IDA Seminar Series - Doc U: Straight Shooting

Monday, April 25, 2011 
Doors Open: 7:00pm
Discussion & Audience Q&A: 7:30pm - 9:00pm
Wine Reception to Follow

The Cinefamily
611 N. Fairfax Avenue
Los Angeles, CA 90036

The documentary filmmaker/cinematographer faces many complex challenges, from keeping abreast of the latest camera technologies and post-production workflows to following the subtle clues of a developing story as it is happening, clues often hidden in a look or a gesture and invisible to everyone else but the person looking through the camera lens. What are some of the ethical (and technical) problems unique to this kind of documentary storytelling? As filmmakers, how do we nurture the confidence of our subjects in such a way that they will feel comfortable opening up to our cameras without ultimately betraying their trust when we leave? What are some of the techniques that documentary DP's use in the field to handle second-by-second decisions and never-to-be-repeated moments? How has the very process of filmmaking changed for the doc "shooter" with the arrival of lightweight digital video cameras? How does each one of these filmmakers work to push the boundaries of their craft every time they start a new film or go out on a new shoot?

Join Joan Churchill, James Longley, Haskell Wexler and moderator Richard Pearce in a rich conversation about the unique POV of the documentary shooter.

Panelists:
Joan Churchill, ASC, James Longley, Haskell Wexler, ASC

Moderator:
Richard Pearce

Joan Churchill
A graduate of UCLA Film School, Churchill began her career doing camera work on a series of music films – including such seminal classics as Gimme Shelter, a Maysles film, No Nukes, directed by Haskell Wexler and Barbara Kopple and Hail, Hail Rock and Roll, directed by Taylor Hackford.  Churchill also directed and photographed Jimi Plays Berkeley, now a cult classic, and spent seven months shooting on the PBS series, An American Family, the definitive verite study of dysfunctional family life. She was cinematographer on Peter Watkins’ recently re-released feature, verite-style Punishment Park.  She has co-directed several acclaimed projects with Nick Broomfield, including the BAFTA Award winning Soldier Girls, a feature documentary following a platoon of women through the agonies of basic training, Juvenile Liaison, and (fifteen years later) Juvenile Liaison 2, an expose of the harsh practices of a British police crime prevention program in the schools, and Tattooed Tears, documenting the indignity of life inside a California maximum security prison.  Other collaborations with Broomfield include Kurt & Courtney, Biggie & Tupac, Lily Tomlin, and the award winning Aileen Wuornos: Life & Death of a Serial Killer.  Recent work includes Dixie Chicks: Shut Up & Sing, and Bearing Witness, both directed by Barbara Kopple; Home of the Brave, directed by Paola di Florio; an Anne Makepeace film, Rain in a Dry Land; and HBO’s Bastards of the Party directed by Bone about the Crips & the Bloods.  Recently completed is Snow Blind, directed by Vikram Jayanti, about Rachael Scdoris, a blind Iditarod racer & her team of dogs.

James Longley
James Longley began photographing at the age of 13. He studied film and Russian Language at the University of Rochester and Wesleyan University in the United States, and the All-Russian Institute of Cinematography (VGIK) in Moscow. His student documentary, Portrait of Boy with Dog, about a boy in a Moscow orphanage, was awarded a Student Academy Award® in 1994 by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.  He traveled to Gaza in 2001 to make his first feature documentary, Gaza Strip, in the early months of the second Palestinian uprising. In 2002, James traveled to Iraq to begin pre-production work on his second documentary feature, Iraq in Fragments. The film was awarded jury prizes for Best Documentary Directing, Best Documentary Editing, and Best Documentary Cinematography at the Sundance Film Festival - the first time in the festival’s history that a documentary received three jury awards.  Iraq in Fragments went on to win the top documentary film awards at major national and international festivals, garnered an Emmy Award nomination for Best Documentary Cinematography, and an Academy Award® nomination for Best Feature Documentary. Shortly thereafter, James Longley was inducted into the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. James’ short documentary film, Sari’s Mother, received an Academy Award® nomination, had premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival, and won the Golden Gate Award for Best Short Documentary at the San Francisco International Film Festival.  Longley was awarded a MacArthur Fellowship in 2009 and is currently researching a new film project in Pakistan.

