Dirt! The Movie Premieres Tonight on Independent Lens on PBS

“Charming… Dirt! The Movie digs deep into soil. -San Francisco Chronicle

“An invigorating look at an invaluable substance we take for granted that makes the case that ‘dirt might be more alive than we are.’” -Los Angeles Times

It’s under our feet and under our fingernails, but what is it? And how did it get there? Inspired by William Bryant Logan’s acclaimed book Dirt: The Ecstatic Skin of the Earth, find out how industrial farming, mining and urban development have led us toward cataclysmic droughts, starvation, floods and climate change. Dirt is a part of everything we eat, drink and breathe. Which is why we should stop treating it like, well … dirt.

Dirt! The Movie premieres tonight, Tuesday, April 20 at 10:00 on Independent Lens on PBS (check local listings).

Tags: Dirt, Earth Day, environment, recycle

Community Cinema Screens Dirt! The Movie in Monterey, CA

Community Cinema recently hosted a screening of the Independent Lens film Dirt! The Movie in Monterey, CA. The film looks at how industrial farming, mining, and urban development have endangered soil and resulted in cataclysmic droughts, starvation, floods, and climate change. Find out what happened at the screening from Elsa Dooling of the Pesticide Watch Education Fund, who helped organize the event.

Bike powered smoothies at the Dirt! Monterey screening

Torrential rains washed over the Monterey Bay, and heavy winds ripped through the trees. But, at about 3 PM a sudden break in the storm gave me the opportunity to quickly throw on my rain gear and join our organizing team to begin the planned outdoor festivities that were to precede the April 11th screening of Dirt! The Movie. As if by design, the weather softened and welcomed the community out to enjoy smoothies made with bike power, and to get dirty as they made clay and wildflower seed balls and watched compost demonstrations. The energy and momentum of the event got into full swing as the sun peaked out and rainbows could be seen over the theater. Guests mingled and enjoyed delicious treats donated by local restaurants and bakeries, and even sipped wine donated by the Monterey County Film Commission. Table displays offered the audience a chance to learn about the partner organizations that collaborated to bring the event to life: Pesticide Watch Education Fund, Monterey Green Action, Monterey County Film Commission, and ITVS. Our good friend (and local photographer/activist extraordinaire) Michelle Magdalena Maddox, was even screen-printing recycled t-shirts with a beautifully designed calendar of all of April’s Earth Day events right on the spot. It was amazing!

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Tags: Compost, Dirt, Earth Day, environment, Green

April is Parkinson’s Awareness Month – Watch My Father, My Brother, and Me on PBS.org

Dave Iverson and his father

As many as 1.5 million people in the United States are afflicted with Parkinson’ s Disease. And while research using stem cells shows promise and has resumed under the Obama Administration, there is still no cure. About $25 billion dollars is spent on the treatment of and care for Parkinsonian patients every year.

In honor of Parkinson’s Awareness Month, we direct your attention to a moving and informative ITVS film called My Father, My Brother, and Me, which was recently broadcast on Frontline and is currently available to watch for free online at PBS.org.

Producer Dave Iverson began making the film after he was diagnosed with the degenerative brain disease, just as his father and brother had before him. Featuring interviews with Parkinson’s sufferers Michael Kinsley and Charles Krauthammer, and research scientist Dr. William Langston, the film is part elegy and part rigorous investigation into the mysteries that surround the disease and the controversy surrounding the research into its cure.

Check out the My Father, My Brother, and Me companion website for a wealth of behind-the-scenes video, including an exclusive interview with actor and stem-cell research advocate Michael J. Fox.

Watch the trailer below:

Tags: Cure, Frontline, Michael J. Fox, Parkinson's Disease, PBS

Ancient Tribe Uses Technology to Preserve the Rainforest on Children of the Amazon Website

Map of Denise Zmekhol's journey

“I want our story to continue as long as the world exists.” —Chief Almir Surui

The documentary Children of the Amazon, broadcasting this month on public television and Link TV (check local listings), follows Brazilian filmmaker Denise Zmekhol as she travels deep into the Amazon in search of the indigenous children she photographed 15 years before.

A companion website www.childrenoftheamazon.com — available in Portuguese and English — brings the innovations of modern communications technology to bear on the forces of destruction in this fragile ecosystem and its native people.

Through a groundbreaking relationship with Google, the Surui tribe is using GPS, Google Earth, Android phones, and other digital media to document the devastation and connect with activists worldwide.

