In the News: The Latest on ITVS Programs

Chicago Public Radio gives an in-depth look at the upcoming Independent Lens broadcast of Garbage Dreams, which also screened at the Chicago Cultural Center as part of Community Cinema. For decades, a group of people known as the “Zabaleen”, Arabic for “garbage people”, have been Cairo’s unofficial trash collectors, sorters and recyclers. They survive by recycling some eighty percent of the trash they collect. Compared to American cities, which recycle roughly thirty two percent of their waste, that’s no small feat.
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“Even for someone who cares about the environment, [Jamie Lee] Curtis says Dirt! [The Movie] was an education. ‘I was as astonished as you will be when you see the film, about the earth being alive.’”
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“Sam Cooke: Crossing Over on American Masters: The PBS series takes a respectful look at the life and death of the silky smooth singer, first in gospel and then in pop.”
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“One from the heart, the documentary Mine relates yet one more wrenching, infuriating story about Hurricane Katrina and the devastation wreaked both by the storm and by human error and indifference.”
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“What’s the difference between creative ‘borrowing’ and outright theft? The Independent Lens documentary Copyright Criminals offers a thought-provoking discussion of the subject filtered through a history of hip-hop ‘sampling’ culture.”
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Tags: environmental, Los Angeles Times, music, New York Times, USA Today

In the News: The Latest on ITVS Programs

“[NO SUBTITLES NECESSARY is] about a friendship between men who shared certain unusual, difficult experiences, and how those experiences shaped their art.”
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“If you watch/record one thing … I strongly recommend THE WAY WE GET BY, Aron Gaudet’s moving documentary…”
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“NO SUBTITLES NECESSARY is a tale of friendship and survival that has become legend in Hollywood.”
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“[WILLIAM KUNSTLER: Disturbing the Universe is] a refresher course on the history of American left-wing politics in the 1960s and ’70s.”
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Tags: cinematographer, Los Angeles Times, Military, New York Times, USA Today

In the News: The Latest on ITVS Programs

“Like numerous makers of nonfiction film, [Bill] Benenson believes the critical platform for documentaries is television. Regardless of what happens to DIRT! The Movie in theaters, the film will be a part of next year’s Earth Day programming presented by PBS and ITVS, the Independent Television Service.”
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“SCARRED JUSTICE: The Orangeburg Massacre 1968 explores an inexplicably forgotten incident when black student protestors were killed by police. It’s an important work of historical reportage.”
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“Even atheists may find their world rocked by Nati Baratz’s UNMISTAKEN CHILD, a simple documentary about a Buddhist monk’s search for the reincarnated soul of his beloved teacher.”
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“I saw a good–no, a very good–movie the other day… It’s called THE ENGLISH SURGEON, and it’s about a brain surgeon who does pro bono work in Ukraine.”
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Tags: African American, environmental, Los Angeles Times, Military

In the News: The Latest on ITVS Programs

“Documentarians are forever in search of a compelling story, which the good doctor is. But in Marsh, the subject of Geoffrey Smith’s latest documentary, THE ENGLISH SURGEON, the director is also blessed with a true leading man; a 60-ish sage in scrubs whom you hope you will never have need of but would top your list if you did.”
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“UNMISTAKEN CHILD bears witness to a strange and mysterious process, the search for the childhood reincarnation of a recently deceased and revered Tibetan master.”
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“[EL GENERAL] is an imaginative cinematic exploration into the contradictions among familial, personal and national memories framed around one of the most influential and controversial presidents in Mexico’s history—Plutarco Elías Calles.”
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Tags: Chicago Tribune, Los Angeles Times

In the News: The Latest on ITVS Programs

“While the Globes did their best to keep grimmer realities at bay, there was a flash of reality in the victory of WALTZ WITH BASHIR for best foreign film.”
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“Ari Folman’s animated documentary of Israel’s 1982 invasion of Lebanon is perfectly surreal.”
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“In 2007, Alabama officially apologized for slavery and its “after effects.” But those after effects still play out in Mobile’s annual Mardi Gras… The fascinating THE ORDER OF MYTHS, which PBS’s Independent Lens will air on February 24, follows these parallel worlds…”
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“Growing up at the center of the firestorm surrounding the famous civil rights attorney William Kunstler wasn’t easy. According to his daughters Sarah, and Emily, the family often feared for their lives… DISTURBING THE UNIVERSE is a timely reminder about the cost of standing up for justice, regardless of the consequences. ”
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“I could not pull myself away from Stacy Peralta’s riveting, revelatory, exhaustive examination of the 40-year history of gang warfare in South Central L.A.”
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Tags: Los Angeles Times, New York Times, newspaper reviews

In the News: DOC on PBS’ Independent Lens

“DOC, which airs tonight as part of the PBS series Independent Lens, is a daughter’s film about a difficult father. Immy Humes is the filmmaker; her subject is Harold L. Humes––nicknamed Doc after a genius in the ‘Buck Rogers’ comic strip––whose marquee claim to fame is that he co-founded the literary journal The Paris Review, though he didn’t stick around long to run it.”
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Tags: Los Angeles Times, newspaper reviews