New York Film Academy [Sponsor]

My thanks again to The New York Film Academy for sponsoring the candler blog this past week.

Formerly confined to a few art house theaters and public television, documentary films have emerged as commercially successful ventures for a handful of filmmakers (including Michael Moore with Fahrenheit 9/11, Marilyn Agrelo with Mad Hot Ballroom and Morgan Spurlock with Super Size Me). Cable television channels are also providing a venue for distribution that brings additional capital to the industry.

The popularity of these films is attracting more producers and distributors—-as well as enthusiastic students who want to make documentary filmmaking their life’s work.

The Documentary School at the New York Film Academy is well positioned for training future documentarists. Offering a range from 6-week workshops to one-year and two-year Masters of Fine Arts degree programs at the school’s New York and Los Angeles campuses, students learn from award-winning masters of the genre. They include Maryann DeLeo (Chernobyl Heart), Vanessa Roth (Freeheld) and Geof Bartz, supervising editor of documentary programming at HBO.