I'm doing a small documentary that probably will never be released on a friend of mine who died back in 1967. I am going to get releases from our friends and his relatives when I talk with them just in case I want to show it at a film festival, However, right now, I'm just making it for myself and his family and doing all the work and bearing all the costs.

There is a movie out that I'd like to use a few scenes from to illustrate some things that happened to my friend during his life.

Couple questions:

1. Who all do I contact for permission. On the cover of the DVD is 1. Hollywood Pictures 2. Caravan Pictures 3. distributed by Buena Vista Home Entertainment.

2. Is it possible to talk about a person, then use a short clip from a movie to illustrate what one is taking about without getting copyright permission?

This is a personal project with virtually no budget and I can do the project without the movie scenes. I am going to cut from interviews to photo's and some home movies, but I just don't have enough photo's of some events or people to use during the interviews..... I would like to use a couple of scenes/clips from one movie to illustrate some of the events and characteristics of this person life.

I know this isn't an easy question and there is much info on the internet. I just starting with this forum as I generally get some pretty good information here and see this as an obvious starting point.

Thanks in advance.