Bringing documentary filmmakers and documentary films to students in schools sounds like a great idea. In fact, its such a good idea that DocuClub, a New York-based organization is developing a program to do just that. If kids can be turned on to the whole idea of documentary films and filmmaking and understand that these types of films can really entertain, enrich, stimulate, and not just educate, then weve done a great thing-especially if weve taught kids these things in their seminal years, said Edward Rosenstein, a freelance spot producer and documentary filmmaker.
Rosenstein is co-chair of DocuClubs outreach program, along with New York-based filmmaker Beth Dembitzer, and lawyer Susan Kaufman of ICM, New York. DocuClub was started in 95 by Susan Kaplan, who is now the organizations executive director, and, as she described it, the groups purpose is to provide support for a documentary filmmakers process and a safe format for filmmakers to discover, network, launch and create a film. DocuClub programs include work-in-progress screenings where filmmakers show rough cuts of their films and receive feedback. This season, which began in September and runs to May, DocuClub has begun to screen completed documentary films. Though it began with an 80-person mailing list, DocuClub now claims 1500 filmmakers and friends. Screenings and other events are usually booked to the gills.
Like many artists devoted to a not-entirely lucrative art, Rosenstein lives a double life. On the one hand, he freelance produces commercials, often for Stiefel & Company, Hollywood, and, on the other hand, hes a documentary filmmaker. In the last year, Rosensteins credits include producing Gateway commercials for McCann-Erickson, New York, and spots for the Philadelphia Electric Company through Tierney & Partners, Philadelphia. Both were directed by Harvey Wang via Stiefel & Company. On the documentary side, Rosenstein has produced his own work, including 1996s Tickle in the Heart, a film about aging Klezmer musicians who were practitioners of the craft long before its current resurgence. Currently, Rosenstein is producing and directing a documentary about a controversial Harlem drug rehabilitation center for A&E as well as co-producing and co-directing a segment of HBOs Real Sex.
While the outreach program is still in its formative stages, the program planners hope to reach out to a wide swath of schools in the New York area. As outlined, the program will provide schools with a list of films and filmmakers who are available to present and
discuss their work with students and teachers. With this kind of education, students may develop more of an interest in a medium that, at least in the U.S., is often neglected. What we have at our fingertips is the foremost pool of documentary filmmakers in New York, Rosenstein said. Successful programs that bring films and filmmakers into schools have been implemented by New Yorks Margaret Mead Film & Video Festival as well as the Los Angeles-based International Documentary Program, and the DocuClub planning group has had discussions with these and other groups while developing its program.
Kaplan said that the outreach effort would be a natural extension of what DocuClub already does to support documentary film and filmmakers. Its introducing ideas and a format for young people to learn how [to make films] and get inspired by the accessibility of the medium, she related. It would be a forum to talk about documentary filmmaking as well as the ideas behind the stories that we would be submitting to the schools. But the filmmakers would accompany their film, talk about the process, talk about the ideas, and teachers could work within a curriculum and talk about it within their courses.
Rosenstein noted that the program is also an opportunity to allow filmmakers to experience some enthusiasm about their films, which dont get the same attention that mainstream blockbusters do. He added that filmmakers have a diverse range of reasons for interest in the program. For documentary filmmakers, you dont get that much fulfillment out of the whole end product. Its a blip in the TV guide, maybe, he said. And these are passionate people and passionate projects. So the ability to get feedback from kids for some people is all they want. Just to have interested children who really care, and the stimulating conversation that produces is enough reason for some filmmakers. The ability to educate children is enough reason for [others].
As he works to encourage a younger generations excitement about documentary filmmaking, Rosenstein says that working on both documentaries and commercials is not as much of a contradiction as it might seem. Its really a good mix of worlds, he notes. Its really cross-training to be able to gear up and shoot commercials after working on documentaries. You know how to do things cheaper and more creatively.
