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On Monday, July 26, famed rock producer, manager, and lyricist Sandy Pearlman died at the age of 72. His Wikipedia page says he "was the recipient of 17 gold and platinum records." He managed that despite not actually producing many bands, or even albums -- but he left a big imprint on every one he worked on.

Born in Rockaway (Queens), NY in 1943, he got a college degree at the State University of New York at Stony Brook on Long Island in 1966.

A year later, still in the Stony Brook area, he recruited a band so he could have a series of science-fiction poems he'd written (the Imaginos saga, about a group secretly controlling world history) set to music and performed. He named the band Soft White Underbelly after Winston Churchill's epithet for Italy, but changed its name to Oaxaca after Soft White Underbelly got a negative review at a big concert.

By Anjelica Oswald

Managing Editor

This year’s Oscar race could make history with two possible best picture nominees directed by women — Ava DuVernay’s Selma and Angelina Jolie’s Unbroken. If both women are nominated for best director, that would also be a historical moment. But though these accomplishments in the narrative field are possible, more women directors are breaking into the documentary categories. Four of the 15 shortlisted documentaries feature women at the helm: Jennifer Grausman (co-directed with Sam Cullman and Mark Becker) with Art and Craft, Tia Lessin (co-directed with Carl Deal) with Citizen Koch, Laura Poitras with Citizenfour and Rory Kennedy with Last Days in Vietnam. Additionally, three of the eight shortlisted documentary shorts feature female directors: Ellen Goosenberg Kent with Crisis Hotline: Veterans Press 1, Aneta Kopacz with Joanna and Lucy Walker with The Lion’s Mouth Opens. More often than not, women directors tend to...

Affleck and Hathaway, Lawrence and Day-Lewis may have been the most notable winners on Sunday night, the artists who cemented their Hollywood legacies at the 2013 Academy Awards. But no one’s life has changed more this year from starring in an Oscar-winning movie than Inocente Izucar. The name might not ring a bell, but you’ll remember the acceptance speech for Best Documentary Short, when Inocente’s co-director Sean Fine introduced her to the world. “We want to thank this young lady who was homeless just a year ago and now she’s standing in front of all of you,...

Listening to the experiences of children abducted by the Lra exposes the dangers of over-simplifying the conflict

I didn't pay much mind to the #Kony2012 kerfuffle when it first surfaced back in March. I couldn't be bothered to watch the film and was a bit blasé about the re-emergence (as it seemed to me) of the Lord's Resistance Army as a topic of wide international interest. But now Invisible Children has released another film that promises the unleashing of a new wave of activism (they're promising to take over the Us capital in mid-November) and awareness-raising. The new film is an ode to martyrdom (a frivolous aside: watch Ben Keesey from 20:02 onward and compare his embattled defense to this one) but I otherwise found no reason to add to the blogosphere's thorough deconstruction of the phenomenon. Instead I went through my notes from a 2005 research travel through Acholiland. Over one month,...

SnagFilms has acquired worldwide theatrical, digital and television rights to Vivian Ducat's “All Me: The Life and Times of Winfred Rembert.” Distribution of the documentary will kick off with a special online sneak peek on Martin Luther King Day January 16, followed by a online and cable VOD release throughout Black History Month. Through the art of Winfred Rembert, the film tells a personal story of injustice and bigotry against African Americans. Producers Ducat and Mark Urman ("Murderball," "War Dance," "Born Into Brothels," "Taxi to the Darkside") say SnagFilms "share our passion and vision for the film, and their extraordinary commitment and innovative approach to the distribution of high-quality documentaries, makes them the perfect home for this project.” "All Me" premiered at the 2011 Hamptons International Film Festial and later won the Silver Plaque ...

NEW YORK -- The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences on Monday unveiled the 15 films on its 2007 documentary feature Oscar shortlist.

