ITVS Funding
Newly Funded: ITVS is Pleased to Announce Funding for Mariachi High
ITVS recently approved funding for the documentary Mariachi High by filmmakers Kim Connell and Ilana Trachtman.
In a part of America that rarely makes headlines, there is a small town with a group of teenagers who will captivate your ears and warm your heart. Mariachi High presents a year in the life of the champion mariachi ensemble at Zapata High School on the Rio Grande in South Texas. As they compete and perform with astonishing musical virtuosity, these teens, and the music they make, will inspire, surprise, and bring you to your feet.
Join ITVS is congratulating the filmmakers!
Newly Funded: ITVS is Pleased to Announce Funding for David Osit’s Building Babel
ITVS recently approved funding for the documentary Building Babel by filmmaker David Osit (Director/Producer).
Building Babel follows a year in the life and work of Sharif El- Gamal, the developer behind New York’s ‘Ground Zero Mosque’ otherwise known as Park51 — a Muslim community center two blocks from the site of the World Trade Center. The film covers Sharif’s struggle to build the embattled center against seemingly endless opposition, all while struggling with his own religion and identity amid intense scrutiny.
Building Babel provides a portrait of American identity ten years on from September 11th. Who are Muslims, and who are Americans? Where does the line get drawn, and who gets to draw it?
Watch an interview with David Osit after the jump> › Continue reading
A Full Frame Documentary Extravaganza
By Eric Martin
ITVS Senior Staff Writer Eric Martin, filed this report from the 2012 Full Frame Film Festival, which ran April 12-April 15 in Durham, N.C..
The Waiting Room held its world premiere at the Full Frame Documentary Film Festival
The Full Frame Film Festival turned 15 years old this year in Durham, N.C., where I happen to live right now, and it’s no surprise that the well-attended, four-day, 100+ documentary extravaganza, which ended Sunday, included a meaty slate of ITVS and Independent Lens projects packed with something for everyone.
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2011 Slate of Diversity Development Fund Films
ITVS has announced the eleven documentary projects selected as part of the 2011 Diversity Development Fund.
This year’s selections provide extraordinary access and insight into the daily lives and struggles of people around the world, from military veterans threatened with deportation in the U.S. to women’s human rights struggles in Nigeria.
The productions were selected through a competitive application process, which resulted in 138 submissions.
Check out the complete list of funded projects after the jump >> › Continue reading
Joint Task Force Working to Boost Audience for Indies on PBS
ITVS, POV, and PBS Leadership Meet Weekly to Develop New Indies Strategy
During most of the past decade, Independent Lens and POV together have provided a year-round broadcast slot of independent documentary films, airing on Tuesday nights at 10 PM, with POV running June to October with special presentations in other months and Independent Lens airing October through June.
In May 2011, changes in PBS’s prime-time schedule moved Independent Lens and POV to 10 PM on Thursdays, a night traditionally reserved for stations’ local and syndicated programming. For Independent Lens, the move has resulted in a significant decline in both station carriage and viewership.
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Newly Funded: ITVS is Pleased to Announce Funding for Christina Ibarra’s Marthas
ITVS recently approved funding for the documentary Marthas by filmmakers Christina Ibarra (Director/Co-Producer) and Erin Ploss-Campoamor (Co-Producer).
Marthas is a one-hour documentary that follows the year-long preparations of Mexican American teenagers debuting in the annual Martha Washington Society Ball in Laredo, Texas. The Ball, a unique 112-year-old colonial-themed celebration of George Washington and exclusive to daughters of Society members, is the stage where privilege and legacy are on display, provoking questions about patriotism, tradition, history, identity and the role of women along the border.
Watch an interview with Christina Ibarra (Director/Co-Producer) and Erin Ploss-Campoamor (Co-Producer) after the jump>> › Continue reading
Newly Funded: ITVS is Pleased to Announce Funding for Charles Dye’s Indian Relay
ITVS recently approved funding for the documentary Indian Relay by filmmaker Charles Dye (Director/Producer).
“I’m perpetually in awe of the work I see on other ITVS-supported programs. To have Indian Relay now associated with that quality of work is an incredible honor.”
-Charles Dye, Director/Producer, Indian Relay
From the bitter-cold of winter on the Rocky Mountain front to the heat and mayhem of the summer’s championship races in Wyoming, Montana, Idaho, and Oregon, Indian Relay follows several teams from three different American Indian communities as they prepare for and compete across a grueling Indian Relay season — all hearts set on the glory and honor of winning this year’s National Championship.
The hope and determination of modern-day American Indian life is revealed in this story about what it takes to win one of the most exciting and dangerous forms of horse racing practiced anywhere in the world today.
Join ITVS is congratulating filmmaker Charles Dye!
NEWLY FUNDED: ITVS is Pleased to Announce Funding for Jehan S. Harney’s The Lost Dream
ITVS recently approved funding for the documentary The Lost Dream by filmmakers Jehan S. Harney (Director/Producer) and Laura Poitras (Executive Producer).
The Lost Dream examines the lives of two Iraqis who supported the U.S. mission in their own country and came to America, only to find themselves strangers in a strange land. Nazar and Salam both helped the coalition forces in Operation Iraqi Freedom and were forced to flee their homes. As they begin new lives in the United States, they are left to wonder if their sacrifice was worth the costs.
The Lost Dream reflects a rarely seen Iraqi refugee community in the U.S., a population still paying the price for a war that was supposed to liberate them.
Join ITVS in congratulating the filmmakers and watch an interview with filmmaker Jehan Harney after the jump.
NEWLY FUNDED: ITVS is Pleased to Announce Funding for Lacey Schwartz’s Outside the Box
ITVS recently approved funding for Outside the Box by filmmakers Lacey Schwartz (Producer/Director), Mehret Mandefro (Producer), and James Adolphus (Director).
Outside the Box by Lacey Schwartz
Outside the Box follows the life of Lacey Schwartz, a young woman who grew up in an upper-middle-class household with two loving Jewish parents. When she discovers that the man she’s always assumed was her father is not her biological parent, she unlocks a powerful family secret.
What defines our identity, our family of origin, or the family that raises us? How do we come to terms with the sins and mistakes of our parents? Lacey discovers that answering those questions means understanding her parents’ own stories as well as her own.
A Determined Filmmaker Returns to Open Call
Filmmaker Judith Helfand’s latest documentary Cooked was one of a dozen projects accepted into ITVS’s latest round of Open Call funding. She offered BTB this roundup of the producer’s orientation, held last week in San Francisco.
I started writing this amidst the din of the one week orientation for filmmakers funded through ITVS’ most recent Open Call. I’m finishing it from the relative “quiet” of my Upper West Side apartment, save for the garbage trucks way below on 84th - otherwise known as Edgar Allan Poe Street, the two-year-old running on the bare wood floor above me in 11B, and the hammering from somewhere in my pre- WW1 building.
The “din”: the walla walla of 20 independent producers, each in a different state of disbelief, gratitude, relief, giddy nervousness, tenacious “I can handle anything that comes my way” and “thank you but don’t touch my digital rights”. It has since turned into a low comforting roar/buzz/oral memory playing in the background as I write up these reflections.
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