daily list

AFI mourns the loss of an American original. Esther Williams made a big splash in the film world where she became known as "America's Mermaid." The teenage swimming champion from Los Angeles debuted opposite Mickey Rooney in ANDY HARDY'S DOUBLE LIFE (1942) and went on to star in a series of "Aqua Musicals" in a special pool built for her on the MGM lot. One of those, MILLION DOLLAR MERMAID (1952), lent its title to Williams' autobiography published in 1999. Williams' marriage to actor Fernando Lamas, her co-star in DANGEROUS WHEN WET (1953), lasted until the actor's death in 1982. Williams' talent included singing and drama but she will be most remembered for her graceful, athletic and thoroughly natural appeal in a genre audiences will always consider uniquely her own.

We're just days away from a night of a 1,000 laughs as AFI prepares to celebrate Mel Brooks at the 41st AFI Life Achievement Award tribute, happening June 6 at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood. The stars will shine, the lights will dazzle and for a legend like Brooks, there is no telling what may happen. But we can tell you that Martin Scorsese will present the award to Brooks. AFI 5-Star and Patron Circle members will be joining us for the event, and tune into TNT Saturday, June 15 for the broadcast of the big night. Join us! We'll all be watching, too. Thank you to all of our official sponsors of the 41st AFI Life Achievement Award: Audi, HP, Deloitte, Cello Latin America and American Airlines.

This month marks the 11-year celebration of AFI's critically acclaimed documentary festival, AFI DOCS (formerly Silverdocs) on June 19-23. The internationally recognized event honoring excellence in documentary filmmaking is expanding from the AFI Silver Theatre into landmark Washington, DC venues. New programming will include AFI Catalyst Sessions – public dialogues between our nations leaders and the filmmakers. The Opening Night Gala film will be the premiere of Oscar^®-winning filmmaker Bill Couturié's, LETTERS TO JACKIE with 20 actors, including Anne Hathaway, Viola Davis, Jessica Chastain and others, reading letters written to Jackie Kennedy in the aftermath of the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. For more information, including how to purchase passes (AFI members receive discounts on select pass and ticket purchases.), visit docs.afi.com.

We posed our usual 10 questions to a member of the AFI staff. This time we spoke to Sky Sitney, Festival Director of AFI Docs, on a long distance call from Los Angeles to Silver Spring, Maryland, home of the AFI Silver Theatre and Cultural Center. It was the eleventh hour for the eleventh edition of the festival formerly known as Silverdocs, the hectic period when everything comes together for the June 19-23 event. In addition to its new name, AFI Docs will take place at iconic venues in our nation's capital this year, as AFI, which was founded in the White House Rose Garden in 1965, returns to the old neighborhood.

1. Where are you from? I'm from New York City. I grew up on the Upper West Side on 88th and Broadway, and commuted to the Lower East Side on weekends where my father lived, so I had a bi-island, dual Manhattan residence.

2. Where did you go to school? I graduated from Sarah Lawrence College and got my Masters and completed all my coursework for a PhD – I'm ‘all but dissertation' – from NYU in the Cinema Studies Department.

3. What did you do before you came to AFI? A number of things – almost simultaneously. I was finishing up my doctoral coursework at NYU, which included teaching in the Cinema Studies Department, while I also served as the Director of Programming for the Newport International Film Festival, which, of course, is in Rhode Island, although the position was based in New York City. That work was the culmination of a little bit over a decade of work in the film industry that spanned a variety of disciplines. I worked at Fine Line Features, which is the art house division of New Line Cinema, as well as for a very small indy production company, C-Hundred Film Corp, run by the independent filmmaker Jim McKay and R.E.M. lead singer Michael Stipe.

4. How long have you been at AFI? I've been here eight years. I'm going into my eighth festival.

5. What do you do at AFI? I am the Festival Director of AFI Docs, formerly Silverdocs. I began as the Director of Programming, was promoted to Artistic Director in 2009, and then Festival Director in 2011. I guide the overall artistic direction of the Festival and its intersection with strategic partnerships. I oversee the curation of a program culled from over 2,200 submissions representing the great diversity of the documentary genre. In previous incarnations I also developed, curated, and booked the festival's concurrent conference that presented over 65 panels, master classes and pitching forums.

6. How does that affect our members? My colleague Tiffany Graham-Golden manages membership for the AFI Silver, and we make sure that all AFI members get special opportunities such as advance ticket sales and invitations to special events.

7. What was your best day at AFI? I remember a sense of utter euphoria at the close of the Festival in my first year as the Festival Director. On that closing night, when that final film finished, I felt a sense of sheer relief that the Festival had been a success; there weren't any catastrophes. I looked around the room at the faces of my dear colleagues, all of us who had been so deeply committed and invested in working tirelessly to put this on, and felt a great sense of camaraderie and appreciation.

8. What are you working on today? We are working on the launch in just two months of a new vision of the Festival, which includes a new presenting sponsor in Audi and an expansion into the heart of Washington DC.

9. What don't your colleagues know about you? My gosh. That's tough because we're very transparent here. I think that after hours and hours of watching earnest, social issue documentaries as part of the job, one way I like to relax is to watch one mindless reality show as a kind of wasabi, a way to cleanse the palette. To be honest, I haven't been able to indulge in that pleasure, because we've been too busy, but I like to squeeze in TOP CHEF or PROJECT RUNWAY when given the chance.

10. What's your favorite film? That is very hard. The one that first comes to mind and that I'm going to stick with is NIGHTS OF CABIRIA by Federico Fellini. It just makes me happy. It's both tragic and hopeful. I also love the main character. I love her attitude. No matter what the world throws her way she always picks herself up and brushes herself off. I find that inspiring.