith is currently Head of Programming for Film and Animation at Babelgum Networks Ltd. In addition, he is a producer at Reverse Shot Video, a biweekly columnist at Filmmaker Magazine and the editor of Michael Winterbottom: Interviews (University Press of Mississippi, 2010). Prior to joining Babelgum, Smith was Editor-in-Chief of the indie-film Web portal FilmCatcher. He has written for Time Out New York, The Boston Globe, Cinema Scope, and many other publications.
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New Frontiers in Doc Distribution – Part 2
Deborah Drisdell
Recently named Director General of Distribution, Accessibility and Digital Enterprises, Deborah has been at the National Film Board since 2006, previous responsible for Strategic Planning and Government Relations. In this capacity, Deborah led the development of the NFB’s on-line screening room, launched in January 2009. Her 15 years of experience at Telefilm Canada contributed to expertise in international co-production and financing, and a solid knowledge of public policy priorities and strategic measures for corporate development. As Vice-President of Acquisitions & Co-Productions for Sextant Entertainment, she gained first-hand knowledge of the challenges facing Canada’s production and distribution companies which complemented her experience in the public sector. Between 2001 and 2006, Deborah managed Drisdell Consulting, providing strategic information and services to Canadian and foreign cultural industries.
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Meyer Schwarzstein
Meyer started working in production by starting Brainstorm Media in 1995, one of the most active suppliers of independent movies for television and is the largest independent aggregator of movies for VOD in the US. Having been hooked on the world of music and movies since college, he previously established the international distribution division of Atlantic Releasing and worked in pay TV Sales for MGM.
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James Lawler
James Lawler created Constellation, the first online movie theater, with Reid Carolin in 2010. James has also produced several narrative features, documentaries and shorts, including the feature films Don’t Let Me Drown and Lovely, Still, and the documentaries The Lottery and Fernando Nation, one of ESPN’s upcoming "30-for-30" films.
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MODERATOR: Lesli Klainberg
Case Study: War Torn 1861-2010
Jon Alpert
Jon Alpert, winner of 15 Emmy Awards®, has received international acclaim for his intrepid work that includes being the only American reporter to interview Saddam Hussein after the Gulf War and the first American reporter to film in Vietnam. Most recently, he directed and produced HBO’s Academy Award® nominated China’s Unnatural Disaster: The Tears of Sichuan Province. Jon has produced and directed for HBO the multiple award-winning Baghdad ER, the Emmy® nominated Alive Day Memories: Home From Iraq and the Emmy® nominated Section 60: Arlington National Cemetery. He is the Co-founder of Downtown Community Television Center (DCTV), and his other HBO documentaries include titles such as One Year in a Life of Crime and A Cinderella Season: The Lady Vols Fight Back.
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Sara Bernstein
Sara Bernstein is vice president, HBO Documentary Films, for Home Box Office, responsible for overseeing the development and production of various documentary films for the network. Bernstein joined HBO in 1999, where she worked in the Limited Series division which produced the Emmy® Award-winning series The Corner. As a supervising producer, her credits include the Emmy®-winning documentary films Baghdad ER, White Light, Black Rain: The Destruction of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and The Art of Failure: Chuck Connelly Not for Sale; the Academy Award® nominated documentary feature films Which Way Home, Burma VJ and Irag in Fragments; the Academy Award® winning Music by Prudence and The Blood of Yingzhou District; the Emmy® nominated Alive Day Memories: Home from Iraq; thePeabody andSundance Film Festival Award winner Hear and Now;and the Peabody Award-winning and Emmy® nominated To Die in Jerusalem. Prior to HBO, Bernstein worked in independent feature film development for various productions in New York City. In November 2008, she was named one of the top 35 Next Generation of up-and-coming industry executives by The Hollywood Reporter. Bernstein holds a Bachelor of the Arts degree from The University of Maryland.
