This is the last week to book your cabin on PRIDE OF THE OCEAN FILM FESTIVAL CRUISE, the first LGBT film festival on the high seas! The cruise will take place from June 8th - June 15th, 2019 and will be sailing to Canada and New England from New York!

This year's cruise will be the  Stonewall 50th Anniversary: Celebrating LGBT Military Veterans and Veterans of the Stonewall Revolution. Special guests will include  Colonel Margarethe Cammermeyer, whose story was told in the film "Service In Silence" starring Glenn Close and Judy Davis.

Learn more and book your trip  here.

UnionDocs Summer Documentary Labs are designed to be very tightly structured environments where a select group of emerging filmmakers from the US and abroad can be inspired, be challenged and think through every aspect of a work-in-progress.

Deadline to apply is Feb. 15th.



Learn more here .

ERNIE & JOE , directed by Jenifer McShane, has been chosen for the Documentary Feature Competition at SXSW 2019! Only ten films were chosen out of 1,005 feature documentary submissions in 2018. Ernie & Joe follows two officers with the San Antonio Police Department mental health unit who are diverting people away from jail and into mental health treatment — one 911 call at a time. This will be the world premiere of the film. Read more here .

Chico Colvard's powerful film BLACK MEMORABILIA premieres on PBS Independent Lens on Monday, February 4th at 10pm ET. The documentary introduces you to the people who reproduce, consume, and seek to reclaim black memorabilia. Read more in the NY Times article here.

WHERE THE PAVEMENT ENDS , directed by Jane Gillooly, has been selected to screen in “Doc Fortnight” at the  Museum of Modern Art. NYC, Feb. 22, 4:30p and Feb. 24, 7pm. More details on the screening here . Read the full Doc Fortnight lineup here .

Co-edited with Khary Saeed Jones, and co-produced with Aparna Agrawal,  Where the Pavement Ends  will also screen at the Boston  Museum of Fine Arts , on Sunday March 10, 2:30pm .

THE BANJO PROJECT: STORIES OF AMERICA'S INSTRUMENT   Digital Museum has received a grant from the NEH Digital Programs for the Public for $100,000. The digital museum is the final media platform for this transmedia documentary about the history of America’s quintessential instrument from its African roots to the present.

You can visit the museum, which is currently under construction, here .

Jonathan Skurnik, filmmaker and founder of the YOUTH AND GENDER MEDIA PROJECT , will be screening his films and conducting professional development sessions about trans and gender expansive youth inclusion for the  Association of Independent Maryland & DC Schools  at their Making Schools Safe conference on February 5th . Johanna Clearwater, the subject of his film  Becoming Johanna  will be there for a Q&A and to speak to teens.

Also this month, Jonathan and Johanna will screen their film at  HRC’s Time to Thrive conference  in Anaheim on February 16th.

WORLDS OF URSULA K. LE GUIN screens this spring at festivals, theaters, and schools around the US and the world. New festival selections include the Boston SciFi Film Festival , Athena Film Festival in New York City , Washington, DC Independent Film Festival , and Sebastopol Documentary Film Festival . They'll also play in theaters in San Francisco, New York City, and Philadelphia in February. The film is filling theaters and inspiring extra, last-minute screenings, and has received thoughtful praise, including this review from PopMatters . Stay tuned at www.worldsofukl.com for the most current list of officially announced, upcoming screenings!

Exciting news from Bill Lichtenstein and LCMedia Productions!  WBCN AND THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION has been invited to be screened at The DC Independent Film Festival (DCIFF)!

The film has also been invited by  Cinequest Film Festival to be screened in March as part of the festival's Documentary Feature Competition.

Stay tuned for updates about premiere and where you can see the documentary, coming soon to a screen near you.

And there is still time to make a tax-deductible donation, to support the remaining work on the film, and to have your name included in the closing credits. Click  here.

