All Posts Tagged With: "nonprofit organization"

Exit Ruch

July 11th, 2008 • Agnes Varnum • Comments Off • Related Posts • Tags

I was stunned to see a message from International Documentary Association Executive Director Sandra Ruch that as of today she has resigned her position. Ruch has been at the helm of the organization since I first dipped my toes in the documentary pool that I have since fallen into completely. She has helped the organization remain relevant and vital during hard times for documentary and for nonprofit film organizations, so I’m more than bummed to hear that she is moving on. Board president diane estelle Vicari will serve as interim ED. Maybe we’ll get lucky and she’ll take on the post.

Despite my woe, I’m sending my very best wishes to Sandra as she explores new ventures. She is leaving the on a high note, and it will be exciting to see what she comes up with next in her career. (Pictured: me with Sandra and diane estelle at Hot Docs 2007. Photo by Joel Heller.)

Tribeca Film Institute Launches Reframe

June 9th, 2008 • Agnes Varnum • 4 comments • Related Posts • Tags

Insiders have been waiting for this one… (now merged with the former Renew Media) announced today the of Reframe, a portal to locate and buy tough-to-find titles. The aim of is to aggregate and make available content that now isn’t due to high cost of digitization. Distributors won’t bother investing in converting older titles if they are unsure of being able to recoup their costs in sales, besides hosts of collections living in libraries, private vaults, basements and other archives without the cash to digitize. might wind up being a huge boon for , and also will hopefully eliminate the problem of hard to find titles. From the press release:

Many filmmakers, distributors and archives can’t afford the high conversion cost to the digital format, and have been reluctant to invest in digitizing “niche” content. converts all content to high-quality digital files; Works in video formats will be digitized for free, and film formats will be digitized “at-cost.” In a unique arrangement, returns a digital copy to the rights-holder for free, and allows them to make their content available to others in a nonexclusive arrangement. then makes these works available for sale to the public, sold at prices based on the suggested retail price set by the rights-holder. All content is made available for sale on on Demand at Amazon.com as well as digital download to own or rent through Amazon’s Unbox service. More About Reframe>>

Part of the community building portion of the site is curated lists. Here is a link to my previously mentioned Hybrid Documentary list. We were limited to films that are currently available on Amazon, so this is by no means meant to be all-inclusive. I did send a long a few titles that aren’t available on Amazon, which I’ve been told will help staff when reaching out to content holders to get them on the site. I’d love to hear your additions to my list, or if you make your own, please let me know!