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Ellen Goosenberg
Ellen Goosenberg Kent has earned four Primetime Emmy® Awards, two Peabody Awards and numerous other honors for excellence in non-fiction television and documentary film. She has directed and produced numerous critically acclaimed documentaries for HBO, some of which include Alive Day Memories: Home from Iraq, I Have Tourette’s but Tourette’s Doesn’t Have Me and Too Hot Not To Handle, about America’s role in the global warming crisis. Her other credits include Middle School Confessions, hosted by Samuel L. Jackson; Reading Your Heart Out, which earned honors at many film festivals; No Dog Left Behind and the Emmy® award-winning How Do You Spell God?; Happy to Be Nappy: Stories of Me; and Going, Going Almost Gone: Animals in Danger.
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Matthew O'Neill
Matthew O'Neill is an Emmy Award® winning and Academy Award ® nominated producer and director currently working with Downtown Community Television Center (DCTV) and Downtown Docs, where he has been making documentaries the last ten years. For the 2006 documentary he produced and directed with Jon Alpert for HBO, Baghdad ER, he earned several awards including the prestigious Peabody Award and three Primetime Emmy Awards®. Some of his other HBO documentaries include the Emmy® nominated Alive Day Memories: Home From Iraq, the Emmy® and the Academy Award ® nominated China’s Unnatural Disaster: The Tears of Sichuan Province. His reporting overseas has taken him from the steppes of Siberia to the scrap mines of Potosi in Bolivia and on to Russia and beyond.
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Sheila Nevins
Sheila Nevins is president, HBO Documentary Films, for Home Box Office, responsible for overseeing the development and production of all documentaries for HBO, HBO2 and Cinemax. As an executive producer or producer, she has received 23 Primetime Emmy® Awards, 25 News and Documentary Emmys® and 31 George Foster Peabody Awards. During her tenure, HBO’s critically acclaimed documentaries have gone on to win 21 Academy Awards® including: Music By Prudence (2010), Smile Pinki (2009), The Blood of Yingzhou District (2007), Born Into Brothels (2005), Chernobyl Heart (2004), Murder on a Sunday Morning (2002), King Gimp (2000), One Survivor Remembers (1996), Educating Peter (1993) and You Don’t Have To Die (1989). Nevins has been honored with several prestigious career achievement awards including, most recently, the 2009 Governors Award from the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences. She is also the recipient of a 2008 Gotham Awards Tribute and a 2005 Emmy® Lifetime Achievement Award for her contributions to the art of the documentary. Nevins has supervised the production of more than 1,000 documentary programs for HBO. She is a member of the Writers Guild of America, the Producers Guild of America and The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Nevins holds a BA from Barnard College and an MFA from Yale University School of Drama in Directing.
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Filmmaker Dialogue: Werner Herzog & Errol Morris
Werner Herzog
Werner Herzog was born in Munich and grew up removed from technology in a remote Bavarian village. He worked as a welder to fund production of his first film at age nineteen and has since directed more than fifty features. His films have won numerous awards, including the special grand jury prize at the Cannes Film Festival for The Enigma of Kaspar Hauser (74) and best director at the Cannes Film Festival for Fitzcarraldo (82). His other films include: Aguirre, The Wrath of God (72), Nosferatu (78), Little Dieter Needs to Fly (97), Grizzly Man (05), Rescue Dawn (06), Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans (09) and Cave of Forgotten Dreams (10).
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Errol Morris
Errol Morris was born in Hewlett, New York and studied at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, Princeton University and the University of California, Berkeley. After directing his first two features, Gates of Heaven (78) and Vernon, Florida (81), he worked in New York City as a private detective. Our perception of the non-fiction film has been indelibly altered by his highly original feature documentaries. They include The Thin Blue Line (88), A Brief History of Time (91), Fast, Cheap & Out of Control (97), The Fog of War: Eleven Lessons from the Life of Robert S. McNamara (03), which premiered at the Festival and won the Academy Award® for best documentary feature, Standard Operating Procedure (08) and Tabloid (10).
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