ITVS Pressroom RSS Feed

ITVS Board Elects Three New Members

Mon, 01 Mar 2010 12:20:17 -0800

The Independent Television Service (ITVS), which brings independently produced, high-quality public broadcasting and new media programs to local, national, and international audiences, announced the election of three members to its board of directors.

The Eyes of Me to Air Nationally on the PBS Series Independent Lens on Tuesday, March 2, 2010 at 10 PM

Mon, 08 Feb 2010 10:00:34 -0800

The Eyes of Me presents an extraordinary look at four blind teenagers — two freshmen and two seniors — over the course of one year at the Texas School for the Blind in Austin. Distilled from over 250 hours of footage and using innovative animation, Keith Maitland’s acclaimed documentary The Eyes of Me will air on the Emmy® Award-winning PBS series Independent Lens, hosted by Maggie Gyllenhaal, on Tuesday, March 2, 2010 at 10 PM (check local listings).

Lost Souls (Animas Perdidas) Tells the Story of a Latina Filmmaker’s Troubled Family, Torn Apart by Borders Both Physical and Emotional

Mon, 08 Feb 2010 10:00:04 -0800

Filmmaker Monika Navarro was 21 years old when she began making a film about her uncle Gino, a man who was deported from the U.S. and died in Tijuana, where he was then buried in an unmarked grave. Two months later, her uncle Augie was also deported; both had been legal U.S. residents, military veterans — and drug addicts. As filming progressed, Navarro uncovered a family history that embodied the best and worst of the relationship between the U.S. and Mexico. But, as she says early in the film, “I found myself also telling a different story — about the kind of exile that has nothing to do with the government.”

Whatever It Takes to Air Nationally on the PBS Series Independent Lens on Tuesday, March 30, 2010 at 10 PM

Mon, 08 Feb 2010 09:59:29 -0800

Christopher Wong’s Whatever It Takes offers a fascinating inside look at the first year of the Bronx Center for Science and Mathematics (BCSM), a small public high school in the South Bronx headed by the idealistic Principal Edward Tom, an Asian American man who gave up a lucrative position as an executive with Saks Fifth Avenue for the underpaid, supremely challenging career as an educator in the inner city. The film airs nationally on the Emmy® award winning series Independent Lens, hosted by Maggie Gyllenhaal, on Tuesday, March 30, 2010 at 10 PM (check local listings).

ITVS-Funded Documentary, The Most Dangerous Man in America: Daniel Ellsberg and the Pentagon Papers, Receives 2010 Academy Award® Nomination for Best Documentary Feature

Fri, 05 Feb 2010 11:59:57 -0800

Independent Television Service (ITVS) announced today that one of its acclaimed productions, The Most Dangerous Man in America: Daniel Ellsberg and the Pentagon Papers, was nominated for a 2010 Academy Award® for Best Documentary Feature. Directed by Rick Goldsmith and Judith Ehrlich, the film will have its television premiere later this year on the PBS primetime series POV (check local listings). This marks the 11th Academy Award® nomination for ITVS.

ITVS Funded Film The Oath Takes Home 2010 Sundance Film Festival Excellence In Cinematography Award

Fri, 05 Feb 2010 11:59:12 -0800

The Independent Television Service (ITVS) is proud to announce that its co-production The Oath, a film by Laura Poitras, won the Excellence in Cinematography Award for U.S. Documentary at the 2010 Sundance Film Festival. The film will have its television premiere later this year on the PBS primetime series POV (check local listings).

Entertaining And Eye-Opening, Dirt! The Movie Tells the Story of the Glorious and Underappreciated Stuff Beneath Our Feet

Wed, 16 Dec 2009 10:13:31 -0800

Just one teaspoon of dirt contains an amazing billion organisms, all working in remarkable balance to maintain and sustain a series of complex, thriving communities that impact our daily lives. Inspired by William Bryant Logan’s acclaimed book, Dirt: The Ecstatic Skin of the Earth, DIRT! The Movie deftly combines science and humor as it digs into the history and current state of the living organic matter from which we come from and where we will one day return.

