At the Cinema Eye Honors luncheon celebrating documentary films and the filmmakers who make them, Otto Bell exulted: his The Eagle Huntress had just received a BAFTA nod, and one from the Directors' Guild of America, but more exciting to him was a tea last week at the Plaza Athenee where Robert Kennedy Jr. had a conversation with him about falconry, and brought his own eagle. Successful with this first-time feature, Bell makes commercials for CNN. Blown away, he asked, "Can you believe it: "Robert Kennedy, Jr.!"
We were seated at an elegantly appointed table at a Manhattan penthouse, amidst Alex Gibney, Steve James, Barbara Kopple, Frederick Wiseman, Laura Poitras, a who's who of the documentary world gathered for the 10th year of Cinema Eye Honors. The focus of the lunch was the presentation of the Legacy Award for The Life and Times of Harvey Milk (1984). Heidi Ewing and Rachel Grady presided. Laura Albert, the star of Author: The JT Leroy Story, and Kirsten Johnson, whose Cameraperson is a frontrunner for Oscar nomination. Keith Maitland's Tower is also a strong contender. The Harvey Milk director Robert Epstein acknowledged Barbara Kopple's important influence on his film, and Kopple remembered Sharon Jones, the subject of her film, Miss Sharon Jones!, who recently died of cancer. "I thought she would live on," said Kopple in tribute to the singer dubbed the female James Brown.
Here is a list of the Camera Eye Award winners from a ceremony last night at the Museum of the Moving Image:
Outstanding Achievement in Nonfiction Feature Filmmaking
Cameraperson
Directed by Kirsten Johnson
Produced by Marilyn Ness
Outstanding Achievement in Direction
Ezra Edelman
OJ: Made in America
Outstanding Achievement in Editing
Nels Bangerter
Cameraperson
Outstanding Achievement in Production
Ezra Edelman and Caroline Waterlow
OJ: Made in America
Outstanding Achievement in Cinematography
Kirsten Johnson
Cameraperson
Outstanding Achievement in Original Music Score
David Byrne, LeeAnn Rossi and Aaron Rosenblum
Contemporary Color
Outstanding Achievement in Graphic Design or Animation
Keith Maitland and Craig Staggs
Tower
Outstanding Achievement in a Debut Feature Film
Hooligan Sparrow
Directed by Nanfu Wang
Audience Choice Prize
Gleason
Directed by Clay Tweel
Outstanding Achievement in Nonfiction Films Made for Television
Making a Murderer
Directed and Produced by Laura Ricciardi and Moira Demos
For Netflix: Adam Del Deo and Lisa Nishimura
Spotlight Award
Those Who Jump
Directed by Moritz Siebert and Estephan Wagner
Outstanding Achievement in Nonfiction Short Filmmaking
La Laguna
Directed by Aaron Schock
Heterodox Award
All These Sleepless Nights
Directed by Michal Marczak
Legacy Award
The Times of Harvey Milk
Directed by Rob Epstein
A version of this post also appears on Gossip Central.