1:00 p.m. — 3:00 p.m. \\ Smith Forum

With Joshua Oppenheimer

Moderated by Robert Greene

For a special addition to BOATS this year, everyone is invited to a master class with Joshua Oppenheimer, making his return to Columbia for the first time in over a decade. The acclaimed director will discuss his new musical, the controversial Telluride-premiering The End, the making of his masterpieces The Act Of Killing and The Look Of Silence and the early work that lead to the making of all of these films. This talk will be a part of the Murray Center Documentary Development class, hosted by Robert Greene, but all are welcome to attend!

2/26

OPENING NIGHT: JONATHAN MURRAY’S SIMPLE LIFE

7:00 p.m. — 9:30 p.m. \\ Ragtag Cinema

With Jonathan Murray

Moderated by Robert Greene

On December 2, 2003, the latest reality television gambit from the already-iconic innovators of the genre, Bunim/Murray Productions, premiered on Fox. The Simple Life followed heiress Paris Hilton and pop royalty Nicole Ritchie as they moved to Altus, Arkansas for a month to live with the Leding family, trading in their socialite standing for rural life. The show was a comedic sensation.

This special screening with producer and Murray Center founder Jonathan Murray will include the first two episodes of the show, plus never-before-seen development materials, including screen tests with Hilton and Ritchie. The discussion will focus on the making of the show and how Hilton and Ritchie’s performances changed reality television - and documentary film, by extension - forever.

How did Bunim/Murray produce the show? How does Murray feel about the show and this era of reality television all these years later? The performative mode of The Simple Life created a template later magnified by Murray’s Keeping Up with the Kardashians. Was the show a pandora’s box or the beginning of recognizing what reality television really is: a series of canny, self-aware performances?

2/27

SEEDS : INTUITION AND INTENTION

9:00 a.m. — 10:30 a.m. \\ Smith Forum

With Sabrina Schmidt Gordon, Robert Aiki Aubrey Lowe, Brittany Shyne, and Danielle Varga
Moderated by Sebastián Martínez Valdivia

Good observational documentaries are hard to make. Really hard. They demand the filmmaker be present, and patient; to make decisions in the moment without compromising their experience of that moment; and, with their production team, to transmit this experience to an audience without the help of narration or talking heads.

In Seeds, which won U.S. Grand Jury Prize: Documentary at this year’s Sundance Film Festival, director Brittany Shyne deftly takes on this challenge to bring viewers into a community of Black farmers in rural Georgia, and to bring them in close. Shyne makes full use of the intimacy she was able to develop with the participants in the film, which she built over nine years working on her debut feature. When you watch Seeds, you’re sitting next to people in cars and at kitchen tables, taking in the look in their eyes, the wrinkles on their hands; the textures of their lives.

In this session, Shyne, alongside producers Sabrina Schmidt Gordon and Danielle Varga, and composer Robert Aiki Aubrey Lowe, will break down the components that go into creating the feel of the film: from its use of black and white, to the considered and thoughtful score, to its creative problem-solving in production and editing.

2/27

A FIELD GUIDE TO PRODUCING THROUGH A COLLAPSE

10:45 a.m. — 12:30 p.m. \\ Smith Forum

With Mia Bruno, Lauren Domino, Bennett Elliott, Jesse Miller, Alice Quinlan, and Andrew Sherburne
Moderated by Robert Greene

The documentary film economy has been in a free fall since the pandemic. Changing viewing patterns, a breakdown of traditional distribution models, fickle streaming companies guided by corporate interests and the residual impact of the 2023 Hollywood labor disputes have all made the life of the documentary producer more precarious than any time in recent memory.

To discuss the realities of this current predicament, and to find legitimate pathways through the muck, we’ve gathered a star-studded panel of producers with a range of experiences across the entire documentary filmmaking process.

How does one do development with so few funders willing to take risks? How has production shifted since the heyday of budget expansion in the so-called documentary golden age? How does one release a film like Stephen Maing and Brett Story’s Union when the industry has blackballed it?

Ye who enter must have hope and not despair! This will be a closed door, no recording session where these producer superstars can get real and help us all navigate the tricky minefields of our documentary industry.

2/27

[NOT] TAKING SIDES ON GENERATIVE AI

1:30 p.m. — 3:00 p.m. \\ Smith Forum

With Damon Davis, Marley McDonald, and Debra McClutchy
Moderated by Alissa Wilkinson

The main thing Generative AI seems to have created in the film world so far is controversy. While the technology’s backers say its limitless applications promise a revolution in how films are made, skeptics have pointed out the major ethical, labor, and environmental concerns that come with such sweeping changes.

Is animating a historical photograph a lie, or a chance to communicate a deeper truth? How much of what’s falling under the umbrella term of “AI” is even new? Is this technology a new tool for capital to marginalize labor, or for disenfranchised creatives to undertake more ambitious projects? What are the best practices for using it? These questions and more have been subsumed by a firestorm of polarization that has situated Generative AI at the heart of an increasingly volatile political moment.

Our panel of filmmakers will attempt to cut through the cross-talk from a variety of perspectives; to explore the nuances lost in online debate, and wrestle with the concerns and the opportunities that come with AI’s inescapable arrival.

2/27

MOORE FOR SALE

3:15 p.m. — 4:00 p.m. \\ Smith Forum

With Keith Wilson

In 2017, filmmaker and producer Keith Wilson (Joonam, I Didn't See You There, Interior. Leather Bar.) began a feature documentary about Frank Moore, the controversial Berkeley-based performance artist, public access TV host, shaman, and commune leader. With complete access to Moore’s extensive archive, Keith began shooting interviews, crafting grant proposals, and editing numerous work samples for what he anticipated would be his feature directorial debut: “Deep Inside the Shaman’s Den.”

Wilson was determined, his peers were enthusiastic, and a much-talked about Points North Pitch was delivered. But nearly eight years later, the film has not been made. What happened?

In one of his final performances of Moore For Sale, Wilson will weave together the biographical details of Frank Moore’s life, art, disability, and communal family with Wilson’s own professional and personal journey as a queer documentary filmmaker as images and videos play on the screen behind Wilson in a humorous, self-deprecating fashion.

2/28

CATCHING 'PREDATORS' WITH DAVID OSIT

9:00 a.m. — 10:30 a.m. \\ Smith Forum

With David Osit

Moderated by Eric Hynes

For his latest film PREDATORS, acclaimed director David Osit pulls us into the troubling psychological space of To Catch A Predator (TCAP), the monumentally influential “child predator” hunting show that shocked television viewers and transformed the nation.

Osit’s deeply personal and contemplative Sundance hit and True/False standout is meant to dissect the show’s complex effect on journalism, its influence on vigilantism and its manipulation of our collective understanding of victim/abuse narratives.

For this unique interactive session, Osit and moderator Eric Hynes will use the Smith Forum to extend the film’s lines of inquiry into the show’s psychology and impact. What was the role of the set and host/instigator Chris Hansen’s performance in TCAP? How did hidden cameras change things for the decoys and “predators?” What’s the difference between the raw and edited footage of the men ensnared in the show’s flytrap?

Content warning: the show, which started as a segment on NBC’s Dateline, was about men who were accused of and often caught talking to people they believed to be minors in sexually explicit ways. This session will fully immerse us in the world of this strange and upsetting cultural phenomenon.