WALTZ WITH BASHIR Nominated for an Academy Award

It’s award season and the ITVS International film WALTZ WITH BASHIR, directed by Air Folman, continues to top the lists as one of the best films of the year.

Today the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences officially announced that WALTZ WITH BASHIR was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Foreign Film. This marks the 10th Academy Award nomination for ITVS and the first nod for an ITVS International film.

Watch on Sunday, February 22 as Hollywood gathers for one of the biggest award ceremonies of the year.

And without further adieu…The nominees for Best Foreign Film of the year are:

• The Baader Meinhof Complex
• The Class
• Departures
• Revanche
• WALTZ WITH BASHIR

Check out the entire list of this year’s nominees >>

This nomination is the latest in a long line of accolades, nominations and awards. Earlier this month, WALTZ WITH BASHIR was named Best Foreign Language Film at the 66th annual Golden Globe Awards. That prestigious award came just days after its win for the film as Best Foreign Language Film at 14th Annual Broadcast Film Critics Association’s Critics’ Choice Awards.

Tags: Academy Award, international

It’s a Wrap: Returning Home From Sundance

Lois Vossen, vice president and series producer, catches up with colleagues and friends while at the Sundance Film Festival, including Lauren Prestileo of WGBH-Boston.

After six days in Park City it is time to head home. This year marked my 18th consecutive Sundance and in many ways it was my best Sundance experience in years. The warm weather certainly helped––I only wore my gloves twice, my hat once and never even used my scarf!

The smaller crowds made catching the endless round of shuttle buses more enjoyable. As a proponent of mass-transit, I kind of enjoyed riding the shuttles and eavesdropping on all the conversations. While some of the comments were pretty wild, I also (over)heard some of the most intelligent discussions about film as the shuttles lumbered from the Transit Center and Main Street to the library, to the Yarrow/Holiday Cinemas and onto the Eccles.

But appropriately, the best thing about this year’s Sundance was the films. I saw 15 films and really liked many of them and loved a few of them. The bounty of environmental films could have made for a very depressing Sundance––especially since I screened The Cove, The End of the Line, Crude, No Impact Man and Dirt! The Movie within three days. But even the most dire of these films tried to offer the audience a ray of hope if we are willing to change our ways. Like the call from President Obama, we’ll have to make some sacrifices like giving up blue fin tuna so it doesn’t go extinct. But before I can taste some dirt in my own Oakland backyard like they did in Dirt! The Movie, I’ll have to remove the lead.

One of the fun things about Sundance are the chance encounters: running into former colleagues I see once a year or every few years at Sundance, meeting filmmakers whose work I’ve admired and being able to tell them that in person, going to a pub for lunch and getting seated down the table from the five documentary competition jurors so you can say hi to all of them at once, and of course meeting new filmmakers.

On Tuesday morning I participated in the “Meet the Commissioning Editors” pitch meetings at the Sundance House. One person who joined my table is a Sundance Fellow this year. His earlier short was featured as part of the Independent Lens Shorts Festival. He pitched his new project along with about 30 other filmmakers looking for funding, broadcast and other support.

A notable difference from earlier years at Sundance is whose sitting in the theater with me watching documentaries. This year I sat behind, next to, in front of or across the aisle from Sting, Trudie Styler, Chris Rock, Pierce Brosnan, Kevin Bacon, Ben Affleck, Nia Long, etc. And of course Mr. Redford, but he’s been doing it for 25 years.

- Lois Vossen, vice president and Independent Lens series producer

Tags: film festival, independent film, Sundance

Filmmaker Cassandra Herrman at West Hollywood Screening of TULIA, TEXAS

Desiree Gutierrez, Regional Outreach Coordinator; Stephen Gutwillig, the California director of the Drug Policy Alliance; Cassandra Herrman, filmmaker of TULIA, TEXAS; Kevin Michael Key, a community advocacy leader; and Kim McGill, an organizer with Youth Justice Coalition.

Playing the role of an LAPD cop, Kim McGill demonstrated how policing tactics that seem invasive are actually within the scope of California law on a volunteer from the audience.

A crowd gathers at last night's screening of TULIA, TEXAS at the Pacific Design Center in West Hollywood.

As I’ve been going to community cinema events for TULIA TEXAS, the documentary I co-directed with Kelly Whalen, I’ve come to realize that what makes them unique is that they do something that a broadcast cannot, which is reveal people’s immediate responses to the film. And it’s been fascinating to watch how those reactions have differed. Last night at the screening in West Hollywood, I wondered if this film about a drug sting in a small rural town would be relevant in a city as large and complex as Los Angeles. When we’ve shown the film in urban areas, I’ve sometimes been concerned that the Tulia story could be viewed as “something that couldn’t happen here.”

