All Video
Celebration of Teaching and Learning Conference: ITVS Community Classroom Offers Free Materials
Last week, Annelise Wunderlich, ITVS’s national community engagement and education manager, attended the Celebration of Teaching and Learning Conference –– one of the biggest professional development conferences for educators in the country. Get her take on the event below.
Chi Do, ITVS’s associate director of communications, discusses ITVS Community Classroom materials -- availalbe to educators for free.
More than 8,000 attendees participated in the Celebration of Teaching and Learning Conference, sponsored by WNET in New York.
Recently, my colleague Chi Do, ITVS’s associate director of communications, and I attended the Celebration of Teaching and Learning Conference, sponsored by WNET in New York. It was a huge event – drawing more than 8,000 attendees this year!
Keynote speakers included Queen Latifah, Secretary of Education Arne Duncan, and Queen Noor. It was refreshing to see the energy and passion of so many educators gathered under one roof, especially at a time when the nation’s education system is facing a dire financial crisis.
ITVS Community Classroom shared an exhibition booth with our sister PBS series, P.O.V., and hundreds of teachers dropped by to check out the film and curriculum resources drawn from the series. Teachers were always surprised to learn that our DVD collections — which feature modules from acclaimed films from Independent Lens paired with standards based lesson plans –– are FREE to educators and youth-serving organizations. This came as welcome news at a time when cities are slashing school budgets across the country and teachers are more strapped than ever to connect their students with the tools they need to learn.
We unveiled our newest Community Classroom collection, based on the film Copyright Criminals, which explores the ethics around copyright law and sampling in hip-hop music. We also announced an exciting new interactive game to teach about recycling and globalization, based on the award-winning film Garbage Dreams, which will launch on April 20.
Check out our FREE resources >>
Watch the video below to hear from the teachers we met at the conference.
Inspiring Stories of People Living With MS
Filmmaker Jason DaSilva
Crisscrossing the country, by van and on scooter, ITVS-funded filmmaker, 30-year-old Jason DaSilva, is part of the three-person road crew for a new online project about Multiple Sclerosis.
Beginning today ––in honor of National Multiple Sclerosis Awareness Week (March 8-14) –– the National MS Society launched “We Keep Moving,” a journey across America that takes viewers into the homes of people living with MS.
Every week for ten weeks, three different stories and locations will be highlighted on the website. Visitors are invited to vote to select the story and destination for the following week’s short film.
“I don’t want to say that this will be easy,” writes Jason. “Being completely able-bodied and traveling 10 different places around the U.S. within 10 weeks is still a little bit much. Try doing the same with a scooter and MS symptoms!”
In addition to “We Keep Moving,” Jason, who was diagnosed with MS at the age of 25, is also working on When I Walk, his personal story of living with Multiple Sclerosis day-to-day. Jason is currently tracking his film and life on his video blog.
Learn more about “We Keep Moving” and choose the story you’d like to see next >>
Encore Presentation of Between the Folds Tonight on Independent Lens on PBS
“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
It’s National Youth Art Month, and tonight Independent Lens is celebrating with a special encore presentation of Between the Folds –– a film that will make you look at paper folding in a whole other way. Do you 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.
Watch this special encore presentation of Between the Folds, tonight, March 9, at 10:00 PM on Independent Lens on PBS (check local listings).
FUTURESTATES: A New Online Fictional Series From ITVS
X (Anthony Giangrande) is created as a robot in the story-within-a-story in Tent City by Aldo Velasco.
The wait is finally over!
Today, ITVS launched FUTURESTATES –– a brand new online fictional series that explores many of today’s complex social issues by imagining how they play out in the world of tomorrow.
Each of the 11 episodes are available for free on the series website www.futurestates.tv and will be available on pbs.org in April. FUTURESTATES will also have its theatrical premiere at South by Southwest on Sunday, March 14.
ITVS worked with some of today’s best and emerging indie filmmakers to complete the 11 films for the series. Contributors include acclaimed American director Ramin Bahrani, whose mini-feature entitled Plastic Bag is narrated by the legendary Werner Herzog, Greg Pak’s Mister Green and Tze Chun’s Silver Sling.
What life might look like in America in the decades and centuries to come?
ITVS Launches New Online Fictional Series on Monday
A surrogate (Diana Masi) looks at her new scar in Tze Chun's Silver Sling.
What will life look like in America in the decades and centuries to come?
On Monday, March 8, ITVS will launch FUTURESTATES –– a new online fictional series that represents a huge innovation for public media.
Each of the 11 episodes will be available for free beginning March 8 on the series website www.futurestates.tv with subsequent distribution on pbs.org. FUTURESTATES will also have its theatrical premiere at South by Southwest on Sunday, March 14.
Have your own predictions for the future? Be sure to tell us on the “Predict-o-Meter,” a unique feature on the FUTURESTATES website where you can submit your own predictions about life in the future, and comment on the predictions of others. Think you know when the ice caps will melt? Know when we’ll elect our first female president? Will the rainforest rebound or disappear? Share your predictions with us on Monday.
Are you as excited as we are? Then you won’t want to miss the extended series trailer below!
ITVS Film Vies for 2010 Academy Award for Best Documentary
The Oscar buzz is in the air! This Sunday, March 7, Hollywood takes center stage for one of its biggest nights of the year with the 2010 Academy Awards.
