Deadline Change – Diversity Development Fund

The Diversity Development Fund provides up to $15,000 in research and development funding to producers of color to develop single documentary programs for public television.

Projects should reach underserved audiences often overlooked by conventional programming. Projects must be in the research or development phase, and cannot have begun production. Producers must be U.S. citizens or legal residents.

That hasn’t changed.

But the deadline has!

The next DDF deadline is NOVEMBER 12, 2010. You can read guidelines and details on how to apply at ITVS.org. The online application form will be live from mid-September.

Good luck!

Tags: deadline, diversity development fund, diversity funding, film funding, filmmakers of color, funding, ITVS, PBS, public television

ITVS Goes Ever More Global

ITVS International’s Global Perspectives Project has welcomed five broadcasters to its growing distribution network, bringing Season One of the series True Stories: Life in the U.S.A. to millions of viewers in Bosnia, Central African Republic, Mozambique, Ecuador, and El Salvador.

Beginning this fall, these new television partners will broadcast independent documentaries that reveal the complexity of life in the United States and offer a greater understanding of Americans in all their diversity. To date, 21 countries around the world have licensed the series for broadcast in more than 10 languages — including French, Portuguese, Farsi, Arabic, and Urdu — reaching an estimated 150 million people. The 32-program series was hosted by actors Benicio del Toro in Season One and Danny Glover in Season Two.

Launched in 2005 as a major public-private partnership, the Global Perspectives Project created a two-way television exchange that brings documentaries from other nations to U.S. audiences and delivers insightful True Stories documentaries to audiences abroad. Through this model, ITVS connects people by shattering the stereotypes that pervade commercial media.

Tags: documentary, global perspectives project, ITVS, PBS, true stories

Apply Now! CPB/PBS Diversity and Innovation Fund Seeks New Primetime TV Series

The Diversity and Innovation fund is on the hunt to provide Public Television with a new, weekly, primetime series and wants to hear from you.

In particular, the DI fund is looking for content that will appeal to adult audiences and reflects the diversity of the 40-64 year old U.S. population.

PBS will begin accepting proposals on July 26^th, with a final deadline of September 25^th.

Learn more about proposal guidelines and other useful info on how to apply.

Tags: CPB, diversity fund, funding, PBS, public television, TV series

Use Films to Organize and Engage Your Community

Can a film change the world if everyone just sits on their sofas and watches it, and then goes to bed? OK, sure, films can change minds and inform, but at ITVS, our goal is to leverage great films to engage and activate communities. The whole idea is to create a conversation — from the local town hall to the halls of justice around the world.

If you work for a community organization, a non-profit, or dedicate your free energy to volunteer for a cause you feel passionately about, ITVS.org is an amazing and easy-to-use resource to help you to foster dialog and move the conversation forward.

There are many ways you can use our new website to access films that address the issues you’re interested in:

• Attend a Community Cinema or theatrical screening: Type in your zip code and find out when you can attend a screening in your area, often with spirited panel discussions and additional resources to delve into the subject presented.

• Search by topic: Right from our new front page, you can search our nearly 800 films to find the ones that speak directly to your cause.

• Drill down into our catalog: Narrow your search by region, genre, or television series to find the film that most accurately suits your needs.

And check out our new engagement section, where you can learn more about Community Cinema as well as our engagement campaigns that include discussion guides, printable posters and postcards, and more.

Dive in and let us help you get your community talking about the issues that matter where you live. And share your success stories with us!

Tags: community, engagement, non profit, volunteer

Hey Teachers! You’ll Dig This

If you’re a teacher, we know times are tough. You are struggling to enrich your classroom, but beset on all sides by budget cuts, growing class sizes, and a dearth of basic supplies. Fear not – the new ITVS.org will help you find free (yes free) standards-based resources for your classroom that will engage and inform your students in new and innovative ways.

Our newly redesigned website is now a content destination for educators and youth-serving organizations. It now hosts our complete collections of lesson plans, activities, learning games, and film modules drawn from the Emmy Award-winning PBS series Independent Lens and ITVS’s Global Perspectives Project. You asked for it, and we listened: While we’ve been producing these resources for years now, the new ITVS.org website makes them more accessible and easier to use than ever.

The search and sort function in our section for educators will allow you to find the appropriate resources that align with the subject matter in your syllabus right from the landing page. And our crisp new online video player will allow you to stream film modules in your classroom right from our site.

Now you have even more options — our lesson plans are available on the site as HTML pages, you can still download them as PDFs, or get them on a DVD you can order online.

So what are you waiting for? Get your hands on our free resources and watch your students respond when they make connections between the facts in their textbooks and the films, games, and exercises we’re offering 24 hours a day.

Tags: classroom, education, Free, lesson plans, students, teachers

ITVS Board Elects Three New Members

Today, ITVS announced three new members would be joining its board of directors — Lisa Cortés, Cheryl Head, and Malinda Maynor Lowery.

“We are honored to have these very talented individuals, all tremendous experts in their fields, on our board,” said Sally Jo Fifer, ITVS president and CEO. “All three bring a strong commitment to ITVS’s mission of serving independent producers and public broadcasting as we all continue the transition to reaching and engaging citizens in the 21st century.”

The standing ITVS board nominates and selects new members to ensure diverse points of view and varied skills. “All three new board members bring a wide range of experience and leadership that will inform the tremendous work ITVS is undertaking in the public media realm,” said Garry Denny, ITVS board chair and director of programming for Wisconsin Public Television.

