Category Archives: Film Festivals

Vote for Your Favorite #SheDoc by March 31st

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Throughout March, we’ve been watching the 10 free films in the #SheDocs Online Film Festival for Women’s History Month. Now, with only one week to go, we’re asking you – our #SheDocs fans – to vote for your favorite festival film. Here is your chance to tell the filmmakers and the women and girl film stars that you appreciate them! Vote for your favorite #SheDoc until March 31st.

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Use your vote to tell us which story inspired you to do something, learn more, or take on a new challenge. Perhaps Cheryl Haworth motivated you to hit the weight room or Chahinaz compelled you to ask more questions. Maybe Jessie Little Doe gave you a new appreciation for language, Barbara Smith Conrad sparked a love for opera, or Rafea convinced you to take up tech. Or perhaps you learned something new about Patsy Mink, Leymah Gbowee, or Gloria Steinem.  It’s quite possible you even cheered out loud when Starr’s baby was born or when Sabere declared, “I will never bring tea to you again!” If our #SheDocs moved you in anyway, then vote! We’ll announce the winner on the Women and Girls Lead Facebook page on April 1st.

Although March is almost over, we think every month deserves an empowering selection of documentary films about women and girls. We plan to keep the #SheDocs page and Twitter hashtag live as a destination to find the latest documentaries from the Women and Girls Lead campaign available to watch temporarily online. Bookmark itvs.org/women-and-girls-lead/shedocs and visit us every month to find new films streaming online for free.

#SheDocs in Numbers: A Look at Women in Media

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Each year, the Center for the Study of Women in TV & Film releases its research on the status of women and girls behind the scenes and on screen in mainstream media. The 2012 results revealed that 33 percent of characters in Hollywood films were female, while only 11 percent of them were the film’s protagonists. What is more astonishing is that the number of female protagonists on screen decreased from 16 percent in 2002. So what do we do when the media industry represents 50 percent of the population only 33 percent of the time? We host the #SheDocs Online Film Festival!

#SheDocs is streaming 10 free films about real women and girls online from March 1-31st during Women’s History Month. Nearly 10,000 people have already logged on to watch our all-star lineup of female protagonists taking the lead in their own lives.

shedocs_meme_stats_05A copyHere is what our viewers will find:

10 free films

50 female characters

18 female protagonists

12 women filmmakers (and 4 male filmmakers who represent women well!)

11 countries/nations

8 languages (including one that hasn’t been spoken in 6 generations)

12 days left to watch

We’ve been so inspired by the #SheDocs fanfare that we’re thinking of making it a 24/7, 365 day-a-year destination to find free films about women and girls temporarily available to watch online. Until then, don’t miss the Women’s History Month films online until Sunday, March 31st at http://bit.ly/SheDocs.

ITVS Co-Presents Two Films at CAAMFest!

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For the next 10 days, the Center for Asian America Media presents CAAMFest, a celebration of film, music, food and digital media form the world’s most innovative Asian and Asian American artists.

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Yesterday marked the beginning of the 2013 CAAMFest, formerly known as the San Francisco International Asian American Film Festival, and ITVS could not be more excited to co-present two of the films featured in this year’s festival, The Mosuo Sisters and Xmas Without China.

This year, in an effort to transition away from the traditional film festival, CAAM has embraced new forms of artistic expression with a spirit of curiosity and adventure. Come celebrate the festival through various live events, multimedia performances, and expanded ventures into the music and culinary worlds. With such a wide variety of entertainment to choose from, Bay Area participants will be able to enjoy Asian American media in all its various forms.

Be sure to check out the trailers (after the jump)! Continue reading →

Adrian Baker on Animating Native American Oral History

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By Rebecca Huval
Originally posted on the Independent Lens Blog

Sometimes, the shameful chapters of our past deserve to be excavated through an animated short, the form du jour for oral history projects such as StoryCorps. From the PBS Online Film Festival, the short documentary Injunuity: Buried features the story of a Native American burial ground and shellmound recently built over by a Bay Area mall.

Adrian Baker, director of Injunuity, one of 25 short videos in the PBS 2013 Online Film Festival

Adrian Baker, director of Injunuity, one of 25 short videos in the PBS 2013 Online Film Festival

Buried will be available on the PBS Online Film Festival webpage and the rest of the shorts will soon be available on the Injunuity website. The series captures field recordings of Native Americans who dissect issues such as Native American language preservation and education, remixed as three-minute animations in a variety of styles. The 25 films in the overall festival will be available between March 4 to 22.

Director Adrian Baker shared with us the inspiration for his cinematic collages and animations that capture modern-day Native American issues, as well as the stories of our shared past.

1. Why did you structure these stories in three-minute shorts?

There are so many issues to talk about and discuss, so many problems that need our attention. So rather than setting out to solve all of these issues or come to hard and fast conclusions, instead, I wanted to create starting points for discussions more than anything else. In three minutes you can create that foundation that’s necessary to begin meaningful dialog, but where it goes from there is up to the viewer, or the teacher who watches it with their classroom, or the parent who watches it with their child.

