Broadcast
The
Focal International Awards highlight outstanding restoration work and
use of archive footage. Adrian Pennington takes a look at the films
vying for the crown in six categories.
The
Focal International Awards, presented in association with AP Archive,
celebrate achievement in the use of archive footage and restoration,
in all genres and across all media platforms. The awards ceremony for
programmes that aired in 2015 took place on Thursday 26 May at the
Lancaster Hotel in London (after Broadcast went to press). It was
hosted by former BBC chief news reporter Kate Adie. Here we reveal
the inside story of some of the films on this year’s shortlist.
FACTUAL
Best
of Enemies
Producer
Magnolia Pictures
Main
sources ABC News; Videosource;
Getty Images; Hoover Institution; WNET; T3 Media
When
rival Republican and Democratic pundits William F Buckley Jr and Gore
Vidal went head to head on ABC News in 1968, it changed the nature of
TV news debates.
Focal
jury chair Alison McAllan describes it as “an unusual subject for a
documentary, made viable by two such larger-than-life characters”.
The
material used was “well chosen and frequently humorous”, said the
judges, and the contextual archive “gives a fascinating political
picture of the times”.
The
Black Panthers: Vanguard of the Revolution
Producer
Firelight Films
Sources
NBC; T3 Media/CBS; Chicago Film Archives; Cine Tamaris-Agnes Varda;
Oddball Film
Focal’s
jury commended the “enormous amount of work done by researchers”
to obtain the 50 minutes of archive footage used in this
feature-length documentary looking at the Black Panther Party, its
significance to US culture and the impact of its derailment.
“Everyone
has seen the Black Panthers marching in formation looking militant,
but we wanted material that had not been seen before,” says the
film’s director, Stanley Nelson.
When
Nelson mentioned his Black Panthers project in conversation at a
screening of another film, it led him to a Sony Porta Pak home-movie
tape, made in the 1960s and stored in a cupboard.
“It
was shot in Algeria and showed Panther leaders on the phone at the
critical moment the party split,” he says. “It was just
incredible to find this footage and make it central to the
storytelling.”
The
Black Panthers: Vanguard Of The Revolution was shown in the UK as
part of BBC4’s Storyville strand.
The
Killing Fields of Dr. Haing S. Ngor
Producer
Deep Focus Productions
Sources
Bophana Audiovisual Resource Center; Dr. Haing S. Ngor Archive;
Georgetown University; ABC News; Videosource; CNN
This
documentary telling the story of the Khmer Rouge’s reign of terror
through the eyes of Dr Ngor, whose experiences were recreated for
Oscar-winning film The Killing Fields, took an innovative approach.
“With
next to no footage of the Cambodian atrocities available, the use of
original animated sequences, combined with more general Cambodian
archive footage, manages to convey some of the horror of the events
and helps towards an understanding of why they unfolded as they did,”
says McAllan.
CURRENT
AFFAIRS
Clockwork
Climate
Producer
Artline Films
Sources
BBC Motion Gallery; AP Archive; National Archives and Records
Administration; Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory; Museum of
Innovation and Science Collections
“Our
central topic is a theoretical research field, with little visual
material except through CGI and computer models,” says producer
Benjamin Landsberger.
For
this exposé of climate control by American and Russian geo-engineers
during the Cold War, 35mm source copies of secret atmospheric
experiments found in US and Soviet military archives were transferred
to digital HD. “The archive was carefully used with the original
aspect ratios preserved,” says jury chair Mat Flasque.
India’s
Daughter
Producer
Assassin Films
Sources
NDTV; Wilderness Films India; ITN Source; CNN IBC
The
aftermath of the brutal gang rape and murder of a female medical
student in Delhi in 2012 compelled producer/director Leslee Udwin to
make this film.
“I
was reliant on material shot for Indian TV in analogue 4 x 3, whereas
our format was digital 16 x 9,” she says. “I had to trust that
the content was more important and powerful than strong in style, and
we went with what we had – raw and emotional, and technically
variable. It was the right decision.”
