trailer trash

Tribeca Film Festival in NYC is one of the most prestigious film festivals on North America’s circuit. The festival was founded by Jane Rosenthal, Robert De Niro and Craig Hatkoff  in 2002 in order to celebrate New York City as a major filmmaking centre and to contribute to the long-term recovery of lower Manhattan after the 9/11 attacks.

The 2010 Tribeca Film Festival has announced the winners of awards in its documentary categories;

Best Documentary Feature:

Monica & David, directed by Alexandra Codina

David & Monica tells the touching story of two Down Syndrome adults who fall in love and want to marry. In order to do so, they must negotiate social prejudices that make up their everyday lives.

Captivating stills from The Arbor & Budrus

Special Jury Mention:

Budrus, directed by Julia Bacha

Budrus follows a local Palestinian politician who leads his supporters in a protest against Israel’s building of a fence that will separate the villagers of Budrus from their land.

Best New Documentary Filmmaker:

The Arbor, directed by Clio Barnard

This is definitely one to watch out for. A fascinating bio-doc about British playwright Andrea Dunbar. Dunbar wrote unflinchingly about her upbringing on a notorious housing estate in the North West of England. When she died, tragically at the age of 29 in 1990, her daughter was just ten years old.

This is a powerful true story of  Dunbar’s life and  her troubled relationship with her daughter Lorraine, in which actors have been employed to mouth audio recordings of Dunbar’s relatives and colleagues.

2010 Heineken Audience Award:

Rush: Beyond the Lighted Stage, directed by Scot McFadyen and Sam Dunn

The long awaited ‘rockumentary’ about a legendary Canadian band, tracing its development from the early days to headline concerts.

Hicks - The ultimate Auteur of Stand-up

After three years in the making American: The Bill Hicks Story is nearly here for viewable consumption. Joint producers Paul Thomas and Matt Harlock have incorporated unseen archival footage mixed with 70% animated photo collages to tell the story of the often controversial but legendary stand-up comic.  Hicks was listed as the 19th greatest stand-up comedian of all time by Comedy Central in 2004, and 6th greatest in 2007. Tragically, at only 32 years old, Hicks lost a battle against pancreatic cancer.

Ken Campbell even counts feathered animals amongst his die-hard fanatics

The film is narrated by Hicks’ friends, family and fellow comedians. Reviews have named the title as both a great introduction to anyone unfamiliar with him whilst catering to his cult fan base. American: The Bill Hicks Story is out at selected UK cinemas on May 14th.

Director, Ken Campbell, like Hicks, was utterly unique in performance and vision - coming to represent a whole generation of his comedy peers.

For another dose in comic genius I recommend catching jtd title Antic Visionary: The World of Ken Campbell. Sheridan Thayer’s film looks back over Campbell’s incredible career with interviews from companions, colleagues and fanatics.  Behind-the-scenes horseplay and recollections of  memorable meetings with Campbell are told by actors such as Jim Broadbent, Bill Nighy and Chris Langham, to name a few.

If you have an interest in stand-up comedy, acting, scriptwriting, theatre or just alternative ways of living then this is definitely the doc for you. Watch it in full here.

As we are all aware, Hollywood is currently suffering with a serious case of 3D. To stay or not - some think it a gimmick, others a revolutionary aid to narrative, but 3D mania appears to be catching on in the unlikeliest of places…

Will these 30,000 year old Lascaux cave paintings benefit from 3D?

Film critic and writer Robert Ebert has captured Filmmaker and doc maverick  Werner Herzog as he discusses his plans to film inside the Chauvet-Pont-d’Arc cave, a site in southern France that contains the earliest known cave paintings, dating back at least 30,000 years. And yes, you guessed it, Herzog wants to capture the ancient images in 3D.

Herzog is one of the few people that has been granted permission to visit the site. The paleolithic paintings were only discovered in 1994, and are even off limits to French tourists.

In Ebert’s videos Herzog has stated that embracing 3D will help bring what some see as “traditionally dry storytelling to life”.

Before Herzog made his plans to indulge in 3D public, In January of this year, Sundance made the announcement that “The cain toads were back”. Creatures from the celebrated 1988 documentary, Cane Toads: An Unnatural History were once again being unleashed, but this time into the glorious world 3D.

This also comes with other recent news that Broadband provider Sky has commissioned its first original 3D production. Flying Mosters is a documentary which will be fronted by Sir David Attenborough and will be shown later in the year following the launch of Sky 3D channel.

Herzog's other films such as ' Ecounters at the End of the World' have the fantastical shots for 3D

So, it appears that 3D is about to experience big push into our lilving rooms and docs are coming with it.
New technology and a juggernaught of film and TV investment is determined to make 3D stick around far longer than the technique’s previous flirtations with 50s and 80s audiences.

But unlike Avatar’s eight foot blue aliens or Alice in Wonderland’s White Rabbit, Herzog has one big issue to contend with for his cave painting film. And that’s the fact that paintings are, give or take a few stone irregularities, very 2D!

But, as many are aware, Herzog is a man who’s not afraid of a challenge.