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Half the Sky Wins New Fans at PBS Annual Meeting
By Tamara Gould
Vice President, ITVS International
Based on the bestselling book by Nicholas Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn, Half the Sky will premiere as a special presentation on Independent Lens in October 2012. The project is a cornerstone of the Women and Girls Lead campaign and was on display at last week’s PBS Annual Meeting in Denver.
Just back from the PBS annual meeting in Denver and was absolutely thrilled by the response from stations to the upcoming Half the Sky series, which will air on October 1 and 2 as a special presentation of Independent Lens.
This project has been several years in the making, taking up the ambitious work of New York Times reporter Nicholas Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn who wrote Half the Sky to highlight the challenges that women and girls are facing worldwide — issues like trafficking, maternal health, female genital mutilation, and gender based violence.
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The Lexicon of Sustainability: Q & A with Filmmaker Douglas Gayeton
Douglas Gayeton’s The Lexicon of Sustainability is a multiplatform project which uses photo collage, animation, and hand-written typography to explore terms and ideas behind sustainable agriculture. KQED’s Jenny Oh interviewed Gayeton for Bay Area Bites on the inspiration behind the project, the creative visual aspect, and more.
The visuals for “Lexicon” are stunning, particularly the mosaic-like compositions that marry photographs, text, animation and video interview in a truly unique way. How did you develop this unique aesthetic?
The Italian images in my book “SLOW” began as a happy accident. I quickly learned that a single image was not enough. Not only were my images too small, but they also lacked the ability to convey the concept of “time,” of the beginning, middle and end of things. The idea of capturing hundreds of images, at times over long periods of time, then creating mosaics seemed like the only solution.
The decision to overlay these images with text came at about the same time. I wanted to convey what these people said to me as I worked. I wanted to share their insights, their observations. And I also wanted to solve another problem I had with photographs, namely that they often left so much unanswered. I wanted to provide as much information as possible within an image, to create what someone once called a “flat film,” a single image that actually uses time, that tells a story. › Continue reading
Comrade Duch: The Bookkeeper of Death, Sunday on Global Voices
The ITVS-funded documentary by Adrian Maben premieres Sunday, May 20 on Global Voices on the WORLD Channel.
Kaing Guek Eav (alias Duch) is a Jekyll-and-Hyde character who began as a mathematics teacher, and then became the commandant of Tuol Sleng prison in Cambodia, ultimately responsible for the torture and murder of 14,000 people. Comrade Duch: The Bookkeeper of Death recounts his flight, conversion to evangelical Christianity, and how he was finally brought to justice before an international tribunal. Watch the trailer after the jump.
Words Are the Building Blocks for New Ideas
ITVS and PBS Food are proud to present three videos from Douglas Gayeton’s The Lexicon of Sustainability multiplatform project, which uses photo collage, animation, and hand-written typography to explore terms and ideas behind sustainable agriculture.
The Lexicon of Sustainability is based on a simple premise: people can’t be expected to live more sustainable lives if they don’t even know the most basic terms and principles that define sustainability.
For the past three years Douglas Gayeton and Laura Howard-Gayeton have crisscrossed the USA to learn this new language of sustainability from its foremost practitioners in food and farming. Alice Waters on edible schoolyards. Wes Jackson on reinventing wheat farming. Joel Salatin on embracing the value of saner farming practices. Vandana Shiva on the global imperative of protecting seeds. Paul Stamets on how mushrooms can save the world. Will Allen on Food Security. Temple Grandin on the humane slaughter of animals. Farmer John on the revolutionary idea of community-supported agriculture.
Life Begins at Rewirement Premieres on FUTURESTATES
Directed by Trevin Matcek the film will be available to stream for free at futurestates.tv and simultaneously on pbs.org.
In Life Begins at Rewirement — Simon Ender struggles with his decision to commit his elderly mother into a revolutionary nursing home alternative that has solved the rapidly growing Senior Citizen overpopulation. Learn more about the short by filmmaker Trevin Matcek in this recently produced BTB interview, after the jump.
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Kony Unveiled: A Social Screening of Peace vs. Justice
ITVS presents an online social screening of Klaartje Quirijns’s Peace vs. Justice on Wednesday, May 16 at 5PM PT / 8PM ET. The event will take place here.