The
Queen of Ireland
Producer
Blinder Films
Sources
RTÉ; personal archives; Irish Queer Archive (Tonie Walsh); Invisible
Thread Films; Gaze Film Festival
LGBT
rights activist Rory O’Neill (drag queen Panti) is the focus of
documentary approach that uses archive to illustrate a talking head,”
says McDonald. “They achieve it quite excellently.” coBain:
montage of heck Producers End of Movie; LLC Sources MTV Networks;
Reelin in the Years; Universal Music; The Cobain Estate In this
record of the life and death of Nirvana frontman this feature
documentary that follows the lead-up to Ireland’s 2015 referendum
on same-sex marriage.
“A
very enjoyable film with some incredible archive from around the
world – from home movies to newsreels and club footage,” the
jurors stated.
“The
wider issue of gay rights in Ireland was really well portrayed
through the times and words of its larger-than-life central
character.”
MUSIC
Amy
Producer
On The Corner
Sources
Universal Music Group; Family & Friends; Getty Images; BBC;
Videoplugger, ITN Source
Director
Asif Kapadia’s intimate portrait of the troubled singer is already
a Bafta and Oscar winner.
What
Focal jurors found remarkable was that the film is entirely composed
of archive footage. “The audio interviews are used to bring meaning
to the visuals, which is a reverse of the conventional factual
documentary approach that uses archive to illustrate a talking head,”
says McDonald. “They achieve it quite excellently.”
Cobain:
Montage of Heck
Producers
End of Movie; LLC
Sources
MTV Networks; Reelin in the Years; Universal Music; The Cobain Estate
In
this record of the life and death of Nirvana frontman Kurt Cobain,
the mix of specially shot interviews with home-movie footage,
recordings, artwork, photography and journals makes for “a
voyeuristic” insider’s account, according to jury chair James
McDonald.
He
adds: “The use of animations was weird but appropriate.”
Eurovision
at 60
Producer
BBC Entertainment Production
Sources
EBU; Pathé; RTÉ; ITN Source; ITV Studios; Getty Images
Featuring
stories from more than 60 years of Eurovision, “the film totally
achieved what it set out to do”, says McDonald, namely: “A fun
but often poignant programme making great use of familiar footage
without being repetitive.”
Footage
includes a version of Lulu’s Boom Bang-A-Bang.
SPORT
Building
Jerusalem
Producer
New Black Films
Sources
IMG; Sky Sports; ITN Source; Screen Ocean; Press Association
England’s
2003 Rugby World Cup win over hosts Australia is rapidly gaining
legendary status and this production combines match action and
original interviews to relive the moment.
“It’s
an amazing story of success and single-mindedness, and brought
together a cross-section of different characters,” says director
James Erskine.
“We
found all the ISO recordings we could to show the final from
different angles and used the personal collections of [coach] Clive
Woodward and [star player] Jonny Wilkinson’s family.”
Free
To Run
Producers
Point Productions; Yuzu Productions; Eklektik Productions
Sources
Salmini Films; NBC News; ABC
This
film exploring how running changed from an all-male sport to the
all-embracing activity it is today took eight years to complete. That
included two years of research plus “multiple layers of rights,
lost masters or contracts and real detective work”, says producer
Fabrice Estève.
Gathering
first-hand testimony and forgotten archives, he uncovered footage of
Kathrine Switer being attacked by the race director during the 1967
Boston Marathon, an incident previously known only through
photographs.
“A
truly remarkable documentary, where archive footage drives the
narrative across five decades of sporting and social history,” says
lead juror Massimo Moretti.
I
Believe In Miracles
Producers
Baby Cow Productions; Spool Films
Sources
ITV Sport; BBC; Getty Images; Media Archive for Central England; ITN
Source; Kino Library
This
documentary tells how maverick coach Brian Clough took unfashionable
Nottingham Forest to soccer glory and features interviews with his
1979 European Cup-winning side.
“The
character of the team and their renowned management shone through in
the archive to make a very entertaining watch with a great
soundtrack,” says Moretti.
