Apply for ITVS Open Call Funding: Deadline January 15

Looking for film funding? ITVS funds, distributes and promotes new programs primarily for public television. We work with independent producers to create and present programs that take creative risks, advance issues and represent points of view not usually seen on public or commercial television.

Open Call provides finishing funds for single non-fiction or animation public television programs on any subject and from any viewpoint. Projects must have begun production as evidenced by a work-in-progress video.

The deadline for Open Call funding is Friday, January 15, 2010. Due dates are not postmark deadlines and all materials must arrive at ITVS by 5:00 PM.

Find more information about guidelines and how to apply >>

Have additional questions about Open Call? Email jonathan_archer@itvs.org or call 415-356-8383 x284.

Tags: film funding, film resources, Open Call

At the Greenhouse Seminar in Izmir, Turkey with ITVS Vice President of Programming Claire Aguilar

Greenhouse is a professional initiative devoted to the development of documentaries across the Mediterranean region. It seeks to build a multi-cultural dialogue, promoting the creation of professional and personal ties between filmmakers and the international market, while training the next generation of Mediterranean documentary filmmakers. Read about ITVS Vice President of Programming Claire Aguilar’s experience at the Greenhouse seminar held in Izmir, Turkey .

I spent last weekend in Izmir, Turkey, where I had the pleasure of participating in a unique training program for documentary filmmakers, Greenhouse. Supported by the European Union, Greenhouse creates cultural exchange between countries in the Mediterranean region, including the Middle East.  Selecting more than a dozen filmmaker teams with their documentary projects, Greenhouse stages three seminars and training workshops over the course of the year. Emphasizing creative documentary with innovative cinematic approaches, Greenhouse gives filmmakers unique tutorial sessions with strong experts and mentors, and culminates in a pitching session with international commissioning editors from around the world. This last session was a showcase of these documentaries, and although they are still in development, we could see the potential of the great films that they would become.

Izmir is known historically as Smyrna, and although I didn’t know much about it before now except for its famed golden raisins, it is a large port city on the Aegean sea. Izmir was chosen as a location for its accessibility, since the filmmakers who participated in Greenhouse came from Turkey as well as Egypt, Palestine and Israel.

› Continue reading

Tags: film resources, Greenhouse, turkey

Community Cinema Screening of YOUNG@HEART in Brattleboro, VT

Producing Partners are local community organizations that co-present Community Cinema screenings across the country. Last night, the Brattleboro Museum and Art Center (BMAC) in Brattleboro, VT, screened the Independent Lens film YOUNG@HEART. The film documents the true story of the Young@Heart senior citizens chorus, whose average age is 81. Their inspiring story celebrates the unbreakable bonds of friendship and the life-affirming power of music. Special thanks to YOUNG@HEART chorus director Bob Cilman and chorus members Steve Martin and Jeanne Hatch who made special appearances at the screening. Danny Lichtenfeld, director of the Brattleboro Museum and Art Center,  gives his take on the event below:

From left to right: Steve Martin (Young@Heart chorus member), Bob Cilman (Young@Heart chorus director), Danny Lichtenfeld (BMAC director), Jeanne Hatch (Young@Heart chorus member), Joe LoMonaco (BMAC trustee)

This weekend we had the great pleasure of welcoming Bob Cilman, director of the Young@Heart chorus, and two members of the chorus, Steve Martin and Jeanne Hatch, to our screening of the uplifting film about their ensemble.

Despite the worst weather forecast of the winter so far, about 35-40 audience members showed up for the event, which included a pre-screening meet-and-greet and a post-screening Q&A session. Bob and the chorus members were, in fact, the first to arrive — the trip up to Brattleboro from Northampton, Mass. being much shorter than they had anticipated (not so for their return trip in the snow, however). I greeted them at the door and had to remind myself that, while they seemed so familiar and lovable to me (I had already watched the film), they had no idea who I was. That was all resolved soon enough, owing mainly to the fact that Steve Martin has the gift of friendly gab like few people I’ve ever met. And Jeanne and Bob, too, were warm and gracious — throughout the meet-and-greet and also during the spirited Q&A.

