ITVS in the News

Coverage of ITVS from The New York Times and PBS Ombudsman Michael Getler.

The New York Times: PBS Agrees to Revisit Documentary Schedule
Under intense public pressure from independent documentary filmmakers, including a Twitter campaign, PBS on Thursday agreed to find a new home next season for the award-winning film series “Independent Lens” and “POV.” Continue Reading >>>

PBS.org: Independent Lens Brings a Focus on PBS
This comes under the heading of “nobody asked me, but . . .” Viewers have not written to me about recent scheduling changes that affect two major, long-running PBS series of independent documentary films — Independent Lens and POV, which stands for point of view. But the changes and the controversy they have stirred are getting a fair amount of attention in the press, at least in those segments that pay close attention to public broadcasting, within PBS and among independent filmmakers. So that makes it seem worthwhile for me to record the issues for readers of this column. Continue Reading >>>

Tags: Independent Lens, michael getler, ombudsman, PBS, public media

ITVS in the News

Coverage of ITVS and Independent Lens from Monday’s edition of The New York Times.

Tags: Independent Lens, ITVS, New York Times, P.O.V., PBS

Women, War & Peace Earns TV Academy Honors

PBS’s Women, War & Peace will be among seven programs to receive Television Academy Honors nods at the May 2 ceremony in Los Angeles.

Recognized for personifying “Television with a Conscience,” the five-part PBS mini-series, is a global media initiative on the roles of women in peace and conflict.

The film premiered last year as part of public media’s Women and Girls Lead initiative. Watch the trailer for the doc after the jump.
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Tags: Awards, ITVS, PBS, television academy honors, women and girls lead, women war and peace

Joint Task Force Working to Boost Audience for Indies on PBS

ITVS, POV, and PBS Leadership Meet Weekly to Develop New Indies Strategy

During most of the past decade, Independent Lens and POV together have provided a year-round broadcast slot of independent documentary films, airing on Tuesday nights at 10 PM, with POV running June to October with special presentations in other months and Independent Lens airing October through June.

In May 2011, changes in PBS’s prime-time schedule moved Independent Lens and POV to 10 PM on Thursdays, a night traditionally reserved for stations’ local and syndicated programming. For Independent Lens, the move has resulted in a significant decline in both station carriage and viewership.
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Tags: current, Independent Lens, indie film, ITVS, P.O.V., PBS, public media

CARE & ITVS Present: Pray the Devil Back to Hell

Women and Girls Lead and CARE are partnering for a special live online screening of the PBS documentary Pray the Devil Back to Hell (part of the recent Women War & Peace series), followed by a live panel discussion with Executive Producer Abigail Disney, PBS CEO Paula Kerger, and CARE President Helene Gayle. The event will take place on the eve of International Women’s Day from Washington, D.C. March 7 at 7:30PM ET on CARE’s website.

Pray the Devil Back to Hell is the astonishing story of the Liberian women – including Nobel Peace Prize winner Leymah Gbowee – who took on the warlords and regime of dictator Charles Taylor in the midst of a brutal civil war, and won a once unimaginable peace for their shattered country in 2003.
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Tags: Abigail Disney, care, heleyne gayle, paula kerger, PBS, pray the devil back to hell

Do You Feel the Need for Speed?

Racing Dreams premieres tonight on POV, but until then, you can share the tween karting experience in our online strategy game.

Select your driver, build your kart, then take your racing team through the elite national Division of Karting (DOK) season. Win races, earn sponsors, keep your kart tuned up, and don’t forget to make time for homework! Play POV Kart Racer.

Racing Dreams is the chronicle of two boys and a girl who do something extraordinary: They fearlessly race extreme go-karts at speeds of up to 70 miles per hour in pursuit of trophies and, just maybe, careers as NASCAR drivers. And as the youngsters compete on the track, they also navigate the treacherous road from childhood to young adulthood. › Continue reading

Tags: kart racer, online game, P.O.V., PBS, racing dreams

Four ITVS Shorts Featured in PBS Online Film Festival

Beginning Monday February 27, PBS will launch its first Online Film Festival to showcase 20 short films from independent filmmakers. The festival will last until March 30 and can be accessed via the PBS website and PBS’s YouTube channel.

This is the first time PBS has produced a film festival exclusively for online content and with a focus on independent films. Of the 20 films selected, four are films funded by ITVS and three have been previously released online. They are: Bullet Proof Vest by May Lin Au Yong (Grand Jury Prize Winner of the Independent Lens Online Film Festival), Play by David Kaplan and Eric Zimmerman, Sunshine: Single Dads by Karen Skloss; and Women and Girls Lead: Meet Beverly by Carl and Betsy Crum.

Tags: film festival, indie festival, PBS, shorts festival

Live Online Screening of The Interrupters

Kartemquin Films, PBS Frontline, and ITVS invite you to join the filmmakers and subjects of The Interrupters for a special live, online “social screening” of the film beginning at 5:30PM PT / 8:30PM ET. Follow this link to participate in the screening.

Watch The Interrupters Preview on PBS. See more from FRONTLINE.

Participating in the screening will be the film’s producers Steve James and Alex Kotlowitz, and violence interrupter Cobe Williams. More participants are still to be confirmed.
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Tags: ameena matthews, Chicago, Frontline, gang, Independent Lens, PBS, steve james, the interrupters, youth violence

A Determined Filmmaker Returns to Open Call

Filmmaker Judith Helfand’s latest documentary Cooked was one of a dozen projects accepted into ITVS’s latest round of Open Call funding. She offered BTB this roundup of the producer’s orientation, held last week in San Francisco.

I started writing this amidst the din of the one week orientation for filmmakers funded through ITVS’ most recent Open Call. I’m finishing it from the relative “quiet” of my Upper West Side apartment, save for the garbage trucks way below on 84^th - otherwise known as Edgar Allan Poe Street, the two-year-old running on the bare wood floor above me in 11B, and the hammering from somewhere in my pre- WW1 building.

The “din”: the walla walla of 20 independent producers, each in a different state of disbelief, gratitude, relief, giddy nervousness, tenacious “I can handle anything that comes my way” and “thank you but don’t touch my digital rights”.  It has since turned into a low comforting roar/buzz/oral memory playing in the background as I write up these reflections.
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Tags: chicken and egg, cooked, funding, ITVS, judith hefand, Open Call, PBS

PBS NewsHour & IL Present: A Social Screening of More Than a Month

Following the PBS broadcast premiere on Independent Lens — a social screening of the film will start at 12PM PT / 3PM ET on Friday, February 17. Filmmaker Shukree Tighlman will participate in the event, which is being produced in partnership by PBS NewsHour and Independent Lens. Follow this link to participate in the screening.

Watch End Black History Month? on PBS. See more from Independent Lens.

The event will take place exclusively online. Participants can join for free by signing in with Facebook (or directly on the site), interact with other viewers, and filmmaker Shukree Tilghman in real-time, while watching the film. Viewers can comment, ask questions, take polls, and even express their feelings about what they’re watching through a variety of tools on the site.

This is an entirely new way of experiencing documentary films and it is inherently social. We are looking forward to an open, informative, and engaging public conversation about ethnic heritage months and whether relegating African American history to the shortest month of the year – and separating it from American history on the whole – denigrates the role of black people and black culture throughout American history.

Find more information on Friday’s screening here.

Tags: Black History Month, live chat, More Than a Month, online screening, PBS, shukree tilghman