But at last night’s event, with a strong and diverse panel put together by Community Cinema Regional Outreach Coordinator Desiree Gutierrez, those fears were quickly allayed. The panel tied all the key issues in the film to Californians’ concerns. The audience heard from Stephen Gutwillig, the California director of the Drug Policy Alliance, Kim McGill, an organizer with Youth Justice Coalition, and Kevin Michael Key, a community advocacy leader.

Stephen Gutwillig set the tone by saying “The war on drugs is the new Jim Crow.” Earlier, he had commented to me that a film like TULIA, TEXAS conveys the human cost of the drug wars in a way statistics cannot. Kim McGill took this a step further by demonstrating what it’s like to deal with law enforcement on a daily basis. She asked for a volunteer from the audience to submit to a mock arrest. Playing the role of an LAPD cop, Kim quickly demonstrated how policing tactics that seem invasive are actually within the scope of California law. Kevin then spoke about his experience working with poor communities of color in Los Angeles and how these people are the primary casualties of the war on drugs.

The audience was engaged in the discussion and as the conversation moved beyond the war on drugs to the gang war problem in LA and the prison industrial complex, it was enlightening and rewarding for me to see the film reflected in this larger context.

-Cassandra Herrman

Visit the Community Cinema Web site to find upcoming events and screenings >>

Tags: justice system, West Hollywood

Remembering Woody

Woodward Wickham

It is with great sadness and a deep sense of loss that we at ITVS learned of the passing of Woody Wickham, a leading member of ITVS’ Board of Directors, this past Sunday.

My first and true introduction to Woodward Wickham, or Woody as he is better known, was during a presentation at the MacArthur Foundation where I was pitching the merits of a workforce development plan to him and ten of his colleagues. Somewhere in the middle of my presentation I forgot my nervousness and began to wave my hands around, knocking a full glass of water onto my lap. Without a blink or pause, Woody held my wide-eyed glance and commanded me to continue while someone else mopped up. So intense was his questioning that my suit steamed itself dry—not even a damp spot by the time we were done.

Years later, I realized the depths of strategy and kindness that lay behind his command, as he saved me from my predicament that day at MacArthur and from many that were to come over the years. Woody joined the ITVS board in 2002, served as chair in 2005 and 2006 and on a multitude of committees throughout his tenure. There is no doubt that our field and ITVS would not be where we are today if not for his leadership, exacting standards and generosity. Personally, I know that I am a better person for having known him, worked with him and enjoyed his friendship. I think he knows our love and gratitude as he passes on. He died peacefully yesterday at 5:30 PM in his home in Chicago. We miss him already.

Sally Jo Fifer
President and CEO

P.S. – Gifts in his memory can be sent to the endowment of the Woodward A. Wickham Butterfly Garden at the Peggy Notebaert Nature Museum, 2430 N. Cannon Drive, Chicago, IL 60614.

Tags: ITVS board

Tonight on Independent Lens: PLEASE VOTE FOR ME

From Reality Blurred: Tonight, after today’s historic inauguration of Barack Obama and television’s non-stop celebration of this part of our democracy, PBS’ Independent Lens will re-air a documentary that explores democracy in a very different context: China’s first-ever democratic election in a school, which is for a third-grade hall monitor.

Watch a preview below:

PLEASE VOTE FOR ME airs tonight, January 20, on PBS’s Independent Lens at 10 PM (check local listings).

Tags: China, democracy, election

At Sundance Film Festival with Claire Aguilar, ITVS vice president of Programming

Producer Paco de Onis and Director Pamela Yates, The Reckoning

Lisa Heller, vice president of Original Programming, HBO

Catherine Olsen from the CBC and Iikka Vehkelahti, commissioning editor of Finland’s YLE, art critic and documentary producer

This is both a remarkable and strange year to be at Sundance, during the inauguration of President-Elect Obama and the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday. People say that the crowds are thinner this year, but it still seems crowded and screenings are full. It’s unseasonably warm––in the high 30′s during the day––and that makes people kind of happy not having to deal with the cold and snow. Yet there is something surreal about it.

