AIVF: And What it Meant to Me
I first became aware of AIVF when Martha Gever was editor of The Independent. I marveled at this national organization…
Documentary
Docurama on the Rise
At the 1998 Sundance Film Festival, Steve Savage and Susan Margolin, the two minds behind New Video, a New York-based…
The Many Meanings of “Fair Use”
So your documentary has commercial interest and high revenue earning potential. And you’ve secured all of the agreements, releases, and…
Is documentary the new memoir?
I am a sociologist who conducts historical research on race and social policy, so my work has something in common…
What if nobody “gets” my film?
Dear Doc Doctor: Nobody seems to like my film—they say it’s unclear and hard to follow. Why aren’t they getting…
The BBC Bully
Nick Fraser’s career has been a constant battle between “what I will and won’t do for television,” says the 57-year-old…
Where Are We Going?
The question on everyone’s mind is, Will it last? Documentaries are the hot cultural phenomenon at the moment, and in…
Double Vision
The so-called “Film Brat” generation of the middle to late 1970s has been blamed for, or credited with, many things…
From Idea to Story
Suppose that you’re thinking of doing a documentary film about Elvis Presley, or a diner in your home town, or…