ITVS International Films on Caachi

IRANIAN KIDNEY BARGAIN SALE, one of the ITVS International programs now available on Caachi.

This past week Caachi, an online video destination for independent film fans, has made room for even more ITVS International content. The site now features 9 feature-length films and 6 shorts.

Supporting Caachi means supporting the filmmakers directly, according to Tom Hicks, co-founder. Caachi’s new and improved flash-based widget features video playback and user comments within the interface and allows fans to share and post the widget to social networking sites.

“This is one aspect of how we want to leverage web technologies for marketing purposes. Our path to success will always be based on helping independent filmmakers market their films in a way that actually makes them money,” says Hicks.

Visit the ITVS International Channel
on Caachi >>

Tags: caachi, digital, online video

Filmmaker Profile: Edna and Elinor Kowarsky, SEEDS OF SUMMER

Israeli filmmakers Edna and Elinor Kowarsky once thought that they would never be able to reach U.S. audiences with their films.

In 1989, they formed their production company, Eden Productions, to make films about social issues in the Middle East. While their company grew to become a leading source of documentary content in Israel, working with the top directors in the region to get their films broadcast in Israeli and in European markets, the U.S. audience remained elusive.

“Americans are only interested to see films about themselves,” was one of the warnings Edna heard much too often from broadcasters and funders in other parts of the world. “They won’t watch a film in a foreign language” was another. But then they discovered ITVS International.

The mother-daughter team learned of International Call, ITVS’s fund for international documentary filmmakers, at a co-production forum in Tel Aviv where they met Vice President of Programming Claire Aguilar. At first, the Kowarskys were skeptical that their projects would be competitive, especially because they were mostly in Hebrew and Arabic. Nonetheless, in 2007, they submitted a project proposal to International Call requesting completion funds for the film SEEDS OF SUMMER.

A production with first-time director Hen Lasker, this verité film follows a group of young women during one of the most rigorous combat courses in the Israeli army over the course of 66 days and nights. It was the first time that the Israeli military allowed any filmmaker such intimate access to female soldiers. The peer review panel for ITVS International chose this project in part because the story speaks in a very personal way to universal themes of coming of age and living under constant threat of war.

“Although we tell a local story, the girl’s difficulties, their conflicts and their personal dilemmas are easy to identify with,” says Edna.

Not only did the Kowarskys receive the money they needed to finish the film, but they also formed a creative relationship with the ITVS International team, which helped them navigate the U.S. marketplace to find a home for the program on cablecaster The Documentary Channel. (SEEDS OF SUMMER aired nationally on January 12.)

“ITVS made it possible for us to produce our film and made it possible for U.S. viewers to widen their perspective and be exposed to a reality so distant from them, yet so very close,” remarked Edna.

Interested in watching this film? It is now available to watch online through our digital partners Caachi and Jaman.

Download to own on Caachi >>

Visit Jaman to rent online >>

Check out the video preview below:

Tags: caachi, film resources, Israel, Military

Two ITVS International Films Available Online Today

FAIR PLAY

SEEDS OF SUMMER

Looking to watch something from the comfort of your home this weekend? Last May, ITVS International began a partnership with Jaman, an Internet community and download service for world cinema. The site currently has seven ITVS International programs available to rent online or download to own. Check out the latest two films, which became available on Jaman today:

FAIR PLAY: A troupe of actors––most with learning disabilities––confront the challenges of being different, while rehearsing The Choice, an acclaimed play about abortion.

SEEDS OF SUMMER: At an army base in the heart of Israel’s southern desert two young female military recruits make the transformation from fragile, vulnerable young girls to confident soldiers and fierce fighters.

While you’re there, be sure to check out these other ITVS International programs:

CHAHINAZ: What Rights for Women?: A story about Chahinaz, a 20-year-old Algerian student, who begins to wonder what life is like for women in other Muslim countries and around the world.

IRANIAN KIDNEY BARGAIN SALE: An inside look at the growing organ industry in Iran, where every 10 minutes, a young person wishing to sell his or her kidney appears at the entrance of a kidney referral agency.

A WORKING MOM: A film about a divorced mother of two who returns to her home in Bolivia after 15 years of struggling for a better life in Israel, only to find that her family members have become strangers.

RELOCATED MOUNTAINS: A look at an Iraq refugee who risks his life by traveling back to his homeland to visit his grandmother before she dies.

ON WHEELS BRASIL: Following the lives of people that push, pull or pedal some kind of vehicle to earn their living on Brazil’s city streets, ON WHEELS BRASIL establishes a relationship between the wheel’s movement and the inconstancy of life.

View ITVS International films, when and where you want at the Jaman website >>

Tags: caachi, digital, independent film