NATURAL
WORLD
Beasts
Behaving Badly
Producer
Barcroft Productions
Sources
Jukin; Viral Hog; Storyful; Newsflare; licensed YouTube clips
With
its jokey presentation and jerky pictures, this series was radically
different from the competition, says jury chair Carol O’Callaghan.
Five
comedians provide voiceovers for handpicked clips of animals creating
havoc, shot on CCTV, camcorder or smartphone.
Sourced
largely from user-generated video, “it is probably agony to most
people at Focal, who are wary of YouTube”, O’Callaghan concedes.
The
Nature of Things: Jellyfish Rule!
Producer
CBC
Sources
Evergreen Studios; Howard Hall Productions; PhD Oleg Kovtun; Odessa
National University; T3 Media; Nat Geo
This
production licensed 13 minutes of footage from 19 sources. Five were
commercial stock houses and the rest were independents, scientists
and “fans of jellyfish”, says project researcher Gina Calix.
“Just
because a major news broadcaster doesn’t have the footage covering
an event, some unknown person may have it – so never give up,”
she advises.
Calix
discovered one short video documenting the massacre of thousands of
farmed salmon off the coast of Northern Ireland, which was “exactly
the event” that scientists were describing on camera.
Seeking
images of an underwater invasion by the mnemiopsis jellyfish in the
Black Sea in the 1990s, Calix contacted archivists in the region with
the help of Google Translate to track down “a keen marine biologist
at the Odessa University who had shot this actual event”.
Wild
24: African Savannah
Producers
NHNZ; Nat Geo Wild
Sources
NHNZ Moving Images; Aquavision; Getty Images; Londolozi Game Reserve
Representing
a single day of animal behaviour across 25 countries, it was an
“incredible luxury to be able to cherry-pick from such world-class
collections”, says senior archive producer Lemuel Lyes.
He
adds: “It was a monumental creative and logistical challenge to
craft a unifying narrative, track the usage rights and edit content
from multiple sources into a seamless show.”
ARTS
Arena:
Night and Day
Producer
BBC
Sources
BBC; Apple Corp
To
celebrate its 40th anniversary, the BBC arts strand assembled a film
made entirely from its own archive, featuring clips of people from TS
Eliot to Amy Winehouse.
Jury
chair Gintare Kriauceliunaite commends the “superb idea.”
“It’s
a great collage of best bits – some unseen, some inviting to watch
more, some just pure gold.
“The
list of names is endless and the archival layovers are very smooth.”
By
Sidney Lumet
Producers
Augusta Films; American Masters Pictures; RatPac Documentary Films;
Righteous Persons Foundation; Matador; Anker Productions
Sources
Warner Brothers; CBS Entertainment; CBS News; Corbis
An
interview with the director of Serpico and Network forms the heart of
this career retrospective.
Focal’s
jury highlighted the “good choices of archive clips and editing”
used to weave together the themes of Lumet’s work. “It had to be
put together in quite an unorthodox style to make very specific
points and to enhance the interview footage,” says Kriauceliunaite.
Imagine:
The Ecstasy of Wilko Johnson
Producers
Essential Arts Entertainment; Nitrate Film; BBC
Sources
Mosfilm Cinema Concern; National Cinema Centre of Armenia; UTV
Archive; Fuji TV Network; BBC Information & Archives
The
uplifting story of Dr Feelgood guitarist and singer Wilko Johnson,
who was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer, tells a “tremendous
story, with expressive use of archival footage and music, superbly
realised by director Julien Temple,” according to the Focal judges.
For
producer Richard Conway, the main challenge was to ensure that Temple
could choose both rare and iconic film footage.
Conway
says: “People’s empathy for the fi lm’s subject matter, and
respect for Julien, helped enormously, as well as the professionalism
of our brilliant archive producer, Miriam Walsh.”
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