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Report from the IFP Market: Trials of Darryl Hunt, In the Wake of the Flood, Made in L.A.

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Posted on January 4, 2005

The Call for Entries for the 27th Annual IFP Market is underway, and the deadline for Documentary submissions is fast approaching: Early-May 2, Final-May 16, 2005. If you are wondering what the market can offer your social-issue doc, we encourage you to read this report from last year's market...

The Independent Feature Project (IFP) held its annual film market and conference September 19-24 in New York City.

New Opportunities for Docmakers

The Independent Feature Project (IFP) held its annual film market and conference September 19-24 in New York City. Over the past few years, the IFP Market has reduced the total number of works screened, resulting in a stronger more focused program. It has also become an invaluable place for doc makers to be -- especially those in the works-in-progress stage. New this year were meetings with distributors and funders set up for all individual docmakers, a change which produced an even more doc-friendly atmosphere and one that encouraged a great deal of collegial support.

Panels of Note

During the Market, screenings were held at the Angelika Film Center and panels took place at the nearby Puck Building, both in Soho. Among the panels geared toward docmakers was "Your Doc's Second Wind: Life after the Festival Circuit," which brought together filmmakers Judith Helfand, Sandi Dubowski and Whitney Dow to discuss ways to generate impact with documentaries outside of the festival and broadcast track, such as grassroots organizing and educational outreach.

"Copyright and Creativity," a daylong series of panels during the Market's last day, addressed issues such as the impact of copyright and trademark law on independent filmmakers and creative artists and how the intersection of copyright and technology poses both promise and perils for independent filmmakers. Gigi Sohn, Founder of Public Knowledge, and John Perry Barlow, Co-Founder of the Electronic Frontier Foundation, were two of the participants in this topical, if not politically-charged, daylong event.

The Trials of Darryl Hunt calls attention to racial bias in the criminal justice system.

Films With a Message

Sixty documentary works-in-progress and 10 completed doc features screened at this year's Market. Among the films that tackled social issues were The Trials of Darryl Hunt, In the Wake of the Flood and Made in L.A., all works-in-progress.

The Trials of Darryl Hunt, Co-Directed and Co-Produced by Ricki Stern and Annie Sundberg, calls attention to racial bias in the criminal justice system through the 20-year odyssey to exonerate Darryl Hunt, a black man convicted in 1984 of the brutal rape and murder of a white woman in North Carolina. Carlos Peinado's In The Wake of the Flood chronicles the dislocation of The Three Affiliated Tribes of North Dakota as a result of the construction of a US Government-sactioned hydroelectric dam that flooded their homeland. In Made in L.A., director Almudena Carracedo documents the experiences of three Latina immigrants fighting for better working conditions in garment sweatshops in Los Angeles.

I sat down to speak with Ricki Stern, Carlos Peinado, and Robert Bahar (Co-Producer of Made in L.A.) to talk about their films, their IFP experiences, and their funding and outreach plans. Read the interview.

For a complete list of documentaries, including social-issue noteworthies check out www.IFP.org.

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