Watch PICKLES, INC. on Global Voices on PBS WORLD

“There are those who venture into a start-up business to make some extra cash, and then there are those who do so to survive… PICKLES, INC. evokes an I-can-do-anything mentality after watching the unlikely entrepreneurs succeed.”
- Media Life Magazine

In the Israeli Arab village of Tamra, in Galilee, eight widows challenge social conventions and establish the Azka Pickle Cooperative, seeking financial independence for themselves and their children. With little formal education and no work experience outside of the home, the women face endless hurdles in expanding their business start-up–while their personal lives reflect the joys and sadness of family weddings, bereavement, and loneliness.

PICKLES, INC. airs Sunday, October 4 at 10:00 PM on Global Voices on PBS WORLD (check local listings).

After watching PICKLES, INC., you might just feel inspired to make pickles at home. Try out this favorite recipe of ITVS staffer Joy-Marie Scott––pickled okra, a Texan classic created by Lady Bird Johnson.
Get the recipe >>

Looking for something inspired from the Middle East? Find recipes on a variety of pickled foods >>

Tags: economics, Galilee, pickles, women

COMMUNITY CLASSROOM: Women’s Empowerment

Despite the spread of globalization, democracy and digital communication, many women and girls are left out of important advancements that have deep implications on their quality of life. Furthermore, women represent only 16 percent of world parliamentarians but 60-70 percent of the world’s uneducated and poor. With a unique strategy to help educate, inspire and change, COMMUNITY CLASSROOM’s International Edition: Women’s Empowerment combines award-winning documentaries and innovative partnerships with dozens of impact-oriented NGOs and hundreds of educators.

COMMUNITY CLASSROOM’s International Edition: Women’s Empowerment highlights stories of women’s leadership around the world and engages young people in exploring their potential to become leaders, global citizens and active participants in the global movement for women’s rights. The four documentaries featured will introduce students to: an indigenous Bolivian leader fighting for labor rights; a young Israeli-Arab karate champion with feminist ideas; three Egyptian women working for fair elections and a Kenyan leader sparking a nationwide environmental movement.

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Tags: democracy, educators, globalization, women

Watch SEÑORITA EXTRAVIADA on Global Voices on PBS WORLD

“Lourdes Portillo’s elegiac SEÑORITA EXTRAVIADA documents with low-key persistence the conditions in Ciudad Juárez,” Los Angeles Times

Since 1993, over 400 young women have been raped and murdered in Juarez, Mexico. Authorities ignore pleas for justice from the victims’ families, and the crimes go unpunished. Most disturbingly, evidence of government complicity remains uninvestigated as the killings continue to this day. SEÑORITA EXTRAVIADA is a haunting look at a heinous crime wave amid the corruption of one of the world’s biggest border towns.

SEÑORITA EXTRAVIADA airs Sunday, August 30 at 10:00 PM on Global Voices on PBS WORLD (check local listings). A co-presentation with Latino Public Broadcasting and P.O.V.

Tags: crime, Mexico, women

Behind the Scenes: GOING ON 13

GOING ON 13 follows four urban girls of color over the span of four years, from their uncomplicated elementary school lives to the crowded halls of middle school, where they confront sex, chat rooms and the powerful influence of popular culture.

Check out the behind-the-scenes clip below where filmmakers Kristy Guevara-Flanagan and Dawn Valadez meet up with two of the girls––now 18 years old––nearly two years after completing the project. Find out what has changed in the lives of these young women and their future plans.

GOING ON 13 will air this September on public television (check local listings).
A co-production of ITVS in association with Latino Public Broadcasting

Visit the GOING ON 13 website for more updates >>

Tags: behind-the-scenes, online video, urban life, women

Recent Talkback About Independent Lens This Month

It’s hard to believe another season of Independent Lens has come to an end. Check out some of the recent Talkback from viewers about films airing this month. Share your own thoughts and stay tuned for the latest updates about the upcoming season.

ASK NOT

“Thank you for educating me about ‘Don’t Ask Don’t Tell.’ I am a teenager, and if I understand the need for ALL Americans to have equal opportunities, why doesn’t congress?”
Posted by: Monique on June 18, 2009

“I am not gay but when I was in Vietnam and they were shooting at me, I did not care if the guy beside me helping shoot back was gay, green yellow or whatever. Get rid of DADT. The war took years from my life and now the taxes I pay are being wasted by putting highly trained people out of the military.”
Posted by: Kenneth Mostella on June 17, 2009

“I am a lifelong military dependant, married to a career Army Officer. Both my husband and I support the full inclusion of every eligible person willing to serve… The only point of contention I had was with the Right to Serve Campaign, which in my mind will do a disservice to the advancement of equal rights… These recruiters are legally bound by the limits of this ridiculous policy. Lets continue with the discourse, it’s only a matter of time.”
Posted by: Molly on June 17, 2009

View more Talkback and submit your own for ASK NOT >>

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Tags: African American, gay, Military, women

Open Call Recipient: Julie Wyman, Filmmaker of STRONG!

