ITVS in the News

A SAMPLING OF COVERAGE FROM THE NEW YORK TIMES, CBS NEWS, NPR AND MORE…

New York Times: Documentary Drama at the Oscars
Instead the contenders are mostly smaller films from lesser-known filmmakers: Waste Land, about the artist Vik Muniz, set against the backdrop of a massive garbage dump in Rio de Janeiro… with most of the feature film and acting categories apparently sewn up… the documentaries are one area where there is still some drama.

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Tags: academy awards, New York Times, NPR, oscars, waste land

In the News: The Latest on ITVS Programs

Visit our pressroom to find additional coverage of ITVS programs.

Deep Down Film Brings Kentucky’s Mountaintop Removal Battle to PBS Viewers
Deep Down is an exceptional film, and a profoundly informative one, and should be required viewing for every American in our 48 states that burns coal–especially the new junior senator from Kentucky, Rand Paul.
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Tell Me More: Investigating Indian Brothers’ Fate In Lost Sparrow
Two Crow Indian brothers had run away from the white Baptist family that adopted them out of a troubled home on the Crow reservation in Montana. Over seven years in their adoptive home, they had discovered a dark secret and were headed back to the reservation when they were killed. Host Michel Martin talks with filmmaker Chris Billing about his documentary Lost Sparrow, which details his quest to find out what happened to his adoptive brothers and to confront a painful family history.
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Tags: deep down, huffington post, in the news, longoria affair, NPR, pop matters, the denver post

Live Streaming Panel Discussion Focuses on the Role of Public Media

The Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) is hosting a live streaming press event at Washington, DC’s Newseum with NPR and PBS. Watch online this Thursday, March 25, from 10:00 AM – 12:00 PM ET.

What is the role of public media in local, national, and international reporting?

On Thursday, March 25, from 10:00 AM – 12:00 PM ET, the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) is hosting a live streaming press event at Washington, DC’s Newseum with NPR and PBS entitled “Public Media and Local Journalism: Meeting Community Information Needs.”

Patricia Harrison, CPB president and CEO, will open the event with an announcement of CPB’s investments in key initiatives to strengthen public media’s news and reporting capacity at the local level.

Paula Kerger, PBS president and CEO, and Vivian Schiller, NPR president and CEO, will follow via live video feed along with a panel discussion. The panel will be moderated by PBS NewsHour Correspondent Hari Sreenivasan and include Tom Rosenstiel, founder and director of Pew Research Center’s Project for Excellence in Journalism; Nishat Kurwa, news director of Youth Media International; Tom Karlo, general manager of KPBS TV-FM; Kinsey Wilson, senior vice president and general manager of digital media at NPR; and Larry Irving, president of Global Government Affairs at Hewlett-Packard Company.

Bookmark this page and watch the live stream on Thursday >>

Tags: CPB, journalism, NPR, PBS, public media

In the News: The Latest on ITVS Programs

“The gutsy television company ITVS, which has embraced alternative distribution models for years, had three documentaries at Sundance this year. I wasn’t able to see Laura Poitras’s The Oath, about a Yemenite family, Al Qaeda, and Guantanamo Bay. My Perestroika offers fascinatingly differing accounts of how several Russian former high school classmates have fared since the collapse of the Soviet Union…”
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“The Bay Area has long been known as a center for documentary filmmaking. … The area is home to the Independent Television Service, a major financer of documentary films, as well as some of the most respected film schools in the country.”
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“Blacking Up is careful to let people speak for themselves, as Clift efficiently segues from scene to scene: a Long Island meeting of the ossifying Al Jolson Society; a trip on a black-owned New York bus tour of hip-hop landmarks, during which white tourists are urged to wear complimentary bling.”
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Priscilla Diaz, the subject of P-Star Rising, discusses the premiere of her film and her new season on PBS’s The Electric Company on WPIX, the flagship station of The CW Television Network.
Watch now >>

Tags: music, New York Times, NPR, Washington Post

In the News: The Latest on ITVS Programs

Michel Martin, host of Tell Me More, interviews filmmaker Juan Mandelbaum about OUR DISAPPEARED/NUESTROS DISAPARECIDOS on Independent Lens.
Listen to the interview >>

