Each June, the American Film Institute convenes the Silverdocs Film Festival (they like to spell it in all caps, SILVERDOCS) in the Washington, DC suburbs. The festival, presented in partnership with the Discovery Channel, is actually a full-blown documentary conference, and it gives out sizable cash prizes to the winners of its awards. Cinematical missed the fest this year (though we did manage to notice their interesting choice to honor Spike Lee), but we figured we'd tell you about the results.

The grand prize for a US feature -- a handsome ten grand plus a lot of expensive film stock from Kodak -- went to Scott Hamilton Kennedy (2002's OT: Our Town) for The Garden. The movie told the story of the South Central Farm -- a 14-acre community garden that sprung up at the site of the 1992 LA Riots. Kennedy chronicles the farmers' battle with landlords, the city of Los Angeles, and the courts.

Perusing my rss feed today, I came across an interesting scanned article over at Jennifer Venditti's Billy the Kid blog. First, if you've been lurking around Cinematical Indie, it's no surprise that I love Venditti's feature documentary debut. I reviewed the film from Hot Docs, have mentioned Venditti in a few posts, and had a chat with her about her take on indie film. Now she's got a Filmmaker Magazine article up, which was written by Arne Johnson the co-helmer of another favorite 2007 Hot Docs film, Girls Rock!

In the piece, Johnson tackles the extreme pressures documentary filmmakers face when it comes to the troubles of truth. He cites his own struggles with the kick-ass tykes in Rock!, Heidi Ewing and Rachel Grady's challenges with Jesus Camp, and Venditti's struggles with Billy criticism -- focusing on the Variety review I posted about in May. It hits a lot of bases, from the need to edit quotes in interviews, or be faced with a terrible-in-text sea of "ums" and awkwardness, to the discussion of whether documentarians taint their source material, or just present a truth that some viewers aren't appreciative of.

Johnson includes a quote from Judy Irving about subjectivity that I found particularly interesting: "When someone throws that at you, like that your film does not have journalistic integrity, or it's not objective, what they're really saying is "I don't agree with you. My subjectivity is different from your subjectivity and I wish you had portrayed what I feel about the subject rather than what you feel." It's a worthy thought -- complaints always come from those who disagree, so do those who agree turn a blind eye to subjectivity, or think that a film covers the bases? And overall, what do you think of this whole argument over truth, subjectivity, and documentary filmmaking?

It should be a green-tie affair at the opening night gala of this year's Tribeca Film Festival. The event, happening April 25, will be hosted by Al Gore and is set to feature some entertainment that will focus on the global warming issue. This entertainment is part of a partnership with the SOS (Save Our Selves) Campaign, which raises climate crisis awareness and will include live performances from some of the artists participating in SOS' Live Earth concert series happening on July 7. The acts set for the gala weren't revealed, but some of those involved with the Live Earth shows include Red Hot Chili Peppers, John Mayer, John Legend, Black Eyed Peas, Korn and Melissa Etheridge, who recently won an Oscar for the song she wrote for the Gore-featured documentary An Inconvenient Truth.

Also, the night will include the premiere of seven short films, each of which deals with the problems and the solutions of the crisis and each of which is shorter than ten minutes. The directors and titles of these shorts were not yet revealed either, because the seven showcased films have not been chosen yet. They will be selected by the festival's planners from the 60 shorts that were commissioned by SOS. Some of the filmmakers who participated include Jonathan Glazer, Kevin Macdonald, Abel Ferrara, Amy Berg, Ari Sandel, the doc duo Heidi Ewing and Rachel Grady and someone from Aardman Animation (Peter Lord? Nick Park?). It isn't completely made clear, but it seems that all 60 of the commissioned films will be shown during the Live Earth event. So, if you can't make it to New York City for the world premiere of the seven shorts, you can see at least those if not all of them at one of the concerts (so far the only locations announced are Shanghai, Sydney, London and Johannesburg, while the cities in the U.S., Brazil, Japan and Antarctica are TBA). I probably won't be able to attend the gala or one of the concerts, so hopefully there will be another place for me to see the films. After all, this is the best news for shorts fans since Cannes' announced its own opening night compilation.

Brokeback Mountain -- Last year's controversially Oscar-snubbed romance drama earns itself a brand-new 2-disc special edition. Word is that this re-release contains only a trio of new featurettes, so don't be so quick to give in to that double-dip sensation. On the positive side, this edition DOES come with eight Brokeback Mountain postcards ... for that special someone.

The Guardian -- Kevin Costner and Ashton Kutcher star in a water-logged remake of An Officer and a Gentleman ... or any other military drama of the past 25 years in which a brash and headstrong recruit butts heads with a grizzled old veteran only to rely on the old guy's help when his lack of experience does indeed catch up with him, (Insert yawn here.) Extras include a director's commentary from Andrew Davis, a few deleted scenes, an alternate ending, and a pair of featurettes, one on the production and another focusing on the Coast Guard.

Jesus Camp -- Some people called it a stick in the eye to religion; others called it an impressively objective look at religious zealotry. I call it a pretty fascinating documentary either way. This eye-opening look at one particular religious camp may warm your heart or it could chill your blood, but it's a pretty compelling look at a section of people I don't normally come across, and that's generally a worthwhile way to spend 90-some minutes. Extras include a filmmaker commentary and some deleted scenes.

So, you've probably heard about a little movie called Jesus Camp. It's possible we've even mentioned it once or twice here at Cinematical. It seems there was some controversy surrounding it due to its, shall we say, less-than-flattering portrayal of Christians at a camp where they educate the next generation to go out and convert the masses for the Lord. Sure, you could make the argument that the people portrayed in this film come off rather poorly. In fact, as many people have said around the internets (including our very own James Rocchi), Jesus Camp is the best horror film they've seen all year.

