REVIEW - CAMERAPERSON (KIRSTEN JOHNSON)

If a memoir inevitably looks to the past, it's most stimulating to witness Kirsten Johnson's testament for the future, Cameraperson. It's less a highlights reel than a lowlights reel, a compilation of all we've missed and not a condemnation but an explanation of how we missed it. Her memories shaped our own with indirect force - now she presents the details of that process with direct force, and reframes our interpretations of the past with simple, straightforward honesty. Cameraperson is thus more persuasive and more enlightening as a statement in its entirety; individual scenes oscillate between plain beauty and plain ugliness, dramatic integrity and dramatic stagnancy - necessary differences given the range of sources, though the film is thereby rendered close to an anthology feature in its effect. What Johnson, whose voice is frequently heard on the consistently diegetic sound mix, proves with every image, however, is the vitality of the cinematographer in documentary filmmaking, and the extent of the viewer's dismissal of their role. Indeed, that dismissal is argued here as being greater the less the artist fights against it, and so it's fulfilling indeed to examine the nature of that role and its cruciality in the production of earnest, effective documentaries. The revelatory power of Johnson's images may deplete commensurately with their level of development; she combats this with sensitive cross-cutting whose impact is possibly a little too blunt. But these are her memoirs, and she may do as she pleases with them. And what she does is noble, skillful and resolutely valuable.

DIVERSITY RULES IN 2016 IDA NOMINATIONS

No, nothing to do with anyone named 'Ida,' at least to my awareness, these are the International Documentary Association nominations for doc filmmaking in 2016, their 32nd annual slate of awards. A whole bunch of acclaimed titles here, which include several TV categories not included in this post. Some I've seen and enjoyed already, and others to which I'm highly looking forward. Among the nominees in top categories are some award winners already announced. Pleasingly, three of the seven directors with films up for the Best Feature award are POC, and three are women. Winners will be announced on the 9th of December. You can see all the film nominees below:

Best Feature
13th (Spencer Averick, Howard Barish and Ava DuVernay)
Cameraperson (Kirsten Johnson and Marilyn Ness)
Fire at Sea (Roberto Ciccutto, Paolo del Brocco, Camille Laemle, Serge Lalou, Donatella Palermo, Olivier Pere, Gianfranco Rosi and Martine Saada)
I Am Not Your Negro (Remi Grellety and Raoul Peck)
O. J.: Made in America (Ezra Edelman, Deirdre Fenton, Libby Geist, Nina Krstic, Erin Leyden, Tamara Rosenberg, Connor Schell and Caroline Waterlow)
Weiner (Josh Kriegman and Elyse Steinberg)

Best Writing
James Baldwin and Raoul Peck (I Am Not Your Negro)

Best Cinematography
Gianfranco Rosi (Fire at Sea)

Best Editing
Nels Bangerter (Cameraperson)

Best Music
Jacaszek (The Bad Kids)

Pare Lorentz Award
Starless Dreams (Mehrdad Oskouei)

Best Short
The Above (Kirsten Johnson and Marilyn Ness)
Clinica de Migrantes: Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness (Jenny Lim and Maxim Pozdorvkin)
Extremis (Dan Krauss)
Pickle (Amy Nicholson)
Red Lake (Fenton Bailey, Randy Barbato and Billy Luther)
The White Helmets (Joanna Natasegara and Orlando von Einsiedel)

1ST EVER CRITICS' CHOICE DOCUMENTARY AWARDS: NOMINATIONS ANNOUNCED

Well, well, well! Who'd have expected this? The 2016-17 awards season kicks off extra early this year, as the Broadcast Film Critics Association announces its nominees for its first ever Critics' Choice Documentary Awards. Previously, the BFCA had simply handed out one award for Best Documentary at their annual movie awards ceremony; like any organization desperate to remain relevant, several significant changes have been made to the Critics' Choice awards in recent years, mainly of questionable character, but this new development is a promising one. That's one fewer award to chuck out during the commercial breaks on their hopeless televized awards ceremony, and several more awards for documentary filmmaking, ever underappreciated by audiences. As a further sign of the blurring of the lines between film and TV, these awards feature projects from both media. Award winners will be declared at a ceremony on the 3rd of November. Check it all out below:

Best Documentary Feature

13th

Cameraperson

Fire at Sea

Gleason

Life, Animated

O.J.: Made in America

Tickled

Tower

Weiner

The Witness

Best Direction of a Documentary Feature

Ezra Edelman (O.J.: Made in America)

Ron Howard (The Beatles: Eight Days a Week - The Touring Years)

Kirsten Johnson (Cameraperson)

Keith Maitland (Tower)

Clay Tweel (Gleason)

Roger Ross Williams (Life, Animated)

Best Song in a Documentary Feature

Tori Amos - 'Flicker' (Audrie & Daisy)

Common, Karriem Riggins and Robert Glasper - 'Letters to the Free' (13th)

Sharon Jones - 'I'm Still Here' (Miss Sharon Jones!)

Mike McCready - 'Hoping and Healing' (Gleason)

J. Ralph and Sting - 'The Empty Chair' (Jim: The James Foley Story)

Sia - 'Angel by the Wings' (The Eagle Huntress)

Best First Documentary Feature

Otto Bell (The Eagle Huntress)

David Farrier and Dylan Reeve (Tickled)

Adam Irving (Off the Rails)

Josh Kriegman and Elyse Steinberg (Weiner)

James D. Solomon (The Witness)

Wang Nan Fu (Hooligan Sparrow)

Best Music Documentary

The Beatles: Eight Days a Week - The Touring Years

Gimme Danger

Miss Sharon Jones!

The Music of Strangers

Presenting Princess Shaw

We Are X

Best Political Documentary

13th

Audrie & Daisy

Newtown

O.J.: Made in America

Weiner

Zero Days

Best Sports Documentary

Dark Horse

The Eagle Huntress

Gleason

Fantastic Lies

Jackie Robinson

Keepers of the Game

O.J.: Made in America

Most Innovative Documentary

Cameraperson

Kate Plays Christine

Life, Animated

Nuts

Tower

Under the Sun

Best Documentary Feature: TV / Streaming

13th

Amanda Knox

Audrie & Daisy

Before the Flood

Fantastic Lies

Holy Hell

Into the Inferno

Jim: The James Foley Story

Mapplethorpe: Look at the Pictures

Rats

Best Ongoing Documentary Series

30 for 30

Frontline

Last Chance U

Morgan Spurlock Inside Man

POV

This Is Life with Lisa Ling

Best Limited Documentary Series

The Circus: Inside the Greatest Political Show on Earth

The Eighties

The Hunt

Jackie Robinson

O.J.: Made in America

Soundbreaking: Stories from the Cutting Edge of Recorded Music

Best Director: TV / Streaming

Fenton Bailey and Randy Barbato (Mapplethorpe: Look at the Pictures)

Rod Blackhurst and Brian McGinn (Amanda Knox)

Ava DuVernay (13th)

Werner Herzog (Into the Inferno)

Morgan Spurlock (Rats)

Fisher Stevens (Before the Flood)

Best First Feature: TV / Streaming

Everything Is Copy (Jacob Bernstein and Nick Hooker)

Holy Hell (Will Allen)

Mavis! (Jessica Edwards)

My Beautiful Broken Brain (Sophie Robinson and Lotje Sodderland)

Southwest of Salem: The Story of the San Antonio Four (Deborah Esquenazi)

Team Foxcatcher (Jon Greenhalgh)