Fourdocs » films found on the web

Holly Ross’ film and pop video – button cute!

Rebecca Frankel — Tue, 09 Dec 2008 16:07:26 +0000

Holly Ross is the director of A Anderton Presenting, which was one of the winners of the My Family and Other Animals theme that aired on Channel 4 earlier this year. I asked her about herself, and this is what she sent me. [Make sure you check out her v cute pop video I Like Birds But I Like Other Animals Too.]

I am a film maker from Lancaster, which is a little historical city in the north west of England. At the moment I work as a producer/director for ITV Border in Carlisle making regional programmes for them but what I enjoy most is thinking of ideas for short films that I can film in my spare time and then making them!

I really really love making documentaries. What I love about documentaries is finding passionate and interesting people with amazing stories and putting their story and perspective on life ‘down to tape’. There are a lot of people in the world who are worth recording and in my work I hope to open up the door to these people’s lives and let viewers stand on the door mat agog! For me, it’s all about finding great people with spectacular stories, or filming the mundane in a spectacular way. Someone once said I was like the ‘Diane Arbus’ of television. I went red at that cos I really really like Diane Arbus.

I also write and play music too. I am in a band called The Lovely Eggs. We have a record out at the moment called ‘I Like Birds But I Like Other Animals Too’ on Filthy Little Angels Records, and we have played in some nice places like in Amsterdam and New York and on a steam train. I sing and play guitar and sometimes I write the music for the documentaries I make. I am going to America soon for 5 weeks and I am driving all the way down Route 66. I hope to make a film about it. I hope to makes films about lots of other things. I have too many ideas and not enough time. I am hoping my film being shown on 3MW might open a few doors for me that I might want to walk through because I am passionate about this and really want to make it as a film maker. xx

New guest editor to review films on fourdocs – starting today.

Rebecca Frankel — Thu, 09 Oct 2008 12:25:43 +0000

So the big developments for FourDocs this week are….

A NEW GUEST EDITOR TO REVIEW FILMS
Lee Kern has come on board as a guest editor. He’ s a filmmaker and cultural commentator. Last week he showed me what he thought of high concept art with sneaky hand gestures, in a way that was both performative and informative. Hopefully his reviews will do the same.

NEW FOURDOCS FILMS GOING UP ON THE SITE
Starting today, I am going to post one of the shortlisted my home town films everyday.

ONLINE DEBATING ABOUT WHICH FILMS ARE BEST, AND SHOULD BE PICKED TO GO OUT ON CHANNEL 4
Lee will be fierce and he will be funny in his critique of each, but please do feel free to disagree with what he says by leaving comments about what you think. He’s used to people taking issue with him, and actually quite likes sparring about what makes a good film.

ALSO, BURSARIES CLOSING THIS SUNDAY
The first round of FourDocs bursary applications are open until this Sunday. Remember, we are going to give 3 lots of £1000 away as completion funding for docs you want to send to festivals.

Watch inspired music docs – totally AMAZING!

Rebecca Frankel — Tue, 07 Oct 2008 11:29:26 +0000

One of my highlights at Britdoc was watching the music short docs that were commissioned for a special 3 Minute Wonder strand. Music tracks were offered up and filmmakers had to pitch the documentary the music was inspiring them to make.

The winners were some of my favourite auteur documentary filmmakers, such as James Lees (who won best short at Sundance this year for The Apology Line), Pinny Grylls (Peter and Ben) and Christopher Allen (of the Light Surgeons). He’s done some really exciting site specific film projects at art galleries music festivals.

For me all 4 are perfect examples of tightly bound films that exhibit flow and mood (like music) rather than text and information plowing across the screen.

You can watch all 4 films:

Hearing a Song, Seeing a Smile – Pinny Grylls (music by Jonny Greenwood)

Pockets – James Lees (music by Saint Etienne)

Home – Christopher Thomas Allen and Robert Rainbow (music by Michael Nyman)

King of Laughter – Nick Hillel (music by Nitin Sawhney)

How To Break Up – is this a documentary??

Rebecca Frankel — Mon, 11 Aug 2008 14:23:10 +0000

How To Break Up is a pretty hilarious 3 min cartoon I found on YouTube. It’s made by Lev Yilmaz, from San Francisco. Watch it now then read on.

At first glance it’s a generalisation of human behaviour that isn’t factual. It’s a particularly funny fictional account of mister average, so it strikes a cord at points in its circular story with most of us. However, you know where this stuff comes from – the painful personal experiences of the scribe. I’m going to suggest that How To Break Up therefore inverses a major rule of documentary – you know the one about how you’re meant to take the particular experience you’re filming and imply its universal ramifications. What do you think – could this lo-fi cartoon be considered a type of personal documentary, or possibly as lying within the fast sinking sand between fact and fiction?

FourDocs connect 4

Rebecca Frankel — Fri, 11 Jul 2008 17:48:22 +0000

FourDocs crosses under and betwixt all the possible outposts for documentaries on this island and beyond. Indeed, searching out the right space for individual films to flourish is something we’re going to do a lot more of this year. We’re a great place to start and send short films because we connect up with lots of varied players who fund and exhibit in different ways.

Famously FourDocs has direct links with broadcast slots through our relationship with 3 Minute Wonder. 2008 will see us screening 15 films on Channel 4 at prime time and commissioner Kate Vogel will be writing on this blog regularly about what rocks her boat and works for television TX’s. FourDocs has fantastical relationships with the two biggest documentary festivals in the country – BritDoc and Sheffield Doc Fest. Ex-editor of FourDocs (and sorely missed) Charlie Phillips is now in charge of the Market Place at Sheffield Doc Fest, where he courts all the international funders. He’ll pass on his wealth of knowledge about life, and pitching and getting longer documentaries films funded too, here in the blog.

Our exec-producer Patrick Uden will still be be reviewing film as harshly and honestly and helpfully as before, here in the blog. And, his friends at the Grierson Trust have decided to award a brand new prestigious annual prize to the best observational FourDoc (more on that later). And, as the new editor of FourDocs I’ll be on the look out for films on the web and in the wider world, and will be blogging about what i find that inspires and films we want to stream.