September 5, 2006
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CONTACT:  Leslie Unger - (310) 247-3090
                         lunger@oscars.org

Academy/UCLA Documentary Series
Begins Its 25th Year

Beverly Hills, CA — Fourteen short and feature-length documentaries, including the Oscar-winning “A Note of Triumph: The Golden Age of Norman Corwin” and two other nominees, will be screened in Part One of the 2006–2007 Contemporary Documentary Series, presented by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, the Academy Foundation and the UCLA Film and Television Archive. Now in its 25th year, the series kicks off September 27, at 7 p.m., at the Academy’s Linwood Dunn Theater in Hollywood. All screenings in the series are free.

Following is the complete schedule for Part One:

September 27
“Mr. Mergler’s Gift” (directed by Beverly Shaffer, produced by Germaine Ying Gee Wong)
“Mad Hot Ballroom” (directed by Marilyn Agrelo; produced by Amy Sewell, Agrelo)

October 11
“Murderball” (directed by Henry-Alex Rubin, Dana Adam Shapiro; produced by Jeffrey Mandel, Shapiro) Academy Award nominee.
“39 Pounds of Love” (directed by Dani Menkin; produced by Menken, Daniel J. Chalfen)

October 25
“On Native Soil: The Documentary of the 9/11 Commission Report” (directed by Linda Ellman; produced by Jeff Hays, Ellman, Lenville O’Donnell)
“Occupation: Dreamland” (directed by Garrett Scott, Ian Olds; produced by Scott, Selina Lewis Davidson, Nancy Roth)

November 1
“A Note of Triumph: The Golden Age of Norman Corwin” (directed by Eric Simonson; produced by Simonson, Corinne Marrinan) Academy Award winner.
“The Devil and Daniel Johnston” (directed by Jeff Feuerzeig; produced by Henry S. Rosenthal)

November 15
“Street Fight” (directed and produced by Marshall Curry) Academy Award nominee.
“The Last Campaign” (directed and produced by Wayne Ewing)

November 29
“Dimmer” (directed by Talmage Cooley; produced by Cooley, Andy Spade, Anthony Sperduti)
“The Boys of Baraka” (directed and produced by Heidi Ewing, Rachel Grady)

December 13 – special screening at the IMAX Theater
“Aliens of the Deep” (directed by James Cameron, Steven Quale; produced by Andrew Wight, Cameron)
“Wild Safari 3D: A South African Adventure” (directed by Ben Stassen; produced by Stassen, Charlotte Huggins, Caroline Van Iseghem)

In “Mr. Mergler’s Gift,” a piano teacher nearing the end of his life and long career takes on one last student, the nine-year-old daughter of Chinese immigrants. Daniel Mergler guides the young prodigy toward a life of music, while she brightens what are the final months of his existence. In “Mad Hot Ballroom,” diverse New York City schoolkids journey into the world of ballroom
dancing, a new and unexpected arena. A citywide competition transforms them from reluctant participants, trying to maintain the “cool” teenager stance, to determined competitors learning the merengue, rumba, tango, foxtrot and swing.

All screenings are free and open to the public. They will begin at 7 p.m. at the Academy’s Linwood Dunn Theater, except for the December 13 program at the IMAX Theater. Filmmakers will be present whenever possible to discuss their films and take questions from the audience. Part Two of the series will begin in March.

The Linwood Dunn Theater is located at the Academy’s Pickford Center for Motion Picture Study, 1313 North Vine Street, in Hollywood, at the northwest corner of Fountain Avenue and Vine Street. Parking is available behind the building through the entrance on Homewood Avenue, one block north of Fountain. The IMAX Theater is located in the California Science Center in Exposition Park, at the corner of Exposition Boulevard and Figueroa Street. Parking is available for $6 in the lot on Figueroa and 39th Street. For more information, call (310) 247-3600 or (310) 206-FILM.

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