The IDA Awards celebrate outstanding achievements in documentary filmmaking and three ITVS funded films received nominations for the 2011 Awards. All three nominees were originally broadcast on the award-winning PBS series POV.  See the entire list of ITVS nominees after the jump:

Best Feature Award Nomination
Better This World by Katie Galloway & Kelly Duane de la Vega

IDA Humanitas Award Nomination
The Learning by Ramona S. Diaz

ABC News Videosource Award Nomination
The Most Dangerous Man in America: Daniel Ellsberg and the Pentagon Papers
By Judith Ehrlich and Rick Goldsmith

Additionally, Danfung Dennis, the director of the acclaimed Hell and Back Again (coming to Independent Lens in Spring 2012) will receive the Jacqueline Donnet Award, which recognizes filmmakers who have made a significant impact in documentary film.

And POV and American Experience  both received nominations for Best Continuing Series.

Congratulations to all the nominees!

For the entire list of the 2011 IDA Award nominees, click here >>

The interactive game, Hunt for the Noor Stone, just launched and features an in-depth, standards-aligned study guide for middle school students. The inspiration for the game came from THE 99, the comic book series featured in Solotaroff’s documentary Wham! Bam! Islam! which aired on Independent Lens last week, and is currently streaming for free on PBS.org. BTB caught up with Soloratoff last week to ask — why a game, and why now?

Who are you and what do you do?
My name is Isaac Solotaroff and on my good days I get to work on documentaries and on my bad days I try to figure out how to raise money to make documentaries.

How long have you been working in documentary film and what inspires you as a filmmaker. Also, what did you do before making films?
I have been working as an editor and director since 1999.  Before this I was a high school history teacher in a town outside of Oakland, CA. The thing I loved most was my students. The next thing I loved the most was creating and executing lesson plans that allowed me to reach into the dry text books we were using and create narratives that somehow applied to the lives of my students. At the end of my first year, we were doing a section on the Reagan administration and I had my students watch excerpts from Hoop Dreams. It stimulated the most incredible classroom conversation we had all year — I get goose bumps just thinking about it. That was the moment I decided I wanted to make documentaries.

How did you come up with the idea for Wham! Bam! Islam! and why do you think the story of Dr. Naif Al-Mutawa’s quest to create new heroes for Muslim youth around the world is an important story to tell on public television?
I met Naif through family friends in the summer of 2006. He was just finishing raising his first round of capital for THE 99. I had been looking for a project to do in the Middle East and I was fascinated by the social experiment that Naif was embarking on. I had just finished reading a couple of excellent books about contemporary Muslim societies and was thinking a lot about some of the internal fault lines in that part of the world beginning with this struggle between fundamentalists who wanted to anchor their culture to religious traditions that date back 1,200 years and modernists who wanted to create a more secular society that could integrate into the 21st century. Obviously, Naif in creating new heroes and story lines for Muslim children in an American-styled comic book, was very publicly advocating for a more inclusive social approach to educating and entertaining kids. I was intrigued to see where this journey was going to take him.

We like to see producers working directly with local stations and reaching local communities in innovative ways. With Wham! Bam! Islam! you’ve ventured into gaming, and educational video modules and lesson plans. What made you take this approach?
My inspiration to make documentaries started in a classroom with 35 high school students!  I am thrilled at any opportunity to leverage the stories I am able to capture to create new approaches to reaching young people. I also had such a blast working with my incredible animation team led by Reno Msad and Rene Avalos and I thought it would be very cool to find another way to apply their talents to expand the reach of the film.

What’s the next big thing for you, Dr. Naif Al-Mutawa and THE 99?
For Naif and THE 99 its the launch of THE 99 animation series on Cartoon Network in Australia and Asia beginning this January. Unfortunately, it seems that Naif has hit a road block getting the animation broadcast in the United States because some extreme voices in the media have made some uninformed attacks on THE 99 which has led the broadcasters to get cold feet. I am continuing to document this and look forward to being able to update the film later this year. In addition I just finished producing a documentary called Pelotero — which — and I hate to make the comparison — is like Hoop Dreams but about two young Dominican baseball players with dreams of making it to the Big Leagues.

