What a great week in Denver! There was a renewed sense of optimism and purpose among our public television colleagues. Many stations reported good revenue news and the programming looks very promising.

I don’t normally promote programming directly, but I have to say a standout moment for me was watching clips for the upcoming program Half the Sky, the centerpiece of the Women and Girls Lead initiative headed up by ITVS. This is truly a cross-platform media event that will have impact and change lives. It features powerful stories of hope and survival from women around the world. If you are not familiar with the book by from journalists Nicholas Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn, grab it and then tune into your local PBS station October 1st and 2nd.

Some of the courageous women featured in Half the Sky were in attendance, selling their beautiful baskets to help better their lives in Africa. I bought a beautiful necklace and basket to benefit the Umoja Uaso Women’s Group in Kenya, a refuge for victims of domestic abuse. You can learn more about their good work at Umoja Uaso Women’s Fund.

Having the opportunity to attend this conference reminds me of how fortunate we are to be working in public media. It was a wonderful opportunity to connect with so many of our readers and advertisers. If I did not get the chance to catch up with you in Denver, I hope that perhaps I will see you in Seattle at the PMDMC!

This article was originally posted on Current.org.

Since its inception in 1999, DocAviv has become one of the leading cultural events in Israel with the aim of promoting Israeli and international documentary film. ITVS’s Claire Aguilar attended the 2012 DocAviv International Film Festival May 3-12, as a juror for Israeli Competition.

Over the last 10 years, Israel has become one of the leading sources of independently-produced documentary films.  There is a dizzying abundance of documentary films and filmmakers in Israel — and not only are there many, they have also been successful: showcased in international festivals, sold to broadcasters in Israel and in the U.S. and Europe, winning prizes and garnering international press.  It has been amazing to witness the growth of strong, innovative, and diverse Israeli films — covering subjects that you would expect to see from Israeli filmmakers, such as the Arab-Israeli conflict — but also covering the personal and global experience, films about family, identity, and culture, with other films covering globalization, immigration, and homophobia.

I heard from one filmmaker that there are at least 20 film schools in Israel, and that is mostly counting only Tel Aviv and Jerusalem.  The community of documentary filmmakers is intimate, diverse, and full of talent — and here at ITVS, we have been fortunate to work with many Israeli filmmakers over the past eight years and have showcased them on U.S. public television: Ari Folman’s Waltz with Bashir, Dalit Kimor’s Pickles, Inc., Yoav Shamir’s Flipping Out, Ran Tal’s The Children of the Sun, Nati Baratz’s Unmistaken Child, Ruthie Shatz, and Adi Baratz’s The Collaborator and His Family, and many others.

So it was a great honor for me to be invited to this year’s DocAviv as a juror for Israeli Competition. DocAviv is Tel Aviv’s largest film festival and is dedicated exclusively to documentary cinema — since 1999, it has showcased documentaries from Israel and around the world. The films are screened in the newly remodeled Tel Aviv Cinematheque, but there were also many open-air screenings in the beautiful Port of Tel Aviv.

Sinai Abt, the artistic director of DocAviv, was the first broadcaster on-board with the iconic animated documentary Waltz with Bashir when he was the commissioning editor at Israel’s Channel 8. He and his team selected 12 films to compete for the Best Israeli Documentary and he also asked our jury to select the award winners for Best Debut Film, Special Jury Mention, Best Cinematography, Best Editing, and Best Research Award.  I had a wonderful jury team, including Asako Fujioka from the Yamagata Film Festival, filmmaker Sivan Arbel, cinematographer Itzik Portal, and Executive Producer for Films Transit Diana Holtzberg.

We gave the awards to the following films:

Best Israeli Film Award:  Home Movie (Dir. Reuven Brodsky)
Special Jury Mention:  The Invisible Men (Dir. Yariv Moser)
Mayor of Tel Aviv-Yafo Award for Debut Film:  Powder (Dir. Ayal Goldberg)
Best Cinematography Award:  Home Movie (Cinematography by Reuven Brodsky and Itamar Mendes-Flor)
Best Editing Award:  Powder (Editing by Erez Laufer, Ayal Goldberg)
Best Research Award: One Day After Peace  (Dirs. Mimi Laufer, Erez Laufer)

ITVS’s Claire Aguilar attended the 11th annual Tribeca Film Festival this past April, participating in the Tribeca Film Institute’s Filmmaker Pitch Workshop and acting as a juror for the Tribeca All Access Documentary Program.

Tribeca Film Institute Industry Meetings

For the past five years, ITVS has participated in the Tribeca Film Festival in many different capacities, from the funder of films selected for the festival (this year included Stephen Maing’s High Tech, Low Life, Beth Murphy’s The List, and Jerry Rothwell’s Town of Runners), to hosting special screenings of ITVS films (FUTURESTATES), ITVS’s involvement in this iconic festival is always varied and exciting.

