fiction
Q&A with ITVS Programming Manager Karim Ahmad About FUTURESTATES
FUTURESTATES – ITVS’s new online fictional series — recently launched and had its theatrical premiere at South by Southwest (SXSW). The San Francisco Film Society interviewed ITVS Programming Manager Karim Ahmad about the series, which it described as a “forward thinking initiative.” Check out the Q&A below from their blog SF360.org.
Greg Pak's Mister Green, created for ITVS's FUTURESTATES, is a parable about change.
When you think of public television in the United States, science fiction, or any type of fiction, may not spring to mind.
Independent Television Services (ITVS) is trying to change that perception by creating a series of 11 fictional mini-features on American society in the not-too-distant future. Launched March 8 as an immersive destination website to be available for free via streaming video with subsequent distribution on pbs.org, FUTURESTATES feautres directors such as Greg Pak (Robot Stories) and Ramin Bahrani (Goodbye Solo) thinking into the future while staying tethered to current events. The series dropped down on the South by Southwest and San Francisco International Asian American film festival this past month, and after viewing two of the mini-features at an event held at the Jellyfish Gallery in SOMA sponsored by Next American City magazine and ITVS, I sat down with FUTURESTATES programming manager Karim Ahmad to talk about the forward-thinking initiative.
SF360: You mentioned something at the event launching the series about only having the filmmakers project a little bit into the future, not going 100 years from now but more so 10, 15 into the future.
Karim Ahmad: Well, there’s definitely some variance from film to film. One film Plastic Bag which was directed by Ramin Bahrani . . . you follow a plastic bag as it goes home with its ‘maker,’ the woman who takes it home from the store. It lives with this woman for a period of months until it gets thrown away eventually. And then it goes to a landfill where it’s buried for years and years, an unforeseeable amount of time. And then when it finally becomes free . . . .
In the News: The Latest on ITVS Programs
“ITVS is best known for its financing of documentaries, many of which appear on PBS’s Independent Lens series. The organization will present [FUTURESTATES -- ] a series of brief, fictional films that cast social issues into the future, in the hopes of drawing a younger audience not necessarily interested in public television.”
Read more >>
“Toss the tea leaves; we can read our future in [Dirt! The Movie] — and the outlook is grimy.”
Read more >>
“Filmmaker Laura Poitras traveled to Yemen searching for a person who was returning from the Guantanamo Bay prison in Cuba… Her film, The Oath, tells Bahri’s story [Osama bin Laden’s former bodyguard] and how he now favors a pen instead of a gun. It often delves into his confused emotions — he pledged the al-Qaida oath but no longer fights.”
Read more >>
Vice President and Independent Lens series producer Lois Vossen discusses the upcoming broadcasts Lost Souls (Animas Perdidas), and Whatever It Takes.
FUTURESTATES’s Predict-o-Meter: You’re the Oracle
We’re really excited about FUTURESTATES –– ITVS’s brand new online fictional series. The website (http://www.futurestates.tv) includes 11 fictional mini-features –– available to watch for free –– that explore possible future scenarios through the lens of today’s global realities.
But did you have a chance to check out the “Predict-o-Meter” yet? After watching a few episodes, forecast future events and explore the predictions left by others on the immersive timeline.
When will the ice caps melt? Will our first female president be elected? Will the rainforest rebound, or disappear? Will California sink into the Pacific?
Submit your own prediction and see others about what lies ahead >>
ITVS’s FUTURESTATES Profiled in The New York Times
FUTURESTATES has arrived!
The new online fictional series from ITVS represents a huge innovation for public media. Check out the New York Times story below to learn more about the creative concept behind the series and what makes it so unique.
Also, be sure to watch FUTURESTATES today by visiting http://www.futurestates.tv and tell us what you think!
For Web and Public TV, Brief Films That Dramatize Issues
By Elizabeth Jensen
March 7, 2010
ITVS is best known for its financing of documentaries, many of which appear on PBS’s Independent Lens series. But beginning on Monday, the organization will present a series of brief, fictional films that cast social issues into the future, in the hopes of drawing a younger audience not necessarily interested in public television.
