ITVS International
First Australians airing Saturday on the National Geographic Channel
Have you ever been to Australia or dreamed about traveling there? But how much do you really know about the country and its Aboriginal people?
This Saturday, March 6, at 9:00 PM, the National Geographic Channel will take you there in the ITVS International film First Australians. Produced by Australia’s top Aboriginal filmmakers, First Australians chronicles the birth of a country and the collision of two worlds. This epic story combines landscapes, interviews, art and archival footage to present the birth of contemporary Australia from the perspectives of its first peoples.
Watch this video preview below:
Learn more about the broadcast by visiting the National Geographic website >>
Countdown to World Water Day Short Film Contest
To celebrate World Water Day 2010 ITVS and the University of Miami invite you to participate in the One Cut contest, a non-fiction short film contest designed to bring attention to the global water crisis affecting millions around the world. We are looking for films that will inspire viewers to make a change in their own lives to address the global water challenge at a personal level. The best entries will be personal, creative, visual stories that can be shared across all borders and languages.
The contest has three cash prizes:
* First prize: $500
* Second prize: $300
* Third prize: $200
Films should be at least 2 minutes in length and can be no more than 15 minutes long. Entrants are required to submit their films in digital form online and will be guided through the application process when they submit their entry form online. A distinguished panel at the School of Communication, University of Miami, will judge the contest.
The competition will be open until March 22, 2010 on World Water Day. Prizes will be announced shortly after.
ITVS International: Application for Film Funding; Deadline February 5
ITVS International Call enables independent producers from outside of the United States to create documentaries for U.S. television. Through the International Call, storytellers from other countries introduce U.S. audiences to their global neighbors, opening a window into unfamiliar lives, experiences and perspectives.
The deadline for ITVS International Call is Friday, February 5, 2010. Due dates are not postmark deadlines and all materials must arrive at ITVS by 5:00 PM.
Have additional questions about the International Media Development Fund? Email Cynthia_Kane@itvs.org or call 415-356-8383 x445.
Find more information about guidelines and how to apply >>
The application is now available on the ITVS website. Download now >>
Have additional questions about the International Media Development Fund? Email Cynthia_Kane@itvs.org or call 415-356-8383 x445.
Ask Programming: International Call Questions
With the ITVS International Call deadline quickly approaching on February 5, 2010, the ITVS programming staff takes some time out to answer a few of your frequently asked questions:
Q. How does the International Call work?
A. Through the International Call funding initiative, ITVS works to:
1. Seek out international projects. We work closely with international media markets, film festivals and producer organizations to find and attract the most compelling television project proposals from around the world.
2. Select the best projects created by international independent producers. The International Call incorporates a peer-review process involving distinguished industry professionals (filmmakers, commissioning editors, broadcasters, etc.) from around the world.
Cynthia Kane, ITVS International Program Manager, posing in front of the International Call submissions library.
3. Fund and manage projects to completion. Through the International Call, we provide production funds in exchange for a license for domestic broadcast; strategic commissioning commitments vary. ITVS works with producers to ensure that all programs meet broadcast and editorial standards.
4. Find U.S. television distribution outlets. Working with the producer, public television and other outlets, we negotiate U.S. distribution through public or cable television.
5. Maximize impact. Through publicity and community outreach campaigns, we help programs find and impact audiences.
At the Greenhouse Seminar in Izmir, Turkey with ITVS Vice President of Programming Claire Aguilar
Greenhouse is a professional initiative devoted to the development of documentaries across the Mediterranean region. It seeks to build a multi-cultural dialogue, promoting the creation of professional and personal ties between filmmakers and the international market, while training the next generation of Mediterranean documentary filmmakers. Read about ITVS Vice President of Programming Claire Aguilar’s experience at the Greenhouse seminar held in Izmir, Turkey .
I spent last weekend in Izmir, Turkey, where I had the pleasure of participating in a unique training program for documentary filmmakers, Greenhouse. Supported by the European Union, Greenhouse creates cultural exchange between countries in the Mediterranean region, including the Middle East. Selecting more than a dozen 
filmmaker teams with their documentary projects, Greenhouse stages three seminars and training workshops over the course of the year. Emphasizing creative documentary with innovative cinematic approaches, Greenhouse gives filmmakers unique tutorial sessions with strong experts and mentors, and culminates in a pitching session with international commissioning editors from around the world. This last session was a showcase of these documentaries, and although they are still in development, we could see the potential of the great films that they would become.
