Here’s how it works: Wham Bam Islam! is premiering Thursday at 10pm on most PBS stations (check here to see when it is on in your area). While you watch, or after you’ve watched, fire up Twitter and start tweeting about the film using the hashtag #ILDocClub. (It helps to be following the show too: @IndependentLens).

Independent Lens staff will be there to ask and answer questions, along with Wham Bam Islam!’s director Isaac Solotaroff (@WhamBamIslam). Join the chat this Thursday for a great conversation about the film, comics, Islam in Western society and culture, and whatever else you’re interested in.

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When you set out to tell this story through film, was there a particular audience you wanted to reach, and if so, did you succeed?

I remember when I first started college, I came across a really stunning and disheartening statistic: the high school drop out rate for Xicanos hovers was around 50 percent and it has been that way for at least half a century.  That fact has always troubled me.  For Mexican American kids who do get into college they find a world largely devoid of educational materials about how Xicanos have helped shape the destiny of this country.  The same absence in history that is so devastating to Mexican Americans is something that ultimately hurts non-Xicano students as well.  You can look to the ethnic studies wars taking place in Arizona to see just how determined many policy makers are to maintain this absence of self-knowledge.

So I have had this crazy idea for a long time that students need to be presented again and again, in different mediums, with the idea that they are part of a heritage, and a legacy that has contributed mightily to making this country a better place — a proposition which is, in fact true. I believe if Mexican American kids understand that their parents and grand parents fought for civil rights and equality then some of them (perhaps many of them) will get the idea that they can actually contribute as well.  So I wanted to reach those kids, because quite frankly there is very little out there that chronicles the determination of our community to make this country true to its highest ideals and aspirations

Outside of your PBS broadcast on Independent Lens, campus and community screenings were an important part of your distribution effort. How many of these screenings have you had so far?

I have attended about 70 screenings so far in New York, Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, California, Washington State, Colorado, Michigan, Wyoming, and Washington D.C.  We have about 25 more screenings currently scheduled for the fall of 2012.  All of these were/are in Xicano communities.  The estimated attendance at these live events is about 20,000 or so at this point.  I think this kind of effort is critical because most of these folks are not going to see this film on TV.  They are not going to go to a film festival.  Many have not even heard of PBS.  So, public television has a real problem because these folks are the opinion leaders of the fastest growing demographic in the country.  If PBS is to stay relevant we need to push harder to reach brown kids.

I was at a screening in Laredo, Texas and the organizer at a local college there told me the students, the faculty, and the administration were all very excited because they had never had a filmmaker screen a film at their college.  I was stunned.  You have an educational institution with some 20,000 students that is entirely Mexican American and the school is so broke, isolated, off the grid, and in every way marginalized that they have never had an event like this?  Something is wrong here.

Did you invite guest speakers to your screenings? If so, who?

Every screening has been different.  Sometimes it’s just me.  Other times professors will give additional context and background.  I always learn a lot.  Often I have had folks who were in the film join me on stage and share their reflections. This can be a very moving experience.  I remember we had a screening in Corpus Christi for about five hundred high school students and Sara Posas (the sister-in-law of Felix Longoria) spoke. She is about eighty years old and is stunningly beautiful, dignified and just exudes courage and strength.  This was a woman who, as a student about 18 years old, had the audacity to make a stand against segregation when the funeral home in Three Rivers refused to allow Felix’s family to use the funeral chapel because he was “Mexican.” She is a remarkable woman and a true civil rights hero. The kids were blown away. They gave her a standing ovation. It was so very moving. A lot of light bulbs went off in students’ heads that day.

How did you encourage audience members to continue the conversation online?

This is tough and I think I am still trying to figure this out. I felt we needed to ask the audience to stop being passive consumers of media and challenge them to become active agents in the national conversation. I told them that if they wanted to see more documentaries about Mexican Americans then they had to take responsibility and make it happen. One way they can do that is to let PBS know what they think. So I asked them to use the PBS message board to do this. It took me a while to figure out how to do this. We have over 500 comments on our film page and more are being added as we do additional screenings. The average number of comments for an Independent Lens film is about 40. The trick is to know the community and knowing how to actualize that deep-seated desire for civic engagement.

