Carson Mischel

I have two new discoveries to share, documentaryguide.com and explore.org. Documentary Guide claims to be the largest database on the Internet with “tens of thousands of films, schools, and festivals” indexed. Documentary guide is designed for educators and researchers and works like a search engine for films on the web. From their homepage you can simply enter your research topic and it will bring up links to full link films available online. Very cool and the website is pretty slick too.

Explore.org showcases philanthropic based media and is also an excellent resource for educators and researchers. The films produced and available on their website vary in length but most seem to be under ten minutes. This site also features a wide variety of themes from science and nature to cultural films to human rights activism.

This a great website for the short documentary community. Watch, communicate, participate.

Classic!

Trailer for Salesman (1968) by Los Maysles

The Story of Menstruation—1946

From the Wonderful World of Disney. Wow.

Dark Girls

Filmmakers: D. Channsin Berry & Bill Duke

The film’s website

Cooking Up a Story is an “online television show and blog about food and sustainable living.” The site features short documentary videos, interviews with experts on agriculture, cooking, and sustainability, cooking demonstrations, and recipes. It really is a neato website and beautifully designed. One could easily spend hours sifting through all of their resources—if one was interested in such things as artisan chocolates and goat farming of course.

A short documentary about a Minnesota mom who hosts parties at her home to sell merchandise— only it’s not Tupperware she is selling. Wink, wink.

Watch the film here

Tami Tushie’s Toys

Directed by Melody Gilbert

There has been a lot of talk about festivals around here lately. Our director, Ian, has been visiting festivals all over the world for his newest film Summer Snapshot.

In honor, I am posting an interesting article I found on the DocAgora blog about navigating the world of documentary film festivals. The article was written in 2009 by Peter Wintoneck and offers some interesting insights. 

Fest O’ Fools: The documentary festival life cycle

The Portland Art Museum has jumped on the storytelling wagon with their own version of Story Corps-style documenting of personal stories. Object Stories invites participants to tell the silly, sentimental, and heart-felt stories behind their favorite objects. The museum has set up a nice website that features information on the exhibit and showcases photographs and audio from these storytelling sessions. It is nice stuff and definitely worth checking out.

If you want to visit the museum to tell your own Object Story you can make reservations on their website. The museum will be hosting an accompanying storytelling event on April, 22 at 7pm. Local famous people will be in attendance.

The photograph above is of Jake France and his Spotted Owls. Hear his story here.

Thanks in large part to a very generous community of independent documentary filmmakers, our DVD library is really starting to look impressive. We have had so many filmmakers contribute copies of their work to our collection making it, not only grow in size, but also reflect a wonderful diversity of film topics, styles, lengths, and techniques. 

Today I came into work to find another donation sitting on my desk—this one a package full of films by Seattle based filmmaker, Aaron Bourget.  If you can’t make it into our library to check out these DVDs you can watch selections of Aaron’s work on his Vimeo page here. 

We love, love, love receiving films from independent filmmakers, especially Northwest filmmakers! Thank you to Aaron and all of you who have donated to our special little library.

UNDERCITY

A Film by Andrew Wonder

Nail- biting adventures underground in NY City. So awesome!

Congratulations to Ian McCluskey, Director of NW Documentary, whose documentary, Summer Snapshot, will be screening at the Tribeca Film Festival this year! Summer Snapshot is a 10-minute film, shot on Super 8, that explores the nostalgia of youth and summertime. 

Check out Summer Snapshot on Tribeca’s Film Guide and spread the word!

So I have been a bit quiet about my filmmaking progress since my big proclamation a couple of months ago. I have been reading a lot on my topic, taking notes, and reading some more. I am to a point now where I have hit a bit of a wall. I’ve done my research and now I need to start actually planning a production schedule which will begin with finding interview subjects. I have a few in mind, but I still feel myself getting really nervous when I am about to compose an email to any of them. Something I will have to overcome soon if I actually want this film to become anything more than a notebook full of scribbles.

Another stumbling block that I have encountered recently is finding a school willing to let me visit their playground and interview their students. I have never had to deal with obtaining school and parent permissions for including children in a film. Has anyone had experience with this? If so, I would greatly appreciate any advice. 

P.S. Kino-eye.com is a great resource for documentary film students. I know I will be referring to it a lot in the coming months.

Our friend TK has a nice site full of documentary resources, festival listings, and documentary screenings around Portland. 

Even more wildlife archives! The U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service’s National Digital Library is pretty wonderful. If you need stock photos or nature footage for your project be sure to check them out.

A little while back I posted a beautiful a short film called Borderlands. The filmmakers behind this piece did an amazing job and I am excited to report that they have a whole website full of other short documentaries and photographs chronicling life in the great state of California. From El Rey, a portrait of  Saul Ezqueda, a Mariachi, to Honey Pie about a $6000 Real Doll this is a series of stories not to be missed. 

Check out the work of Drea Cooper and Zackary Canepari at California is a place

Meet the Freegans

Directed by: Travis Shields

A winner at the 2009 Telly Awards and the 2008 International Documentary Challenge