Four ThinkFilm releases made the cut, a record for the company and one of the biggest lineups ever for any distributor. They are Tony Kaye's abortion epic Lake of Fire, Bill Guttentag and Dan Sturman's World War II expose Nanking, Alex Gibney's Iraq War study Taxi to the Dark Side and Sean Fine and Andrea Nix's look at a Ugandan musical competition War/Dance.

The biggest boxoffice hit among the bunch by far is Michael Moore's health-care expose Sicko, from the Weinstein Co., but other high-profile releases were left off the list. Jonathan Demme's Jimmy Carter: Man From Plains and Amir Bar-Lev's child prodigy study My Kid Could Paint That from Sony Pictures Classics were expected to make the cut but didn't. Other notable absentees were Ricki Stern and Anne Sundberg's look at Darfur, The Devil Came on Horseback; Picturehouse's gamers study The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters; and ThinkFilm's space-themed In the Shadow of the Moon.

Aside from Taxi, other films covering the Iraq War that made the list included Phil Donahue and Ellen Spiro's Body of War, Charles Ferguson's No End in Sight and Richard Robbins' Operation Homecoming: Writing the Wartime Experience.

Features about other wars made the cut, too, including Steven Okazaki's White Light/Black Rain: The Destruction of Hiroshima and Nagasaki and Richard Berge, Bonni Cohen and Nicole Newnham's World War II art study The Rape of Europa.

Virtually all films on the list were topical, including Tricia Regan's look at special-needs children, Autism: The Musical...

NEW YORK -- Novelist-turned-director Paul Auster's fantasy The Inner Life of Martin Frost and Argentinean director Alexis Dos Santos' coming-of-age feature Glue will open the 36th annual New Directors/New Films festival, hosted by the Museum of Modern Art's film department and the Film Society of Lincoln Center.

The 26-feature lineup for the fest, which runs March 21-April 1, also includes recent Sundance Film Festival prizewinners from directors John Carney (Once) and Christopher Zalla (Padre Nuestro).

Other recent Sundance entries set to be screened at the festival are Andrea Arnold's Scottish thriller Red Road, Sean Fine and Andrea Nix Fine's Ugandan conflict documentary War/Dance and Craig Zobel's music biz scam exam The Great World of Sound.

Frost, based on a character in Auster's 2002 novel The Book of Illusions, stars David Thewlis as a writer haunted by bizarre characters who appear during his much-needed vacation at a country house. Irene Jacob, Michael Imperioli and Sophie Auster co-star.

Paul Auster is a slightly odd choice for a fest showcasing "new or emerging international directors" given that he helmed 1998's Lulu on the Bridge and co-directed 1995's Blue in the Face with Wayne Wang.

PARK CITY -- The ongoing rebel conflict in northern Uganda forms the backdrop for Sundance Film Festival documentary directing award-winner "War/Dance," a refreshingly upbeat film that finds its roots in some seriously sobering events. THINKFilm's theatrical release will capture the hearts and minds of art house audiences before a promising campaign on DVD.

The Lord's Resistance Army of rebels draws its ranks from the children of rural Uganda, kidnapping kids from their villages and forcing boys to become child soldiers and girls into sexual slavery. Many are compelled to kill relatives or neighbors, or watch their families murdered, becoming severely traumatized as a result.

For those who escape the rebel army, refugee camps are often their only way to survive after the decimation of their villages and families. The Patongo Displacement Camp shelters 60,000 refugees under constant military guard, providing a semblance of normalcy where kids can attend school and try to rebuild their shattered lives.

Xylophone player Dominic, dancer Nancy and chorister Rose -- all in their early teens -- become the focus of Sean Fine and Andrea Nix Fine's revealing documentary as they join the other students of the Patongo Primary School in preparing to compete in the prestigious National Music Competition. Their tragic stories of murder, abuse and loss provide the background for the school's quest to compete in the nationwide showcase for the first time.

