This tip was provided by a journalism student: when calling up subjects or potential interviewees, always assume that they won’t be available between the hours of 11AM and 2PM to account for differing lunch schedules.
Facets Seminar Series Presents: Michael Rabiger
From a press release:
Facets Seminar Series Presents:
MICHAEL RABIGER: ACROSS THE BRIDGE
Sunday, October 4 at 10:00 A.M.
Address: 1517 W Fullerton Ave, Chicago IL, 60614
Phone: (773) 281-4114
It is difficult to understand why Across the Bridge, which features a performance by Rod Steiger that ranks close to his work in The Pawnbreaker, should be so rare. For filmmaker, legendary teacher, author and inventor Michael Rabiger, Across the Bridge was one of his first screen credits. Based on a book by Graham Greene, its stars Steiger as a German-born British industrialist accused of embezzlement. On the run from Scotland Yard , trying to escape to Mexico, he switches identity as he faces the law. The film is a brilliant psychological thriller, made at the apex of British film studio production. Michael Rabiger is Professor Emeritus at Columbia College, the director of documentaries for the BBC and independently, and the author of the worldwide best-selling books, Directing: Film Techniques and Aesthetics, Directing the Documentary and Developing Story Ideas.
$12 for Facets Patron Circle members, $20 for non-members.
For further information, contact our Film Program Director, Charles Coleman:
773-281-9075 or charles@facets.org
Tip of the Day 8
Never put off getting b-roll and cutaways by telling yourself or your crew “we’ll just get these later…” You won’t!
“Throwing Plates” Screening at ArtWalk Ravenswood Oct 4th, 5th
Columbia MFA Candidate Deirdre Lee writes:
I’ll be screening my most recent documentary, Throwing Plates: A Portrait of a Woman Ceramicist, at ArtWalk Ravenswood – A tour of arts and industry in the Ravenswood Corridor, Saturday, October 4 and Sunday, October 5 from 11am-6pm.
Screening Times and Location:
• Saturday, October 4: 11am, 1pm, and 4pm
• Sunday, October 5: 12pm, 2pm, and 4pm
(Will have additional screenings throughout ArtWalk, so stop by between 11am-6pm if you can’t make any of the scheduled times)
• My screening location is 4043 N. Ravenswood, Chicago, IL 60613. My documentary subject, Margaret Biddle, will have a table setup for her pottery studio next to my screening so you can meet her in person!
See the Throwing Plates ArtWalk Website and the ArtWalk Ravenswood Website for more information.
Hope to see you there!
5 Awesome things doc-makers have done
Documentary films often have the rather vague goal of “social change.” That could mean any number of things depending on who you ask, but here are five tangible examples of doc-makers doing awesome stuff which definitely had an impact:
5. Uncovered a brutal African ruler’s gold
In 1997, a documentary team from Germany’s PBS-equivalent ZDF claimed to have discovered ex-Zairean president Mobutu Sese Seko’s missing gold. Before he died, the African leader allegedly embezzled as much as $5 billion from his own country– a figure startlingly similar to that of his country’s national debt at the time. Although much of his fortune is still believed to be collecting dust (and interest) in a personal Swiss bank account, the investigative ZDF team filmed an estimated $100M worth of gold in nearby Gambia.
4. Rekindled Americans interest in their own history
When most people think of historical documentaries, there’s only one name that comes to mind: Ken Burns. The legendary PBS filmmaker and pan-and-zoom czar has made over a dozen docs, and the remarkable viewership that they’ve earned has led noted historian Stephen Ambrose to proclaim “More Americans get their history from Ken Burns than from any other source.”
3. Got an innocent man out of prison
Doc-luminary Errol Morris’ 1988 film “The Thin Blue Line,” known for its popularization of historical reenactments, is about the murder of a Dallas Police officer a decade earlier. The groundbreaking film, in which several of the key players in the case were interviewed and their conflicting accounts of what happened were illustrated by actors, eventually resulted in a complete pardon for the innocent man who had originally been jailed for the crime. To top it off, Morris even got the real killer to admit to his crime– on tape.
2. Made America think differently about the ‘hood
1994′s “Hoop Dreams” was marketed as a film about two basketball players who just happened to be from the South Side of Chicago. But it ended up being a lot more than that: the nearly three hour video-tome landed in the US National Film Registry maintained by the Library of Congress after it was deemed culturally and historically signifigant. The film, now available on DVD in the Criterion Collection, “raises a number of issues concerning race, class, economic division, education and values in contemporary America” and “offers one of the most intimate views of inner-city life to be captured on film” according to Wikipedia.
