Posted by Larry Gleeson

AT&T RETURNS TO AFI DOCS AS PRESENTING SPONSOR

Festival Sponsors Include Cultural Institutions, Major Companies and Foundations

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE — JUNE 2, 2017, WASHINGTON, DC — The American Film Institute (AFI) is proud to announce the sponsors for AFI DOCS 2017. AT&T returns as the Presenting Sponsor of the festival for the fourth consecutive year.

Support for AFI DOCS comes from a wide range of major companies, cultural institutions, foundations, philanthropists and government agencies. The 15th edition of AFI DOCS will run June 14–18, 2017, in Washington, DC, and Silver Spring, MD.

“AT&T’s sponsorship of AFI DOCS supports the festival’s ability to connect audiences with impassioned storytellers, policy leaders and industry insiders,” said Michael Lumpkin, Director of AFI DOCS. “We are grateful to all of our supporters for their dedication to the festival and its mission of championing the documentary form.”

AT&T will host the Opening Night Screening of Netflix’s ICARUS at the Newseum. Additionally, AT&T will present its powerful public service announcement, “It Can Wait,” which showcases the dangers of distracted driving, at the festival.

Additional top sponsors include the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB), the official public media sponsor; NBCUniversal, official sponsor of the AFI DOCS Impact Lab; and VIZIO, official home theater sponsor of AFI. American Airlines returns as the official airline of AFI. VIZIO will generously outfit the AFI DOCS Festival Hub with the company’s latest home theater equipment and technology. NBCUniversal will once again sponsor the Impact Lab, a two-day intensive program for a select group of AFI DOCS filmmakers with issue-driven projects. CPB will underwrite a day focused on public media programs at the AFI DOCS Forum.

The Newseum — AFI DOCS’ Official Gala Screening Sponsor located on historic Pennsylvania Avenue between the United States Capitol and the White House — returns to host the Opening and Closing Night Screenings, Spotlight Screenings and the AFI DOCS Charles Guggenheim Symposium honoring filmmaker Laura Poitras.

Screen Sponsors are Audi, Discovery Communications, HBO and Netflix. Joining as a Screen Sponsor is Showtime Documentary Films, which will host the Filmmaker Welcome Reception.

The Annenberg Retreat at Sunnylands; CrossCurrents Foundation; DC Office of Cable Television, Film, Music and Entertainment; and Maryland Film Office all return this year as Major Sponsors. Joining the festival as Major Sponsors are the Embassy of Canada, Embrey Family Foundation, IMDbPro, Participant Media and Yorktel.

Contributing Sponsors are DC-Camera, International Documentary Association and Lear Family Foundation. Cultural Sponsors are Embassy of Australia, Embassy of Israel, Mexican Cultural Institute and SPAIN arts & culture. The Supporting Sponsor is Great Silver Spring Chamber of Commerce.

Official Media Sponsors include Here TV, Screen International, Variety, The Wall Street Journal, Washington City Paper, WHUT-TV and WTOP 103.5FM. This year’s Affiliate Media Sponsor is WAMU 88.5 FM.

This year’s Official Hotels are Hotel George and Hotel Monaco.

In addition to supporting AFI DOCS film programming and festival events, sponsors provide services to filmmakers and festival attendees throughout the week. Participation ranges from sponsoring specific film screenings and receptions to outfitting venues with technology infrastructure and creating event spaces. Sponsors also participate in national and local promotion of the festival.

About AFI DOCS
AFI DOCS is the American Film Institute’s annual documentary festival in Washington, DC. Presenting the year’s best documentaries, AFI DOCS is the only festival in the U.S. dedicated to screenings and events that connect audiences, filmmakers and policy leaders in the heart of our nation’s government. The AFI DOCS advisory board includes Ken Burns, Davis Guggenheim, Chris Hegedus, Werner Herzog, Rory Kennedy, Barbara Kopple, Spike Lee, Errol Morris, Stanley Nelson, D A Pennebaker, Agnès Varda and Frederick Wiseman. Now in its 15th year, the festival will be held June 14–18, 2017, in landmark Washington, DC, venues and at the historic AFI Silver Theatre and Cultural Center in Silver Spring, MD. Visit AFI.com/AFIDOCS and connect on twitter.com/AFIDOCS, facebook.com/AFIDOCS, youtube.com/AFI and instagram.com/AmericanFilmInstitute.

