We’re counting down the top documentary news of 2011 on New Year’s Eve!
The Ford Foundation launched a $50 million multi-year fund for social-justice documentaries in early 2011, and announced as its initial partners Sundance Institute, ITVS and the Tribeca Film Institute.
For the Tribeca Film Institute, Ford pledged about $1 million a year over five years to fund projects that integrate film with new media, “from video games and mobile apps to social networks and micro-blogging.”
Winners of the inaugural Tribeca Film Institute New Media Fund grants (totaling $400,000) included 18 Days in Egypt, the crowd-sourced documentary about the Egyptian revolution, The Interrupters, which will use the grant to build digital shrines to victims of violence, and Map Your World, a project inspired by the documentary The Revolutionary Optimists that aims to share health-related data to improve quality of life.
(P.S. If you want to see how the web is increasing the impact of social-issue documentaries, might we suggest checking out POV’s 2011 season film companion sites and subscribing to the POV Films blog?)
The 2011 Documentary Year in Review Countdown…
#12: Online payments
Ford Foundation Funds Webified Documentaries
#11: Off-camera confrontation
Michael Moore Sues the Weinsteins over ‘Fahrenheit 9/11’ Accounting
#10: A film by you
‘Life In A Day,’ a Documentary Culled from 80,000 Filmmakers, Premieres Online
#9: Cameraless documentary
‘Senna’ Breaks U.K. Box-Office Records
#8: Mobile device legend
Cinéma Vérité Pioneer Richard “Ricky” Leacock Dies
#7: Good karma
‘My Reincarnation’ Breaks Records on Kickstarter
#6: Seeing is beliebing
3-D Documentaries Hit Theaters
#5: Risks become real
War Documentarian Tim Hetherington (‘Restrepo’) Killed in Action
#4: No flash in the pan
Popcorn.js Brings HTML5 and Interactivity to Documentaries
#3: Mystery man
What if Banksy Wins an Oscar?
#2: Web threats
The Stop Online Privacy Act Catches the Web Off Guard
#1: Freedom fighters
The West Memphis 3, Subjects of the ‘Paradise Lost’ Documentary Series, Are Set Free
