In February 2012, Independent Lens will lead the celebration of Black History Month on public television with premieres of three new documentaries that shine a unique light on the history of African American activism, with one provocatively re-examining of the whole idea of Black History Month.

Independent Lens’s Black History Month program kicks off on February 2, 2012 with the premiere of Daisy Bates: First Lady of Little Rock, the story of a seven-year journey by filmmaker Sharon La Cruise to get to know the mostly forgotten civil rights activist Daisy Bates.

Beautiful, glamorous, and articulate, Bates was fearless in her quest for justice, stepping into the spotlight to bring national attention to issues — and some say to herself.

Unconventional and egotistical, she became a household name in 1957 when she fought for the right of nine black students to attend the all-white Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas. Her public campaign culminated in a constitutional crisis — pitting a president against a governor and a community against itself.

Fresh from a successful theatrical run, Independent Lens presents Göran Hugo Olsson’s The Black Power Mixtape 1967–1975 on February 9, 2012 . In the late 1960s and early 1970s, Swedish television journalists came to America to document the burgeoning Black Power movement.

This fascinating film weaves this long-lost trove of film into an irresistible mosaic chronicling the movement’s evolution: footage shot on the streets of Harlem, Brooklyn, and Oakland; interviews with Black Power leaders including Stokely Carmichael, Angela Davis, and Eldridge Cleaver; and contemporary audio interviews with leading African American artists, activists, musicians, and scholars. The film provides a fascinating look at the people, society, culture, and style that fueled an era of convulsive change.

Finally, on February 16, 2012, More Than a Month follows African American filmmaker Shukree Hassan Tilghman on a cross-country campaign to end Black History Month. Humorous and thought provoking, More Than a Month combines cinema verité, man-on-the-street interviews, and inspired dramatizations to explore what the treatment of history tells us about race and power in “post-racial” America. What does it mean that we have a Black History Month? What would it mean if we didn’t?

In addition to the film, the Independent Lens team will unveil More Than a Map(p), a smartphone application that uses a phone’s GPS to point users in the direction of the nearest location relevant to African American history. Users can experience each point in a variety of ways including text, video, audio, and links to more information. What makes More Than a Map(p) truly unique is the user’s ability to add his or her own historical points to the map — points that then become part of everyone’s app. More Than a Map(p) will be available on iTunes February 2012.

On Thursday, January 5, 2012, Independent Lens will present its Black History Month slate at the Television Critics Association meetings in Los Angeles. At the event, filmmakers Sharon La Cruise and Shukree Hassan Tilghman will be joined by legendary activist, scholar, and icon Dr. Angela Davis.

“It is beyond exciting that Dr. Davis has agreed to join us for this presentation, and to support Black History Month on public broadcasting,” said Lois Vossen, series producer for Independent Lens. “This important programming will reach more African American families — and more Americans overall — because of her participation.”

Two of the three films — Daisy Bates and More than a Month — will also be featured in ITVS’s acclaimed Community Cinema program, where local public television stations team up with community-based organizations and NGOs to present special live preview screenings. With expert speakers and panel discussions to help contextualize the programs, these screenings give audiences the opportunity to get involved. More than 100 screenings of each film will take place in cities and towns across the country during the months of January and February. Find more information and screenings your area, here.

In addition, Daisy Bates is also part of the ITVS-led Women and Girls Lead campaign, a three-year public media initiative to focus, educate, and connect citizens worldwide in support of the issues facing women and girls. By building a pipeline of some 50 public television documentaries and integrating content from partners across radio, commercial television, and beyond, Women and Girls Lead offers another model for public media to serve its mission in the 21st century.

To learn more about the films, and the issues involved, visit the companion website. Get detailed information on each film, watch preview clips, read interviews with the filmmakers, and explore the subjects in depth with links and resources. The site also features a Talkback section where viewers can share their ideas and opinions.

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.

The documentary examines the evolution of the Black Power Movement in the black community and diaspora from 1967 to 1975. The film combines music, startling 16mm footage (lying undiscovered in the cellar of Swedish Television for 30 years), and contemporary audio interviews from leading African American artists, activists, musicians, and scholars.

Watch a trailer after the jump >>

John J. Valadez, director of The Longoria Affair

We hope you enjoyed The Longoria Affair last night on Independent Lens. For those who missed it, you can watch online!

The documentary will be streamed in its entirety from November 10 until November 16 in English and from November 10 until January 10, 2011 in Spanish.

Watch Director John J. Valadez’s film about how  a civil rights movement was sparked when a funeral home in Texas refused to provide a wake for a Mexican American soldier’s body in WWII.

Enjoy the clips below…

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John J. Valadez directed The Longoria Affair

The Longoria Affair airs Tuesday night on Independent Lens at 10 PM (check local listings). The documentary will also be streamed in its entirety online from November 10 until November 16. Plus, we are excited to offer the program in Spanish from November 10 until January 10, 2011. (There are two Independent Lens websites, too: one in English and one in Spanish.)

Director John J. Valadez’s film examines the story of Private Felix Longoria, an American citizen of Mexican descent who was killed fighting in the Pacific Theater for the United States during WWII. After Longoria’s body was sent home to Three Rivers, Texas, the town’s only funeral parlor refused to provide him a wake because “the whites wouldn’t like it.”

The incident created deep divisions in Three Rivers, tensions that last even today,  but it also helped launch the Mexican American civil rights movement, elect John Kennedy to the White House, and lead Lyndon Johnson to sign the most important civil rights legislation of the 20th century.

Watch The Longoria Affair on Independent Lens Tuesday night or online (in both English and Spanish) starting November 10.

