Independent Lens
Revisiting Sentenced Home and the Case of Many Uch
Filmmakers Nicole Newnham and David Grabias
Sentenced Home aired back in 2007 on Independent Lens and put a human face on a controversial immigration policy. The film followed three young Cambodian Americans, raised in inner-city Seattle, each of whom faced deportation for mistakes they made as teenagers. Filmmakers Nicole Newnham and David Grabias provide an update on the case of Many Uch, one of the three subjects featured in Sentenced Home.
In June, 2007, Many Uch decided to apply for a pardon for his 1994 crime from Christine Gregoire, the governor of Washington State. Although we knew it was a long shot, it was something that we had been hoping he would do for quite a while. We met Many while filming Sentenced Home in 2003, and we were struck by his gentle soul and his extraordinarily thoughtful perspective on his difficult situation: in limbo, living with the constant threat of an order of deportation to Cambodia.
New Independent Lens Season Unveiled in L.A.
Lois Vossen, series producer for Independent Lens, reports from the Television Critics Association Press Tour in Los Angeles.
Hello from the Television Critics Association (TCA) Summer Press Tour. The TCA represents 200 journalists who write about television for print and online outlets in the U.S. and Canada. Twice a year, they gather in what Tim Goodman, TV writer for the San Francisco Chronicle, refers to as a “death march with cocktails.” It’s two weeks holed up in a swanky hotel in Los Angeles to see what’s coming to television. PBS invites series to present during the two days that PBS is showcased.
Insufficient Justice: Socheata Poeuv Reacts to Khmer Rouge Verdict
Director Socheata Poeuv
Filmmaker Socheata Poeuv was outside the courtroom on July 26, 2010, as Kaing Guek Eav (aka Comrade Duch) was found guilty of crimes against humanity and sentenced to 35 years (19 including time served) by an international tribunal. The director of the Independent Lens film New Year Baby, Poeuv was born in a refugee camp in Thailand during Cambodia’s Khmer Rouge regime, which took the lives of many of her family members. She reacts to the verdict and the sentence for Beyond the Box.
On July 26, I went to the Khmer Rouge tribunal (at the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia in Phnom Penh) to listen to the judgment of Comrade Duch, the former commander of S-21 (Tuol Sleng), the Khmer Rouge’s most infamous prison and torture center. Hundreds of Cambodians and journalists also gathered to witness the historic moment.
As the judge read the guilty verdict, I was moved to hear the narrative of Duch’s war crimes and crimes against humanity. Although I had read of and heard an account of the crimes of S-21 many times in books and films, hearing the legal summary help to legitimize and validate the suffering of victims, including those in my family. I was glad this was now entering the official historical and legal record.
› Continue reading
ITVS Programs Nominated for Six Emmy Awards
The nominees for the 31st Annual News and Documentary Emmy Awards were announced today and ITVS programs received an impressive six nominations.
Among the nominees are three Independent Lens programs — Tulia, Texas; No Subtitles Necessary: Laszlo and Vilmos; and Crips and Bloods: Made in America.
Tulia, Texas — by filmmakers Cassandra Herrman and Kelly Whalen — received a nomination in the Outstanding Continuing Coverage of a News Story, Long Form category. The film tells the story of a small town’s search for justice and the price Americans pay for the nation’s war on drugs.
No Subtitles Necessary: Laszlo and Vilmos — by director James Chressanthis — received a nomination in the Outstanding Arts and Culture Programming category. The documentary profiles legendary cinematographers Laszlo Kovacs and Vilmos Zsigmond and how they reinvented Hollywood moviemaking for an entire generation.
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.
Independent Lens Audience Award Winner Announced!
All season long Independent Lens fans have logged on to vote for their favorite film. Finally, we have a winner…..Mine by first-time filmmaker Geralyn Pezanoski.
The film tells the heartbreaking story of the thousands of post-Katrina pets who were rescued and then adopted into new homes across the United States. When residents slowly returned to try and rebuild their lives, these animals became the center of full-blown custody battles, with people on both sides struggling to do what was right in the midst of an impossibly complex situation (check out the trailer below).
Vilmos Zsigmond Answers Your Questions
Director Vilmos Zsigmond
Iconic cinematographer Vilmos Zsigmond — DP on such classics as The Deer Hunter, McCabe and Mrs. Miller, and Close Encounters of the Third Kind — sat down with Independent Lens to answer a few of the questions the audience posed to him earlier this season.
Find out who his favorite directors and fellow cinematographers are, what’s wrong with American film schools, and what exactly constitutes the “American New Wave” he and his best friend Laszlo Kovacs are sometimes credited with ushering in during the 1960s and 1970s.
