Community Cinema and The Museum of Tolerance, in association with The Mayme A. Clayton Library & Museum, will be presenting a special screening of Daisy Bates: First Lady of Little Rock Wednesday, February 1 in Los Angeles.

The film will be followed by a discussion with Sharon La Cruise (filmmaker), Terrence Roberts, Ph.D. (one of the Little Rock Nine), and Larry Earl (Executive Director of The Mayme A. Clayton Library & Museum).

This free event will take place at The Museum of Tolerance at 7:00pm (9786 West Pico Blvd.). There is no charge for this screening, but pre-registration is required. Click here to reserve your tickets online. Free underground parking is provided.

Set to premiere on Independent Lens this Thursday, Daisy Bates: First Lady of Little Rock tells the story of her life and public support of nine black students who registered to attend the all-white Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas, which culminated in a constitutional crisis — pitting a president against a governor and a community against itself. Unconventional, revolutionary, and egotistical, Daisy Bates reaped the rewards of instant fame, but paid dearly for it.

An online interactive screening of the film will be presented out of Central High School in Little Rock on Friday, February 3.

The screening will take place exclusively online; you can join for free by signing in with Facebook (or directly on the site) and interact with other viewers, Central High students, La Cruise, and Sreenivasan in real-time, while you watch the film. Viewers can comment, ask questions, take polls, and even express their feelings about what they’re watching through a variety of tools on the site.

This is an entirely new way we’re offering some of our documentary films, and all of us are looking forward to an open, freewheeling conversation on Daisy Bates!

Find more information on Friday’s screening here.

On November 17^th we received a call from ITVS’ Dennis Palmieri.  He said that earlier that day both the U.S. Department of State and the United Nations had contacted him about screening our film, Lives Worth Living.  Wow – what a surprise that was!

The idea was to present the film on consecutive days — December 1^st and 2^nd — to help celebrate the International Day of Persons with Disabilities.  My partner at Storyline Motion Pictures, Alison Gilkey and I were amazed.  After we had stopped jumping around, we started planning.

We flew to D.C. 13 days later on Wednesday, November 30^th.  Arriving a day early turned out to be a good idea. Instead of arriving at the midday screening straight from the airport as disheveled messes, we actually were able to catch our breath and look presentable at the State Department, as we were representing ITVS!

Filmmaker Eric Neudel

On the morning of the State Department screening, Judy Heumann (disability rights pioneer and arguably a legend in her own time) and currently the State Department’s Special Advisor For International Disability Rights, met us in a conference room just off the main amphitheater at the Department of State.  She brought with her several other prominent rights activists (including Marca Bristo, one of our on-screen characters) who would be participating in the panel discussion after the screening.  We also had the opportunity to introduce ourselves to ITVS’ Tamara Gould, whose task was to help introduce the film and comment on ITVS’ role with independent filmmakers.

The best moment for Alison and me in this event came when we entered the amphitheater and saw that State had invited many of the D.C. based characters in our film. We hadn’t seen most of them for several years since shooting their interviews, so it was gratifying to talk with many of them before the intros. Several had yet to see the film and we wondered how they would react. A lot of people don’t like to see themselves on screen so we were hoping they would be happy.

Judy is a powerfully articulate speaker who introduced the film by alluding to the documentary’s real inspiration: the great disability rights activist Fred Fay. When it was my chance to speak I talked about how I had met Fred, how over the course of several years of talking to Fred I had come to realize that there was a gripping story about the great fight for disability rights that had never been told  — a serious hole in history books. Fred died on August 20^th and I think many of us in that room felt his absence. Many great people pass from us without notice. Fred was not going to be one of them. The whole screening was thrilling in that way.

We took the train to New York the next day. We sat opposite Judy and her colleague at State, Sam. Judy suggested I talk about my interest and experience in civil rights during the intro at the UN festival. I had no trouble in doing what Judy suggested.  Few people can hope to successfully dispute her logic.

