Good Evening … and welcome to the 3rd annual CInema Eye Honors event. And welcome to the world headquarters of non-fiction filmmaking! (That would be you all.)

Of course, this world headquarters thing is a transitional moment. In a couple of weeks, it will have moved to Sundance — and after that to True/False — and in the Spring, at Full Frame — and later at Hot Docs in Toronto, and Sheffield in England, and IDFA in Holland and DocFest in Copenhagen. And in many other places around the world. AJ has the list and locations on his blog.

Tonight, however, you are home at our particular version of World Headquarters: Non-Fiction Film Division. You need to keep in mind you have many homes around the world and that your work has many points of support and vectors of enthusiasm. The global independent film community, represented in part by its festival infrastructure that I have just mentioned, stands with you tonight.

There’s more to that institutional infrastructure than festivals but let’s not get carried away in a burst of enthusiasm for solidarity.

There are some who are not represented here tonight who should be — but perhaps they don’t understand yet how important you are to them. We invite them to join us in pursuing that vision of filmmaking nearly a century old now, Dziga Vertov’s view of “capturing fragments of actuality that when organized together, have a deeper meaning than can be seen with the naked eye.” We invite them to consider Errol Morris on-going blog series in the NY Times, the latest published only two days ago, on pictures and reality.

There are those who are not here who do not like what you do. There is an expression that is perhaps derived from philosopher William James — “the varieties of human experience”. In your work, you allow that variety to speak for itself and to be seen from many different points of view and from many international perspectives.

There are those for whom the varieties of human experience are threatening; they would prefer to see a homogenous and uniform society of behavior and belief. Your eye opposes that. Bravo.

And then there are those who are not here out of what can only be considered uninformed willfulness. An Oscar award winning producer presents his latest work at a private screening in Los Angeles, and a distributor when asked says: “Sure. It’s great. But it’s a doc. How can I sell it?” To them, we can only say — “stand aside.”

Someone might have said that about Ondi Timoner’s film We Live In Public: “but how can I sell that?” IndiePix is pleased to part of the team selected by the filmmaker, in our case as its US DVD distributor. As part of the team that will bring this non-fiction work to the public in March in a campaign she has organized, we’ll be working along side our good friend Any Whittaker and his company, Dogwoof Films in England, and our brothers in distribution, Mongrel Media in Canada, both distributors that — like us — take delight in bringing your work to its growing audience.

While the solidarity of the institutional infrastructure may not be complete, our corner of that part of the global independent film community is solidly with you tonight.

We and others — as individual film goers, fans, collaborators with you in your projects — and as organizations: festivals, businesses, broadcasters, and distributors around the world — we are pleased to honor your accomplishments this evening. We respect your hard work. Your dedication to your craft. The excellence of your achievements.

Namaste

My humble spirit salutes you.