The new films, 11 in all, will appear first on the Web, and later move to broadcast. Their subjects will be familiar to those who watch ITVS-financed documentaries: climate change, immigration and exploitation of the poor, among other social issues. Under the series title FUTURESTATES, the films will give fictional treatments to the same kinds of subjects, some with a science-fiction twist, exploring how those issues can play out in the future.
The films, which run about 15 minutes each, are meant to attract a diverse audience of so-called millennials, young adults in their 20s and 30s, as well as filmmakers in that demographic group, said Sally Jo Fifer, the president and chief executive of ITVS. Fiction is “what they’re working in,” said Ms. Fifer, and online is where to reach them, ITVS executives said. “We wanted to get that demographic in the public media family,” Ms. Fifer added.
FUTURESTATES: A New Online Fictional Series From ITVS
X (Anthony Giangrande) is created as a robot in the story-within-a-story in Tent City by Aldo Velasco.
The wait is finally over!
Today, ITVS launched FUTURESTATES –– a brand new online fictional series that explores many of today’s complex social issues by imagining how they play out in the world of tomorrow.
Each of the 11 episodes are available for free on the series website www.futurestates.tv and will be available on pbs.org in April. FUTURESTATES will also have its theatrical premiere at South by Southwest on Sunday, March 14.
ITVS worked with some of today’s best and emerging indie filmmakers to complete the 11 films for the series. Contributors include acclaimed American director Ramin Bahrani, whose mini-feature entitled Plastic Bag is narrated by the legendary Werner Herzog, Greg Pak’s Mister Green and Tze Chun’s Silver Sling.
What life might look like in America in the decades and centuries to come?
ITVS Launches New Online Fictional Series on Monday
A surrogate (Diana Masi) looks at her new scar in Tze Chun's Silver Sling.
What will life look like in America in the decades and centuries to come?
On Monday, March 8, ITVS will launch FUTURESTATES –– a new online fictional series that represents a huge innovation for public media.
Each of the 11 episodes will be available for free beginning March 8 on the series website www.futurestates.tv with subsequent distribution on pbs.org. FUTURESTATES will also have its theatrical premiere at South by Southwest on Sunday, March 14.
Have your own predictions for the future? Be sure to tell us on the “Predict-o-Meter,” a unique feature on the FUTURESTATES website where you can submit your own predictions about life in the future, and comment on the predictions of others. Think you know when the ice caps will melt? Know when we’ll elect our first female president? Will the rainforest rebound or disappear? Share your predictions with us on Monday.
Are you as excited as we are? Then you won’t want to miss the extended series trailer below!
Sneak Preview of FUTURESTATES episode Fallout
It’s almost here… ITVS’s new fictional online series — FUTURESTATES — launches online March 8 and will have its theatrical world premiere at South by Southwest (SXSW) on March 14.
FUTURESTATES explores possible future scenarios through the prism of today’s global reality. America circa 2010 sits at the crux of competing and paradoxical forces of creation and destruction. Never before have we been capable of such great discovery and accomplishment, and yet our very existence hangs in balance as climate change, weapons of mass destruction, and economic collapse threaten our very existence.
Check out this sneak preview of Fallout, by Ben Rekhi. The War on Terror has escalated drastically, bringing America into conflict with countless enemies. Los Angeles has fallen victim to a nuclear attack from an unknown aggressor. In the aftermath of the bombing, a young man’s search for his girlfriend addresses the human toll of eternal war.
Join the FUTURESTATES Facebook Fan Page and watch other clips >>
A Sneak Peek at FUTURESTATES: A New Online Fictional Series
What will become of America in five, 25, or even 50 years from today?
Beginning March 8, ITVS will launch a new online fictional series called FUTURESTATES, which will explore many of today’s complex social issues by imagining how they play out in the world of tomorrow.
The series will be accessible exclusively online and be available for free. ITVS worked with over 20 of today’s best and emerging indie filmmakers to complete the 11 films for the series. Contributors include acclaimed director Ramin Bahrani, whose mini-feature entitled Plastic Bag is narrated by the legendary Werner Herzog, Greg Pak’s Mister Green and Tze Chun’s Silver Sling.
Can’t wait until March 8? Watch the video preview below. Also be sure to join the brand new FUTURESTATES Facebook Fan Page to watch more video previews and to get the latest news on the series.
