Independent Lens and ITVS Receive Nine Emmy Nominations

The Emmy nominations are in and several Independent Lens docs and ITVS-funded films have been recognized. You can find a complete list of all the nominated films after the jump. Congratulations to the filmmakers!

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Tags: A Promise to the Dead, A Village Called Versailles, art & copy, deep down, emmy awards, emmy nominations, Independent Lens, ITVS, itvs funded, off and running, The Eyes of Me, the longoria affair, The Oath, virtual mine

ITVS Takes Engagement Behind Bars and into Schools

A Village Called Versailles was one of the films screened before inmates

As we gear up for another season of Community Cinema, BTB is highlighting some recent coverage of how this program has been adapted to engage inmates in San Francisco and Los Angeles. These pilot initiatives are furthering our mission of reaching underserved communities, including the incarcerated.

This past year, Community Cinema screenings were incorporated into two educational programs: the Five Keys Charter School in San Francisco — the first charter high school based in a prison — and the M.E.R.I.T. Program in L.A., which provides educational and life-skills courses for inmates.

Read more about these programs from this recent profile by the National Center for Media Engagement.

Tags: A Village Called Versailles, community cinema, community classroom, education, engagement, prison

S. Leo Chiang Goes to Jail (with Community Cinema)

Last month filmmaker S. Leo Chiang participated in a discussion after his picture, A Village Called Versailles, played before for an audience of inmates at the San Bruno County Jail in the San Francisco Bay Area. Chiang offered his account of what was an unlikely setting for a film festival…

When ITVS emailed me about showing A Village Called Versailles, In, of all places, a jail as a part of Community Cinema screenings, I was taken aback at first, and then I was excited. I had never been inside a jail, and I wasn’t about to pass up the chance. I am, after all, a documentary filmmaker with innate anthropological curiosities.

I set out to the San Bruno County Jail #5, which is a part of the San Francisco County Jail system. My ITVS rep and I clear up confusions about our security clearances, pass through many remotely operated thick, metal, sliding doors, and walk down long, non-descript hallways. I see guards and rooms full of inmates in bright orange jumpsuits. So far, the experience looks a lot like a scene out of Oz on HBO.

We are here to present the film to students in classrooms of a pioneer Charter high school inside the San Francisco County jails, the Five Keys Charter School. The inmates take classes from inside the jail with the aim of getting their high school diplomas.

I enter the classroom and am nervous. The students had seen my film the day prior, and I’m there to answer questions and discuss their reactions to the film. I wonder if anyone would even speak or, let alone, raise a hand to ask a question. Or, will they just be rowdy? Will the session disintegrate into chaos?
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Tags: A Village Called Versailles, Five Keys Charter School, Leo Chang, refugee