AU's Center for Social Media will release a study on Nov. 8 that highlights the problems that documentary filmmakers face in controlling rights for their creative work and the consequences for cultural creativity.
The Center, along with the Program on Intellectual Property and the Public Interest (PIPPI) at AU's Washington College of Law, conducted the yearlong research project, which was funded by the Rockefeller Foundation.
Supervising the project were professor Patricia Aufderheide, director of the Center for Social Media, and law professor and head of PIPPI Peter Jaszi.
The study looks at the creative challenges independent documentary filmmakers who work in a broadcast setting face in acquiring and granting rights in today's media world. These filmmakers, who work particularly in a theatrical or television environment, reveal "the lived experience of 'clearance culture' and its creative cost," the Center's Web site said.
The site also said that the filmmakers were selected because their work required interaction with many rights holders. Copyright circumstances include a radio in the background playing music, a subject singing "Happy Birthday," a logo on a shirt or a hat, and a show on television that a subject is watching.
A panel discussion on the creative cost of the "clearance culture," a joint effort with the WCL, will occur on the study's release date.
Panelists include Jaszi, Jim Gillian of Robert Greenwald Productions, Grace Guggenheim of Guggenheim Productions, and Jeffrey Tuchman of Documania Films.
There will also be a screening of a short film from AU filmmaker Brigid Maher titled "Stories Untold." The event will take place from 4 to 6 p.m. at WCL in Room 603.
For more details, visit centerforsocialmedia.org.