Read the full interview here>>
It’s a Wrap! A Look Back at Independent Lens Season 2009/10
There you have it folks, another gem-filled season of the Emmy Award-winning series Independent Lens is done and dusted. What a ride! We thought we’d take you back to some of the highlights, and point you to where you can catch up on any of the films you missed.
The season premiered with a fan favorite, Herb & Dorothy, about the unassuming Vogels of New York City who amassed a remarkable modern art collection on his salary as a postal clerk and hers as a librarian.
Between the Folds, Vanessa Gould’s visionary film about artists and scientists who are using origami to articulate concepts from quantum physics to the meaning of creativity, aired this winter. We heard from many viewers who found the film mind-bending and impossible to tear themselves away from. The film garnered Gould a Peabody Award this spring.
No Subtitles Necessary: Laszlo & Vilmos had something of a cult following in our offices. James Chressanthis’s appreciation of Hungarian cinematographers and lifelong friends Laszlo Kovacs and Vilmos Zsigmond (winner of the inaugural Independent Lens Vanguard Award) introduced us to industry legends who — from behind the camera on films such as The Deer Hunter and Easy Rider — literally shaped the look of American cinema in the 1960s and 1970s.
Young@Heart was another viewer favorite, chronicling a season of performances with the eponymous senior citizens chorus. You haven’t lived until you’ve seen octogenarians rocking out punk classics from The Clash.
Garbage Dreams — a beautiful film about trash — aired this spring around Earth Day. It was shortlisted for the Oscar in documentary features, and came equipped with one of our coolest interactive games to date.
We rounded out the year with the grand finale — our only fiction film of the season: Goodbye Solo. This award-winning film from Ramin Bahrani (who Roger Ebert has called “the director of the decade”) told of a Senegalese cab driver who tries to talk his fare out of a one-way ride to his death.
You can go to the Independent Lens website on PBS to revisit your favorites of the year, and vote in the Audience Award finals (beginning June 14). And super good news for you, our viewers — if you missed any shows this year, some of them are available to watch in their entirety on the PBS video player right now! And lucky for you, a number of other films from this season and from seasons past are available on iTunes, Hulu, Netflix, Snagfilms and YouTube. So go out there and watch something mind-expanding.
In The News: The Latest on ITVS Programs
S. Leo Chiang’s film on PBS touchingly displays how a Vietnamese community picked up the pieces post-Katrina, finding their voice in a quintessentially American way.
Read now >>
It’s not every June that brings the opportunity to see one of last year’s most acclaimed films on television and without even a cable connection, at that but this June is one of those times. PBS scored a coup by booking 2009’s striking Goodbye Solo as part of its Independent Lens series.
Read now >>
Premiering on 11 May, as part of PBS’ Independent Lens, Michel Orion Scott’s film suggests that Kristin and her husband Rupert Isaacson find themselves on this adventure, despite her own initial skepticism.
Read now >>
The Horse Boy is a touching documentary about one Texas couple’s struggle to understand their child’s autism and find ways for all of them to cope with it.
Read now >>
Music and Movies Save Mountains
Emmylou Harris, Patty Loveless, Alison Krauss, Patty Griffin, Big Kenny, Dave Matthews, and Kathy Mattea at Music Saves Mountains, Nashville.
As we watched the sold-out crowd in Nashville’s Ryman Auditorium rise to its feet while Dave Matthews, Emmylou Harris, Patty Griffin, Kathy Mattea, Alison Krauss, Patty Loveless, Big Kenny, and several other musicians joined their voices together to raise awareness for the issue of mountaintop removal mining in Appalachia, it dawned on us: as of today, we are officially part of a movement.
This week, Deep Down participated in two Nashville events with the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC). On May 19th, the Deep Down trailer was shown in the middle of a star-studded line-up of musical acts at the Music Saves Mountains concert at the Ryman. The following night, when Deep Down screened with Coal Country at the historic Belcourt Theater, country music star Kathy Mattea told us, “I had a couple overwhelming waves of emotion during the day,” and “It was a moment I’ll never forget. I had this moment standing on the stage thinking, this is the moment, where something bigger is happening — where a movement becomes a movement.”
Upcoming Screenings
|
A free monthly screening series, Community Cinema features films from the Emmy Award-winning PBS series Independent Lens.
In over 50 cities nationwide, screenings are followed by lively panel discussions that bring together citizens, organizations and public television stations to encourage dialogue and action around important and timely social issues. Last season, over 40,000 people attended 500 events nationwide.
Recent Posts
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 Deep Dive
- ITVS Funding
- ITVS International
- New Online
- On the Road
- Producer Resources
- Recently Funded
- Special Events
- Talkback
- Uncategorized
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.