In the News: The Latest on ITVS Programs

Film Series to Empower Women
Independent Television Service, producers of Emmy-award winning documentaries for public television, has teamed up with the Chicago Foundation for Women, Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs and Chicago Public Media to present the Women’s Empowerment Summer Film Series — a free series of screenings highlighting issues facing women in the U.S. and around the world. A 45-minute discussion with representatives from local organizations serving women and girls will follow each screening.

Littlefeather recounts price of native activism
Sacheen Littlefeather, the actor who stood in for Marlon Brando at the 1973 Oscars, says she paid a high price for her criticism of Hollywood portrayals of First Nations people. Littlefeather, now 63, said that act of advocacy cut her acting career short and put her life at risk. She was speaking to TV critics in a promotion for Reel Injun: On the Trail of the Hollywood Indian, a Canadian-made documentary that is to air on PBS’s Independent Lens in November.
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Rosie O’Donnell returns to daytime TV on Oprah’s net
Oprah Winfrey announces that Rosie O’Donnell is returning to daytime TV in a talk show (gak) on The Oprah Winfrey Network, in the middle of PBS’s day at Summer TV Press Tour 2010 when, if she’d waited until the next morning, she could have announced it during Discovery’s day at the tour — Discovery being Oprah’s partner in OWN. So instead of listening to Benazir Bhutto’s cousin Mahin Hemmat, and Pakistan’s ambassador to the United States Husain Haqqani talk about a new PBS Independent Lens project, Bhutto, they were madly typing on their laptops about how the sometimes polarizing Rosie…
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Brando’s 1973 Oscar Stand-in Recounts Fallout
Sacheen Littlefeather says she paid a price when she decried Hollywood’s stereotyped portrayal of American Indians at the 1973 Oscars… She spoke Thursday during a presentation to TV critics on “Reel Injun: On the Trail of the Hollywood Indian,” a documentary airing in November on the “Independent Lens” series.
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Tags: ap, cbc news, Chicago Tribune, film screenings, Independent Lens, indie films, ITVS, PBS, public television, Washington Post, women's empowerment

Keith Maitland at KLRU’s Texas Independents’ Day

Earlier this week, PBS affiliate KLRU in Austin, Texas, commemorated Texas Independents’ Day by celebrating the work of three local filmmakers whose work will appear on this season of Independent Lens. Learn more about the event from Keith Maitland, filmmaker of The Eyes of Me.

Filmmaker Keith Maitland with film subjects of The Eyes of Me.

Panel moderator Paul Stekler leads a round table discussion with Keith Maitland, filmmaker of The Eyes of Me; Karen Skloss, filmmaker of Sunshine; Michel Scott, filmmaker of The Horse Boy.

Last night, nearly 200 people gathered in a dark room to share an hour-long look into the lives of four blind teenagers. With the twinkling lights of the Austin City Limits stage as a backdrop, I couldn’t ask for a more fitting place to experience the incredible communal experience of watching the live Independent Lens broadcast of The Eyes of Me.

The Eyes of Me follows four blind teens over the course of one dynamic year. It’s about watching these teens growing up before our eyes. As they discover who they are, it is my hope that you will discover something about yourself –– it’s about challenging your own perception and seeing yourself in a new way… at least that’s what it’s always been about for me.

The entire process of creating this film, from a nascent idea, through 250 hours of rolling cameras, and two and half years of editing, has been both rewarding and challenging in degrees that I’m still not sure I can register. Along the way, I have learned many lessons about my creative processes, and my own humanity.

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Tags: Austin, blind, film screenings, filmmakers, health, independent film, Texas

The Eyes Of Me Finishes Community Cinema Run and Airs Tomorrow

Community Cinema held 47 free events for Keith Maitland’s documentary The Eyes Of Me, which follows four visually impaired teenagers in Texas as they face the usual challenges of adolescence while simultaneously learning to navigate a world designed for the sighted. The film will have its television premiere tomorrow, March 2, at 10:00 PM on Independent Lens on PBS (check local listings). Learn more about the local impact of Community Cinema below.

Busboys and Poets owner Andy Shallal holds up both the Braille and printed versions of the restaurant menus.

Community Cinema DC and Busboys and Poets decided The Eyes of Me event would be the perfect time to introduce braille menus. Busboys and Poets is a restaurant/performance space located in the historic U Street corridor of Washington, DC and named for the famous Harlem Renaissance poet Langston Hughes’ who was discovered in the capital city while working as a busboy at a hotel.

Owner Andy Shallal said he attended The Eyes of Me event to get a better understanding of the perspectives of blind and visually impaired persons in social interactions.

Busboys and Poets has been hosting Community Cinema in the Langston Room for nearly five seasons. The introduction of Braille menus is yet another effort to bring more communities to Busboys and Poets and our Community Cinema events.

Read more about these screenings on the Community Cinema blog >>

Tags: blind, film screenings, Texas, visually impaired

KLRU Celebrates Local Filmmakers Featured on Independent Lens

Do you live near Austin, Texas? Love indie film?

On March 2, KLRU-Austin will commemorate Texas Independents’ Day by celebrating the work of three local filmmakers whose work will appear on this season of Independent Lens on PBS.

Filmmaker and University of Texas Professor Paul Stekler will moderate a panel discussion with Michel O. Scott (The Horse Boy), Karen Skloss (Sunshine), and Keith Maitland (The Eyes of Me) starting at 8 p.m.

Following the discussion, there will be a special screening of the Independent Lens broadcast of The Eyes of Me at 9:00 p.m. Space is limited.

Learn more and RSVP today >>

Can’t make the screening or live too far away to attend? Fear not – check out Beyond the Box blog next week for clips from the event and a full recap from Keith Maitland, filmmaker of The Eyes of Me. Stay tuned!

Tags: events, film screenings, KLRU

Free Screening of BRONX PRINCESS This Saturday in Little Ghana Neighborhood

BRONX PRINCESS tells the true story of Rocky Otoo, the Bronx-born teenage daughter of royal Ghanaian parents. With freedom in sight, this sassy, college-bound overachiever rebels against working at her mother’s beauty shop moves to Ghana, West Africa, with her royal father and reconciles her African heritage with her dream of independence.

Funded by ITVS and airing next month on P.O.V. on PBS, the film will have a free screening at 9:00 PM on Saturday, August 29 at Mullaly Park, Bronx, NY.

After the screening, Otoo, her Ghanaian family and filmmakers Yoni Brook and Musa Syeed will answer questions from the audience.

This outdoor screening will be in Little Ghana––a neighborhood just blocks away from where it was filmed. Starting at 6:00 PM, there will be a block party, which will feature live music and poetry performances by West African artists from the film as well as hands-on arts activities for children and college resources.

Learn more about this free screening >>

Visit P.O.V. for more information about the upcoming broadcast >>

Tags: Africa, film screenings, P.O.V.

GOODBYE SOLO Filmmaker Wins Fellowship

Congratulations to Ramin Bahrani for being selected to receive a Guggenheim Fellowship, which are given to individuals with exceptional capacity for productive scholarship or exceptional creative ability in the arts.

Be sure to tune into Charlie Rose next week to watch Ramin discuss his upcoming ITVS film GOODBYE SOLO, which looks at Solo, a friendly Senegalese taxi driver in Winston-Salem, North Carolina who is hired by an elderly Caucasian man named William to drive him in two weeks time to a mountaintop where he plans to commit suicide.

The film currently is playing across the country and will have its premiere in San Francisco this Friday, April 17, at the Clay Theater. Meet Ramin Bahrani in person at the bay area screenings.

Find more information about this screening and others >>

Tags: Charlie Rose, film screenings