We also got about 1,500 votes for our film for the Independent Lens Audience Award.  Again, I think I could have gotten 10,000 votes if I had been armed with the knowledge I now have. So, in some ways I feel I have blundered. We did a great job but we could have totally blown everyone away.  The key point is that now I have ideas about engaging the audience and when I began I didn’t have a clue.

Were you surprised by the responses? How did you deal with the film’s most outspoken critics in online forums (as well as offline in actual debates)?

I was surprised by the reaction of many whites, especially in Texas who viewed the film. Many times white folks told me flat out that I was a liar. I was told that there was no discrimination in Three Rivers, Texas; that the whole film is based on bigotry and exclusion that never existed; and that I am a total fraud. It’s a small minority of discrimination deniers but they are vocal.  This happened at more than one event. A website was built to criticize me. One lady wrote to the PBS Ombudsman to complain saying the film is “propaganda.” She even claimed that the film was designed to influence Hispanic voters. Some other folks took out a full-page ad in the Corpus Caller Times calling the film, “a vortex of duplicity.” I got plenty of nasty emails.

I was both shocked and not surprised at the same time, if that is possible. It was disturbing that people would say these things right to my face. But then Mexican Americans in the audience would get angry and defend the film so there were many pretty tense, rather high-octane discussions following the film.

There was, however, almost always a peculiar unanimity that would develop out of this. I would ask the person criticizing me why there was such a dramatic and stark difference in perception between white folks and Mexican Americans?  How could there be such a huge chasm of understanding when both side lived through the same events?

White folks would basically say, “They’re exaggerating, making stuff up to make us look bad for their own political gain. That’s what Hector Garcia did, that’s what this film does, and that’s what people who claim there was discrimination are doing.”

Then, I would ask some Mexican Americans in the audience the same question and they would pretty much echo what the white folks had just articulated by saying, “Some Anglos just think we’re all liars. Mostly they’re racist against Mexicanos, but sometimes they’re just stuck in their own reality and can’t see our point of view.”  Either way its kinda the same.

What was your team’s explicit strategy for leveraging Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, or any other social media platforms to get out the word about the film?

We did make a Facebook page, hold two Tweetups, and clips were posted on YouTube, but I think if you want people to be “social” you need to have two things going. One, is you need real world events to happen so people can have something to talk and be social about. The second is you can’t just talk and be social you need to have something for them to do. They need a mission. They need to be asked to commit to something and accomplish it. I think this second point works best if there is some kind of reward for completing the action. I know this sounds abstract but this is the architecture you must design.

In our case we used the Independent Lens Audience Award voting tally as a way to work towards a community goal (the same with the comments page). I have some other ideas about audience engagement goals and rewards for increased participation, but I want to hold on to these for now, until I try them out.

Did you budget in the beginning for both a community screening circuit and big online engagement push?

Yes. You need both. If you do one without the other it’s like walking with one leg.  You won’t get very far. This means if PBS and other funding partners are serous about audience engagement they are going to have to put more money towards these things. A lot of credit has to go to CPB. They were behind this engagement campaign and they believed and supported us. They pushed us to do more and do it better.

How did your team approach partnerships with community organizations and schools?

I was on the phone constantly. I think if you are going to reach a given community you need someone from that community to do it. The best person is the filmmaker.  Not only am I from the community we were trying to reach, but also, I am the person who made the film so people felt the call was important. All of this is very time consuming but I just don’t think there are that many short cuts.  I felt if we were to be successful we really needed to make this hands on, really commit time and energy to it, and I had to do it myself. I think that primary relationship is very important. I did not sleep.

Celebrating the power of citizen activism is a central theme in your film. Do you think engendering the kind of activist movement that Dr. Garcia did is easier or more challenging today?

It is much easier today. The problem is, that Dr. Garcia was a brilliant man who was genuinely committed and had a genius for organizing; while technology creates new and inventive tools, being brilliant hasn’t gotten any easier. It never will.

What advice do you have for filmmakers tackling subjects of race and racial discrimination in documentary film?