Shooting in hi-def, the filmmakers favor a confessional, direct-address style in the kids' interviews that creates an intimacy with the audience that would be lost with more conventional framing. Artistically composed cutaways of the stunning landscape surrounding the camp and dynamic sequences of the school's enthusiastic music rehearsals provide a welcome contrast to the children's wrenching tales of terror.

However, shots that appear too smoothly executed and interviews that seem overly rehearsed are a reminder that the film could have benefited from a more realistic depiction of the squalor of the kids' lives and the harsh reality of the refugee encampment (which lacks sanitation, running water and electricity).

Nonetheless, the rooting factor is high by the time the Patongo students arrive in the capital of Kampala for the national competition, where the moderately predictable outcome still forms a nicely nuanced conclusion.

While the title is evocative within the context of the film, it could prove confusing to audiences who associate it with the unrelated phrase "war dance." At 105 minutes, the overall length might benefit from some trimming.

WAR/DANCE

THINKFilm

A Fine Films Production in association with Shine Global

Running time -- 105 minutes

No MPAA rating...

• Quick Links  Complete Film Listing: Premieres Dramatic Comp  World Dramatic Comp World Doc Comp Spectrum: Park City at Midnight: New Frontier Short Film Programs January 18 to 28, 2007 Counting Down: updateCountdownClock('January 18, 2007'); Another eclectic docu section this year ranging in subject matters such as U.S Foreign policies, internal American struggles, global issues and human portraits of the young, old and stupid. On the war front we have Ghosts of Abu Ghraib, where Rory Kennedy looks at the abuses at the Iraqi prison, No End in Sight by Charles Ferguson looks at the chain of decisions that led to the U.S. invasion and occupation of Iraq and in hindsight. White Light/Black Rain: The Destruction of Hiroshima and Nagasaki directed by Steven Okazaki looks at the human cost of atomic warfare.On the global scale, Judith Helfand and Daniel B. Gold’s Everything's Cool looks at alternative energy

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• Here is the complete listing for this year's Sundance film festival which kicks off tomorrow!January 18 to 28, 2007 Counting Down: updateCountdownClock('January 18, 2007'); Premiere's section lineup:An American Crime - Tommy O'Haver Away From Her - Sarah Polley Black Snake Moan - Craig BrewerChapter 27 - Jarrett Schaefer Chicago 10 - Brett Morgen Clubland - Cherie Nowlan The Good Night - Jake Paltrow King of California - Mike Cahill Life Support - Nelson George Longford - Tom Hooper The Nines - John August Resurrecting the Champ - Rod Lurie The Savages - Tamara Jenkins Son of Rambow - Garth Jennings Summer Rain - Antonio Banderas Trade - Marco Kreuzpaintner Year of the Dog - Mike White Dramatic Competition:Adrift in Manhattan - Alfredo de Villa Broken English - Zoe CassavetesFour Sheets to the Wind - Sterlin HarjoThe Good Life - Steve BerraGrace Is Gone - James C. StrouseHounddog - Deborah Kampmeier Joshua

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In a fashion similar to ThinkFilm's work on the documentary Murderball, the New York-based indie has acquired worldwide rights to War/Dance, which will have its world premiere in competition this month at the Sundance Film Festival.

Directed by husband and wife Sean Fine and Andrea Nix Fine, the film revolves around a group of African children who overcome the brutal realities of war by participating in a national musical competition. The idea for "War/Dance" was originated by producer Albie Hecht and his wife, Susan MacLaury, and produced through their new nonprofit production company, Shine Global, in conjunction with Fine Films.

ThinkFilm will release the documentary in the fourth quarter.

Set in Northern Uganda, "War/Dance" tells the story of three children whose families have been torn apart, their homes destroyed and who reside in a displaced-persons camp in Patongo. When they are invited to compete in an annual music and dance festival, their historic journey to their nation's capital also is an opportunity to regain a part of their childhood and to taste victory for the first time.