Introduce Yourself: Sign In Here First

The sidebar is nagging me to introduce myself, which I clumsily forgot to do when I joined last year. It's GREAT to be here and have input from such a distinguished group of pro doc makers. I recently completed a feature-length doc, GIRLS ON THE WALL, which was a co-production with ITVS (great experience working with them). It just premiered in the city where it was shot, at the Chicago International FF, winning a Special Mention jury prize. The site for the film is www.girlsonthewallmovie.com

In the past I've produced and directed many hours of factual programming for A&E, Discovery, MTV, and am excited to bring what I've learned the hard way on the indie doc trail to new television projects.

Thanks to the hosts for providing this great space.

You're welcome, Heather – better late than never...

Hi Heather, and officially welcome. I enjoyed your film. Especially Whitney. What a great character. How's she doing?

Congrats on your award, Heather, and thanks for finally outing yourself. Come back often, ok? We've had more than enough silent Heather, especially given all you have to offer. (And love seeing you doing karioke!)

Dear All,

You are invited to the Film Festival : Humanity Explored –

The film festival where we gather and explore Our voice – as citizens of different locales of this earth, sharing the same cosmic resources that sustains life in us, dreaming the same future, experiencing same fundamental emotions, living similar life stories, yet intensely feeling separation among us. Can we feel 'interconnectedness' or 'oneness' by sharing what fundamental emotions, needs and dreams unites us, and question/contemplate the divisive perception of 'otherness'? Lets celebrate our collective spiritual evolution by contemplating the contemporary cultures & societies, through cinema.

visit now www.cultureunplugged.com

watch, vote and spread the buzz in your community, on your social networks, in your blogs.

Engage & Explore.
Visit the festival now.

Yogesh
on Behalf of,
Culture Unplugged Festival Team

www.cultureunplugged.com
Promote Films. Promote Consciousness.

Hi; every body ;
i 'm moloy from INDIA;very glad to meet you here.
I'm now working as an assistant film director with the most eminent indian film maker; BUDDHADEB DASGUPTA. But you all know that in INDIA its very difficult to be an independent film maker . i've completed the research work for two of my ducomentaries .
my first project is about the children who lived on footpath of calcutta;but they all have a very pain full history; and the causes are very socio-economical.........
and my second project is on MEDICINE;how the people of INDIA are cheated by those multinational medicinal companies.......
i've approach to many people and tried to make my dream true' but i faild. so i'm requesting you to give me some suggestions for it (i.e:how do i find producers.....). thanking you; moloy

Hello,
My name is Marcus Rosentrater. I am working on working on movies. My keen interest in non-fiction is finding the place where truth and fiction crossover to derive a separate truth unreachable from either end. I am primarily an editor, but have co-directed 3 short docs with Gideon C. Kennedy. Our last of which is premiering at the International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam this Friday (Nov. 20th 2009 20:15). http://clandestine-movie.com/ I'm looking forward to connecting to an international non-fiction filmaking community.

Thanks!

Good day fellow documentarians,
My name is Martin Touhey and my company Sleepyeyed Films LLC is currently in pre-production of a documentary about the legendary video game Dragon's Lair. I've joined the D-Word in order to expand my contacts and hopefully gain some insight to how people are getting their projects funded and noticed. I look forward to sharing ideas and getting to know other filmmakers.

Hi! This is Almudena Carracedo, I'm officially introducing myself here!

I am a Spanish filmmaker who was based in Los Angeles until two months ago, and now happily based in Brooklyn. I recently directed Made in L.A. (www.MadeinLA.com) which was my first feature doc and ended up wining an Emmy. After 2 and 1/2 years of intense and rewarding outreach and community engagement my partner Robert Bahar (also D-worder) and I are slowly wrapping up the project and moving onto new things.

Happy to be here in D-word, finally, and to be in touch with this community!

Welcome all and an especially huge welcome and hug to Almudena! So glad you decided to sign up! LA is sorry to have lost you guys.

Thanks Marj!!! We miss you all in LA... but I'm sure we'll be seeing you quite often anyway :)

Ditto Marj. Welcome to Martin, Marcus and the very youthful-looking Moloy (Yogesh, we'll welcome you more warmly when you actually choose to introduce yourself.)

And a roll out the red carpet welcome to Almudena, who we're thrilled to have as an actual member and not just a friend. Good to have you all here.

Doug, thanks for your sweet welcome :)

hi I'm moloy chakraborty from India. I'm working as an assistant film director with BUDDHADEB DASGUPTA; the eminent film maker from India. As you know that it is very difficult to make my own film in India; I ‘m requesting for some suggestions from you. I ‘m a science graduate from Calcutta university and working in this field from last seven years only as an assistant and till I believe that I can make my dream true.

