Thursday, June 14---------Thursday is Demme Day at SILVERDOCS, with Oscar-winning director Jonathan Demme being honored and screenings of both new and celebrated non-fiction works from the veteran director. Demme is one of the few Hollywood directors who is equally at home in fiction films and in the documentary arena. In a career that now spans four decades and includes nearly 50 feature films and television programs, nearly 25% of Demme's output has been in the non-fiction world, as either...

Thursday, June 14-------Protecting the rights of animals used in films is a primary concern for the organization Animal Content In Entertainment (ACE), a program of the Humane Society of the United States. This year, ACE is teaming with SILVERDOCS to offer a grant of $10,000 for a documentary film designed for theatrical, television or new media distribution that highlights animal issues. This morning, six lucky finalists had an opportunity to pitch their projects to a panel of film and animal r...

Wednesday, June 13--------On the first official day of screenings, SILVERDOCS: AFI/Discover Channel Documentary Festival presents a powerful documentary on the conflict in the Darfur region of the Sudan....one of the most pressing humanitarian crises in the world. THE DEVIL CAME ON HORSEBACK, by award-winning filmmakers Annie Sundberg and Ricki Stern, is a searing exposition of the violence and tragedy of the genocide in Darfur. The film is seen through the eyes of a solitary American witness...

Tuesday, June 12-------The fifth annual SILVERDOCS: AFI/Discovery Channel Documentary Festival opens this evening with the DC Premiere of PETE SEEGER: THE POWER OF SONG, a loving portrait of the musical living legend, directed by Jim Brown, who profiled Seeger and his 1950s/1960s singing group The Weavers in the award-winning 1982 film THE WEAVERS: WASN'T THAT A TIME. PETE SEEGER: THE POWER OF SONG, executive produced by television legend and political activist Norman Lear, interweaves the ...

Monday, June 11-------In a mere five years, SILVERDOCS has emerged as one of the most important and provocative showcases of non-fiction media in the world. With support from both the American Film Institute and Discovery Communications, the event, barely a toddler in festival terms, has become an industry prime mover. Its parallel International Documentary Conference, a series of information panels and master classes, attracts nearly 1000 visiting filmmakers, commissioning editors and programme...

Friday, September 15---One of the key human tragedies and human mysteries of the 1970s was the mass suicide of 900 followers of the Peoples Temple, a fundamentalist group that originated in San Francisco and eventually moved into refuge in Guyana. The group's charismatic leader, Jim Jones, was a true enigma....a spiritual leader of immense charisma who had an amazing hold over his followers. Why hundreds of them were willing to commit mass suicide on his orders is one of the mysteries explored...

Monday, June 19---The 4th annual SILVERDOCS:AFI/Discovery Channel Documentary Festival ended its six-day event with the announcements of Jury and Audience prizes in a number of diverse categories. The Festival, which had a significant breakthrough this year, in terms of content, celebrity attendance (Martin Scorsese, Jim Jarmusch, Al Gore, Thomas L. Friedman, Will Shortz and others) and audience response has more than reinforced its claim as the premiere documentary film festival in North Ameri...

Thursday, June 15----A documentary film festival always has some common threads to it. Many involve hot-button political issues about social inequity, conflict and the abuse of government. SILVERDOCS certainly has its share of those. However, a more personal genre, that can best be described as films that celebrate the triumph of the human spirit, is also in evidence here, in a number of superb films. BLACK SUN by UK director Gary Tan, had its premiere at the 2005 Toronto Film Festival and was ...

Thursday, June 15----One of the tenets of the American system of governing is a strict separation of church and state. It is very clearly written into our Constitution, and was certainly the intention of our "founding fathers", who had experienced the persecutions of state religions in Europe. This seperation between church doctrine and the rule of law has been scrupulously followed but that wall is definitely crumbling. A number of documentaries premiering at the SILVERDOCS festival this week,...

Tuesday, June 13-----The 4th edition of SILVERDOCS: The AFI/Discovery Channel Documentary Festival, the leading documentary film festival in North America, launches this evening with a reflective view of the creative and economic pressures of the Hollywood system. BOFFO! TINSELTOWN’S BOMBS AND BLOCKBUSTERS, directed by veteran documentarian Bill Couturie, is based on the book written by long-time Variety editor-in-chief Peter Bart, in celebration of the film trade’s 100th anniversary. The ...

Monday, June 12---While most US-based film festivals regularly showcase at least a few international documentaries as part of their program, non-fiction from around the world is a definite spotlight of the SILVERDOCS: AFI/Discovery Channel Documentary Festival, which launches on tomorrow night at the AFI Silver Center. In a section called World View, which also includes US documentaries, the subject matter and geographical origins of the films bring a broader understanding of political, social ...

Friday, June 9----Fresh off his tour of the Croisette at the Cannes Film Festival with his film AN INCONVENIENT TRUTH, former Vice President (and current media darling) Al Gore will delivery the Keynote Address at the SILVERDOCS Documentary Film Conference on Thursday, June 15. Gore's film, directed by Davis Guggenheim, a wake-up call on the effects of global warming, has been a media sensation since its debut at the Sundance Film Festival in January, and reached a fever pitch when Gore walke...

SILVERDOCS: The AFI/Discovery Channel Documentary Festival, which begins next week, has announced the 10 films that will be competing for the Sterling Award Feature Film prize at its event. The Festival, which has become one of the leading showcases of non-fiction film in the world, mixes film screenings with information panels and special events to offer a comprehensive look at the current state of the art of documentary film, and where the art form may go in the future. As one can imagine ...

Wednesday, June 7---Inspired by the seminal 7 UP films of British director Michael Apted, which followed the same group of youngsters at ages 7, 14 and 21, the SILVERDOCS AFI/Discovery Channel Documentary Festival will present the premiere of 21 UP AMERICA, directed by Christopher Quinn. The film is the third installment in a series that has recorded the same subjects at ages 7 and 14, and now turns its focus on what it is like to be 21 in America today. The film provides a provocative case s...

Tuesday, June 6----The SILVERDOCS AFI/Discovery Channel Documentary Festival begins on June 13th, and has announced a number of Special Event Screenings to compliment its roster of the best of international documentary film. The New York Times, one of the event's sponsors, is presenting two Times Talks. The first, screening on Friday, June 16, features Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist Thomas L. Friedman, whose recent book THE WORLD IS FLAT, pointed to the dangers and opportunities of economic ...

Monday, June 5---Legendary filmmaker Martin Scorsese will be honored at the SILVERDOCS: AFI/Discovery Channel Documentary Festival, which launches on June 13th. Scorsese will be commemorated at the Charles Guggenheim Symposium on Thursday, June 15th at the AFI Silver Center, the hub of the annual documentary event. The Symposium and Award are a tribute to the late Washington DC filmmaker and philanthropist Charles Guggenheim. Scorsese is one of the rare Hollywood directors who has worked in t...

SILVERDOCS: AFI/DISCOVERY CHANNEL DOCUMENTARY FESTIVAL has become one of the most prestigious events in the world of non-fiction film. The 2006 Festival, a mixture of film screenings, information seminars and special events, will take place from June 13 to 18, 2006 at the AFI Silver Center in Silver Springs, Maryland (USA). Return to this dedicated website to read articles, view photos, hear audio files and view video at North America's most intriguing festival devoted to the work of documen...