The rusting relic of a failed 1950s development boom, the Salton Sea is a barren Californian landscape often seen as a symbol of the failure of the American Dream. First-time director Alma Har’el visits this poetically fruitful terrain in her distinctive documentary Bombay Beach, and finds there a motley cast including a bipolar seven-year-old, a lovelorn high school football star, and an octogenarian poet-prophet. Together they make up a triptych of American manhood in its decisive moments, populating the Salton Sea’s land of thwarted opportunity. Har’el crafts here an adamantly atypical and artistically innovative film—a dreamlike poem that sets the personal stories of these distinctive yet familiar characters to a stylized amalgam of observational documentary and choreographed dance, with music by Beirut and Bob Dylan, all cast against the atmospheric scenery of the titular ghost town.

For more info on other screenings visit the films website, and keep updated by following the film on Twitter or liking it on Facebook

Here is the list of cinemas showing the film on February 7th, click the links to book your tickets

London – Clapham Picturehouse

London – Greenwich Picturehouse

London – Hackney Picturehouse

London – Ritzy Cinema

London – Stratford Picture House

Aberdeen – Belmont Picturehouse

Bath – The Little Theatre

Brighton – Duke Of York's Picturehouse

Bury-St-Edmunds – Abbeygate Picturehouse

Cambridge – Cambridge Arts Picturehouse

Edinburgh – Cameo Cinema

Exeter – Exeter Picturehouse

Henley-upon-thames – Regal Picturehouse

Leeds – Hyde Park Picture House

Liverpool – Picturehouse At Fact

Norwich – Cinema City

Oxford – Phoenix Picturehouse

Southampton – Harbour Lights Picture House

Stratford-upon-avon – Stratford-upon-avon Picture House

York – City Screen Picturehouse

The film will also be screening on this day at the ICA in London as well as a Popup Cinema screening in Salford at the Black Lion. Why not organise your own screening through Popup if there is not a cinema near you showing the film - details here

Before the internet and before the likes of fashion bloggers, there was Bill Cunningham, the street-fashion and society chronicler for The New York Times. After 50 years of cycling the streets of the Big Apple with his camera, snapping the great, the good and the stylish, Bill Cunningham is now in front of the lens in this loving and intimate portrait of a remarkable man and a chronicler of a city.

The UKs fashionistas came out in force to attend the screening - including Brix Smith-Start, Dakota Blue Richards, Henry Holland,  Laura Whitmore, Jameela Jamil  and even recent Dogwoof star Zawe Ashton of Dreams of a Life.

The screening was introduced by Urbancode's Irena Vajagic and after the film Grazia magazines Paula Reed hosted a Q&A with catwalk photographer Chris Moore, another face familiar to the world of fashion photography.

Bill Cunningham New York will be released in UK cinemas on March 16th - visit the films website to find your nearest screening and keep up to date by following the film on Twitter or Facebook

Brix Smith-Start

Henry Holland

Jameela Jamil

Zawe Ashton

Bill Cunningham New York Goody bags for all!

Chris Moore and Paula Reed after the film

For 12 years, film maker Leonard Retel Helmrich followed an Indonesian family from the slums of Jakarta and this resulted in the trilogy ‘Stand van de zon’, ‘Stand van de maan’ and ‘Stand van de sterren’ (“Eye of the Day”, “Shape of the Moon” “Position among the Stars”) Just as in the previous two parts, which received many international prizes, in the third part “Position among the Stars”, the maker shows us the underlying patterns of life in Indonesia. He presents that both literally and metaphorically with his revolutionary camera work. The Indonesian Sjamsuddin family is, in a way, a microcosm in which you can recognise the most important issues of life in Indonesia: corruption, conflict between religions, gambling addiction, the generation gap and the growing difference between poor and rich.

Girl Model follows a complex supply chain between Siberia, Japan, and the U.S. within the modelling industry. The story is told through the eyes of a scout and a 13 year-old model. Despite a lack of obvious similarities between Siberia and Tokyo, a thriving model industry connects these distant regions. GIRL MODEL follows two protagonists involved in this industry: Ashley, a deeply ambivalent model scout who scours the Siberian countryside looking for fresh faces to send to the Japanese market, and one of her discoveries, Nadya, a thirteen year-old plucked from the Siberian countryside and dropped into the center of Tokyo with promises of a profitable career.

