Military
Ask Not Snags Outstanding Doc at GLAAD Awards
ITVS-funded Ask Not by Johnny Symons was honored for Outstanding Documentary at the GLAAD Media Awards earlier this month in San Francisco. Ask Not originally aired in June 2009 on Independent Lens.
Equally important is the attention such an award will draw to the national debate over Don’t Ask Don’t Tell (DADT.) The film explores the genesis of that policy from its inception under then-President Clinton in 1993.
Ask Not sheds light on how DADT has prevented some of America’s most talented recruits from serving their country. Examples include skilled Arabic translators so desperately needed in Afghanistan and Iraq combat, ordered to be silent and celibate or else be removed from duty.
“This was a fun award to receive and a great acknowledgment of the film and the issue,” said Symons.
The hype around Ask Not could not come at a more relevant time. At his State of the Union address this past January, President Obama vowed to repeal DADT during his first term. Soon after, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Adm Mike Mullen also denounced the policy before the Senate Armed Services Committee.
The film also recently aired on Capitol Hill to coincide with Congressional hearings on Don’t Ask Don’t Tell.
Congratulations to Johnny and his team!
Lost Souls (Animas Perdidas) Premiering Tonight on Independent Lens on PBS
“With brave and brutal honesty, [Filmmaker Monika] Navarro, 31, turns the camera on her own clan as she explores a family history that embodies the best and worst of the relationship between the U.S. and Mexico.”
- Hispanic Magazine
Augie and Gino were living the American dream — raised and educated in the United States and proud veterans of the U.S. military. But in 1999, these two brothers were forced to leave the only country they’d ever known and had pledged to protect. Follow filmmaker Monika Navarro on her familial journey to Mexico as she pieces together the tragic events of her uncles’ deportation and opens a Pandora’s box of family secrets.
Check out a preview of tonight’s broadcast below:
Lost Souls (Animas Perdidas) premieres tonight, Tuesday, March 23 at 10:00 on Independent Lens on PBS (check local listings). A co-production of ITVS in association with WGBH-Boston and LPB.
Behind the Scenes of Lost Souls (Animas Perdidas)
Augie and Gino were living the American dream –– raised and educated in the United States and proud veterans of the military. But in 1999, these two brothers were forced to leave the only country they’d ever known and had pledged to protect. Airing next Tuesday, March 23 at 10:00 PM on Independent Lens on PBS, filmmaker Monika Navarro goes on a journey across the border to Mexico to piece together the tragic events of her uncles’ deportation and opens a Pandora’s box of family secrets.
Watch this exclusive behind-the-scenes video from Lost Souls (Animas Perdidas) in which Navarro explains the deeper themes of her film, including shifting definitions of “home” and “truth” in a family affected by addiction and deportation.
Lost Souls (Animas Perdidas) airs Tuesday, March 23 at 10:00 on Independent Lens on PBS (check local listings). A co-production of ITVS in association with WGBH-Boston and LPB.
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.”
Read full review >>
“If you watch/record one thing … I strongly recommend THE WAY WE GET BY, Aron Gaudet’s moving documentary…”
Read full review >>
“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.”
Read more >>
Returning Home: Interactive Website to Honor American Soldiers
“It’s really a personal story not a political one. That goes for the greeters themselves as well. They have different views on the war, but their
main goal is to support the troops.”
— Aron Gaudet, director, THE WAY WE GET BY
On call for the past six years, a group of senior citizens have made history by greeting nearly one million U.S. troops at a tiny airport in Maine. THE WAY WE GET BY, an ITVS-funded documentary that aired last night on P.O.V., tells their uplifting and emotional journey and demonstrates the meaning of community at a time when America needs it most.
Inspired by the film, Returning Home is a new interactive website that seeks to ensure that American soldiers, both newly returned and those whose service ended many years ago, are not forgotten. Returning Home provides a place to share thoughts, photos, video or audio and to find support. Like the Maine troop greeters featured in the film, the site will honor American soldiers as they return from duty, 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
Visit Returning Home and learn more >>
Missed last night’s broadcast? The program is now available online in its entirety until December 12 on PBS’s video portal. Watch now >>
Learn more about the online project in this video interview with filmmakers Aron Gaudet and Gita Pullapilly and others involved in the project.
