Filmmakers Steer Clear of Big Easy Clichés

Five years ago, the worst natural disaster ever to hit the United States struck southern Louisiana, forever altering the face of America’s most unique and freewheeling city, New Orleans. While the news media revisits the Crescent City to find out what has changed and what hasn’t, a team of filmmakers working with ITVS is documenting the real story of the resurrection of a metropolis with a long history of coming back from the dead with inimitable style.

Their documentary-in-progress Getting Back to Abnormal by former New Orleans residents, Louis Alvarez, Andrew Kolker, Peter Odabashian, and Paul Stekler, explores the state of New Orleans politics and culture five years after Hurricane Katrina.

Set against the backdrop of the 2009-2010 local political season, the election of the first white mayor in a generation, and the triumph of the city’s erstwhile worst NFL team, the Saints, Getting Back to Abnormal will frame its story via the city’s complicated and ever-present issues of race.

The film was one of several to receive Open Call funding from ITVS in the most recent round. At the producers’ orientation last month, filmmakers Andrew Kolker and Paul Stekler spoke about what New Orleans means to them and why it was important to get the story right.

Tags: hurricane, ITVS, Katrina, New Orleans, nola, PBS, public television

Filmmaking Couple Shed Light on Speaking in Tongues

Filmmakers Marcia Jarmel and Ken Schneider — Photo by Najib Joe Hakim

The award-winning ITVS film, Speaking in Tongues, tells the stories of four diverse kids becoming bilingual in the public school system. Filmmakers Marcia Jarmel and her husband Ken Schneider, will present the documentary at a special screening and panel discussion hosted at KQED in San Francisco — Thursday, September 2^nd (6:30 to 8:30 PM).

Our idea in making Speaking in Tongues was to showcase a world where communication barriers are being addressed. An African-American boy from public housing learns to read, write, and speak Mandarin. A Mexican-American boy, whose parents are not literate in any language, develops professional-level Spanish while mastering English. A Chinese-American girl regains her grandparents’ mother tongue, a language her parents lost through assimilation. A Caucasian teen travels to Beijing to stay with a Mandarin speaking host family. Their stories reveal the promise of a multilingual America.

We’ve witnessed this transformation in our own home. Our sons are in their fourth and eighth year in a public school Chinese immersion program. They cause a stir when they order in accent-less Chinese at local restaurants. But they also have translated for a confused Chinese speaker lost at the doctor, visited shut-in Chinese speaking elders, felt at home in a traditional Chinese home, and very important for us, helped us understand our film footage. When spoken to by a native speaker, they don’t pause to translate; they think in Chinese, having learned it like a baby, by hearing it spoken around them. Their experience prompts the telling of these small stories that in turn provoke one of the most compelling questions of our day: what do we as a nation need to know in the 21st century?

Photo by Andy Black

We truly believe that the promise of a multilingual America can be fulfilled. Support for multilingualism comes from a unique cross section of America. Community leaders, teachers, policymakers, and advocates from organizations at the forefront of multilingual education, in addition to parents of bilingual children, bring a range of perspectives that when brought together, generally makes for a lively and meaningful discussion. It is a honor to have the opportunity to share this film with communities nationwide.

To find out where you can see it, how to bring the discussion to your community, or to learn more about the benefits of multilingualism, please join our mailing list or Facebook group, read our blog, and check out the resources on our website.

You can also join us for an online conversation on September 13th at the Movie Night Salon, on Firedoglake.com from 8:00 pm – 9:30 pm ET/ 5:00pm – 6:30 pm PT.

Tags: bilingual, chinese, education, mandarin, multilingual, school, Spanish, students

Granito Makes Good Use of the Past

A Scene from Granito

Granito is a story of destinies joined by Guatemala’s past, and how a documentary film from 1982 — When the Mountains Tremble — became forensic evidence to help prove a genocide case against a military dictator.