I am not really comfortable giving advice — I don’t feel particularly qualified. All I can say is that in making a film that explores a highly charged topic you need to nurture the same qualities you must have in order to be a decent human. I try to be open and fair, avoid judging others and try hard to see all points of view. The job, as I see it, is to give the audience the tools they need to make well-informed thoughtful decisions, and especially, to create opportunities for underrepresented, but well considered, perspectives to participate.  I don’t want to be an advocate for any particular point of view or ideology. I just want to advocate for equality and for the truth. Oh yeah, and the one thing I absolutely always do is have fun — to really take joy in the process.

More than 370,000 citizen advocates have joined the 170 Million Americans for Public Broadcasting campaign, surpassing the organization’s original goal of securing 250,000 advocates. As a a result, 170 Million has set their sites on a new target, one million advocates! The campaign relies on grassroots support to defend federal funding, which is vital to sustain local public media stations and organizations.

To register for the webinar, click here. (If your first screen asks you to set Web Page Preferences, select “No” and you will be directed to the registration page). Once you are on the registration page, click on the “Register” button at the end of the text block and you will be taken to the online registration form. Once you have registered, you will receive a confirmation email with instructions for joining the webinar next Tuesday, June 28.

Register today!

We met Teresa Ann Isaac via Twitter, when she messaged about the live chat we co-hosted with PBS NewsHour last month on Bhutto and women’s leadership.

Turns out, Teresa Ann Isaac is a pretty amazing woman leader herself. She is the former mayor of Lexington, Kentucky and since 2005, the U.S. State Department has sent her to train women leaders in Chile, Argentina, Namibia, South Africa, Pakistan, and Uganda, as part of a democracy project.

As a young lawyer, Isaac wrote the grant proposal to the U.S. Department of Education and directed the resulting project that did much to bring equity to sports in Kentucky.  She went on to advocate for fair housing in Lexington, and monitored the first Palestinian elections in 1996. In April 2007, Isaac was presented the Halaby Award for Public Service, at the Kahlil Gibran “Spirit of Humanity” Awards gala in Washington, D.C.

Teresa Ann Isaac

Tell us a little about yourself and why helping women develop as leaders is important to you.

I am an Arab-American, born in Harlan County, Kentucky, and happy to be a part of a large, community service-oriented family.  I served as a prosecutor, council member-at-large, vice mayor, and mayor of Lexington, Kentucky.  I ran for Congress in 1998 in the 6th Congressional District of Kentucky.  I have been honored to work for the U.S. State Department training mayors and police chiefs around the world in Chile, Argentina, South Africa, Namibia, Pakistan, and Uganda.

I want to help develop more women as leaders because women are excellent problem-solvers and they are very inclusive.  Women are moral, compassionate leaders. Decisions are better when everyone is at the decision-making table.

What do you think are the most pressing issues facing women today, around the world and in the U.S.?

Globally, I think we have to focus on women’s economic empowerment, maternal health care, education, putting an end to domestic violence, and advocating for equal participation in government.

Here in the U.S., we also need to work for more equal participation in government and on corporate boards. Too many women here also suffer from economic inequality and domestic violence.

How do you motivate people to be active in their communities when the issues can seem overwhelming and one person can feel helpless in the face of all of it?

I motivate others by establishing trust, showing confidence in others, teaching that persistence pays, breaking problems into manageable parts, using humor, leading by example, and showing how lives are improved one step at a time.

Did you have strong, capable women in your life growing up who set an example for you?

My mother.  She won the state basketball tournament in Virginia in 1952 and was a basketball official in Kentucky. She was the PTA president at my school.  She taught me to play with a big heart. She taught me to be fearless.

How can men and boys help women and girls become leaders in their communities and government?

They can encourage the women and girls in their lives to achieve at the highest levels possible.  When women run for office, men can campaign for them and give them a campaign contribution.  Men and boys can treat women and girls as their equals.  Men and boys can support the right of women and girls to be included in sports, in the corporate boardroom, and in the political arena.

Your job is pretty intense — what inspires you and what do you do for fun?