Competing for Best Documentary Feature is the ITVS film The Most Dangerous Man in America: Daniel Ellsberg and the Pentagon Papers. Also, Independent Lens host Maggie Gyllenhaal received a nomination for Best Supporting Actress for the feature film Crazy Heart.
In addition, several previously funded ITVS filmmakers received nominations for their work in the category of short documentary.
- China’s Unnatural Disaster: The Tears of Sichuan Province (Jon Alpert and Matthew O’Neill)
- The Last Campaign of Governor Booth Gardner (Daniel Junge and Henry Ansbacher)
- The Last Truck: Closing of a GM Plant (Steven Bognar and Julia Reichert)
Julia Reichert and Steve Bognar produced A Lion in the House; Daniel Junge and Henry Ansbacher made Iron Ladies of Liberia; and Jon Alpert made The Last Cowboy. All three films aired on Independent Lens on PBS.
Congratulations and good luck to all the filmmakers!
Check out this the video preview of The Most Dangerous Man in America:
Who do you think will win? Share your thoughts in our comment section.
First Australians airing Saturday on the National Geographic Channel
Have you ever been to Australia or dreamed about traveling there? But how much do you really know about the country and its Aboriginal people?
This Saturday, March 6, at 9:00 PM, the National Geographic Channel will take you there in the ITVS International film First Australians. Produced by Australia’s top Aboriginal filmmakers, First Australians chronicles the birth of a country and the collision of two worlds. This epic story combines landscapes, interviews, art and archival footage to present the birth of contemporary Australia from the perspectives of its first peoples.
Watch this video preview below:
Learn more about the broadcast by visiting the National Geographic website >>
The Eyes of Me Premiering Tonight on Independent Lens on PBS
“The Eyes of Me has the wisdom to illuminate a narrow, human scope on the issue of disability and blindness by focusing on intimate moments in the teens’ lives.”
- Philadelphia City Paper
How do you see yourself, when you can’t see at all? At the Texas School for the Blind students juggle all the usual pressures of high school along with the added struggles of growing up blind. Spend a dynamic year with four blind teens learning how to fit in and live independently. Forced to confront the world without sight, they share their inner visions of the outer world. Ultimately, you cannot understand their perceptions without challenging your own.
Check out a preview of tonight’s broadcast below:
The Eyes of Me premieres tonight, March 2, at 10:00 PM on Independent Lens on PBS (check local listings).
KLRU Celebrates Local Filmmakers Featured on Independent Lens
Do you live near Austin, Texas? Love indie film?
On March 2, KLRU-Austin will commemorate Texas Independents’ Day by celebrating the work of three local filmmakers whose work will appear on this season of Independent Lens on PBS.
Filmmaker and University of Texas Professor Paul Stekler will moderate a panel discussion with Michel O. Scott (The Horse Boy), Karen Skloss (Sunshine), and Keith Maitland (The Eyes of Me) starting at 8 p.m.
Following the discussion, there will be a special screening of the Independent Lens broadcast of The Eyes of Me at 9:00 p.m. Space is limited.
Can’t make the screening or live too far away to attend? Fear not – check out Beyond the Box blog next week for clips from the event and a full recap from Keith Maitland, filmmaker of The Eyes of Me. Stay tuned!
Video Extra: The Eyes of Me on Independent Lens
This is the companion piece to The Eyes of Me, which airs Tuesday, March 2, on Independent Lens on PBS. The film follows four visually impaired teenagers in Texas as they face the usual challenges of adolescence while simultaneously learning to navigate a world designed for the sighted.
In this video extra, a new student at the school, Denise, explores a brand new store in the neighborhood and learns to navigate on her own, with the help of a coach.
The Eyes of Me airs next Tuesday, March 2, at 10:00 PM on Independent Lens on PBS (check local listings).
Upcoming Screenings
|
Community Cinema selections are screened in over 50 locations throughout the United States. In March, Community Cinema presents Dirt! The Movie, directed by Bill Benenson and Eugene Rosow.
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.
Check out the schedule and find Community Cinema in your neighborhood >>Recent Posts
- Celebration of Teaching and Learning Conference: ITVS Community Classroom Offers Free Materials
- Top Five Predictions for Films and Digital Distribution: Second Part
- FUTURESTATES Theatrical World Premiere at SXSW
- Inspiring Stories of People Living With MS
- Live Webinar Tomorrow Night: Copyright and Fair Use in the Art World and Classroom
Archives
Categories
- All Video
- Ask Programming
- Audio Podcasts
- Awards
- Community Cinema
- Community Classroom
- Film Festivals
- Filmmaker Profile
- From the President's Desk
- FUTURESTATES
- Global Voices
- In the News
- Independent Lens
- Inside Indies
- Institutional Updates
- ITVS Broadcasts
- ITVS Funding
- ITVS International
- New Online
- On the Road
- Producer Resources
- Recently Funded
- Special Events
- Talkback
Tags
Related sites
Film Blogs
Public Media Blogs
-
Get the Beyond the Box e-newsletter, sent monthly with the latest news about ITVS, funding opportunities and more. Enter your email and sign up.
-
Sign up for the Independent Lens newsletter. Get news once a week during the broadcast season (fall-spring). We'll also let you know about new Inside Indies features, Web site highlights and more.