It was an exciting 2018 for THE G WORD feature documentary team. With major shoots in Baltimore, San Luis, AZ, Minneapolis and Dallas - Fort Worth, The G Word filmed several stories and interviewed national thought leaders and dozens of experts in the field of gifted and talented education. In November, Director-Producer Marc Smolowitz gave presentations at the National Association for Gifted Children’s annual conference and at the Texas GiftED Conference. In Baltimore, the team explored stories of underrepresentation of people of color in gifted programs and looked at how an historical figure in the gifted space has largely been forgotten. Under blazing 100+ temperatures in southern Arizona along the border of Mexico, The G Word fleshed out a story related to a school district which sends a record number of students to summer programs at Johns Hopkins’ Center for Talented Youth. How do they do it? What’s their secret? Conversely, with single digit temps in northern Minnesota, the team visited an Ojibwe School, diving into the school’s special education and gifted programs, understanding further the role that culture, the arts, heritage and language play in what constitutes ‘giftedness’ in the Native American community. Watch for a Kickstarter campaign from this team in early March!

A message from the director, Deborah Craig:

The documentary SALLY is moving ahead at a good clip. Our character Sally Gearhart has had a long life packed with accomplishments and adventures (she’s in her late ‘80s now), and we’re trying to find and interview collaborators and compatriots from the different phases in her life. One key “chapter” was San Francisco in the 1970s and 80s—a time of activism and transformation--where she was deeply involved with gay rights activism, and also in founding one of the first ever women’s studies programs at San Francisco State University. Here are a few exciting interviews we have scheduled:

*Cleve Jones worked with Harvey Milk as an intern in the 1970s, came up with the idea for the idea for the Names Projects (the AIDS Memorial Quilt), and co-founded the SF AIDS Foundation. He introduced Sally to Harvey and will have a lot to say about their relationship and also about Sally’s key role in introducing feminism to men in the gay rights movement. Cleve will also help show one of Sally’s endearing strengths: Her ability to reach out to and connect with people who are different than her.

*Like Sally Gearhart, Roma Guy moved to San Francisco in the 1970s and jumped right into the political fray. She was one of the co-founders of the Women’s Building, SF Women Against Rape, The Women’s Foundation, and more.

Both Cleve Jones and Roma Guy were depicted in the 2017 mini-series “When We Rise,” about LGBT Rights. Learn more about Sally and contribute here .

FROM BAGHDAD TO THE BAY  is a documentary that follows the journey of an Iraqi refugee and former translator for the US military. Wrongfully accused of being a double agent, tortured by the U.S., and ostracized from his family and country, Ghazwan Alsharif struggles to rebuild his life in the United States while coming out as an openly gay man.

UPCOMING SCREENINGS:

2/16 & 2/17    Doc Edge Pride , Auckland New Zealand

3/1 & 3/2   Durango Film Festival , Colorado

3/31   Sebastopol Documentary Film Festival   * Ghazwan Alsharif, Director Erin Palmquist and Composer William Ryan Fritch will be in attendance.

TBD,  Sonoma International Film Festival , California (3/27-3/31)

The Fifth Annual Irish American Movie Hooley will be returning Sept. 27, 28, and 29th at the Gene Siskel Film Center in Chicago . If your film is chosen you will be flown to Chicago and put up for the weekend at the luxurious Chicago Hilton on Michigan Avenue. Call for Entries begins on January 16th . Read more here .

3 Seconds Behind the Wheel  becomes available on Amazon Prime beginning April 1, 2019 . April is Distracted Driving Awareness month, so many schools and libraries will be screening the documentary. For more information about holding a public screening, contact Jennifer Boyd at   [email protected] . Copies are also available now at   3seconds.org . The documentary also continues to be distributed through American Public Television and PBS International. 

Seth Fein has received a  LightPress Grant from the Interbay Cinema Society  (Seattle) to digitally scan archival footage for OUR NEIGHBORHOOD . Our Neighborhood: Washington’s TV Cold War in Latin America across the 1960s is a feature-length documentary about Washington’s secret mobilization of TV to wage mass-cultural counterinsurgency throughout Latin America across the 1960s. 

Working on your budget? The IDA (International Documentary Association) has updated their excellent guide to documentary budgeting.

Check it out here .