I am inspired every day by the dedication of police and firefighters who work 24/7 to protect the public.  I am also inspired by caring teachers who make a difference in the lives of children.  For fun: I enjoy live music and especially my son’s band. He is a drummer.  I enjoy going to the farmers market with my daughter and going on walks with her at the Arboretum.

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Follow Teresa Ann Isaac on Twitter

FOCUS ON is a regular interview series profiling independent filmmakers and their projects. Up this week is Kim Snyder, whose documentary Welcome to Shelbyville, aired last week on Independent Lens. The documentary is currently streaming free online at PBS.org.

Why did you originally want to become a filmmaker and has that reason changed?

I love film. I’ve always enjoyed storytelling and I felt a compelling drive to express myself in this format.  My entire family was in the arts, and my father is an artist, which also greatly informed me.  With documentary, I’ve observed and experienced the power of the genre to ignite social change, and motivate people to participate in civic dialogue — and that is very rewarding for me.

How do you think your Masters Degree in International Affairs has influenced your filmmaking career and the subjects you choose for your films?

My concentration was Social Change and Development, and I had a challenging professor who drew connections between different disciplines, including the arts.  I’ve never liked compartmentalized, neat boxes around anything, so the interdisciplinary part of documentary filmmaking, and a restless desire to dig into new worlds sates the perpetual student in me.

What is the one thing you now know about filmmaking, that you wish you had known when you were first starting out?

That no matter what new level you reach, there are constantly new challenges and unchartered territory – there is no “there”.

You served on the admissions review committee for NYU’s Graduate Film School. What was the most common mistake that applicants made?

Applicants sent us their slick, polished regurgitated commercial visual work instead of sending us originality. The truth is, with these applications, the budget of your work matters less.

What advice do you have for filmmakers who are first-time applicants for film grants?

Collaborate with a veteran if you can as it’s a competitive space. Do your research well for each specific grantor. With docs, align with potential campaign partners at the outset for creative outreach plans and niche distribution.

How do you know when your films are complete? Does someone have to force you out of the editing room or do you just calmly “know?”

It’s never felt entirely “done” for me, even while sitting in film festival screenings, there’s always some small cut or sound byte I want to go back and change, but at a certain point, you need to close the book and move on just like everything else in life.  Getting there is not usually calm for me personally — it’s more often a generally angst-ridden process, but am working toward the goal of calm someday.

Do you think the film industry has changed much for women since you began?

The issue of gender in terms of my own work is, thankfully, not something I think about or feel particularly impeded by, but I think this is more indicative of both the independent film world and the documentary world where you tend to have more control over both the funding and the process.

I’m happy to see, in the past few years, an increased focus and additional funding sources specifically for women filmmakers, and for work focusing on women’s leadership emerging. ITVS’s Women and Girls Lead is one exciting example.

And one last final question, what is your favorite comedy film of all time?

My top five might be: A Fish Called Wanda, There’s Something About Mary, The Jerk, Monty Python and the Holy Grail, Raising Arizona (honorable mention: Superbad).

This BTB interview was conducted and condensed by Melody Morgan.

New Year Baby follows the personal story of filmmaker Socheata Poeuv, who grew up in the United States never knowing that her family survived the Khmer Rouge genocide. Poeuv embarks on a journey to Cambodia in search of the truth about her family’s past.

Jocelyn Glatzer’s The Flute Player tells the journey of a survivor of Cambodia’s Khmer Rouge killing fields and his work to heal himself and his country through music.

Friday’s live chat will be moderated by Michella Rivera-Gravage of the Center for Asian American Media (CAAM).

ITVS President & CEO Sally Jo Fifer explains why the times call for a new tagline.

Since 1991, the work and mission of ITVS has been reflected in our simple tagline: “Television’s Independent Voice.”  Twenty years later, after careful consideration, we have made a small but important change, becoming “Public Media’s Independent Voice.”

The most obvious reason for this change is that what we once called television now intermingles and crossbreeds with video media on countless devices: desktops, laptops, tablets, smart phones, gaming consoles.  The most important reason, however, has less to do with the devices than with a moment of truth for public media in the brave new 21^st century world.