› Continue reading

Tags: BMAC, Brattleboro, Independent Lens, Young@Heart

Independent Lens Kicks-off Winter/Spring Season with Four Acclaimed Music Documentaries

This winter, Independent Lens, hosted by Maggie Gyllenhaal, launches the second half of the 2009/2010 season with four weeks of compelling documentaries that explore both the art and business of modern music.

The slate includes the television premieres of Stephen Walker’s critical and box office smash YOUNG@HEART, an inspiring portrait of the indomitable members of a New England senior citizens chorus who cover musicians from The Clash to Prince; Benjamin Franzen and Kembrew McLeod’s COPYRIGHT CRIMINALS, which examines the creative and commercial value of musical sampling, including the related debates over artistic expression, copyright law and money; and Gabriel Noble’s P-STAR RISING, a gritty, personal look at Priscilla Diaz, a.k.a P-Star, a determined young Harlem rapper trying to fulfill her family’s dreams of success. Also airing is an encore presentation of Byron Hurt’s HIP HOP: Beyond Beats And Rhymes, one of Independent Lens’s biggest hits, a film that goes beyond the bling to explore gender roles in hip-hop and rap music.

› Continue reading

Tags: independent film, Independent Lens, PBS

Win a Free DVD Copy of YOUNG@HEART!

Who doesn’t like to win free stuff?

Starting today, we’re giving away FREE DVD copies of YOUNG@HEART––a film that USA Today film critic Claudia Puig calls “A heartening and poignant affirmation of the transformative power of music.”

To enter, simply read Beyond the Box blog and share your comments on a post. Tell us what you think about an article on the blog, review one of our films or let us know how a particular issue relates to your life. Your comments must relate to the actual content of the blog post to qualify.

One DVD copy will be given away each week leading up to the Independent Lens premiere of YOUNG@HEART on Tuesday, January 12 at 9:00 PM on PBS (check local listings).

Looking for inspiration? Tell us what you think about the recent blog post ITVS’s OPEN CALL: Inside the Mind of the Panelists. Comment on this post and you’re entered to win. It’s that easy!

› Continue reading

Tags: contest, Free, Independent Lens, Young at Heart

WTIU-Bloomington LINCS Partnership: BLACKING UP

Linking Independents and Co-Producing Stations (LINCS) provides matching funds (up to $100,000) to partnerships between public television stations and independent producers. To apply for LINCS funds, independents must first approach a public television station and establish a partnership.

Learn more about a recent LINCS partnership with WTIU-Bloomington, IN and the film BLACKING UP: Hip-Hop’s Remix of Race and Identity, which explores the tension between white racial identity and black cultural propriety at a time when hip-hop is redefining American life. Brent Molnar, program manager at WTIU, shares his thoughts about the film, which airs in December on public television.

As a Program Manager of a local PBS station, I was brought into the BLACKING UP project to assist the producer, Robert Clift, in creating a more conservative version of his original documentary, and to make recommendations for editing strong language and specific content that public television viewers might find objectionable. Initially, I thought my role with the documentary was to be fairly nuts and bolts – bleep this, pull that out, say this in a different way, etc.

What I didn’t expect, however, was the amount of historical content and the broad range of perspectives BLACKING UP contained. As a society, I think we sometimes gloss over the human experience, and may even begin to pocket people into different categories, just to be able to deal with everything that comes at us in a given day. When this happens, I think we lose part of the richness and depth that our culture really possesses. This can lead to us not only missing out on opportunities to understand one another, but to understand ourselves as well.

