The Film Panel Notetaker

One-on-One Q and A with Kimberly Reed – Director, “Prodigal Sons”
Interview by Brian Geldin
Opens February 26 at Cinema Village in New York via First Run Features

“Prodigal Sons” is a compelling family portrait and personal documentary told from the point of view of its director, Kimberly Reed, a transgendered woman who works as magazine editor in [...]

[Read more →]

This Saturday at 8pm, UnionDocs will present Inductive Thread, a shorts program panel discussion as part of MoMA’s Documentary Fortnight.

Produced by the Brooklyn nonprofit UnionDocs, this two-part program combines short works that engage multiple subjects and diverse aesthetic approaches to documentary arts. The first part touches on the history of the organization, its rotating body [...]

[Read more →]

I am so excited to be returning to Woodstock, New York, this weekend, not for the Woodstock Film Festival, but rather for the Woodstock Writers Festival, a “Celebration of the Memoir.” The festival will include workshops, fetes, readings, panels, moveable feasts and more with many of today’s best-selling authors including Ruth Reichl, Susan Orlean, Julie [...]

[Read more →]

“The Cove”
Q&A with Louie Psihoyos and Fisher Stevens
Stranger Than Fiction
February 8, 2010 (Notes by Brian Geldin)
IFC Center
New York, NY

(L to R: Thom Powers, Louie Psihoyas & Fisher Stevens. Photo by Brian Geldin)
Stranger Than Fiction continued its string of screenings this season of 2010 Academy-Award nominated documentaries Monday night with “The Cove.” (STF recently screened Oscar [...]

[Read more →]

Union Docs
Documentary Distribution and Access
February 7, 2010
Brooklyn, NY
Guest Blogger: Colin Beckett

“It is like running a treadmill and never going fast enough,” filmmaker Ashley Sabin said of her efforts to bring her low-budget documentary to audiences at Union Docs’ February 7th panel, Documentary Distribution and Access.

With two moderators and seven guests, there are a [...]

[Read more →]

A Night with Ross McElwee
“Charleen” and “Backyard”
Stranger Than Fiction
February 2, 2010 (Notes by Brian Geldin)
IFC Center
New York, NY

Ross McElwee, perhaps most noted for his films “Sherman’s March,” “Time Indefinite,” and “Bright Leaves” presented two lesser-seen gems Tuesday night during Stranger Than Fiction – “Charleen” (starring the outspoken Southern poetry teacher Charleen who later appears again [...]

[Read more →]