What do you really know about Joseph Kony? On Wednesday we will be hosting a live online screening and discussion of the documentary Peace vs. Justice, going beyond the slick marketing of KONY 2012 and taking an in-depth look at the rebel leaders responsible for the most egregious of human-rights abuses – kidnapping children and forcing them to fight.
Peace vs. Justice examines the International Criminal Court’s investigation of the LRA and takes a critical look at the problems of applying Western ideas of justice and reconciliation to other countries and continents.
Join us for a social screening of Peace vs. Justice with filmmaker Klaartje Quirijns, who will be taking part in the screening to talk about the film and take your questions live. › Continue reading
The 6th World Premieres on FUTURESTATES
Directed by Nanobah Becker the film will be available to stream for free at futurestates.tv and simultaneously on pbs.org.
Navajo Astronaut Tazbah Redhouse is a pilot on the first spaceship sent to colonize Mars. But a mysterious dream the night before her departure indicates there may be more to her mission than she understands. Watch filmmaker Nanobah Becker’s The 6th World, free on futurestates.tv.
Can the Stop Kony 2012 Video Save the International Criminal Court?
By Klaartje Quirijns and Stacy Sullivan
Filmmaker Klaartje Quirijns
Peace vs. Justice director Klaartje Quirijns and producer Stacy Sullivan discuss Invisible Children’s Stop Kony 2012 video, the ICC, and the importance of continued discussion around international justice. Global Voices premieres on Sunday, May 6, with Peace vs. Justice on the World Channel. An online social screening and chat will be held on May 16 with the filmmakers and experts to discuss issues raised in the film. That event will take place here.
By now, anybody who has access to the internet has probably heard of Joseph Kony, thanks to the unprecedented success of Invisible Children’s Stop Kony 2012 video. Kony’s rise from obscure Ugandan warlord to a household name is nothing short of remarkable and Invisible Children deserves accolades for raising awareness about Kony’s crimes.
But Kony wasn’t really such an obscure figure before the release of Invisible Children’s video. He was, after all, the very first person to have been indicted by the International Criminal Court (ICC) – an institution that was created to go after those responsible for the worst crimes in the world. The Lord’s Resistance Army’s murderous rampage through Northern Uganda with an army of abducted children had already turned Kony into one of the world’s greatest villains.
If Kony had not already been indicted by the ICC, the Stop Kony 2012 video might have been a call for that to happen. The ICC, after all, was supposed to be the institution that would put a stop to impunity – make sure that future Pinochets, Milosevics, and Pol Pots of the world would be held accountable. If Kony had not already been indicted, calling for his indictment would have been a worthy advocacy goal. › Continue reading
That’s a Wrap!
By Kaleigh Gaynor
Thursday marks the end of the 55th San Francisco International Film Festival, which featured three ITVS funded documentary films, including Bitter Seeds, The Invisible War, and The Waiting Room.
Still from Don't Stop Believin': Everyman's Journey (credit: Ninfa Z. Bito)
The 55th San Francisco International Film Festival is closing tonight on a high note, celebrating their festival journey with…. well, Journey! After a rousing screening of Don’t Stop Believin’: Everyman’s Journey at the Castro Theatre, including what is bound to be a fascinating Q&A with director Ramona S. Diaz (director of the ITVS funded documentaries Imelda and The Learning) and all five members of the band Journey, closing night attendees will head on over to SLOANE SQUARE[D], for a night of entertainment, dancing, food, and drinks.
The past 15 days have gone by so fast that it is hard to believe that another festival has come and gone. With more than 200 films screened and more than 45 countries represented, the 55th San Francisco International Film Festival proved once again to be an extraordinary showcase of innovation and cinematic discovery.
One particular highlight for ITVS was that The Waiting Room director Peter Nicks was featured on the festival’s Scoop du Jour website, a daily video feed presenting coverage of the happenings at the festival. In the interview, Nicks discusses his documentary The Waiting Room, an intimate and intense day-in-the-life documentary portrait of the patients, doctors, nurses, and social workers at Highland Hospital in Oakland. Check out the clip after the jump: › Continue reading
Crossover Premieres on FUTURESTATES
Directed by Tina Mabry the film will be available to stream for free at futurestates.tv and simultaneously on pbs.org. An online social screening of the short will take place here this Friday, May 4 at 11AM PT / 2PM ET.
In a future where schools are segregated by economic status, a struggling mother must decide whether to sell her own organs to give her children a better education. Learn more about Crossover from filmmaker Tina Mabry in a recently conducted Skype interview, after the jump.
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