By MICHAEL CIEPLY

LOS ANGELES — While the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Science tries out new rules for its documentary Oscars, DocuWeeks — a showcase that helps documentarians without commercial distribution qualify for the awards — is forging ahead. The International Documentary Association, which sponsors DocuWeeks, said this year’s program would include 17 feature films and 11 shorts.

The screenings are scheduled Aug. where can you buy viagra 3-23 at the IFC Center in New York, and from Aug. 10-30 at the Laemmle NoHo 7 theater in Los Angeles. The offerings portray suffering humanity, as in “Drought,” about an annual search for water in northeast Mexico; unusual passions, as in “Digital Dharma: One Man’s Mission to Save a Culture,” about a Mormon from Utah who struggled to preserve Tibetan texts; and heartwarming aspiration, as in “Once in a Lullaby,” about singing schoolchildren.

Under its new rules, the Academy has added a requirement that documentaries not only screen in New York and Los Angeles, but also be accompanied by a movie review. According to the documentary association, seven past Oscar winners, including “Taxi to the Dark Side,” qualified by way of the DocuWeeks program.