The Film Panel Notetaker

A Day of Docs at the Montclair Film Festival
First Position, Unraveled & Évocateur: The Morton Downey Jr. Movie
Notes from the Discussions by Brian Geldin

Montclair, New Jersey, is a town in which I fondly spent some time working for a public relations firm a few years back. On Saturday, I returned to the happy hamlet to [...]

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Next month, fellow notetaker Rebecca Banach and I will be coming to Austin for this year’s SXSW Film Festival. We will be arriving on Friday, March 9th, and leaving on Wednesday evening, March 14th. We are currently searching for accommodations, and would prefer a location that’s within three miles of Austin Convention Center [...]

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By Liz Nord | Twitter @lizfilm
The documentary community was out in full force at last night’s Cinema Eye Honors for Nonfiction Filmmaking : from rising stars like Kristi Jacobson, who is heading to Sundance with her film Finding North next week; to household names like Michael Moore; to doc pioneers who’ve inspired us all like [...]

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Hard to believe 2011 is almost over already. It’s been another great year of notes from film panels and filmmaker Q&As, but I have to give most of the credit to my contributing notetakers Erin Scherer, Liz Nord, Erin Essenmacher, and Rebecca Banach, all of whom have an incredible knack for transforming source discussion into compelling summations and analysis. We also had the great privilege to be chosen by The Christian Science Monitor as a blog partners in its Culture Cafe.

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By Liz Nord | Twitter @lizfilm
“What the f*ck is up with Netflix?”
DOC NYC’s State of Digital panel started out with a bang as moderator Brian Newman of Sub-Genre Media bluntly asked his esteemed panelists about Netflix’s fate. Though panelist Matt Dentler of FilmBuff assured him that “Netflix will be fine,” the inquiry set the tone [...]

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The Crowdstarter Revolution: How to Build an Audience
Master class presentation at IFP’s Independent Film Week on 9/21/11
Notes by Erin Essenmacher

“Get Over Yourself.”
That’s how Paola Freccero from Crowdstarter opened her Master Class presentation on how to build an audience at this year’s IFP Independent Film Week filmmaker conference.

“I’m going to be coming back to that [...]

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Notes from Donor Unknown Q&A
AFI/Discovery Channel Silverdocs
Silver Spring, Marlyand
June 21, 2011
Notes by Erin Essenmacher
Also appearing on Christian Science Monitor’s Culture Cafe on June 30, 2011.
UK-based Met Film’s enchanting documentary “Men Who Swim” — about a group of Swedish guys who face down a mid-life crisis by forming a synchronizing swimming team — made a splash [...]

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Notes from A Crude Awakening Panel
AFI/Discovery Channel Silverdocs
Silver Spring, Maryland
June 21, 2011
Notes by Erin Essenmacher
Filmmaker Joe Berlinger spent three years travelling between the US and Ecuador following a lawsuit between Chevron and a group of 30,000 indigenous and colonial rainforest dwellers that claim the oil giant poisoned their land and ruined their way of life.  The [...]

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Discussion with Director Julie Taymor from 360/365
Rochester, NY
4/30/2011
Notes by Rebecca Banach
Director Julie Taymor has never followed the rules. In a discussion held at Rochester’s annual 360/365 film festival moderated by local film critic Jack Garner, Taymor said she “always jumped off the cliff instead of just standing on the cliff.” Her latest film, William Shakespeare’s [...]

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It’s with great honor that I announce that The Film Panel Notetaker, the first blog of its kind to focus solely on film panel discussions and filmmaker Q&as, has been chosen by Pulitzer-Prize winning news organization The Christian Science Monitor as one of its blog partners in its new Culture Café launching May 23.
A few [...]

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