Laura Checkoway, Edith+Eddy
Frank Stiefel, Heaven is a Traffic Jam on the 405
Thomas Lennon, Knife Skills
Elaine McMillion, Heroin(e)
January 23, 2018
52 Minutes
Episode 3 was going to be chaotic and unpredictable. Because, up until 5:38 on the morning of the show, I didn't know who the guests were going to be. I was hoping to have some of the newly named documentary Oscar nominees but who knew who would get the nods from the Academy? So I picked the ones I thought would be the chosen ones and set up interviews on the premise that they would receive a nomination. Fortunately, I was mostly right. As it turned out, some of the feature doc directors were at Sundance the day of the Oscar noms and others weren't available. So I stuck with the shorts which are usually every bit as good and we got four out of the five new nominees.
The biggest surprise of the day for me was the one short doc which I thought was a slam dunk to get a nomination and did not. And that was "Kayayo" the film by Mari Bakke Risse from Oslo, Norway about a young girl who is a human shopping basket in Ghana. If you click on the title of the film just above, the link will take you to their Vimeo page where you can watch the trailer and see the complete short on demand. It's a very strong film and worth taking a look.
The four new short doc nominees we have on this episode were all charming, insightful, and informative about their film and the process of making a short. The best advice might have been from Frank Stiefel who told the story of his long career in the commercial business and it seemed like he was always waiting for permission to do something. And now, making his own documentary, he didn't need permission to start shooting.
DOCUMENTARY (SHORTS) NOMINEES
EDITH+EDDIE
Laura Checkoway and Thomas Lee Wright
HEAVEN IS A TRAFFIC JAM ON THE 405
Frank Stiefel Oscar Winner
HEROIN(E) (available on Netflix)
Elaine McMillion Sheldon and Kerrin Sheldon
KNIFE SKILLS (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U7cW60vhP4Y)
Thomas Lennon
TRAFFIC STOP (now on HBO)
Kate Davis and David Heilbroner
Laura Checkoway's documentary short Edith+Eddie has won numerous awards including the IDA Documentary Awards Best Short 2017. The film is executive produced by Steve James and Cher. Her award-winning debut film LUCKY (also executive produced by Steve James) screened at festivals across the globe and premiered on television in 2014. With a background in journalism, Laura penned revealing profiles and investigative features for numerous publications and has authored acclaimed celebrity autobiographies.
Elaine McMillion Sheldon is a Peabody award-winning documentary filmmaker based in West Virginia. Her work explores universal stories of roots, survival, resilience, and hope. Sheldon is the director of "Heroin(e)" a Netflix Original Documentary short that follows three women fighting the opioid crisis in Huntington, West Virginia. In 2013, she released "Hollow," an interactive documentary that examines the future of rural America through the eyes and voices of West Virginians. Hollow received a Peabody, Emmy nomination and 3rd Prize in the World Press Photo Multimedia Awards. In 2016, Chicken & Egg Pictures awarded her with the inaugural "Breakthrough Filmmaker" award. Sheldon was a 2013 Future of Storytelling Fellow, and named one of the "25 New Faces of Independent Film" by Filmmaker Magazine and one of "50 People Changing The South" by Southern Living Magazine. She's a founding member of All Y'all Southern Documentary Collective. She has been commissioned by Frontline PBS, PBS NewsHour, Center for Investigative Reporting, New York Times Op-Docs, TEDWomen, People Magazine, Lifetime, Field of Vision, Mashable, The Washington Post, and The Bitter Southerner. She was recently named a 2018 USA Fellow by United States Artists.
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