About AT&T
AT&T Inc. (NYSE:T) helps millions around the globe connect with leading entertainment, business, mobile and high speed internet services. We offer the nation’s best data network* and the best global coverage of any U.S. wireless provider.** We’re one of the world’s largest providers of pay TV. We have TV customers in the U.S. and 11 Latin American countries. Nearly 3.5 million companies, from small to large businesses around the globe, turn to AT&T for our highly secure smart solutions.

AT&T Products and services are provided or offered by subsidiaries and affiliates of AT&T Inc. under the AT&T brand and not by AT&T Inc. Additional information about AT&T products and services is available at about.att.com. Follow our news on Twitter at @ATT, on Facebook at facebook.com/att and YouTube at youtube.com/att.

© 2017 AT&T Intellectual Property. All rights reserved. AT&T, the Globe logo and other marks are trademarks and service marks of AT&T Intellectual Property and/or AT&T affiliated companies. All other marks contained herein are the property of their respective owners.

*Claim based on the Nielsen Certified Data Network Score. Score includes data reported by wireless consumers in the Nielsen Mobile Insights survey, network measurements from Nielsen Mobile Performance and Nielsen Drive Test Benchmarks for Q3+Q4 2016 across 121 markets.

**Global coverage claim based on offering discounted voice and data roaming; LTE roaming; and voice roaming in more countries than any other U.S. based carrier. International service required. Coverage not available in all areas. Coverage may vary per country and be limited/restricted in some countries.

# # #

CONTACT:
Gabrielle Flamand, AFI DOCS PR, 202.339.9598 or gabrielle@prcollaborative.com
Liza Ameen, American Film Institute, 323.856.7885 or LAmeen@AFI.com

Posted by Larry Gleeson

Jamie Dobie’s SHIVANI follows the titular toddler, who is also a reigning archery champ in her native India. The film plays as part of the Youth Culture shorts program at AFI DOCS on Thursday, June 15. AFI spoke with Dobie about the film.

AFI: What led you to pursue documentary filmmaking?

JD: Documentaries can lead people toward empathy for others in a way that almost no other art form can — they’ve certainly done that for me — and I’ve always been drawn to their power to change the way we see one another and ourselves.

AFI: What inspired you to tell this story?

JD: For a lot of filmmakers, the subjects almost choose you; there’s a moment of crystallization where you see an image that suddenly makes you think it would be worth the effort to actually try to make a film. And in the inevitable moments during a project when you lose faith in it, it’s important to remember how that first image compelled you, and to trust in that.

AFI: How did you find the subjects in your film?

For me, it was an image of Dolly setting an archery record in India when she was two years old. Her story went viral for about a day, and it was around the same time that the HUNGER GAMES films were coming out, so I think the idea of a real-life Katniss Everdeen was appealing to people. But when I saw the image of this little girl with this intense look of concentration on her face surrounded by all of these adults, I thought, “What’s happening here?” It was so arresting; it rang me like a bell.

AFI: What obstacles did you face while making the film?

JD: I was very aware that my main character was a three-year-old who had no agency — and that we were making a film that might eventually have an effect on her own memories of her childhood. For her, this film will be a document of this period of her life, which she might not remember for herself — and so, without overstating it, I felt a responsibility to her.  That was very weighty for me.  It partly informed the style of the film, which is meant to show and not tell, and to simply let life play out in the frame. Dolly did a lot of watching and absorbing of all that was going on around her, and I wanted to create that feeling with the film. We made sure the camera was placed at her eye level, most of the time.

AFI: What do you want audiences to walk away with?

