Recently Funded
ITVS Announces Funding for Eight International Productions through The Global Perspectives Project
ITVS has contracted with eight international documentary projects from its 2011 International Call. The next International Call Deadline is December 9, 2011.
- In the Shadow of the Sun by filmmakers Harry Freeland and Brian Hill are among the eight international projects slated to receive ITVS funding.
ITVS announced that it has contracted with eight international documentary projects from its 2011 International Call as part of the Global Perspective Project. This year’s selections provide extraordinary access and insight into the daily lives and struggles of people who live in Uruguay, Iran, China, Zimbabwe, Tanzania, Myanmar, and India.
The productions were selected through a competitive application process, which resulted in 476 submissions from 118 countries representing 72 languages.
All eight documentary projects are slated for eventual broadcast, including primetime slots on the Emmy® Award-winning PBS series Independent Lens, P.O.V., and the international series, Global Voices.
Check out the complete list of funded projects after the jump >>
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NEWLY FUNDED: ITVS is Pleased to Announce Funding for Brad Lichtenstein’s Doc, As Goes Janesville
ITVS recently approved funding for As Goes Janesville, which tells the the story of what happens when GM leaves Janesville, Wisconsin. From laid off workers to political and business leaders, the documentary shows how a community rebuilds and reinvents itself.
As Goes Janesville follows the lives of dislocated workers, business entrepreneurs and politicians from the Janesville, Wisconsin area to see how they reinvent their lives and the local economy to survive the loss of their century old GM plant in the larger economic downturn.
Watch an interview with Director/Producer Brad Lichtenstein after the jump >>
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ITVS Announces Funding for 30 Mosques in 30 States Project
30 Mosques in 30 States is a unique, multimedia portrait of diverse Muslim communities throughout America.
Part travel blog, part photo essay, part video diary, and part mobile application, 30 Mosques in 30 States is an original documentary experience developed by digital media producers Aman Ali and Bassam Tariq – two young Muslim Americans who set out to visit a different mosque in a different U.S. state for each of the 30 days of Ramadan. The two’s 13,000-mile route will essentially take them across the entire country before they end up back home in New York City. Through their journey, we learn about the first mosque built in the U.S. in the tiny town of Ross, North Dakota in 1929 as well as what life is like for Muslim Americans in Alaska.
There are an estimated 3 million to 4 million Muslims living in the United States – a number that is expected to double by the year 2030. Muslims in the U.S. come from a wide variety of ethnic backgrounds including African Americans, South and East Asians, Europeans, Arabs, and East Africans. 30 Mosques in 30 States is a glimpse into the mosaic of Muslim life that can only be told with today’s new forms of digital storytelling. Join Aman and Bassam on their journey, here: http://30mosques.com/
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NEWLY FUNDED: ITVS is Pleased to Announce Funding for Filmmakers Reuben Atlas and Carol Bash
The Two newly funded ITVS documentaries — Brothers Hypnotic (Reuben Atlas) and Mary Lou Williams: The Lady Who Swings the Band (Carol Bash) look at the past, present, and future of jazz.
Brothers Hypnotic by filmmaker Reuben Atlas
Brothers Hypnotic follows the Hypnotic Brass Ensemble, a Chicago-based brass group featuring the eight sons of legendary jazz trumpeter Phil Cohran, whose music ties the currents of jazz, funk, and hip-hop. Reuben Atlas’ film follows the brothers as they make their way on the streets of New York and in the music business, but with stardom on the horizon, they must test their father’s ideals against their own brotherly vision.
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ITVS Announces Funding and Production of Half the Sky for Primetime PBS Broadcast
Based on the bestselling book by Nicholas Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn, the series will premiere as a special presentation on Independent Lens in Fall 2012. The project is a cornerstone of the recently announced Women and Girls Lead campaign.
ITVS announced today that it, along with the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, has made a significant investment in Half The Sky, a primetime television special and multi-platform project based on New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn’s widely acclaimed book, Half the Sky: Turning Oppression into Opportunity for Women Worldwide.
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NEWLY FUNDED: ITVS is Pleased to Announce Funding for Samantha Grant’s Doc, A Fragile Trust
ITVS recently approved funding for the documentary A Fragile Trust: Jayson Blair and The New York Times, which takes an inside look at the plagiarism scandal that rocked the paper in 2003.
A Fragile Trust by Samantha Grant tells the dramatic story of Jayson Blair, a young reporter whose shocking lies dealt a serious blow to the New York Times and forced the entire media industry to take a closer look at ethics, diversity, affirmative action, and responsibility in journalism. From the frantic buzz of New York City to the solitude of the Texas desert, the film goes inside the heart of the scandal, to hear from the management at the Times as well as Blair himself.
Filmmakers Steer Clear of Big Easy Clichés
Five years ago, the worst natural disaster ever to hit the United States struck southern Louisiana, forever altering the face of America’s most unique and freewheeling city, New Orleans. While the news media revisits the Crescent City to find out what has changed and what hasn’t, a team of filmmakers working with ITVS is documenting the real story of the resurrection of a metropolis with a long history of coming back from the dead with inimitable style.
Their documentary-in-progress Getting Back to Abnormal by former New Orleans residents, Louis Alvarez, Andrew Kolker, Peter Odabashian, and Paul Stekler, explores the state of New Orleans politics and culture five years after Hurricane Katrina.
Set against the backdrop of the 2009-2010 local political season, the election of the first white mayor in a generation, and the triumph of the city’s erstwhile worst NFL team, the Saints, Getting Back to Abnormal will frame its story via the city’s complicated and ever-present issues of race.
The film was one of several to receive Open Call funding from ITVS in the most recent round. At the producers’ orientation last month, filmmakers Andrew Kolker and Paul Stekler spoke about what New Orleans means to them and why it was important to get the story right.
The Trials of Comrade Duch
Kaing Guek Eav or "Comrade Duch"
Much ado about the sentencing of Kaing Guek Eav — known by his Khmer Rouge nickname “Comrade Duch” — to 35 years in prison (to be reduced to 19 considering time served) on July 26 in Phnom Penh by a United Nations-led tribunal. The verdict and sentence shocked many Cambodians who remember Duch’s reign of terror as a remorseless prison chief in charge of torturing and murdering as many as 16,000 Cambodians on the orders of the notorious Pol Pot. Many Cambodians were angry that the sentence had not been harsher, given the horrific nature of the crimes.
Adrian Maben, director of a recently funded ITVS film called Comrade Duch, is currently in Phnom Penh to document the sentencing and the reaction to it. Maben has directed three previous films on the Khmer Rouge for ARTE.
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Newly Funded: Films from Around the World
ITVS funds, distributes, and promotes new programs produced by independent producers primarily for public television and beyond.
We’re proud to announce the latest projects recently funded by ITVS. We look forward to working with each of the filmmakers to support their broadcast and continued effort to bring a diversity of programming to viewers.
Congratulations to all the filmmakers!
OPEN CALL
Wham! Bam! Islam!
by Isaac Solotaroff
Wham! Bam! Islam! follows one of the most intriguing stories to come out of the Middle East in recent memory: the creation of THE 99 — the first Muslim superheroes and brainchild of Kuwaiti Naif Al-Mutawa. Following the story of THE 99’s creation and distribution throughout the Islamic world and Al-Mutawa’s emergence as a central figure in the raging debates over the role of religion and tradition in contemporary Muslim societies, Wham! Bam! Islam! is a powerful story about the challenges, risks and value of bridge building between Islam and the West at the dawn of the 21st century.
Co-production of ITVS
This Is Where We Take Our Stand
by Bestor Cram, Mike Majoros, and David Zeiger
This Is Where We Take Our Stand, conceived and shot as a verité production, tells the story of the multi-faceted struggle to organize Winter Soldier, a unique gathering of veterans and active duty soldiers. The film weaves highly personal organizing experiences with four days of stunning testimony at the largest gathering of Iraq and Afghanistan veterans. The program concludes two years later with the disbanding of the army of anti-war veterans, struggling to move on with their lives back on the home front; some in disarray, some still on active duty, all changed by their commitments to serve their country.
Co-production of ITVS
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Recently Funded by ITVS
ITVS funds, distributes and promotes new programs produced by independent producers primarily for public television and beyond.
We’re proud to announce the latest projects recently funded by ITVS. We look forward to working with each of the filmmakers to support their broadcast and continued effort to bring a diversity of programming to viewers.
