Introduce Yourself: Sign In Here First

Hi everyone,

I am Eugene Martin, a filmmaker from Philly now based in the Dallas area. My new film is a feature length doc titled The Anderson Monarchs. It is about an all girls soccer club from Philadelphia who are the only African American competitive club pretty much anywhere on earth. I am in post production on the film, having shot 500 hours or so. I've got a trailer up on my website here:

http://theandersonmonarchs.com/

Glad to know about this site!

Eugene

Glad you finally made your way here, Eugene. When did you move from Philly to Texas?

And a warm welcome to Keith and Laura, as well.

Hi John/Doug,

Thank you for the welcome to the site

John, thank you for clarifying that the IFSW is indeed a film school and not an "obscure faction", should have made that a little clearer.
In relation to Buzkashi the sport goes all the way back to the time of Genghis Khan who although forbidding his people from having arms during peace time made hunting on horses compulsory as training for war. Riders would track their prey for weeks at a time eventually wearing down the animals before whipping or stoning them to death. Bloodletting was not practicing as to shed blood was believed to allow the soul to escape.

It's a wonderful, unique part of Afghan culture, a bit like going to the cinema here complete with popcorn sellers and other snack vendors.

Looking forward to getting it out there.

In reply to Jeremy Pevar's post on Fri 4 Mar 2011 :

Welcome to the D-Word, Jeremy... are you working at all with fellow D-Word member Jason Osder? If not, you may be a bit interested to know that he has been producing/directing a rather similar project (to say the least!) – and the title of his film was LET THE FIRE BURN.

@Christopher – I'm not working with Jason, though we have spoken about our respective projects. I believe that we are taking very different approaches to the topic. It is a big story and I think there is room for a variety of perspectives. Without characterizing what Jason is doing with his film, what I am attempting to do is to contextualize the MOVE story by digging into the group's origins and showing how MOVE grew and changed over the years from 1972 – 1985, culminating in the horrific events on Osage Avenue.

jeremy, good to know that there is room enough for (at least) two different filmmakers to be making separate projects on MOVE. one reason that it seemed really similar was because of all the riveting archival footage that you are both using in your trailers.

anyways, feel free to keep us updated further in the Works in Progress topic... good luck!

In reply to Blaire Johnson's post on Sat 5 Mar 2011 :

well I certainly support and respect your efforts but as for "getting America behind it" as I mentioned, American farmers have long supported and known all about the worthiness of growing hemp. Back when so many family farms were going bust pleas to grow hemp were falling on deaf ears.

Of course now we all know why – the larger corporations were out to suck up the land and make peasants out of the farmers who owned their own places. sure enough, that's what happened as Monsanto and others paved the way for biotek and more monoculture; Walmart is now the largest seller of food in the U.S. market.

just another sad tale...and yes, I am being pessimistic. the fracking mess has got me on a downhill binge.

again, good luck w/your project and feel free to contact me if you need any agriculture input or research.

I met Doug Block at DIY Days and decided to join D-Word because of the Peter Broderick distribution seminar. I am continually educating, mentoring our Philadelphia filmmakers so they can sustain their filmmaking careers. Am very glad to see PIFVA member, Jon Foy, to be screening his film, Resurrect Dead, a film PIFVA funded and a film that Doug is producing, at Stranger Than Fiction on March 29. So, I am joining this powerful conversation to learn, observe and network.

Great meeting you, Caroline, and glad it turned into becoming a member here. Welcome.

Greetings all.

At age 68 I managed to get a post graduate certificate in Documentary Production here at Algonquin College in Ottawa. My first DOC of significance is an extension of my major class project. "Daniel's Journal – History Rewritten" – takes a look at one Daniel Daverne – the first secretary/stores keeper at the first military settlement in Canada – at Perth. Ontario in 1816.

History portrays him as a criminal, a scoundrel. Yet a journal discovered in 1995, in the rubble of an old building being renovated in downtown Perth is the start of a number of serendipitous events that lead to new discoveries about Daniel, his living relatives – and perhaps a rewrite of History.

This project is a multimedia project. The related web site is meant to provide additional information about the subject and allow the viewer to buy the DVD, watch the additional material and decide, as a member of the "jury" whether or not Daniel is guilty of the charges brought against him.

The web site is http://DanielDaverne.com
The Facebook page is http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=45912699838

Some illness has put me about 1/2 year behind on this project – but I am up and running again, and will push to get the DVD produced shortly.

Read about other film work at Hugh's World: http://hugh-chatfield.com/Film_Work.html

Welcome, Carolina and Hugh. Both of you should feel free to register for professional status, which will give you access to all 50 of our discussion topics.

hi all,

i'm a doc. filmmaker based in L.A. my last film ('a hard straight') received best doc. feature at SXSW and broadcast on 'independent lens'.

my current project 'broken doors' just received best short at Big Sky.

also, i'm a very good shooter who is always looking for more documentary work--so if anybody needs shooting, please get in touch.

looking forward to meeting people here...

And we're mighty glad you're here, Goro. Congrats on the Big Sky award.

thanks doug...nice to meet you here.

Hi, My name is Victor Huey, I am making a documentary about the underground music scene in China, called "Rocking the Great Wall" Shot over a 25 year period form 1986-2011. We are now entering post production. Besides releasing a traditional feature length documentary,I have been thinking about new strategies such as distribution via a interactive documentary social network site based on my content.

