SLIFF 2016 – OTHER PEOPLE’S FOOTAGE: COPYRIGHT AND FAIR USE Screens Nov. 5th

OTHER PEOPLE’S FOOTAGE: COPYRIGHT AND FAIR USE Screens Saturday, Nov. 5 at 10:00am at Washington University’s West Campus Library as part of this year’s St. Louis International Film Festival. The film is  the centerpiece of a master class on fair use and copyright. A panel discussion will follow the screening featuring Directors Diane Carson and Robert Johnson Jr. This is a FREE event.

The theft of intellectual property is one of the most serious crimes of our time. Balancing this and equally important is the creation of new works contributing to a vigorous marketplace of ideas involving the analysis and repurposing of existing works. Because the delicate balance between these two considerations urgently needs investigation, OTHER PEOPLE’S FOOTAGE: COPYRIGHT AND FAIR USE explores fair use as the critical issue it is for the majority of nonfiction filmmakers (as our interviews show) and for our community at large.

OTHER PEOPLE’S FOOTAGE: COPYRIGHT AND FAIR USE explores the three questions crucial to determining fair use exemptions and presents illustrative examples from nonfiction, fiction, and experimental films that use footage, music and sound from other individuals’ creations—without permission or paying fees. Through on-camera interviews with noted documentarians, film and legal experts, OPF also clarifies legal issues regarding trademark, parody, shooting on location or in a controlled setting and reviews relevant court cases.

Fair use is critical to the vigorous debate over creativity and intellectual property. It must be understood and fair use must be claimed, when legal, to further our cultural environment. When fair use is not understood and employed, creative endeavors suffer. As one example, the February 2014 College Art Association report “Copyright, Permissions, and Fair Use Among Visual Artists and the Academic and Museum Visual Arts Communities” finds that “one-third of visual artists and visual arts professionals have avoided or abandoned work in their field because of copyright concerns” (page 5). On the other hand, the February 22, 2014 New York Times Arts section led with the headline “Photographers Band Together to Protect Work in ‘Fair Use’ Cases” (C1.) These two examples alone highlight the critical need for accessible and amply illustrated clarification of fair use.

Self censorship and the scissors of the mind (as Michael Donaldson eloquently states it) seriously hinders a robust marketplace of ideas just when we need such debate and consideration more than ever.

Who has been interviewed for “Other People’s Footage”?

Multi-award winning documentarians, including those with Academy Award nominations and wins, are among the 18 interviewees. In addition, the filmmakers have interviewed two of the most noted legal scholars on fair use (Michael Donaldson and Andrew Berger) plus a director emeritus and past president of the International Documentary Association (Betsy A. McLane) who was project director of the American Documentary Showcase and is the author of a landmark history of documentary film.

About the Filmmakers:

Diane Carson is Past President of the University Film and Video Association (2008 to 2010) and previously served as Editorial Vice President and Secretary. She is Professor Emerita of St. Louis Community College at Meramec where she taught film studies and film production for over three decades. She continues to teach as an adjunct at St. Louis Community College and at Webster University. Diane sits on the editorial board of theJournal of Film and Video and served on the editorial board of the Society for Cinema and Media Studies’ Cinema Journal (1998-2003).

Diane co-authored Appetites and Anxieties: Food, Film and the Politics of Representation (Wayne State U Press, 2014). She has contributed to and co-edited several anthologies, including Sayles Talk: New Perspectives on Independent Filmmaker John Sayles (Wayne State U Press, 2006); More Than a Method: Trends and Traditions in Contemporary Film Performance (Wayne State U Press, 2004); and John Sayles: Interviews (U Press of Mississippi, 1999).

She has enjoyed Fulbright Field Study awards to China, South Korea and Japan in addition to being a visiting lecturer at Canterbury Christ Church University, Canterbury, England. She was the assistant director/co-writer on the documentary “Remembering Bonnie and Clyde,” Turquoise Productions,1995, and she contributes weekly film reviews to St. Louis community radio KDHX (88.1 FM). Diane served as a film expert for the American Documentary Showcase, sponsored by UFVA and the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs.

Robert Johnson Jr. is Professor of Communication Arts at Framingham State University where he teaches documentary filmmaking, media production and writing. He has produced over two-dozen history of science documentaries that aired on PBS and cable throughout the U.S., Canada, and England. His latest documentary The Making of Madame White Snake provides a behind-the-scenes look at the 2010 Pulitzer Prize-winning opera. His 2007 documentary, No Short Climb: “Race Workers” & America’s Defense Technology, received numerous awards and has been screened at film festivals and museums across the U.S. A member of the CINE Board of Directors, he serves as a jury chair for the annual CINE Golden Eagle Documentary Awards category.

Robert is co-founder and co-chair of the University Film and Video Association’s Documentary Working Group, and served for years as chair of the UFVA’s Carole Fielding Grants Committee. He is currently a Trustee for the University Film and Video Foundation. A Fulbright scholar, he taught documentary filmmaking workshops in Rwanda, and served as an expert for the State Department’s Bureau of Educational Affairs’ program, American Documetary Showcase. He contributed three biographies to the African-American National Biography and has lectured at Harvard University, Rutgers University IEEE History Center, The Smithsonian Institute, and the Royal Society of Chemistry in England. He recently received a grant from the Wyncote Foundation for a collaborative documentary project on sexual assault on university campuses.