We had a great ITVS party on Friday evening honoring two films at the festival: EL GENERAL, by Natalia Almada, and WILLIAM KUNSTLER: Disturbing the Universe, by Emily and Sarah Kunstler, which are scheduled for broadcast on PBS’s P.O.V. Also featured at Sundance was the film Wounded Knee by Stanley Nelson as one of the episodes of American Experience’s Native American series And We Shall Remain, which is scheduled for April 2009 on PBS.

Yesterday was my fourth day at Sundance and it was marked by a screening of the world premiere of The Reckoning, a film directed by Pamela Yates, produced by Paco de Onis and Peter Kinoy, about the International Criminal Court (ICC)––a powerful account of the establishment of the ICC and its pursuit of justice against crimes of genocide and war crimes. Pam and Paco have been working on The Reckoning for three years, and have told many stories chronicling the ICC and its head prosecutor Luis Moreno Ocampo. I spoke with Paco and Pam at the Filmmakers Lodge about their work on this film and others about international justice and human rights in Guatemala, Peru and many other countries. They are so intelligent, dedicated and terrific filmmakers. The screening was packed, and full of enthusiastic response from the audience, including Chris Rock. The Reckoning is in competition for the Sundance U.S. Documentary Competition.

Over the weekend, I went to a screening of When You’re Strange about Jim Morrison and the Doors––an amazing archival film that chronicles the history of the Doors with mesmerizing footage of sexy Jim and the late ‘60s music scene. I could sit for hours watching footage of Jim Morrison reciting, singing, prancing and leaping on stage. It was a real treat.

Before the screening, I attended the HBO-hosted dinner at the Canyons Resort, which turned out to be an oasis of calm amid the Sundance hustle and bustle and a cool watering-hole for the world documentary community. HBO has lots of documentaries at this festival, many shepherded by Lisa Heller, vice president of Original Programming. This was a great opportunity to meet with not only filmmakers, producers, distributors and sales agents, but international commissioning editors who are looking for development and acquisition. I dined with Catherine Olsen from the CBC who was thrilled to connect with Marina Zenovich, producer of Roman Polanski: Wanted and Desired to get on CBC in Canada. Iikka Vehkelahti, commissioning editor of Finland’s YLE, art critic and documentary producer, had a full day of screenings and was already writing about them on his own blog for YLE.

More to come!

Tags: film festival, independent film, Sundance

At Sundance with Lois Vossen, vice president and IL series producer

The filmmakers of EL GENERAL at the ITVS/PBS reception.

Scott Chaffin, broadcasting director, KUED, and Mary Dickson, director of Creative Services, KUED

An example of beautiful footwear you should NOT wear to Sundance. This was the first Sundance Festival for Poonam Kumar, the outreach manager from KUED, and she didn't realize that navigating the streets of Park City during the festival is like trekking the Himalayas. You need boots. Still, she was the most stylish attendee at the PBS/ITVS reception.

Every day at the Sundance Film Festival feels like three days. The day starts at 6 AM in our ITVS condo. I arrived after dark and the driver couldn’t find the condo, tucked somewhere in the hills of lower Deer Valley. Then I saw a handmade ITVS sign in the window.

My first screening was No Impact Man by Laura Gabbert and Justin Schein. Laura’s earlier film SUNSET STORY was on Independent Lens in 2005. This is a wonderful film to start this year’s festival: an environmental film that is funny, inspiring and ultimately hopeful.

Afterward I made my way to the festival headquarters to get my credentials and caught a shuttle to the PBS/ITVS cocktail reception. On the way there, the shuttle got pulled over by the Park City Police––with sirens blaring and the whole nine yards! The police claim the shuttle driver tore off the rearview mirror on someone’s SUV an hour earlier on Park Avenue, the city’s main drag.

Everyone on the shuttle rushed off, eager to get on to our next event while the police tried to find someone who witnessed the incident. I huffed it up to the Riverhorse restaurant to the PBS/ITVS cocktail party, which was a major success, with more than 200 attendees including a great mix of filmmakers (including five filmmakers who had produced programs specifically for PBS), distributors, publicists, sales agents and colleagues from PBS, WGBH and series like Independent Lens, P.O.V. and American Masters. At the end of the reception my colleagues Jim Sommers, ITVS senior vice president of Content; Voleine Amilcar, IL publicity manager; and Claire Aguilar, vice president of Programming and I handed out ITVS T-shirts.

After the reception, a small group of us headed to the new Temple Theater outside Park City. There was a reception with Robert Redford to introduce the theater as the new center for documentary film at Sundance. My friend invited me to attend the VIP party for the film Reporter, which was screening simultaneously and we literally walked into Ben Affleck at the top of the stairs.