Directors David Redmon and Ashley Sabin were present and took part in a Q&A following the screening, chaired by psychologist Dr Linda Papadopoulos. The event was hosted by Victoria Keon-Cohen of the Model's Union and one of the models from the film, Rachel Blais, also took part in the Q&A where ethical debates on the use of young models raged.

Girl Model is released in UK cinemas on 10th Febuary - find your nearest screening here. The film will then arrive on iTunes and DVD on the 20th February - find out more on the website or keep up to date by following the film on Twitter or Facebook

Ashley Sabin and David Redmon at the Electric Cinema

Dr Linda Papadopoulos introduces the film

The Q&A panel: Victoria Keon-Cohen, Rachel Blais, Ashley Sabin David Redmon and Dr Linda Papadopoulos

Girl Model follows a complex supply chain between Siberia, Japan, and the U.S. within the modelling industry. The story is told through the eyes of a scout and a 13 year-old model. Despite a lack of obvious similarities between Siberia and Tokyo, a thriving model industry connects these distant regions. GIRL MODEL follows two protagonists involved in this industry: Ashley, a deeply ambivalent model scout who scours the Siberian countryside looking for fresh faces to send to the Japanese market, and one of her discoveries, Nadya, a thirteen year-old plucked from the Siberian countryside and dropped into the center of Tokyo with promises of a profitable career.

Find out more about the film on the website or keep up to date by liking the film on Facebook or following it on Twitter

Girl Model is a frightening expose on the treatment of young girls in the modelling industry and will be screening on the 17th and 18th February. This film will be released in the UK on 10th February and on DVD and iTunes soon afterwards.

Bill Cunningham New York looks at New York fashion photographer Bill Cunningham, and will be screening at the festival on the 22nd and 24th Feb. The film will be released at cinemas nationwide on the 16th March.

Planet of Snail follows Young-Chan, who has been deaf and blind since childhood and is screeening on the 19th and 20th February. We will release this title in June.

Better this World follows the journey of David McKay and Bradley Crowder) from political neophytes to accused domestic terrorists and is screening on the 22nd and 23rd Februay. The film will get a special screening in association with Dochouse in March.

How to Die in Oregon looks at the assisted suicide law passed in that state, and will be showing on the 23rd and 24th February. It will be released shortly afterwards.

Our next release is Errol Morris latest documentary, Tabloid. This film follows the salacious adventures of beauty queen Joyce McKinney, down a surreal rabbit hole of kidnapping, masochistic Mormons, risque photography, magic underwear, celestial sex, jail time and a cloning laboratory in South Korea. This title will be released on 6th Febuary - pre order the DVD here and iTunes here.

Next up we are chuffed to be releasing Sound it Out on DVD and iTunes. Jeanie Finlay's documentary looks at the very last surviving vinyl record shop in the UK and is a must see for music and vinyl fans everywhere. We will be releasing this film on the 13th February - pre order the DVD here

Girl Model, a frightening expose on the treatment of youg girls in the modelling industry gets its cinema release on the 10th February but will be available on DVD and iTunes shortly afterwards, out on the 20th February. Pre order the DVD here or on iTunes here

Our last February DVD release will be A Useful Life, a sweet feature that tells the tale of cinema programmer Jorge. This film will also be released on DVD and iTunes, available from the 27th February. Pre order the DVD now in the dogwoof shop

Also released on the 27th February, on iTunes only, will be Abendland.

Looking ahead to March you can also now get your early orders in for our recent popular film Dreams of a Life

Dreams of a Life tells the story of Joyce Vincent, whose skeleton was dicovered in her bedst in 2006. Her body has been there for three years, surrounded by Christmas presents she had been wrapping, and with the TV still on. Newspaper reports offered few details of her life– not even a photograph. Interweaving interviews with imagined scenes from Joyce’s life, Dreams of a Life is an imaginative, powerful, multilayered quest, and is not only a portrait of Joyce but a portrait of London in the eighties—the City, music, and race. It is a film about urban lives, contemporary life, and how, like Joyce, we are all different things to different people. It is about how little we may ever know each other, but nevertheless, how much we can love.