Two special events this year included participation in Tribeca’s Interactive Day (attended by ITVS’s Karim Ahmad) and Tribeca All Access, a year-round initiative that supports the careers of filmmakers who hail from communities traditionally under-represented in the film industry. Tribeca All Access has been a successful and groundbreaking industry event, fostering and supporting diverse filmmaking voices through industry meetings, development support, and mentoring.

(L) Yoruba Richen (director), The New Black and (R) S. Leo Chiang (director), Outrun

This year I was honored to participate in the 2012 Tribeca All Access Documentary Program as a juror for the Documentary Creative Promise Award.  The award gives one documentary film $10,000 for its creative potential, innovation, and promise as a compelling and unique film.  My fellow jurors included Julie Goldman, Eugene Hernandez, Debbie Zimmerman, and Jean Tsien. Out of the five films proposed this year, the award went to Yoruba Richen’s The New Black. Congratulations to Yoruba and her producers Yvonne Welbon and Angela Tucker on the Creative Promise award!

I also participated at the Tribeca Film Institute’s Filmmaker Pitch Workshop, which gathered TFI’s newly-minted filmmakers with industry pitch producers in order to help formulate their pitches for their upcoming industry meetings. This event, held at the Hotel Griffou restaurant, known for its darkly romantic Eyes Wide Shut-like décor, was designed to help producer teams practice their pitches with industry mentors.  Along with producer Julie Goldman and director Dawn Porter, I helped the teams guide their pitches and offered feedback for the week’s industry meetings. Included in our group were Two Children of the Red Mosque with Hemal Trivedi (director), Mohammad Naqvi (co-director), Whitney Dow (producer) and Jonathan Goodman Levitt (producer); Desert Stars with Raouf Zaki (director/producer) and Frank McDonnell (producer); The Human Experiment with Dana Nachman (director/producer), Don Hardy (director/producer), and Chelsea Matter (producer); and Outrun with Leo Chiang (director) and Johnny Symons (producer). The producers and directors did a dry run of their pitch and showed materials, either a trailer or selected scenes.   It was a fantastic opportunity for producers to rehearse their pitch in a supportive environment consisting of their peers and other industry professionals offering feedback, a great method to break the ice before launching into a pitch and also a beneficial networking opportunity.

Two Children of the Red Mosque Team: (L to R) Jonathan Goodman Levitt, Hemal Trivedi, Whitney Dow, and Mohammad Naqvi

I wish that we could have this rehearsal arrangement with every one-on-one pitch meeting for documentary producers but unfortunately, most opportunities often represent speed-dating with meetings only 15-20 minutes long.

Some pointers for producers for one-on-one meetings (from the other side of the table):

• Introduce yourself and clearly communicate your name and what your role is (director, producer, intern, etc.).  This may seem totally elementary, but I can’t tell you how many meetings have started without an introduction of participants. I often leave a meeting only remembering that I spoke with a man with a pierced eyebrow and blond hair…

• Prior to your meeting, do your research. Depending on who you are meeting with, you can achieve various objectives by being prepared. Know what they can do for the project – if they’re a broadcaster, go on the website and research their editorial line and parameters. If you are meeting with a funder, read their guidelines and deadlines. If it is an engagement professional or sales agent, look at their past campaigns or films.

• Don’t assume that everyone has had time to thoroughly review your materials beforehand. If they haven’t, you will want to start your pitch from scratch (including showing materials that you have already circulated).

• If you’re screening from a computer or iPad, bring headphones.  These environments are noisy and distracting so it’s very difficult to hear or concentrate without them.

• Skip the hand-outs:  business cards are good, but DVDs, one-sheets, and postcards – um, no thanks. These days if you have additional material to share, I would rather get a vimeo link rather than have to lug around press kits and DVDs all day.

• If your meeting is a follow-up meeting, then pick up where your last interaction ended.  If your meeting person hasn’t screened your work-in-progress or sample yet, don’t worry – you can ping them about it later.  Use the opportunity to give them a production update or any other news about the project since you last met.

• Last tip:  welcome the opportunity for feedback – and listen!  Remember that it is about a relationship and the key is interaction.  You can have a forceful and compelling pitch, but if you don’t leave room for a reaction, then its energy wasted.

Click here to learn more about the 2012 Tribeca Film Festival. 

In February, former President Mohamed Nasheed made headlines when he was forced to step down after the Maldivian police and army turned against him. Prior to the coup, President Nasheed was known for his impassioned stance on climate change and was rewarded by being pushed out of office earlier this year, after the documentary concluded filming. The Island President follows Nasheed as he worked tirelessly to motivate the world to take action before the rising sea levels wiped out the Maldives, giving a human face to an issue that continues to threaten his country.

The Island President opened in theaters in New York on Wednesday, March 28th and will be coming to San Francisco (March 30), Los Angeles (April 6), Washington DC (April 20), San Diego (April 20), Minneapolis (April 27), and Detroit (April 27) throughout the next month. Additional cities will be added soon and will be posted to film’s website. Watch the film’s trailer after the jump.

What will be of America in 5, 25, or even 50 years from today? This series of independent mini-features, short narrative films created by established filmmakers and emerging talents, explores possible future scenarios through the lens of today’s global realities. Immerse yourself in the visions of these independent filmmakers as they inhabit a future of their own imagining.

The screening will take place on Saturday, April 21 at 2PM at the Tribeca Cinemas (54 Varick Street) in New York City, followed by a Q&A with many of the FUTURESTATES filmmakers, including Jennifer Phang (Advantageous), Patrick Stettner (Gunny), and Trevin Matcek (Life Begins at Rewirement).

To attend, please RSVP to rsvp@itvs.org

The South by Southwest (SXSW) Conferences & Festivals (March 9-18, 2012) offer the unique convergence of original music, independent films, and emerging technologies. 

As the line between film and digital projects continues to blur, it makes perfect sense that the Interactive and Film portions of SXSW run concurrently (along with ScreenBurn- the gaming tract), followed closely by the Music portion.  Social TV, the crossover between television viewing and social media, was a topic mentioned quite often during many of the sessions I attended.

Although this was my first time at SXSW (and Austin), I heard that the Interactive portion has grown quite significantly over the past few years; now being held in nine different locations with complimentary shuttles for badge holders to move freely between them (although I preferred to walk, despite the persistent rain!).  Moreover, the Interactive conference is broken down into 18 different themes, each being housed in a specific building, so you really do not need to move between the different buildings if you intend to focus on a single track.

There are multiple ways to attend SXSW.  Some people I spoke with planned to attend as many of the keynote presentations and panels that they could during the day, while others chose to only attend a few sessions, instead focusing on the networking and meetup events.   Add to the mix the corporate sponsored parties that occur at the end of each conference day (supplying free food, drinks, music, and of course, networking opportunities!), or visits to one of the branded venues (CNN SXSW Grill, Fast Company Grill, Bing popup lounge, or the Nokia Labs – an extremely large blowup igloo structure), and the days can become quite long and exhausting.  And just in case SXSW hasn’t provided enough entertainment options for you, there are also film screenings, comedy shows, and live music events occurring all around Austin.

Whichever way you decide to participate in SXSW, be prepared to arrive early and to wait in line once you get there.  Believe me, the wait is usually worth it. However, if you didn’t actually get into the conference sessions during the day, quite a few were videotaped and posted to the SXSW YouTube Channel.  Planning to attend SXSW 2013? I suggest you book your hotel soon, as places near the convention center tend to book up fast!

ITVS held court at the inaugural MEG 2012 conference, an event focused on creative approaches to content development, journalism, and entertainment.

On March 8th and 9th, I attended a new conference: Mediedagarna i Göteborg (Media Days Göteborg) or “MEG” for short. MEG was designed to attract media professionals from television, newspaper, magazine, and book publishing industries to participate in a truly trans-media conference. It was refreshing to see the overlap between the usually traditional media industries, like publishing, print and electronic journalism, and broadcast television interacting with citizen journalists, bloggers, and even webisode comedy.

MEG is the brainchild of the MedieAkademin, which also organizes the Göteborg Book Fair, Europe’s second largest book fair that draws over 100,000 attendees. Göteborg is also home to the Göteborg International Film Festival, Göteborg University, the Chalmers University of Technology, and is the city where Volvo was founded in 1927! It has a long and robust history of industry, culture, and technology, making it the perfect venue for this inaugural conference for cross-platform content.

Jigsaw Global’s Lisa Osborne produced special sessions on creative approaches to content development and asked me to introduce ITVS’s FUTURESTATES third season, whose website launched last week. Seven narrative shorts with surreal visions of the America of tomorrow will start to stream on April 3rd. Although the films focus on the US and are from American producers, the MEG audience appreciated the international and extra-terrestrial themes, as well as the high production values and were blown away by the series trailer. They were eager to see short futuristic and science fiction content online and will be able to watch the series streamed in Sweden.

