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  • SF Indiefest opens

    Sam Fleischner (left) and Ben Chace (right) look through the SF Indiefest catalogue on opening night of the festival, where there film Wah Do Dem played.

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  • Shhh: the use of silence in

    Even in the Bay Area, the quiet weeks of January remind us of the gifts of winter: a stillness, pause, and time of secret, subterranean growth. Similarly, silence and... more

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Best Length for Documentary Films

By Karen Everett

How long should your documentary be? I get this question a lot in my work as an editor and story consultant. Frankly, I think the majority of documentaries that were not shaped by experienced editor, story consultant or a supervising executive at a broadcast outlet such as HBO or Showtime are too long. And the problem with "too long," of course, is that your audience begins to glaze over or feel restless, and you, my dear director, have lost the opportunity to leave them wanting more.

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2010 BAY AREA WOMEN IN FILM AND MEDIA (BAWIFM) SHORTS SHOWCASE (March 8) seeking independent short films that have a... more

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