1. Moved the global warming debate forward
2006′s “An Inconvenient Truth” probably did more to advance the debate over global climate change than any other single movie or book for the past 20 years. For the first time in history, an easily-accessible scientific argument was presented in a thoughtful way in theaters, dispelling many common myths about global warming and at the same time arguing that it was a pressing issue. As Roger Ebert said in his review at the time, “In 39 years, I have never written these words in a movie review, but here they are: You owe it to yourself to see this film. If you do not, and you have grandchildren, you should explain to them why you decided not to.” Audiences responded, making “An Inconvenient Truth” the fourth highest grossing doc of all time.
What films or filmmakers did we leave out? Tell us in the comments.
Tip of the Day 7
Interviewees don’t have to be present when you’re setting up lighting and camera equipment. In fact, it’s often better if they’re out of the room so you can concentrate and don’t have to bother with small-talk.
Review of “Traces of the Trade: A Story from the Deep North”
In Traces of the Trade: A Story from the Deep North, filmmaker Katrina Browne discovers a horrifying family secret. Her family, the DeWolf’s of Rhode Island, was the largest slave trading family in U.S. history. In an attempt to discover more about the family’s legacy, Katrina and nine of her cousins embark on a voyage retracing the Triangle Trade —a slave trading route from Bristol, Rhode Island to Ghana, West Africa and on to Cuba.
Upon hearing the premise of the film I had two reactions. Firstly, how refreshing it was that a story like this was being told. We are taught, and for the most part accept, that the South played the largest role in the history of American slavery. We are taught that the North was a place that slaves could be free from bondage and treated as human beings. What we are not taught is that all of America, North and South alike, had much to gain from the enterprise of slavery. The slave trade was big business that fueled the American economy and produced some of the wealthiest white citizens of the time. My next reaction was that the DeWolf’s would complete this journey, go back to their everyday routine, and not deal with the lingering effects of race today. Maybe they would feel absolved of their guilt about the family’s past and whatever guilt they held at being white and having all the privileges that go along with that. My gut told me that this would play out as a nice travel documentary of a family that had a peculiar history and once the cameras stopped rolling the story would end there.
As the family visits the three ports of the Triangle Trade, they begin to make transformations and discoveries that not even I could have expected. Eyes are opened, and people begin to see the world, their own lives, and upbringing in very new and surprising ways. In one scene, the DeWolf descendants have a discussion with a group of black Americans in Ghana. One of the DeWolf’s talks about his upbringing and how he could have at one time been considered a racist, but does not see himself that way anymore. He was challenged by some in the group to examine if that was really the truth, if it had really been that easy for him to change all of the racist thoughts he once held about blacks. The blacks challenged him and the other DeWolf’s to step outside of their comfort zone from time to time and see an all black film or go out with a group of black friends. These were the things they could do to begin to make changes.
Once the group returned to Rhode Island and reflected on the discoveries and transformations that had occurred the question of what to do next was in the air. Ultimately, what the family chooses to do becomes an individual and very personal decision for each DeWolf. What I learned was that my gut was wrong, the family did not retreat to their safe, privileged world. The experience brought the family closer to understanding what must be done in order to heal from America’s racist past. In the end, they discover the issue of race will not go away in this country, especially if it is ignored. They discover that we must all confront the horrible history and legacy of slavery in America. They are doing what they can and hopefully the film will inspire others to speak out and not ignore the issue any longer.
Editor’s note: You can visit the official Traces of the Trade website to view a trailer here. One of the filmmakers and one of the subjects in the film came to Columbia College Chicago’s Doc III class recently and discussed the film. You can watch video from their Q&A here.