Izmir is known historically as Smyrna, and although I didn’t know much about it before now except for its famed golden raisins, it is a large port city on the Aegean sea. Izmir was chosen as a location for its accessibility, since the filmmakers who participated in Greenhouse came from Turkey as well as Egypt, Palestine and Israel.
Three ITVS Films Selected to Compete at Sundance
It’s official… The 2010 Sundance Film Festival just announced their official selections and ITVS has three films in competition. This brings the total number of ITVS funded films that have screened at Sundance to 69 since we first attended in 1994.
The three ITVS films in competition include:
MY PERESTROIKA
By Robin Hessman
World Premiere
When the USSR broke apart in 1991, a generation of young people faced a new realm of possibilities. Filmmaker Robin Hessman follows this last generation of Soviet children brought up behind the Iron Curtain. Using a wealth of rare Russian footage, MY PERESTROIKA interweaves an intimate view of the past with the contemporary lives of a married couple and their childhood friends–telling the story of a nation still very much in transition.
A co-production of Red Square Productions/Bungalow Town Productions and ITVS International in association with American Documentary | P.O.V.
THE OATH
By Laura Poitras
World Premiere
Filmed in Yemen, THE OATH is a family drama about Al Qaeda and Guantanamo Bay Prison. This documentary is the second in a trilogy about America post 9/11. The first film, MY COUNTRY, MY COUNTRY, documented the U.S. occupation of Iraq from the perspective of an Iraqi family. The third film will focus on domestic surveillance.
This film is a co-production of ITVS.
LAST TRAIN HOME
By Lixin Fan
U.S. Premiere
China experiences the largest internal migration in the world as rural workers travel to cities looking for employment. In LAST TRAIN HOME, filmmaker Lixin Fan follows the Zhang family who save all year to travel home for Chinese New Year, along with over 100 million other migrant workers, hoping to salvage the relationship with their teenage daughter.
An EyeSteelFilm production in association with ITVS International.
The festival will be held in Park City, Utah, Jan. 21-31. Screening dates and times are still pending.
Filmmakers Celebrate at ITVS Reception at IDFA
Claire Aguilar, vice president of programming, welcomes all the filmmakers and attendees at the “Guests Meets Guests Reception” held at Escape Club deLux in Amsterdam.
Last week, Claire Aguilar, ITVS vice president of programming and Voleine Amilcar, publicity manager, attended the International Documentary Festival (IDFA) in Amsterdam.
To celebrate all participating filmmakers and to highlight the ITVS International Call (deadline: Feb. 5), ITVS hosted a “Guests Meet Guests Reception,” which was attended by 300 filmmakers and documentary film professionals. Throughout the week Claire Aguilar participated in and attended the FORUM, which has become the first market for the international co-financing of documentaries in the world. Two ITVS-funded projects were pitched at the FORUM––THE IMMIGRATION PROJECT, directed by Marco Williams, and GIVE UP TOMORROW, directed by Marty Syjuco and Michael Collins.
Five ITVS-supported films were official selections: BANANAS! from Swedish director Fredrik Gertten (co-production with WG Films, ITVS International, SVT, ARTE/ZDF and VPRO); COWBOYS IN INDIA from English director Simon Chambers (a co-production with Channel 4); LAST TRAIN HOME, a Chinese/Canadian production directed by Lixin Fan (co-production of EyeSteel Films in association with ITVS International, Sundance Documentary Fund, TV5, Super Channel and Channel 4); THE LAST TIGHTROPE DANCER IN ARMENIA from Armenian directors Arman Yeritsyan and Inna Sahakyan (co-production with ITVS International, Bars Media, NHK, SVT, TVP, Estonian Television and YLE) and lastly, the Oscar-shortlisted doc THE MOST DANGEROUS MAN IN AMERICA from American director/producers Judith Ehrlich and Rick Goldsmith (co-production with ITVS and ARTE/ZDF).
Congratulations to all the filmmakers! Continue reading to see exclusive photos from the ITVS reception.
