environmental
In the News: The Latest on ITVS Programs
Correspondent Jeffrey Brown interviews Megum Sasaki, the director and producer of HERB & DOROTHY. [TRT: 7 minutes].
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“Independent Lens begins its eighth season with Megumi Sasaki’s HERB & DOROTHY, about the unlikely art collectors Herb and Dorothy Vogel of New York, which Nathan Lee called a ‘modest, touching documentary’ in The New York Times.”
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Director Bo Boudart discusses his film POWER PATHS on New American Media.
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“…Roberta Grossman’s beautifully made BLESSED IS THE MATCH… Won audience awards at numerous Jewish film festivals and a spot on the shortlist for the Academy Award for best documentary feature (though it ultimately didn’t receive a nomination). It also is slated to air next April on PBS.”
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ITVS Explores the Global Water Crisis Beginning Tonight on The Documentary Channel
Concerned about the global water crisis? Do you think the media could do a better job of telling the story?
Be sure to watch an enlightening quartet of international documentaries designed to bring awareness and attention to the worldwide water crisis beginning tonight, September 7 at 9:00 PM on The Documentary Channel.
Through the support of the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, ITVS and the Knight Center for International Media at the University of Miami collaborated to form the 1H20 Project. Working with a select group of public broadcasters from Asia, Africa and Latin America, the 1H20 Project supports programming about water issues and potential solutions worldwide.
In the News: The Latest on ITVS Programs
“Like numerous makers of nonfiction film, [Bill] Benenson believes the critical platform for documentaries is television. Regardless of what happens to DIRT! The Movie in theaters, the film will be a part of next year’s Earth Day programming presented by PBS and ITVS, the Independent Television Service.”
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“SCARRED JUSTICE: The Orangeburg Massacre 1968 explores an inexplicably forgotten incident when black student protestors were killed by police. It’s an important work of historical reportage.”
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“Even atheists may find their world rocked by Nati Baratz’s UNMISTAKEN CHILD, a simple documentary about a Buddhist monk’s search for the reincarnated soul of his beloved teacher.”
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“I saw a good–no, a very good–movie the other day… It’s called THE ENGLISH SURGEON, and it’s about a brain surgeon who does pro bono work in Ukraine.”
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Ithaca Community Cinema Reports on TAKING ROOT
Ithaca Community Cinema recently held a screening of the Independent Lens film TAKING ROOT: The Vision of Wangari Maathai at S.T.A.M.P.‘s Guerrilla Griots Human Rights Media Arts Center. TAKING ROOT tells the dramatic story of Kenyan Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Wangari Maathai whose simple act of planting trees grew into a global movement. Afterwards, a discussion was led by the film’s musical composer and two sisters from Kenya who participated in the Green Belt Movement. Read more about this event and its impact in the report below from the Guerrilla Griots blog.
The Ithaca Community Cinema screening of TAKING ROOT.
TAKING ROOT music composer Samite of Uganda with the one of the Kamau sisters of Kenya.
S.T.A.M.P.’s Guerrilla Griots Human Rights Media Arts Center is one of over 50 venues throughout the United States who participate in a free, monthly screening series in partnership with ITVS and PBS. Community Cinema is a monthly screening series which creates accessible opportunities for civic engagement and public education around important social issues.
To bring in Spring, Community Cinema featured TAKING ROOT: The Vision of Wangari Maathai. TAKING ROOT tells the dramatic story of Kenyan Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Wangari Maathai whose simple act of planting trees grew into a nationwide movement to safeguard the environment, protect human rights and defend democracy––a movement for which this charismatic woman became an iconic inspiration. On March 20, over 100 people from the greater Ithaca area packed a small screening room downtown to watch the film; listen to the inspiration of TAKING ROOT musical composer Samite of Uganda; learn from two sisters from Kenya who participated in the Green Belt Movement; and share local, fair-trade and organic fare courtesy of GreenStar Community Projects.
Recent Talkback About Independent Lens This Month
Always thought-provoking, sometimes controversial, Independent Lens brings you documentaries, dramas, shorts and Web-exclusive projects made by independent thinkers. Check out some of the recent Talkback.
TAKING ROOT:
The Vision of Wangari Maathai
“I have never felt such pride in my entire 36 years of life. I felt that this incredible story should be required viewing for children in all the world schools. To think that someone so unassuming and undervalued in that particular society, was capable of effecting such an epic change. Thank you PBS, for bringing this story to television. My 10 year old is getting a valued lesson in life from watching these programs with me.”
