Academy/UCLA Doc series celebrates 25th year

Sep 05, 2006 by Ian Evans

In an industry where trends come and go, it’s nice to see something with legs. And we’re not talking about Charlize Theron.

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, the Academy Foundation and the UCLA Film and Television Archive are celebrating the 25th year of the Contemporary Documentary Series. The 2006-2007 edition features fourteen short and feature-length documentaries, including the Oscar-winning A Note of Triumph: The Golden Age of Norman Corwin.

The series kicks off September 27, at 7 p.m., at the Academy’s Linwood Dunn Theater in Hollywood. All screenings in the series are free.

Here’s the schedule for Part One:

September 27

  • Mr. Mergler’s Gift (directed by Beverly Shaffer, produced by Germaine Ying Gee Wong)
  • Mad Hot Ballroom (directed by Marilyn Agrelo; produced by Amy Sewell, Agrelo)

October 11

  • Murderball (directed by Henry-Alex Rubin, Dana Adam Shapiro; produced by Jeffrey Mandel, Shapiro) Academy Award nominee.
  • 39 Pounds of Love (directed by Dani Menkin; produced by Menken, Daniel J. Chalfen)

October 25

  • On Native Soil: The Documentary of the 9/11 Commission Report (directed by Linda Ellman; produced by Jeff Hays, Ellman, Lenville O’Donnell)
  • Occupation: Dreamland (directed by Garrett Scott, Ian Olds; produced by Scott, Selina Lewis Davidson, Nancy Roth)

November 1

  • A Note of Triumph: The Golden Age of Norman Corwin (directed by Eric Simonson; produced by Simonson, Corinne Marrinan) Academy Award winner.
  • The Devil and Daniel Johnston (directed by Jeff Feuerzeig; produced by Henry S. Rosenthal)

November 15

  • Street Fight (directed and produced by Marshall Curry) Academy Award nominee.
  • The Last Campaign (directed and produced by Wayne Ewing)

November 29

  • Dimmer (directed by Talmage Cooley; produced by Cooley, Andy Spade, Anthony Sperduti)
  • The Boys of Baraka (directed and produced by Heidi Ewing, Rachel Grady)

December 13 — special screening at the IMAX Theater

  • Aliens of the Deep (directed by James Cameron, Steven Quale; produced by Andrew Wight, Cameron)
  • Wild Safari 3D: A South African Adventure (directed by Ben Stassen; produced by Stassen, Charlotte Huggins, Caroline Van Iseghem)

All screenings are free and open to the public. They will begin at 7 p.m. at the Academy’s Linwood Dunn Theater, except for the December 13 program at the IMAX Theater. Filmmakers will be present whenever possible to discuss their films and take questions from the audience. Part Two of the series will begin in March.

For more information, call (310) 247-3600 or (310) 206-FILM.