In Granito, the characters sift for clues buried in archives of mind and place and historical memory, seeking to uncover a narrative that could unlock the past and settle matters of life and death in the present. Like a crime thriller where the narrative is revealed step by step, this epic film travels between present and past, uncovering evidence of massive crimes and bringing accountability to the present.

The film, by Pamela Yates and Paco de Onis, was selected during last year’s round of Open Call.

Watch the producers of Granito answer questions about the film below.

Tags: documentary, granito, ITVS, Open Call, PBS, public television

Jon Reiss Says: Do It Yourself!

Named one of “10 Digital Directors to Watch,” by Daily Variety, Jon Reiss has directed three feature films most recently Bomb It about graffiti, street art, and the battle over visual public space throughout the world. His experience releasing Bomb It with a hybrid strategy was the inspiration for writing Think Outside the Box Office: The Ultimate Guide to Film Distribution in the Digital Era, the first step-by-step guide for filmmakers to distribute and market their films. Reiss will be conducting a workshop from July 31^st to August 1^st all about DIY distribution, at the San Francisco Film Society. BTB spoke with Reiss via Skype last week while he was in Melbourne, Australia.

How did you get started with DIY filmmaking?

Jon Reiss is the author of Think Outside the Box Office: The Ultimate Guide to Film Distribution in the Digital Era

I guess I got started with DIY filmmaking back in the San Francisco punk rock scene. That’s how I got into film in first place. At the time, I was an Economics major at Berkeley and was a planning on getting a PhD in Economics at Stanford but somehow ended up living in a rat-infested loft in San Francisco shooting punk rock bands.

[I went] to Paris to show the videos and I thought, “Why not go to the rest of Europe?” So, I started booking tours throughout Europe and that was really my first experience with DIY distribution. It was also my first experience with creating events and using non-traditional venues — that I’ve now come to champion — which is, I believe, the future for independent films.
› Continue reading

Tags: Bomb It, digital distribution, DIY, Jon Reiss, trans-media

Filmmaker Geeta Patel Searches for Love

One in a Billion, follows a 29-year-old Hindu man across the globe as he searches for a woman his parents will approve of. The film, by Indian American Directord Geeta Patel, was one of several projects selected by ITVS’s Open Call in 2009 (Note: this year’s deadline is August 6th!).

Ravi Patel is the star of the documentary, co-director on the project, and the filmmaker’s brother. Together, the Patel’s bring a comedic touch to the high-pressured world of arranged marriages.

Geeta Patel previously directed Project Kashmir, which aired last season on Independent Lens.

Learn more about One in Billion and the filmmaker from her interview below…

Tags: comedy, documentary, funding, geeta patel, hindu, ITVS, one in a billion, Open Call, PBS, project kashmir

The Politics of Your Morning Fix

Filmmakers Nick Francis and Marc Francis

Filmmakers Nick Francis and Mark Francis revisit their documentary Black Gold, which will air on Global Voices this Sunday, July 18th on PBS WORLD. The documentary traces one man’s fight for a fair prices of coffee in an eye-opening expose of the $80 billion coffee industry.

A few weeks ago, we met up with Tadesse Meskela the main character in Black Gold who was in London for a coffee trade show.  He said “every week people contact me from around the world after seeing the film – they want to buy coffee directly.”

While Black Gold has been on release internationally since 2006, we continue to receive emails all the time from people who want to arrange screenings or who have recently seen the film.

People often say that they hadn’t questioned the story behind their instant cup of Nescafé or their Frappucino at Starbucks. This ongoing feedback underlines how critical it is to ensure that the issues of trade justice don’t slip off the international agenda.

› Continue reading

Tags: black gold, coffee, documentary, Ethiopia, fair trade, Global Voices, ITVS, PBS, starbucks

The Beetle Queen Conquers San Francisco

Director Jessica Oreck inside the Kabuki Cinema

Beetle Queen Conquers Tokyo, airing in the upcoming season of Independent Lens, sheds light on Japan’s love affair with insects. Filmmaker Jessica Oreck screened her film last weekend in San Francisco and shared her experience with BTB.

