Happenings in the documentary film world and within the School of Visual Arts MFA in Social Documentary Film Community
Congratulations to SocDoc faculty member Joia Speciale for her Emmy nomination for her cinematography on the program Intervention. Also, congratulations to SocDoc guest faculty member and advisor Sam Pollard for his nomination for editing the Spike Lee documentary If God Is Willing and Da Creek Don’t Rise.
For full Emmy nominations please visit www.emmy.tv
In addition to receiving a $20,000 production grant from the Sundance documentary fund, SocDoc graduate Mark Kendall was invited to participate in the creative producing summit.
In recognition of the importance of producers in the creation and distribution of independent film, Sundance Institute’s long-standing Independent Producers Conference has evolved into the Creative Producing Summit. Since 2009, the Summit takes place each summer at the Sundance Resort, a 6,000-acre arts and recreation community located at the base of Mount Timpanogos in Utah’s Wasatch Mountains. Over the three-day gathering, the Creative Producing Summit provides a forum for top industry professionals, producers, and directors to focus on three primary avenues of dialogue: narrative producing, documentary producing, and the state of the independent film industry. The 2011 Summit will take place at the Sundance Resort from July 22-24.
As part of the Institute’s evolving commitment to independent producers, the Summit is an invitation-only event for up to 40 producers and directors identified through the full array of the Institute’s creative development programs and the Sundance Film Festival. Building on Sundance Institute’s philosophy of extending a broad continuum of creative and strategic support to diverse projects, the Summit targets producers and projects already being nurtured through Labs, Fellowships, grants, and Festival participation, or those with potential to be supported by Sundance Institute programs.
Maro Chermayeff and Micah Fink’s latest documentary “Mann v. Ford,” is about one of the worst environmental disasters in the United States, which was located just 19 miles from New York City. This toxic Superfund site is at the former home of the Ford Motor Plant in Mahwah, NJ, where thousands of cars were produced, along with toxic paint sludge, which was dumped on nearby Ramapough Mountain Indian land. This film tells the story of Wayne Mann, the leader of a small Native American community, who stands up to Ford. “Mann Vs Ford” is playing July 18 at 9 pm on HBO.
You can see the film web site on HBO.com.
Also, you can listen to an interview with Maro and Micah on the Leonard Lopate Show.
A HUGE congratulations to SocDoc recent graduate Mark Kendall for being one of a select group of filmmakers to receive finishing grants from the Sundance Institute this year. Mark will use the funds to finish his thesis film La Camioneta, a film about an out-of-service American school bus travels 3,000 miles with its new owner to Guatemala, where it is repaired, renamed, re-equipped and reborn..
If you are interested in applying to the SocDoc program – there is still time and space in the class beginning in September 2011.
Click Here for more information on the application process. Please call or email for more information – 212-592-2919 or mfasocdoc@sva.edu.
Production in Six Countries With Star Power From, America Ferrera, Diane Lane, Lucy Liu, Marisa Tomei and More
SAN FRANCISCO, CA—(May 17, 2011)—ITVS (Independent Television Service) announced today that it, along with the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, has made a significant investment in Half the Sky, a primetime television special and transmedia project based on New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn’s widely acclaimed book, Half the Sky: Turning Oppression into Opportunity for Women Worldwide. The two-part, four-hour broadcast will premier as a special presentation of the Emmy® Award-winning PBS series Independent Lens in fall 2012 as a cornerstone of Women and Girls Lead, a multi-year engagement campaign led by ITVS to leverage the power of documentary storytelling to increase the leadership and development of women and girls worldwide.
SocDoc Department Chair Maro Chermayeff and faculty member Micah Fink’s film Mann V. Ford will premiere at the Brooklyn Film Festival Next Week: http://www.brooklynfilmfestival.org
SocDoc sound faculty member Mark Mandler and cinematography faculty member Jerry Risus also worked on Mann V. Ford.
The film will also air on HBO soon.
Check out some of our student’s great work on our Vimeo group page: http://vimeo.com/groups/socdoc
Summer Season of Stranger Than Fiction at IFC Center on the SVA MFA Social Documenatary Blog.
This weekly documentary series,hosted by SocDoc faculty member Thom Powers and Raphaela Neihausen, and presented by the IFC Center, launches its’ first ever Summer Season on June 2nd 2011.
Audiences will have a chance to watch documentaries in the company of esteemed directors including Liz Garbus,Steve James and Hope Ryan. The STF Summer season takes place at the IFC Center every Tuesday night at 8pm for thirteen weeks, through August 2nd. Each event includes a discussion with the filmmakers, followed by a gathering at a nearby bar. The summer season mixes current sensations with rarities and timeless classics.
Visit the web site to see the line up of films and buy passes: http://stfdocs.com/
As part of the second semester producing course taught by Robyn Hutt and Michael Kantor, students in the MFA SocDoc program worked in teams and with local not-for-profit organizations to create fundraising videos. Below is the finished film created by the Inter-School Orchestra of New York team. The ISO organization credits the film for helping them raise a lot of money at their recent fundraising event.
This project is a win-win for all involved! It provides students with team based, real-world client experience and provides non-profits with top quality films to help tell the story of their wonderful organizations.
The Five C’s of Cinematography: Motion Picture Filming Techniques 
ASC manual – techniques of lighting for television and picture Keep up with the School of Visual Arts MFA Social documentary program by joining our mailing list.
The Times of Harvey Milk
Nanook of the North
Man on Wire