film festival
Always Look on the Sunnyside of the Doc
Last month, the Sunnyside of the Doc International Documentary Market took place in La Rochelle, France. Cynthia Kane, ITVS International programming manager, was on hand to hear from producers and filmmakers from around the world about their latest projects. She reports back on the intimate climate of the event:
I honestly thought this might be a “light” year at Sunnyside given the economic crisis, the fact that Silverdocs was happening simultaneously in Silver Springs, and the EBU Pitching was taking place at France Télévisions in Paris instead of La Rochelle.
Morning meetings on the terrace at Sunnyside of the Doc
Yet, while U.S. participation was somewhat down, Sunnyside was alive and well — thriving in fact with almost 1,800 people in attendance from 48 countries. And, as manager of ITVS’s International Initiative, it was the right place for me to be.
What I have always loved about Sunnyside is the opportunity it provides me to sit down with filmmakers and producers for relaxed one-on-one meetings and in depth talks about their projects. This year was no different; I arrived on “the Terrace”every morning by 8:30 AM — coming in the back way, as the Espace Encan was not officially open till 9 AM (important to find a good table and get an early start).
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Tip of the Day: Engage Beyond the Broadcast
The internet is completely revolutionizing all kinds of media by freeing creators from linearity and one-way paradigms. Here at ITVS, we’ve been working with filmmakers for more than a decade to create multifaceted and multi-platform projects that liberate the story from dusty old limitations.
It’s easy to get stuck in a familiar way of doing things, but when you begin to think of your audience as a collaborator, and technology as an ally, you break into new dimensions and open up fresh perspectives on your story. We have a large library of the interactive projects we’ve produced in the past 10 year, and encourage you to check them out for ideas and inspiration.
At Tribeca All Access with ITVS Vice President of Programming Claire Aguilar
The Tribeca Film Festival was founded in 2002 as a response to the events of 9/11, to help Lower Manhattan recover after the tragedy, and to celebrate the vitality and diversity of New York City through filmmaking. Each year ITVS participates in the festival by meeting with filmmakers involved in the Tribeca All Access program. Read about ITVS’s involvement with Tribeca All Access from ITVS vice president of programming Claire Aguilar.
Claire Aguilar (center) with Miguel Martinez (left) and Jamie Sisley (right), the producers of Farewell, Ferris Wheel
An integral part of the festival, Tribeca All Access (TAA) facilitates and supports relationships between filmmakers from underrepresented communities and film industry executives. ITVS relies on TAA as a resource for finding exciting projects from filmmakers of color. TAA elicits an enthusiastic response from filmmakers and festival goers every year, not only because of the excellent quality projects in development, but also because of Tribeca’s commitment to diversity.
This year’s TAA opened with a welcome lunch at Megu restaurant where I was able to meet TAA filmmakers and TAA’s director, the wonderful Tamir Muhammad and his staff. Tribeca co-founder Jane Rosenthal welcomed guests and reaffirmed the festival’s commitment to TAA and lauded its success after nine years of supporting and nurturing filmmakers from the program: from initial meetings with industry representatives, to screenings at the festival. I was able to speak to filmmakers in a keynote address and talked about ITVS’s involvement and also our exciting online drama series FUTURESTATES, citing a number of TAA participants.
At SXSW with ITVS Programming Manager Karim Ahmad
Held annually in Austin, Texas, South By Southwest (SXSW) is considered one of the world’s premiere festivals, recognizing the best of film, music and interactive projects. ITVS Programming Manager Karim Ahmad gives some of the highlights from ITVS’s participation –– including the FUTURESTATES theatrical world premiere.
Programming Manager Karim Ahmad.
Matthew Meschery, ITVS director of digital initiatives, discusses FUTURESTATES at the SXSW trade show.
Preparation for a trip to the SXSW film festival usually entails digging through their program guide jam-packed full of screenings and panels and the like, and trying to figure out how to fit it all in. Soon thereafter, you realize that fitting it all in is a Sisyphean exercise –– it’s just plain impossible. This year in particular was a real banner year for ITVS at SXSW because we had the great pleasure and privilege of presenting the theatrical premiere of FUTURESTATES, our new series of short films, at the festival.
The films premiered Sunday evening to a huge crowd and some very animated reactions in the Austin Convention Center’s 500-seat G-Tech Theater. For me, it was a real thrill after over a year of developing these projects with the filmmakers, to finally get to watch these films with an audience and see how people relate to these innovative new stories about life in a future America.
