The ITVS Indies Roundup

A curated list of indie news and recommendations from ITVS’s Rebecca Huval.

The director of the classic Some Like It Hot, Billy Wilder, gave Cameron Crowe some thoughtful filmmaking advice in the 1990s. Though Wilder was talking about screenwriting, his list applies to documentary filmmaking as well, including such gems as “Grab 'em by the throat and never let 'em go.” You probably know that recently released documentaries are being taught in classrooms today. But did you know that a free school essay for The Interrupters is already available online? (via Kartemquin)

This week, Realscreen published their picks for the top 100 nonfiction production companies worldwide. Can a hackathon help out storytellers? On April 28 in New York, the transmedia nonprofit StoryCode is hosting the first story-hack. Writers, filmmakers, designers, students, and coders are invited to participate in the weekend-long event. 

Kickstarter was the source of some heat Thursday when Gizmodo said they were done with the crowd-funding platform. Their main complaint was not over film fundraising, but half-baked gadgets. If you’re feeling blocked creatively, don’t fret. Frustration and even surrender are important parts of the creative process, according to Jonah Lehrer’s latest book, Imagine: How Creativity Works. On a similar note, don’t be too ashamed of your failures. Photographers revealed their worst shots — and why they considered them to be rubbish — in The Guardian.