Posted by: Eurica on April 17, 2009
“I watched this beautiful, hope-inspiring, powerful story sitting upright on my bed with tears streaming down my face. It made me want to go out and start a grassroots women’s movement… It is just what we need. To use planting of trees and women as a spiritual focal point of the earths renewal, healing and protection; symbolically translating into personal renewal and healing, spreading to families, groups, communities and national pride.”
Posted by: Kathy Struewing on April 21, 2009
“This story is just what the world should be aware of at this time of economic, social, and political chaos. Keeping focus on what really matters in life is what this story teaches us.”
Posted by: Malia Cross on April 20, 2009
View more Talkback and submit your own for TAKING ROOT >>
RECYCLE:
“So much of our visual references to Muslims have come in disjointed clips on the evening news… I truly felt I was walking along beside this man and I so wanted to shake his hand and look him in the eye by the end of this film.”
Posted by: Harry Garvin on April 16, 2009
“At many instances the movie brought tears to my eyes. I think this story is presented more from a humanitarian perspective rather than religious conventions or beliefs. I am glad that, finally a movie such as this one was able to shed some light on the lives of people living that part of the world who are merely seeking to survive peacefully.”
Posted by: Raed on April 2, 2009
View more Talkback and submit your own for RECYCLE >>
In the News: The Latest on ITVS Programs
Host Amy Goodman speaks with Wangari Maathai about the Independent Lens film TAKING ROOT: The Vision of Wangari Maathai.
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“AT HOME IN UTOPIA a documentary by Michal Goldman, that will air on PBS’s Independent Lens, tells the story of the United Workers Cooperative Colony in the Bronx.”
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Host Marc Steiner speaks with Nobel Peace Prize winner Wangaria Maathai about TAKING ROOT.
Listen to the interview >>
“Community Cinema screening: TAKING ROOT: The Vision of Wangari Maathai tells the story of Kenyan Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Wangari Maathai, whose simple act of planting trees grew into a nationwide movement.”
Read more >>
TAKING ROOT Video Modules Available
ITVS is proud to present COMMUNITY CLASSROOM lesson plans and video modules for TAKING ROOT: The Vision of Wangari Maathai, which tells the story of Kenyan Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Wangari Maathai whose simple act of planting trees grew into a global movement.
Classroom activities and homework assignments examine how environmental issues such as deforestation are intricately linked to many other social issues, and how organizations such as the Green Belt Movement mobilize citizens to take action.
Standards aligned lesson plans are directed toward grades 9 through 12, and college students for use in the following subject areas: social studies, environmental studies, political science, women’s studies, international studies, world history, government and civics.
One Take Online Global Video Competition
ITVS and the University of Miami invite you to participate in One Take, an online global video competition that encourages participants to submit a video monologue responding to the question: “Is access to clean, safe water for drinking a basic human right? Why? or Why not?”
Grand Prize is $500 USD
Runner-up Prize $300 USD
Special prize of $300 USD – for the entry that is correctly subtitled in the most number of languages.
The competition will be open until June 15, 2009 and prizes will be announced on September 15, 2009.
Watch TAKING ROOT Tonight on Independent Lens
How does the simple act of planting trees lead to winning the Nobel Peace Prize? Ask Wangari Maathai of Kenya. In 1977, she suggested rural women plant trees to address problems stemming from a degraded environment. Under her leadership, their tree-planting grew into a nationwide movement to safeguard the environment, defend human rights and promote democracy and brought Maathai the Nobel Peace Prize in 2004.
“Lisa Merton and Alan Dater’s Kenyan TAKING ROOT… attests to the seismic changes wrought by women of different religions and ethnicities working together. [A] Lucid, lovingly crafted pic, which won the audience award at Hot Docs,” Daily Variety
Check out the trailer below:
TAKING ROOT: The Vision of Wangari Maathai airs tonight at 10:00 PM on Independent Lens on PBS (check local listings)
Watch MILKING THE RHINO Tonight on Independent Lens
Everyone has seen a nature documentary with a ferocious kill on the Serengeti Plain. Well, here’s a different story about villagers navigating the dangers and costs of living with wildlife. The Maasai of Kenya and Namibia’s Himba people are vying to share a piece of the eco-tourism pie. But can they fulfill the expectations of Westerners without abandoning their native culture?
“MILKING THE RHINO brings into focus the decades-long tension between efforts to conserve big game that attracts tourism and residents whose way of life is threatened,” The Plain Dealer (Cleveland, OH)
Check out the trailer below:
MILKING THE RHINO airs tonight at 10:00 PM on Independent Lens on PBS (check local listings)
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