Introduce Yourself: Sign In Here First

Hello, documentarians of the world!

I'm an aspiring filmmaker currently living in New Orleans. I'm fortunate to be working with Lily Keber on Bayou Maharajah – a documentary about colorful New Orleans pianist James Booker which is now (mostly) in post-production.

We're in the process of setting up a website, and you can sign-up for the email list here if you want to see what happens when filmmakers get ahold of fancy email campaign software.

When I'm not working on the Booker doc, I also spend time pouring coffee at Royal Blend for rent money, shooting antique shop commercials for equipment money, and pestering all the film crews I come across while walking my dog for fun. My wife's in grad school at UNO for poetry, so we'll occasionally cross paths, too.

I plan to assail these forums with a variety of complex technical questions, probing distribution queries, and buckets of unsolicited opinions.

Wow, Ted, a poet and a documentary filmmaker, you guys are gonna be living the high life alright!

Anyway, welcome to The D-Word. Happy to say I'm gonna be in NOLA for 3 days soon for the first time in over 25 years (though it's for a conference, so don't know how much down time I'll have). Looking forward to it.

I've been registered on the D-Word for a couple of weeks and figured I should introduce myself. I live in Lexington, Kentucky, where I pick up what documentary work I can, although of late that's become very rare around here. But you must know all about that wherever you are so I'll leave it. Otherwise, the place does have its charms, I suppose.

I have made two documentaries myself: "Rock That Uke" (co-director, editor, camera) and "...damn bad oyster: The Times of William Goebel, governor" (producer, director, writer, editor). The former is a meditation on life, death, love, hate, art, frustrated ambition...what you'd expect. Oh, and the ukulele. Especially if it's amplified and distorted. Yeah, it's kinda funny. The latter is a historical project that airs regularly on KET (the state PBS affiliate). It tell the story of a violent, raucous decade (the 1890s) in Kentucky that culminates in assassination and political upheaval. It's quite funny. One review called it "drolly informative." What higher praise could I wish for.

This will do for now; don't want to wear out my welcome first time out. If anyone's needs help on anything in Kentucky, let me know. I have some gear (and I travel). Or if anyone's passing through and needs a drink, I can provide that too.

Hi this is Sigrid Dyekjaer, producer from Denmark, part of Danish Documentary production, produced film like "The Good Life" by Eva Mulvad, showing at Tribeca in a couple of weeks, "The Monastery" by Pernille Rose Groenkjaer, "Mechanical Love" By Phie Ambo. I am attaching my CV. I am also chairman of the Advisoryboard for CPH:DOX.

Welcome aboard, Sean. A drink sounds really good right now.

And a particularly warm welcome to Sigrid, who I first met at IDFA 5 years ago when "The Monastery" won the Joris Ivens prize. She's one of the Europe's greatest producers and I urge everyone to come see The Good Life at Tribeca and meet her.

So you know, no need to attach your CV. Clicking on your name or photo links to your member profile .

Hello,
I am a musician, composer new to your community. Have to say, in a world where we all spend far too much time in front of our computers (oops that is what I am doing now) it is nice to see so many of you opening up about real issues. That said, I am a composer who had the pleasure of composing music for a doc and fell in love with the process. To be able to write music in, around and complimenting the dialogue and narration of a doc was great. To be a creative part of such a meaningful art form is ..well just love it. So if any of you have need of any music, temp music or anything music related, please feel free to let me know. Also to whomever made the doc about Little Jimmy Scott...i'd like to know where I can see that. He is great..I had the pleasure of seeing him in New York and wow...that is so where Betty Carter got her style.
Thanks to all and I look forward to being a part of this community.
Laura Perlman ljperl@earthlink.net

Welcome, Laura. The Jimmy Scott filmmaker dude is Jacob Bricca .

Welcome Laura! Glad you found your way here. I owe you an email back. It's been a crazy week. Happy to have you among us.

Hi there, my name is Kristen and I'm a newbie. :)
So grateful to have found this resource for doc filmmakers!
My husband, Jeff and I are currently in production on a feature doc about Transformational Bodywork called "Growing My Brave". Following stories from surviving to thriving. A project that we kind of stumbled into and are now in love with. It's been a truly organic experience that has changed our lives for the better and we look forward to learning and growing our skills as storytellers. We have at least one more leg of shooting in May and then looking forward to jumping into post, with hopes to release by 2012. I cut a teaser to help with funding which you can watch here: http://vimeo.com/18899104

Thanks for taking a look and thanks for having me!

Warmly, Kristen Turick

Welcome to The D-Word, Kirsten.