The ITVS board welcomes:

› Continue reading

Tags: ITVS board, new members

Stay Connected with ITVS for the Latest on Indie Film

Are you a big fan of Beyond the Box blog? Since launching a year ago, we’ve brought you regular updates about ITVS productions, funding opportunities, highlighted news articles, streaming video and audio, as well as announcements about upcoming projects and film events.

Don’t miss out on any of our daily updates by subscribing to our daily RSS feed.

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ITVS also produces a monthly e-newsletter, which highlights our filmmaker’s work, upcoming projects, funding opportunities, and various projects from the field. Join the monthly newsletter >>

ITVS is now on Facebook.  Stay connected and join our fan page>>

Tags: Facebook, film funding, independent films

ITVS Staffer Reflects on the Earthquake in Haiti

Nearly a month ago, Haiti experienced its strongest earthquake in more than two centuries, which caused massive destruction and left hundreds of thousands homeless and an estimated 200,000 dead. ITVS’s Voleine Amilcar, a Haitian American, was at the Television Critics Association Press Tour in Los Angeles when the earthquake struck. Read her personal account below about how the tragedy impacted her family and how she remains optimistic about the recovery efforts.

Voleine Amilcar (right) with her cousin who survived the Haiti earthquake.

The library in Carrefour-Feuilles, a town outside the capital, before the earthquake.

The library after the earthquake.

It has been almost a month since the massive earthquake in Haiti and the glare of the media is dimming but for many Haitian Americans the shock and deadly impact of the earthquake still haunts us.

As a Haitian American, I was deeply affected by the massive earthquake in Haiti that occurred on January 12. I was in Los Angeles for work to manage a press conference for an upcoming Independent Lens program, Dirt! The Movie, when I received news of the 7.0 Earthquake. But I didn’t understand the enormity, the level of devastation the quake had caused until I was able to turn the TV to CNN.

The epicenter of the quake was situated about 20 minutes from where many of my relatives lived in Haiti. Immediately I called my parents who live 30 minutes outside of San Francisco to find out if they had heard from family members in Haiti. They had not been able to get through to anyone on their cell phones or house phones. Then the waiting game began and the agony set in as I watched endless images and footage of collapsed buildings and bodies being pulled out of those very familiar cinder block homes and buildings. My mind couldn’t stop racing with the awful possibilities. A wave of despair washed over me when I saw images of the partially collapsed presidential palace. Despite a myriad of corrupt inhabitants, the presidential palace was for many Haitians a source of pride. But the symbolism, a defeated government, could not be ignored. And I thought, Haiti has been brought to its knees.

Three days after the earthquake we received word that my cousins and uncles had survived the quake. One of my uncles lost his home and was transported to the Dominican Republic for an operation on his broken arm. Another cousin sustained a broken leg. Most of my relatives were now homeless. Everyone was accounted for except for a dear woman named Madame Alexi who helped raised me when I lived in Haiti. For days, a dark cloud hung over me as I waited to hear about Madame Alexi’s whereabouts. Was she alive? And how would we ever know if whether she was one of the thousands buried under the rubble? Ten days later we were able to connect with Madame Alexi to confirm that she was safe. Her dream house, which included the room she had prepared for me for my visits to Haiti, collapsed entirely. And now she is among the thousands who are homeless, living in her front yard with the rest of her family staying close to what remains of their house because bodies still litter the streets.

› Continue reading

Tags: earthquake, family, Haiti

Remembering Martin Luther King, Jr. and his Legacy

“Nonviolence is a powerful and just weapon. It is a sword that heals. [It] cuts without wounding and ennobles the man who wields it.”
- Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

At the heart of the U.S. Civil Rights Movement in the 1950s and 1960s was the use of nonviolent direct-action protest. Inspired by the example of Jesus, and the teachings of Mahatma Gandhi during India’s struggle for independence, black church and community leaders in the United States began advocating the use of non-violence in their own struggle. Beyond spontaneous and planned student sit-ins, several organizations were formed to fight for civil rights using Gandhi’s model of nonviolent dissent and action. Three of the most influential groups—the Congress of Racial Equality, the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, and the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee—were pivotal in bringing about social change in America.

Read more about the life of King, Jr. on the Independent Lens website >>

Check out the PBS Indies page on iTunes where you’ll find these powerful films about the African American civil rights movement

Adjust Your Color: The Truth of Petey Green
The unlikely story of America’s original shock-jock — Petey Greene — who battled the system and his own demons during a time of civil unrest in the nation’s capital.

Banished
From the 1860s to the 1920s, towns across the U.S. violently expelled African American residents. Today, these communities remain virtually all white. As black descendants return to demand justice, Banished exposes the hidden history of racial cleansing in America.

Each film is now available for rent for $2.99 or for purchase at $9.99.

Visit the iTunes store >>

Tags: African American, iTunes, Martin Luther King

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If you answered “yes” to any of these questions, sign up to get Beyond the Box Blog posts delivered by email. This once-a-day email will give you the latest news from the Independent Television Service (ITVS), which funds and presents award-winning documentaries and dramas on public and cable, innovative new media projects on the Web, including Global Voices on PBS World (check local listings) and the Emmy Award-winning weekly series Independent Lens, airing Tuesday nights at 10:00 PM on PBS (check local listings).

Get timely information about ITVS productions, funding opportunities, highlighted news articles, streaming video and audio, as well as announcements about upcoming projects and film events. Share your thoughts and encourage dialogue and action around the important social issues raised in the films.

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Tags: film resources, filmmakers, funding