Independent Lens 2010 Winter/Spring Line-Up Kicks Off With Four Acclaimed Music Documentaries on PBS

Tue, 15 Dec 2009 15:36:27 -0800

The Series Turns Up the Volume with A Group of Rocking Seniors in YOUNG@HEART; Provides an Inside Look at the World of Music Sampling with COPYRIGHT CRIMINALS; Follows a 9-Year-Old Rapper's Rise to Fame in P-STAR RISING; and Revisits Byron Hurt’s Seminal HIP HOP: Beyond Beats and Rhymes

Audience Sensation YOUNG@HEART To Premiere on the Emmy® Award–Winning PBS Documentary Series Independent Lens

Mon, 07 Dec 2009 10:14:06 -0800

Prepare to be surprised, delighted and entertained by the inspiring members of the Young@Heart Chorus, a New England senior citizens chorus that has delighted audiences worldwide with their renditions of songs by everyone from The Clash to Coldplay. As Stephen Walker’s critically acclaimed documentary begins, the retirees, led by their demanding musical director, are rehearsing their new show, struggling with Sonic Youth’s dissonant rock anthem “Schizophrenia” and giving new meaning to James Brown’s “I Feel Good.” What ultimately emerges is a funny and unexpectedly moving testament to friendship, creative inspiration and expectations defied. YOUNG@HEART will premiere on the Emmy® Award–winning PBS series Independent Lens on Tuesday, January 12th at 9 PM (check local listings).

Independent Television Service Returns to Sundance with Two Films in the U.S. Documentary Competition and One in the World Cinema Narrative Competition

Thu, 03 Dec 2009 09:43:39 -0800

The Independent Television Service (ITVS) announced today that three of its funded films have been selected for competition in the upcoming 2010 Sundance Film Festival, to be held in Park City, Utah from January 21-31. This brings the number of ITVS funded films that have screened at Sundance to a total of 69, since ITVS’s first presence at the festival in 1994.

PBS and ITVS to Offer Indie Content On iTunes Store

Wed, 02 Dec 2009 09:26:56 -0800

Independent Television Service (ITVS) and PBS announce the availability of more than 20 independent films at the iTunes Store (www.itunes.com/movies/pbs). Curated specifically for iTunes, the collection offers a diverse perspective from filmmakers pursuing stories not normally seen through mainstream channels. This initiative by ITVS and PBS is part of the Independent Digital Distribution Lab, a project to expand distribution vehicles to broadband-connected audiences while exploring revenue-generating partnership models for independent filmmakers and public television.

Five ITVS Documentaries to Screen at the World Renowned International Documentary Festival (IDFA) in Amsterdam

Wed, 25 Nov 2009 09:26:07 -0800

The Independent Television Service (ITVS) has announced that five of its productions have been chosen as official selections for the 22nd International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam (IDFA). Running from November 19-29, 2009, the prestigious festival is the largest showcase of documentary film in the world. Many ITVS films have screened to great audience and critical acclaim at IDFA, including last year’s features, MILKING THE RHINO, directed by David Simpson, and SEA POINT DAYS directed by Francois Verster. Both films competed in the Joris Ivens (feature) competition.

FIVE ITVS DOCUMENTARIES TO SCREEN AT THE WORLD RENOWNED INTERNATIONAL DOCUMENTARY FESTIVAL (IDFA) IN AMSTERDAM

Tue, 17 Nov 2009 12:35:04 -0800

ITVS and POV Announce the Launch of Online Resource for Honoring Returning American Troops in Conjunction with Veteran’s Day Premiere of THE WAY WE GET BY http://www.returninghomeproject.org/

Thu, 12 Nov 2009 09:56:49 -0800

The Independent Television Service (ITVS) and the PBS’s award–winning series POV announce the launch of the I>Returning Home Projectwebsite (www.returninghomeproject.com), an online interactive resource inspired by the ITVS-funded program THE WAY WE GET BY. In the award-winning documentary, filmmakers Aron Gaudet and Gita Pullapilly follow three senior citizens who have made history by greeting nearly one million U.S. troops at a tiny airport in Bangor, Maine.

ITVS Announces FUTURESTATES, a New Online Fictional Series to Explore Visions of Life in a Future America

Thu, 12 Nov 2009 09:56:14 -0800

The Independent Television Service (ITVS) announced today that it will unveil key concepts of its new FUTURESTATES series at AFI’s Digifest in Los Angeles on November 5, 2009. The series, which will be made available online beginning March 2010, will consist of 11 mini-features each 15 minutes in length, created by independent filmmakers exploring diverse visions of what life might look like in an America of the future.

BETWEEN THE FOLDS, a Film about Finding Inspiration in Unexpected Places, Premieres Tuesday, December 8 at 10 PM on the PBS Series Independent Lens

Mon, 26 Oct 2009 13:47:36 -0700

When you look at a piece of paper, what do you see? If your answer is a flat, two-dimensional square, then BETWEEN THE FOLDS will astound you. Blurring the mysterious lines between art, science, sculpture and math, the film is an exhilarating adventure into origami, or paper folding, featuring works of art whose emotional expressiveness and engineering complexity defy logic

James Rutenbeck’s SCENES FROM A PARISH Premieres Nationally on the PBS Series Independent Lens on Tuesday, December 29, 2009 at 10 PM

Mon, 26 Oct 2009 10:29:30 -0700

In 2001, Paul O'Brien, an irreverent, young, Harvard-educated Catholic priest arrived in Lawrence, Massachusetts to take over the reins of Saint Patrick’s Parish. A hundred years ago, Lawrence was a thriving mill town and Saint Patrick’s was home to a large community of immigrant Irish mill workers.

ITVS Announces Six New Projects Selected for Funding through ITVS International Call 2009

Wed, 21 Oct 2009 10:56:35 -0700

The Independent Television Service (ITVS) announced that it has contracted with six international documentary projects from its 2009 International Call, providing them with production funding and eventual U.S. television broadcast.

Power Paths to Air Nationally on the PBS Series Independent Lens on Tuesday, November 3, 2009 at 10 PM

Wed, 21 Oct 2009 10:55:26 -0700

POWER PATHS follows the efforts of American Indian tribes as they explore ways to bring renewable energy projects into their communities. From the Sioux tribes of the Great Plains in the Midwest to the Navajo and Hopi of the Southwest, tribes are fighting to protect their land, air and water from the harmful impacts of mining and coal burning and lead the nation in transitioning to renewable energy sources like wind and solar power.

TATTOOED UNDER FIRE Reveals the Heartbreaking Psychological Casualties of War on Iraq-bound and Returning Soldiers through the Art of Tatooing, a Military Ritual

Wed, 21 Oct 2009 10:54:35 -0700

In the heart of central Texas lies the city of Killeen—home to Fort Hood, America's largest military base. Across the street is River City Tattoo Parlor, a place where many of the war-bound and returning soldiers go under the needle. An estimated 95 percent of the U.S. military sport tattoos. For those joining the ranks at Ford Hood, a pilgrimage to the River City Tattoo Parlor is an essential rite of passage.

D TOUR, A Rock n’ Roll Film About Life, Death and Bodily Functions, Premieres Tuesday, November 10 at 10 PM on the PBS Series Independent Lens

Tue, 06 Oct 2009 11:20:01 -0700

D TOUR is a most unusual music documentary. Combining a band road trip with a personal quest for an organ donor, the film follows the journey of Pat Spurgeon, a talented indie rock musician on the rise, whose life becomes consumed with the care and feeding of his failing kidney. Spurgeon, a previous kidney transplant recipient, is part of the organ donor / recipient community, a special group whose lives become entwined in life and death. On one side are those whose lives are saved through tragedy or by an incredible gift from a living donor; on the other are the families of the donors, who are offered a chance for hope and bittersweet resolution for their loss.

NO SUBTITLES NECESSARY: Laszlo & Vilmos to Air Nationally on the PBS Series Independent Lens on Thursday, November 17th, 2009 at 10 PM

Tue, 06 Oct 2009 11:19:21 -0700

NO SUBTITLES NECESSARY: Laszlo & Vilmos follows the lives of renowned cinematographers Laszlo Kovács and Vilmos Zsigmond from their escape of the 1956 Soviet invasion of Hungary to the present day. An Official Selection of the Cannes Film Festival, James Chressanthis’s NO SUBTITLES NECESSARY will air nationally on the Emmy® Award-winning PBS series Independent Lens on Tuesday, November 17th, 2009 at 10 PM (check local listings.)

Gary Hustwit’s OBJECTIFIED Examines Our Relationship With Everyday Objects and Those Who Design Them

Tue, 06 Oct 2009 11:18:40 -0700

OBJECTIFIED, by acclaimed filmmaker Gary Hustwit, gives new meaning to the term “intelligent design.” The second installment in Hustwit’s trilogy on design (the first was HELVETICA), OBJECTIFIED examines the hundreds of items we touch and use every day without giving a single thought to the people who created them. Who makes all these objects, and why do they look and feel they way they do? How can good design make these things and, by extension, our lives better? The film will premiere on the Emmy® Award–winning PBS series Independent Lens, hosted by Maggie Gyllenhaal, on Tuesday, November 24, at 10 PM (check local listings).

END OF WAITING TIME Confronts Spain’s Facist Past as Families of Victims Continue Search for Loved Ones

Tue, 22 Sep 2009 10:23:00 -0700

In 1936, General Francisco Franco led a coup d' etat against the Spanish Republic that gave rise to a brutal civil war. During his long dictatorship, hundreds of people were arrested, executed or disappeared. Today, family members of those who vanished have begun to look for their relatives' remains and reflect on that dark period and its ongoing effect on their lives. In END OF WAITING TIME, Spanish directors Antonio Perez Molero and Jesus Sanjurjo remove the shroud of secrecy, offering the viewer an opportunity to analyze this chapter of Spain’s history from a human perspective.

Maggie Gyllenhaal Hosts New Season of PBS’s Emmy® Award-Winning Series Independent Lens

Mon, 21 Sep 2009 14:52:03 -0700

Independent Lens announced today that critically acclaimed actress Maggie Gyllenhaal will host the upcoming 2009/2010 season, making her debut when the series premieres on Tuesday, October 13th, 2009 at 10 PM (check local listings). Past seasons of Independent Lens have been presented by award-winning actors Edie Falco, Angela Bassett, Don Cheadle and Susan Sarandon.

New Documentary, END OF THE RAINBOW, Reflects the Different Stories of Modern Day Globalization

Thu, 03 Sep 2009 09:49:03 -0700

Premieres on the PBS WORLD Series Global Voices on Sunday, August 30, 2009

New Documentary GOING ON 13 to Premiere on Public Television

Thu, 03 Sep 2009 09:48:31 -0700

Four girls, four years and the change of a lifetime

OUR DISAPPEARED/NUESTROS DESAPARECIDOS, Juan Mandelbaum’s Personal and Harrowing Investigation into the Fate of Friends and Loved Ones Who Were Among Those Tortured, Killed and “Disappeared” by the Argentine Military

Thu, 03 Sep 2009 09:47:54 -0700

OUR DISAPPEARED/NUESTROS DESAPARECIDOS the heartbreaking chronicle of director Juan Mandelbaum’s personal search for the souls of friends and loved ones, idealistic young students and activists who were caught in the brutal vise of the right-wing military and “disappeared” in his native Argentina during the 1976–1983 military dictatorship.

EMMY® AWARD–WINNING PBS SERIES INDEPENDENT LENS RETURNS WITH A TREASURY OF ACCLAIMED INDIE DOCS AND FEATURES

Thu, 30 Jul 2009 13:11:33 -0700

From the personal to the political, Independent Lens presents a powerful mix of entertaining and soul-searching stories

New season to feature official Sundance selections YOUNG@HEART, DIRT! The Movie and THE HORSE BOY

COPYRIGHT CRIMINALS, an Exploration of the Creative and Legal Ramifications of Music Sampling in Hip-Hop, to Premiere on the PBS Documentary Series Independent Lens

Mon, 20 Jul 2009 13:29:47 -0700

Computers, software and even cell phones have radically altered our relationship to mass culture and technology, providing consumers with the tools to become producers, or “remixers,” of their own media. But long before everyday people began posting their video mash-ups on the Web, hip-hop musicians perfected the art of audio montage through a sport they called “sampling.”

Audience Sensation YOUNG@HEART to Have Its Television Premiere on the Emmy® Award–Winning PBS Documentary Series Independent Lens

Mon, 20 Jul 2009 13:29:21 -0700

Prepare to be surprised and delighted and entertained by the inspiring members of the Young@Heart Chorus, a New England senior citizens chorus that has delighted audiences worldwide with their renditions of songs by everyone from The Clash to Coldplay. As Stephen Walker’s critically acclaimed documentary begins, the retirees, led by their demanding musical director, are rehearsing their new show, struggling with Sonic Youth’s dissonant rock anthem “Schizophrenia” and giving new meaning to James Brown’s “I Feel Good.” What ultimately emerges is a funny and unexpectedly moving testament to friendship, creative inspiration and expectations defied.

Four ITVS Programs Receive Nominations for the 30th Annual News and Documentary Emmy® Awards

Tue, 14 Jul 2009 13:32:04 -0700

Independent Television Service (ITVS) announced today that four of its acclaimed films received nominations for the 30th annual News and Documentary Emmy® Awards. The awards recognize outstanding achievement in broadcast journalism during the 2008 calendar year. Since 1997, ITVS programs have garnered 13 wins in the News and Documentary category.

Acclaimed PBS Series Independent Lens Receives Two Nominations in the News and Documentary Emmy® Awards

Tue, 14 Jul 2009 13:26:34 -0700

Four-time Emmy® Award–winning PBS series Independent Lens announced today that two of its acclaimed films have been nominated for the 30th annual News and Documentary Emmy® Awards.

Emmy® Award–Winning PBS Series Independent Lens to Showcase New Season at the August 2009 Television Critics Association Press Tour

Tue, 14 Jul 2009 13:26:09 -0700

From a senior citizen chorus with a most unusual repertoire in YOUNG@HEART to hip-hop musicians fighting for creative freedom in COPYRIGHT CRIMINALS, Independent Lens presents a new season of provocative, fascinating documentaries

Kartemquin Films’ Landmark Seven-Hour Documentary Miniseries THE NEW AMERICANS to Air on PBS WORLD’s Global Voices Series

Sat, 06 Jun 2009 13:25:32 -0700

Global Voices, airing on the PBS WORLD Channel, presents an encore presentation of Kartemquin Films’ THE NEW AMERICANS, the seven-hour, critically acclaimed documentary miniseries that follows four years in the lives of a diverse group of immigrants and refugees as they make the age-old journey from around the globe to start new lives in America. THE NEW AMERICANS will air on PBS WORLD’s Global Voices in one-hour installments from July 5 -August 16, 2009 (check local listings).

New Documentary, ESTILO HIP HOP, Reveals the Powerful Role Hip Hop Plays in Bringing Social Change to Latin America

Thu, 04 Jun 2009 16:56:10 -0700

Hip Hop music has the ability to give a voice to the disenfranchised in any country, and as music with a message it is a form available to all societies worldwide. Directed by New York-based filmmakers, Loira Limbal and Virgilio Bravo, ESTILO HIP HOP chronicles the lives of three hip hop enthusiasts from Brazil, Chile and Cuba who firmly believe that hip hop can change the world.

Johnny Symons’s Acclaimed ASK NOT, About the U.S. Military’s Controversial Don’t’ Ask, Don’t Tell Policy, to Air Nationally on the Emmy® Award–Winning PBS Series Independent Lens on Tuesday, June 16, 2009 at 10 PM

Tue, 19 May 2009 16:55:33 -0700

“One of the primary reasons behind the intelligence failures leading to 9/11 was that the Department of Defense’s National Security Agency did not have enough Arabic linguists to translate the backlog of intelligence from Arabic into English before 9/11. And one of the ones that really struck me was a small phrase in Arabic which means, ‘Tomorrow is Zero Hour.’ Any one of the 54 Arabic linguists discharged under Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell could have easily translated that phrase.

Stacy Peralta’s CRIPS AND BLOODS: Made in America Premieres Tuesday, May 12, 2009 on the Emmy® Award–Winning PBS Series Independent Lens

Thu, 07 May 2009 16:47:46 -0700

In the southern portion of the richest city in the richest state in America, a civil war has been raging for more than 40 years. This war has taken more than 15,000 lives, and it passes its legacy from father to son. The battlefield is South Central Los Angeles, an area surrounded by geographical icons of California—Rodeo Drive, Hollywood and Vine, the beaches of Santa Monica, and Disneyland. The most violent outbreaks of civil unrest in U.S. history have erupted on its streets twice—27 years and just three miles apart.

STEAL A PENCIL FOR ME Premieres Tuesday, May 26, 2009 on the Emmy Award–Winning PBS Series Independent Lens

Thu, 07 May 2009 16:47:28 -0700

If anyone ever wanted proof of the power of the human spirit, STEAL A PENCIL FOR ME is it. Directed and produced by Academy Award® nominee Michèle Ohayon, STEAL A PENCIL FOR ME is a transcendent story of hope and a love that survives even genocide. Following its critically acclaimed theatrical release, the film will have its television premiere on the PBS series Independent Lens, hosted by Terrence Howard, on Tuesday, May 26, 2009 at 10:00 pm (check local listings).

Gonzalo Arijon’s Award-Winning Documentary STRANDED: The Andes Plane Crash Survivors to Air Nationally on the PBS Series Independent Lens on Tuesday, May 19, 2009

Thu, 07 May 2009 16:47:09 -0700

Eloquently told by those who survived, film is a remarkable testament to the human spirit

WINGS OF DEFEAT to Premiere on May 5, 2009 on the Emmy Award–Winning PBS Series Independent Lens

Thu, 07 May 2009 16:46:24 -0700

Film explores the human experience of Kamikaze pilots during WWII, from the perspectives of both Japanese and American survivors

THE DICTATOR HUNTER Offers Revealing Look at the Determination of One American Lawyer to Bring a Chadian Dictator to International Justice

Fri, 24 Apr 2009 16:45:58 -0700

With the arrest warrant against the president of Sudan for atrocities in Darfur and the extradition of Charles Taylor of Liberia, “international justice” seems once again to be on the world’s agenda as the ultimate hope to stop the cycle of impunity. One of the most brutal dictators of the 20th century is the little-known Hissene Habré, who tortured the people of Chad for eight years before fleeing to Senegal. Reed Brody, an American lawyer, along with one of Habré’s victims, Souleymane Guengueng, fight against all odds to bring the African ex-dictator to justice.

The History of the Secret War in Laos Is Revealed by the Survivors in WITNESSES TO A SECRET WAR

Fri, 24 Apr 2009 16:45:32 -0700

While America’s most visible fight against communism in the late 1960s was in Vietnam, a secret war was being conducted in neighboring, neutral Laos. At the time, Washington feared that if Laos fell to the Communists, the rest of Southeast Asia would follow. So the CIA was dispatched to make a stand in Laos by recruiting a little-known group of Hmong tribesman to fight its proxy war.

ITVS International Announces the Return to PBS WORLD of the International Documentary Series Global Voices

Mon, 06 Apr 2009 12:34:46 -0700

Independent Television Service (ITVS) announced today the lineup for the second season of Global Voices, the international documentary series produced by ITVS International for the PBS WORLD digital channel. Global Voices’ second season begins Sunday, April 26, 2009 at 10 PM (check local listings).

ITVS and PBS Launch Independent Digital Distribution Lab to Build Sustainable Revenue Support Model for Indie Filmmakers

Mon, 06 Apr 2009 13:30:44 -0700

In a joint venture, Independent Television Service (ITVS) and PBS announce the Independent Digital Distribution Lab to explore revenue-generating partnership models for independent filmmakers and public television. Nearly 50 independent works will be distributed over the next six months through PBS distribution partnerships, such as download-to-own and ad-based video sites.

David E. Simpson’s MILKING THE RHINO Explores the Innovative Idea of Community-Based Conservation, Which Balances the Needs of Endangered Animals With the Needs of the Africans Who Live With Them

Mon, 30 Mar 2009 11:16:12 -0700

A bloody kill on the sun-drenched Serengeti. Dramatically intoned warnings about endangered species. These clichés of nature documentaries ignore a key feature of the landscape: the villagers who live just off-camera, navigating the dangers and costs of living with wildlife on a daily basis. And when seen at all, rural Africans are often depicted as the problem—mercenary poachers who encroach on habitat and spoil our myth of wild Africa. They are at the center of a deepening conflict between humans and animals in an ever-shrinking world.

TAKING ROOT: The Vision of Wangari Maathai Premieres April 14, 2009 on the Emmy® Award–Winning PBS Series Independent Lens

Mon, 30 Mar 2009 11:15:34 -0700

Is it really possible for one person to change the world? In the case of Wangari Maathai, the answer is a resounding yes. Inspiring and uplifting, TAKING ROOT: The Vision of Wangari Maathai is the story of a woman whose stand for peace and justice was as strong and immovable as the trees she planted. The wisdom of Maathai was that she understood the intrinsic connection between her people and the natural environment, an environment that had dramatically eroded through decades of British colonialization, poverty, civil war, and the Kenyans’ own exploitation and mismanagement of resources. But by planting trees, Matthai and the rural women she worked with were able to restore not only the land, but also their culture, their heritage—even their lifeblood.

AT HOME IN UTOPIA, Chronicle of a Radical Cooperative Housing Experiment in the Bronx, to Air on PBS’s Independent Lens on Tuesday, April 28, 2009 at 10 PM

Mon, 30 Mar 2009 11:14:48 -0700

n the 1920s, believing they could create a radical new American dream committed to equality, justice and beauty, a group of Jewish garment workers left the tenements behind to build cooperative apartment complexes in the green, spacious borough of the Bronx. Then the Great Depression challenged everything. A film by Michal Goldman with Ellen Brodsky, narrated by Linda Lavin, AT HOME IN UTOPIA will air nationally on the Emmy® Award–winning PBS series Independent Lens on Tuesday, April 28, 2009, at 10 PM (check local listings).

ITVS International and the Knight Center for International Media to Launch the 1H20 Project on World Water Day

Thu, 19 Mar 2009 16:26:04 -0700

ITVS International and the Knight Center for International Media at the University of Miami School of Communication, with funding from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, announce the launch of the 1H20 Project, a series of film and video-based initiatives aimed at bringing awareness to the worldwide water crisis.

LAKSHMI AND ME to Air Nationally on the PBS Series Independent Lens on Tuesday, March 24, 2009

Wed, 11 Mar 2009 17:04:26 -0700

An intimate examination of the relationship between filmmaker Nishtha Jain and her young maid, LAKSHMI AND ME offers an in-depth look at the enormous influence of class and caste in Indian society, where domestic workers are routinely underpaid and treated as social inferiors.

New Era of U.S. Public Diplomacy Requires New Approach

Fri, 27 Feb 2009 15:49:21 -0800

Effectively Communicating American Values To The World Is A Crucial Part Of U.S. foreign policy, but doing so effectively will require adopting five essential but underutilized communication strategies, say the conveners of “Media as Global Diplomat”, a one-day conference that examined a broad array of media and communication-related aspects of U.S. public diplomacy efforts.

Mahmoud Al Massad’s RECYCLE to Air Nationally on PBS’s Independent Lens on Tuesday, March 31, 2009

Fri, 27 Feb 2009 15:48:57 -0800

Filmmaker Marjan Tehrani chronicles her brother’s journey to Iran, their father’s birthplace, as he travels with his Caucasian wife to have a traditional Persian wedding ceremony and explore his lost heritage. Weaving the young couple’s personal story with historical footage that illuminates the complex history of America’s relationship with Iran, ARUSI PERSIAN WEDDING goes behind the curtain of political tension to offer a rare glimpse of both modern and traditional Iran.

ARUSI PERSIAN WEDDING to Have its Broadcast Premiere on the PBS Series Independent Lens on March 17, 2009

Wed, 18 Feb 2009 15:39:46 -0800

Mahmoud Al Massad’s RECYCLE to Air Nationally on PBS’s Independent Lens on Tuesday, March 31, 2009

Wed, 18 Feb 2009 15:39:12 -0800

What makes a terrorist? In Zarqa, Jordan’s second-largest city, with close to 1 million people, it is a much-debated question. Zarqa’s political Islamists are a powerful force in this industrial center, and it is the birthplace of Abu Musa al Zarqawi, the brutal leader of al Qaeda in Mesopotamia, who was killed by American forces in 2005. Many in town knew al Zarqawi, many in his family remain, and Zarqa continues to be a source of new recruits to the jihadist cause.

New Era of U.S. Public Diplomacy Requires New Approach

Tue, 10 Feb 2009 15:59:34 -0800

ITVS Announces Two New Projects Selected for Funding through ITVS International Call 2008

Thu, 29 Jan 2009 11:28:52 -0800

ITVS announced that it has contracted with two additional projects from its recently completed ITVS International Call 2008. These films join the previously announced slate of five films funded through the initiative from last year. All seven films selected to receive production funding rose to the top during a very competitive application process, which saw its numbers increase to 385 submissions from 74 countries—from Afghanistan to Zanzibar.

ITVS International Film WALTZ WITH BASHIR Nominated for Oscar

Thu, 22 Jan 2009 13:33:06 -0800

(San Francisco, CA)—ITVS announced today that its ITVS International funded film WALTZ WITH BAHIR has been nominated by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences for an Oscar Award for Best Foreign Language Film. The Academy Awards presentation will take place on Sunday, February 22, 2009 at the Kodak Theatre in Hollywood, California, and will be hosted by actor Hugh Jackman.

ITVS International Film WALTZ WITH BASHIR Receives Golden Globe Award For Best Foreign Language Film

Thu, 22 Jan 2009 13:33:02 -0800

ITVS International announced today that Israeli animated feature-length documentary WALTZ WITH BASHIR was named Best Foreign Language Film at last night’s ceremony of the 66th annual Golden Globe Awards. This prestigious award follows closely on the heels of last week’s win for the film as Best Foreign Language Film at the Critic’s Choice Awards.

TULIA, TEXAS to Have its Television Premiere on the Emmy® Award–Winning PBS Series Independent Lens on Tuesday, February 10, 2009

Wed, 07 Jan 2009 13:52:29 -0800

A product of the nation’s “war on drugs,” narcotics agent Tom Coleman was hired to work undercover in a now-infamous drug sting operation in Tulia, Texas. On July 23, 1999, Coleman executed one of the biggest drug busts in Texas history; by the end of that blazing summer day, dozens of residents of the small farming town of Tulia had been rounded up and thrown behind bars.