JD: Well, I hope you wonder who Dolly and her parents will become as she grows up, now that you have a better sense of the people and pressures in their lives. During Dolly’s online viral moment, I was struck by how eager people in the United States, and groups like Lean In, were to use her as symbol of girls’ empowerment. But I couldn’t help wondering if that narrative had much bearing on her actual life; if her family, her community or even she saw her story in this way.  What I found when I visited Dolly and her family wasn’t so much a political story as a personal one — a story of loss, grief and identity. And Dolly’s symbolic value is very different for her parents than it is to followers of Lean In.

We all grow up with some idea of who we want to be; but there are also people in our lives — parents, friends, teachers — who have their own ideas about who we should be, and the inevitable friction between the two produces the people we actually are. In Dolly’s case, this friction, or at least some ingredients of it, are beautifully externalized through the many rituals of her life. But it’s not a question that’s unique to her.  I really want to continue to follow her story in another film or two, and I hope the audience will leave with the same curiosity I feel about her life.

AFI: Why is Washington, DC, a valuable location for screening your film?

JD: A large part of my career has been developing and implementing impact campaigns for issue-based documentaries, so in that respect I can say that DC can be a valuable place to screen, if you’re aiming to influence policy with your film, since it’s the seat of so much political power.

That said, I wanted to make SHIVANI an almost purely observational film, without a policy-related goal of any kind.  I don’t think every documentary film should have a political purpose, or a measurable outcome, and I also think, frankly, that funders are too focused on this aspect of documentary; the idea that they can know what they’re getting, in terms of social effects, when they fund a film. I think it’s important to remember that the act of letting an audience into the fine-scale world of another person’s life can have a profound effect on its own; it gives you the chance to grow in empathy and understanding, even though those can be hard to describe in particular terms.

In a time when we’re so often encouraged to see people in other countries as alien and “other,” I think that close observation of other people’s lives, especially those that seem superficially different from our own, tends to reveal the profound and subtle aspects of life that everyone shares.  And that, with luck, makes the world feel less frightening, and more intelligible.

AFI: Why are documentary films important today?

JD: In the era of “alternative facts” and information wars, personal stories have a unique power to cut through the noise and meet people where they are.  We all base our decisions around our worldview; and documentary films have the unique power to broaden that worldview.

Do you remember those “Foundation for a Better Life” ads, which paired stock photos, puppets and cartoons with vague, “inspirational” messages?  Those always seemed especially tone-deaf to me, because while you might be moved or entertained by fictional characters, it’s really not possible to be inspired by them.  I love Kermit the Frog, but he’ll never inspire me to do anything; he’s not real!  A good documentary film tells you where you really are — so it always follows you home.

(Source: blog.afi.com)

Posted by Larry Gleeson

Two-Day Intensive Leads to Greater Issue Advocacy, Grants and Distribution

Five 2016 AFI DOCS/NBCUniversal Impact Grant Recipients Received Distribution Deals

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE — May 30, 2017, WASHINGTON, DC — The American Film Institute (AFI) has announced this year’s AFI DOCS Impact Lab participants. The third edition of the AFI DOCS Impact Lab will take place June 13–14. Presented in collaboration with NBCUniversal, the intensive program is designed for select filmmakers with issue-driven films who aim to create broader social and political change through the power of film. The Lab will provide filmmakers with training in the areas of advocacy, grassroots communications and grasstops engagement. After completion of the Lab, participating projects are eligible to apply for the AFI DOCS/NBCUniversal Impact Grants, which support the outreach and social action campaigns of select Lab participants.

Selected from films screening at AFI DOCS 2017, the 10 films participating in the Impact Lab are ACORN AND THE FIRESTORM (DIRS Reuben Atlas, Sam Pollard), CHASING CORAL: THE VR EXPERIENCE (LEAD ARTIST Jeff Orlowski), EDITH+EDDIE (DIR Laura Checkoway), FOR AHKEEM (DIRS Jeremy Levine, Landon Van Soest), THE FORCE (DIR Peter Nicks), I AM EVIDENCE (DIRS Trish Adlesic, Geeta Gandbhir), NOWHERE TO HIDE (DIR Zaradasht Ahmed), A SUITABLE GIRL (DIRS Sarita Khurana, Smriti Mundhra), WHAT LIES UPSTREAM (DIR Cullen Hoback) and THE WORK (DIRS Gethin Aldous, Jairus McLeary).

