At Oscar time, doc-makers get a fiery moment

(This is a story I posted on Jan. 28, but I thought it would be fun to bring it back now, with the Academy Award telecast coming on March 12. You’ll find two other Oscar stories to the left.)
As the Academy Awards near, the nominees have a descending order of fame.
At the top this year are the stars – actors (Cate Blanchett, Angela Bassett, Judd Hirsch, etc.), a director (Steven Spielberg) and some songwriters (Lady Gaga, Rihanna). And near the bottom, every year?
“You are the lowest on the totem pole as a short-doc filmmaker,” Cynthia Wade said
That’s the short-documentary category. She won it in 2008 (for the 39-minute “Freeheld)” and had her moment on global TV, being handed an Oscar by Tom Hanks; she was nominated again in 2013.
This year, her “The Flagmakers” was one of four National Geographic Channel films that made the short list of consideration for the two documentary categories. It wasn’t nominated, but another Nat Geo one, Sara Dosa’s “Fire of Love” was nominated as best feature-length doc.
(The other short-listers from National Geographic are “Retrograde” and “The Territory.” All four films are on Disney+.)
Getting nominated means walking the red carpet – a strange experience for a diligent documentary-maker. “You’re struggling – and then sort of sail into this very glamorous place,” Wade said. “It’s like going to the moon.”
Even more surreal was hearing Hanks call her name. “I just remember coming up to the stage and he looked down at me and … said, ‘Come on up, kiddo, it’s your moment.’”
That’s the Hollywood moment that eludes most documentary-makers. This year, Dosa gets a shot.
Her “Fire of Love” (shown here) began when she was making a 2019 documentary about an Iclandic environmental activist. “Iceland is a volcanic island and we were looking for archival imagery of erupting volcanoes in Iceland,” Dosa said. “That’s when we learned of Katia and Maurice Krafft.”
For the 21 years of their marriage, they had filmed and photographed volcanoes. They wrote 20 books, made films, gave talks. Then, in 1991, they were killed (at 49 and 45) by a molten wave in Japan.
They “had this phenomenal trove of footage,” Dosa said. “And we thought, ‘Wow this is really a film we want to make.’”
The result didn’t seem aimed at wide audiences. “We really conceived of it as kind of an art-collage film, very French New Wave inspired,” Dosa said.
But National Geographic grabbed it and gave it a push. “Fire of Love” played in some theaters. (It made $1.7 million at the box office – a pittance for Marvel epics, but a decent total for a documentary.) There was more: David Byrne singing “Ring of Fire” at a screening … the French opening being held at the Louvre … and then the Oscar nomination.
For the winner, that means a sudden swirl. Wade recalls hugging Hanks, getting the Oscar, then scrambling to find a phone so she could talk to her father.
Then she flew home to Brooklyn, carrying her award. “I went into the local coffee shop. And somebody turned to me and said, ‘Is that a bottle of maple syrup?’
“’I said, ‘No, it’s an Oscar.’ I hadn’t slept in two nights.
“And he said, ‘Whose Oscar?’
“So then you’re back down on Earth and things turn back into pumpkins and mice and you start at the bottom again.”