North America, Here We Come

Doug — Tue, 06 Apr 2010 16:58:57 +0000

Tuesday, April 6

In a few days, the fun begins. The film gets out in front of audiences again.

Full Frame, Sarasota, Stranger Than Fiction and Hot Docs, for starters.

It’s been a quite a while since IDFA, we’ve been laying low. But a lot is happening behind the scenes and hopefully we can share the news soon. All I can say at this point is The Kids Grow Up will almost certainly have a theatrical release, probably beginning in the early fall. So stay tuned.

But now it’s time to get out on the festival circuit at last. On Thursday, Lori and I head down to the Full Frame Documentary Film Festival in Durham, NC, and it’s going to be a great three days. Like at IDFA, we come not just to screen The Kids Grow Up but as producers of The Edge of Dreaming, which is part of the New Docs competition. And I’ll be on the Grand Jury, which means the festival flies me down and puts me up in the lap of luxury!

On Friday, Marjorie arrives to once again take part in our Q&A. Meanwhile, we get to see a slew of great friends and colleagues, not to mention take in some world class documentaries. Apart from the 18 I’ve already had the pleasure to pre-screen for my jury duty, that is.

The following weekend is the Sarasota Film Festival, where we had such a great experience with 51 Birch Street. Then on April 20, we have a one-time showing at one of the great documentary screening series around, Stranger Than Fiction, here in New York City. Finally, we head back to one of my favorite film cities, Toronto, for Hot Docs, which is North America’s largest documentary festival.

I’m so looking forward to showing my film, meeting with audiences and sharing my family story with them. It’s always a great interaction, one that I get so much out of. Then there’s the online discussion component, coming here soon, which will allow everyone the chance to share their own family stories around parenting, kids growing up and empty nest issues.

So, this is just the beginning. Here we come.

World Premiere of THE KIDS…

Doug — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 22:47:00 +0000

THE KIDS GROW UP will have its’ world premiere next month at IDFA (International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam), the largest and most prestigious of all documentary festivals. It’s playing in the Reflecting Images: Masters section, along with new or recent docs by, well, there’s no other term, masters such as D.A. Pennebaker & Chris Hegedus, Frederick Wiseman, Michael Moore, Joe Berlinger, Susan Froemke, Julien Temple and Michael Winterbottom. So it’s quite an honor and my hat size has swelled accordingly.

I’ll post the screening dates and times when they become available (on Nov 7th, we hear), but the festival itself runs from November 19th thru 29th. The huge international success of 51 BIRCH STREET was pretty much a direct result of our European premiere at IDFA in 2005, so it promises to be really exciting. Three of our four broadcasters are located in Europe (ZDF/Arte, Channel 4 and VPRO), and it will be helpful to talk over future projects in person with them there. And, if that weren’t enough, Lori and I are producers of another film that’s having its’ world premiere at IDFA: Amy Hardie’s THE EDGE OF DREAMING. It’s an extraordinary personal documentary that’s screening in the competition for feature-length documentary, and I’ll be writing about it much more in the near future.

The Kids Grow Up » 51 Birch Street

North America, Here We Come

World Premiere of THE KIDS…