Website highlights include:

• Informative and entertaining videos documenting the Google Earth Outreach efforts with the Surui: Trading Bows & Arrows for Laptops (2008 and 2009)

• Blog posts from Chief Almir, activists, and NGO leaders working for rainforest conservation and to protect the livelihood of indigenous tribes

• A shocking time-lapse satellite view showing the devastating loss of forest in the 40 years since the highway was bulldozed through the state of Mato Grosso

• A Google Earth tour of the region and its history

• An interactive map of the filmmaker’s journey into the interior

Packed with information about everything from the history of sustainable rubber tapping and tapper-turned-rainforest-guardian Chico Mendes to ethnographic profiles of the Surui and Negarote tribes, the site provides updates on the people, a look behind-the-scenes of the making of the film, a vibrant photo gallery of then and now, and resources for people to get involved.

In 2008, Zmekhol returned to the Amazon to document Google Earth Outreach training the Surui people to use technology to protect their forest, preserve their culture, and empower their people. Watch the video Trading Bows & Arrows for Laptops:

Visit the Children of the Amazon website for more >>

Tags: Amazon, Brazil, Google, Rainforests

Denise Zmekhol on the Making of Children of the Amazon

Children of the Amazon (airing this month on public television and Link TV — check local listings) follows filmmaker Denise Zmekhol as she travels a modern highway deep into the Amazon in search of the indigenous children she photographed 15 years before. Her journey tells the story of what happened to life in the largest forest on Earth when a road was built straight through its heart. Beyond the Box caught up with Zmekhol who shares her story about the making of Children of the Amazon, one of the few films about the Brazilian Amazon made by a Brazilian filmmaker.

Denise Zmekol with Chief Almir Surui

I traveled to the Brazilian Amazon on several occasions between 1987-1990 to assist on television documentaries. During my journeys, I had the opportunity to visit many indigenous and rubber tapper communities, always with my camera by my side. What caught my eye were the children. Born to parents who had relied on the rainforest for their survival, these children were growing up surrounded by new ways — ways that were destroying the forest. I also photographed the legendary rubber tapper Chico Mendes and his family. Chico had become renowned the world over for his nonviolent resistance movement to protect the rainforest.

Fifteen years later — and a world away — I returned to these slides, which were never printed, never shared. The images brought back a particularly searing memory: a phone call from Chico in December 1988, asking me to film his funeral. Two weeks later he was shot dead by a rancher. Stirred by faces of the children in my photographs and haunted by Chico’s untimely death, I was inspired to travel to the Amazon again — this time, to make Children of the Amazon.

In 2008, six years after I shot Children of the Amazon, I returned to the Amazon to film with the Surui tribe again — this time documenting its unique collaboration with Google Earth Outreach. The partnership, a result of Chief Almir Surui’s request that Google help raise visibility for his tribe, involves training the Surui people to use Internet technology to protect their forest, preserve their culture, and empower their people.

—Denise Zmekhol, Producer/Director of Children of the Amazon

Get broadcast listings for public television and Link TV and learn more at www.childrenoftheamazon.com

Tags: Amazon, Brazil, Rainforests

Blessed is the Match Premieres Tonight on Independent Lens on PBS

“An absorbing story…[filmmaker Roberta] Grossman fashions the narration, interviews, and a wealth of archival footage into a coherent movie…” -Boston Globe

Get to know this modern-day Joan of Arc. At age 22, Hannah Senesh parachuted into Nazi-occupied Europe in an effort to save the Jews of Hungary. As a poet and diarist, she left behind a body of work that has inspired generations. Retrace her perilous mission and take a glimpse into the life of this talented and complex woman.

Blessed is the Match premieres tonight, Tuesday, April 13 at 10:00 on Independent Lens on PBS (check local listings).

Check out a preview of tonight’s broadcast:

Tags: Jewish, Joan of Arc, World War II

ITVS screens FUTURESTATES in San Francisco

FUTURESTATES, ITVS’s new online fictional series, explores many of today’s complex social issues by imagining how they play out in the world of tomorrow. ITVS and media partner Next American City Magazine recently hosted a special invite-only, sneak-preview screening and panel discussion for FUTURESTATES at the Jellyfish Gallery in San Francisco. Panelist Tanu Sankalia, Assistant Professor of Art and Architecture at the University of San Francisco gives a recap of the event and his thoughts on the series.

FUTURESTATES panelists Piero Scaruffi and Tanu Sankalia. Photo: Sarah Kramer

ITVS and Next American City co-hosted a screening of two films from the FUTURESTATES series that explored the socio-economic and spatial future of the human condition within what can be called a hyper-privatized political order.

