There are two new ways to follow all of the excitement surrounding David’s new film, The Buddha:

By becoming a fan of The Buddha on Facebook.

By following The Buddha on Twitter.

The Trials of J. Robert Oppenheimer has received a CINE Golden Eagle Award for excellence in non-fiction television.

The Writers Guild of America has announced their nominations for outstanding achievement in television, radio, news, promotional writing, and graphic animation during the 2009 season.

David has been nominated for The Trials of J. Robert Oppenheimer in the “Documentary – Other Than Current Events” category.

This is David’s 9th nomination for a WGA award. He has won four previously.

Winners will be announced on Saturday, February 20th at the 2010 Writers Guild Awards in Los Angeles and New York.

Video of the panel David participated in at the National Archives in September is available on Youtube. The panel was moderated by Cokie Roberts and included Michael Beschloss, and Drew Faust along with David discussing the role the Archives has played in their research.

The entire discussion can be seen in four parts here.

If you missed The Windmill Movie at the New York Film Festival or The Film Forum, you can see it on HBO tonight, Wednesday, October 27th.

David was one of the producers of the film.

“A fascinating portrait” - NYTIMES ★★★★ - CRITICS’ PICK - “Mind Bending” - TIME OUT CRITICS’ PICK - “A love letter to fading memory and the passage of time” - NEW YORK MAGAZINE “A feat of filmmaking… georgeously emotional” - FILMMAKER MAGAZINE “The most moving documentary of the year” - ANTHEM MAGAZINE Nominated for the Writers Guild Award Best Documentary Screenplay AFI SILVERDOCS

David will be speaking as part of a panel at the National Archives this Monday, September 14th on the role that the archive has played in his filmmaking. The panel will be moderated by Cokie Roberts (political commentator) and include Michael Beschloss (historian) and Drew Faust (historian and president of Harvard University). The panel, 75 Years of Discovering Archival Treasures, is one of a series of events celebrating the 75th Anniversary the archive’s establishment.

From the event website:

Monday, September 14, at 7 p.m.
William G. McGowan Theater
75 Years of Discovering Archival Treasures
The National Archives has been our nation’s record keeper for 75 years, and priceless treasures await researchers. Tonight a distinguished panel discuss their favorite discoveries in the National Archives and explain why records matter. Cokie Roberts, political commentator for ABC News and author of Ladies of Liberty: The Women Who Shaped Our Nation, moderates a panel including Michael Beschloss, author of Presidential Courage: Brave Leaders and How They Changed America, 1789–1989; Drew Faust, president of Harvard University and author of This Republic of Suffering: Death and the American Civil War; and David Grubin, documentary filmmaker and biographer for the PBS American Experience series.

David has received two Emmy nominations for The Trials of J Robert Oppenheimer :

        Outstanding Nonfiction Series
        Outstanding Writing for Nonfiction Programming

Congratulations to all who worked on the film!!

Winners will be announced on CBS, Sunday, September 20th at 8 pm Eastern.

David had the opportunity last week to film several beautiful statues for his biography of the Buddha.

A statue of the Buddha practicing extreme austerities before he achieved enlightenment and discovered “the middle way.”

A statue of the Buddha from the Gandharan region (modern Afghanistan).

“The Windmill Movie,” a film about the life and work of filmmaker Dick Rogers, received a writeup by David Ansen in the New York Times this weekend. Dick Rogers was a good friend and colleague of David’s. David was one of the producers of the film.

The Windmill movie, a film that David helped to produce, will be opening next week in New York and Los Angeles.

Filmmaker Richard P. Rogers tried for twenty years to make a documentary about his own life. He died in 2001, leaving boxes of film behind, the project unfinished, until his widow, acclaimed photographer Susan Meiselas, commissioned former student, Alex Olch to make a film out of the pieces. Personal, provocative and full of pathos, the film tells the story of Rogers’ life through the very end whilst meditating on why we document our lives.

www.windmillmovie.com

Screening in New York at Film Forum June 17th-June 30th
1:15pm, 3:15pm, 6pm, 8pm, 10pm
Advance Ticket Sales
Susan Meiselas & Alexander Olch in person 6/17, 8pm showing.

Screening in L.A. at Laemle Sunset 5 Showing daily starting June 26th
1:30pm, 4:10pm, 7:00pm, 9:40pm
Advance Ticket Sales

Also Screening:
June 19 & 20 - Hamptons (Sag Harbor Theater, 90 Main St).
July - Boston, Chicago, Philadelphia, Sante Fe, Seattle & More.

There will also be a special screening of Dick Rogers’ work at the Film Society of Lincoln Center on June 16th at 7:00 pm.
Read the rest of this entry »