Filmmakers Steer Clear of Big Easy Clichés

Five years ago, the worst natural disaster ever to hit the United States struck southern Louisiana, forever altering the face of America’s most unique and freewheeling city, New Orleans. While the news media revisits the Crescent City to find out what has changed and what hasn’t, a team of filmmakers working with ITVS is documenting the real story of the resurrection of a metropolis with a long history of coming back from the dead with inimitable style.

Their documentary-in-progress Getting Back to Abnormal by former New Orleans residents, Louis Alvarez, Andrew Kolker, Peter Odabashian, and Paul Stekler, explores the state of New Orleans politics and culture five years after Hurricane Katrina.

Set against the backdrop of the 2009-2010 local political season, the election of the first white mayor in a generation, and the triumph of the city’s erstwhile worst NFL team, the Saints, Getting Back to Abnormal will frame its story via the city’s complicated and ever-present issues of race.

The film was one of several to receive Open Call funding from ITVS in the most recent round. At the producers’ orientation last month, filmmakers Andrew Kolker and Paul Stekler spoke about what New Orleans means to them and why it was important to get the story right.

Tags: hurricane, ITVS, Katrina, New Orleans, nola, PBS, public television

Independent Lens Audience Award Winner Announced!

All season long Independent Lens fans have logged on to vote for their favorite film. Finally, we have a winner…..Mine by first-time filmmaker Geralyn Pezanoski.

The film tells the heartbreaking story of the thousands of post-Katrina pets who were rescued and then adopted into new homes across the United States. When residents slowly returned to try and rebuild their lives, these animals became the center of full-blown custody battles, with people on both sides struggling to do what was right in the midst of an impossibly complex situation (check out the trailer below).

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Tags: Audience Award, documentary, Independent Lens, Katrina, PBS

In The News: The Latest on ITVS Programs

S. Leo Chiang’s film on PBS touchingly displays how a Vietnamese community picked up the pieces post-Katrina, finding their voice in a quintessentially American way.
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It’s not every June that brings the opportunity to see one of last year’s most acclaimed films on television and without even a cable connection, at that but this June is one of those times. PBS scored a coup by booking 2009’s striking Goodbye Solo as part of its Independent Lens series.
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Premiering on 11 May, as part of PBS’ Independent Lens, Michel Orion Scott’s film suggests that Kristin and her husband Rupert Isaacson find themselves on this adventure, despite her own initial skepticism.
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The Horse Boy is a touching documentary about one Texas couple’s struggle to understand their child’s autism and find ways for all of them to cope with it.
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Tags: Autism, Katrina, oil spill, PBS