A Documentary’s Road to Oscar

This article is from the archive of The New York Sun before the launch of its new website in 2022. The Sun has neither altered nor updated such articles but will seek to correct any errors, mis-categorizations or other problems introduced during transfer.

The New York Sun

Can you feel it — the Oscar mania, gripping the city?

No? Then you must not know any documentary filmmakers.

For legions of emerging directors who have chosen the documentary route to break into the festival circuit — aiming to establish themselves with the next great work of provocation (think Michael Moore), up-close scrutiny (think Errol Morris), or world-changing significance (last year’s Oscar-winning “An Inconvenient Truth”) — the Oscar race doesn’t start on January 22, when the Academy will announce this year’s official nominees.

Instead, it started almost a year ago, as these directors finalized their films in time for the Sundance Film Festival in January. And it has continued throughout 2007 as they have blanketed the world’s film festivals and organized private showings, all in hopes of meeting the screening guidelines outlined by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.

The journey has barreled relentlessly toward the autumn — to this week, in fact — and the Academy’s announcement of this year’s final documentary “short list.” A month ago, on October 11, the films vying for the Oscar for short documentaries were whittled down to a final list of eight, and many are expecting the feature documentary short list to be released today or tomorrow — after no announcements were made last Thursday or Friday, when some were expecting finally to hear the news. Ironically, this finish line of sorts is merely the beginning of a three-month sprint for the prize. Before these filmmakers can even think about gold statuettes, which will be handed out at the 80th Academy Awards on February 24, they must work to get enough voters to see the film and nominate it in January. If most Oscar campaigns are the equivalent of a 100-meter dash (such hopefuls as Paul Thomas Anderson’s “There Will Be Blood” won’t hit theaters until December 26 in an effort to be fresh in voters’ minds), then documentarians are triathletes: First they have to fight for space at film festivals. Then they must scrap for screens at movie theaters in order to satisfy the various theatrical requirements imposed by the Academy. Finally, they must endure the drama of making the short list.

Why endure such a brutal, lengthy, and tedious competition? Because winning one of the two documentary Oscars is not just a notice to serve among one’s peers, but a probable meal ticket in the form of future employment (most documentarians pay the bills by hopping between freelance projects).

Need proof of how great the suspense has become? Try asking a few of the “short-listed” filmmakers about the short list competition already well under way. You’d think it would be easy, but most will refuse to talk about the Oscar race, which is steeped in layer upon layer of Academy rules governing published interviews. When contacted by the Sun, some inquired as to whether this reporter was planted by their competitors to conduct a fake interview in hopes of coaxing a rules violation and disqualifying them.

One prominent New York documentary, a short film called “Freeheld,” has already made the first Oscar cut of the year. The film has been singled out everywhere, from Sundance to New York’s Newfest in June. Its most recent New York engagement was at the Two Boots Pioneer Theater in September, as part of a special CineWomen NY event.

Crafted by Cynthia Wade, a longtime filmmaker and documentary instructor at the New School, “Freeheld” tells the story of Laurel Hester, a New Jersey policewoman who, after being diagnosed with terminal cancer, sought to transfer her future pension benefits to her lesbian partner, a type of transfer that in New Jersey is an inherent right for married heterosexual couples. “Freeheld” captures Ms. Hester’s passionate fight against the government, just as her health declines precipitously.

Ms. Wade is best known for her feature documentaries, including “Shelter Dogs,” which was picked up by HBO in 2004 and captures a year in the life of a rural animal shelter, and “Taken In: The Lives of America’s Foster Children,” a PBS documentary about the foster care system, for which she served as cinematographer and co-producer. But her decision to release “Freeheld” as a short — a format that is shunned by some theaters, which don’t know how to program it, and by some filmmakers, who want the commercial viability of a feature film — was a conscious one.

“It’s become the case where I think all documentaries, actually all films, are about 25 percent too long,” Ms. Wade said. “I’m pretty ruthless in the editing room, but there’s this expectation now that you release a feature-length film that is 110 minutes or more, and that’s led to a lot of fat, where things run too long. This is really the best and worst time to be a documentary filmmaker, because there’s more opportunity than ever with cheaper equipment, but also way more competition than you ever used to see.”

Thanks to the Internet, directors can now create elaborate Web sites (such as Ms. Wade’s own freeheld.com) both to promote their films and to provide a forum for interested viewers to engage with the topics. Meanwhile, digital downloads and the rise of such online rental hubs as Netflix are allowing filmmakers to bypass the theater and bring their films directly to the viewer. Thanks to DVDs, Ms. Wade said, the makers of short films have the option of trimming some fat from their projects and offering it as additional footage in the form of DVD extras. It was this new-media mentality, Ms. Wade said, that convinced her to embrace the possibilities of releasing “Freeheld” as a short.

“Ten years ago, I don’t know if I would have made this as a short film,” she said. “Where would it have gone? To a few film festivals and then to an educational catalog, where it would sink like a stone. But today, there are so many other options. It made me bolder about making a short. That’s why I got into Sundance.” The new digital order, though, has also made the Oscar race for both feature-length and short documentaries that much more arduous and aggressive, as filmmakers have been all but forced to become multimedia marketers. Looking back at the extensive festival run of “Freeheld,” and the new mentality of festival tours and online promotions that directors must now embrace, Ms. Wade said that endurance is more a factor today than ever.

“Before, when you finished the final cut of the film, you were nearly done with the process,” she said. “But today, when you’re finished with the movie, you’re only about halfway done. Now you move on to build the Web site, the trailer, maybe you start distributing and selling your film online, launch some viral marketing. It’s a whole new world.”

ssnyder@nysun.com


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