Community Cinema Rocks the Bay Area

Sara Brissenden-Smith, regional outreach coordinator for the Bay Area, gives us highlights from a season of Community Cinema screenings.

I just completed my first full season of Community Cinema — that’s 18 screenings, with more than 30 community partners, 40 panelists, and more than 1,000 audience members.

A DJ spins at the Copyright Criminals screening in Oakland

Copyright Criminals brought out some of our most energetic and diverse viewers. People flooded into the theater and almost immediately lost themselves in the music.  Maybe it’s because I’m a hip hop fan, but having youth DJs mixing Lauryn Hill and Tribe Called Quest started my night off right. Law students, hip hop enthusiasts, teenagers, established authors, and DJs all contributed to conversations about artistic expression, creative ownership, and the overall impact on hip hop.

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Tags: between the folds, community cinema, copyright criminals, documentary, garbage dreams, Oakland, PBS, Young@Heart

It’s a Wrap! A Look Back at Independent Lens Season 2009/10

There you have it folks, another gem-filled season of the Emmy Award-winning series Independent Lens is done and dusted. What a ride! We thought we’d take you back to some of the highlights, and point you to where you can catch up on any of the films you missed.

The season premiered with a fan favorite, Herb & Dorothy, about the unassuming Vogels of New York City who amassed a remarkable modern art collection on his salary as a postal clerk and hers as a librarian.

Between the Folds, Vanessa Gould’s visionary film about artists and scientists who are using origami to articulate concepts from quantum physics to the meaning of creativity, aired this winter. We heard from many viewers who found the film mind-bending and impossible to tear themselves away from. The film garnered Gould a Peabody Award this spring.

No Subtitles Necessary: Laszlo & Vilmos had something of a cult following in our offices. James Chressanthis’s appreciation of Hungarian cinematographers and lifelong friends Laszlo Kovacs and Vilmos Zsigmond (winner of the inaugural Independent Lens Vanguard Award) introduced us to industry legends who — from behind the camera on films such as The Deer Hunter and Easy Rider — literally shaped the look of American cinema in the 1960s and 1970s.

Young@Heart was another viewer favorite, chronicling a season of performances with the eponymous senior citizens chorus. You haven’t lived until you’ve seen octogenarians rocking out punk classics from The Clash.

Garbage Dreams — a beautiful film about trash — aired this spring around Earth Day. It was shortlisted for the Oscar in documentary features, and came equipped with one of our coolest interactive games to date.

We rounded out the year with the grand finale — our only fiction film of the season: Goodbye Solo. This award-winning film from Ramin Bahrani (who Roger Ebert has called “the director of the decade”) told of a Senegalese cab driver who tries to talk his fare out of a one-way ride to his death.

You can go to the Independent Lens website on PBS to revisit your favorites of the year, and vote in the Audience Award finals (beginning June 14). And super good news for you, our viewers — if you missed any shows this year, some of them are available to watch in their entirety on the PBS video player right now! And lucky for you, a number of other films from this season and from seasons past are available on iTunes, Hulu, Netflix, Snagfilms and YouTube. So go out there and watch something mind-expanding.

Tags: between the folds, documentary, Emmy, garbage dreams, Goodbye Solo, Herb & Dorothy, No Subtitles Necessary, Vanessa Gould, Young@Heart

Community Cinema Featured on Channel 9 in Washington, D.C.

Local TV station WUSA Channel 9 in Washington D.C. featured an in-studio interview with local Community Cinema Coordinator Michon Boston  on Thursday, December 3, 2009. Watch Michon discuss the Community Cinema program, local partners and upcoming films in her live TV interview.

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Tags: dc, Free, garbage dreams, Washington DC, Young@Heart

Community Cinema Screening of YOUNG@HEART in Brattleboro, VT

Producing Partners are local community organizations that co-present Community Cinema screenings across the country. Last night, the Brattleboro Museum and Art Center (BMAC) in Brattleboro, VT, screened the Independent Lens film YOUNG@HEART. The film documents the true story of the Young@Heart senior citizens chorus, whose average age is 81. Their inspiring story celebrates the unbreakable bonds of friendship and the life-affirming power of music. Special thanks to YOUNG@HEART chorus director Bob Cilman and chorus members Steve Martin and Jeanne Hatch who made special appearances at the screening. Danny Lichtenfeld, director of the Brattleboro Museum and Art Center,  gives his take on the event below:

From left to right: Steve Martin (Young@Heart chorus member), Bob Cilman (Young@Heart chorus director), Danny Lichtenfeld (BMAC director), Jeanne Hatch (Young@Heart chorus member), Joe LoMonaco (BMAC trustee)

This weekend we had the great pleasure of welcoming Bob Cilman, director of the Young@Heart chorus, and two members of the chorus, Steve Martin and Jeanne Hatch, to our screening of the uplifting film about their ensemble.

Despite the worst weather forecast of the winter so far, about 35-40 audience members showed up for the event, which included a pre-screening meet-and-greet and a post-screening Q&A session. Bob and the chorus members were, in fact, the first to arrive — the trip up to Brattleboro from Northampton, Mass. being much shorter than they had anticipated (not so for their return trip in the snow, however). I greeted them at the door and had to remind myself that, while they seemed so familiar and lovable to me (I had already watched the film), they had no idea who I was. That was all resolved soon enough, owing mainly to the fact that Steve Martin has the gift of friendly gab like few people I’ve ever met. And Jeanne and Bob, too, were warm and gracious — throughout the meet-and-greet and also during the spirited Q&A.

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Tags: BMAC, Brattleboro, Independent Lens, Young@Heart