civil rights

Reconstructing History: Filmmakers Discuss Objective Storytelling

This is the companion piece to Scarred Justice: The Orangeburg Massacre 1968, which airs in February on public television, and 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.

Filmmakers Bestor Cram and Judy Richardson discuss how they visually reconstructed a shocking historical event of which there is very little archival footage, without influencing the objective telling of the story.

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).

Tags: African American, civil rights, social justice, South Carolina

Tuesday, January 26th, 2010 All Video, ITVS Broadcasts No Comments

Open Call Recipients: Noland Walker and Sharon LaCruise, Filmmakers of IN THE SHADOW LITTLE ROCK

ITVS’s Open Call provides finishing funds for single non-fiction or animation public television programs on any subject and from any viewpoint. Projects must have begun production as evidenced by a work-in-progress video.

Check out the clip below with filmmakers Noland Walker and Sharon LaCruise, who received Open Call funds for their film IN THE SHADOW LITTLE ROCK: The Life of Daisy Bates, which looks at the life of the African American political activist and newspaper publisher. Learn more about their film and why they thought it was the best fit for public television.

Interested in applying for Open Call? ITVS is looking for single public television programs on any subject, viewpoint or style. We fund programs that bring new audiences to public television and expand civic participation by bringing diverse voices into the public sphere. This year’s deadline is July 31, 2009.

Find more information about Open Call funding >>

Tags: African American, civil rights, Daisy Bates, Open Call

Monday, June 1st, 2009 All Video, ITVS Funding No Comments

American Experience and ITVS Explore Civil Rights in A CLASS APART

Tonight at 9:00 PM (check local listings), American Experience, in a co-production with ITVS, will present A CLASS APART, a documentary that tells the little-known story of a group of Mexican-American lawyers and their struggle to get a fair murder trial for Pete Hernandez, a Texas field hand.

Houston Chronicle: “…films about Mexican-Americans and other Latinos who struggled and prevailed against segregation and discrimination are few and far between. That scarcity emphasizes the significance of documentaries such as A CLASS APART.”

Check out a preview below:

A CLASS APART premieres tonight at 9:00 PM on American Experience on PBS (check local listings)

Tags: American Experience, civil rights, Mexican American, Texas

Monday, February 23rd, 2009 All Video, ITVS Broadcasts No Comments