The DVD and iTunes release date is 12th March so get your order in today - pre-order the DVD from the Dogwoof shop here or iTunes here

Keep up to date with news on the film by following Dreams of a Life on Twitter or you can like the film on Facebook

The film went down very well at this sell out event, and director Alma Har'el took to the stage afterwards for a Q&A hosted by Film4 programme controller David Cox, as the discussion and questions from the audience flowed.

Bombay Beach is out in cinemas on Feburay 3rd  and will be shown as part of Picturehouse cinemas Doc Days on February 7th nationwide - find your nearest screening and book a ticket on the Bombay Beach website. You can also follow the film on Twitter or Facebook.

Here are some pictures from the night:

Dogwoof's Andy Whittaker with Alma Har'el

Alma Har'el at Wilton's Music Hall

The audience pours in before the film starts

David Cox and Alma Har'el take to the stage for the Q&A

In a deal done directly with director Fredrick Gertten and WG Film, Big Boys Gone Bananas!* is the follow up to the hugely successful Bananas!*, which Dogwoof distributed in 2010.

Says Gertten of the deal:  “Dogwoof were brave enough to pick up the first film [Bananas!*] when we were under fire, for which we are very proud - we are delighted to work with a team who know that to get docs out there in the current marketplace, you need to be both smart and creative.'

The Putin’s Kiss deal was brokered through DR sales and Oli Harbottle, Dogwoof’s Head of Distribution.

Helene Aurø of DR Sales says: “We are delighted to be working with Dogwoof on one more of our titles. We are confident that Putin´s Kiss will be a great success in the UK with such a professional team behind the film.”

Oli Harbottle on both acquisitions: “It is wonderful to add two such important and timely films to the Dogwoof roster - both films carry similar messages and display Dogwoof's dedication not only to the documentary genre, but also to films which are trying to make a difference.”

Both films are slated for release in Summer 2012 - Dogwoof are currently in talks on several other films at Sundance and hope to make further announcements soon.

We look forward to 2012.  Dreams of a Life is still going strong in cinemas, and we are kicking off our Film Festival run with Sundance and Berlin.  And it seemed a good moment for a short State of the Dogwoof Nation as our film distribution company turns eight years old later this year.

First of all a big thank you to our Filmmakers who are making some amazing documentaries.  Without you, none of what we do would be possible.

In 2011, Dogwoof released some Documentary films, (The Interrupters, Tabloid, Countdown to Zero, Dreams of a Life), acquiring and releasing 18 titles theatrically and many more via Home Entertainment.  We survived the London Riots (yes it's true that the rioters burned all of our DVD stock during the riots in a Warehouse fire) and a few black outs at Q&As for The Interrupters (the show must go on).  We've also widened our reach, as we now have a Global Sales team, and we are premiering our Films on demand online. Our focus is now firmly on Documentary, be it social issue or quirky.  What we love are entertaining films. It's good that the audience get to see a good film for their ticket money, and we want them to come back for more. Best of all we have worked with some great filmmakers this year, doing what we do best, fun, innovative and wide campaigns to launch the films and increase consumer awareness everywhere (Steve James, Alex Gibney, Errol Morris, Carol Morley to name a few).

Kicking off 2012.  We are a launch partner for Netflix, so a lot of Dogwoof love is available online right now.

This past year:

   •  The core of our business is still good old traditional Theatrical releases.  It's important to our business and for the films– plus Filmmakers still love their film being shown on a Big Screen and not an iPhone.  We have released nearly all of our films theatrically, with releases as wide as 50 cities across the UK. Dreams of a Life was a top 5 box office hit this year, as well as Critic's Pick for 2011.

   • Dogwoof Films can be found everywhere, on TV on BBC, Film4, Sky, and other major channels being beamed into your homes.

   • Our DVD's are available in at all good retailers, including HMV, FOPP, and online retailers like Amazon, Play and many more .