Last year, six out of 10 AFI DOCS Impact Lab projects were selected to receive funding from the AFI DOCS/NBCUniversal Impact Grants. These films include ALMOST SUNRISE (DIR Michael Collins), CARE (DIR Deirdre Fishel), CHECK IT (DIRS Dana Flor, Toby Oppenheimer), NEWTOWN (DIR Kim A. Snyder), RAISING BERTIE (DIR Margaret Byrne) and THEY CALL US MONSTERS (DIR Ben Lear). Receiving a total of $75,000 in support from AFI DOCS/NBCUniversal Impact Grants, the selected documentaries were recognized for demonstrating their ability to leverage distribution and enact change.

Five of the 2016 AFI DOCS/NBCUniversal Impact Grants recipients went on to receive theatrical or television distribution. ALMOST SUNRISE will air on PBS’ POV on November 13, 2017; CARE will air on the World Channel’s America Reframed this fall; Gunpowder & Sky Distribution and Kartemquin Films acquired RAISING BERTIE, which opens in theaters on June 9, 2017; THEY CALL US MONSTERS aired on PBS’ Independent Lens on May 22, 2017; and NEWTOWN aired on Independent Lens on April 3, 2017.

“Distribution of the Impact Lab projects is a crucial step in these documentaries’ efforts to create meaningful change,” said Michael Lumpkin, Director, AFI DOCS. “These films will have the power to awaken global audiences to critical issues facing the world today. With the support of the AFI DOCS/NBCUniversal Impact Grants, essential documentaries move from the festival screen onto a theatrical or television run, reaching larger audiences.”

“NBCUniversal is excited to once again partner with AFI on this initiative to empower filmmakers to effect change. The AFI DOCS/NBCUniversal Impact Grants help these films make an impact by enabling filmmakers to engage with communities and stakeholders,” said Cindy Gardner, Executive Vice President of Global Communication and Corporate Affairs, NBCUniversal. “We are proud of the success that has come out of the Grants, and the support provided to the filmmakers so their films can be seen more broadly.”

The 2017 AFI DOCS Impact Lab is sponsored by NBCUniversal, with additional support from CrossCurrents Foundation, the Embrey Family Foundation and the International Documentary Association. The Impact Lab is produced by AFI DOCS and The Raben Group.

The 15th edition of AFI DOCS will run June 14–18 in Washington, DC, and Silver Spring, MD. For more information about the Impact Lab, please visit AFI.com/AFIDOCS.

About AFI DOCS
AFI DOCS is the American Film Institute’s annual documentary festival in Washington, DC. Presenting the year’s best documentaries, AFI DOCS is the only festival in the U.S. dedicated to screenings and events that connect audiences, filmmakers and policy leaders in the heart of our nation’s government. The AFI DOCS advisory board includes Ken Burns, Davis Guggenheim, Chris Hegedus, Werner Herzog, Rory Kennedy, Barbara Kopple, Spike Lee, Errol Morris, Stanley Nelson, D A Pennebaker, Agnès Varda and Frederick Wiseman. Now in its 15th year, the festival will be held June 14–18, 2017, in landmark Washington, DC, venues and at the historic AFI Silver Theatre and Cultural Center in Silver Spring, MD. Visit AFI.com/AFIDOCS and connect on twitter.com/AFIDOCS, facebook.com/AFIDOCS, youtube.com/AFI and instagram.com/AmericanFilmInstitute.

About AT&T
AT&T Inc. (NYSE:T) helps millions around the globe connect with leading entertainment, business, mobile and high speed internet services. We offer the nation’s best data network* and the best global coverage of any U.S. wireless provider.**  We’re one of the world’s largest providers of pay TV. We have TV customers in the U.S. and 11 Latin American countries. Nearly 3.5 million companies, from small to large businesses around the globe, turn to AT&T for our highly secure smart solutions.