Silver Sling, by Tze Chun, poignantly narrates the plight of transnational migrant workers trapped within a future of corporate economic hegemony, where the human body is reduced to an object of exchange value, and interpersonal contact is exiled to hand-held video phones.

Tent City, by Aldo Velasco, reflects on the American dream gone awry where economic crisis seen through the phenomenon of foreclosure eviscerates the lives of suburban American families. The end of the film brings home the real plight of millions in the developing world consigned to the tragic reality of refugee camps, forewarning of the possibility of a deeply dark and dystopic future gripping our very own lives.

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Tags: future, FUTURESTATES, San Francisco, science fiction

In The News: The Latest on ITVS Programs

[Werner Herzog] the last of the great auteur directors voices the role of a plastic grocery bag in [Plastic Bag], a philosophical short film by much-tipped director Ramin Bahrani.
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Old men with energy, high spirits and full capacities are inherently charming, and Pei, who has charmed his way across the planet and left a huge imprint on it, charms yet again [in I.M. Pei: Building China Modern].
Read now >>

Host Michel Martin speaks with Edward Tom, principal of the Bronx Center for Science & Mathematics, and filmmaker Christopher Wong [of Whatever It Takes].
Listen now >>

Whatever It Takes is strongest when it makes precisely this point: that however much we embrace the “tough love” idea, it is by definition a small-scale effort.
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Lost Souls is the sort of documentary that approaches reality television terrain. Yet it seriously presents themes of personal responsibility and redemption.
Read now >>

Tags: architecture, Bronx, China, education, IM Pei, Mexico, New York

Hot Off The Presses – The 2010 ITVS Production Manual!

What kind of music rights do I need to clear for my film? What is E&O insurance and how do I obtain it? What do I need to consider regarding financials and reporting to funders? How do I use social media to do outreach for my film?

Attention all independent producers: Get the answers to these and other useful questions in the latest edition of the ITVS Production Manual: An A to Z Guide to Producing for Public Television, now available for purchase at www.itvs.org.

Learn about the process of getting your film to broadcast and beyond with sections on insurance and financial considerations, new media rights and clearances, public broadcasting distribution, publicity, social media, community engagement, and much more.

The 2010 edition of the manual is the culmination of years of industry experience — offering a collection of practical information contributed by ITVS staff and independent producers, as well as distributors and colleagues from media organizations and the public television field.

An added bonus included with the manual is a CD of over 30 sample forms for filmmaking production and a detailed reference chart of key program deliverables required by public television broadcasters.

This 365-page manual is a great resource for anyone looking to produce programs for public television. Order your copy of the 2010 ITVS Production Manual today.

Tags: Flm Funding, Producer Resources, Production

Subjects From The Way We Get By Make History By Greeting Over One Million Troops

They’ve become famous among the soldiers who have passed through the airport in Bangor, Maine, on their way to and from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Among their neighbors, they’ve become a source of pride. To a nation wrestling with the politics behind the wars, they’re an inspiration. They are the “Troop Greeters” of Bangor, an intrepid group of retired and elderly citizens who have taken it upon themselves to greet every troop plane arriving or departing Bangor, which is the last and first piece of U.S. soil many GIs will see before and after their deployments.

On Sunday, March 21, 2010 around midnight, the Maine Troop Greeters made history by greeting over one million troops at the Bangor International Airport. Joan Gaudet, one of the greeters and a subject in the ITVS funded, award-winning film, The Way We Get By, agreed to write about this extraordinary achievement.

Jerry Mundy (left) and Joan Gaudet (center) saying farewell to the millionth soldier. Photo: Shane Leonard

I am proud to be a Maine Troop Greeter. It makes me feel like I’m doing my little part through all of this. It’s a good feeling when you go to greet the troops and feel like you made their day a little brighter. They call us heroes sometimes but we know we aren’t heroes, they are. Some of these guys have gone through three, four, five, six times. And when they say we remember you, I think it means we must have done something right.

It was hard to believe that a million troops have gone through our airport already. To me, I knew it was a lot but it didn’t seem like it should have been a million. A lot of people say what an incredible accomplishment—how long we’ve been doing it—it will be over 7 years now. But to me, in all honesty, it’s kind of sad. I am happy that we’ve been able to greet that many but sad in another way, because it means we’re sending a lot of them to war to maybe never come back. So it’s kind of a happy and sad thing. It’s fun to greet them seeing their smiles and hearing their laughter but at the same time, when I see how many troops keep coming through, I can’t help but wonder how many we greeted actually came back.

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Tags: Afghanistan, Iraq, Maine, US military