The International Documentary Association
Presents

Doc U: Directing for Documentary: The Interview
A conversation with documentary directors

Monday, November 21, 2011 
Doors Open: 7:00pm
Discussion & Audience Q&A: 7:30pm - 9:00pm
Wine Reception to Follow

The Cinefamily
611 N. Fairfax Avenue
Los Angeles, CA 90036

IDA Individual Members: $15  •  General Admission: $20

Seating is limited so buy your tickets now to be guaranteed admission.

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Documentary directors wear many hats, from research to writing to fundraising. None perhaps is more crucial, or nuanced, than the role of interviewer, where directors must develop and draw on their relationship with the subject, while simultaneously maintaining an objective perspective on how the story and the film is developing.

Join director/producer/writer Lisa Leeman (One Lucky Elephant; Crazy Wisdom: The Life and Times of Chogyam Trunga), in a conversation with directors Kirby Dick (Outrage, This Film is Not Yet Rated), Ondi Timoner (Dig!, We Live in Public), and Marina Zenovich (Roman Polanski: Wanted and Desired, Who Is Bernard Tapie?) to discuss the art and craft of the successful documentary interview.
 

Lisa Leeman (Moderator)
Lisa Leeman writes, directs, & produces documentary films. Lisa directed the award-winning One Lucky Elephant, which played theatrically this summer, and will air December 1 as part of OWN’s documentary-of-the-month club. She is currently co-directing, with Paola di Florio, a feature doc on the life and teachings of the renowned modern mystic Paramahansa Yogananda. Lisa's work includes producing the feature doc Crazy Wisdom: The Life and Times of Chogyam Trunga, (with director: Johanna Demetrakas), which opens theatrically in NYC & LA this winter; directing Out of Faith; and co-directing Who Needs Sleep with Haskell Wexler. Lisa’s first feature, Metamorphosis: Man Into Woman, won the Filmmakers Trophy upon its premiere at Sundance (1990) and garnered POV’s highest ratings that year.

Leeman has served as a judge at the Sundance Film Festival and as the president of the International Documentary Association. She spent a decade editing social-issue docs, and has published articles about the international documentary scene, and the ethics of documentary filmmaking. She is on the faculty of USC’s School of Cinematic Arts, and has taught documentary filmmaking in Beijing, China; Amman, Jordan; and of course, Los Angeles.
www.lisaleeman.com
www.oneluckyelephant.com
www.crazywisdomthemovie.com

Kirby Dick
Kirby Dick is an Academy® and Emmy Award nominated documentary director. His most recent film, Outrage, which was nominated for an Emmy and released by Magnolia Pictures, is a searing indictment of the hypocrisy of powerful closeted politicians and the political and media institutions that protect them. In 2006 he directed This Film Is Not Yet Rated released by IFC Films. A breakthrough investigation of the highly secretive MPAA film ratings system, the film compelled the MPAA to make long overdue changes in the way it rates films.

Dick received an Academy Award® nomination for Twist of Faith, the powerful story of a man confronting the trauma of his past sexual abuse by a Catholic priest.

Dick’s other films include, Derrida, winner of the Golden Gate Award at the San Francisco Film Festival, and the internationally acclaimed Sick: The Life & Death of Bob Flanagan, Supermasochist, which won the Special Jury Prize at the Sundance Film Festival and the Grand Prize at the Los Angeles Film Festival.

He is currently finishing The Invisible War, an explosive new documentary on the epidemic of rape within the US armed forces.

Ondi Timoner
Ondi Timoner is the only director to win the Grand Jury Prize at the Sundance Film Festival twice. Both features documentaries, Dig! (2004), exploring the collision of art & commerce through the lives of two bands, and We Live in Public (2009), about an internet visionary & the loss of privacy in the Internet age are in MOMA's permanent collection. She also directed the socio-political feature documentaries, Join Us (2007), about the cult epidemic in the U.S. and Cool It (2010) - about the polarizing logjam of the climate change debate.

Ondi is currently filming a documentary series about tech startups (the entrepreneurs and hackers with the big ideas about how we will live), and is slated to direct Mapplethorpe, about controversial photographer Robert Mapplethorpe, starring James Franco, set for early 2012.

Marina Zenovich
Marina is currently making a followup film to her Emmy award winning documentary Roman Polanski: Wanted and Desired (HBO/BBC). Wanted and Desired premiered at the 2008 Sundance Film Festival -- where it won the Best Documentary Editing Award. It was then chosen as an official selection at the 2008 Cannes Film Festival. Marina’s new film looks at the latest chapter in the case: the arrest of Roman Polanski in 2009 and the US government’s attempt to extradite him.

Marina’s past work includes Who Is Bernard Tapie? about the French former politician convicted criminal turned actor Bernard Tapie; Independent's Day about the struggles of independent filmmakers set at the Sundance Film Festival; and Estonia Dreams Of Eurovision! about the wacky world of Tallin, Estonia as they prepare to host the Eurovision Song Contest. Other credits include Julian Schnabel In Naples, Robert Wilson: Video Portraits, and John Baldessari for Gallery HD's series Art in Progress. Recent credits include Takashi Murakami and David Lynch: The Air Is On Fire/Milano as well as a pilot for TNT.

Other current directing projects include a documentary film about Richard Pryor and a documentary based on Mark Harris’s book Pictures at a Revolution: Five Movies and the Birth of the New Hollywood.

The evening's on-stage conversation will be followed by an audience Q&A, and a reception on the Cinefamily's backyard Spanish patio!

For more information on IDA's Doc U: documentary.org/doc-u

What:

Doc U: Directing for Documentary: The Interview
A conversation with documentary directors

When:

Monday, November 21, 2011
Doors Open: 7:00pm
Discussion & Audience Q&A: 7:30pm - 9:00pm
Wine Reception to Follow

Where:

The Cinefamily
611 N. Fairfax Avenue
Los Angeles, CA 90036

Parking:

Metered parking available for free after 6pm, and non-permitted parking
in neighborhoods behind The Cinefamily

Doc U is the International Documentary Association's series of educational seminars and workshops for aspiring and experienced documentary filmmakers. Taught by artists and industry experts, participants receive vital training and insight on various topics including: fundraising, distribution, licensing, marketing, and business tactics.

Special support provided by: