The Daily Background

The title is a bit of an exaggeration, but still. This is the story of how I probably (sadly) deserve more credit than Al Gore does for “helping make” one of the films nominated for Best Documentary Feature this year. Should I get credit? Of course not, but neither should Gore. I didn’t really help make any of the films, but neither did Gore.

Earlier today, being a documentary film student, I was a bit annoyed at people both bloggers and those in the press who were all talking about the prospect of Al Gore getting an Oscar, or Al Gore’s movie getting an Oscar.

Gore is eligible for no awards of course, and An Inconvenient Truth isn’t “his movie” any more than say, Fahrenheit 9/11 was George W Bush’s movie: they’re only the subjects of the films. Gore had nothing to do with the production of the film, or anything else: he just allowed himself to be filmed doing his slideshow, followed around, and interviewed. He didn’t have anything to do with making the film. Not that I have anything against Gore (I love him), but let’s be fair here.

In fact, yours truly probably has slightly more to do with the making of a film nominated for Best Documentary Feature this year than Gore did. Not that I deserve any actual credit for the actual production of one of the films nominated, but neither does Gore. Huh? Let me explain.

About two years ago, I saw an excellent documentary called Gaza Strip (IMDB), the first feature documentary by a filmmaker named James Longley. I liked it, and found his website- upon which I found some contact information for him. I emailed him to tell him how much I enjoyed it and, to my surprise, he emailed me back. We got into a discussion about the film he was working on at that time; he had just gotten back from Iraq where he had shot about 300 hundred hours of footage and was just settling down to craft it into a film.

He told me he had tentatively titled the film “Iraq in Fragments.”

Longley’s style is basically to take his camera to a place where something dramatic (like a war) is going on, and start shooting. He’ll stay there for months, just recording whatever happens in the everyday life of the area’s inhabitants. He ends up with mountains of footage- some of it garbage, some of it priceless, which he then whittles down into something watchable.

Anyways, so we got to talking and at one point James asked me if I was familiar with a particular post-production program and I gave him some (rather weak but sincere) advice. He then thanked me for the “logical advice” (a play on the name of the program- Logic 7).

Anyways, so I wake up this morning and I look at the list of nominees for the 79th Academy Awards, just released today. And sure enough, I see:

Best documentary feature

“Deliver Us from Evil” (Lionsgate)
A Disarming Films Production
Amy Berg and Frank Donner

“An Inconvenient Truth” (Paramount Classics and Participant Productions)
A Lawrence Bender/Laurie David Production
Davis Guggenheim

“Iraq in Fragments” (Typecast Releasing)
A Typecast Pictures/Daylight Factory Production
James Longley and John Sinno

“Jesus Camp” (Magnolia Pictures)
A Loki Films Production
Heidi Ewing and Rachel Grady

“My Country, My Country” (Zeitgeist Films)
A Praxis Films Production
Laura Poitras and Jocelyn Glatzer

You can find the IMDB page for Iraq in Fragments here, and the official website for the film here. It premiered at Sundance where it won the most awards of any documentary film in 2006. I haven’t seen it yet unfortunately as it’s in a very limited theatrical release, probably just barely enough to qualify its presence in in the Academy Awards (the Academy has very strict rules on how films become eligible for nomination). I think I’ll wait for the DVD to be available on Netflix. But it’s cool nonetheless.

I’m not holding my breath as to whether or not he included me in the credits.

Filed under: Z-TDB Blog