THE WAY WE GET BY Premiering Tonight on P.O.V.
“If you watch/record one thing this evening, I strongly recommend THE WAY WE GET BY, Aron Gaudet’s moving documentary…”
- USA Today
On call 24/7 for the past six years, three senior citizens have made history by greeting nearly one million U.S. troops at a tiny airport in Maine. Filled with unexpected turns, THE WAY WE GET BY tells their uplifting and emotional journey and demonstrates the meaning of community at a time when America needs it most.
THE WAY WE GET BY premieres tonight at 9:00 PM on P.O.V. on PBS (check local listings).
A co-production of ITVS in association with WGBH and Maine Public Broadcasting Network
Get the latest updates about the film and talk with others by using #wegetby on Twitter. Follow the film >>
The program will also stream online in its entirety starting tomorrow to December 12 on PBS’s video portal. Learn more >>
TATTOOED UNDER FIRE Filmmaker Discusses Fort Hood Shootings
TATTOOED UNDER FIRE, airing this month on public television (check local listings), looks at the River City Tattoo Parlor in Killeen, Texas–home to Fort Hood, America’s largest military base–where war-bound and returning soldiers go under the needle and confess their deepest secrets and fears. Watch video clips from the film and read filmmaker Nancy Schiesari’s thoughts about the recent shooting at Fort Hood, which left 13 dead and 30 injured.
Nancy Schiesari, filmmaker of TATTOOED UNDER FIRE
The massacre at Food Hood was a terrible reminder of the vulnerability and mental fragility of our forces currently engaged on two war fronts with the prospect of multiple tours. One could only imagine last week’s fatal event––young men and women recruits waiting for flu shots and filling out paperwork, nervous and anxious about their eminent deployment, when suddenly they are being shot at with an automatic weapon. They had no means to escape or defend themselves.
Perhaps only families who have lost a son or daughter can understand the enormous grief that has befallen the parents and loved ones of those killed on November 5. The rest of us stand bewildered and distraught looking in from the outside at the impenetrable façade of Fort Hood.
Revealing Documentary About Fort Hood: America’s Largest Military Base
As the nation continues to grapple with the causes and the effects of the recent tragedy at Fort Hood, ITVS and Austin PBS affiliate KLRU present TATTOOED UNDER FIRE, a new documentary shot on location in and around Fort Hood and Killeen, Texas.
Premiering this month on public television (check local listings), the film offers an intimate, character-driven portrait of Iraq-bound and returning U.S. soldiers, professing their pride, sharing their secrets and confessing their fears as they go under the needle at a tattoo parlor serving the Fort Hood community. Shot over four years TATTOOED UNDER FIRE has captured the chronological history of the stress and anguish of military duty experienced by these young men and women as they prepare and return from war. What emerges is an evocative, poignant and highly personal look at the human and cultural cost of war, and the pressures of life on America’s largest military base.
“When a tragedy like this occurs at a place like Fort Hood, it is very unusual that public television can respond immediately with a national premiere of a new program so deeply connected to these difficult events,” said Sally Jo Fifer, CEO and president of ITVS.
As we struggle to understand the meaning and impact of the horrific incident at Fort Hood that left 13 dead and 30 injured, we hope this very timely and important film will help shed some light on the lives and challenges of our soldiers, and of life in the Fort Hood community.
TATTOOED UNDER FIRE airs this month on public television (check local listings).
A co-production of ITVS in association with KLRU/Austin
New Flickr Group: TATTOOED UNDER FIRE
Tattoo artists spend countless hours creating and designing their work.
Next month, TATTOOED UNDER FIRE airs on public television and follows war-bound and returning U.S. soldiers as they go under the needle––openly professing their pride, sharing their secrets and confessing their fears.
Check out the new Flickr group inspired by the film. Are you a solider with tattoos? Share your photos with us.
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.”
Read full review >>
“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.”
Read full review >>
“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.”
Read full review >>
“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.”
Read full review >>
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