Tuesday, February 26, 2008

2008 Academy Awards - A feather in my cap!

I am walking around with a little extra strut in my step this week after two of my clients won the Academy Award in their respective categories of Best Documentary Feature and Best Documentary Short.

'Taxi to the Dark Side', blew me away the first moment I saw it in New York back in May. The film exposes US torture policy and builds upon the story of a young Afghan taxi driver who died in US custody. After the military coroner wrote 'homicide' on his death certificate an investigation followed that lead all the way to Rumsfeld, Cheney and the "president" himself. I immediately made contact with director Alex Gibney, met him in his office and asked him directly to do his filmout with us in Seattle. He was a perfect gentleman to work with. A visionary filmmaker. Look out for his new documentary 'Gonzo' on the life of Hunter S. Thompson. Interestingly and of far greater concern, Discovery Channel, are refusing to show it after paying a handsome price for the film. They consider it too controversial to air. Now if that isn't censorship of the greatest magnitude then I don't know what is.

'Freeheld', won best short doc. I met director Cynthia Wade in Columbia, Missouri during the True False Film Festival. We became friends and she eventually worked with us on her film in May when she attended the Seattle Film Festival. Her film exposes how a twenty five year veteran of the New Jersey state police could not transfer her earned pension and her possessions to her gay domestic partner after becoming diagnosed with terminal cancer. Although I no longer work at the old job, Cynthia and I stay in touch. I'll wait for the dust to settle before giving her a congratulatory call (and Alex Gibney).

The irony to all this is, nobody in my new job at Modern Digital knows (or would even care all that much) and nobody at my old job has anything to say to me after I specifically went out of my way to work with those films. Films that give my old company some serious clout in the business now. I don't really care all that much, but it would be nice to receive some sort of appreciation in work every now and then!

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