Technologically, that world offers the public more access to more information in more ways than ever before. Yet the jury still is out on whether the public is finding, using, or benefiting from the contextualized reporting that makes a democracy strong.  As columnist Ellen Goodman put it: “The thing that has not speeded up is the capacity to actually think through something.”

Some recent polls are discouraging. A majority of Americans believe that the United States ranks high among other countries in academic performance, access to health care, eradication of poverty, and infant survival. In truth, we fail to crack the top 20. A much cited CNN poll on the federal budget debates found that Americans think 5% — or about $625 per citizen per year — of annual government spending flows to public broadcasting. In reality, the budget allocation comes out to $1.35 per citizen per year. A 2010 World Public Opinion survey found that Americans believe foreign aid accounts for 27 percent of the budget and recommend cutting it to 13 percent. The real number is under 1 percent. Seventy-six percent of Finns could identify the Taliban, but only 58 percent of Americans managed to do the same — even though 9/11 has been in the news for a decade and we’re now spending almost $7 billion a month fighting the Taliban in Afghanistan. And the list goes on.

Sally Jo Fifer, President & CEO of ITVS

If politicians are pandering to an uninformed public — and in some cases, with media abetting their ignorance — it is hard to imagine how we can intelligently balance the budget, much less make wise decisions about anything else.

When targeted on a single topic, issue, and timeframe, however, the new power of media is unparalleled, whatever the purpose. Tweets easily crack news embargoes, from the first hint of Osama Bin Laden’s death to street reports from Tehran and Tunis.  The America’s Army video game proved the most powerful military recruitment tool of the last decade. And all of us know that a smart search can turn up almost any information we seek — although research suggests that few of us delve past the first page’s results on Google and find most of our information through 25 top portals dominated by the same 10 to 15 stories.

That’s where media committed to the public interest comes in — and for ITVS, public television, and independent media makers — that means video in all its forms.  Shorts, clips, modules, games, and full-length programming, accessed through any kind of device, most of which offer opportunities for more collaboration, more participation, more voices contributing to the conversation.  It’s public media’s job to make sure that happens — and happens in a productive way that fills the gaps in our national knowledge, serves underserved audiences, and enriches that conversation.

It’s time to take a hard look at whether public media is living up to its responsibility and promise.  To ask why niche audiences are digging deeper into segregated shells, as poll after poll surfaces spiking partisanship and misperceptions on every front.  To recognize what’s happening in the marketplace and why, and make sure that the new tools and new media frontiers are working for community as well as commerce.

For two decades, ITVS was public television’s independent voice, in an age when public television changed television, revolutionizing the marketplace for history programs, science shows, documentaries, children’s shows, and even reality TV.  Now the challenges and opportunities are even greater — to bring the mission of public-interest media to this moment and the market-driven changes in store.  As critics continue to drag public broadcasting back to the chopping block, the message is clear: We must all make the case, not only in words and support (although that’s important too!), but by showing the full power of public media in action.

To that end, in the months ahead BTB will publish a series of interviews with the best minds focused on the state of public media. We look forward to your comments as these conversations unfold, and hope you will contribute questions and suggestions to enrich the exchange of ideas. Write to me at sally_jo_fifer@itvs.org.

Ready Sally’s most recent BTB posts including an overview of the newly launched Women and Girls Lead campaign and her editorial on the importance of public media.

Our friends from the series have allowed us to host the discussion on BTB. The chat will start at 1PM ET and include Shelby Knox, along with filmmakers Marion Lipschutz and Rose Rosenblatt. Enjoy!

Panelists will include filmmakers Nisha Ganatra (Beholder), Mia Trachinger (Exposure), and J.P. Chan (Digital Antiquities). Keep up with FUTURESTATES online and join us on BTB for the live discussion.

FUTURESTATES will screen tonight at the 29th annual San Francisco International Asian American Film Festival. SFIAFF (running through March 20) is the largest showcase for new Asian and Asian American films in North America, annually presenting approximately 120 works in San Francisco, Berkeley, and San Jose.