› Continue reading

Tags: film resources, hip hop, KLRU, LINCS

OPEN CALL: Inside the Minds of the Panelists

ITVS’s Open Call funding initiative provides finishing funds to independent producers. Programs selected for funding are supported by ITVS’s production team and broadcast on public television. For the past two days, the Open Call panel–made up of peers in the independent film and public media community–has been convening to recommend eight to ten projects for ITVS funding from a slate of 30 finalists. The individual identities of readers and panelists are not disclosed for each initiative, but below is a short Q&A with our current Open Call panel to give you some insight into their review and decision-making process. We asked them to answer the question, “What do you look for in a successful documentary proposal?” Here are their answers:

“I am always looking for stories that connect me to the awesome drudgery, romance and absurdity of modern life–that elusive factor known to fans of Stephen Colbert as “truthiness”–that makes documentaries spring to life and create change first in the mind and then in the world.”
– Public Media Professional

“I think it is very important that the producer clearly explain why an audience will care and feel invested in their work. If someone who knows nothing about the subject matter ends up engaged and caring about the story after reading a treatment, then the project has a good chance for success.”
– Station Programmer

“What I look for in a proposal is a great story premise, well-developed characters who go through some kind of transformation as the story progresses, and an appropriate (hopefully surprising and fresh) filmmaking style. The work-in-progress should showcase at least the main characters if it’s a character-driven piece. Or it should feature a couple of scenes or sequences that give us a sense of how the main themes in the project will be addressed, both content-wise and stylistically.”
– Independent Filmmaker

› Continue reading

Tags: film financing, film funding, film resources, independent films

Two New ITVS Films Added to PBS’s COVE Video Player

Interested in watching full-length episodes of Independent Lens and other PBS series online for free? Look no further than PBS’s video player: COVE (Comprehensive Online Video Ecosystem).

Just added to the slate of Independent Lens titles on COVE is THE ATOM SMASHERS, about a group of scientists as they search for the Higgs boson: an as yet undiscovered subatomic particle that could explain how matter—and, therefore, life—can exist.

Variety writes “THE ATOM SMASHERS entertainingly brings particle physics—and the brainy geeks who’ve devoted their lives to its study—into sharp focus.”

Watch THE ATOM SMASHERS on COVE >>

› Continue reading

Tags: online video, PBS, science, veterans

BETWEEN THE FOLDS Premiering Tonight on Independent Lens

“For folks interested in the intersection of arts and science, the PBS series Independent Lens is presenting a fascinating in-depth look into origami titled BETWEEN THE FOLDS.”
- Make Magazine

Think origami is just paper planes and cranes? Meet a determined group of theoretical scientists and fine artists who have abandoned careers and scoffed at graduate degrees to forge new lives as modern-day paper folders. Together they reinterpret the world in paper, creating a wild mix of sensibilities towards art, science, creativity and meaning.

BETWEEN THE FOLDS premieres tonight, December 8, at 10:00 PM on Independent Lens on PBS (check local listings).

Tags: artists, independent film, origami, paper folding, scientists

In the News: The Latest on ITVS Programs

New York Post: Origami and the Art of the Process
“If you’ve ever found it impossible to properly fold a road map, you will be absolutely astonished by what the folks profiled in Park Slope filmmaker Vanessa Gould’s new documentary [BETWEEN THE FOLDS] … can do with a single scrap of paper.”
Read full review >>

Indie Wire: Must See IDFA Doc: LAST TRAIN HOME
“[LAST TRAIN HOME] is an exceptional observational documentary that charts a dramatic Chinese journey affecting just one family but representing the challenges facing a changing nation and a troubled world.”
Read more >>

The Epoch Times: NO SUBTITLES NECESSARY: Laszlo & Vilmos
“[NO SUBTITLES NECESSARY: Laszlo & Vilmos] is truly a cinematographer’s film. It looks great and will foster an increased appreciation of the director of photography in general with its many clips of the classic films shot by Kovacs and Zsigmond.”
Read full review >>

The Wrap: iTunes Adds Indie Films From ITVS, PBS
“The collection of films, put together specifically for iTunes, offers diverse titles from filmmakers pursuing stories not normally told via mainstream channels.”
Read more >>

Tags: art, China, cinematography, iTunes, New York Post