Frederick Wiseman, "In Jackson Heights" fundraising campaign

I have just received the following press release from Zipporah Films:

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Zipporah Films, Inc.

One Richdale Avenue, Cambridge, MA 02140

For Release: Thursday, June 18 at 11:00am ET / 3:00pm PT

Contact: Karen Konicek 617-576-3603, info@zipporah.com

ZIPPORAH FILMS ANNOUNCES KICKSTARTER CAMPAIGN FOR DOCUMENTARY FILMMAKER FREDERICK WISEMAN’S

“IN JACKSON HEIGHTS”

JUNE 18, 2015 – Zipporah Films launches a Kickstarter campaign to fund Frederick Wiseman’s 40th documentary, IN JACKSON HEIGHTS. This neighborhood in Queens, New York, is one of the most ethnically and culturally diverse communities in the United States. The film, shot over the course of eight weeks during the summer of 2014, is currently in the post-production stage and will be released theatrically in the fall of 2015. We are fundraising to cover completion and release costs.

The Kickstarter campaign aims to raise $75,000 in thirty days. This is the first Kickstarter campaign to fund a Frederick Wiseman film. Rewards include signed posters, DVDs, other memorabilia, and opportunities to arrange a private screening of IN JACKSON HEIGHTS or a Skype session with Mr. Wiseman.

Wiseman is an award-winning documentarian focusing on a diverse range of subjects, from his first, ground-breaking film TITICUT FOLLIES (1967), about conditions at the Massachusetts State Prison for the Criminally Insane to most recently the inner workings of London’s famed art museum in NATIONAL GALLERY, released in 2014.

Rigorously shot, impeccably edited and at times startling in their beauty, [Wiseman's] films usher us into often otherwise anonymous spaces and lives, and help make the invisible visible.

                    – Manohla Dargis, The New York Times

★★★★★

– Time Out

IN JACKSON HEIGHTS (2015)

A film by Frederick Wiseman

A Zipporah Films Release

www.zipporah.com

Michael Moore and the Rhetoric of Documentary

Michael Moore and the Rhetoric of Documentary, a collection of original essays--one on each of Moore's films, will be published in June 2015 by Southern Illinois University Press.

Scott MacDonald named Academy Scholar for 2012

" . . . The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences in Hollywood has named Visiting Professor of Art History [at Hamilton College] Scott MacDonald an Academy Scholar for 2012. In order to “stimulate and support new and significant works of film scholarship,” each year the Academy chooses two scholars nationwide, awarding each a grant to pursue a research project. A ceremony is held at the Academy each spring to honor the selected scholars, and at the conclusion of the research, the scholar presents his/her findings in a lecture at the Academy. . . ."

Richard Leacock

from the New York Times:

Richard Leacock, a filmmaker who helped create the documentary style known as direct camera or cinéma vérité, and who played a pivotal role in making some of the most innovative documentaries of the 1960s, died on Wednesday at his home in Paris. He was 89.

William Grimes, "Richard Leacock, Innovative Documentary Maker, Dies at 89," New York Times, 24 March 2011.

Churn - Film Resources

A blog post found on Inside Higher Ed -- Oronte Churn on film resources.

Michael Moore, Slacker Uprising

Slacker Uprising download site

Babelgum

Babelgum is here.

Per Fiducia

Per Fiducia is here.

Ermanno Olmi, IL PREMIO

Il premio (di Ermanno Olmi)
by PerFiducia

Ermano Olmi, IL PREMIO

Italian Internet Documentaries

Elizabeth Povoledo, "Italians Look to the Small Screen," New York Times, 19 April 2009.

An Unlikely Weapon -- Eddie Adams

An Unlikely Weapon is a documentary film about the work of photographer Eddie Adams, who took this famous photograph of the execution of a Viet Cong prisoner in Vietnam. Background feature story also at State of the Art, on whose site the picture above appears.

Inside the Virtual Newsroom

The Virtual Newsroom

Arrotino!

Lovely short documentary Arrotino: Living off a Knife's Edge -- Michele Muzio the knife grinder -- by Alan Helix on YouTube.

See also the photo and earlier story at my Rome and rhetoric of tourism blog. Thanks to Alan Helix for bringing his little film to my attention in a comment on the blog.

Supreme Court Debates Hillary Documentary

Today, the US Supreme Court discussed the controversial documentary, Hillary: The Movie. A short article about the case can be read here.

New Hard Times at New York Times

The New York Times has begun a new video series, inviting readers to submit short video interviews of friends and relatives who lived through the Great Depression.

The New Hard Times can be found here.

Neo-Neo-Realism

A. O. Scott, "Neo-Neo-Realism" New York Times Magazine, 22 March 2009.

The essay has links to trailers of films in the mode Scott describes as "clear-eyed movies for hard times."

Goodbye Solo
Half Nelson
Chop Shop
Wendy and Lucy
Ballast
In Between Days (Movie Minutes)

Is Anybody Listening?

Is Anybody Listening? A documentary by students at Village Academy High School in Pomona, California (downloaded from the News Hour). News Hour report here.

Christine Vachon lecture at Penn State

Just received:

Christine Vachon, acclaimed independent film producer and co-founder of Killer Films, will be visiting the [Penn State] University Park campus to discuss the art and business of independent film.  Her lecture, “Making Movies That Matter,” is on Wednesday, April 1, at 7:30pm in the HUB Auditorium.  Ms.  Vachon’s lecture is free and open to the public.


Founded in 1995, Vachon’s company Killer Films has established itself at the forefront of American independent cinema, with a reputation for delivering challenging, thought-provoking and original movies from filmmakers with distinctive visions.  The company has produced over 40 films, including the Bob Dylan biopic I’m Not There (2007), Kim Peirce’s Boys Don’t Cry (1999), for which Hilary Swank won the Best Actress Oscar, and John Cameron Mitchell’s gender-bending rock odyssey Hedwig and the Angry Inch (2001).  Ms. Vachon is also the author of two books:  A Killer Life:  How an Independent Producer Survives Deals and Disasters in Hollywood and Beyond (2006); and Shooting to Kill:  How an Independent Producer Blasts through the Barriers to Make Movies That Matter (1998). Both books were Los Angeles Times bestsellers.


Ms. Vachon’s lecture is sponsored by the Department of Film/Video and Media Studies, the Department of Telecommunications, and the LGBTA Student Resource Center.

For information about other Pride Week events:  www.prideweek.psu.edu

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Fred Wiseman at SMU

Southern Methodist University is hosting a retrospective of Frederick Wiseman's films, and an appearance by Wiseman. Story is here.

Ken Burns Loses GM Financial Backing

There's a report in the Huffington Post this morning that a recent result of the economic crisis is that General Motors is ending its long-time sponsorship of Ken Burns's documentary work.