Of course, the hordes of people who attended our opening didn’t get there all on their own. We had our work cut out for us getting people to the screening (see the aforementioned scheduling impossibilities). Luckily, in addition to me pounding the pavement from screening to screening promoting the FUTURESTATES premiere –– a tall order, when one is pre-occupied with reaching out to the next round of prospective FUTURESTATES applicants –– I also helped out our communications team. They manned a booth at the festival trade show, which was decked out to the nines in full FUTURESTATES regalia. At the booth, we screened some of the films; had a “Predict-O-Meter” station, where folks could enter their predictions into the interactive timeline; and of course, a generous supply of FUTURESTATES-branded microwave popcorn (must-have for any trade show booth).
Filmmaker Aldo Velasco at FUTURESTATES World Premiere at SXSW
Last weekend, FUTURESTATES had its theatrical world premiere at South by Southwest (SXSW). These narrative mini-features explore many of today’s complex social issues by imagining how they play out in the world of tomorrow. Find out what happened at the screening from Aldo Velasco, filmmaker of the FUTURESTATES episode Tent City.
Actor Mikel Chase with Aldo Velasco after the FUTURESTATES screening at SXSW.
When I learned that my film Tent City would be screening at SXSW as part of the FUTURESTATES presentation, I was editing a feature film in production in a jungle in India, near the Bhutanese border. I wanted to go to Austin but wasn’t sure if it was worth it; I’d have to leave production a week early, then travel for three and a half days around the globe to make it in time.
It was a crapshoot, because festival screenings are often a bit of a letdown. You arrive full of high hopes, but audiences rarely provide the kind of rapturous response that every filmmaker craves. But I had to see Tent City in front of an audience. This might be my only chance, because the FUTURESTATES shorts were created for Internet broadcast. Would my film’s complex story-within-a-story structure play in front of a crowd? One thing was for sure: I myself would not be able to enjoy my own screening. I’d be too nervous and too hypersensitive to the audience’s mood to relax.
But on Sunday, March 14, I was very pleasantly surprised. My film –– in fact all the films –– looked gorgeous splayed onto that stadium-sized screen at the Austin Convention Center. My previous digital shorts had looked a bit fuzzy when blown up to the silver screen. But Tent City, which was shot on the RED camera by the very talented Mathew Rudenberg, looked breathtaking –– at least to me! A large portion of my film is composed of black and white stills, used to relay a futuristic science-fiction story in the manner of Chris Marker’s La Jetée. With their inky blacks and icy whites, these stark still images surpassed all my expectations for the force of their narrative power.
Watch the FUTURESTATES series trailer:
FUTURESTATES Theatrical World Premiere at SXSW
Plan on attending South by Southwest (SXSW)? If so, you won’t want to miss the theatrical world premiere of FUTURESTATES –– ITVS’s new fictional series that explores what life will look like in America in the decades and centuries to come.
Join us on Sunday, March 14 at 5:00 PM, where we’ll be screening the following FUTURESTATES mini-features:
Mister Green, directed by Greg Pak
Plastic Bag, directed by Ramin Bahrani
The Rise, directed by Garret Williams
Silver Sling, directed by Tze Chun
Tent City, directed by Aldo Velasco
Tia & Marco, directed by Annie Howell
This is a unique opportunity to see these groundbreaking new films on the big screen at the one-of-a-kind SXSW Film Festival in high definition. Filmmakers Greg Pak, Annie Howell, Aldo Velasco, and Garret Williams will also be in attendance for a Q&A session, in addition to members of the ITVS staff.
This is your chance to ask all your pressing questions and learn more about this innovative project that’s unlike anything you’ve seen in public media.
We look forward to seeing you there!
ITVS Films at SXSW 2010
Held annually in Austin, Texas, South by Southwest (SXSW) is considered one of the world’s premiere festivals, recognizing the best of film, music and interactive projects. This year’s festival takes place March 12-21.
We’re really excited about this year’s festival! You won’t want to miss the world premiere of six episodes of our new online fictional series FUTURESTATES on March 14. These narrative mini-features explore many of today’s complex social issues by imagining how they play out in the world of tomorrow.
Learn more about FUTURESTATES on Beyond the Box >>
Also be sure to check out these four other compelling ITVS films at SXSW this year.
Six Films From ITVS’s FUTURESTATES to Premiere at SXSW
Held annually in Austin, Texas, South By Southwest (SXSW) is considered one of the world’s premiere festivals, recognizing the best of film, music, and interactive projects.