William Kunstler: Disturbing the Universe

With America’s best known civil rights lawyer still fresh in everyone’s thoughts, the daughters fielded a wide range of questions from viewers. One participant asked how their father would have felt about the internet as a platform for activism. Both Emily and Sarah were convinced he would have been obsessed with following his press mentions through “Google alerts.” Read the full transcript from last night’s chat here.

Plus, watch exclusive behind-the-scenes footage from the film. Here you will see how Michelangelo’s David, an inspiration to a young William Kunstler, came to life through animation.

A self-described radical, Kunstler was one of the best-known civil rights attorneys in American history. He came from a privileged background and settled as a lawyer in Westchester County in the 1950s, setting up a small practice with his family. But Kunstler cut his teeth in the 1960s, representing freedom riders in Mississippi on behalf of the ACLU.

His daughters refer to him as a “silver tongued, pied piper,” who could charm a jury and bring national attention to underserved members of society. Kunstler passionately battled for the demands of the American Indian Movement in Wounded Knee, South Dakota, and later, the inmates of Attica prison.

It was his handling of the Chicago Seven case in 1969, however, that made him famous. Kunstler represented seven individuals charged with inciting race riots during the 1968 Democratic National Convention. He sparred openly with the judge and prosecutor and was cited for contempt, nearly facing an unprecedented four years in prison.

His relentless defense of the underdog was questioned late in his career when he chose to represent figures who had been demonized in the press. His decision to stand behind terror suspects, mafia members and cop killers in court tarnished his public image.

Emily and Sarah Kunstler are better equipped than anyone to relay the story behind their father and they invite us into a world only they could know. Part eulogy, part biography, Disturbing the Universe is an arresting portrayal of a fascinating American life.

Check your local listings on PBS and watch William Kunstler: Disturbing the Universe, tonight on POV.

After the broadcast be sure to participate in a live chat with the filmmakers Emily and Sarah Kunstler here. The online conversation will begin at 11:30p EST.

Read additional coverage of the film and filmmakers from a recent piece in the New Yorker Magazine.

Since then, his work as a producer, director, and writer has focused on creating films that explore the rich history and culture of African Americans and their contributions.

His work has included numerous ground-breaking projects such as Up & Coming, a 25-part drama series about an African-American family struggling between working- and middle-class in San Francisco; Booker, a one-hour drama based on the childhood of Booker T. Washington; and numerous other films that aired on American Masters and public television including Simple Justice, Street Soldiers, and Ralph Ellison: An American Journey.

More recently, Kirkland played a pivotal role as executive producer of Sam Cooke: Crossing Over, on which he worked with producer/director John Antonelli to secure completion funding from ITVS. The film looks at the musical and political significance of composer, performer, and pioneering pop music entrepreneur Sam Cooke and the circumstances that led to his murder.

Check out this video where Kirkland explains the impact and importance of the legendary singer.

Learn more about this film >>

Read our interview with John Antonelli from last month >>

Haven’t heard of the tragedy? Well, be sure to tune into public television this month to watch the ITVS film Scarred Justice: The Orangeburg Massacre 1968, where filmmakers Bestor Cram and Judy Richardson investigate the continued cover-up of the tragedy and the ongoing efforts to seek justice.

Watch an extended clip of this program below:

Scarred Justice: The Orangeburg Massacre 1968 airs in February on public television (check local listings).

A co-production of ITVS in association with the National Black Programming Consortium (NBPC).

Nine-year-old Pricilla from P-Star Rising, airing Feb. 9 at 10:00 PM on Independent Lens on PBS.

Mine, premiering Feb. 16 at 10:00 PM on Independent Lens on PBS.

ITVS and PBS offers viewers the opportunity to explore the rich and vibrant history and cultural contributions of African Americans throughout the year, but this month offers a special slate of new and encore programs in honor of Black History Month.

Independent Lens brings race to the forefront with four new films in February. Herskovits at the Heart of Blackness, debuting Feb. 2, explores the often-overlooked legacy of Jewish anthropologist Melville Herskovits, whose ideas in the 40s and 50s challenged the accepted assumptions about race and culture. Then, tune in on Feb. 9 for P-Star Rising, which looks at nine-year-old Pricilla who wants to be the youngest female rap star ever and her single father who is determined to help her make it big. This film also closes out the special line-up of compelling films as part of Independent Lens’s Music Month.

A third film, Mine, premiering Feb. 16, tells the poignant and powerful story of animals left behind during Katrina, and of the struggles of hurricane victims to reunite with their beloved pets. Finally, Behind the Rainbow, airing Feb. 23, unearths once-hidden realities of South Africa’s political obstacles on the path to democracy.

Other ITVS films airing this month on PBS include: February One: The Story of the Greensboro Four, which looks at the pivotal event in the Civil Rights Movement when four college students staged a sit-in at a Woolworth’s lunch counter in Greensboro, North Carolina in 1960, and Scarred Justice: The Orangeburg Massacre 1968, which investigates the continued cover-up of the tragedy of 1968 on the campus of South Carolina State University and follows ongoing efforts to seek justice.

Get local broadcast information >>

Thousands of hours of PBS programming are available on the PBS Video Portal, including a special collection for Black History Month.

Visit PBS Video >>

Watch these video clips of upcoming new Independent Lens programs (check local listings):

Herskovits at the Heart of Blackness, Feb. 2 at 10:00 PM on Independent Lens on PBS

P-Star Rising, Feb. 9 at 10:00 PM on Independent Lens on PBS

Mine, Feb. 16 at 10:00 PM on Independent Lens on PBS

Behind the Rainbow, Feb. 23 at 10:00 PM on Independent Lens on PBS