So who else is out there? Enthusiasts and Professionals, please introduce yourself here.

Hey, all!

I'm a filmmaker and a film executive. My documentary is still on the festival circuit and will premiere on the OWN network later in the year.

Chris (and everyone in the same situation) – It's time to apply for Professional status on The D-Word then. It'll give you access to all of our Business, Creative, Technical, and Social Topics. It's free but not automatic.

Hi Doug
Can you help me with a password for HOtdocs, to be registrered with a discount?
all the best
sigrid

Sure thing, Sigrid. Enter the discount code [...] when ordering online and you'll get $50 (U.S.) off an industry pass. But aren't you going there with your film and automatically getting a pass?

[edited by Ben – the discount code can only be obtained in our Professionals-only area]

Hi Sigrid, this is the link to the private topic with the discount code.

Oopsie, didn't realize you asked me in one of the public topics, Sigrid. Usually we hosts are totally on top of keeping questions in the proper topics. (And other times we sleep.)

Anyway, hope you've been perusing the various topics here and getting a feel for the discussions.

Greetings all. I was fortunate enough to meet Doug Block about a month ago at a class here in the Twin Cities and he mentioned D-Word quite a bit, which I was embarrassingly ignorant of. Well, not anymore.

I've directed/produced 2 feature docs and 1 short besides a few narrative shorts and a co directed feature which is in post. My most recent doc is called SCRAP and is playing April 17th at The Indie Spirit Film Festival. The trailers for it are below. Thanks.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_s3PlfeOiew&feature=channel_video_title

http://www.youtube.com/user/killingjokefilms?feature=mhum#p/a/u/0/4PB0el-BOfA

Welcome to The D-Word, Paul. Ignorance excused if you make up for it by active participation. :-)

(by the way, a doc I shot will play at your Minneapolis Film Festival this month. Called MASTER CLASS OPERA, by Olivia Hagemann.)

Anyboy else out there? Come on, it's time to un-lurk!

In reply to Ben Kempas's post on Wed 6 Apr 2011 : Nice! I was fortunate enough to screen SCRAP at MSPIFF. It's a good fest for docs and I'll see if I can make it our for yours. Thanks for the shout out.

Hello, I'm new to D-Word world. Nice to meet everyone! Lily Keber (Director of Bayou Maharajah) introduced me to this site. I'm currently recording sound for her project. I also just finished working with Gary Hustwit (Director of Helvetica) & Luke Geissbuhler (DP of Borat) in New Orleans. Very cool guys. I've recorded professional audio/video of hundreds of famous individuals from all walks of life, all over the globe. I am looking forward to recording the artist Lil' Wayne next week. If your production comes to New Orleans look me up! I also love to travel:) www.ericlaws.com

In reply to Paul von Stoetzel's post on Wed 6 Apr 2011 :

Welcome, Paul! So you know, Resurrect Dead, the film I showed the clip of that I'm exec producing, will be showing at MSPIFF. The director, Jon Foy, who's also a D-Word member, will be coming.

Greetings to you, too, Eric. Feel free to register as a Professional member.

Hi D-Worders,

My name is Jason Thomas Spencer. I've been on the site for a few months reading a lot of very helpful posts and figured it's about time to introduce myself. I've been an editor in NY for about 5 years and am making the leap this summer with my wife into our first feature length documentary. I'm looking forward to being a part of this community. Thanks to Doug for the forum!

Best,
-Jason
spencer4email@gmail.com

Good to have you here, Jason. Lots of luck with your film.

Hello! I'm Erum, the production assistant for a documentary to be filmed in Africa this summer. I'm curious about renting equipment over purchasing. I am aware I can purchased equipment via this site, and wanted to know the experiences people have using this forum.

Looking forward to navigating the D-word!

Hi everyone. I actually registered a few years ago but am just now discovering what a great resource and community Doug has built here. I'm a print journalist and aspiring (and self-taught) filmmaker. In the past two years I've participated in both the Third World Newsreel production workshop and the UnionDocs collaborative project; discovered Bill Nichols, Dziga Vertov, and Walter Murch; and made a short that was screened at the Documentary Fortnight program. But I'm most proud of serving as the volunteer editor of the film "A Future For Meher," which was made by nonprofessional volunteers and so far has helped raise more than $3,500 for the medical care and educational fund of an impoverished girl in New Delhi. I also recently became the blogger for the Stranger Than Fiction film series programmed by Thom Powers. (Doug, I heard you speak at the Resurrect Dead screening a few weeks ago.)I look forward to conversing with you all.