   • Online you can watch direct on our own channel, Dogwoof.TV, or via Netflix and iTunes

   • On Airplanes there is no escape either, with the lovely people at Virgin showing many a good Dogwoof film

   • Our films have received coverage in every major outlet including (but not limited to):  The Guardian, The Times, The Independent, The Sun, Time Out, Little White Lies, Empire, Total Film, Sight and Souns, Heat, Grazia, and even across the pond in The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal,

We look forward to seeing you and working together in 2012!   

Andy Whittaker

Founder

andy@dogwoof.com

Dreams of a Life has done very well at the box office after getting some great buzz at the BFI London Film Festival. The film is still screening across the UK - find your nearest screening here. If you have missed it in your local cinema then pre-order the DVD here. Here is the films synopsis:

Nobody noticed when Joyce Vincent died in her bedsit above a shopping mall in North London in 2003. Her body wasn’t discovered for three years, surrounded by Christmas presents she had been wrapping, and with the TV still on. Newspaper reports offered few details of her life - not even a photograph. Starring Fresh Meat’s Zawe Ashton, Dreams of a Life is an imaginative, powerful, multilayered docu-drama. It is not a portrait of Joyce and a portrait of London in the eighties - the City, music, and race. It is a film about urban lives, contemporary life, and how, like Joyce, we are all different things to different people.

For more info on Dreams of a Life visit the films website http://dreamsofalife.com

More information on the film awards and nominees can be found on the Evening Standard Website

Bombay Beach won the Tribeca Film Festival Best Documentary Prize and has garnered other awards and praise across the globe. Here is the films synopsis:

The rusting relic of a failed 1950s development boom, the Salton Sea is a barren Californian landscape often seen as a symbol of the failure of the American Dream. A sea in the middle of the Colorado desert. First-time director Alma Har’el visits this poetically fruitful terrain in her distinctive documentary Bombay Beach, and finds there a motley cast including a bipolar seven-year-old, a lovelorn high school football star, and an octogenarian poet-prophet. Together they make up a triptych of American manhood in its decisive moments, populating the Salton Sea’s land of thwarted opportunity

We thought we’d share a few stories from people bringing the festival to their areas, their way and through Dogwoof’s booking site, the Popup Cinema. It makes it easy for everyone to get involved in programming films. Like a Cinema, only your way.

John Coster’s Doc Fest kicks off next week at Leicester’s Phoenix Square. He’s screening over 15 docs over 2 days and mixing it up with workshops Q&As and fundraising for local filmmakers.

My idea behind DocFilm Festival is simple. To offer affordable access for communities to watch documentaries on the Worlds big issues, on the big screen. I screen the commercial films alongside local showcases and submissions from further afield to host an event worth visiting.

Through partnership working with organisations with budgets to provide training opportunities or marketing support, I've managed to obtain the majority of the funding needed to host the event.

Over in Newcastle, the Side Gallery are launching a mini Dogwoof Festival  , inspired by the “Do it Yourself” event on Crowd Funding and Distribution they hosted last year.

We hope that this will be a launch pad for a Crowd Programming project that we will be starting after April where the audience will programme and promote their own regular slot.  So far so good. First in the season ‘Dreams of a Life’ sold out straight away so, in the spirit of Crowd Programming, we have decided to do a second screening...

And it’s not just Dogwoof films which you can book on Popup Cinema. Check out other titles like Revolver’s Knuckle and Warps’ Paradise Lost as well as brilliant music doc from Trinity Films, Benda Bilili.

Have a browse and if you have any questions or ideas, contact popup@dogwoof.com

With many wary of Cameron's comments and the implications for independent filmmaking it seems we couldn't have scheduled a more appropriate week to release our film A Useful Life, which is an ode to cinefilia and cineastes. A Useful Life tells the story of Jorge: a film programmer, who also dabbles in technical support and criticism. Without any other job experience than working at the Film Archive, Jorge loses his position as the cinema is forced to close.

