In surveying more than a year of films and filmmaker interviews, Randi Cecchine decides that yes, funding streams can influence form, and the difference between the US and foreign models may surprise you.

http://www.independent-magazine.org/magazine/2010/03/doc_funds_and_form

As reported in filmmaker magazine, B-Side has announced that it will discontinue operations on March 1st, 2010.

http://www.filmmakermagazine.com/blog/2010/02/b-side-entertainment-annou...

http://bside.com/

“Burma VJ”
A Magic Hour Films Production
Anders Østergaard and Lise Lense-Møller

“The Cove”
An Oceanic Preservation Society Production
Nominees to be determined

“Food, Inc.”
A Robert Kenner Films Production
Robert Kenner and Elise Pearlstein

“The Most Dangerous Man in America: Daniel Ellsberg and the Pentagon Papers”
A Kovno Communications Production
Judith Ehrlich and Rick Goldsmith

“Which Way Home”
A Mr. Mudd Production
Rebecca Cammisa

Ahead of this week’s Sundance Film Festival, veteran film distribution and marketing consultant Richard Abramowitz is launching, with Kirt Eftekhar, a new domestic distribution company dubbed Area23a.

First up for the company are releases of Bill Guttentag and Dan Sturman’s acclaimed “Soundtrack for a Revolution” from Louverture Films and Sandy Cioffi’s “Sweet Crude.”

CRM will begin releasing feature-length, short-form and episodic content including the documentary Capturedabout controversial New York videographer Clayton Patterson and Sally Potter’s fashion industry drama Rage starring Jude Law, Judi Dench and Steve Buscemi.

The documentaries Google Me and Naked States and the UK thriller Jack Says are among other titles on the roster, which has already been distributed digitally in the US through FilmBuff’s arrangements with

TwitCause is an interesting way to crowdfund. People who follow TwitCause can just retweet the cause to show support for it. Each tweet contain a link that directs people to a place where they can donate money using PayPal.

The website tracks the number of retweets and the money raised in real-time on the page, and also shows the most recent tweets about the cause.

Could this model be applied to documentary film funding? It will be interesting to see how much tweets can inspire people to donate.

http://www.experienceproject.com/twitcause

In an opinion piece today on the LA Times, writer Scott Kirsner talks about how those who are managing to succeed with creating content in the digital era are willing to experiment with new approaches based on how the habits of their audiences are changing:

"... a number of young creators -- many of them working outside of Hollywood's orbit -- have been feverishly experimenting with new ways to tell stories and generate revenue."

Digital technology and dollar signs

Fest o’ Fools : an articleblog for the DocAgora Webplex on the current state of documentary festivals by DocAgora’s Peter Wintonick

While the newspapers are dying, some leaner players in the industry are looking to pick up the slack:

Huffington Post Launches Investigative Journalism Venture

revision test