Silverdocs is Upon Us but Where is Erica?

Yes Silverdocs is here and so am I, but the Docs Insider blog has remained relatively silent.  I was stunned last night at the festival's industry lounge to have a fairly influential person from the documentary broadcast world asking me where my blog was.  Aside from being stunned that said person even read this blog -- as infrequent as it has become -- I also felt stunned that I am able to cobble together any words at all tonight to meet this surprising demand.

 

As an aside, I have been going non-stop for the past 3 weeks, accompanying a group of international documentary filmmakers around the U.S. on a professional exchange program; administering a pre-Silverdocs Peer Pitch workshop co-sponsored with The D-Word and Silverdocs; planning an Open House here at Docs In Progress this Friday; and trying to catch as many films and some of the conference programming as possible.  I still haven't unpacked from the trip.

That would be excuse enough, but my true excuse is that I need time for reflection.  Maybe it's the introvert in me, but I simply cannot deeply my thoughts about experiences in real time in any great depth.  After my adventure trying to do daily blogging from Full Frame, I realize that I am better cut out to do a post-screening blog where I have time to reflect on the films, the conversations, and the knowledge and inspiration gained from the festival.  Yeah, I could tell you I liked this film or found another disappointing.  And yes, I have done that to some extent on @docsinprogress Twitter account. But it's still only a little piece of the puzzle.

Perhaps appropriately enough, tonight I went to the Guggenheim Honors which went to Frederick Wiseman.  Wiseman spoke at length about his approach to post-production and I was very intrigued by him saying that he edits in segments before he decides how he wants to structure the whole film together.  And maybe that's a little bit how I feel  about festival blogging.  I will leave the daily blow-by-blow accounts and film reviews to others.  And then in a few weeks, just in time for the Docs In Progress summer newsletter, I will piece together all the different thoughts I have into something coherent to say about the festival.

And I won't be alone either.  My colleague, Matthew Radcliff who has contributed documentary film reviews here throughout the year and also updates the Documentary Roundup Calendar, has said he'll also provide some post-festival reviews.

So dear broadcaster and everyone else, you will get something from us soon enough. Your patience is greatly appreciated.

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