This got us thinking about the film industry and some of the issues. One particular thing we want to highlight is the escalating dissapearance of the cinema projectionist. Whilst cinemas go digital, projectionists are losing their jobs but unmanned cinema screenings are causing problems: without a projectionist in the booth to keep an eye on the screening things can and do go wrong, so we encourage you to show your support for this dying trade by tweeting with the #SaveaProjectionist hashtag. Here are some useful links on the topic for you to browse:

The Mad Cornish Projectionist - website run by one of the dying breed

Read an excerpt of Mark Kermodes book -  all about the Last Projectionists

Where did all the projectionists go? - article from Time Out

A twitter list of UK projectionists on twitter, show them some love (please tweet us @dogwoof to be added)

The projectionist's power - Related New Statesman article

Short Films and trailers on the subject

Facts About Projection - Short about the Screen on the Green's projectionist

The Death of the Cinema Projectionist - Short documentary

The Last Projectionist - Trailer for full length documentary

The Projection Party  - Mark Kermode videos on the subject

The Final Curtain on Reel Jobs - Short photofilm

The Academy is changing the rules to make it harder for documentary films to be nominated - to the consternation of the documentary filmmaking community. Here at Dogwoof, it may be going against popular opinion, but we think this is a good thing. The irony is that the people who were complaining when the nominations were announced for the Oscars® that the best films were not nominated -  Senna;  The Interrupters; Tabloid; Fire in Babylon, are doing the same this month when BAFTA announced their documentary long list, (yes the documentaries are back at BAFTA after a too long absence).

Despite Errol Morris presenting the David Lean lecture to celebrate the reinstatement of the BAFTA documentary category, two months later, Tabloid, one of his best films, is snubbed and does not even make the long list.  Life in a Day and others are proving the more popular vote winners...so things need to change. It is as simple as that.

I think one of the big reasons is that Voters are asked to see as many films as possible within a category.  Documentary first rounds are judged by the relevant Chapters, experts in Documentary.   But the reality is that they are swamped with over 200 films to watch - there is no filter on the first round. Anything that played one day in Manchester or in Los Angeles on the screening week is a valid entry.  This does not result in wisdom of the crowds and results in a mess, a dumbed-down overwhelmed mass of low quality and high quality docs. The Voters can only possibly catch all these films on DVD screeners, not in screenings, thus favouring the Studio films that can support a wide DVD Awards campaign.  The Voters are therefore bashed into submission by the number of Docs, after all who can watch 300 Documentaries in 2 weeks apart from a film critic?

And so what happens is the Voters play safe and cherry-pick films to watch - the ones they have heard about.  So instead of watching say, the top 50 documentaries of the year, as rated by the New York Times, they are watching the studio documentaries like Senna and Project Nim;  the winners at Sundance and Tribeca, playing it safe and adding in a few eclectic random picks.  The Votes reflect that.  This means that the "best" films, the critically praised films, like The Oath, or The Arbor, miss out.  Apart from the odd statistical anomaly, (Journalists Under Fire, good but top 10, really? ) there are no surprises in the lists. The BAFTA list is a safe list. And that is a missed opportunity, as 2011 was a great year for Documentary.

So viva la change! It may be elitist, but if you cannot get a New York Times critic to watch your film, then maybe you don’t deserve to come to the party. And after all, it isn't the end of the world,  Dogwoof got no documentary nominations this year in the big parties, whereas we are sweeping the board at Cinema Eye, Spirit awards and the like... and we still think that Errol Morris, Steve James, Werner Herzog are the greatest directors around.  Even if Oscar doesn't love them

love from Dogwoof

For another view check out Roger Eberts take here

P.S. Be good to hear what alternative selection systems could work better for Documentary nominations for BAFTA and Oscars.  And we'll propose / champion the best suggestions.  

Two initial suggestions
- Adopt the Academy Awards Foreign Language process. So each Country gets to nominate ONE film for the Documentary category and these are then entered as the long list.  And produce from that a Shortlist of 15 films, round one, then 5 films for final voting.   USA and UK would have an interesting time getting down to One nominee, though you could put forward the Spirits award winner for example. and the BAFTA winner.  This way at least the rest of the world would get a look in.  Nostalgia for the Light anyone?
- Alternatively we could have a Eurovision Song contest style vote, with each country awarding Nil Points to UK, and 15 points to the entry from Sweden (Into Eternity?) At least we would have a lot of fun finding the winner., and each Documentary would have it's 15 minutes of fame.

