Patricia Finneran is moving on from Silverdocs to head up the New York presence of the Sundance Documentary Program effective November 1. From the press release, she replaces Bruni Burres. I’m curiously out of the loop on that one – I’ve never heard of Bruni working with Sundance, but evidently she is moving on to more human rights work. Finneran’s work will include, “… Representing the Sundance Documentary Program internationally, [and] Finneran will be responsible for recommending film projects, maintaining the Documentary Program’s New York base and working on the Program’s initiatives such as the Sundance Doc Fund and the Skoll Foundation’s Stories of Change: Social Entrepreneurship in Focus Through Documentary.”

This is the second high-profile departure from AFI’s family of festivals in fairly short order, with executive director Christian Gaines leaving AFI Fest in Los Angeles for a position at Withoutabox.com. Who will take over Silverdocs? I’m on the edge of my seat. Nominations?

It is with mixed emotions that I write to inform you, my dear documentary festival lovers, that Amy King (pictured right with Sky Sitney), that bright, friendly face of Silverdocs who I so look forward to seeing each June and on the festival circuit scouting projects during the year, is taking a hiatus from the film world. If you recall those fabulous reusable shopping bags our swag came in this year or that Silverdocs was the first doc fest to go carbon neutral here in the U.S. AND if I tell you that Ms. King spearheaded those efforts, you might not be surprised to hear that she has taken a position with an environmental company at Dupont Circle, Ground Zero of Washington lobbyists. She will use her mighty marketing skills in service of an issue she is passionate about, which is a wonderful way to transition from one project to another, so I wish her much luck in her efforts and am crossing my fingers for her success.

Amy promises that she will still find her way in and around film circles, and dropped hints about a possible new film project on the horizon. Stay tuned for updates at her indieWIRE blog!

Think deeper. Silverdocs, the AFI/Discovery Documentary Festival, held from June 12-17, invited guests to ponder faith, music, democracy and war, in their program of 100 films from 42 countries, in addition to explorations in documentary craft and the future of the business of documentary through their special events and conference panels. It’s a lofty goal to ask film goers to “think deeper” but this years’ fest did indeed provoke lively conversations and set a high bar for intellectually engaging festival attendees. Read the entire article>>