After world premiering at SLAMdance in January, Cullen Hoback’s documentary Terms and Conditions May Apply re-upped on the film festival circuit this past weekend at the Sonoma International Film Festival. And in what is likely the first of several such prizes, it snagged the event’s Best Documentary Feature nod.

In the coming weeks, this scary look at how much Internet users typically give up when they accept website terms and conditions will screen at film festivals in Newport Beach (April 26-May 2), Toronto (April 26-May 3) and Belgium (May 4-8). Helping feed the buzz are the recognizable names up on screen:

Terms and Conditions May Apply features interviews with musician Moby, futurist Ray Kurzweil and science-fiction author Orson Scott Card, as well as a privacy-invading ambush of Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg.

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Before Argo, both in real life and at the 84th Annual Academy Awards, there was Searching for Sugar Man. The winner of the Documentary Feature prize is just about the most entertaining in-search-of doc since Michael Moore was in his GM, George W.-tracking prime.

Rolling Stone associate editor Andy Greene delightfully keeps the vibe going with today’s “10 Things You Didn’t Know…” feature. God love Sixto Rodriguez, a guy who opted not to attend the Oscars and then nonchalantly skipped his moment of Academy triumph from afar:

“I was asleep when it won, but my daughter Sandra called to tell me,” Rodriguez said. “I don’t have TV service anyway.”

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This weekend, the “H” in William H. Macy will stand for not just “Hall” but also “Hearst.” That’s because the Oscar-nominated actor does a very capable job as narrator of the feature documentary Citizen Hearst, opening Thursday at Laemmle movie theaters in Beverly Hills (Music Hall), Pasadena (Playhouse 7), Encino (Town Center) and Claremont (Claremont 5).

After highlighting the life exploits of William Randolph Hearst, the movie really hits its stride once it gets to the post-World War II era and success of magazines like Good Housekeeping, Harper’s Bazaar and Cosmopolitan. It’s fun to hear interview subjects recall how Helen Gurley Brown‘s stewardship hit town “like a thunder clap.” Here for example is a recollection in the film from Kate White, Cosmo editor-in-chief from 1998 to 2012:

“Helen’s first cover is still an inspiration to me, it’s so sexy. The woman, a blonde, buxom. The little hint of Brigitte Bardot… One of my favorite all-time [first cover] lines is, ‘THE NEW PILL THAT PROMISES TO MAKE WOMEN MORE RESPONSIVE.’”

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The LA Times and Kickstarter deserve equal amounts of credit for something that happened in San Antonio this past weekend.

It was a June 2011 LAT article by Southeast Asia correspondent John M. Glionna that first made filmmaker Brian Ivie aware of a South Korean pastor caring for unwanted disabled children. Inspired by the piece, Ivie that fall raised a relatively modest sum to make a feature documentary about the extraordinary man profiled by Glionna and on Saturday The Drop Box claimed a $101,000 Jubilee Award from the San Antonio Independent Christian Film Festival:

Judge Curtis Bowers, who won “Best of Festival” in 2010 for his film Agenda, remarked: “We saw in this young man [Ivie] someone who loved life so much; that loved the truth; that was willing to defend those that no one cares about and wants to get rid of. If he’s that passionate about that in a movie that he didn’t know if it’s ever going to make money or not . . . we could tell: That’s a young man we want to invest in, because he’s going to change the world with his films.”

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Just caught this trailer for the new documentary Sellebrity last night at a screening of Holy Motors at USC. Seems pretty timely, what with the recent death of paparazzo Chris Guerra, who was struck by an SUV while shooting Justin Bieber, as well as the proposed legal changes to celebrity photography still being bandied about here in Los Angeles in the wake of Guerra’s death.

When you hear a letter written by Thomas Jefferson being read by actor Sam Waterston or see a photograph showing the intensity in the eyes of a Civil War soldier, you know you’re watching a Ken Burns documentary.

In this episode of My First Big Break, the iconic filmmaker tells the MediabistroTV crew how he channeled his feelings of humiliation into his first masterpiece on the Brooklyn Bridge and reveals how his mother’s death sparked his need to bring the dead back to life, shaping the style we know today as the “Ken Burns Effect.”

For more videos, check out our YouTube channel and follow us on Twitter: @mediabistroTV

Watching a Ken Burns film is like watching the past come alive through the expert use of narration and still photographs. So how did he develop his signature style? The iconic filmmaker sits down with MediabistroTV in, “Ken Burns: My First Big Break.”

>UPDATE: Watch “Ken Burns: My First Big Break” in three weeks on MediabistroTV, Thursday, December 6.

And if superstorms on the East Coast and unseasonably warm weather on the West Coast wasn’t enough to satisfy your craving for major weather events, PBS presents an Extreme Weather Night of TV this Sunday (11/18), beginning at 7pm ET.

NOVA gets the party started with the premiere of Inside the Megastorm an original one-hour documentary taking viewers moment by moment through Hurricane Sandy. Then Burns gives us reason to give thanks when he presents The Dust Bowl. Burns tells the story of the worst man-made environmental disaster in American history in a two-part, four hour documentary detailing how the convergence of a terrible drought and the scramble for the American Dream nearly changed the southern plains forever.

You can view our other MediabistroTV productions on our YouTube Channel.

West of Memphis, Amy Berg‘s comprehensive documentary about the wrongly accused West Memphis Three, made its  debut at AFI Fest yesterday. There weren’t a whole lot of dry eyes in the audience. With today’s vote on Proposition 34 to end the death penalty in California, the timing couldn’t have been more perfect.  If you didn’t make the screening, do yourself a favor and at least watch the trailer above before you vote today.

Following a splashy private screening at Hearst headquarters in New York City and a public world premiere earlier this month at the Hamptons International Film Festival, feature documentary Citizen Hearst has come home to roost. Commissioned by Hearst and narrated by actor William H. Macy, the film will debut in San Francisco tonight at a Legion of Honor event sponsored by the Chronicle.

The movie was co-produced and directed by Leslie Iwerks, who previously took a look at another west coast media giant in The Pixar Story. The parade of on-screen interviews includes Oprah Winfrey, Dan Rather, Mark Burnett, Walt Disney Company chairman Bob Iger and a number of William Randolph Hearst descendants.

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Seven years ago, Ventura artist and filmmaker Michael O’Kelly met the late Ray Bradbury at the author’s Los Angeles home. The two became fast friends and worked together to coordinate book signings, theater events and film festival appearances.

Later this fall, O’Kelly will unveil a feature length documentary titled Live Forever – The Ray Bradbury Odyssey. He plans to also submit the movie to film festivals and have a qualifying run for Best Documentary Feature Oscar consideration. But first, there will be a November 11 screening in Ventura to benefit the San Buenaventura Friends of the Library and Ventura Film Society. From this weekend’s report in the Ventura Star:

”It’s Michael’s first film and we’re supporting him in that,” said Lorenzo DeStefano, director of the Ventura Film Society. “I saw a play that he did called Live Forever, and this has evolved from that. He’s been working on this for some time. It’s very personal too. He’s got some great actors and fans. Ray was one of the century’s most amazing guys.”

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