The Film Panel Notetaker

Detropia, When Bubbles Burst and Searching for Sugarman
AFI Discovery Channel Silverdocs
June 22, 2012
Silver Spring, Maryland
Notes by Erin Essenmacher

One of the magical things for me about art in general, and documentary film in particular, is the ability to make connections, to reveal patterns in seemingly disparate parts of life.

I was struck again by this when I [...]

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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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Notes from The Master Class on Directing with Rachel Grady and Heidi Ewing
AFI/Discovery Channel Silverdocs
Silver Spring, Maryland
June 25, 2011
Notes by Erin Essenmacher
*Read also on Christian Science Monitor’s Culture Cafe.
Heidi Ewing and Rachel Grady are fierce. As Loki Films they have produced countless works for television and four feature length documentaries, with a fifth currently in production.  [...]

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12th & Delaware
Q&A with Co-Director Rachel Grady
Stranger Than Fiction
November 16, 2010
IFC Center
New York, NY
Notes by Brian Geldin
For those of The Film Panel Notetaker’s loyal followers who’ve been pining for some more notes from film discussions, my apologies for the long wait. The past two months have been extremely busy for me, but in the best [...]

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Freakonomics Q&A at Silverdocs
June 21, 2010
By Erin Essenmacher
The 8th annual AFI-Discovery Channel Silverdocs Documentary Film Festival & Conference opened in Silver Spring, Maryland on Monday evening with a special screening of the film Freakonomics, based on Steven Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner’s bestselling book, Freakonomics: A Rogue Economist Exposes the Hidden Side of Everything. The film features [...]

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Documentaries: Then and NowOctober 4th, 2009, @ 10amUtopia Studios, Bearsville, New York

L-R: Rachel Grady, Molly Thompson, Barbara Kopple, Leon Gast, and Emily KunstlerNot Pictured: AJ Schnack
Moderator:Molly Thompson, VP, A&E IndieFilms
Panelists:AJ Schnack, Director, ConventionRachel Grady, Director, Jesus CampBarbara Kopple, Director, Woodstock: Now and ThenLeon Gast, Director, When We Were KingsEmily Kunstler, Director, William Kunstler: Disturbing the [...]

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