”RE-ENACTMENTS” will feature a distinguished panel of documentary filmmakers who will analyze and discuss the political, aesthetic and ethical use of documentary re-enactments from a historical and contemporary viewpoint.  From the Execution of Czolgosz (1901), Thomas Edison’s re-enactment of the execution of President McKinley’s assassin, through Mighty Times: The Children’s March, last year’s Oscar® winner for Documentary Short Subject about the 1963 Birmingham Children’s resistance in a civil rights protest, the use of re-enactments has been a useful though often controversial tool of the documentary filmmaker.  Accompanied by historical film clips illustrating the various uses and methods of re-enactment throughout film history, the panel members will offer their viewpoints and approaches to re-enactments and other methods currently employed, as documentaries continue to evolve in form and function.

Moderated by:

PENELOPE SPHEERIS - Director of The Decline of Western Civilization, Part 1, 2 & 3

Panelists will include:

FENTON BAILEY - Co-Producer/Co-Director of The Eyes of Tammy Faye (2000) and Inside Deep Throat (2005).

RANDY BARBATO - Co-Producer/Co-Director of The Eyes of Tammy Faye (2000) and Inside Deep Throat (2005).

WERNER HERZOG - Director of Grizzly Man (2005) and My Best Fiend (1999).

ROBERT HUDSON - Executive Producer of Mighty Times: The Children's March (2004) and Producer of Mighty Times: The Legacy of Rosa Parks (2002).

ROSS McELWEE - Producer/Director of Sherman’s March (1986) and Bright Leaves (2003).

STACY PERALTA – Director of Riding Giants (2004) and Dogtown and Z-Boys (2001).

JUDY RICHARDSON - Producer of The Land of the Four Winds (1995) and Malcolm X: Make it Plain (1994).

The Academy’s John Huston Lecture on Documentary Film provides an opportunity for established documentarians to discuss their work and the field of documentary filmmaking in general.  The lecture is named in honor of the director, screenwriter and actor whose 14 Academy Award® nominations in the three disciplines included wins for directing and writing of The Treasure of the Sierra Madre.  His documentary work during service in the Army Signal Corps in World War II produced three unique portraits, Report from the Aleutians (1943), The Battle of San Pietro (1944, withheld from release until 1945, it included re-enactments) and Let There Be Light (1946, suppressed from public release until 1980).