I’ve completed the full research work of two of my documentary films and now looking for some funding for these .

My first project is about “THE STREET CHILDREN” who live in the footpath of Calcutta but they all have a very painful history; which is very socio-economical. The usual documentaries about this matter mostly end in showing that they live in an exile & we all have to help them. But most important causes are not revealed or hided. I’ve found that in most cases state and its laws are very responsible for this. They never can imagine even about sufficient food. Medical; education; etc are simply a dream to them……… ………………………….

My second project is about ENVIORNMENT &WATER LAND (POND). There are too many housing projects which are developing by destroying the water lands and greens which has an impact on temperature; average rain; as well as on public health……………………………………….

I’m sorry for bothering you in this way but desperately I want to make my dream true though I know it’s very difficult . I’m writing you for your kind suggestions and help. I’ll be very glad if you reply me.

Thanking you;

Moloy chakraborty;

moloychakrovarty@gmail.com

Thanks, everybody! Love this place.

In reply to Marj Safinia's post on Mon 16 Nov 2009 23:50 UTC :

Marj, glad you enjoyed it! When I showed the film at the detention ctr. last month, the new crop of girls LOVED Whitney too. She's doing pretty well, actually– set to start city college classes in January. And Rosa's working two jobs and looking at going to school next year. Crazy proud of both of them.

Hi everyone,

My name is Jason Reid and I am a documentary filmmaker from Seattle. I completed 2 feature documentaries in 2009.

The first film is called Man Zou: Beijing to Shanghai (http://2rfilm.com/manzou). Myself and three other American friends, along with a 23 yr-old Chinese guide/translator, bicycled over 1,000 miles from Beijing to Shanghai (without permits or support vehicles). Our bicycle trip and the documentary serve as a vehicle to explore the environmental, economic and sociological issues facing China today. The film intersperses the experiences of our team with the opinions of residents, expats, and academics.

My second film is called Sonicsgate (http://sonicsgate.org), exposing the truth behind how Seattle lost the SuperSonics NBA basektball team following a heated legal battle in 2008. We had two sold out screenings in Seattle last month, followed up by an extremely successful internet release. In the first month, nearly 60,000 people have watched it online. The full 2 hour film is streaming for free at http://sonicsgate.org. Check it out and let me know what you think.

Also, you can take a look at my d-word profile at the link below.

http://d-word.com/people/reidster

Looking forward to networking with other filmmakers here.

Jason Reid
reidsterreid@gmail.com

hey Jason -
glad you made your way here – i did hear about sonicsgate – supercurious to hear how you guys came to the decision that you'd give the movie away online.

i hadn't heard about 'man zou' yet. are there any screenings coming up?

Jason, Riley, potential Seattle F2F on Monday... would be great to see/meet you and chew the fat. ?

Good evening, everyone. I'm Sara Westrate Barnes and I'm a documentary transcriptionist. I know many of you, but am joining d-word for the first time. I've been a documentary transcriptionist since my sister (hi Beth!) sent me a machine and my first job about 12 years ago.

Some of the films I've been proud to work on are: 51 Birch Street, The Kids Grow Up, A Family Undertaking, e2 series (PBS), Out in the Silence, Vagina Monologues, Raymond Scott: Onto Something, Blueprint America, Terra Antarctica, Whatever It Takes, Promised Land, Lemon, Wait For Me, and Ruth Gruber-The Movie.

I also have several private clients in the medical field and do regular work for Spike TV and NOVA.

Thanks for reading and take care!

Warmly,
Sara
www.yourbesttranscription.com

Hi Riley,

Would love to chat about Sonicsgate sometime. We decided to release the movie for free so as many people as possible would be able to watch it. While not a great financial plan, I wouldn't have done it any other way. It has been a great way to get the word out about the film.

Also, I looked at your site and was interested in the Wonderland film you did. Looks cool. Check out the website for my film Man Zou (http://2rfilm.com/manzou) if you haven't already.

Also, Lenville...would like to meet up sometime as well. This week is looking kind of busy, but sometime soon for sure. Let's stay in touch

Jason

Greetings, Jason, and a big hello and hug to Sara, who I've been working with for years. Sister of d-goddess Beth.

...so seattle is something like the 24th most populated city in the country behind places like columbus, memphis, el paso, charlotte, jacksonville, and detroit.

so based on d-word demographics, it seem that something like one third of the city of seattle must be documentary filmmakers. it's incredible, really.

And 99% of that one-third is male. Take that, statisticians!

despite being the 24th biggest city, we are absolutely the #1 coolest city in the country – thus explaining why we have so many doc filmmakers. but i can't explain the lack of d-women.