If you are interested in making a documentary, you are probably wondering how you are going to fund it. Creating a documentary can be a life-changing experience because it can allow you to learn more about something that interests you and share it with the world. Therefore, it is important for you to find the funding that you need in order to make your documentary made.

Although a lot of people give up on their dreams of creating documentaries because they don’t think that they Read the rest of this entry »

If you get all your television and movies through places like www.directstartv.com then it’s a safe bet you saw Super Size Me when it was making the rounds on the documentary circuit. To sum it up, a man who really had quite a healthy lifestyle and diet decided he would live off of nothing but McDonalds to see how it would change his health. The real twist to this seemingly boring challenge, however, is that he would have to accept if they offered to super size his meal.

Aside from seeing a grown man become very ill within the short time of less than a week, the movie showed us how incredibly belligerent and unhealthy the fast food industry had made us. The addictive quality of fast food and McDonalds’s willingness to heap more and more unhealthy food onto a person spurred a wave of controversy and now, not only is super sizing no longer on the menu, but the franchise was forced to radically alter their menu to include healthy options – especially if they wanted to stay in business. However, one must ask themselves when they look at this argument – who was the movie more of an indictment of? McDonalds or maybe the culture that demanded them?

For American film-making the year 1939 stands out. Included in the vast roster of films made that year is the documentary on African American singer Marion Anderson. The Daughters of the American Revolution would not allow Ms.Anderson to perform a concert in Constitution Hall. However, on April 9, 1939 civil rights organizers arranged a special concert at the Lincoln Memorial. This event was filmed and used in a documentary film. The story of making that documentary is Read the rest of this entry »

Documentary film making probably began as the “newsreel.”

Early in the century, without television and limited radio news broadcast, the newsreel was the only source of visual news available to the public. With film crews set up all over the world, newsreel crews made documentaries about the wars, public officials, world leaders and celebrities.

Reporting facts and news quickly was the beginning of the documentary as we know it. As television and movies evolved, the documentary took on other roles. Documentaries began exploring famous people’s lives and history. They also began, at times, to take on roles of political Read the rest of this entry »

2010 saw a great variety of films. Film Festivals world-wide brought hordes of cinema enthusiast out for glimpses of theatrical history. Documentaries are always a favorite genre, so here we take a look at the winners from the 2010 Sundance Film Festival.

Restrepo – Grand Jury Prize. The film’s makers follow a group of soldiers as they are deployed into war-torn Afghanistan. Upon arrival they lose a friend and essentual team mate when their medic ‘Doc’ Restrepo Read the rest of this entry »

If seeking out documentary film festivals, the United States is definitely the place to be. These film festivals focus on the new and innovative, and work to recognized the brightest newcomers to the field. The Chicago International Documentary Film Festival is one such festival. This fest runs for over 10 days in the city of Chicago. This festival seeks out new filmmakers and their innovative ideas. Awards are granted to the winners in the form of up to 50,000 cash.

Another good film festival for the beginning film maker is the Big Sky Documentary Film Festival that take Read the rest of this entry »