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Hi Doug--and Syeda!

I was trying to find an appropriate place to thank Doug for the Al
Maysles-Susan Froemke dialogue. A HUGE THANK YOU! After joining
early this year, I'd been too preoccupied with
equipment/funding/paying my rent etc. This reminded me why I was doing
all of the other stuff.

And of course I discover Syeda--a Bengali doing a project on Bengali
dance in Scotland. I am a Bengali from west of the Padma. What kind
of Bengali dance? Write me if you read this.

Thanks, Jayasri. Nice to hear from you again and hope you'll find a
little spare time to join us more often on The D-Word Community.

Lots of people have expressed their appreciation for the conference.
We'll definitely try to do more like it in the future (though Al and
Susan are one-of-a-kind).

Hi Doug and Jayasri!

I am studying in Dundee, a little town about a 30 minutes drive away
from the capital, Edinburgh. As for the Dance documentry, I am
directing a documentry about the bengali community here in dundee,
and the dance school that has arisen from it. I'm looking forward to
producing and directing it, as this is my first major project , and I
will be glad to recieve any comments or tips!

I was in Edinburgh many years ago but never made it as far as
Dundee. I look forward to seeing your doc, Syeda. I am sure your
University is putting you in touch with the doc community in the
U.K. You are lucky to have a lot of public support over there. I
have relatives in England and Wales--may be useful when the time
comes for distribution. Have you seen a Canadian doc called "Little
Red Dot" made by a South Asian woman? Not directly related to your
subject, but I just like the tone and style. I know she has a
website for it--see if you can take a look. Keep us posted on your
progress.

Dundee 30 minutes away from Edinburgh?? Must be a different Scotland ;-)

Syeda, any time you have a specific question just ask us in The
Mentoring Room. Good luck with your shooting.

Hi

My name is David Mowbray and I lead two related lives. After a career
as a science/environment journalist for the Canadian Broadcasting
Corporation (CBC) I moved into making and telling stories about
international development issues – especially science and environment
related in the worlds poorest countries. I have made one hour-long
documentary and many shorts. One -- "White Plague" -- was a finalist
in the educational category at the Yorkton festival a few years ago.
So my first life is as a filmmaker with my own small company based in
Canada called Baobab Productions Inc. My second life is as the Head
of Communications and Information at the International Institute of
Tropical Agriculture based in Ibadan, Nigeria, from where I am
writing this note. You can learn more about both my lives at:
www.baobab.net and www.iita.org (but only if you are interested :-))

Regards to all

Hi David. I sound like a broken record, but you (or any of the other
folks who've signed in here and have professional experience in the
doc field) are welcome to join The D-Word Community:
www.d-word.com/join.

This is one of our public Forums, dedicated to special conferences
mainly.

hi. my name is al santana. i've been making documentary films on and
off for 20 years. i'm looking for finishing funds for a doc. i'm
currently producing. this sounds like an interesting place to meet new
people.

Yup. Of course, you'll meet a bunch of folks all looking for the same
finishing funds ;-) Welcome anyway, Al.

Hello,
My name is Hayley and I am a film, tv and theatre student from York
in England. I'm currently working on two super 8 films i have shot
and have made other amateur digital doc and drama projcts in the
past. Im really only starting out right now, but feel this site could
be a great way to learn new things from more experienced people and
hopefully meet some likeminded souls. Im actually in the states
right now on student exchange and have been making a doc on P-Town in
Cape Cod, a fascinating corner of earth if you dont know it. I have
posted a question or invitation rather to anyone who knows or has any
opinions on Nick Broomfield's work as I am compliing a
biography/analysis of his work as it is a personal favourite to me.
I would grately appreciate hints on where to research and open
comments and opinions.

Looking forward to conversing soon...
Hayley x

Welcome, Hayley. Google search???

Hi Doug

I'm really interested in getting other filmmaker's opinions on the
self-reflexive controversial (if ones views it as controversial?)
work of Broomfield, his interview sytle, his ethical/unethical
approach....his choice of subjects..
Im not too worried about the facts as I can handle that bit of the
research pretty easily I think.