Congratulations to all the filmmakers!
OPEN CALL
ADOPT ME, MICHAEL JORDAN
By Melanie Judd and Susan Motamed
Spanning four years in the life of one irrepressible girl, ADOPT ME, MICHAEL JORDAN offers an intimate look at the struggle to create an identity in the aftermath of adoption across race and culture.
A co-production of ITVS
IF A TREE FALLS
By Marshall Curry
A behind-the-curtain look at the Earth Liberation Front, the radical environmental organization that the FBI calls the “number one domestic terrorism threat” in America.
A co-production of ITVS
LIVES WORTH LIVING
By Eric Neudel
A story about one man’s struggle to survive after a spinal cord injury and the Disability Rights Movement.
A co-production of ITVS
MORE THAN A MONTH
By Shukree Hassan Tilghman
Shukree Hassan Tilghman, a 29-year-old African American filmmaker, is on a cross-country campaign to end Black History Month.
A co-production of ITVS and the National Black Programming Consortium
THE OATH
By Laura Poitras
Filmed in Yemen, THE OATH is a family drama about Al Qaeda and Guantanamo Bay Prison.
THE PROMISE OF FREEDOM
By Beth Murphy
A modern-day Oskar Schindler story about Kirk Johnson, a 26-year-old American aid worker, fighting to save thousands of Iraqis whose lives are in danger because they worked for the United States to help rebuild Iraq.
A co-production of ITVS
SEEDS
By Micha X. Peled
A look at the debate surrounding biotechnology and the future of farming.
A co-production of ITVS
SUN KISSED
By Maya Stark and Adi Lavy
When a Navajo couple embarks on a journey to discover more about their children’s rare genetic disorder, they uncover a controversial genetic trail and bravely tackle deep-rooted cultural taboos.
A co-production of ITVS
TALES OF THE WARIA
By Kathy Huang
Three transgender individuals in Indonesia, the world’s largest Muslim country, search for love and acceptance with unexpected results.
A co-production of ITVS
LINCS
AS NUTAYUNEAN – We Still Live Here
By Anne Makepeace
The Wampanoag nation of southeastern Massachusetts revives their native tongue, a language that was silenced for more than 100 years.
A co-production of ITVS in association with WGBY
WHAT A GHOST FORETELLS: The Making of the Opera
By Monica Lam, David Petersen and Fawn Ring
WHAT A GHOST FORETELLS follows the making of a contemporary opera written by Amy Tan with music by Stewart Wallace. The film charts a journey that begins in Tan’s personal stories and family secrets and evolves into a highly collaborative, visually stunning production that opens on the stage of the San Francisco Opera.
A co-production of ITVS, CAAM and KQED
BUILDING CHINA MODERN: I.M. Pei and the Transformation of an Ancient City
By Eugene Shirley
After 70 years in the U.S., renowned architect I.M. Pei returns to his ancestral home of Suzhou, China to build a modern museum in this ancient city.
A co-production of ITVS in association with South Carolina ETV
DEEP DOWN
By Sally Rubin and Jen Gilomen
Deep in the Appalachian mountains of eastern Kentucky, Beverly May and Terry Ratliff find themselves at the center of a contentious community battle over a proposed mountaintop removal coal mine.
A co-production of ITVS in association with Kentucky Educational Television
THE IMMIGRATION PROJECT
By Marco Williams
An investigation into migrant deaths along the U.S.-Mexico border and the efforts of the Mexican Consulate and the Medical Examiner to repatriate the remains back to Mexico.
A co-production of KUAT and ITVS
THE MUSIC’S GONNA GET YOU THROUGH
By Gabrielle Mullem
In New Orleans, a group of blind and visually-impaired teenagers from across the country gather to study with master musician Henry Butler at his creative music and jazz camp.
A co-production of ITVS in association with WLAE Educational Broadcasting Foundation, Inc.
THE WAY WE GET BY
By Aron Gaudet and Gita Pullapilly
On call 24/7 for the past six years, three senior citizens have made history by greeting nearly one million U.S. troops at a tiny airport in Maine.
A co-production of ITVS in association with WGBH and Maine Public Broadcasting Network
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