The Doc Art Mix Tape

Featuring Guests Sam Green and Tabitha Jackson Hosted by John Nein, Sundance Film Festival Senior Programmer
Wednesday, Jun 14, 2017 | 7:30pm Mark Taper Auditorium-Central Library

Lost & Found at the Movies is the Library Foundation’s series celebrating the art of cinema and the vitality of film culture. Eclectic in theme and varying in form, this onstage magazine explores how we lose ourselves and find ourselves at the movies.

Popular conceptions of documentary film tend to gravitate toward the idea of ‘capturing reality’ – observing the world as it exists, often addressing social issues or politics. And while those contribute to the richness of the form, they encourage discussion of content over craft.

What’s lost is the idea that non-fiction is the work of an artist (with a personal sensibility and distinctive voice) and of a form that’s capable of profound lyricism and artfulness. That’s never been more evident that during this Golden Age, marked by real inventiveness and artists who are blurring boundaries and thinking outside the frame…beyond the literal and into the poetical.

One such artist is Sam Green whose diverse body of work includes the Academy Award-nominated The Weather Underground, numerous shorts (The Rainbow Man/John 3:16, Pie Fight ’69, Lot 63/Grave C) and his evolving “live cinema” pieces (Utopia in Four Movements, The Love Song of R. Buckminster Fuller and The Measure of All Things).

He’s joined by Tabitha Jackson, Director of the Sundance Institute Documentary Film Program and former commissioning editor / executive producer (The Story of Film, The Arbor, 20,000 Days on Earth and The Imposter) who has made the case that “the lingua franca of non-fiction filmmaking should be the language of cinema and not the language of grant applications.”

Together they lead us through the ‘art of the real’ by way of a spontaneously created “doc art mix tape”…an impulsive exchange of clips, images and novel ideas; a personal journey through the cinematic moments that expand our sense of what documentary can be, culminating in a “live cinema” performance by Green.

LFLA Member reception to follow.

Lost & Found at the Movies is generously supported by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association
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John Nein

John Nein

John Nein is a senior programmer at the Sundance Film Festival and deals primarily with US and international feature films. He also plans the festival’s panels and runs the Institute’s film preservation initiative. John grew up in Europe and the United States, studied history at Carleton College and earned his MFA from UCLA’s Film Directing program, where he made several award-winning shorts and lobbied tirelessly for better coffee in the vending machines.

Sam Green

Sam Green is a New York-based documentary filmmaker. He received his Master’s Degree in Journalism from University of California Berkeley, where he studied documentary with acclaimed filmmaker Marlon Riggs. Green’s most recent projects are the “live documentaries” The Measure of All Things, (2014), The Love Song of R. Buckminster Fuller (with Yo La Tengo) (2012), and Utopia in Four Movements (2010). With all of these works, Green narrates the film in-person while musicians perform a live soundtrack.

Green’s 2004 feature-length film, the Academy Award-nominated documentary The Weather Underground, tells the story of a group of radical young women and men who tried to violently overthrow the United States government during the late 1960s and 70s. The film premiered at the Sundance Film Festival, was broadcast on PBS, included in the Whitney Biennial, and has screened widely around the world.

Green is also a prolific maker of short documentaries, including: The Rainbow Man/John 3:16, lot 63, grave c, Pie Fight ’69 (directed with Christian Bruno), N-Judah 5:30, and The Fabulous Stains: Behind the Movie (directed with Sarah Jacobson). He has received grants from the Creative Capital, Rockefeller and Guggenheim Foundations, as well as the National Endowment for the Arts.

Green is currently working on a new live cinema project with the Kronos Quartet.  www.samgreen.to

Tabitha Jackson

Tabitha Jackson was appointed Director of the Documentary Film Program (DFP) at the Sundance Institute in late 2013. The DFP is dedicated to supporting nonfiction filmmakers worldwide in the production of cinematic documentaries that tell compelling stories, push the boundaries of the form, or address contemporary issues including social justice and human rights. With almost 25 years experience in the field, Jackson is an award-winning Commissioning Editor, director, and producer of documentary and non-fiction work. She previously served as Head of Arts at Channel 4 Television in London, where she supported and championed the independent and alternative voice and sought to find fresh and innovative ways of storytelling. She executive produced a number of projects for Film 4 including Mark Cousins’ cinematic odyssey The Story of Film, Clio Barnard’s hybrid The Arbor, Sophie Fiennes’ essay The Pervert’s Guide to Ideology, Bart Layton’s thriller The Imposter, and Iain and Jane’s Nick Cave collaboration 20,000 Days on Earth.

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