AT&T Products and services are provided or offered by subsidiaries and affiliates of AT&T Inc. under the AT&T brand and not by AT&T Inc. Additional information about AT&T products and services is available at about.att.com. Follow our news on Twitter at @ATT, on Facebook at facebook.com/att and YouTube at youtube.com/att.

© 2017 AT&T Intellectual Property. All rights reserved. AT&T, the Globe logo and other marks are trademarks and service marks of AT&T Intellectual Property and/or AT&T affiliated companies. All other marks contained herein are the property of their respective owners.

*Claim based on the Nielsen Certified Data Network Score. Score includes data reported by wireless consumers in the Nielsen Mobile Insights survey, network measurements from Nielsen Mobile Performance and Nielsen Drive Test Benchmarks for Q3+Q4 2016 across 121 markets.

**Global coverage claim based on offering discounted voice and data roaming; LTE roaming; and voice roaming in more countries than any other U.S. based carrier. International service required. Coverage not available in all areas. Coverage may vary per country and be limited/restricted in some countries.

About NBCUniversal
NBCUniversal is one of the world’s leading media and entertainment companies in the development, production, and marketing of entertainment, news, and information to a global audience. NBCUniversal owns and operates a valuable portfolio of news and entertainment television networks, a premier motion picture company, significant television production operations, a leading television stations group, world-renowned theme parks, and a suite of leading Internet-based businesses. NBCUniversal is a subsidiary of Comcast Corporation. To learn more visit: www.nbcuniversal.com.

# # #

CONTACT:
Gabrielle Flamand, AFI DOCS PR, 202.339.9598 or gabrielle@prcollaborative.com
Liza Ameen, American Film Institute, 323.856.7885 or LAmeen@AFI.com

Posted by Larry Gleeson

When online gossip rag Gawker published a sex tape involving Hulk Hogan, the former wrestler sued, but who was the mysterious billionaire bankrolling his legal fees? Using this salacious trial as just one example, NOBODY SPEAK: TRIALS OF THE FREE PRESS is a cautionary tale about the dangers of the super rich controlling the message and the media.

The film screens at AFI DOCS on Saturday, June 17. AFI spoke to director Brian Knappenberger.

AFI: What led you to pursue documentary filmmaking?

BK: I learned still photography at an early age and have always been interested in visual storytelling. I also grew up in the farm-surrounded suburb of Broomfield, CO, next to what was then the Rocky Flats nuclear weapons facility. Growing up, we had a vague sense of what was happening at Rocky Flats — there were protests, our next-door neighbor worked there, we had a general sense that certain areas around us might be contaminated, etc. — but what emerged in me was a deep mistrust of power, a suspicion of war and its awful tools, and that maybe filmmaking could shed some light on what was previously dark. 

AFI: What inspired you to tell this story?

BK: It started as a “privacy versus first amendment story” that was by itself really interesting and relevant, but it ended up becoming something very different — a stark example of big money controlling public opinion and information. When that happened, I knew I had to dig deeper and hang on for the ride.

AFI: How did you find the subjects in your film?

BK: My subjects emerged themselves from the information wars. They climbed out of the muck, and I just chased them down.

AFI: What was a particular obstacle you faced while making the film?

BK: The main obstacle we faced is essentially what is portrayed in the film — the legal threats. Some people were hesitant to talk.

AFI: What do you want audiences to walk away with after screening your film?

BK: That the first amendment and a free press are vital to a democracy. The press isn’t the “enemy of the people”; the press is the people. We desperately need a strong, rambunctious, muckraking adversarial press if we have any hope of maintaining our democracy. The press shouldn’t just speak truth to power — the press should rattle and stomp on the very foundations of power. We should all support good investigative journalism financially. But that’s not enough. In a chaotic information world, we also need stand up for the concept itself, to keep it alive. A strong, independent press is far more important to our country than any politician, public figure, business executive or even (maybe especially) President.

AFI: Why are documentary films important today?

BK: Documentary filmmaking at its finest is independent and able to dive into areas that sometimes corporatized media would shy away from. In an ideal world, the documentary director is free to talk to people, tell stories, explore subjects and generally wreak havoc in ways that can surface the truth.