Peggy Kerry, NGO Liaison for the United States Mission to the United Nations and Senator John Kerry’s sister, guided us through multiple security checkpoints at the UN. I honestly lost count.  We met up with Beatriz Castillo from ITVS, and Peggy gave us a whirlwind tour of the UN building before we took our seats in the auditorium for the Enable Film Festival.

In her presentation before the film Judy was even more impressive than the previous day. I did my best to talk about civil rights, mentioning that it has been hundreds of years since the single greatest idea of the Enlightenment (i.e: all people are created equal) was articulated and we still haven’t grasped it.

Alison and I headed home to Boston through another debacle of security related inefficiency at JFK. I think it was at that point we realized how tired but exhilarated we both were and how interesting the past few days had been.

The Man Up Campaign is dedicated to mobilizing young people and strengthening their in-country programs. The initiative formally launched during the 2010 FIFA World Cup in South Africa, bringing together a diverse group of up to 100 women and men (ages 18 to 30) from 25 countries. Occurring at the University of Johannesburg, this international forum was the first of its kind to develop capacity and technical expertise among young people of both genders, who are committed to stopping violence against women and girls.

Find a complete rundown of Saturday’s Man Up Film Festival series schedule after the jump.

Saturday, December 3, 2011

4 PM

Thin Ice (Dir. Håkan Berthas, 2006, 57 minutes: produced by WG Films and distributed by Objective Cinema) In a rousing sports tale, Dolkar, a young Buddhist woman from Ladakh in the Himalayas seeks to play ice hockey. She and her friends tries to make ice to skate on, get equipment and coaching, yet the larger challenge is the men who don’t think women’s ice hockey is important. When the next year’s tournament is approaching the girls make a new attempt to enter. Finally, when they find the American coach “Deb,” they travel over the mountain to the Muslim village Kargil and create a joint team. As much about the power of sport, Thin Ice creates a bridge between Buddhist and the Muslim women.

All the Ladies Say (Dir. Ana “Rokafella” Garcia, http://www.fullcirclesoul.com/home.php, 2010,  45 minutes) A six-city journey led by Ana “Rokafella” Garcia (veteran female breakdancer B-girl) is a quest  to see how the B-girl scene not only exists but is growing throughout the U.S. despite its absence on the mainstream platform. “Breaking” is a male-dominated dance form yet there are many women who exhibit high levels of dexterity. All the Ladies Say documents how women — young and older — continue to push their dreams and re-create the world of hip-hop. Includes a post-screening discussion with All the Ladies Say director Rokafella.

6 PM

No Woman No Cry (Dir. Christy Turlington Burns, 2011, 17 min) explore the global issue of maternal and reproductive health care through the lens of model-activist Christy Turlington Burns in her gripping directorial debut. No Woman shares the powerful stories of at-risk pregnant women in four parts of the world, including a remote Maasai tribe in Tanzania, a slum in Bangladesh, a post-abortion care ward in Guatemala, and a prenatal clinic in the United States.

Women’s Voices Now will showcase The Slave, a 74-minute screening of short films exploring violence against Arab and Muslim women, and the empowering people and projects who are currently working to end such violence. The films included in the program are:

The Journey (Bengal, 7min) Viewers join the journey home of seven girls who are survivors of trafficking upon their release from a post-enslavement shelter home.

Breaking the Silence (Yemen, 12min) chronicles the lives and injustices against the Akhdam women in Yemen. The Akhdam, singular Khadem, meaning “servant” in Arabic, are a social group in Yemen, distinct from the majority by their darker skin and African descent. Although they are Arabic-speaking and practicing Muslims, they are regarded as non-Arabs and designated as a low-caste group, frequently discriminated against and confined to unskilled and menial labor in a society already riddled with patriarchy and poverty, the disdain and discrimination against Akhdam renders these women easy targets of violence and abuse. Akhdam women are subject to hate-based attacks and sexual assaults without any type of legal or social recourse.

Face (Bosnia and Herzegovina, 5min) records a live performance about the veil as a symbol of a female identity which the artist does not recognize as her own. In cutting the veil, the artist is risking cutting her real face and body. Under the cloth appears a naked body and gender.

