Tag Archives: Sundance

The ITVS Indie Roundup

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A curated list of indie news and recommendations from ITVS’s Rebecca Huval.

Female directors are way more likely to have directed a documentary at Sundance than a narrative film — 34.5 percent of documentaries were directed by women, compared to 16.9 percent of narrative films in the last decade of the festival.

One filmmaker at Sundance, Sarah Polley, proudly declared her preference for documentaries in an interview:  “I’ve always liked documentaries more than fictional narrative films. I can sit through any documentary and it will be educational even if it’s terrible, but a bad feature film can make me want to die.”

But more women than ever are competing in the dramatic competition at Sundance this year, and the topic of sexism in the film industry is out in the open. Check out videos of a Sundance panel featuring six female directors as they air out their gender-based challenges. Continue reading →

The ITVS Indie Roundup

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A curated list of indie news and recommendations from ITVS’s Rebecca Huval.

More documentary films are being made now than ever. To make sense of their impact, social scientists are using Big Data to measure cultural shifts within social media.

People of all professions go through quarter-life crises, but young filmmakers have a specific set of anxieties. Raindance ticks off the fears of twenty-something directors, including financial insecurity and getting into the “inside track.”

“If you don’t know who’s funding you on day one, do not start your campaign,” said Indiegogo founder Slava Rubin at DOC NYC. Learn other invaluable crowdfunding tips from Vimeo’s synopsis of DOC NYC’s online fundraising event. Continue reading →

The ITVS Indie Roundup

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A curated list of indie news and recommendations from ITVS’s Rebecca Huval.

You’ll never look at a dumpster the same way again. The sanitation department of Hamburg, Germany, teamed up with an advertising agency to form the Trashcan Project. They plant pinhole cameras on the dumpsters, offering a trash-level view of the city.

Awaken your creative juices by perusing the 10 Gold winners from Cannes Lions 2012, the advertising festival, including a surprising interpretation of the Three Little Pigs by The Guardian.

If you’ve made a film before, you understand that it’s an all-consuming labor of madness and passion. Now’s your chance for some schadenfreude. Watch other directors as they captain the impossible task of making a movie through this Sundance compilation of documentaries about filmmaking. Continue reading →

Oscar Nominees for Best Doc Include: Hell and Back Again & If a Tree Falls

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Early Tuesday morning the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announced this year’s Oscar nominees. Among the films selected for best documentary were two ITVS programs: Hell and Back Again by Danfung Dennis (coming to Independent Lens on May 24) and If a Tree Falls by filmmakers Marshall Curry and Sam Cullman (broadcast last September on POV). BTB will be speaking with filmmakers Dennis and Cullman later today in Park City at the Sundance Film Festival to get their reaction on the nomination. Until then, join us in congratulating the filmmakers and watch the trailers below:

Find the complete list of nominated film here.

ITVS Garners Four Nominations for IFP Gotham Awards

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ITVS films received four out of five nominations in the Best Documentary category for the 2011 Gotham Awards. The award ceremony will take place on November 28th at Cipriani Wall Street in New York.

ITVS nearly got a clean sweep in the Best Documentary category of the IFP Gotham Awards with ITVS films receiving four out of the five nominations.  Check out the list of ITVS Best Documentary nominees along with their trailers after the jump >>
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Now Streaming on Indies Showcase: Daddy & Papa

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Exploring the growing phenomenon of gay fatherhood through the stories of four families, Daddy & Papa looks at gay fathers who face both the routine and revolutionary challenges of becoming parents. Watch the Emmy Award-nominated documentary streaming free until Sept. 1st on ITVS’s Indies Showcase.

Daddy & Papa explores the personal, cultural, and political impact of gay men who are making a decision that is at once traditional and revolutionary: to raise children themselves. Taking us inside four gay male families, Daddy & Papa traces the day-to-day challenges and the larger, critical issues that inevitably intersect their private lives – the ambiguous place of interracial families in America, the wonder and precariousness of surrogacy and adoption, the complexities of marriage and divorce within the gay community, and the legality of their own parenthood.

Watch Daddy & Papa now on ITVS’s Indies Showcase >>

The Unsettling Images of War at Home and Abroad

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Hell And Back Again, which picked up multiple awards at this year’s Sundance Film Festival, will air next season on Independent Lens. The documentary, by photo-journalist Danfung Dennis, profiles a Marines life during and after his stint in Afghanistan.

New Video recently acquired the film for North American distribution, with plans to release it in theaters this October.

The film provides two overlapping narratives that equally depict the rawness of war, at home and abroad. Dennis — who served as an embed journalist in Afghanistan — weaves together battle scenes from the frontlines with home footage that depicts the post-traumatic-stress, awaiting so many of today’s soldiers.

“The film evolves from war expose into the story of one man’s personal apocalypse, and also underscores the price military families pay when soldiers resume civilian life.,” said Lois Vossen, Founding Series Producer of Independent Lens. “We look forward to presenting Hell and Back Again to millions of viewers through the Independent Lens Community Cinema outreach program and our spring 2012 broadcast.”

 

The Independent Lens Curating Process

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Independent Lens Series Producer Lois Vossen has been tweeting from Sundance this week as she scouts out a brand new slate of documentaries. Last year, BTB asked Lois to describe the curating process behind the Emmy Award-wining series, and what she looks for in an Independent Lens film.

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See ITVS Films at Sundance 2011

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BTB has been keeping tabs on all ITVS films (The Interrupters, Granito, Family Portrait in Black and White, and If a Tree Falls: A Story of the Earth Liberation Front) and staff (Lois Vossen and Claire Aguilar) at Sundance through our twitter widget #itvssundance as the snowy festival cruises on this week.

For those in Park City, check out the screenings below over the next few days to get caught up on our great lineup of films playing at the festival.

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Find ITVS Staff at Sundance

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ITVS is well represented at this year’s Sundance Film Festival in Park City. In addition to having two films competing in the festival and another two hosting their doc premiere, two ITVS execs are also on-hand for industry meetings.

Vice Presidents Claire Aguilar (programming) and Lois Vossen (series producer of Independent Lens) will both be attending the following two events over the next few days:
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