(Source: blog.afi.com)

Posted by Larry Gleeson

AFI Conservatory alumni from the Class of 2016 won three College Television Awards (Student Emmys^®) for their thesis films. The 38th 2017 College Television Awards were held on Wednesday, May 24, 2017, at the Saban Media Center in North Hollywood, CA.

Trevor Smith (AFI Class of 2016) won the Comedy award for producing DOLLAR KING. David Brent (AFI Class of 2016) won for Writing for Comedy for DOLLAR KING. Daisygreen Stenhouse (AFI Class of 2016) won for Writing for Drama for LOCKDOWN. All three were AFI Conservatory thesis films.

The full list of nominees and wins is below.

DOLLAR KING
Trevor Smith (AFI Class of 2016), Producer
Comedy (Winner)
David Brent (AFI Class of 2016), Writer
Writing for Comedy (Winner)

LOCKDOWN
Daisygreen Stenhouse (AFI Class of 2016), Writer
Writing for Drama (Winner)

LOST CHOCOLATE: A SKATEBOARD STORY
Andrew Pollins (AFI Class of 2016), Director
Jane Hollon (AFI Class of 2016), Producer
Caleb Heller (AFI Class of 2016), Cinematographer
Commercial (Nominee)

NO WAY BACK
Michael Kongshaug (AFI Class of 2016), Director/Writer
Eileen Shim (AFI Class of 2016), Writer
Writing for Drama (Nominee)

THE OTHER SIDE
Daniel Abatan (AFI Class of 2016), Director
Directing for Drama (Nominee)

THE PLUMBER
Andrew Pollins (AFI Class of 2016), Director
Yoni Klein (AFI Class of 2016), Cinematographer
Commercial (Nominee)

SNOWPLOW
Joshua Valle (AFI Class of 2016), Producer
Drama (Nominee)
Mia Niebruegge (AFI Class of 2016), Director/Writer
Christopher Greenslate (AFI Class of 2016), Writer
Writing for Drama (Nominee)

(Source: blog.afi.com)

Posted by Larry Gleeson

AFI DOCS Will Celebrate Academy Award^®-Winning Documentarian on June 16

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE — MAY 23, 2017, WASHINGTON, DC — The American Film Institute (AFI) has announced that AFI DOCS will pay tribute to Laura Poitras — the groundbreaking director of RISK (2016) and the Academy Award^®-winning Edward Snowden portrait CITIZENFOUR (2014) — as the festival’s 2017 Charles Guggenheim Symposium honoree.

Each year, the AFI DOCS Charles Guggenheim Symposium honors a master of the nonfiction art form. Taking place at the Newseum on June 16, the Symposium will include an in-depth conversation with Poitras along with clips from her acclaimed works. Poitras’ latest film RISK, a six-year project following WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, was released by Neon on May 5 and will air on Showtime this summer. Poitras’ impressive documentary catalog also includes THE OATH (2010), MY COUNTRY, MY COUNTRY (2006) and FLAG WARS (2003).

“Poitras has the extraordinary instinct and ability to put her camera in the heart of history as it unfolds, regardless of the risk,” said Michael Lumpkin, Director, AFI DOCS. “Using her keen eye, Poitras reveals worlds just beyond what we can see. We are honored to celebrate her remarkable career and dedication to the documentary form.”

Poitras’ first feature-length documentary, FLAG WARS, was nominated for an Emmy^® and won a Peabody Award, cementing her stature as a top-notch documentarian from the outset. Next, she was nominated for a Best Documentary Feature Academy Award^® for MY COUNTRY, MY COUNTRY, the first installment in her post-9/11 trilogy. In 2015, Poitras won the Academy Award^® for CITIZENFOUR. That same year, Poitras co-founded Field of Vision, an entity that commissions and creates original short-form nonfiction films about global events.

Poitras joins a renowned list of Guggenheim Symposium honorees: Charles Guggenheim (2003), Barbara Kopple (2004), Martin Scorsese (2006), Jonathan Demme (2007), Spike Lee (2008), Albert Maysles (2009), Frederick Wiseman (2010), Chris Hegedus and D A Pennebaker (2011), Joe Berlinger and Bruce Sinofsky (2012), Errol Morris (2013), Alex Gibney (2014), Stanley Nelson (2015) and Werner Herzog (2016).

