Introducing the 10th Season of Independent Lens

Independent Lens announced Wednesday the launch of its 10th season on PBS featuring a remarkable lineup of 30 films from a broad range of talented independent filmmakers. The Emmy Award-winning series moves to Thursday nights at 10 PM (check local listings) and will premiere on October 13, 2011 with Wham! Bam! Islam!

The fall season of Independent Lens opens with a film directed by Isaac Solotaroff, Wham! Bam! Islam!, which explores the rocky road to acceptance and success for the first Islamic-themed comic book series featuring Muslim superheroes.

Other documentary features making their premieres include: Donor Unknown, directed by Jerry Rothwell, about a group of young women and men conceived by artificial insemination who set out to discover their biological father and in the process meet their (many) siblings; We Still Live Here — Âs Nutayuneân, directed by Anne Makepeace (presented during Native American Heritage Month), captures the return of the Wampanoag nation’s lost native language, the first time a language with no native speakers has been revived in this country.

Additional programming highlights include three documentaries featuring individuals who are facing unique challenges: Lives Worth Living, directed by Eric Neudel, looks at Fred Fay, a man who survived a devastating spinal cord injury when he was only 16, and turned his misfortune into a movement for disabled equality; Deaf Jam, directed by Judy Lieff, focuses on deaf teen Aneta Brodski’s discovery of American Sign Language (ASL) poetry, and her bold journey into the spoken word slam scene; and You’re Looking At Me Like I Live Here and I Don’t,directed by Scott Kirschenbaum, questions our preconceptions of illness and aging through a first person account of Lee Gorewitz’s life inside an Alzheimer’s care home in California.

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Tags: documentaries, Fall, Independent Lens, indie, ITVS, PBS, public television, season premiere, TV

Deadline News Indies Can Use

One of BTB’s chief responsibilities is to keep an eye out for news the independent producer can use. Below is a highlight of upcoming funding opportunities, festival deadlines, and other things you may find helpful. These will be for both U.S. and international producers. Enjoy and good luck!

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.
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Tags: applications, deadlines, filmmaker, funding, independent producers, indie

Emmy Winner Geoffrey Smith on The English Surgeon

Filmmaker Geoffrey Smith won an Emmy Monday night for The English Surgeon

Filmmaker Geoffrey Smith has made more than 22 films throughout his career and has collected numerous awards for his work. On Monday night, he picked up an Emmy for The English Surgeon, his film about a British neurosurgeon who confronts the dilemmas of the doctor-patient relationship on his latest mission to Ukraine. The documentary was supported by ITVS International (speaking of, the deadline for our 2011 International Call has been changed to December 10, 2010). Smith spoke to BTB about the Emmy, the film, and the ITVS funding that helped from the start.

First off, congratulations on the Emmy! What can you tell us about Monday night’s event in NYC?

Thanks! It was very wet in New York City. Central Park looked very British and so I felt right at home. It was great to see all of my colleagues.
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Tags: docs, Emmy, film funding, funding, Independent Lens, indie, international, ITVS, New York, PBS, the english surgeon

Thunder in Guyana Strikes Global Voices

Power Couple: Janet Rosenberg and Dashing Cheddi Jagan

How did a 77-year-old Jewish woman from Chicago become the president of a South American country?

In Thunder in Guyana, airing this Sunday on Global Voices on PBS WORLD, filmmaker Suzanne Wasserman offers a compelling explanation.

Wasserman grew up fascinated by her glamorous cousin Janet, a Chicago native, who at 23 fell in love with a handsome dental student from a country no one in her family had even heard of. Together, the political power couple became known as the founders of modern Guyana, and in 1997, Janet Rosenberg became the first American-born woman to lead a nation.

Throughout the film, Wasserman uses interviews, family photos and archival footage to tell the story of her remarkable cousin: a tale of life-long love, political intrigue, and struggles to bring progressive policies to an adopted country.

Tags: doc, documentary, Global Voices, guyana, indie, ITVS, PBS, south america

Tip of the Day: Consume Indie Films on a Global Scale

Travel the world without leaving your sofa. Check out the Global Perspectives Project for films from over 75 countries.

The Global Perspectives Collection hosts more than 100 ITVS-funded films from over 75 countries. Films attached to the collection include the award-winning Waltz with Bashir and Last Train Home.

Visit the site to learn more about independent documentaries from around the world and the diverse, political and social issues they take on.

Tags: documentaries, gobal perspectives, indie, last train home, tips, walz with bashir