Welcome to our Beta test! On documentaries, digital media, movies and freedom of the mind...
The purpose of this site is to grow into a trusted platform for documentary media. Change is in the wind.
Hi!. I'm Roz Dauber. I'm a documentary filmmaker with 20 years of experience. This website, for lovers of documentaries with inquiring minds, is at its pre-launch beginning. I subscribe to the notion that change is accelerating in the world at least in part because of media... that it is becoming swifter, deeper, and global. The world of journalism and film and television has been forever altered by cyberspace.
I have been wanting to launch this website for 2 years. So much has happened with broadband video viewing in two years. Netflix has made streaming available, Hulu was born, and YouTube took off in the last 2 years. How soon will DVDs be replaced by instant on-line viewing? Over 64 on-line companies exist to show film and television on broadband. They have between one and five hundred employees, Many are privately held and staked with millions of dollars. Yet nothing competes with the amount of hours of video and eyeballs that YouTube attracts. Within this mass of activity, where can the non-fiction filmmaker go? Where can viewers looking for subject areas and specific content and know they are getting quality programs with decent journalistic standards? How can any of us trust what we see on the web?
In the next few postings, I'll explain what we're trying to do and how. I want to invite documentary filmmakers who see the long term value of being on the web as part of a catalog that gives films their own pages, blogs and platform to contact us.
What does it mean to be a successful media person today? Is it measured by critical acclaim? Financial reward? Numbers of viewers? How much does our media experience get determined by the generation we're in? I am reading a book called "IDENTITY IN THE 21st CENTURY" about how our brains are effected by digital media. I still read books, but less than I used to. What about you? Where do you turn for ideas and entertainment? This blog is the beginning of a discussion, not a diatribe, so let me know what you think.
DIGITAL NATIVES is a book based on research being done at Harvard about the generation born into the digital world, people who have always had the worldwide web at their fingertips. Those of us who didn't grow up with the web are immigrants to cyberspace, refugees, who have learned but may never relate as the natives do. Curiously my work with old indigenous cultures as a filmmaker helped prepare me for this world.
"Tara's Daughters" narrated by Susan Sarandon, is our first offering. It is about Tibetan women refugees. I made "Tara's Daughters" as a labor of love which took seven years to complete. It is about how Tibetan women refugees keep their culture alive in exile. Spending years around these people, caught up in the clash between the old and the new, gave me a look into our own Western future in the 21st century.
How do we cope? How do we take advantage of deep cultural wisdom while employing the best knowledge afforded by technology? Can we use all these resources in a complimentary fashion to keep our balance and improve our lives? I have learned so much from the people I met, from their courage and vision. Spending time with these refugee women gave me the chance to integrate my past, present and future... I'll write more about that in the Tara's Daughters blog. It is a pleasure to be able to share the documentary here.
For now, I invite you to share your thoughts. Remember this site is a work-in-progress. We will discuss how filmmakers can become involved. We are looking to build a financial model to support independent documentary filmmakers utilizing this site.
We are looking for documentaries with different subject matter in our beta test. If you are interested in hearing more, please email. We ask only that the film have some prior exposure - screenings at a film festival, broadcast, or theatrical screening.
RD