Enchained (Pakistan, 5min) introduces the Bheel and Kohli tribes trapped in modern day slavery in the province of Sind, Pakistan. Sodo is an elder of the Bheel tribe who escaped after two harsh years of slavery and subsequently freed 89 other men, women, and children trapped with the same slave owner. The film exposes the cruel treatment of the slaves, the heavy chains they are held in, and the brutal work they are forced to perform in agriculture, brick factories and stone-crushing queries.

Post Violence (Iran, 5min) Despite violence against women all around the world, their lives continue, powerful and strong.

I Accept, I Accept, I Accept (Pakistan, 5min) This experimental art film which has a feel of a documentary is based on a true story from a chapter of a 22-year-old Pakistani girl’s personal diary. This film captures the true essence of the protagonist’s feelings getting into an arranged marriage. She goes through the traditions that lead to the final day, here she has to say “I accept” three times to get married to a man she hardly knows.

Behind The Wall (Kyrgyzstan, 27 min) Domestic violence is very real problem that women from Kyrgyzstan and the whole of Central Asia have to face. Often, women cannot expect any help from relatives or the police, since domestic violence is part of local culture and traditions. This film talks about one of the women who became a victim of this tradition. In order to break away from the tyranny of her husband, the woman decides to take extreme measures. She now serves a sentence for murder in a reformatory in Kyrgyzstan, despite the fact that she has three sons, two of whom are underage. This film shows the imperfections of the system and how ignorance can destroy lives.

Whose Honor? (India, 5min) Khap Panchayats (or caste councils) seem to be condoning honor killings which have been on the rise in some Indian states, including in Haryana. Neha Sehgal and her students from the DAV College of Women in Yamunanagar boldly confront the patriarchal establishment of a village and question whether the same intolerance for love unions would exist, if women were included in the local decision-making process.

Land of Dragons (India, 3min) The state of Manipur in the north east of India has witnessed 15 years of armed conflict. Today, the people of the state want the government to withdraw the Armed Forces Special Powers Act, which gives army personnel special privileges that could are misused and result in murder, rape and abuse of the people.

8 PM

Little Girls Lost (Dir. Andre Lambertson and Lisa Armstrong, 2010, 7min) illuminates the lives of many young girls in Haiti who, since the 2010 earthquake, have turned to prostitution in order to get by. They resort to having sex for food or small amounts of money. This exchange is unwanted but, in their view, the only way to survive.

Women, War & Peace (Prod. Gini Reticker, Pamela Hogan, Abigail E. Disney, Nina Chaudry, Peter Bull, Johanna Hamilton, Claudia Rizzi, Oriana Zill, Lauren Feeney; 2011, 11min), with depth and complexity, spotlights the stories of women in conflict zones from Bosnia to Afghanistan and Colombia to Liberia, placing women at the center of an urgent dialogue about conflict and security. The project is the most comprehensive global media initiative ever mounted on the roles of women in war and peace, and is a co-production of THIRTEEN and Fork Films.

The Empire in Africa (Dir. Philippe Diaz, 2006, 87 minutes: produced by Cinema Libre and distributed by Objective Cinema) focuses on the devastating conflict which ravaged the nation of Sierra Leone throughout the 90s. A UN-backed war crimes court was set up to try those, from both sides, who bear the greatest responsibility for the brutalities. It completed its work at the end of 2009. The trial of former Liberian president Charles Taylor, continues in The Hague. *Viewer discretion advised*

Post-screening discussion with Sierra Leonean psychologist Adeyinka Akinsulure-Smith and freelance journalist Lisa Armstrong

10:05 PM

Very Young Girls (Dir. Nina Alvarez and David Schisgall, 2007, 83 minutes) shines light on commercial sexual exploitation of girls in New York City, through the experiences of those being helped by GEMS (Girls Educational and Mentoring Services), an agency founded and run by Rachel Lloyd, herself a survivor.

In recognition of the United Nations International Day of Persons with Disabilities and Human Rights Day, Special Advisor for International Disability Rights Judy Heumann hosted a screening and panel discussion of Lives Worth Living at the State Department on Thursday. The panel included a conversation with the film’s producers and activists featured in the film, including Special Advisor Heumann.