Axel Arnö and Claire Aguilar at the MEG 2012 conference

I also spoke about the new campaign Why Poverty, a cross-media event that showcases content focusing on world poverty over broadcast, online, and engagement platforms. Our panel was moderated by the journalist Stefan Jonsson and was also presented by SVT’s commissioning editor, Axel Arnö. The big question is what can this campaign do to increase awareness of world poverty, let alone makes steps towards alleviating poverty, and in the light of campaign films and films about social issues and advocacy – how is Why Poverty’s campaign going to succeed? This panel happened the same day that the “Kony 2012″ viral video exploded on the internet and was viewed by millions on YouTube. What is the connection between our campaign strategy for Why Poverty, a collaborative event between millions of broadcasters, filmmakers, and viewers, and the viral campaign videos produced by Invisible Children, the company behind “Kony 2012”? Scheduled to launch in November 2012, Why Poverty will potentially reach over 500 million people.

The “Kony 2012” phenomenon sparked many of the key issues at MEG, bringing together journalists, broadcasters, publishers, and editors who not only discussed the changing and volatile media landscape, but also how to use social media in the search for truth and to discover what is behind that truth, especially in the context of a political or advocacy campaign. It makes you wonder, what responsibility do we have to the content that we create and consume?

A shot from Wednesday's Livestream of the documentary Pray the Devil Back to Hell

Learn more about Women and Girls Lead

Watch inspiring documentaries, free this month, through the Women and Girls Online Film Festival

Pray the Devil Back to Hell is the astonishing story of the Liberian women – including Nobel Peace Prize winner Leymah Gbowee – who took on the warlords and regime of dictator Charles Taylor in the midst of a brutal civil war, and won a once unimaginable peace for their shattered country in 2003.

As the rebel noose tightened around the capital city of Monrovia, thousands of women – ordinary mothers, grandmothers, aunts and daughters, both Christian and Muslim – formed a thin but unshakeable line between the opposing forces. Armed only with white T-shirts and the courage of their convictions, they literally faced down the killers who had turned Liberia into hell on earth.

In one memorable scene, the women barricaded the site of stalled peace talks in Ghana and refused to move until a deal was done. Their demonstrations culminated in Taylor’s exile and the rise of Africa’s first female head of state, Ellen Johnson Sirleaf. Inspiring and uplifting, Pray the Devil Back to Hell is a compelling example of how grassroots activism can alter the history of nations.

Watch the trailer:

Wednesday’s screening is one of three high-profile events honoring International Women’s Day. Visit the newly minted Women and Girls Lead website to find upcoming events, an online film festival, and more features as we honor Women’s History Month.

ITVS-funded filmmakers and staff rally for lunch at the Sundance Film Festival in Park City, UT

Sundance 2012 was a record-breaking year year for ITVS and Independent Lens. Six ITVS funded films screened in the documentary competitions and all six were honored with Sundance awards. (ITVS had had seven films playing at Sundance in 2004; six films in 2002; and eight films in 1997 for those interested in banner years).

 Adding to that powerful showing, midway through Sundance two ITVS-supported films received Academy Award nominations for Best Documentary including Hell and Back Again by Danfung Dennis (coming to Independent Lens in May) and If a Tree Falls by Marshall Curry and Sam Cullman (broadcast on POV).  We were able to celebrate in person as Danfung and Sam (a producer on The House I Live In) were both in Park City.  Even the Utah snowstorms couldn’t slow our momentum because that’s one heck of a week.

From L to R: Danfung Dennis (Hell and Back Again), Lois Vossen, and Sam Cullman (If a Tree Falls)

Independent Lens and ITVS held an intimate lunch to honor our 2012 Sundance and Academy Award-nominated filmmakers. Stepping away from the noise and full-on energy that is Sundance, we wanted to take a moment to recognize and celebrate the extraordinary work of the filmmakers.

Four of the six ITVS films at Sundance are already slated for broadcast on Independent Lens following theatrical distribution, including Grand Jury Prize winner The House I Live In by Eugene Jarecki, Audience Award winner The Invisible War by Kirby Dick, Special Jury Prize winner Love Free or Die by Macky Alston, and Detropia by Heidi Ewing and Rachel Grady, which was honored for best editing. In addition, the Independent Lens film The Island President by Jon Shenk, Richard Berge, and Bonni Cohen screened in a Sundance sidebar program. These five films will make for an exceptional new season of Independent Lens — and they will be joined by a stunning array of other documentaries coming to completion this year.

The two additional ITVS-funded films that premiered in the World Cinema Documentary Competition and took awards are Putin’s Kiss (Best Cinematography Award) and 5 Broken Cameras (Best Directing).

Sundance 2012 is a wrap, but the impact of these extraordinary films is just beginning. We have an exceptional year ahead, lead by the power of independent storytelling.