OK, here we go… Now, I am one of those people — the self-indulgent blogospheres types.  But in my defense, I am heeding the suggestion of much wiser and knowledgeable individuals who have advised that I mark the launch of my re-vamped website by blogging about it and some interesting recent experiences I have had.

Don’t worry.  I do have some parameters for cyberspace “blah blah”, including that it must have educational subject matter.

Being a process-oriented girl, subjects will range from the documentary filmmaking journey — challenges, discoveries and opportunities — as well as information I consider beneficial to the documentary community as a whole.

In a perfect transition, I will tell you about last month’s History Makers 2010 conference, which I attended in NYC. The event’s purpose is to bring new ideas and trends that inspire broadcast history programs and their creators from all over.  Attendees included international representatives such as the History Channel, WNET, Storyville (Britain), and ZDF (Germany). The conference was small enough allowing filmmakers to meet key commissioning editors and producers from around the world.  Learn more about the event at http://www.historymakers2010.com/about.history.makers.php

I was there to soft pitch my new project about Raquel Lieberman, a woman who was enslaved by the Jewish white slave trade in South America. More about this project later!

The conference opened with a keynote address about the collaborative relationship between director and author.  The speaker, Daniel Goldhagen, talked about how his book Worse Than War was made into a documentary film with him as the main character (http://goldhagen.com/worse-than-war-the-film). He underlined the productive tension that existed between him and the director, Mike DeWitt.  At times, it was difficult for him to understand the choices made in support of the visual material. He struggled with the director’s POV of “what would make a better film” rather than following the chronology and space of his analytical process outlined in the book. He had to develop patience to allow interviewees to build trust and share their personal stories, an extremely important point when looking to win perpetrators’ trust. On the other hand, the director had to let Mr. Goldhagen be himself to develop a character that was “real” and “believable”.  Back in October, I saw a screening of the film sponsored by Jewish World Watch at Valley Beit Shalom in Los Angeles and was moved by its ability to humanize genocidal perpetrators. The film will be broadcasted later this year on PBS.

During a forum called, From the Broadcasters, there was a discussion regarding the death of the one-hour form — the search is on for serialization (10x series) and the creation of network events for broadcasters to wrap advertising around.  This has been the case with ZDF’s show The Boys of Berlin, a series starting at the end of the WWII and the years following the division of Germany.   The Boys of Berlin was showcased as an example of using historical events as the original source to create fictionalized series.  Ratings soared in Germany.

At the panel, Investigating Jewish History, difference of opinions arouse when David Grubin opened the panel stating that much has changed since Jews today have confidence to explore aspects of their experience, which they didn’t have before. Ben Loeterman from The People Vs. Leo Frank disagreed.  While making the film, he encountered much resistance from the Jewish world about raising issues that would show Jewish people in a questionable light. Gaylen Ross director of Killing Kasztner, talked about controversy arising from her film, which is about a Hungarian Jew that saved Jews by doing business with the Nazis during WWII. The film tries to address the mythology of the Holocaust and the creation of the state of Israel. These topics hit a raw nerve in the Jewish psyche.

The Experiencing History panel made the point that through human events you can bring in people into the history. Three areas are important in the crossover of history plus science — people, events and things. “Things” allow viewers to connect with the everyday life, like the show Victorian Farm, where experts on the time period experience life as it was in Victorian times.

The master class Apocalypse: The Second WW in HD was a discussion on the new uses of archival footage, including colorization. The archivists in the audience were commenting on the importance of HD as an archival format. The colorization process is long and complex. It takes three working days to colorize one minute of footage.  Colors have to be the original colors of the time and place. What really strikes the viewer is how up close and personal the war feels, more than ever before. Shots of civilian and soldier faces, brings war closer, makes it more personal, and sweeps the viewer into the story.  As wonderful as it was seeing archival footage with this new light, I wonder where all this footage was hiding before.  Concealed in the Soviet Union?  And, how much did it cost to bring it light? A lot! Also, can an independent producer tap into it? No! This type of technical proficiency and expertise is only accessible for very high budget productions… I guess I can dream.

Another wonderful master class was with master filmmaker David Grubin on his new PBS documentary, The Buddha. He chose to tell the archetypal story by having wise people recount it, acting as interpreters of the legend.   They describe the Buddha in historical context and as a real person. What needed to be accomplished on the first five minutes of the film was to describe the Buddha’s main principles — I suffer — and the dilemma of how to deal with this suffering.  As in any film, the exposition is the hardest thing to accomplish. Grubin chose to tell the story of the concepts — of self, transformation impermanence, and connectedness  — by using animation and integrating it into the film. The animation is fluid and has the touch of a human hand.  The key element to it succeeding was to give the animation integrity with a world of its own. The filmmaker didn’t want to use animation as wallpaper, so he chose to use a separate voice for the narration that accompanies the live action portions.

All an all, the conference was a great learning experience that may lead to some good connections. The quality of the classes, as well as the chance to mingle and network with executives that are usually inaccessible, was awesome.

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