SURVEYING THE DOCS AT TRIBECA, PART TWO

The Good Life is not about the good life, but the bad life. Mother Mette and daughter Anne lived a life of wealth and privilege, and then the husband-father died and the inherence dwindled, and finally the money ran out. Today the two survive on the mother’s minuscule pension in a small apartment in Portugal. While the mother seems resigned to her impoverished fate, the daughter is anything but resigned. She views life without wealth and servants as terribly unfair to her.

At the age of 56, daughter Anne has never held a job — not one! “Work is still taboo for me,” she says. “I will not allow myself to be demeaned by work.” Although not the first person reared in luxury and convinced being rich is her entitlement for life, she may very well be the funniest.

Danish director Eva Mulvad has crafted an extraordinary film capturing two complex individuals locked in a love-hate relationship, full of bizarre humor and genuine pain, crosscutting between the good past and the desperate present. Although difficult to identify with these two women — they are from an earlier time if not planet, the time and planet of the European aristocracy — it’s impossible not to be sucked into their precarious lives, to laugh at their antics and feel their agony. The Good Life is a joy, although one that comes with the sinking feeling that you are watching a familial Titanic go down.

The Marine Corps prides itself on producing the world’s best fighters. It does this by transforming civilians into fighters who refuse to quit, who muster the grit and determination to pursue the fight to the very end. The Marine ethos is antithetical to the quitter mentality, every new Marine is told and retold. Yet, at the Camp Lejeune Marine base in North Carolina, there are some Marines who would prefer that one former Marine had less fighting spirit.

When retired Master Sergeant Jerry Ensminger’s 9-year-old daughter died of a rare leukemia, the 25-year veteran of the Marine Corps transformed himself into a relentless investigator. He was haunted by … Read the rest

SUNDANCE DOC CREATIVE PRODUCING LAB DIARY #2: RACHEL LIBERT

By Scott Macaulay

Here is part two of Rachel Libert’s diaries from the Sundance Labs. Read part one here.

The busloads of people arriving at the Sundance Resort for the Creative Producing Summit signaled the end of the Creative Producing Lab. Twenty narrative producers, twenty documentary producers and dozens of high-level industry representatives are sequestered in the privacy of the Wasatch Mountains. We’re participating in an information marathon. We are a think tank in which our collective brainpower evaluates the industry and its future. For the Documentary Creative Producing Lab fellows there’s a palpable shift from our tight knit group discussions about the impact of our films to the business of financing and distribution.

Like many documentary producers I am also directing my project along with my co-director Tony Hardmon. When I’m with other documentary filmmakers our conversations gravitate toward subject matter and production anecdotes, not line items and complex financing models. The business focus of the Summit provides a much-needed opportunity to do a check-up on our projects.

Several pieces of advice resonate with me. The first is that we should include outreach as a line item in our documentary budgets in the same way that narrative projects include P&A in their budgets. Earlier in the week filmmaker Jennifer Arnold coined the term “Documentary Famous”. She described jetsetting around the world with her film A Small Act but reminded us that she doesn’t get paid for much of it. It sounds obvious but many of us are so don’t consider the financial strain a festival run places on the filmmaker. You also need to make sure that you budget and fundraise through completion. With dwindling acquisition fees you don’t want the cost of your prints, masters and dubs to come out of this money. Finally, it’s important to negotiate all of your music clearances and archival rights before you finish the film. Several people shared stories of great films whose release was halted or delayed by exorbitant outstanding music clearances. You are in a much better position to negotiate a reasonable rate before your film has premiered at a festival.

Several of … Read the rest

SUNDANCE DOC FILM CREATIVE PRODUCING LAB DIARY: RACHEL LIBERT

By Scott Macaulay

Here is the first of two diaries from Rachel Libert, a producer and director who brought her project Semper Fi: Always Faithful to the Sundance Doc Film Creative Producing Lab.

I’m on my way home from the Sundance Documentary Film Creative Producing Lab and Summit and struggling to describe the experience.

Nearly four years ago I was researching a documentary film about a public health organization and, while the idea was intriguing, it was becoming increasingly obvious that it was an impossible film to make. Before I graciously made my exit from the project I went to lunch with the Communications Director of the organization. At lunch she told me that her brother was in the process of exposing a Marine Corps cover-up of a toxic water contamination and asked me if I knew any filmmakers who might be interested in his story. As we sat at the lunch table, she laid out this incredible story of intrigue, heartbreak and betrayal. Two weeks later my Co-Director Tony Hardmon and I showed up in Washington DC to meet a gruff retired Marine on the mission of his life.

In that moment, we couldn’t have imagined that this would lead to receiving grants and support from the Sundance Institute and ultimately bring us to a fabled Sundance Lab. We are nearing completion of our film, Semper Fi: Always Faithful and what we’ve discovered at the Lab is that the finish line looks a lot different than it used to.

The lab began with a contemplation of the role of a creative producer. The discussion was led by Cara Mertes, the Director of the Sundance Institute’s Documentary Film Program. Something that really stood out for me was the notion that documentary funding and distribution is migrating from traditional broadcasting sources to a range of multi-platform media and technology. In this new paradigm, public engagement is not just crucial to extend the life of a film but critical to the creation of a film in the first place. Basically it’s not enough to have a film, a website and if you are lucky, a … Read the rest