Haskell Wexler
Haskell Wexler is considered to be one of the most important cinematographers working in the film industry today. Wexler has photographed a wide range of films that have earned him five Academy Award® nominations and two Oscars® for Best Cinematography. His nominations came for his work on his first feature documentary, The Living City; a short film T For Tumbleweed; Milos Forman's One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest; John Sayles' Matewan and Touchstone Pictures Blaze. He took home statuettes for his work on Mike Nichols' Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf and Hal Ashby's Bound for Glory. Other films shot for Ashby include Coming Home, Second Hand Heart, and Lookin’ To Get Out. Wexler has worked with Norman Jewison (In the Heat of the Night, The Thomas Crown Affair, and Other People’s Money); George Lucas (American Graffiti); Michael Moore (Canadian Bacon); John Sayles (The Secret of Roan Inish, Limbo, Silver City); and in the IMAX format: IMAX:Mexico, and IMAX:Hail Columbia.

As a director, Wexler crafted two features, Medium Cool, a groundbreaking film shot during the Democratic convention in Chicago and Latino in Nicaragua which received a special honor at Cannes Film Festival. Both films broke the mold of conventional story telling by using the immediacy of documentary-style filmmaking. He has directed over fifty documentaries, rock videos and award winning commercials. Wexler has been elected by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to the Board of Governors to represent the Cinematographers Branch, and is the first Cinematographer in over thirty-five years to receive a “Star” on Hollywood’s Walk of Fame.

Moderator:

Richard Pearce
Richard Pearce began his professional career in the late 1960’s as a documentary cameraman. His early credits as a cinematographer include four Oscar-winning films: Woodstock, Marjoe, Interviews with My Lai Veterans and Hearts and Minds. Pearce made his feature directorial debut with the period drama Heartland which won the Golden Bear at the 1980 Berlin Film Festival and opened the New York Film Festival’s first “Showcase of American Independents.”

His other feature films as a director include Country for which Jessica Lange received an Academy Award® nomination; No Mercy with Richard Gere and Kim Bassinger; The Long Walk Home with Whoopi Goldberg and Sissy Spacek; Leap of Faith with Steve Martin, Deborah Winger and Liam Neeson; and A Family Thing with Robert Duvall and James Earl Jones.

Some of his television credits include two films for HBO: Witness Protection (Tom Sizemore and Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio), and Dead Man Out (Danny Glover and Reuben Blades); Plainsong (Aiden Quinn and Rachel Griffiths) for CBS; South Pacific with Glenn Close and Harry Connick, Jr. for ABC/Disney; and Thicker Than Blood (Mickey Rourke) for TNT. He directed the pilots for Fox TV’s Party of Five and ABC’s Nothing Sacred and episodes of CSI Miami and Homicide. He was a co-executive producer and director on the series Trial by Jury for Dick Wolf and NBC.

Recently, Pearce has also returned to making documentaries, including The Road to Memphis which he directed and photographed for the Martin Scorsese PBS series on the Blues; The Judge and the General which he executive produced; and the recent Academy Award® nominated feature documentary Food Inc, which he co-produced (with Eric Schlosser) and photographed. 

Pearce has served on the Board of Governors of the Documentary Branch of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.

The evening's on-stage conversation will be followed by an audience Q&A, and a reception on the Cinefamily's backyard Spanish patio!

IDA members: $15
Non-members: $20

Seating is limited so buy your tickets now to be guaranteed admission.

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What:

Doc U: Straight Shooters
A Conversation with World-Class Documentary DPs

When:

Monday, April 25, 2011
Doors Open: 7:00pm
Discussion & Audience Q&A: 7:30pm - 9:00pm
Wine Reception to Follow

Where:

The Cinefamily
611 N. Fairfax Avenue
Los Angeles, CA 90036

Parking:

Metered parking available for free after 6pm, and non-permitted parking
in neighborhoods behind The Cinefamily

Doc U is the International Documentary Association's series of educational seminars and workshops for aspiring and experienced documentary filmmakers. Taught by artists and industry experts, participants receive vital training and insight on various topics including: fundraising, distribution, licensing, marketing, and business tactics.

Special support provided by: