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 600 Films and Counting: Celebrating 15 Years of ITVS The staggering breadth, scope and originality that come out of supporting singular visions for 15 years By Geneva Collins 
All of the 600-plus projects ITVS has funded since it wrote its first checks back in 1991 are singular in some respect—the organization exists to bring new and diverse voices to the air. But some stand out for innovation of craft, others for pushing social boundaries or stirring viewers to action and still others for fresh mining of the past or creating intimate portraits. "From the very beginning, ITVS has attracted an unusual mix of talent that had not found a way into the traditional public television broadcast stable," said Claire Aguilar, ITVS director of programming. "There have been people who haven't worked in television before because they are filmmakers, or they're experimenting with form or they're documentarians whose works don't fit into the traditional series venues," she said.
DOTTIE came to ITVS via a 1992 initiative for innovative drama called "TV Families" and aired in 1994. Aguilar remembers that in the early days there were a lot of initiatives for diverse projects. One was to solicit filmic essays, for example; another was directed at works on HIV/AIDS. "They weren't stand-alone initiatives; they were more like pilots," she says.
"It has always been a primary preoccupation of mine to tell Latino stories in a unique way, and one that somehow drew from traditions that were part of popular culture in Latin America and Mexico," said Avila, who wanted to break out of the earnest social dramas that he felt typified the work of many Latino directors. Avila says ITVS at first funded two half-hours, but it liked the finished product so much it commissioned two more before FOTO-NOVELAS aired in 1997. The series struck a chord with audiences, and critics compared it to Rod Serling's Twilight Zone, so ITVS supported two more shows for broadcast in 2003. DOCUMENTARIES WRIT LARGE AND SMALL Although DOTTIE and FOTO-NOVELAS were both dramas, ITVS is far better known for supporting documentaries. Dramas in general are far more expensive to produce than documentaries, so dollars go farther with the latter. But that doesn't mean real-life stories can't be ambitious. Just ask David Sutherland, master of the documentary-as-epic.
Sutherland winnowed 200 hours of footage shot over three years to create the story, notable not only for its lack of narration but for its sonically rich audio. The director meticulously mixed the sound from numerous microphones so that the couple's every groan and sigh resonated with viewers. Sutherland, who calls himself a "portraitist," used the same unblinking close-ups and sound immersion techniques in COUNTRY BOYS, which also received ITVS funding.
Aguilar points out that the "diversity" championed in the ITVS mission statement is not only about supporting filmmakers of color and of minority viewpoints but also includes geographic diversity—moving beyond the L.A.- or New York-centric urban scene—and that THE FARMER'S WIFE is a beautiful example of this.
The lovingly drawn 30-minute animation by Fierlinger and his wife, Sandra, was an example "not only of interesting filmmaking but of absolutely brilliant storytelling," said Aguilar. ITVS has encouraged the work of many filmmakers of color so that they can bring diverse points of view to the small screen, but Deann Borshay Liem's FIRST PERSON PLURAL is far more than just the output of an Asian American filmmaker. It's one of many intensely personal works ITVS has supported over the years that can only happen when the filmmaker dares to turn the camera on herself.
It wound up at 80 minutes and found a home on American Experience, the first such partnership between the series and ITVS. Dolgin and Franco also appreciated the opportunity public television gave them to submit DAUGHTER FROM DANANG to festivals and theatrical release before its television debut. The film snared the Sundance Grand Jury Prize and earned an Oscar nomination for Best Documentary. PROMISES, another ITVS-P.O.V. co-presentation, and an intensely personal film, tells the story of the Mideast conflict through the eyes of two groups of kids, one Palestinian and the other Israeli, who live 20 minutes—but many worlds—apart. The film, produced by Justine Shapiro, B.Z. Goldberg and Carlos Bolado, won numerous prizes and has had a strong international life since its 2002 U.S. broadcast. 2002 was also the year the film ALCATRAZ IS NOT AN ISLAND aired. By director Jim Fortier (a Metis-Ojibway) and producer Jim Plutte, the piece started out as a museum exhibit video about the Native American occupation of Alcatraz in 1969.
