Media That Matters

This article was originally posted on Documentary.org.

The final chord of "the Blackfish effect" has finally resounded, with a stunning and unprecedented corporate policy announcement from SeaWorld. 

In January 2013, the documentary Blackfish premiered at the Sundance Film Festival, telling the story "about Tilikum, a performing killer whale that killed several people while in captivity," according to the official film synopsis. Three years later—a period marked by sustained activism, multi-platform distribution and unrelenting media coverage— SeaWorld officially announced on March 17, 2016, that it will officially end its orca breeding program and end orca shows at all of its theme parks.Read more...

“I don’t think I’ve figured that out yet,” Professor Jayaswal offered as she reflected on her search for personal identity, “It perpetuates my mission.” On March 22, 2016, in the Media Innovation Lab at American University, Leena Jayaswal, Associate Professor in the School of Communication narrated her personal journey growing up as an Indian-American artist during her lecture, “Motherland: Dissecting Identity and the Diaspora”.

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Documentaries excel at giving voice to people, causes and perspectives you may never have known or even thought about—but someone has, and is ready to share. They may even have a constituency with them when they show up at festivals. Read more...

The annual tech-meets-film-meets-music extravaganza that is SXSW was crowded with people trying to pick up tips and trends. How crowded was it? Well, the people willing to wait in line for you for the panel, movie or party have organized; they handed out business cards all over downtown. It was a struggle to get a place to park your bike. The escalator traffic jams were epic.Read more...

At SXSW, Hollywood entertainment lawyer Michael Donaldson showed how his firm is applying the copyright doctrine of fair use—the right to use copyrighted material without permission or payment, within limits—to films that incorporate non-fiction elements, even when they are not documentaries. Read more...