And now for a few quick fire questions…

Android or iPhone?
Regretfully, iPhone…I mean its a great toy but a terrible phone

Dogs or cats?
I live in a 500-square foot apartment in Manhattan so the answer has to be cats. My cat Bodie is actually sleeping next to my keyboard right now. I named her after my favorite character in The Wire.

Elmo or Grover?
My heart says Grover but my nephew says Elmo! Elmo! Elmo!

I’m currently listening to…
I’m listening to a Spotify shuffle…at the moment its J Dilla — legendary hip-hop producer..

I’m currently reading…
Confidence Men…

I’m currently watching…
The MLB playoffs — Go Tigers!

Most overused phrase:
Its a toss up between “class warfare” and “clash of civilizations”

Watch Wham! Bam! Islam! streaming free on PBS.org

Visit iTunes and own a copy of Wham! Bam! Islam!

Known as the “pre-eminent documentary festival in the U.S.,” Silverdocs is a seven-day international film festival and five-day concurrent conference that promotes documentary film as a leading art form and supports the work of independent filmmakers.

Silverdocs kicks today in Silver Spring, Maryland and both ITVS staff and films are well represented:

For independent filmmakers, ITVS Senior Programming Manager Richard Saiz will be on hand for two conference sessions: “Pitch to ITVS” on Thursday, June 23 at 1 PM and “ITVS and the Art of the Short Story” on Friday, June 24 at 11:15 AM.  For more info on these and the many other informative Silverdocs conference events, click here.

For documentary film fans, be among the first to get a sneak peek at a plethora of ITVS films that will be coming to PBS including Being Elmo, Better This World, The Black Power Mixtape, Donor Unknown, Give Up Tomorrow, Hell and Back Again, If a Tree Falls, The Interrupters, The Learning, Still Here, The Team, To Be Heard, and When the Drum is Beating. For more information on Silverdocs films and to purchase tickets, click here >>

Have a great time at the festival!

NALIP Latino Producers Academy
Deadline: June 8, 2011
The LPA is an intensive 10 day (Aug. 10-19) professional development workshop for Latino/a film and public television documentary producers. It is designed to support both emerging and mid-career professionals with projects in development and pre-production.

HBO NALIP Documentary Contest
Deadline June 10, 2011
HBO has teamed with NALIP to find the next great Latino documentary film.They will award $10,000 to the winner of their 2011 Documentary grant.

All Roads Film Project Seed Grants
Deadline: June 15, 2011
The Seed Grant Program funds film projects from indigenous and underrepresented minority-culture filmmakers year-round and from all reaches of the globe. The program awards up to 16 film projects annually with grants ranging from $1,000 to $10,00

The Good Pitch San Francisco
Deadline: June 17, 2011
The Good Pitch is an invitation-only event, starting with an intensive two-day campaign development workshop for the filmmakers which brings together invited foundations, NGOs, social entrepreneurs, broadcasters and other media to expand the resources aimed at maximizing the impact of social-issue documentary.

Alfred I. duPont-Columbia University Awards
Deadline: July 1, 2011
The duPont Awards look for excellence in reporting and evidence of commitment to important stories. They encourage the submission of daily news stories and breaking news coverage as well as features, documentaries and investigative reporting. Programs must have appeared on air, online or in theaters for the first time between July 1, 2010 and June 30.

CPB/PBS Producers Academy
Deadline: July 8, 2011
The weeklong production workshop, which will be held October 15-21, 2011 at WGBH-Boston, is designed to identify and nurture the next generation of talent for public media.