Join the FUTURESTATES Facebook Fan Page and watch other clips >>
At AFI Digifest with Programming Manager Karim Ahmad
Matthew Meschery, director of Digital Initiatives, and Karim Ahmad, programming manager, present the new FUTURESTATES iPhone application.
Last week, on the heels of the announcement about FUTURESTATES, a new online fictional series by ITVS, I had the pleasure of previewing the series and one of its key distribution and promotional tools at this year’s AFI Digifest. This was part of AFI’s Digital Content Lab, an incubation program where content makers and technical innovators collaborate to create new media projects. For ITVS, it was our first-ever iPhone application.
This is the third year ITVS has collaborated, and this time, we really sought to break new ground. FUTURESTATES is about the future––each episode presents a different filmmaker’s vision of the not-too-distant future, allowing them to use speculative and science fiction to comment on current events. We were determined to match this content with technical innovation in our distribution approach. That’s how we got the idea of the FUTURESTATES iPhone application.
To go from the basic concept to the presentation of the prototype took us less than two months, due solely to the talent and resourcefulness of the team AFI put together for us. We worked with iPhone app developers Omnilogic Systems, based out of Saskatoon Saskatchewan (that’s right, Saskatoon) and new media guru Garnet Hertz. We started with the basics––full episodes from the series as well as behind the scenes photos and videos streaming to your iPhone––because after all, the future is content accessible anywhere on-demand.
FUTURESTATES: A New Online Fictional Series
What might life look like in an America of the future?
Beginning March 2010, ITVS will launch a new online fictional series called FUTURESTATES, which will consist of 11 mini-features each 15 minutes in length, created by independent filmmakers. These short narrative films will explore many of today’s complex social issues by imagining how they play out in the world of tomorrow.
ITVS worked with over 20 of today’s best and emerging indie filmmakers to complete the 11 films for the series. Contributors include acclaimed director Ramin Bahrani, whose mini-feature entitled PLASTIC BAG is narrated by the legendary Werner Herzog, Greg Pak ‘s MISTER GREEN and Tze Chun’s SILVER SLING.
Initially, the series will be accessible exclusively online via ITVS’s redesigned website (launching in early 2010) and be available for free—via streaming video—on the new site’s enhanced broadband video player.
Integral to ITVS’s production of the series is the development of online engagement activities with interactive features and opportunities for viewers to express their own ideas about life in the decades and centuries to come. ITVS has been collaborating with AFI’s Digital Content Lab in designing some of the interactive features to accompany the series, including a crowd-sourced timeline of past and future events. FUTURESTATES brings together several key components of ITVS’s strategy for a sustainable competitive public media.
“We know that fewer and fewer people are watching programs through traditional appointment viewing. By combining online viewing with a shorter-format and edgy content with a sci-fi twist, we are going to new reach audiences with programs that inspire and inform,” says Sally Jo Fifer, ITVS President and CEO. “And of course, we are keenly interested in making FUTURESTATES available for public television broadcast down the road, and we aim to bring new audiences with us.”
Subscribe to Beyond the Box blog to get updates on FUTURESTATES >>
Recent Posts
Archives
Categories
- #ILDocClub
- All Video
- Ask Programming
- Audio Podcasts
- Awards
- Community Cinema
- Community Classroom
- Exclusive
- Film Festivals
- Filmmaker Profile
- From the President's Desk
- FUTURESTATES
- Global Voices
- Half the Sky
- In the News
- Independent Lens
- Indie Roundup
- Inside Indies
- Institutional Updates
- ITVS Broadcasts
- ITVS Deep Dive
- ITVS Funding
- ITVS indie roundup
- ITVS Indies Showcase
- ITVS International
- Live Chat
- Minority Consortia
- New Online
- On the Road
- Producer Resources
- Public Media
- Recently Funded
- Social Media
- Social Screening
- Special Events
- Talkback
- Uncategorized
- Women and Girls Lead
Related sites
Film Blogs
Public Media Blogs
-
Get the Beyond the Box e-newsletter, sent monthly with the latest news about ITVS, funding opportunities and more. Enter your email and sign up.
-
Sign up for the Independent Lens newsletter. Get news once a week during the broadcast season (fall-spring).