Tag Archives: election

The ITVS Indie Roundup

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A curated list of indie news and recommendations from ITVS’s Rebecca Huval.

Can’t let go of election excitement? Here are 12 movies about elections that deserve a close rewatching, including The Manchurian Candidate (1962, 2004) and Milk (2008)/The Times of Harvey Milk (1984).

What a week for festivals! New York’s DOC NYC, an all-nonfiction fest Nov. 8-15, has an especially strong slate of films, including Oma & Bella, a documentary about two octogenarian survivors of the Holocaust in Berlin who cook childhood meals that conjure up vivid memories.

Another intriguing doc premiering at DOC NYC: The Pervert’s Guide to Cinema. Philosopher Slavoj Zizek tours through the history of cinema with a hilarious and insightful eye turned toward our unconscious urges. Here’s an interview with director Sophie Fiennes.

For those on the West Coast, the Napa Valley Film Festival will offer cinema with a side of wine and delicious food Nov. 7-11.

You might know The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters, a doc that follows hardcore arcade players trying to hit the world’s highest score on Donkey Kong. It’s not the only fabulous nonfiction film about oddballs. Here are nine others, including Independent Lens’s own Beauty is Embarrassing. Continue reading →

PBS Explores Immigration in Homeland

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Homeland: Immigration in America reveals the complexity of the election-year issue. The three-part series premieres nationally on PBS on Friday, July 20 and 27 at 10pm ET.

While immigration is a national issue this election year, it plays out daily in the lives of people in communities across the country. Homeland: Immigration in America explores the contemporary story of immigration in America. Narrated by Ray Suarez, senior correspondent for the PBS NewsHour, and produced by the Nine Network of Public Media in St. Louis, the series presents contemporary stories of immigrants—legal and illegal—and those who confront them, help them, employ them, and craft legislation that affects them. Continue reading →

Please Vote (For Me)

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Time is running out to exercise your democratic right to vote in this year’s midterm election. For those in need of some electoral inspiration, take a look at the 2007 ITVS International-funded documentary Please Vote for Me.

The fim, directed by Weijun Chen, follows students in an elementary school in China as they campaign for class monitor. If an 8-year-old can toil along the gritty campaign trail, surely you can mark up a ballot!

Enjoy this video feature on Please Vote for Me from today’s New York Times:

Watch HELL OF A NATION on Global Voices on PBS WORLD

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In Afghanistan in 2003, the road to becoming a delegate was almost as difficult as the terrain itself: only a fraction of Afghans would be elected to attend the country’s constitutional convention, the Loya Jirga. HELL OF A NATION offers an intimate look at two candidates struggling to participate in this landmark event.

HELL OF A NATION airs Sunday, September 13 at 10:00 PM on Global Voices on PBS WORLD (check local listings). A co-presentation with Thirteen/WNET New York

Tonight on Independent Lens: PLEASE VOTE FOR ME

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From Reality Blurred: Tonight, after today’s historic inauguration of Barack Obama and television’s non-stop celebration of this part of our democracy, PBS’ Independent Lens will re-air a documentary that explores democracy in a very different context: China’s first-ever democratic election in a school, which is for a third-grade hall monitor.

Watch a preview below:

PLEASE VOTE FOR ME airs tonight, January 20, on PBS’s Independent Lens at 10 PM (check local listings).