Catch To Be Heard on Public Television

The ITVS-funded documentary To Be Heard looks at a unique poetry class in the Bronx for at-risk youth where anything can be said or shared. The film was produced and directed by Roland Legiardi-Laura, Amy Sultan, Deborah Shaffer, and Eddie Martinez – a combination of seasoned filmmakers, educators, and instructors in the Power Writers program. ITVS’s Kate Sullivan Green spoke with all four about their nearly seven-year journey of making the film, the importance of literacy, and their online companion, Power Poetry. To Be Heard is playing in January on public television. Additional online-only content will accompany the film in the months ahead.

How did you all come together to make this film?
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Tags: Bronx, education, ITVS, New York, power poetry, to be heard

In The News: The Latest on ITVS Programs

[Werner Herzog] the last of the great auteur directors voices the role of a plastic grocery bag in [Plastic Bag], a philosophical short film by much-tipped director Ramin Bahrani.
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Old men with energy, high spirits and full capacities are inherently charming, and Pei, who has charmed his way across the planet and left a huge imprint on it, charms yet again [in I.M. Pei: Building China Modern].
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Host Michel Martin speaks with Edward Tom, principal of the Bronx Center for Science & Mathematics, and filmmaker Christopher Wong [of Whatever It Takes].
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Whatever It Takes is strongest when it makes precisely this point: that however much we embrace the “tough love” idea, it is by definition a small-scale effort.
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Lost Souls is the sort of documentary that approaches reality television terrain. Yet it seriously presents themes of personal responsibility and redemption.
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Tags: architecture, Bronx, China, education, IM Pei, Mexico, New York

College Success Tips: Rocky Otoo From A BRONX PRINCESS Airing Tonight on P.O.V. on PBS

“Compelling… [A] coming-of-age documentary from filmmakers Yoni Brook and Musa Syeed,”
- Los Angeles Times

A BRONX PRINCESS, airing tonight, Tuesday, September 22 at 10:00 PM on P.O.V. on PBS (check local listings), follows Rocky Otoo’s journey as she leaves behind her mother in New York City to reunite with her royal father in Ghana, West Africa and reconciles her African heritage with her dream of independence.

Now in her junior year of college, Otoo discusses what she has learned and shares tips on how to deal with cultures shock, building relationships with professors, keeping your family informed and other advice. Check out the video below.

Post your own video responses and start a conversion with Rocky Otoo about college and the film.

Visit the P.O.V. Web site to learn more >>

Tags: Africa, Bronx, online video, P.O.V.

Watch AT HOME IN UTOPIA Tonight on Independent Lens

A home of your own: that’s the American dream. But what happens when the dreamers are immigrants, factory workers and Communists? Director Michal Goldman traces the history of “The Coops,” a cooperative apartment complex built in the Bronx by Jewish garment workers. The film tracks the rise and fall of the community from the 1920s into the 1950s, bearing witness to lives lived across barriers of race, convention and sometimes even common sense.

“[Michal Goldman] has recaptured a daring social experiment, limning its idealism on race relations and social justice and its ultimately fatal embrace of Communist doctrine,” The New York Times.

Check out the trailer below:

AT HOME IN UTOPIA airs tonight at 10:00 PM on Independent Lens on PBS (check local listings)

Tags: Bronx, immigrants, Jewish

In the News: The Latest on ITVS Programs

Host Amy Goodman speaks with Wangari Maathai about the Independent Lens film TAKING ROOT: The Vision of Wangari Maathai.
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“AT HOME IN UTOPIA a documentary by Michal Goldman, that will air on PBS’s Independent Lens, tells the story of the United Workers Cooperative Colony in the Bronx.”
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Host Marc Steiner speaks with Nobel Peace Prize winner Wangaria Maathai about TAKING ROOT.
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“Community Cinema screening: TAKING ROOT: The Vision of Wangari Maathai tells the story of Kenyan Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Wangari Maathai, whose simple act of planting trees grew into a nationwide movement.”
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Tags: Africa, Bronx, environmental