I stayed to see Reporter and the Q&A afterward and several shuttle transfers later arrived at the ITVS condos at 12:30 AM. Thankfully, the weather is still warmer than normal. Two films, two receptions and met up with about 40 colleagues at the events or on the shuttles––a typical day at Sundance. Well, minus the cops pulling over our shuttle!

Tags: film festival, independent film, Sundance

Remembering Martin Luther King, Jr. and his Legacy

“Nonviolence is a powerful and just weapon. It is a sword that heals. [It] cuts without wounding and ennobles the man who wields it.”
- Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

At the heart of the U.S. Civil Rights Movement in the 1950s and 1960s was the use of nonviolent direct-action protest. Inspired by the example of Jesus, and the teachings of Mahatma Gandhi during India’s struggle for independence, black church and community leaders in the United States began advocating the use of non-violence in their own struggle. Beyond spontaneous and planned student sit-ins, several organizations were formed to fight for civil rights using Gandhi’s model of nonviolent dissent and action. Three of the most influential groups—the Congress of Racial Equality, the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, and the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee—were pivotal in bringing about social change in America.

Read more about the life of King, Jr. on the Independent Lens Web site >>

P.O.V.’s Web site also has resources about the last 100 years of protests on the Washington Mall and its history as well as the future of marching in Washington.
Visit the interactive photo gallery and timeline >>

From everyone at ITVS, Happy Martin Luther King Jr. Day.

Tags: African American, Martin Luther King, protests

In the News: The Latest on ITVS Programs

“While the Globes did their best to keep grimmer realities at bay, there was a flash of reality in the victory of WALTZ WITH BASHIR for best foreign film.”
Read the full review >>

“Ari Folman’s animated documentary of Israel’s 1982 invasion of Lebanon is perfectly surreal.”
Read the full review >>

“In 2007, Alabama officially apologized for slavery and its “after effects.” But those after effects still play out in Mobile’s annual Mardi Gras… The fascinating THE ORDER OF MYTHS, which PBS’s Independent Lens will air on February 24, follows these parallel worlds…”
Read the full review >>

“Growing up at the center of the firestorm surrounding the famous civil rights attorney William Kunstler wasn’t easy. According to his daughters Sarah, and Emily, the family often feared for their lives… DISTURBING THE UNIVERSE is a timely reminder about the cost of standing up for justice, regardless of the consequences. ”
Read the full review >>

“I could not pull myself away from Stacy Peralta’s riveting, revelatory, exhaustive examination of the 40-year history of gang warfare in South Central L.A.”
Read the full review >>

Tags: Los Angeles Times, New York Times, newspaper reviews

Two ITVS International Films Available Online Today

FAIR PLAY

SEEDS OF SUMMER

Looking to watch something from the comfort of your home this weekend? Last May, ITVS International began a partnership with Jaman, an Internet community and download service for world cinema. The site currently has seven ITVS International programs available to rent online or download to own. Check out the latest two films, which became available on Jaman today:

FAIR PLAY: A troupe of actors––most with learning disabilities––confront the challenges of being different, while rehearsing The Choice, an acclaimed play about abortion.

SEEDS OF SUMMER: At an army base in the heart of Israel’s southern desert two young female military recruits make the transformation from fragile, vulnerable young girls to confident soldiers and fierce fighters.

While you’re there, be sure to check out these other ITVS International programs:

CHAHINAZ: What Rights for Women?: A story about Chahinaz, a 20-year-old Algerian student, who begins to wonder what life is like for women in other Muslim countries and around the world.

IRANIAN KIDNEY BARGAIN SALE: An inside look at the growing organ industry in Iran, where every 10 minutes, a young person wishing to sell his or her kidney appears at the entrance of a kidney referral agency.

A WORKING MOM: A film about a divorced mother of two who returns to her home in Bolivia after 15 years of struggling for a better life in Israel, only to find that her family members have become strangers.

RELOCATED MOUNTAINS: A look at an Iraq refugee who risks his life by traveling back to his homeland to visit his grandmother before she dies.

ON WHEELS BRASIL: Following the lives of people that push, pull or pedal some kind of vehicle to earn their living on Brazil’s city streets, ON WHEELS BRASIL establishes a relationship between the wheel’s movement and the inconstancy of life.

View ITVS International films, when and where you want at the Jaman website >>

Tags: caachi, digital, independent film