This week on Coming Distractions, a special podcast -- an interview with Rachel Grady and Heidi Ewing, co-directors of the controversial documentary Jesus Camp. Grady and Ewing spoke with Cinematical from New York, where they're currently prepping the Jesus Camp DVD -- and talked about how odd it can be when a marginal figure in your film becomes front-page news, as well as the reactions their subjects had to the finished film, and much much more. You can download the entire podcast here.


Related Stories:

Review, Jesus Camp
Netscape Video: More Jesus Camp Controversy

The controversy just won't stop swirling around documentary Jesus Camp, about children attending an Evangelical Christian camp. Just last week, we reported that Pastor Becky Fisher, who ran the Kids on Fire Christian Camp featured in the film, had shut the camp down after attacks of vandalism in the wake of the film's release. Yesterday came the more shocking news that Pastor Ted Haggard, president of the 30,000,000 strong National Association of Evangelicals, had placed himself on administrative leave from his church and stepped down from his position as president of the Association, in the aftermath of a stories on Denver talk radio and in the Denver Post that alleged the good pastor -- who has openly spoken out against homosexuals -- had been caught buying meth from a gay escort.

Haggard, who had recently attempted to distance himself from Jesus Camp (see the filmmakers' response to Haggard), at first vehemently denied the accusations made by Mike Jones of Denver in interviews on Denver talk radio and to the Denver post that he had had monthly sex with Haggard, who is married with five children, over a course of three years, and that Haggard used meth during their encounters. Just yesterday, Haggard's coworkers at his New Life Church were supporting him and declaring Jones' accusations to be patently untrue. Today, though, Haggard admitted to reporters that he had contacted Jones about purchasing meth, and that it is, in fact, his voice on the voice mail tapes that Jones had produced as evidence, but denied using the meth (see video of Haggard admitting to some of the allegations).

An email sent out by acting pastor of New Life Ross Parsley, printed in the Denver Post today, said in part, "the board of overseers has met with Pastor Ted. It is important for you to know that he confessed to the overseers that some of the accusations against him are true."

More Jesus Camp:

Netscape Video: More Jesus Camp Controversy
Evangelical Camp Featured in Jesus Camp Shuts Down
Jesus Camp Not Pulled from Moorefest
Michael Moore Won't Taint Jesus Camp

[via Movie City Indie ]

The owner of Evangelical Christian camp Kids On Fire, which was featured in the Heidi Ewing and Rachel Grady documentary Jesus Camp, has announced the camp is closing its doors. The Christian Post spoke with camp owner Pastor Becky Fischer about the closing, and the recent acts of vandalism directed at the church. Camp administrator Reverend Winston Titus blames the release of the film for directing hostility toward the Assemblies of God organization. "Right now, we just want it to be over, any publicity just stirs things up," Titus said.

One of the subjects of the film, Ted Haggard, has also made claims of manipulation in the way he and his church were represented -- you can read the filmmakers rebuttal to that charge here. Both Ewing and Grady made the decision to not include narration or commentary in the film to avoid putting a personal spin on the subject. This is the second film for Ewing and Grady -- their first, The Boys of Baraka (which made the Oscar short list for Best Doc last year), focused on a group of boys from the Baltimore slums who enrolled in a two-year program to attend a boarding school in Kenya. While wildly different in subject matter, both films shared a common vision of children in extreme circumstances.

Since I wasn't raised in a religious home, the force of Evangelical beliefs is a bit overwhelming, if not a little scary. While Jesus Camp confirmed a lot of my own fears about religious intolerance and zealotry, I felt the film never tried to push a particular point of view. If you've seen Jesus Camp, Cinematical readers, let us know what you think about it. Does it paint Evangelical Christians, and the camp itself, with an unbiased brush? And is the film to blame for the camp shutting down?

[via Movie Blog]

Related Stories:
More Jesus Camp Controversy
Jesus Camp NOT Pulled From Moore Fest
Michael Moore Won't Taint Jesus Camp
Jesus Camp: Grooming Kids to be Religious Fanatics?

The best horror film I've seen all year is a documentary. Directed by Heidi Ewing and Rachel Grady (The Boys of Baraka), Jesus Camp is about kids. They play. They talk. They love to sing and dance. And their parents want them to follow in the footsteps of the Lord. Nine-year old Rachael throws a bowling ball on an outing with her family and friends; then she crosses a few lanes and offers a Chick comic and some thoughts about God's love to an older woman at the alley. Ten-year-old Tori practices her leg-sweep dance moves to her favorite music, "Christian Heavy Metal Rock and Roll." Twelve-year-old Levi has rocker-kid hair and explains how "At 5, I got saved, because I just wanted more of life because there's just nothing that I thought was fun, that I thought was satisfying. ..."

There's no narration over Jesus Camp -- just the voices of Rachael and Levi and Tori, or people like Pentecostal children's minister Becky Fischer, or syndicated Christian talk radio host Mike Papantonio or Tori's mom, who says "Our kids are on loan to us from God, and someday we're going to have to answer to God about how we raised our children."

Jesus Camp, a documentary about kids attending evangelical Christian camps made by filmmakers Heidi Ewing and Rachel Grady (Boys of Baraka), has already weathered one controversy about whether or not it would play at Michael Moore's Moorefest. As we reported in July, Magnolia Pictures acquired the film and wanted to pull it from Moore's festival, fearing that screening it there would mark the film as a Liberal touchstone, but Moorefest denied the request to pull the film and showed it anyhow.

Now another controversy is brewing around the film: It's not playing to the evangelical market the way Magnolia had hoped. In this video, Netscape's Karina Longworth interviews the film's directors, explores the film and why evangelicals might be turning away from it. You can watch the film right here, or download it over on Netscape.