Thanks Hayley

Broomfield's only subject is himself.

Hi everyone,

I just learned about this resource by joining up with DocuClub and
reading the December newsletter. I am very excited that such a forum
exists. My name is Laurie and I have been working on a feature-length
documentary with my partner Nyla for the past 3 1/2 years. It's the
first film for both of us--it's been trial and error; blood, sweat
and tears. We have been working out of pocket (hence, the 3 1/2
years) and are working towards locking picture in early January.
Since this is my first project and I do not have a film background, I
will be using this forum to get some advice and meet some like-minded
people with a passion for film. Cheers!

Laurie

Welcome, Laurie. Hope to see you at the DocuClub screening tonight.
Good luck with your project and feel free to ask questions in the
Mentoring topic.

Thanks for the welcome Doug. I'll introduce myself tonight at the
screening. Looking forward to it.

Hello D-Word! I'm an indie filmmaker in Minneapolis embarking on my first
"real" documentary. I've dipped my foot in short docs and mocks, as well as
arty stuff and comedy. I'm doing a documentary on the subject of BLOGS
(short for web log) tentatively titled Blogumentary. I took a great doc. class
with Minnesota documentarian Melody Gilbert and she turned me on to D-
Word and Home Page, which I reallllllly want to see as it deals with similar
topics. I also work at the PBS station in the Twin Cities, so am fortunate to
have worked around a lot of documentary filmmakers I greatly admire.

I really loved the use of After Effects in "The Kid Stays In the Picture" and am
learning the software. It felt so fresh and fluid. I think the old "pan-and-scan" is
tired and documentary needs to be re-invented, and "TKSITP" shows one
possible path.

Cheers,
Chuck

Oh... my own blog is at http://chuckolsen.blogspot.com

Good luck, Chuck. As the maker of Home Page, I'm curious what your
approach to blogs is. I'm trying to get a DVD release for Home Page,
and I keep telling the distributors that blogging has made the film
totally relevant again. We'll see if they believe...

Thanks Doug. I don't really know my approach yet. I know I want to cover a
good cross-section of personal blogs, political blogs, and community blogs.
How do you make people in front of a computer screen compelling? I'm sure it
will all depend on finding interesting people to talk about their lives and why
they blog, follow them around. I want to be very expressive and stylized with it,
so the aesthetics of each 'vignette' reflects their personality. I'm hoping to
enlist a D.P. friend of mine who can do a much better job of that than I. Home
Page on DVD -- I'd be your first customer!

You got it! ;-)

Hi all. Just finished directing Detroit's first documentary film
festival - www.detroitdocs.org - and working on big, big plans for
next year! The enthusiasm level in this somewhat culturally starved
town is intense - the festival was an immediate success and seems to
have really energized local filmmakers. Yahoo! Yea for Docs!
Thank you to Michael Green, brilliant Floridian doc-maker, for
turning me on to this interesting forum.

Doc on!

Chris

p.s. Isn't the new Utne format just awesome? I bought 3 extra copies
for friends!

pgawn I am. making a coming of age doc about an 18 year old
girl, and her relationship with her transgendered mother. Both
mother and daughter are compelling, animated and dynamic yet
I find myself cautiously filming mostly the banal. I am a still
photographer with some dabbling in super 8 dramatic shorts
that happened to make the festival cicuit. This is my first doc an
I'm shooting it with the support of my post grad film course and
equipment on HD. The pressure to make a TV one hour slick
flick may be stiffling my creative impulse, plus I am working
entirely with a crew of student strangers who don't quite get my
intent or subject. Feedback and thoughts are welcome.

Welcome aboard, Chris and PGawn.

Let's take your issue into The Mentoring Room, PGawn, but why not
work as a one person crew? Or two, at most? Why would you need more?

Hello..

Greetings from the depths of South-central British Columbia in
Canada.I'm a newbie in the field of documentary film making having
spent he last 30-odd years as a painter and printmaker. But am
definitely moving into video as a medium and feel that a place such
as this forum will be invaluable as I do so. I promise to keep dumb
questions to an absolute minimum and am mainly interested in
exploring others' views and approaches to the art of documentary
film.