Lead up to International Day of Persons with Disabilities continued on Friday with a screening of Lives Worth Living at the United Nations Enable Film Festival.

The annual observance of the International Day of Persons with Disabilities on December 3 was established during the International Year for Disabled Persons  in 1981. The day promotes the rights of persons with disabilities and the inclusion of persons with disabilities in every aspect of the political, social, economic, and cultural life of their communities.

Watch the trailer for Lives Worth Living below:

Filmmaker Deepa Dhanraj's Invoking Justice was among the ITVS docs to premiere at IDFA

The 19^th FORUM took place in Amsterdam on November 21-23 as part of 25^th annual International Documentary Festival Amsterdam (IDFA).

The current economic crisis unfolding around us as the EU debt crisis mounts, public financing under pressure, and a dangerous decrease in airtime allocated to social issue documentaries provided an urgency to this year’s FORUM. The IDFA’s FORUM is the longest-standing gathering that brings together documentary filmmakers, TV stations, funds, distributors, and other financiers to support high-level documentary projects and help partner joint ventures.

I joined my fellow commissioning editors from more than 20 countries around the world including Korea, Latin America, and across Europe to learn about new documentary projects seeking support.

A clear sign that technology is quickly transforming the genre and the dissemination of nonfiction content, the FORUM again offered commissioning editors access to traditional long-form projects and a wide array of cross-media and linear projects.

From L to R: Filmmaker Mona Eldaief (Producer of Solar Momas), ITVS's Lois Vossen, and Filmmaker Deepa Dhanraj (Director of Invoking Justice)

A total of 49 projects from around the world pitched during the three-day FORUM. Their wide-ranging topics were as diverse as the filmmakers nurturing them. Subjects included corruption in Guatemala explored through a murder mystery that plays like a crime thriller; an Iranian female teenager who hopes to overcome societal constraints and become an astronaut; and the daily lives of Afghan women imprisoned for committing “moral crimes” against the husbands who beat and abused them.

ITVS also presented a Women & Girls Lead panel that was moderated by our VP of Programming Claire Aguilar, and featured Deepa Dhanraj (Director of Invoking Justice, which premiered at IDFA), Mona Eldaief (Producer of Solar Momas), Jo Lapping (BBC Storyville producer), and myself.

Still from Solar Momas, by Producer Mona Eldaief

The panel highlighted programming that has been selected to be a part of the Women and Girls Lead campaign and served as a call to arms, encouraging both female and male filmmakers to produce more films that explore the complex rolls of women and girls changing the world.

I arrived in Amsterdam in fog so thick that some flights were delayed six hours. After four days of pitching and managing to screen five films at the festival, the sun came out, just as I had to leave the city of canals.

Here’s hoping that signals the birth of many new, important documentaries that will come to light in the months and years ahead.

Read American University Professor Patricia Aufderheide’s post on the school’s Center for Social Media site on the importance of public funding for social-issue documentaries. Aufderheide goes on to highlight several of the ITVS-funded films that were on display at the event in Amsterdam.

Also in attendance was Douglas Goldman (president of the Goldman Environmental Foundation), Musimbi Kanyoro (president and CEO of the Global Fund for Women), and Huey Johnson (founder of Green Belt Movement International).

Speakers remembered her luminous smile, fearless advocacy for the environment, smart strategic actions, and tireless spirit.

Stephen Mills, the director of the Green Belt Movement, U.S.,  said that Maathai was ahead of her time — fighting for the environment, women’s empowerment, against corruption, and for community development — all in “one smiling package.”

Al Gore reminded the audience that the best way to honor her vision is to sustain her beloved cause — the Green Belt Movement — which to date has planted nearly 5 billion trees in Kenya and beyond.

The Unofficial Mayor of New York City
By Tracie Holder

Joe Papp in Five Acts is the story of New York’s indomitable, street-wise champion of the arts who introduced interracial casting to the American stage and brought us free Shakespeare in the Park, Hair, and A Chorus Line.