ITVS Filmmakers Awarded Top Honors at IDFA
Last week, five ITVS documentaries screened at the International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam (IDFA)––the largest showcase of documentary film in the world. Taking home top honors were the ITVS films LAST TRAIN HOME, by Lixin Fan and Mila Aung-Thwin, which won best feature length documentary, and THE MOST DANGEROUS MAN IN AMERICA, by Judith Ehrlich and Rick Goldsmith, which received the special jury award. Read what filmmaker Lixin Fan thought about this year’s competition and what it was like to make the film. Set against the backdrop of the world’s largest annual human migration, LAST TRAIN HOME follows the Zhang family who travel home on Chinese New Year to reunite with their teenage daughter.
Lixin Fan, filmmaker of LAST TRAIN HOME
The Zhang family from the film LAST TRAIN HOME, which won the Joris Ivens Award, given to the best feature length documentary at IDFA.
It was truly unforgettable. Receiving the Joris Ivens Award, given to the best feature length documentary, at the magnificent Tuschinski Theater in Amsterdam is a dream for any documentary filmmaker!
This year, the competing films were all superb. It was definitely exciting to see all these wonderfully crafted films being presented by filmmakers from different cultures and countries. Every film is a hearty endeavor to seek truth in life.
Though only one film gets lucky to win each year, all of the films and filmmakers should be celebrated. LAST TRAIN HOME became the lucky one last Friday, but it could have never happened without the help of many friends––ITVS being a very prominent one.
Three years in the making, the film showed a neglected aspect of the lives of millions of migrant workers. My intention and hope is that the audience will become more aware of worker’s contributions and the sacrifices concealed by the cheap price tags of the items we often buy. When we over consume, our conscience is at risk of being consumed, too.
This film was certainly not easy to complete. We’ve been through so many ordeals. EyeSteelFilm in Montreal and YuanFang Media in China were committed to the film despite the technical and logistical challenges. The crew had to film amid a crowd of thousands at the railway station for days and were often caught between moral ethical decisions—either to help or keep shooting. Along the road, ITVS has been so supportive on all levels.
Everyone’s support is greatly appreciated and revealed in the final film on the big screen.
- Lixin Fan, filmmaker of LAST TRAIN HOME
ITVS International Call: Deadline February 5
ITVS International Call enables independent producers from outside of the United States to create documentaries for U.S. television. Through the International Call, storytellers from other countries introduce U.S. audiences to their global neighbors, opening a window into unfamiliar lives, experiences and perspectives.
The deadline for ITVS International Call is Friday, February 5, 2010. Due dates are not postmark deadlines and all materials must arrive at ITVS by 5:00 PM.
Find more information about guidelines and how to apply >>
Have additional questions about International Call? Email Joy_Scott@itvs.org or call 415-356-8383 x232.
Five ITVS Documentaries to Screen at IDFA
The International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam (IDFA) will take place later this week (November 19-29). Five ITVS documentaries will be screening as official selections at this prestigious festival––the largest showcase of documentary film in the world.
Many ITVS films have screened to audience and critical acclaim at IDFA, including last year’s features MILKING THE RHINO, directed by David Simpson, and SEA POINT DAYS, directed by Francois Verster. Both films competed in the Joris Ivens (feature) competition.
In addition to the five films screening at the festival, ITVS will host a “Guests Meet Guests Reception” to celebrate all participating filmmakers and highlight the ITVS International Call and the approaching 2010 deadline. The event will be held on Monday, November 23 from 6:00- 7:00 PM at the central festival venue Escape DeLux on Rembrandt Square. The event is open to all credentialed festival attendees and filmmakers.
The following productions will be featured at IDFA:
Upcoming Screenings
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Community Cinema selections are screened in over 50 locations throughout the United States. In March, Community Cinema presents Dirt! The Movie, directed by Bill Benenson and Eugene Rosow.
It’s under our feet and under our fingernails, but what is it? And how did it get there? Inspired by William Bryant Logan’s acclaimed book Dirt: The Ecstatic Skin of the Earth, find out how industrial farming, mining, and urban development have led us toward cataclysmic droughts, starvation, floods, and climate change. Dirt is a part of everything we eat, drink, and breathe. Which is why we should stop treating it like, well … dirt.
Check out the schedule and find Community Cinema in your neighborhood >>Recent Posts
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