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MillimeterInternational Documentary Association Names Top Docs of 2006
Dec 11, 2006 5:04 PM
Iraq in Fragments took top honors in the feature-length competition at the 2006 International Documentary Association (IDA) Distinguished Documentary Achievement Awards Gala at the Directors Guild of America Theatre.
James Longley’s documentary offers a series of intimate portraits: A fatherless 11-year-old is apprenticed to the domineering owner of a Baghdad, Iraq garage; Sadr followers in two Shiite cities rally for regional elections while enforcing Islamic law at the point of a gun; and a family of Kurdish farmers welcomes the U.S. presence, which has allowed them a measure of freedom previously denied.
“These awards are presented to individuals who have earned the respect of their peers for their extraordinary achievements,” says IDA President Diane Estelle Vicari. “We believe they are the history of our times, and the conscience and soul of our global community. They are also a source of inspiration for filmmakers everywhere in the world with untold dreams.”
Longley spent more than two years in Iraq researching and shooting the film. Iraq in Fragments is also on the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences short list for Oscar.
The other nominated films were Can Mr.Smith Get to Washington Anymore?, Deliver Us From Evil, Showbusiness: A Season to Remember, and Sierra Leone’s Refugee All Stars.
Angel’s Fire (Fuego de Angel) won the IDA short documentary (40 minutes or less) competition. It focuses on how forced labor of children, poverty and despair leads to abusive behavior by parents. It was directed by Marcelo Bukin.
The other nominated films were The Blood of Yingzhou District, The Diary of Immaculee, The Short History of Sweet Potato Pie and How It Became a Flying Saucer, and The Wild Sheep, the Fox and Love.
Morgan Freeman presented the feature and short film awards.
An Inconvenient Truth Director Davis Guggenheim received the Pare Lorentz Award, which recognizes a documentary filmmaker who best represents the activist spirit and lyrical vision of the legendary documentary filmmaker Pare Lorentz. Other highlights of the evening included the opening remarks by former Vice President Al Gore, who was the inspiration for An Inconvenient Truth. Jane Fonda also presented the IDA Career Achievement Award to Haskell Wexler, ASC, an Oscar-winning narrative film cinematographer, who has also compiled some 30-plus documentary credits.
Andrew Berends received the Courage Under Fire Award for The Blood of My Brother, a behind-the-scenes portrait of how unrelenting violence is affecting the lives of ordinary people in Iraq. Berends spent six months in that worn-torn country working on his behind the scenes documentary. Scholar and cultural critic Dr. Patricia Aufderheide was recognized with the IDA Preservation & Scholarship Award.
Christopher Quinn received the Jacqueline Donnet Emerging Documentary Filmmaker Award for God Grew Tired of Us, and Carrie Lozano claimed the David L. Wolper Student Documentary Achievement Award for Reporter Zero.
The American Experience PBS series, which is in its 18th season, captured the IDA Award for a Continuing Series (four individual programs that best represent the series), and the Limited Series (series of episodes with a specific continuing theme) winner was Off to War, which aired on the Discovery Times Channel.
The ABCNEWS VideoSource Award went to director/producer/executive producer Stanley Nelson for Jonestown: The Life and Death of Peoples Temple. This award is given to an individual whose documentary best utilizes television news footage as an integral component of the work. The IDA Awards selection process began with peer group juries who watched all submissions and selected nominees in each category for final review by a blue-ribbon panel.
A complete list of the 2006 IDA Award winners and nominees is available at www.documentary.org.
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