ITVS Filmmakers Awarded Top Honors at IDFA

Last week, five ITVS documentaries screened at the International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam (IDFA)––the largest showcase of documentary film in the world. Taking home top honors were the ITVS films LAST TRAIN HOME, by Lixin Fan and Mila Aung-Thwin, which won best feature length documentary, and THE MOST DANGEROUS MAN IN AMERICA, by Judith Ehrlich and Rick Goldsmith, which received the special jury award. Read what filmmaker Lixin Fan thought about this year’s competition and what it was like to make the film. Set against the backdrop of the world’s largest annual human migration, LAST TRAIN HOME follows the Zhang family who travel home on Chinese New Year to reunite with their teenage daughter.

Lixin Fan, filmmaker of LAST TRAIN HOME

The Zhang family from the film LAST TRAIN HOME, which won the Joris Ivens Award, given to the best feature length documentary at IDFA.

It was truly unforgettable. Receiving the Joris Ivens Award, given to the best feature length documentary, at the magnificent Tuschinski Theater in Amsterdam is a dream for any documentary filmmaker!

This year, the competing films were all superb. It was definitely exciting to see all these wonderfully crafted films being presented by filmmakers from different cultures and countries. Every film is a hearty endeavor to seek truth in life.

Though only one film gets lucky to win each year, all of the films and filmmakers should be celebrated. LAST TRAIN HOME became the lucky one last Friday, but it could have never happened without the help of many friends––ITVS being a very prominent one.

Three years in the making, the film showed a neglected aspect of the lives of millions of migrant workers. My intention and hope is that the audience will become more aware of worker’s contributions and the sacrifices concealed by the cheap price tags of the items we often buy. When we over consume, our conscience is at risk of being consumed, too.

This film was certainly not easy to complete. We’ve been through so many ordeals. EyeSteelFilm in Montreal and YuanFang Media in China were committed to the film despite the technical and logistical challenges. The crew had to film amid a crowd of thousands at the railway station for days and were often caught between moral ethical decisions—either to help or keep shooting. Along the road, ITVS has been so supportive on all levels.

Everyone’s support is greatly appreciated and revealed in the final film on the big screen.

- Lixin Fan, filmmaker of LAST TRAIN HOME

Tags: Amsterdam, Awards, film festival, IDFA

ITVS and PBS Offer Indie Content on iTunes Store

Tired of searching for high-quality indie films? Look no further. ITVS and PBS recently collaborated to bring more than 20 independent films to the iTunes store. Curated specifically for iTunes, this diverse collection includes films from Independent Lens, Global Voices and other public television series and broadcasts.

Some of the groundbreaking films from Independent Lens now available on iTunes include: ADJUST YOUR COLOR: The Truth of Petey Green, THE ATOM SMASHERS, BANISHED, the Oscar-nominated DAUGHTER FROM DANANG, A DREAM IN DOUBT, LAKSHMI AND ME, THE LOSS OF NAMELESS THINGS, MAPPING STEM CELL RESEARCH: TERRA INCOGNITA, MARCH POINT, MILKING THE RHINO, OPERATION FILMMAKER, POWER TRIP, RED WHITE BLACK & BLUE, A SON’S SACRIFICE, STRANDED: The Andes Plane Crash Survivors and ESTILO HIP HOP, which premiered on the PBS WORLD series Global Voices. Each film is available for purchase at $9.99.

This initiative is part of the Independent Digital Distribution Lab, a project to expand distribution to broadband-connected audiences while exploring revenue-generating partnership models for independent filmmakers and public television.

“By offering content on iTunes, we are helping producers who want to experiment with online content gain access to PBS’s digital distribution outlets,” said Sally Jo Fifer, president and CEO of ITVS.

Visit the iTunes store >>

Tags: digital, iTunes, online video

CASH & MARRY Premiering Tonight on The Documentary Channel

One of the easiest ways for immigrants to obtain Austrian citizenship is to marry someone from that country. CASH & MARRY documents the struggles and destinies of young men on student visas from the Balkans who travel to Vienna in order to obtain a wife and permanent residence.

Check out this companion piece to CASH & MARRY, which airs at 9:00 PM tonight, November 30, on The Documentary Channel. In this clip, hear from the film’s director Atanas Georgiev and the film subjects about the struggles immigrants face when seeking permanent residence.

CASH & MARRY premieres tonight at 9:00 PM on The Documentary Channel (check local broadcast schedule)

Tags: Balkans, immigrants, interviews, marriage

Ask Programming: Recent Questions from Filmmakers

ITVS programming staff answer questions from filmmakers about the funding process:

Q. How many times must I submit an application to ITVS before my project is recommended for funding? I’ve heard that ITVS doesn’t fund first-time applicants and that a person generally has to apply with a project multiple times before it’s awarded funding.

A. This is certainly a myth to bust, and our statistics for 2009 do just that. In reviewing the projects that were recommended for funding by peer panels for Open Call, International Call and LINCS, 65 percent were first-time applications. And of those funded projects, over one-third came from applicants new to ITVS.

True, sometimes a filmmaker applies with a project two, three or even seven times (on rare occasion), before his or her project is finally recommended for funding. However, it is in no way part of our evaluation criteria; generally, it’s a matter of timing. Often a filmmaker submits an application to ITVS early in the production phase, and their proposal isn’t as developed as other projects in competition that are further along in production. There are examples of projects that were recommended for funding early in production, but they were exceptional in other aspects (ie. urgency of the story; filmmaker’s track record).

Whether you’re a newbie or a veteran, devote your resources to developing your project proposal, and rest assured that statistics are descriptive, not prescriptive.

