Ask the Documentary Doctor

Trailer talk

By Fernanda Rossi

Dear Doc Doctor: What’s the best way I can start my demo to make a strong impression—especially when submitting to a very competitive grant?

Doc Doctor: Far from offering a formula that can cripple your creativity, let’s discuss some principles that can help you put your efforts in the right place. For starters, you’re on the right path when acknowledging the need for a strong beginning for a fundraising trailer, especially when having to stand out among many at a grant evaluation.

topics: documentary, filmmakers, how-to

Q&A

MVFF: Andy Abrahams Wilson tracks the Lyme epidemic that's "Under Our Skin"

By Michael Fox

Documentaries rarely get confused with horror films, but Andy Abrahams Wilson’s Under Our Skin has the singular ability to inspire nightmares. This elegantly crafted film is a far-ranging portrait of the underreported epidemic of Lyme disease, and the health care community’s underestimation of the disease’s effects and treatments. Blending the painful experiences of several powerfully articulate patients, from a former forest ranger to a U2 tour events manager, with a bevy of doctors that run the spectrum from risk-taking pioneers to establishment hacks, the documentary expertly balances emotion and reason. (Wilson singles out local editor Eva Ilona Brzeski for special praise.) Under Our Skin, which marks the Bay Area filmmaker’s first feature-length film after a number of shorter works, has its local premiere this Saturday and Sunday, October 11 and 12, in a pair of screenings at the Mill Valley Film Festival. We spoke with Wilson on the phone a few days ago.

[SF360.org editor’s note: This is the third of three articles on local filmmakers in the 31st Mill Valley Film Festival, continuing through Oct. 12.]

topics: bay area, documentary, festivals, horror, independent film

Q&A

MVFF: Marilyn Mulford and Quique Cruz excavate Chile's dark past

By Michael Fox

Claudio Cruz was a teenager in Chile and a rising musician when the military deposed Salvador Allende in 1973. Shortly after Augusto Pinochet moved into the top job, Claudio was arrested, tortured and bounced for the next year from one detention camp to another. He was then deported, rather than disappeared, eventually migrating to Northern California and adopting a new name, Quique, and creating a new life. But his scars never fully healed. The end of the dictatorship, and Pinochet’s arrest, inspired Cruz to embark on the ambitious Archaeology of Memory: Villa Grimaldi, consisting of a musical suite, a book and a documentary. Veteran Bay Area filmmaker Marilyn Mulford (Chicano Park, Freedom on my Mind) collaborated with Cruz on the documentary, which has its U.S. premiere in the Mill Valley Film Festival in a pair of shows (one passed already, but one is upcoming, on Sunday, Oct. 12). Pensive, humanistic and ultimately inspiring, Archaeology of Memory uses Cruz’s quietly insistent acoustic songs, typically performed by an ensemble, as its heartbeat.

[SF360.org editor’s note: This is the second of three articles on local filmmakers in the 31st Mill Valley Film Festival, continuing through Oct. 12.]

topics: bay area, digital filmmaking, directors, documentary, music, political film, south american film

Avoiding Disaster

Notes on digital distribution

By George Rush

November 1997—“Dear Mr. Rush, we regret to inform you that your film The Milkman has not been accepted to the Sundance Film Festival.” This had to be a mistake. I had just toiled for two years making a low budget feature narrative about a recent college grad who moves back home to San Francisco and tries to figure out what to do with his life (shockingly, that’s a pretty good description of myself in 1997). I even have a cameo, with the poetic line, “Man, that’s a lot of beer.” I actually called Sundance to inform them of their mistake, but they were resolute in their denial. The film was made for $16,000.00 and I remember almost crying when I told my investors (family and friends) that we were rejected. This conversation happened about 20 more times as festival after festival rejected the tour de force known as The Milkman. Even our own local festival in San Francisco said no. I pleaded with a programmer—"I’m from here, this is about San Franciscans, why would you show Truffaut over me?" The programmer politely told me that San Francisco residence or subject matter was not a factor in choosing films—it was quality. The final blow came when I showed the film to my family and the average anonymous score on a scale from one to ten was two. I was crushed.

[SF360.org editor’s note: This is the first edition of George Rush’s new column in our Indie Toolkit, a legal column for independent filmmakers.]

topics: bay area, documentary, features, filmmakers, independent film, legal issues

Insider

San Francisco Film Society's French Cinema Now

By Max Goldberg

The French still fare pretty well as far as American foreign film distribution goes, but with the whole business model in such disarray, one wonders how much longer the big-screen soirée can go on. When American directors like David Lynch, Abel Ferrara and Gus Van Sant have to go to France for funding, how much longer can we expect theatrical distribution for top-shelf auteurs like Olivier Assayas and Claire Denis? Since being a cinephile is, in many cases, the same thing as being a Francophile, it’s good news that the San Francisco Film Society has added a Gallic counterpart to its long-running New Italian Cinema series. The inaugural French Cinema Now features a couple of obvious ringers—an early look at Laurent Cantet’s Palme d’Or-winner The Class and a visit from director Arnaud Desplechin—but part of the charm of a short series like this is that we’re more likely to alight on something unexpected when we don’t have to tote around a telephone book’s worth of programs. [SF360.org editor’s note: SFFS is the publisher of SF360.org and is the presenter of French Cinema Now in association with the French-American Cultural Society and the French Consulate of San Francisco.]

topics: bay area, film festivals, french cinema, san francisco film society