Film Festivals
ITVS Alumni Score a Win at SFIAAFF
By Michael Kinomoto
Four filmmakers previously funded by ITVS received a $5,000 award at this year’s San Francisco International Asian American Film Festival (SFIAAFF) for a work-in-progress about international LGBT politicians.
From L to R: Johnny Symons, Brittney Shepherd, Eva Moss, and S. Leo Chiang
Filmmakers S. Leo Chiang (A Village Called Versailles) and Johnny Symons (Daddy & Papa, Ask Not), along with co-producers Eva Moss and Brittney Shepherd, were awarded a $5,000 research and development award at the Ready, Set, Pitch! panel held on Sunday, March 11 at the 30th San Francisco International Asian American Film Festival for their project Out Run (working title) – a feature length documentary project that follows openly-LGBT political candidates in parts of the world that are most hostile to their cause.
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ITVS Introduces Beverly to the PBS Short Film Fest
ITVS is thrilled that the Women and Girls Lead profile “Meet Beverly” has been selected as one of five short films with the theme of “Girl Power” in the inaugural PBS Online Short Film Festival.
Last month, Beverly Kearney was honored as a part of BET’s “What Extraordinary Looks Like” awards along with Maya Angelou, Stevie Wonder, and Spike Lee. Although she is not a household name, once you hear her story, it’s obvious why she deserves to be recognized with these other cultural icons. If you don’t already know her, now is your opportunity to meet Beverly Kearney, the decorated women’s track and field coach from the University of Austin Texas. Beverly is profiled as one of many women in a new web series for the Women and Girls Lead campaign. This series is produced by independent filmmakers Betsy and Carl Crum (producers of the acclaimed web series One Square Mile) in collaboration with local public television stations throughout the United States and will feature inspiring stories of women and girls in local communities. The first batch takes us to Austin, Texas, where Betsy and Carl worked in partnership with public television station, KLRU.
Please take a minute to watch Beverly’s story and don’t forget to vote for her video for the Audience Award by “liking” the video here or here.
Women and Girls Lead Presents a Social Screening of Taking Root
Join us for an online social screening of Taking Root: The Vision of Wangari Maathai this Wednesday, March 14th at 1PM PT/4PM ET.
The event, which takes place exclusively online, will feature special guests Lisa Merton, director of Taking Root, Kelly Blynn, co-coordinator of 350.org, and Stephen Millls, director of Greenbelt Movement US.
Participants can join for free by signing in with Facebook or directly on the site and interact with other viewers and the panelists in real-time, while watching the film. Viewers can comment, ask questions, take polls, and even express their feelings about what they’re watching through a variety of tools on the site. This is an entirely new way of experiencing documentary films and it is inherently social. › Continue reading
Women and Girls Lead Presents Three Social Screenings as Part of Online Film Festival
The Women and Girls Lead Online Film Festival will host three social screenings (Taking Root, Troop 1500, and Hip-Hop: Beyond Beats and Rhymes) during the month of March.
In celebration of International Women’s Day and Women’s History Month, Women and Girls Lead presents a month-long online film festival featuring a collection of documentary films by prominent independent filmmakers. These films showcase extraordinary women and girls on the front lines of changing the world. As part of the festival we will be hosting online social screenings of three films: Taking Root: The Vision of Wangari Maathai, Troop 1500, and Hip-Hop: Beyond Beats and Rhymes. The screenings will take place on Wednesdays March 14, 21, and 28 at 1PM PT/4PM ET.
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Women & Girls Lead Us Into Women’s History Month
Women and Girls Lead kicks off Women’s History Month with a new website, an online film festival, and three high-profile events honoring International Women’s Day.
The Women and Girls Lead public media initiative is celebrating Women’s History Month and International Women’s Day in style with a whole new set of activities to engage audiences on multiple platforms. Today, Women and Girls Lead unveiled their new dynamic campaign website. Featuring an interactive video mosaic, the website offers an array of short video content including profiles of women in leadership roles in communities nationwide, and interviews with luminaries and leading scholars.
“Women’s History Month is an important time for public media to call attention to the important work of women and girl leaders worldwide,” said Patricia Harrison, President and CEO of CPB and Advisory Board Chair of Women and Girls Lead. “It is also a time for us to rise to the challenge to ensure that these stories reach audiences every day of the year. Women and Girls Lead offers an important model for public media to serve its mission in the 21st century.”
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Four ITVS Shorts Featured in PBS Online Film Festival
Beginning Monday February 27, PBS will launch its first Online Film Festival to showcase 20 short films from independent filmmakers. The festival will last until March 30 and can be accessed via the PBS website and PBS’s YouTube channel.
This is the first time PBS has produced a film festival exclusively for online content and with a focus on independent films. Of the 20 films selected, four are films funded by ITVS and three have been previously released online. They are: Bullet Proof Vest by May Lin Au Yong (Grand Jury Prize Winner of the Independent Lens Online Film Festival), Play by David Kaplan and Eric Zimmerman, Sunshine: Single Dads by Karen Skloss; and Women and Girls Lead: Meet Beverly by Carl and Betsy Crum.
IL Series Producer Recaps Sundance 2012
By Lois Vossen, Founding Series Producer of Independent Lens and Vice President of ITVS
ITVS-funded filmmakers and staff rally for lunch at the Sundance Film Festival in Park City, UT
Sundance 2012 was a record-breaking year year for ITVS and Independent Lens. Six ITVS funded films screened in the documentary competitions and all six were honored with Sundance awards. (ITVS had had seven films playing at Sundance in 2004; six films in 2002; and eight films in 1997 for those interested in banner years).
ITVS in the News
A sampling of coverage from the New York Times, Realscreen, and more …
New York Times: Sundance Documentaries Transform Data Into Stories
Over the weekend, The House I Live In, Eugene Jarecki’s heart-heavy investigation into the American war on drugs, nabbed the grand jury prize for documentary at the Sundance Film Festival.
Miller-McCune Magazine: Does Black History Month Need More Than a Month?
At a time when so many documentaries adopt an either angry or elegiac tone, More Than a Month has a disarmingly light touch. Among the several laugh-out-loud moments is a brief parody of Ken Burns’s The Civil War, featuring the filmmaker in period costume. Tilghman’s a great guide on this journey: he’s genuinely troubled by the questions he raises, but he’s also unpretentious, quizzical, and, at times, bemused.
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Women and Girls Lead & Athena Film Festival Present, “Daisy Bates: First Lady of Little Rock”
Women and Girls Lead is happy to announce an exciting partnership with the Athena Film Festival on the film Daisy Bates: First Lady of Little Rock. The documentary will air on Independent Lens on February 2.
The Athena Film Festival is a celebration of women and leadership, and the only film festival in the nation to focus its content on women’s leadership. With an impressive line-up of groundbreaking films — chronicling the lives of long serving Native American female firefighters to the weekend’s closing film, The Lady, on the life of Aung San Suu Kyi the Burmese opposition leader and Nobel Peace Prize laureate.
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ITVS Films Clean Up at Sundance
All six ITVS films in competition at Sundance picked up awards on Saturday, marking an unprecedented accomplishment for the organization and the filmmakers.
WINNER OF THE GRAND JURY PRIZE IN U.S. DOCUMENTARY COMPETITION
The House I Live In by Eugene Jarecki
The film weaves together director Eugene Director’s personal narrative with America’s war on drugs. Here, producers including Sam Cullman, Melinda Snopsis, Danny Glover, and director Eugene Jarecki — reflect on the film and its Sundance premiere.
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