Late Night Oscar Diaries from Independent Lens

Independent Lens Series Producer Lois Vossen attended Sunday night’s Academy Awards in Los Angeles. She was there to support two nominated films for Best Documentary feature: Independent Lens’ Hell and Back Again and the ITVS-funded If a Tree Falls (which aired on POV). The documentary Undefeated wound up taking the prize. Still, Lois had a blast and as the evening came to a close, she phoned in (literally) this recap via the BTB hotline. Here are the highlights….

Hi there! Well it was a great night. The debate is on whether or not Billy Crystal was funny and whether or not the show was well paced.

As we were leaving, I ran into Wim Wenders who made Pina and I went over and spoke with him and he said “I’m very, very sorry that Hell and Back Again lost because it was a magnificent film and I would have been honored to have lost to Hell and Back Again, honored!” So I introduced him to Fiona Otway who edited the film.
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Tags: academy awards, Hollywood, Independent Lens, lois vossen, oscars

Independent Lens Celebrates Hollywood Classics

The Librarian of Congress, with input from the public and advice from the National Film Preservation Board, selects 25 films each year to add to the Registry. These Amazing Shadows goes behind the scenes to show the discussions, the debates, and the drama that surround this selection process.

Watch These Amazing Shadows, by filmmakers Paul Mariano and Kurt Norton, Thursday on PBS.

Tags: Hollywood, Independent Lens, PBS, the arts, these amazing shadows

Up Next on IL: These Amazing Shadows

Independent Lens Founding Series Producer Lois Vossen sets up filmmakers Paul Mariano and Kurt Norton’s documentary, These Amazing Shadows, which premieres on Thursday, December 29 on PBS. The documentary weaves clips from America’s most-beloved films with moving personal tales of how specific films have reflected our culture and changed lives.

Tags: Hollywood, Independent Lens, lois vossen, PBS, these amazing shadows

Reel Injun Revisited on Independent Lens

Reel Injun: On the Trail of the Hollywood Indian by Neil Diamond — which premiered on Independent Lens last season — is an exciting, insightful and entertaining documentary about the evolution of the image of North American Native people (“The Indians”) in famous Hollywood movies, from the silent era to today. The film earned a George Foster Peabody Award last year and will air this week as an encore performance.

Tags: Hollywood, Independent Lens, Native American, Peabody, reel injun

Free Screening of Waste Land Tonight in Orange County

A free screening of the Academy Award-nominated documentary Waste Land starts tonight at 7:30 PM at the UltraLuxe Theater in Orange County.

Filmmaker Lucy Walker’s acclaimed documentary about the artist Vik Muniz and his collection of portraits from garbage will air April 19 on Independent Lens.

Community Cinema goers in the Orange County area will have an opportunity to screen the film for free tonight at 7:30 PM. A Q&A with the film’s editor Pedros Kos will follow the screening.

Watch the trailer after the jump >>

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Tags: Academy Award, community cinema, Hollywood, Los Angele, OC, Orange County, PBS SoCal, waste land

Miller’s Tale Heads to Public Television

Documentary offers a personal narrative about the life and death of award-winning playwright and actor Jason Miller.

Jason Miller was an award-winning playwright and actor who experienced a brilliant period of national acclaim, then suddenly abandoned Hollywood to return to live and work in Scranton, Pennsylvania.

In Miller’s Tale, filmmaker Rebecca Marshall Ferris explores the complex relationship between Miller and his hometown and his struggles with alcoholism.

Miller’s Tale will begin airing on Public Television in April.

Tags: alcoholism, Hollywood, Jason Miller, PBS, Playwright

FUTURESTATES Goes Hollywood

It’s official: FUTURESTATES has gone Hollywood. No, we didn’t sign a multimillion dollar deal with a studio for a trilogy of sci-fi features to rival Marvel Studios’s many franchises (but there’s always next year). We’re referring instead to a selection of five FUTURESTATES films presented in the posh screening room at the offices of top Hollywood talent agency CAA.

Last week’s screening was co-hosted by CAA and Film Independent (FIND), designed to promote the exceptional work these organizations are doing in both independent and commercial film and television circles to promote diversity in the industry, and also to celebrate the FIND fellows that were greenlit by ITVS for season 1 of FUTURESTATES: Ramin Bahrani (Plastic Bag), Tze Chun (Silver Sling), Amyn Kaderali (The Other Side), Aldo Velasco (Tent City), and Garret Williams (The Rise).
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Tags: CAA, documentary, FUTURESTATES, Hollywood, indie films, indielens, ITVS, PBS, short films

NO SUBTITLES NECESSARY Premiering Tonight on Independent Lens

“…A tale of friendship and survival that has become legend in Hollywood.”
- Los Angles Times

“[NO SUBTITLES NECESSARY is] about a friendship between men who shared certain unusual, difficult experiences, and how those experiences shaped their art.”
- The New York Times

They took Hollywood by storm––escaping the brutal Soviet oppression of the Hungarian Revolution and rising to fame with classic films like Easy Rider, Deliverance, Close Encounters of the Third Kind and The Deer Hunter. Cinematographers Laszlo Kovacs and Vilmos Zsigmond pioneered the “American New Wave,” defining innovative ways to tell stories. This is an intimate portrait of the 50-year journey of two giants of modern image making and their deep bond of brotherhood that transcended every imaginable boundary.

NO SUBTITLES NECESSARY: Laszlo & Vilmos premieres tonight, November 17, at 10:00 PM on Independent Lens on PBS (check local listings).

Tags: cinematographer, filmmaking, Hollywood, movies, Vilmos Zsigmond