Convinced that women and minorities, denied power elsewhere in society, could develop it on the stage, Papp became a tireless fighter for the arts who raised enduring debate about our founding ideals and the role of the arts in a pluralistic society. Using his life and work as its prism, the film explores the issues he chose to champion: freedom of expression, democracy in the arts, and the definition of American culture.

Recently, the Ford Foundation hosted a screening of our documentary, Joe Papp in Five Acts, at an event celebrating Papp’s Public Theater. It was a thrilling evening during which the President of the Foundation announced a $2 million gift to the Public to complete its capital campaign.

October 31, 2011 marked the 20th anniversary of Joe Papp’s death. Since then, Papp’s name had faded from popular memory. I wondered if the film would resonate for a contemporary audience and specifically if Papp’s vision of a truly democratic American art — one that is free and accessible to everyone regardless of ability to pay — would be relevant.

But as I watched the film, my first time seeing it on a big screen, I was struck by how timely it had become.

In this moment, when the public sphere is so hotly contested and any sense of a shared culture is melting away, Papp’s belief in the power of art to transform people’s lives and to empower people whose voices often go unheard is amazingly current.

When I was growing up, Papp was the unofficial Mayor of New York. He was on the front lines of every important issue I held dear, while the plays he staged reflected the real life dramas that were going on around us. From the Vietnam War to AIDS, from public funding of the arts to defending the rights of squatters — Papp saw no separation between life and art.

At the reception following the screening, several young men and women sought me out. They shared with me how moved they were by Papp’s belief in art as an essential ingredient of a democracy and his unwavering commitment to a vibrant public sphere.

They said his vision reminded them why they do what they do, despite the financial hardships, and helped reaffirm their commitment to their work as artists. I was deeply touched by their words and realized in that moment that Papp’s spirit lives on and his vision is as meaningful now as it was when he was alive.

I believe that great art is for everyone —not just the rich or the middle class. When I go into East Harlem or Bedford-Stuyvesant and see the kids who come to see our shows, I see nothing so clearly as myself.
— Joe Papp

Why Joe Papp Matters
By Karen Thorsen

One of the key lines in our film comes from playwright/director George C. Wolfe:  “Joe understood that culture empowers you.  If you see your images, if you hear your stories, it gives you a sense that you have the right to be in the room.  It is a way to affirm who you are.”

Joe Papp spent a lifetime empowering others and Tracie and I were among those he touched. Joe produced some of our earliest memories: not always the same plays, not even the same memories — but we were both in Joe’s audience.

I’m old enough to remember the original Hair (my parents took me) and I now take my own son to the Public Theater.  Just as I did for so many years, my son now stands in line with his own friends to see free Shakespeare in the park.

Joe Papp gave us so much!  That’s why, when Tracie came to me with the idea of making a film on Joe, I agreed to collaborate.  Yes, I thought we might complete it more quickly; but the film we imagined is finally made and despite all the detours, I can finally say, it was worth it.

Another key line in our film is when playwright David Hare tells us “It was Joe who taught me to be radical at the center.  He wanted to storm the citadel because he believed that radical ideas are more important, that they could have greater impact, at the center.”

Tracie and I share that belief.  For us, to be radical at the center is the ultimate challenge; to win hearts and minds with an emotional narrative; to turn subversive ideas into a mainstream product; and to create art with impact, where it matters most.  That’s what I’ve tried to do in my past work as a writer and filmmaker and it’s what I hope we achieve through our film on Joe.

Here’s why Joe Papp matters: Joe was a game changer.  Theater was his medium — but his real stage was American culture.  He turned his childhood passion for Shakespeare into a series of radical acts and he turned his radical acts into a series of mainstream successes.

During his 40-plus years in the theater, he went from outsider to insider, from extreme poverty to a position of power, and yet he never lost his conviction that “great art is for everyone.”

He believed that art could change lives, that it could influence society and increase social justice.  He brought more theater to more people than any other producer in history — but even more importantly, he trashed the old debates of elite versus popular culture and brought art to all people.