“If you have only…90 minutes: Watch HERB & DOROTHY, a charming documentary portrait of a Manhattan couple who amassed a superb art collection despite their modest salaries as a postal clerk and librarian (PBS, October 13 at 10 P.M.)”
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“Indie movie fave Maggie Gyllenhaal will be host of the new season of Independent Lens, premiering Oct. 13. Former hosts include Edie Falco, Angela Bassett, Don Cheadle and Susan Sarandon.”
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“Recently, PBS’ Independent Lens published a handy Google map of arthouse theaters all across the US and Canada. One can build one’s own database and have the 411 on programmers, bookers and theater owners at one’s fingertips. It’s all about bringing people out of their homes and experiencing the magic of collective movie-watching again…”
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Tags: Art House Theater, Human Rights, Maggie Gyllenhaal, NPR

In the News: The Latest on ITVS Programs

“Few outside the industry realize the key role Canada, and particularly its biggest film festivals, play in getting some of these award-winning films off the ground. Case in point: WALTZ WITH BASHIR, the front-runner to take home the award for best foreign-language picture on Sunday night.”
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“New Orleans has problems for sure, but Fabourg Tremé reminds us that not only is it our obligation as a nation to restore it, but that parts of its history could be a model for a brighter future for the city—and for the rest of us.”
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Tony Cox of News & Notes talks with resident and journalist Lolis Eric Elie about FAUBOURG TREMÉ: The Untold Story of Black New Orleans.
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“FAUBOURG TREMÉ: Bravo. A masterwork! Fabulous story, delightful interviews, captivating footage.”
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“FAUBOURG TREMÉ: The Untold Story of Black New Orleans draws a poignant portrait of what may be the oldest black neighborhood in America … New Orleans Times-Picayune writer Lolis Eric Elie gently guides viewers through the neighborhood’s glorious past and inglorious suffering after Katrina, illuminating customs that distinguish New Orleans from every city on earth.”
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“The roots of separation seemed to run as deep as the massive oaks that line the parade route. And while [THE ORDER OF MYTHS] illustrates the potential for change, it is obvious from its beginning to the dramatic, intriguingly open ending that change will be a long time coming.”
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Tags: Mardi Gras, New Orleans, NPR

And the 2009 duPont-Columbia University Awards go to…

The 2009 Alfred I. duPont-Columbia University Awards were recently announced by Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism and ABDUCTION: The Megumi Yokota Story, by Chris Sheridan and Patty Kim and aired on last season of Independent Lens on PBS, was among the winners of this prestigious broadcast journalism award.

ABDUCTION is the true story of a 13-year-old Japanese girl kidnapped by North Korean spies in 1977, and her parents’ 30-year battle to bring her home. Told through the eyes of Megumi’s parents, ABDUCTION follows their incredible journey full of bizarre twists, and a life they never imagined.

This year’s other winners included:

- Chicago Public Radio, PRI, NPR, Alex Blumberg & Adam Davidson: This American Life: The Giant Pool of Money
- NPR, All Things Considered, Melissa Block & Robert Siegel: Coverage of the Chengdu Earthquake
- NPR and Laura Sullivan: All Things Considered: Sexual Abuse of Native American Women
- Oregon Public Broadcasting: The Silent Invasion
- California Newsreel, San Francisco & Vital Pictures, Boston: Unnatural Causes: Is Inequality Making Us Sick? on PBS
- Current TV and Christof Putzel: From Russia with Hate
- WFAA-TV, Dallas, Byron Harris & Brett Shipp: Money for Nothing, A Passing Offense, The Buried and the Dead
- CNN and Christiane Amanpour: God’s Warriors
- ABC News, Tim Hetherington & Sebastian Junger: Nightline, The Other War: Afghanistan
- HBO, Thomas Lennon & Ruby Yang: Cinemax’s Reel Life: The Blood of Yingzhou District
- WJLA-TV, Washington, DC & Roberta Baskin: Drilling for Dollars: Children’s Dentistry Investigation
- WTVT-TV, Tampa, & Doug Smith: Small Town Justice

Check out the clip of ABDUCTION: The Megumi Yokota Story:

Tags: duPont Columbia, NPR, PBS