Hey Caroline. I just noticed that you joined D-Word. Cheers.

Welcome aboard, Victor. Noticed your post about your distribution plans in the Peter Broderick discussion. Very intriguing, hope you'll share more in the Marketing and Distribution topic.

In reply to Jeremy Pevar's post on Fri 4 Mar 2011 :

Hello everyone! I am Grace Albasin from the Philippines but I am here in New York City taking up my MA in Media Studies at The New School. It's great to be part of this group but I am just beginning to tread on documentary. I haven't done anything yet but it is the track I'm pursuing at school.

Welcome, Grace. Enjoy NYC and good luck with your studies.

Aloha Nui,

Storytelling and music are the two things that define purpose of this thing called me. Maui was where the journey this time around began. Los Angeles, New York and New Mexico are places used to dwell. Finding others of the same drive and passion is what makes being here possible. Always looking forward to meeting others to make more magic. "Life's like a movie. Write your own ending. Keep believing. Keep pretending"

Greetings,

My name is Leroy Metcalf and I am an aspiring filmmaker. I'm currently working on my first documentary titled, "Why Do You Hate Me So Much?", which is about people interacting with other people that may hate them because of race, religion, sexual orientation, geographical location, political views, gender or age. I expect there to be a lot conflict during these interactions, but definitely not Jerry Springer type conflict. The aim is to open up dialogue with people that hate others because of there differences and to hopefully understand why people hate and to get people to think and be more accepting towards others.

I'm very new to this site and I don't know the rules yet. I would really like to network with people to get them involved in my project. Doug/John, please let me know if that's not allowed on this site.

Thanks,

Leroy

In reply to Linda Wasson's post on Mon 7 Mar 2011 07:55 UTC :

I completely understand your frustration and your pessimism. I think the American public at large is finally ready to hear about industrial hemp, and I think the changes in the technology, and the interest in being greener and more energy efficient are all coming together. As much as we have needed hemp for years, I think hemp's time is finally here, thanks in part to hemp's ability to build the healthiest, most energy efficient houses.

It's horrible to think of the thousands of farms and farmers who could have saved their family farms had they been able to grow hemp. And it's horrible to think of all the merchants who got behind hemp and lost so much, because the market wasn't ready for their vision.

So many people still confuse industrial hemp with marijuana. I've worked at Barnes & Noble for the past 6 years, and I have never seen industrial hemp grace the front cover of a magazine, except for the occasional mention on the front cover of one of the periodicals on marijuana, and it has been equally hard to find hemp cited in the indexes of books one might think it should be included in. I think America is going to be really excited to meet industrial hemp at this time in history, thanks in great part to the many reasons that you cited above. In May, the nation will be celebrating the 2nd annual Hemp History Week. Slowly but surely, the tides are changing.

My name is Jacob Bricca, and I'm new to D-Word. I've been editing feature docs since the early 2000s. Some of my credits are Lost in La Mancha (2002), which chronicled Terry Gilliam's disastrous attempt to make a film adaptation of Don Quixote, Jimmy Scott: If You Only Knew (2002), a biopic/concert film about the jazz vocalist that won the 2003 Independent Lens Audience Award, Tell Me Do You Miss Me (2006), a melancholy travelogue following indie rock band Luna on their final tour dist. by Rhino, and Con Artist (2010), which follows the indescribably odd antics of NYC painter Mark Kostabi and is playing at the Laemmle Sunset 5 in LA this coming April 1-7.

Though I seem to work on a lot of films about musicians and artists, some of the ones I'm most passionate about deal with themes of social justice. We just locked picture on Precious Knowledge, a film about the banning of the Mexican-American ethnic studies classes running in the Tucson public schools, which opponents call "seditious" and proponents see as an effective way of engaging their students. (It will premiere at the San Diego Intl. Film Festival later this month.)

I've also done some directing/producing. My feature Indies Under Fire: The Battle for the American Bookstore (2006) followed three indie bookstores in their struggle to stay afloat in the early 2000s. My most recent short Pure, a mash-up of action movie memes, played at the Berlin Intl. Film Festival, and was abuzz on the web for a brief period.

I also teach documentary studies and production at Wesleyan University. Teaching "The Documentary Film" (a history/survey course) is a humbling experience--so many great films! I love exposing students to the genius of Frederick Wiseman, the Maysles Bros. and Ross McElwee, and showing contemporary docs at the close of the course (My Kid Could Paint That and Iraq In Fragments have been recent choices.) In my "Documentary Advocacy" class, I teach doc production to amateurs, and help students engage with local organizations to make films that they can use for outreach purposes.

I love docs and all the issues of they bring up. I thought the recent love-fest over The Social Network was way overblown and advised anyone I could to watch Catfish instead. I thought it engaged with the Facebook phenomenon and all its attendant issues way more successfully!

Happy to be here...

Jacob, I've had Lost in La Mancha on my list to see for some time now. I'll have to step it up. Welcome to the d-word discussions!

Great to have you here, Jacob. I did see Lost in La Mancha and loved it. Utterly fascinating. And sounds like a great course you're teaching – lucky students.