Six ITVS Documentaries to Screen in Competition at Sundance 2012

On Wednesday, ITVS welcomed the announcement that six of its funded films have been selected to screen in competition at the upcoming 2012 Sundance Film Festival (January 19-29). ITVS domestic co-productions claimed four of the 16 spots in this year’s U.S. Documentary competition and two of the 12 spots in the World Documentary competition.

“There could be no better recognition of the diversity and quality of our films and makers than such a large claim of the documentaries in competition at Sundance,” said Sally Jo Fifer, president and CEO of ITVS. “These films represent an extraordinary range of stories – both deeply personal and broadly profound – and it gives us great pride to know that each of them will eventually be presented to millions of viewers on public television.”
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Tags: Awards, independent filmmakers, ITVS, itvs funding, PBS, Sundance Film Festival

The FCC Report on Information Needs of Communities: A Moment of Truth, Part II

By Sally Jo Fifer

ITVS President & CEO Sally Jo Fifer explores how the FCC’s latest report on media and technology affects ITVS, independent producers, and the public media ecosystem.

Sally Jo Fifer, President & CEO of ITVS

In Part One of this post, I talked about the Federal Communication Commission’s significant report on the impact of technology on the media landscape, ending with the question: What should we do?  And how does this debate directly impact ITVS, independent producers, and the public media ecosystem?

Other voices have already chimed in on these questions, including think tanks like the American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research, echoing some of the FCC’s findings (universal broadband) and differing on others (restructuring public media funding).  However, few are considering the big picture with the work and role of independent filmmakers in mind — despite the fact that the FCC report emphasizes the important role of deeper reporting, storytelling, and media making in our democracy, quoting news directors like Matthew Zelkind of WKRN in Nashville:  “Long-form stories are dying because they’re not financially feasible. … It’s all economically driven.”

Independent documentary filmmakers work outside of the newsrooms and stations whose decline and challenges the FCC report describes.  Yet their role in long-form storytelling — in digging deeper into immigration through films like Welcome to Shelbyville or capturing the soldier’s experience of the battlefield and returning home in Hell and Back Again — continues to grow alongside their capacity and ability to innovate with new media: games for Garbage Dreams, The Revolutionary Optimists and Half the Sky; interactive experiences for The Way We Get By and Deep Down; interactive online chats and screenings; and the list goes on.  The fact is, these professionals already work in the shifting space between commercial and non-profit media, moving back and forth between worlds.
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Tags: fcc, independent filmmakers, PBS, public media, Sally Jo Fifer

The FCC Report on Information Needs of Communities: A Moment of Truth for Public Media: Part I

By Sally Jo Fifer

ITVS President & CEO Sally Jo Fifer responds to the FCC’s significant report on the impact of technology on the media landscape.

Sally Jo Fifer, President & CEO of ITVS

How will 21^st century media serve the public interest and local communities?  That’s the question a number of recent reports have tackled, most significantly the summer publication of the Federal Communication Commission’s 465-page The Information Needs of Communities.

In the report, the FCC takes a hard look at what’s happening on the media landscape and provides a deep context for today’s transformation, referencing the words of Founding Fathers and Google executives alike alongside a huge mine of data and myriad anecdotes about court reporters, carrier pigeons, camera phones, and just about everything else under the sun.

It’s a semi-monumental report that raises many questions with few answers.  But the way it asks the questions tasks all of us to put our heads together — and our resources and goodwill — to figure things out. And fast.  As the report reminds us: “Americans need to at least come together around one idea: that democracy requires, and citizens deserve, a healthy flow of information and a news and information system that holds powerful institutions accountable.”
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Tags: fcc, independent filmmakers, PBS, public media, Sally Jo Fifer

Funding Deadline: Open Call Applications Due July 29

The deadline for ITVS’s biggest funding opportunity, Open Call, is in two weeks on Friday, July 29. Last month, we announced our new digital application process, but it’s worth reiterating some main points to help you on your way. Read on…

1. Read the How To Apply page. Some requirements have changed, particularly regarding previous work samples and the work-in-progress.

2. Create an account. You can do this any time, and complete the application over the next two weeks. We encourage you to start the process early. You can save your progress and return any time up to the deadline.
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Tags: application, digital application, film funding, funding, independent filmmakers, Open Call

Southern Belle: Playing History, Hoop Skirt and All

By Kate Sullivan Green

Southern Belle is an insider’s look at the 1861 Athenaeum Girls’ School where young women from around the world sign up to become that iconic and romantic image of southern identity — the southern belle. ITVS’s Kate Green discussed the documentary — which begins airing Friday, July 1 on public television — with filmmakers Kathy Conkwright and Mary Makely.

What inspired you to make Southern Belle?

Kathy Conkwright: We saw a picture in a local magazine from the Tennessee Farm Bureau and were immediately intrigued.  Being from the South, I feel like southern culture is often misunderstood and represented in a one-dimensional way.  I wanted to better understand what these beliefs were and what their motivation was.

Mary Makely: Growing up in the North, southern culture was new to me, so this was a way to understand a culture I’m not born into.  And as a woman I couldn’t imagine why any young woman would want to go back to and celebrate a time when your life was more restrictive.  I was curious about what they hoped to gain from this experience.
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Tags: independent filmmakers, kate green, kathy conkwright, mary makely, public television, south, southern belle

Advice for Filmmakers from Doc TV’s Peter Hamilton

Peter Hamilton, editor and publisher of documentarytelevision.org

Peter Hamilton is a former executive with CBS International, New York. He is the editor and publisher of DocumentaryTelevision.com, which analyzes deals and trends in the ever-changing business of factual television. Because we know many of you are independent filmmakers trying to navigate the complex world of distribution, we spoke with Peter Hamilton last week to get some insights.

More than 25 years ago you co-authored a book titled Off-Hollywood: The Making and Marketing of Independent Films. How different might that book look if it were published today, and what about it would still hold up?

That’s a very good question. Off Hollywood was a groundbreaking work supported by The IFP (Independent Feature Project) and Sundance to provide the emerging independent film community with hard numbers about the production, distribution, and exhibition of independent films.

That was in the analog era when there were few windows available for independent filmmakers. Now, there are many more distribution platforms, television networks, DVD options such as Amazon, Netflix, pay-per-view, online, and many others. › Continue reading

Tags: cbs, com, digital distribution, distribution, doctv, documentarytelevision, independent filmmakers, indie films, ITVS, network, PBS, peter hamilton