Last Friday and Saturday nights, the lobby of the Sundance Kabuki Cinema  in San Francisco was crawling with live insects.

SaveNature.org partnered with Argot Pictures to present this one-of-a-kind event for the opening of my latest film, Beetle Queen Conquers Tokyo.

› Continue reading

Tags: beetle queen, documentary, ITVS, jessica oreck, kabuki cinema

The Future According to Hugo Perez

Director Hugo Perez

ITVS filmmaker Hugo Perez discussed the making of his latest work, the FUTURESTATES short Seed, with BTB. Watch the entire episode online and browse the site for a creative glimpse into the future.

What got you interested in the subject matter of Seed?

I am a lifelong sci-fi geek who has always been interested in the intersection of science and society and how technology, for good and for ill, affects the world. The first time I read about the way that companies wield their GMO (genetically modified organism) seed patents as a bludgeon to force farmers into licensing their product, I was appalled and intrigued. When companies can legally “own” nature, they can control aspects of our lives that we take for granted. So I became interested in extrapolating what could happen in the future based on what was happening today. And seed patents are just the tip of the iceberg. Before this century is over, everyone will be paying premium prices for the water they drink and the air they breathe.
› Continue reading

Tags: FUTURESTATES, hugo perez, ITVS, seeds, short films

Director Sedika Mojadidi on Filming Her Father in Motherland Afghanistan

Director Sedika Mojadidi

One in seven Afghan women dies in childbirth. Motherland Afghanistan, airing Sunday, July 11^th on Global Voices, introduces the women behind these devastating statistics. Afghan American filmmaker Sedika Mojadidi examines her father’s work as an OB/GYN as he struggles to make a difference. Beyond the Box spoke with Mojadidi about filming such an intimate story alongside her father.

Both your parents are physicians. How did you get into film?

I was always interested in movies. I gravitated toward them naturally, from a young age. And in school, I studied film for a long time, film theory and film history.  I was never good in science or math so it’s ironic that I’m following my parent’s story because growing up I wasn’t really all that interested in medicine.

Your voiceover guides part of the film, but it’s your father’s voice that serves as the chief narrative. Was this your intention all along?

Dr. Qudrat Mojadidi serves as both a principle charcter in the documentary and as the filmmaker's father

It was always my plan. Actually, I never planned to be in the film but that emerged out of the process of making it for two years. After the first trip, we looked at some of the footage of me translating and other producers felt strongly about keeping me in the picture. I fought against it but eventually surrendered. I felt strongly from the get-go that the film needed to be from my father’s perspective. The film needed to be centered around him, his work, and the patients he looked after.

You immigrated to the U.S. when you were very little in 1972. How much of a culture shock was it for you to return to Afghanistan and shoot this film?

› Continue reading

Tags: Afghanistan, Kabul, maternal health, Sedika Mojadidi

Joseph Aguirre — AKA — The Rainmaker

Director Joseph Aguirre

In Next Year Country, three Montana farming families who have struggled to keep afloat through years of drought, take their chances on hiring a rainmaker. Director Joseph Aguirre shares the genesis of the story and why it was so hard to stay dry while shooting a film about drought. Look for Next Year Country on public television this July (check local listings).

I originally heard about rainmaker Matt Ryan and the work he was doing with drought-stricken farmers in Montana from an article that ran in the Los Angeles Times in February of 2003.

On first read, the story seemed to me to have a lot of cinematic potential. I liked the folkloric Americana aspect of the rainmaker story, and the story of drought and hardship in the American West made me think of Steinbeck’s “Grapes of Wrath” and the seminal work of the depression-era FSA photographers like Walker Evans and Dorothea Lange.

› Continue reading

Tags: documentary, drought, ITVS, joseph aguirre, Montana, next year country, PBS, rainmaker