Want to know more about ITVS policies and procedures for funding? Read past entries of Ask Programming >>

Tags: film resources, independent film

Test Your Paper Folding Skills: Thanksgiving Turkey

Throughout the month of November, Community Cinema has been screening the Independent Lens film BETWEEN THE FOLDS, which chronicles the stories of fine artists and intrepid theoretical scientists who have abandoned careers and hard-earned graduate degrees to forge unconventional lives as modern-day paper-folders. The film will have its television premiere on December 8 at 10:00 PM on Independent Lens on PBS (check local listings).

Just in time for the U.S. Thanksgiving holiday, here is a fun video to learn how to fold paper turkeys. Check it out and impress your family and friends!

Happy Thanksgiving from everyone at ITVS and happy folding!

Tags: origami, paper folding, Thanksgiving, turkey

Community Classroom Offers Free Resources to Educators

ITVS’s Community Engagement and Education team recently attended conferences hosted by the National Council for the Social Studies (NCSS) and the National Women’s Studies Association (NWSA), which draw thousands of educators from around the country. Learn more about ITVS’s involvement from Chi Do, associate director of communications, and Annelise Wunderlich, national community engagement and education manager.

A large crowd gathers at the National Association of Women’s Studies conference to hear speaker Angela Davis.

Angela Davis was the keynote speaker at the NWSA conference and spoke before a packed house about the need for women’s studies programs to embrace new voices and to stand up to the challenges facing women and girls today with renewed strength. Our Women’s Empowerment collection does just that. This free resource provides film content excerpted from ITVS’s award-winning documentaries exploring stories of women’s leadership and empowerment in Bolivia, Egypt, Israel and Kenya. Film clips are accompanied by standards-based lesson plans, discussion guides and action guides for use by educators as well as non-profit, international and community-based organizations. Women’s and gender studies professors we spoke to were enthusiastic about using these films in their curricula.

Across town at the NCSS, we gave out hundreds of free DVDs to social studies teachers hungry for high quality film content in their classrooms. Lesson plans and clips from HIP HOP: Beyond Beats and Rhymes, SENTENCED HOME, KNOCKING and our VOTE DEMOCRACY! collections were especially popular at the exhibit booth.

We also screened the film TAKING ROOT: The Vision of Wangari Maathai with filmmaker Lisa Merton appearing for the Q&A via online video chat. The next day we held a workshop about how to use this inspiring story of environmental activism in Kenya to connect students to local organizations focused on green issues.

Watch the video below to hear from a high school teacher who attended the screening:

Educators and staff for NGOs or community organizations can order FREE DVDs, or stream the film clips and download the lesson plans on our website. Learn more >>

We also launched our new social media sites for those interested in learning more about using film to further their work.

Join the Facebook Fan page >>

Follow Community Classroom on Twitter >>

Tags: education, environmental, social studies, teachers

OBJECTIFIED Premiering Tonight on Independent Lens

“OBJECTIFIED, Gary Hustwit’s documentary about industrial design, is as sleek and handsome as any of the new and improved household items it exhibits.”
- The New York Times

How does the design of your cell phone, toothbrush or couch impact your life? Did you ever stop to think about it? Director Gary Hustwit (HELVETICA) looks at our complex relationship with manufactured objects, the people who design them and the creative process behind their work. Step inside the offices of the world’s most influential product designers to see how these objects influence us––oftentimes without us even knowing it.

OBJECTIFIED premieres tonight, November 24, at 10:00 PM on Independent Lens on PBS (check local listings).

Which iconic object best captures your personality?  Take this entertaining quiz and find out >>

Are you on Facebook?  Take the quiz and share the results with friends >>

Tags: iPod, objects, online video, product design

In the News: The Latest on ITVS Programs

“[NO SUBTITLES NECESSARY is] about a friendship between men who shared certain unusual, difficult experiences, and how those experiences shaped their art.”
Read full review >>

“If you watch/record one thing … I strongly recommend THE WAY WE GET BY, Aron Gaudet’s moving documentary…”
Read full review >>

“NO SUBTITLES NECESSARY is a tale of friendship and survival that has become legend in Hollywood.”
Read full review >>

“[WILLIAM KUNSTLER: Disturbing the Universe is] a refresher course on the history of American left-wing politics in the 1960s and ’70s.”
Read more >>

Tags: cinematographer, Los Angeles Times, Military, New York Times, USA Today

Watch CHINESE SCHOOL Tomorrow on Link TV

More than 350 million children are enrolled in schools across the vast nation of China. Over the course of a year, CHINESE SCHOOL looks at a small school in the rural town of Anhui where a group of families, teachers and children reveal stories of hardship, joy and success.

Check out the clip below:

CHINESE SCHOOL premieres tomorrow night, November 24, on Link TV at 7:30 PM (check local listings). This film received ITVS International funding.

Tags: China, education, Link TV, schools

GARBAGE DREAMS, Ellsberg Doc Make Oscar Short List

The Oscar buzz is in the air! The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences recently announced 15 films in the Documentary Feature category that will advance in the voting process for the 82nd Academy Awards. Eighty-nine pictures had originally qualified in the category.

Among those on the short list include GARBAGE DREAMS, airing on this season of Independent Lens and the ITVS-funded film THE MOST DANGEROUS MAN IN AMERICA: Daniel Ellsberg and the Pentagon Papers.

The official nominations will be announced on Tuesday, February 2, 2010, at 5:30 AM PT in the Academy’s Samuel Goldwyn Theater. Academy Awards for outstanding film achievements of 2009 will be presented on Sunday, March 7, 2010, at the Kodak Theatre at Hollywood & Highland Center.

Congratulations to all the filmmakers!

See all 15 vying titles >>

Tags: Academy Award, Daniel Ellsberg, Egypt, Oscar