I also wanted to create pieces that fit into today’s quick twitch lifestyle where more media is being consumed in shorter amounts of time. The fixed running time model that we have for television is being replaced by the free form of the web, where time length isn’t dictated by commercial concerns or by what comes on before or after. And really, all you have to do is take a look at anyone’s Facebook feed to see that there are more and more shorter pieces of content being passed around and shared. Today’s viewer is on the go, watching a smart phone for ten minutes on BART [the Bay Area's commuter rail service]. So there is a growing market for shorter content. But what may be the best thing about the three-minute short is that, even if the viewer doesn’t like it that much, no matter where you are in the piece, even if it’s just beginning, it’s almost over. Continue reading →

Women and Girls Star in the SheDocs Online Film Festival

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If the Oscars were any indication, we know Hollywood is lagging behind on representing women and girls in all their diversity on the big screen. In fact only 11 percent of protagonists in Hollywood films are female, according to a 2011 report from the Center for the Study of Women in Television and Film. Women and Girls Lead has turned to the little screen to offer a refreshing selection of films starring women and girls as leaders in their own lives. The #SheDocs Online Film Festival will run from March 1-31 and feature 10 documentary films to watch online all month long in celebration of Women’s History Month. We promise you’ll be inspired by these protagonists! Start watching at today!

Catch up on all the #SheDocs related conversations after the jump!  Continue reading →

Four ITVS Shorts Featured in PBS Online Film Festival

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Beginning Monday, March 4, PBS will launch the second annual Online Film Festival, showcasing 25 short films from independent filmmakers. The festival will last through March 22 and can be accessed via the PBS website and PBS’s YouTube channel.

Watch 2013 | Film Festival Trailer on PBS. See more from PBS Online Film Festival.

PBS announced yesterday that its popular PBS Online Film Festival will return for a second year, beginning Monday, March 4, 2013. Viewers are encouraged to vote for their favorite short film from March 4 through March 22, to help determine the People’s Choice Award.

The featured shorts were produced by a number of public media partners, including POV and the National Minority Consortia which comprises Pacific Islanders in Communications (PIC), the National Black Programming Consortium (NBPC); the Center for Asian American Media (CAAM); Latino Public Broadcasting (LPB); and Native American Public Telecommunications (NAPT). Continue reading →

Women, War & Peace Goes Global

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When Women, War & Peace debuted on PBS in Fall 2010 as the first pillar program of the Women and Girls Lead campaign, it took the country by storm. Screenings, house parties, workshops, and community discussions opened many American eyes to the atrocities that women and girls endure in areas of war, but also how essential women are to bringing about peace and forging new international laws governing conflict. In March, the series will continue to enlighten as one of 10 films featured online during the #SheDocs Online Film Festival. 

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Fork Films and THIRTEEN have partnered with Peace is Loud to create the screening kits for use around the world. The kits include the five films in the series (each an hour long) and a new discussion and resource guide featuring interviews with key figures from the series. The films and guide are available in Arabic, English, French and Spanish. Visit peaceisloud.org to read more and request kits.

Women’s mobilization in society is key to ending violence and establishing a culture of peace. You can host a screening series featuring Women, War & Peace and become a part of a global community of activists for peace and justice. Continue reading →

An Insider’s Guide to Sundance

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Independent Lens’ founding series producer, Lois Vossen, offers her advice on how to survive the landmark festival in Park City, and talks about some of the recent PBS hits that got their start at Sundance. A longtime Sundance Veteran, Vossen winds up seeing up to five films a day as she scours the town for new talent in documentary film.

 

Click here to see more on the ground coverage at the 2013 Sundance Film Festival.

The ITVS Indie Roundup

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A curated list of indie news and recommendations from ITVS’s Rebecca Huval.

Our friends at Chicken & Egg Pictures just granted more than $200,000 to 25 documentaries produced by female filmmakers. Take a look at this year’s enticing list films.

Become a pre-interview pro with these tips from the directors of Better This World and ITVS’s The Revisionaries, including how to make your subjects feel like you aren’t “against them.”

Would you let the world see what’s inside your refrigerator? The subjects of this photography series did: You Are What You Eat by San Antonio photographer Mark Menjivar proves that the smallest details inside a person’s home often reveal so much about their character. Continue reading →

The Academy Award Shortlist Has Been Announced and ITVS Couldn’t Be Happier!

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What a week for ITVS! First the Sundance Film Festival announced the lineup for 2013, then Time Magazine showed Invisible War some love in their “Top Movies of 2012”, the National Board of Review listed three ITVS funded films in their “Top 5 Documentaries”, and now the Academy Award shortlist is out!

Before anyone walks down any red carpets or starts penning acceptance speeches, the Academy names a number of films (15 to be exact!) to advance in order to help narrow down the voting process for Best Documentary Feature. With over 126 films in contention for the Oscar, ITVS is more than a little excited to see some very familiar titles on the Academy Award shortlist:

The field will be narrowed to five titles when the Oscar nominations are announced in early January.