May 31, 2016 | POV’s daily list of essential reading for the documentary and independent filmmaking community.
LA Film Festival 2016: The Documentary Competition Heats UP
Documentaries get their fair share of accolades at film festivals, and this year’s LA Film Festival is launching a strong selection for its 21st year anniversary. Here are five documentaries worth noting that are having their world premieres at the festival.
Read more | Blasting News »
Cinema as Therapy: 7 Films For Mental Health Month
There’s only a day left in May, but it’s never too late to recognize Mental Health Month. If you liked POV’s Of Men and War about the veterans who suffer from PTSD, you will appreciate these 7 films that tell stories of mental illness.
Read more | Sundance »
Hustwit, Porter and Curry on going the Scenic VR route
This past April, director Gary Hustwit co-founded a new VR content studio, Scenic, with the hope of bringing more doc makers to engage with the medium. With a stable of acclaimed doc makers, including Jessica Edwards, Marshall Curry and Dawn Porter, the studio is setting out to fund and produce VR doc shorts and series, with plans to release 40 films in the first year. Find out what the studio has been up to since its launch.
Read more | Realscreen »
Katie Couric gun control film entangled in #Gungate and a question of ethics
When news anchor Katie Couric debuted her documentary Under the Gun earlier this month, she billed it as a balanced look at the gun control debate. Just two weeks later, Couric and director Stephanie Soechtig are under pressure over what many observers are calling deceptive editing of a key moment in their film. See what the controversy is about and how this case contributes to the discussion in the documentary filmmaking community.
Read more | The Guardian »
BuzzFeed’s Another Round podcast is partnering with a social audio app to let listeners submit their stories
BuzzFeed’s popular podcast ‘Another Round’ regularly solicits contributions from its listernship, and it’s about to get easier to submit stories. Another Round is partnering with Rolltape, a recently launched social audio app, which will allow a listener to record stories directly into the app. The app also has an asynchronous audio messaging app that allows listeners to interact with one another.
Read more | Nieman Lab »
Upcoming festivals and deadlines
This Week
- Rolling Applications: ITVS LINCS Fund 6/1
- Rolling Deadline: Center for Independent Documentary Collaboration Application 6/1
- Rolling Deadline: Ford Foundation Grants 6/1
- Rolling Deadline: ITVS Commissioned Funding 6/1
- Rolling Deadline: Japanese Foundation New York Grant for Arts and Culture 6/1
- Rolling Deadline: Jerome: NYC Film and Video Grant Program 6/1
- Rolling Deadline: The Bertha BRITDOC Documentary Journalism Fund 6/1
- Rolling Deadline: The Humane Society’s Ace Documentary Film Grant 6/1
- Rolling Deadline: The Scottish Documentary Institute Consultancies 6/1
- Encounters South African International Documentary Festival 6/2-6/12
- Deadline: Late Submission for DOC NYC 6/3
Next Week
- Early Deadline: IDA Documentary Awards 6/7
- Deadline: NEH Digital Projects for the Public 6/8
- Sheffield Doc/Fest: Sheffield International Documentary Festival 6/10-6/15
Get more documentary film news and features: Subscribe to POV’s documentary blog, like POV on Facebook or follow us on Twitter @povdocs!
