After the beginnings in March of his latest documentary, “observing”, at CPH in Copenhagen: Dox, director Ian Cheney made the film on tour through the United States. Instead of making the typical film festival circuit, Cheney and the team behind “Observer” have spent the last six months organizing free interactive events focused on the film.
On Wednesday, the film will start the 21st annual Camden Film Festival. This screening will be followed by an immersive observation experience inspired by the doc.
In the 95 -minute doc, Cheney brings a series of lively observers – scientists, artists and hunters – to a range of places around the world and ask them to describe what they see. What takes place is a stimulating journey in the simple but transformer act to observe.
“Observing” is a contemplative and poetic study of the slowdown and the catch. It is not the kind of celebrity or true-crime documentary that great streamers want. Cheney knew that there would be no tender war after the film’s first of the film, so he proposed his own distribution plan.
“I think it would be quite easy to start being frustrated and feeling pretty in our skin and the cinema if we were waiting for and waited for the banners to remind us and distribute this film,” said Cheney during a recent event “observe” in Cambridge, Mass. “So, instead, we focus on people directly with people with the film.”
With the documentary distribution in crisis mode, all except a handful of Doc filmmakers have been forced to find new creative solutions to ensure that their films reach the public. Cheney made 14 documentaries of feature films, including “King Corn” and “The Most Unknown”, which Netflix acquired in 2018. Five years later, when Cheney published her 12th document article, “The Arc of Oblivation”, the golden age of documentaries “was finished. The director therefore developed the distribution of the film by holding projections in a wooden ark – a structure which was presented in “the arc of oblivion”. (“The arc of oblivion” is now available on Tvod.)
By taking up the initial distribution of his recent documentaries and by creating an event around them, Cheney aroused interest and excitement around her films.
So far, “observing” has projected more than 30 locations across the country, notably San Francisco, the Wisconsin Rural and Hartford, Connecticut. After each projection, public members divide into small groups and receive various activities to do which aim to trigger new ways of thinking. Cheney and his team attend the interactive events of “observers”, which include a projection of the film, lunch, practical exploration, dialogue and reflection on the art of observation. The “observing” events of a day are around six hours and financed by The Wonder Collaborative, the unit of the feature film of the scientific communication laboratory.
The invitation to the event stipulates that the objective of the day is simple – “to take time of our busy life to explore and celebrate the power of observation patients”.
“I hope people feel that they have been invited to something and we expect nothing in return,” says Cheney. “It is not transactional, and it can be confusing for people. During lunch, after a screening, someone asked me, “What are you getting out of it?” I was a little perplexed at the time, but I think that, at a certain level, I wonder and joy.
Cheney added that spending a day with foreigners and doing various activities based on the Motive observation.
“The experience of having a film on a big streamer is, on the one hand, a big boost of ego because you can tell people of dinners that your film is on Netflix,” explains Cheney. “But there is not really any engagement with this public. These” observant “experiences are so direct that you return home and that you say:” Oh yeah. This is why we do this. So, in a certain sense, we organize an event that reminds us why we make these films. “
The next day “observing” will take place on September 26 on the island of the Governor of New York.
The collaborative Wonder financed “observing”.