SXSW recently announced its 2010 film line-up and this year six ITVS films from our new online fictional series FUTURESTATES will have their theatrical premiere at the festival. These films include Mister Green by Greg Pak; Plastic Bag by Ramin Bahrani; The Rise by Garret Williams; Silver Sling by Tze Chun; Tent City by Aldo Velasco; and Tia & Marco by Annie Howell.
These narrative mini-features explore many of today’s complex social issues by imagining how they play out in the world of tomorrow.
Beginning March 2010, FUTURESTATES will be accessible exclusively online via ITVS’s redesigned website and will be available for free –– via streaming video –– on the new site’s enhanced broadband video player.
Reflections From the Sundance Film Festival
The Sundance Film Festival, held annually in Park City, Utah, is one of the largest and most prominent festivals for independent filmmakers. This year, three ITVS films made their world premiere at the festival, which brings the total number of ITVS funded films that have screened at Sundance to 69 since we first attended in 1994. Lois Vossen, ITVS vice president and Independent Lens series producer, shares her reflections on this year’s festival, which wraps up this weekend.
Between screenings, Lois discovers Banksy art behind the Egyptian Theater in Park City, Utah.
Marquee at the Egyptian Theatre
Arriving in Park City, Utah at 8:00 AM on Friday morning, January 22, a couple of things were clear: it was doubtful that I would get caught up on sleep here. The list of documentaries I needed to screen in the next five and a half days was growing faster than the snowdrift that lay between me and our condo front door –– and this was going to be a snowy Sundance.
Three ITVS funded films were featured at 2010 Sundance: Last Train Home by Lixin Fan, The Oath by Laura Poitras, and My Perestroika by Robin Hessman. My colleagues Claire Aguilar and Cynthia Kane attended their screenings and I headed out to find new shows for Independent Lens acquisition consideration.
Seventeen films, countless shuttle rides, bad sandwiches on the run, and many snowstorms later, here’s what I remember now that I’m back in sunny San Francisco.
- Discovering Banksy street art on Main Street at 8:00 AM, Monday morning, en route to an early morning screening. I know there has to be more so I’m in hot pursuit…
- The Impact Partners party on Saturday night. Jennifer Siebel Newsom, the wife of San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom, is in the house. We end up talking about the now-canceled TV show Life, and the joys of working with Adam Arkin with whom she starred.
- Unique offerings at Sundance 2010: Utopia in Four Movements by Sam Green; Double Take by Johan Grimonprez; and Saint Louis Blues by Dyana Gaye, a 48-minute musical documentary from Senegal. Too long but totally unexpected.
- Finding out when the next special screening of Exit Through the Gift Shop will take place. Banksy pursuit continues…
Three ITVS Films Selected to Compete at Sundance
It’s official… The 2010 Sundance Film Festival just announced their official selections and ITVS has three films in competition. This brings the total number of ITVS funded films that have screened at Sundance to 69 since we first attended in 1994.
The three ITVS films in competition include:
MY PERESTROIKA
By Robin Hessman
World Premiere
When the USSR broke apart in 1991, a generation of young people faced a new realm of possibilities. Filmmaker Robin Hessman follows this last generation of Soviet children brought up behind the Iron Curtain. Using a wealth of rare Russian footage, MY PERESTROIKA interweaves an intimate view of the past with the contemporary lives of a married couple and their childhood friends–telling the story of a nation still very much in transition.
A co-production of Red Square Productions/Bungalow Town Productions and ITVS International in association with American Documentary | P.O.V.
THE OATH
By Laura Poitras
World Premiere
Filmed in Yemen, THE OATH is a family drama about Al Qaeda and Guantanamo Bay Prison. This documentary is the second in a trilogy about America post 9/11. The first film, MY COUNTRY, MY COUNTRY, documented the U.S. occupation of Iraq from the perspective of an Iraqi family. The third film will focus on domestic surveillance.
This film is a co-production of ITVS.
LAST TRAIN HOME
By Lixin Fan
U.S. Premiere
China experiences the largest internal migration in the world as rural workers travel to cities looking for employment. In LAST TRAIN HOME, filmmaker Lixin Fan follows the Zhang family who save all year to travel home for Chinese New Year, along with over 100 million other migrant workers, hoping to salvage the relationship with their teenage daughter.
An EyeSteelFilm production in association with ITVS International.
The festival will be held in Park City, Utah, Jan. 21-31. Screening dates and times are still pending.
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A free monthly screening series, Community Cinema features films from the Emmy Award-winning PBS series Independent Lens.
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