DOC TALKS Teleseminar to feature Independent Lens Series Producer

Lois Vossen is the series producer of Independent Lens

What does it take to get your doc on Independent Lens? How is the Emmy Award-winning series curated? Don’t ask us, ask Lois Vossen, series producer for Independent Lens and Vice President at ITVS.

Lois will be answering questions by phone via DOC TALKS, a teleseminar hosted by DocuMentors, an online documentary resource and learning center. If you’ve watched our video excerpts featuring Lois  on how the series is produced, the teleseminar will provide an opportunity to get all your burning questions answered on how to get your doc on the series.

The teleseminar is set for Thursday, October 14^th at 5PM Pacific for registered participants (click here for more info). The call will be recorded and available for replay for 24 hours, and  after Friday, October 15th at 6PM Pacific, it will be archived in the DocuMentors members area.

If you missed the video excerpts on how Independent Lens is produced and the services provided by ITVS in support of the broadcasts,  check out the video below.

Tags: doc films, doc talks, docs, independent films, Independent Lens, live chat, lois vossen, PBS, producing, public television

Emmy Winner Geoffrey Smith on The English Surgeon

Filmmaker Geoffrey Smith won an Emmy Monday night for The English Surgeon

Filmmaker Geoffrey Smith has made more than 22 films throughout his career and has collected numerous awards for his work. On Monday night, he picked up an Emmy for The English Surgeon, his film about a British neurosurgeon who confronts the dilemmas of the doctor-patient relationship on his latest mission to Ukraine. The documentary was supported by ITVS International (speaking of, the deadline for our 2011 International Call has been changed to December 10, 2010). Smith spoke to BTB about the Emmy, the film, and the ITVS funding that helped from the start.

First off, congratulations on the Emmy! What can you tell us about Monday night’s event in NYC?

Thanks! It was very wet in New York City. Central Park looked very British and so I felt right at home. It was great to see all of my colleagues.
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Tags: docs, Emmy, film funding, funding, Independent Lens, indie, international, ITVS, New York, PBS, the english surgeon

Pushing the Elephant Goes to DC

Rose Mapendo, Congressman Ted Poe, Ritu Sharma, Ambassador (Ret.) George Ward, Samantha Mathis

This past Wednesday and Thursday, September 15^th and 16^th, the filmmakers of Pushing the Elephant (PTE), Beth Davenport and Elizabeth Mandel, and their main subject, Rose Mapendo, traveled to Washington DC  — in cooperation with ITVS — to raise awareness around violence against women and girls internationally. Also along were Rose’s brother, Kigabo, and outreach coordinator, Kim Borba. Filmmakers Davenport and Mandel filed this report for BTB.

Our first stop was the World Bank. In an event hosted jointly by the Bank’s Social Development Department and the World Bank Institute Fragile States Program, we generated concrete dialogue among fifty World Bank staff and partners on the role of leadership and reconciliation in response to violence in fragile and post-conflict countries. A panel that included Fragile States staff, Rose and the filmmakers followed the screening. The discussion focused on ways Rose’s experience could help Bank staffers better understand the communities in which they are working. Tamara Gould (vice president, ITVS International) introduced the program, contextualizing the value of social-issue media in inspiring action. Our advisory council member Kury Cobham, an operations officer in the Social Development Civil Society Fund, at the World Bank, organized the event and supported its success within the Bank. › Continue reading

Tags: Africa, congo, d.c, docs, documentary, drc, Independent Lens, international film, ITVS, kerger, PBS, pushing the elphant, rose mapendo, washington

Ferrera Waxes Enthusiastic about New IL Season

America Ferrera

America Ferrera, the host of the upcoming season of Independent Lens did us proud in Entertainment Weekly’s PopWatch column today. In it she hinted that she might like to get involved in a documentary project in the near future, and also revealed which two films coming up in this Independent Lens season are her personal favorites (we’re not telling, go see for yourself!).

Here’s an excerpt from the interview to whet your appetite, then click through for the whole article:

Ferrera: I have been a part of many independent projects, and I feel kinship with independent filmmakers, and I love documentaries. I feel that this is a really wonderful thing, that PBS › Continue reading

Tags: america ferrera, docs, documentaries, entertainment weekly, Independent Lens, indie docs, indie films, ITVS, PBS, ugly betty

Adoption Stories Front and Center on P.O.V.

Off and Running, directed by Nicole Opper

This month, P.O.V. presents two ITVS-funded documentaries about adoption including Off and Running and In The Matter of Cha Jung Hee.

Off and Running airs tonight on P.O.V. (check local listings) and follows Avery, an African American teenager and the adopted daughter of two Jewish lesbian moms in Brooklyn. On a quest to meet her birth mother in Texas, Avery begins to uncover the missing pieces of her identity.

Watch the trailer for Off and Running:

Check out some behind-the-scenes › Continue reading

Tags: adoption, Brooklyn, China, docs, indie films, ITVS, New York, P.O.V., PBS, prop 8, same sex marriage

New Independent Lens Season Unveiled in L.A.

Lois Vossen, series producer for Independent Lens, reports from the Television Critics Association Press Tour in Los Angeles.

Hello from the Television Critics Association (TCA) Summer Press Tour. The TCA represents 200 journalists who write about television for print and online outlets in the U.S. and Canada. Twice a year, they gather in what Tim Goodman, TV writer for the San Francisco Chronicle, refers to as a “death march with cocktails.” It’s two weeks holed up in a swanky hotel in Los Angeles to see what’s coming to television. PBS invites series to present during the two days that PBS is showcased.

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Tags: Bhutto, docs, documentary, Independent Lens, indie films, ITVS, PBS, Press Tour, public television, tca