In particular, he brought art to those he christened “the culturally dispossessed,” the kids so much like himself who had “not seen a living actor on the stage or been inside a concert hall or an art gallery.”  He vowed to break down the wall between the have-nots and the arts – a wall spawned by poverty, ignorance, historical condition – and wound up creating a life-changing theater, one that was socially relevant, affordable, accessible, and inclusive.

His first target was Shakespeare.  He was unimpressed by rarified British productions, which were considered the norm, the good-for-you plays known as ‘cultural spinach.”

Joe offered a highly energized American Shakespeare, a free Shakespeare, in parks and poor neighborhoods throughout New York City.  He cast minority actors without hesitation; he welcomed all accents and attitudes.  And he did the same for contemporary theater.

Distressed by the safe, whitebread fare offered by Broadway, he produced far more daring productions: black, white, Asian, Latino, almost always provocative, pushing the outer edges of both style and content.  Some of them flopped, some became major hits.  All of them stormed the citadel.

Joe Papp in Five Acts is a co-Production of The Papp Project, THIRTEEN’s American Masters, and ITVS in association with WNET.  The program is slated to broadcst on PBS’s American Masters in 2012.

From left to right: Gail Papp, Meryl Streep, Karen Thorsen, Kevin Kline, and Tracie Holder

From left to right: Karen Thorsen, Oskar Eustis, Tracie Holder, and Kevin Kline

Photo by Julie Wyman

Media mavens

My colleague, production coordinator N’Jeri Eaton, is an editing pro and an experienced youth media instructor — so that was a plus. Filmmakers Julie Wyman (Strong!) and Elizabeth Mandel (Pushing the Elephant), who were at the convention with us to present their films, were on hand to co-facilitate the sessions. We were also fortunate to have Houston media producer Linda Gibbs and her advanced media production students from Hightower Academy come help. Add to the mix local independent filmmaker Michelle Mower and Houston PBS’s Julie Coan and we were in pretty good shape.

As a result of these workshops, these girls are going back to their communities with the know-how to tell their stories and share them, and for some, with a growing interest in media making as a career!

Here are some of the participants, talking about the experience in their own words:

I wish I had been cool enough to be a Girl Scout way back when.

Join ITVS’s Women and Girls Lead Campaign on Facebook

The 2011-12 season of Independent Lens got off to a rousing start on Tuesday, October 13when we hosted an event in Los Angeles to celebrate the 10^th season.  More than two hundred filmmakers attended, along with special guests from PBS SoCal, and colleagues from IDA, Film Independent, the City of L.A., and Participant Media, among others.

An orange carpet outside Monty Bar in downtown L.A. welcomed guests.  While the night was devoted to conversation and networking, a few speakers reminded guests of the enduring impact independent filmmakers have on public television and the wonderfully unique role independent public television stations, like PBS SoCal, play in cities across the country.  Speakers included PBS SoCal’s Ed Miscovitch; filmmakers Chris Paine of Revenge of the Electric Car; and Kurt Norton, co-producer/director of These Amazing Shadows.

The energy kicked into high gear with a 30-minute set by The Bricks, a socially conscious youth music group who write their own songs and are mentored by Grammy Award-winning artists. They are part of an initiative from our partners at the L.A. County Human Relations Commission.

Throughout the evening, a specially produced video played on large monitors featuring films from the upcoming and past seasons of Independent Lens.

Connecting the work of independent filmmakers with our partners in public television and with NGO and community partners in communities across the country is a cornerstone of Independent Lens’ mission.  The launch of our 10^th season reminded us of how far we’ve come, how many great films we’ve helped bring to audiences, and of all the great films and good work that lies ahead.

Chris Paine, Lois Vossen, and Phillip Rodriguez

PBS SoCal's Ed Miskevich

Staff from the Emmy Award-winning series Independent Lens

The Bricks performed at the launch party in L.A.

Visit Independent Lens and find this season’s lineup of documentaries on PBS

Engage with fans of the series on the Independent Lens Facebook page

Sign up for our weekly film club by searching #ILDocClub and following @independentlens