Patricia Aufderheide's Posts

At the second annual Wikipedia conference to be held in the U.S., copyright issues pervaded the discussions among folks from 83 (!) countries. Of course it did: Wikipedia is a reader-built encyclopedia that promises free content world-wide. And it’s doing that job in the middle of a sea of copyrighted content.Read more...

George Stoney, the extraordinary documentarian, teacher, and godfather—some say father, but I wonder if he'd be comfortable with that--of the cable access movement, has passed on peacefully at 96.Read more...

When PBS restored independent film series Independent Lens and POV to its prime-time core schedule, viewers then were threatened with the next hurdle: station carriage. In the past, many public TV stations have not carried social-issue documentaries at the time PBS has selected. Read more...

Silverdocs, the largest documentary film festival in the U.S., showcased a striking range of documentaries this year, and of course far more of them than I could ever hope to see.  The styles ranged from highly personal to big-picture essay, from meditative to thriller-paced, from celebrity-focused to featuring the people you usually pay no attention to.  The commonality?  All the ones I saw richly rewarded my attention. Read more...

AJ Schnack sure knows how to stir up trouble.  His panel, “Hot Topics,”at Silverdocs, became one of the most talked-about at the fest for pushing the hot button of ethics.Read more...