Telling It Like It is

Exhaustive research. Unpredictable subjects. Chronic underfunding. The stigma of being "unsexy." It's no picnic for documentarians, but they do what they do because they love it -- and they want you to know about it. Friday, March 8, the University of Texas (in conjunction with the South by Southwest Film Festival) will host a doc salon of sorts, an all-day gathering in which professionals and amateurs alike come together to chew on the agony and the ecstasy of documentary filmmaking. On tap will be a roundtable discussion on the current state of documentary-making; presentations on what formal schooling has to offer (participants include field experts from UT, Stanford, and Berkeley); sage advice for a new generation of truth-sayers from filmmakers, financiers, and programmers; and enough doc glitterati to make your head spin, including Albert Maysles (Gimme Shelter), Alan Berliner (The Sweetest Sound), and Alexandra Pelosi (director of the outrageously anticipated Dubya-doc, Journeys With George). Of course, it wouldn't be Texas if there weren't a little hometown bragging involved; as says Paul Stekler, a UT professor and the man behind the Emmy Award-winning George Wallace: Settin' the Woods on Fire, the doc summit is "also a chance for a lot of important documentary people from out of town to see what's happening here in Austin and at UT -- and take the word back out to the world." True, dat.

The UT- and SXSW-sponsored documentary salon is free, open to the public, and takes place Friday, March 8, 9am-5pm, in the LBJ Room, fifth floor of the UT Communications Building A (26th and Guadalupe).