SFFS Documentary Film Fund
DEADLINE: July 15, 2011
Documentary Film Fund will support riveting documentaries distinguished by compelling stories, intriguing characters and innovative visual approach. A total of $100,000 will be disbursed annually to documentary filmmakers nationwide. Letter of Inquiry period opens June 17, 2011 and closes July 15, 2011. Finalists asked to submit additional materials in August; Winners will be announced September 30, 2011.

PIC Media Fund
Deadline: July 29, 2011
The goal of Pacific Islanders in Communications is to support the development of national public broadcast programming that enhances public recognition of and appreciation for Pacific Islander history, culture, and society. PIC accomplishes this by nurturing and supporting filmmakers through its Research & Development (R&D), Production, and Completion funds.

VIFF Storyville Vancover – Call for Submissions
Deadline: August 12, 2011
The 2011 Vancouver Film & TV Forum is proud to stimulate the development, co-financing and co-production of the creative documentary by creating Storyville Vancouver, an opportunity for filmmakers based in BC and the Pacific Northwest to pitch their projects to an international forum of commissioning editors.

Linking Independents and Co-Producing Stations (LINCS)
Deadline: Open
LINCS provides matching funds (up to $100,000) to partnerships between public television stations and independent producers. LINCS funds single non-fiction public television programs and demonstration projects that include both broadcast and transmedia elements on any subject and from any viewpoint. LINCS proposals are accepted on an ongoing basis. Producers must be U.S. citizens or legal residents.

Vanessa Gould (producer/director) of BETWEEN THE FOLDS

As we walked into LA’s Pitches Detention Center, the sky was deep blue and a long flock of birds flew calmly with the wind above. The series of heavy gates and barbed wire fences ahead gave me a pit in my stomach. Behind the barriers, I soon saw men of all ages – hundreds in royal blue jumpsuits – working, standing, exercising outside.

I was there with Desiree Gutierrez, the ITVS National Community Cinema Coordinator for the Southern California region, to answer questions about BETWEEN THE FOLDS, which a group was watching as we arrived. I had strong doubts as to whether they’d connect to a film about paperfolding, worrying it was trivial in light of the gravity of their own personal situations. How would the film be relevant to them? What could I possibly say or do that could be genuinely useful?

A stock photo of a typical inmate gathering provided courtesy of the LA County Sheriff's Department

Desiree and I entered the room with Deputy Bates and a few other staff members just as they had finished the film. It was a crowded room with about 200 men seated closely, gathered around a single television.

As soon as the lights went on and I looked up – despite my insecurity – it was quite possibly the most enthusiastic reception the film has ever seen: a room brimming with almost-rowdy excitement and big smiles, a few thumbs up and hands on hearts. Even some paper hats and paper stars made out of the local county newspaper were floating around. Deputy Bates introduced us, and I filled with warmth, relieved that the film had perhaps given them an escape from their daily routine.

There were far more questions and comments than we had time for. One gentleman – probably in his mid 40s or so – wants to use folding principles to design a collapsible shelter for the homeless that fits on to a wheelchair. Another was curious to learn more about the filmmaking process so he could make his own documentary about drugs and gangs. A third was eager to better understand the medical implications of protein folding. And a fourth man who spoke Korean shared with everyone that “origami” in his language means “tying a knot”, a new meaning of the word that we all liked.

Vanessa and Joel Stern (paper folding artist) at the Teatro Frida Kahlo Theater

Their engaging comments so clearly showed that many of them wanted to get on a different track and do something personally meaningful in their lives.

After about 20 questions, we all folded a simple model of a fox. I tried to remind them that if anyone made a mistake it was okay. They could try again. One of the good things about paperfolding is you can start over. More chances are possible.

And, with that small metaphor, I hoped the afternoon was a success.

In just two days in LA – after screening at an arthouse cinema in Santa Monica (the Aero), a small community theater in downtown LA (the Frida Kahlo Theater), and Pitches – I revisited my initial sense of awe towards the medium of paperfolding. Across these audiences – despite their enormous differences – everyone had a common and equitable relationship with the medium of paper.

What a wonderful starting point for an artform.