AMPAS/UCLA Contemporary Documentary Series
by Andre Soares
Fifteen short and feature-length documentaries, including the Academy Award-winning La Marche de l’empereur / March of the Penguins and five Oscar nominees, will be screened in part two of the 2006–2007 Contemporary Documentaries series, presented by the Academy Foundation of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences and the UCLA Film & Television Archive.
The first screenings of the series — La Marche de l’empereur and Grizzly Man — will take place on Wednesday, March 14, at 7 p.m. at the Academy’s Linwood Dunn Theater in Hollywood. Admission is free.
La Marche de l’empereur is set in Antarctica (one of the two extremes of the globe that are melting away), where Emperor penguins march around so as to perform their ritual courtship. That is followed by monogamous mating and, ultimately, a single egg. Radical Christians have seen the penguin lifestyle as proof positive of God’s creative creationism and of the sanctity of monogamous heterosexual marriage — even though, admittedly, humans don’t usually lay eggs. (Check out the BBC story about the heathen gay penguins.)
In Grizzly Man — winner of numerous U.S. film critics awards, but ignored by the Academy — iconoclastic director Werner Herzog documents the life and death of grizzly bear expert and wildlife preservationist Timothy Treadwell, who spent 13 summers living among Alaskan bears. In 2003, Treadwell’s remains, along with those of his girlfriend, were found after they were mauled and eaten by a grizzly. Following the screening, Herzog will discuss the making of the film and answer questions from the audience.
Complete series schedule:
March 14
La Marche de l’empereur / March of the Penguins (directed by Luc Jacquet; produced by Yves Darondeau, Christophe Lioud, Emmanuel Priou) Academy Award winner: Documentary Feature
Grizzly Man (directed by Werner Herzog; produced by Erik Nelson)
March 28
The Death of Kevin Carter: Casualty of the Bang Bang Club (directed and produced by Dan Krauss) Academy Award nominee: Documentary Short Subject
KordaVision (directed by Héctor Cruz Sandoval; produced by Gilberto Lazaro Martinez, José Antonio Jiménez, Cruz Sandoval, Mary Ruth Nieto, Gina Pérez)
April 11
Abused (directed by Chuck Braverman, produced by Braverman and Marilyn Braverman)
After Innocence (directed by Jessica Sanders; produced by Sanders, Marc Simon)
April 25
Waging a Living (directed and produced by Roger Weisberg)
Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room (Directed by Alex Gibney; produced by Gibney, Jason Kliot, Susan Motamed, Alison Ellwood) Academy Award nominee: Documentary Feature
May 9
Rize (directed by David LaChapelle; produced by LaChapelle, Marc Hawker, Ellen Jacobson-Clarke, Richmond Talauega, Tone Talauega)
Favela Rising (directed and produced by Jeff Zimbalist, Matt Mochary)
May 23
Positively Naked (directed and produced by Arlene Donnelly Nelson, David Nelson; produced by Helen Hood Scheer)
The Mushroom Club (directed and produced by Steven Okazaki) Academy Award nominee: Documentary Short Subject
Unknown White Male (directed by Rupert Murray; produced by Beadie Finzi)
June 6
God Sleeps in Rwanda (directed and produced by Kimberlee Acquaro, Stacy Sherman) Academy Award nominee: Documentary Short Subject
Darwin’s Nightmare (directed by Hubert Sauper; produced by Edouard Mauriat, Anne-Cécile Berthomeau, Antonin Svoboda, Martin Gschlacht, Barbara Albert, Hubert Toint) Academy Award nominee: Documentary Feature
All screenings in the series are free and open to the public. They will begin at 7 p.m. at the Academy’s Linwood Dunn Theater. Filmmakers will be present whenever possible to discuss their films and take questions from the audience. The Linwood Dunn Theater is located at the Academy’s Pickford Center for Motion Picture Study, 1313 North Vine Street, at the northwest corner of Fountain Avenue and Vine Street in Hollywood. Parking is available behind the building through the entrance on Homewood Avenue, one block north of Fountain. For more information, call (310) 247-3600 or (310) 206-FILM.
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