AFI DOCS is proud to have AT&T return as this year’s Presenting Sponsor. Passes and tickets to AFI DOCS, including the Charles Guggenheim Symposium, are now on sale at AFI.com/afidocs.

ABOUT AFI DOCS

AFI DOCS is the American Film Institute’s annual documentary festival in Washington, DC. Presenting the year’s best documentaries, AFI DOCS is the only festival in the U.S. dedicated to screenings and events that connect audiences, filmmakers and policy leaders in the heart of our nation’s government. The AFI DOCS advisory board includes Ken Burns, Davis Guggenheim, Chris Hegedus, Werner Herzog, Rory Kennedy, Barbara Kopple, Spike Lee, Errol Morris, Stanley Nelson, D A Pennebaker, Agnès Varda and Frederick Wiseman. Now in its 15th year, the festival will be held June 14–18, 2017, in landmark Washington, DC, venues and at the historic AFI Silver Theatre and Cultural Center in Silver Spring, MD. Visit AFI.com/AFIDOCS and connect on twitter.com/AFIDOCS, facebook.com/AFIDOCS, youtube.com/AFI and instagram.com/AmericanFilmInstitute.

ABOUT AT & T

AT&T Inc. (NYSE:T) helps millions around the globe connect with leading entertainment, business, mobile and high speed internet services. We offer the nation’s best data network* and the best global coverage of any U.S. wireless provider.** We’re one of the world’s largest providers of pay TV. We have TV customers in the U.S. and 11 Latin American countries. Nearly 3.5 million companies, from small to large businesses around the globe, turn to AT&T for our highly secure smart solutions.

AT&T Products and services are provided or offered by subsidiaries and affiliates of AT&T Inc. under the AT&T brand and not by AT&T Inc. Additional information about AT&T products and services is available at about.att.com. Follow our news on Twitter at @ATT, on Facebook at facebook.com/att and YouTube at youtube.com/att.

© 2017 AT&T Intellectual Property. All rights reserved. AT&T, the Globe logo and other marks are trademarks and service marks of AT&T Intellectual Property and/or AT&T affiliated companies. All other marks contained herein are the property of their respective owners.

*Claim based on the Nielsen Certified Data Network Score. Score includes data reported by wireless consumers in the Nielsen Mobile Insights survey, network measurements from Nielsen Mobile Performance and Nielsen Drive Test Benchmarks for Q3+Q4 2016 across 121 markets.

**Global coverage claim based on offering discounted voice and data roaming; LTE roaming; and voice roaming in more countries than any other U.S. based carrier. International service required. Coverage not available in all areas. Coverage may vary per country and be limited/restricted in some countries.

(Source: Press release courtesy of Gabrielle Flamand, AFI DOCS PR, and Liza Ameen, American Film Institute)

Posted by Larry Gleeson

Forum Features Spotlight on Virtual Reality, Canadian Docs,
Impact of Conservative Docs, Nonfiction Podcasts and More

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE — MAY 22, 2017, WASHINGTON, DC — The American Film Institute (AFI) has announced the 2017 AFI DOCS Forum. Open to festival filmmakers and all passholders, the four-day AFI DOCS Forum will take place June 15–18 at the AFI DOCS Festival Hub at the District Architecture Center in Washington, DC. The Forum will present a variety of networking and professional development events for filmmakers, industry professionals and those with a passion for nonfiction storytelling. Highlights include an examination of the rising surge of conservative documentaries, virtual reality presentations, talks on funding, female-focused docs and much more.

“We are excited to present a thought-provoking program of panels and presentations to attendees of the AFI DOCS Forum,” said Michael Lumpkin, Director of AFI DOCS. “Filmmakers and documentary film-lovers will convene to discuss the state of the industry, the latest trends and address the issues facing nonfiction storytellers today. The Forum offers the unique opportunity to connect filmmakers and industry insiders outside of the movie theater.”

