Documentary Filmmaking
Filmnut 232
Guest: Udy Epstein
Company: Seventh Art Releasing
A partial list of credits: “Family Inc.”, “Heart of Fire”, “X’s & O’s”, “The Last Western”, “Oswald’s Ghost”, “Daughters of Wisdom”, “The Long Way Home”, “Bad Faith”, “Ten Commandments, The Musical” and many more.
Websites:
http://www.7thart.com
http://www.imdb.com/company/co0048319/
Documentary filmmaking has come a long way in the last century, and as the advance in digital technology has helped independent filmmaking, I think it has really shot life into documentary filmmaking. You can just do so much more then you ever could and for so much less money. Further, whether you agree or disagree with his politics or his methods, Michael Moore and reality TV have advanced the form through their efforts and by bringing awareness to the audience that exists for reality based material. While the challenges of getting a theatrtical release or making money are still daunting there have never been more revenue streams, an ability to produce work, and a demand for work. So what are you waiting for? (well watch this episode of Filmnut first if you haven’t already! 🙂
Tonight’s guest offered Udy Epstein, offered insight into the process and distribution of documentaries. We touch on editing, (“where documentaries are made”, according to Epstein), the elements of what makes up a documentary, documentary ethics, whether or not you can use SAG actors in a non-union documentary and much more. We ran short on time but Epstein does attend festivals, and I asked him after the show which documentary festivals he likes and these are the ones he mentioned: Sundance, Toronto, Berlin, Hot Docs., Woodstock, Full Frame, Hot Spring, Amsterdam, Doc Aviv.
Some websites that you might want to investigate if you are planning to make a documentary are:
http://www.documentary.org
http://www.documentarychannel.org
http://www.documentaryfilms.net/
And for more festival information and research:
If you missed this or any episode of Filmnut you can watch it here:
http://www.thestream.tv/filmnut The episode with Udy Epstein it is number 232.
Comments or questions on this show? Let me know here: http://www.thestream.tv/forum/viewtopic.php?t=2095
Thanks for checking us out!
Jeff Schubert
http://www.myspace.com/powerofnow http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0775806/