Four Films the Viva Doc Staff Just Couldn’t Finish
It happens all the time. A film gets great reviews, but once you’ve seen it you can’t help but wonder “Wait, what was the big deal again?!” Sometimes documentaries are so bad we can’t even bear to finish watching them. Here are four of these, according to Viva Doc staff members:
Mario: Gunner Palace (2006). There was a lot of talk around Gunner Palace when it came out on DVD. People called it one of the only docs that shows the perspective of soldiers in Operation Iraqi Freedom. What drew me to the film was they young man on the cover. His freckled face being framed by an over-sized helmet really made me want to see what this film was about. The beginning of the film brought me into the mind set of the young soldiers and it struck me that they seemed to act like they’re on spring break during the day and soldiers by night. That’s the only thing that really stuck with me. I’m sure the film had a lot more to offer if I’d had the will power to finish it out. I don’t know what made me turn the film off but I will say this. The Netfilx envelope stayed with me for a few weeks. I finally returned it and found myself checking it out from the local library. The cover got me again. That time the DVD was returned four days late in it marks the most money I’ve paid to not see a movie. I liked the soldiers rapping and it’s an engaging subject but I just couldn’t finish this film.
Margaret: When I first met eyes with this documentary on Netflix, I just knew it would be love at first sight. Fenton Bailey and Randy Barbato’s “The Eyes of Tammy Faye” (2000) seemed right up my alley. Finally, the secrets of Tammy Faye Bakker (such as why in gosh darn heck did she ever marry that loony, Jim, in the first place?) would be out in the open. And why did she wear all of that mascara? I settled down for one crazy ride and was thoroughly disappointed. OK, I never thought I would say this, but the doc was just way too campy. The title of each “chapter” of this convoluted story was announced by puppets. Sock puppets for goodness sakes. Yes, RuPaul was fabulous as the narrator, but the documentarians failed to ask ANY hard hitting questions. If it weren’t constantly asking myself:”How does she get all that makeup on her face?,” I would have turned the doc off after the first ten minutes.
Arlen: Vernon, Florida (1982). Before legendary doc-maker Errol Morris ever invented the Interrotron interviewing device or popularized the historical re-enactment in his groundbreaking film The Thin Blue Line, he did a film called Vernon, Florida. And although it’s been called “quite unforgettable” by Newsweek, I just couldn’t finish watching it. Morris set off to make a film about how many of the town’s residents voluntarily amputate their limbs to collect insurance money but he reportedly received death threats while doing research and had to scuttle the project. So instead, he made this bizarre little 56 minute compilation of unrelated interviews that turned out to be pretty unwatchable in my opinion. The thought that kept running through my head as I tried to stay focused on the movie was “How could the same person who made Fog of War make this dreadfully-boring interview collage?”
Karl: A documentary I couldn’t watch, sadly, was Land of Silence and Darkness by Werner Herzog. It is a really shocking sight seeing these people who are both blind and deaf. I was amazed by their descriptions of what it was like to be so. There is no darkness and certainly no silence for them. The problem with the documentary was the visual element I didn’t find it interesting watching these people sitting in different locations talking through a translator to the camera. There was hardly anything interesting that was cut away to as well. A powerful and interesting idea but lacking in the main appeal of watching a film… The visuals.
What documentaries have been so awful that you just couldn’t finish watching them? Tell us in the comments.
Viva Doc Sept 24 Meeting Recap
We had a great kickoff meeting this semester on Wednesday September 24th in the Doc Center suite on the 4th floor of the 1104 S. Wabash film building. Over 21 people showed up, and Viva Doc alum Suree Towfighnia (the Colum grad who made PBS’ Standing Silent Nation) stopped by to say it was probably the biggest Viva Doc meeting ever.
We had a great meet and greet session with members talking about why they joined, the future of the doc program at Columbia, and what they’d like to get out of Viva Doc. Several possible exciting opportunities were discussed, and more will be discussed at the next meeting. Viva Doc will be what we make it, so we’re pretty confident we’re off to a great start.
Although the Doc suite was a bit crammed with everybody in there and near the end of the meeting it was standing room only as more people trickled in, pretty soon we’ll have more chairs and a conference table.
Our next meeting will be at 5PM, Wednesday the 1st of October in the Doc Center.
Viva Doc Meeting- Sept 24th
Please join us in moving forward with this New Doc Center Era. We’ll be discussing our plans for the year and our revised mission. Now’s the time to get involved
If you make docs, take doc classes, love watching docs, or just want
to know what “doc” means, come to the Viva Doc meeting!
What: Columbia’s Premier Documentary Organization
When: Wednesday, Sept. 24th @ 5pm
Where: The Michael Rabiger Documentary Center, 1104 S Wabash, 4th floor, Doc suite (407)
Why: It’s our first meeting of the year. Be a part of it!