The Forum will offer presentations examining topics such as nonfiction storytelling in a “post-truth” world; emerging trends in documentary funding; and the latest programs to support women-centered initiatives in documentary filmmaking.

Additional Forum programming includes a panel with AFI DOCS Canadian filmmakers to discuss Canada’s role in creating the documentary form; a panel with short-documentary filmmakers and funders to discuss and support the model; a session with NPR on nonfiction podcasts; and a documentary case study and screening of the St. Louis PBS affiliate Nine Network documentary GENTLEMEN OF VISION (DIR Frank Popper). Attendees will also have the opportunity to hear from distribution experts as they discuss the latest industry trends.

The Washington Post film critic Ann Hornaday returns to AFI DOCS for a special program with filmmaker Michael Pack (THE FALL OF NEWT GINGRICH) to discuss how conservative documentaries connect with viewers, their impact on politics and the connection between production values and policy. Hornaday will also join the Forum for a book signing and conversation on her latest book “Talking Pictures.”

This year, the Forum will offer a special VR program at the Festival Hub and the Newseum, open to all AFI DOCS passholders. The program will include a VR Exhibition to view the best and latest in virtual reality, as well as a panel exploring how VR emerged as a powerful storytelling platform in documentary filmmaking.

The AFI DOCS Forum is supported by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, NBCUniversal and the International Documentary Association. For more information about the AFI DOCS Forum, please visit AFI.com/afidocs.

The 15th edition of AFI DOCS will run June 14–18 in Washington, DC, and Silver Spring, MD. AT&T proudly returns this year as Presenting Sponsor of the festival. AT&T’s continued support enables AFI DOCS to connect audiences, policymakers and storytellers in the heart of our national government.

ABOUT AFI DOCS

AFI DOCS is the American Film Institute’s annual documentary festival in Washington, DC. Presenting the year’s best documentaries, AFI DOCS is the only festival in the U.S. dedicated to screenings and events that connect audiences, filmmakers and policy leaders in the heart of our nation’s government. The AFI DOCS advisory board includes Ken Burns, Davis Guggenheim, Chris Hegedus, Werner Herzog, Rory Kennedy, Barbara Kopple, Spike Lee, Errol Morris, Stanley Nelson, D A Pennebaker, Agnès Varda and Frederick Wiseman. Now in its 15th year, the festival will be held June 14–18, 2017, in landmark Washington, DC, venues and at the historic AFI Silver Theatre and Cultural Center in Silver Spring, MD. Visit AFI.com/AFIDOCS and connect on twitter.com/AFIDOCS, facebook.com/AFIDOCS, youtube.com/AFI and instagram.com/AmericanFilmInstitute.

ABOUT AT & T

AT&T Inc. (NYSE:T) helps millions around the globe connect with leading entertainment, business, mobile and high speed internet services. We offer the nation’s best data network* and the best global coverage of any U.S. wireless provider.** We’re one of the world’s largest providers of pay TV. We have TV customers in the U.S. and 11 Latin American countries. Nearly 3.5 million companies, from small to large businesses around the globe, turn to AT&T for our highly secure smart solutions.

AT&T Products and services are provided or offered by subsidiaries and affiliates of AT&T Inc. under the AT&T brand and not by AT&T Inc. Additional information about AT&T products and services is available at about.att.com. Follow our news on Twitter at @ATT, on Facebook at facebook.com/att and YouTube at youtube.com/att.

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*Claim based on the Nielsen Certified Data Network Score. Score includes data reported by wireless consumers in the Nielsen Mobile Insights survey, network measurements from Nielsen Mobile Performance and Nielsen Drive Test Benchmarks for Q3+Q4 2016 across 121 markets.

**Global coverage claim based on offering discounted voice and data roaming; LTE roaming; and voice roaming in more countries than any other U.S. based carrier. International service required. Coverage not available in all areas. Coverage may vary per country and be limited/restricted in some countries.

(Sources: afi.com, press release courtesy of Gabrielle Flamand, AFI DOCS PR, and Liza Ameen, American Film Institute)