ITVS funds, distributes and promotes new programs produced by independent producers primarily for public television and beyond.

Julie Wyman produced and directed STRONG!, which looks at weightlifter Cheryl Haworth’s struggle to defend her champion status as her lifetime weightlifting career inches towards its inevitable end. Wyman received ITVS’s Open Call funding and in the clip below discusses why public television was the best match for the challenging themes of her film.

Interested in applying for Open Call? ITVS is looking for single public television programs on any subject, viewpoint or style. We fund programs that bring new audiences to public television and expand civic participation by bringing diverse voices into the public sphere. This year’s deadline is July 31, 2009.

Find more information about Open Call funding >>

Tags: Open Call, sports, weightlifting, women

Watch LIONESS Tonight on Independent Lens

Tonight at 10:00 PM on Independent Lens on PBS (check local listings), a special encore presentation of LIONESS: How did five female Army support soldiers–mechanics, supply clerks and engineers–end up fighting alongside the Marines in some of the bloodiest counterinsurgency battles of the Iraq War? Directors Meg McLagan and Daria Sommers give an intimate look at war through the eyes of the first women in U.S. history sent into direct ground combat, despite a policy that bans them from doing so. Through harrowing personal stories, these women candidly share their experiences in Iraq as well as from their lives back home to form a portrait of the emotional and psychological effects of war.

“If you have only …90 minutes: Meet female combat veterans of the war in Iraq (like captain Anastasia Breslow) in LIONESS, just one of the far-ranging films in the superb series Independent Lens,”
O, The Oprah Magazine [PDF download]

Check out a preview below:

LIONESS airs tonight at 10:00 PM on Independent Lens on PBS (check local listings)

Interested in finding out more about the impact of this film on Capitol Hill?

› Continue reading

Tags: Military, women

Watch AFGHANISTAN UNVEILED on Global Voices on PBS WORLD

Filmed by the first-ever team of women video journalists trained in Afghanistan, this uncompromising film reveals the effects on Afghan women of the Taliban’s repressive rule and of the U.S.-sponsored bombing campaign. Leaving Kabul for the first time and traveling to rural regions of the country, the filmmakers present footage of women whose lives have been decimated by recent events. 2005 EMMY AWARD nominee.

“No burqa. No blue, ghostlike sheet covering their eyes and their mouths and their ability to convey emotion. For the young female journalists in AFGHANISTAN UNVEILED, the burqa represents the repressive recent history of their country––a history they’re only now fully understanding,”
San Francisco Chronicle.

Watch a preview below:

AFGHANISTAN UNVEILED airs Sunday, May 10 at 10:00 PM on Global Voices on PBS WORLD (check local listings).

Tags: Afghanistan, Taliban, women

TAKING ROOT Video Modules Available

ITVS is proud to present COMMUNITY CLASSROOM lesson plans and video modules for TAKING ROOT: The Vision of Wangari Maathai, which tells the story of Kenyan Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Wangari Maathai whose simple act of planting trees grew into a global movement.

Classroom activities and homework assignments examine how environmental issues such as deforestation are intricately linked to many other social issues, and how organizations such as the Green Belt Movement mobilize citizens to take action.

Standards aligned lesson plans are directed toward grades 9 through 12, and college students for use in the following subject areas: social studies, environmental studies, political science, women’s studies, international studies, world history, government and civics.

Watch video modules and download lesson plans >>

Tags: Africa, environmental, Wangari Maathai, women

Watch TAKING ROOT Tonight on Independent Lens

How does the simple act of planting trees lead to winning the Nobel Peace Prize? Ask Wangari Maathai of Kenya. In 1977, she suggested rural women plant trees to address problems stemming from a degraded environment. Under her leadership, their tree-planting grew into a nationwide movement to safeguard the environment, defend human rights and promote democracy and brought Maathai the Nobel Peace Prize in 2004.

“Lisa Merton and Alan Dater’s Kenyan TAKING ROOT… attests to the seismic changes wrought by women of different religions and ethnicities working together. [A] Lucid, lovingly crafted pic, which won the audience award at Hot Docs,” Daily Variety

Check out the trailer below:

TAKING ROOT: The Vision of Wangari Maathai airs tonight at 10:00 PM on Independent Lens on PBS (check local listings)

Tags: Africa, environmental, women