"Without ITVS funding, I don't think this film would have ever reached television. We didn't have the budget to pay for music rights, for example," said Fortier. "…And the outreach they provided was really crucial—arranging screenings at tribal colleges and community centers, spreading the word in native communities, providing publicity." "This was an incredible story that many Native Americans know but the American public doesn't," said Aguilar of the piece. "We want to reach out to more Native American filmmakers." INDIES FIND A SHOWCASE WITH INDEPENDENT LENS Also in 2002, the weekly Independent Lens debuted on PBS, giving independent filmmakers another venue for their work on public television. It showcases long and short works, documentaries, dramas, experimental formats and everything in between. If it weren't for Independent Lens, a drama like Rodney Evans's BROTHER TO BROTHER, about a young man's struggles to fit into both the black and gay communities, wouldn't find a home on public television, said Aguilar. (P.O.V., a longtime home on PBS for independents' work, accepts only nonfiction films.) Stanley Nelson found a niche for his autobiographical work, A PLACE OF OUR OWN, on Independent Lens in 2004. Nelson, the Emmy Award-winning producer and director of The Murder of Emmett Till, was an accomplished filmmaker when he decided to make a home movie of sorts about the Martha's Vineyard resort where his family had vacationed for generations. The finished product was an exploration not only of a particular place, but of the black middle class and the larger issues of inclusion and community. Nelson recalls getting a letter from a white Jewish woman who told him how much the film touched her because she had felt similarly isolated growing up in a non-Jewish community in Great Britain. "People respond to a personal film in a personal way," said Nelson. His better-known historical and current affairs documentaries had not evoked such a personal response from viewers.
"I basically shot every day for a whole summer. It was a wonderful process for me—much more hands-on, getting back to my roots," he said. TWO TOWNS OF JASPER was another documentary centered on a particular place, but the resulting film was radically different from Nelson's. Marco Williams, who is black, and project partner Whitney Dow, who is white, turned their camera lenses on Jasper, Texas, shortly after the brutal killing of a black man at the hands of three white men. The two came up with the novel concept of using black and white film crews to encourage a more honest discussion about race in America. (P.O.V. and the National Black Programming Consortium were co-presenters along with ITVS.)
Williams says the shooting was done on a shoestring as he applied for grant after grant with various groups. He didn't receive ITVS funding until he was almost ready for postproduction. As a result, the film's production values aren't as high as he would have liked, but he is gratified that "content often prevails over form." TWO TOWNS OF JASPER went on to win the prestigious Alfred I. duPont-Columbia University Award for Broadcast Journalism and the Peabody Award in 2004.
Alpert, who has spent more than three decades in the business, said he kept filming the life of Vern Sager until he found an ending for the work. "It's to ITVS's credit that they just let me stay with this until the story was complete," he said. "It's not like ITVS says ‘we want to preserve the long-form documentary'; what we ask ourselves is more like, ‘can it live on television this way?'" said Aguilar, in seeking to find a place for a filmmaker's vision. So those are some highlights of the first 15 years—what will the next 15 look like? The producers interviewed for this piece all agreed on two things: The first is, no matter how experienced you are, it's still hard to find funding for films. The competition is getting more and more fierce as viewership for cable channels and other outlets for independent films become ever more fragmented. The second is that the portability and relative ease of new digital video equipment are changing the way people make films. "People are doing different kinds of films, experimental films, using smaller more intimate crews and this is continuing to change the industry," said Nelson, who served as a mentor for several apprentice directors while making A PLACE OF OUR OWN. "The downside is the tendency not to learn the skills of filmmaking and storytelling because it's so easy." Still, he describes the environment today and the immediate future as "the Golden Age of documentary filmmaking. People are watching these films." Whatever the next 15 years hold, Aguilar says ITVS plans on being there, issuing Open Calls, encouraging dreams, providing feedback on the rough cuts, forging partnerships with public television stations and signature series, and—perhaps most significantly for filmmakers—giving out money. |
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ITVS: NEWS | NOW SHOWING | FUNDING FOR PRODUCERS | RECENTLY FUNDED PROGRAMS Contact us at itvs@itvs.org |
![“I’m forever grateful to ITVS. [The Farmer’s Wife] validated my career and me.…You gave me a chance to chase my dream.”
—David Sutherland
Filmmaker
THE FARMER’S WIFE](images/suth_quote.gif)
![“There were times when I really doubted that this was ever going to be a film. I didn’t know how to shape it.…But it wasn’t only that [ITVS] funded the film but that they had faith in the film. They kept pushing me, encouraging me to go more personal, deeper into myself.”
—Stanley Nelson
Filmmaker
A PLACE OF OUR OWN](images/nelson_quote.gif)