Ideas on a postcard please, tweet to @dogwoof or email info@dogwoof.com

A Useful Life tells the story of Jorge, who has been working at a Film Archive for 25 years. He is a film programmer, he makes technical support, and he conducts the film news show at a radio station in Montevideo. Without any other job experience than working at the Film Archive, Jorge loses his position. A Useful Life explores the way Jorge changes his way of living in order to adapt to the new world that appears to him. After all, maybe ‘movies’ will help him survive.

The film was featured on BBC Film 2012 where Claudia Winkelamn called it adorable, and it has also had great reviews already - including being Little White Lies recommended film, receiving 4 stars from Empire and Total Film, and if you grab a copy of this months Sight and Sound Magazine there is a great interview with the films director Federico Veiroj. Here are links to some of the best reviews so far:

BBC Film 2012 - Start watching at 24 minutes in to hear the teams thoughts

Sight and Sound Magazine - 'A genial homage to a failing cinematheque and its waning artform'

Empire Magazine - 'A paean to cinephilia'

Little White Lies Magazine - 'Documenting a seismic shift in the culture of cinema'

Sunday Mirror - 'A smart tribute to cinema'

The Arts Desk - 'Emotions slowly come to life in a movie about cinema itself'

View London - 'A charming ode to the big screen'

David Cameron's comments this week on film funding have caused much of a reaction in the film community, and means there could be no better time for you to watch A Useful Life, whether you just be a film fan, or are involved with the industry as a film programmer, critic or in film Production. As well as a long run at the BFI, A Useful Life will screen across the country at other venues including in Sheffield, Bristol, Birmingham, Bristol, Edinburgh and Derby - find a full list of screenings here

Bombay Beach won the Tribeca Film Festival Best Documentary Prize and has garnered other awards and praise across the globe. Here is the films synopsis:

The rusting relic of a failed 1950s development boom, the Salton Sea is a barren Californian landscape often seen as a symbol of the failure of the American Dream. A sea in the middle of the Colorado desert. First-time director Alma Har’el visits this poetically fruitful terrain in her distinctive documentary Bombay Beach, and finds there a motley cast including a bipolar seven-year-old, a lovelorn high school football star, and an octogenarian poet-prophet. Together they make up a triptych of American manhood in its decisive moments, populating the Salton Sea’s land of thwarted opportunity.

True to her roots as a photographer, video artist, and music video director, Har’el crafts here an adamantly atypical and artistically innovative film—a dreamlike poem that sets the personal stories of these distinctive yet familiar characters to a stylized amalgam of observational documentary and choreographed dance, with music by Beirut and Bob Dylan, all cast against the atmospheric scenery of the titular ghost town. The result is a moving and surreal documentary experience—an evocative, symbolic portrait of rural America and its inhabitants.

Book your tickets for this special event here

For more information on the film visit the website, and keep up to date by liking the film on Facebook or following us on Twitter

What processes happen at night and what do they reveal about Europe? In Abendland, meaning both the West and evening land, renowned Austrian director Nikolaus Geyrhalter takes us on a powerful personal journey through Europe after dark to see the nocturnal structures that make our civilized world. Under the cover of darkness, people not only sleep, they also work and play, are born and die. Systems are maintained, many of them protected. A large number of night jobs involve surveillance and exclusion. What kind of Europe is this that we don’t let others participate in? Darkness can help us see things more clearly.

This special one off event will be followed by a Q&A with Lucy Ashton, who collaborated with Nikolaus Geyrhalter on Abendland to produce shoots in the UK, France, Netherlands, Belgium, Germany, Czech Republic, Italy, Spain and Malta. She has worked for Al-Jazeera, BBC, Ch4 and the Financial Times among others.

The screening will be held at the Riverside Studios in Hammersmith at 7.30pm on the 12th January - book your tickets here