THE ORDER OF MYTHS Reveals Parallel Black and White Worlds of Mardi Gras Secret Societies in Mobile, Alabama

Wed, 07 Jan 2009 13:51:52 -0800

In Mobile, Alabama, home of the oldest Mardi Gras celebration in the United States, tradition runs deep. As winter surrenders to the rites of spring, the city buzzes and flutters with floats, parades, bal masques and secret mystic societies with names like the Striker’s Independent Society, the Infant Mystics and the Order of Myths.

ADJUST YOUR COLOR: The Truth of Petey Greene to Premiere on February 3, 2009 on the Emmy® Award–Winning PBS Series Independent Lens

Wed, 07 Jan 2009 13:51:15 -0800

Between 1967 and 1983, an unvarnished media voice roared through the airwaves of our nation’s capital. First on radio, then on television, Petey Greene spoke to and for people who had often been voiceless. A two-time Emmy® Award winner, Greene overcame drug addiction and a sentence for armed robbery to become one of Washington, D.C.’s most prominent media figures.

ITVS Announces New Projects Selected for Funding Through ITVS International Call 2008

Wed, 17 Dec 2008 10:54:22 -0800

Independent Television Service (ITVS) announced today that it has contracted with five projects from its recently completed ITVS International Call 2008, with two more projects expected to be announced soon. The films selected to receive production funding rose to the top during a highly competitive application process, which included 385 submissions from 74 countries—an increase over previous years. Since 2005, nearly 100 international programs have been supported through ITVS International’s Global Perspectives Project and its International Media Development Fund.

Emmy® Award–Winning PBS Series Independent Lens to Showcase Two Powerful Films about Race at the January 2009 Television Critics Association Press Tour

Mon, 15 Dec 2008 11:29:29 -0800

Two powerful films about race will be featured at the January press tour: acclaimed director Stacy Peralta’s CRIPS AND BLOODS: Made in L.A., the first film to examine the decades-long gang strife in South Central Los Angeles as a war on the scale of Kosovo, and TULIA, TEXAS, a story of racial injustice perpetrated by a lone lawmaker in the war on drugs.

FAUBOURG TREMÉ: The Untold Story of Black New Orleans to Premiere on PBS During Black History Month

Wed, 03 Dec 2008 15:28:27 -0800

Faubourg Tremé is arguably the oldest black neighborhood in America, the origin of the southern civil rights movement and the birthplace of jazz. Long before Hurricane Katrina, two native New Orleanians, one black and one white—writer Lolis Eric Elie and filmmaker Dawn Logsdon—began documenting the rich, living culture of this historic district. Miraculously, their tapes survived the disaster unscathed.

HELVETICA, a Film About How the World’s Most Ubiquitous Typeface Changed Global Visual Culture

Tue, 25 Nov 2008 12:14:25 -0800

Born in 1957 of Swiss origin, Helvetica was a typeface for the modern age. Sleek, streamlined and simple, it became the font that launched a thousand corporate logos—from Minneapolis to Melbourne to Munich. As neutral as the country of its birth, Helvetica was capable of being invested with the aspirations of millions of consumer products, a typeface whose meaning was created in the eye of the beholder. HELVETICA will have its television premiere on Tuesday, January 6, 2009, at 10 PM (check local listings) as part of the seventh season of the Emmy® Award–winning PBS series Independent Lens, hosted by Terrence Howard.

ITVS Returns With Strong Presence of Eight Films at IDFA 2008

Wed, 12 Nov 2008 18:09:36 -0800

The Independent Television Service (ITVS) has announced that eight of its funded programs have been chosen as official selections at the International Documentary Festival of Amsterdam (IDFA), November 20-30, 2008. Now in its 21st year, the prestigious festival is the largest showcase of documentary film in the world.

African American Masculinity Subject of Innovative Multimedia and Community Engagement Initiative

Tue, 11 Nov 2008 12:36:58 -0800

Today, the National Black Programming Consortium (NBPC) and the Independent Television Service (ITVS), announce the launch of THE MASCULINITY PROJECT: Black Community in Focus—an interactive multimedia and community engagement project that asks the question “What does it mean to be a man?” Its purpose is to enlist diverse, independent, multigenerational conversations surrounding the African American community. While the main topic is masculinity, there is a focus on the broader issues facing the African American community in the 21st century.

DOC, Acclaimed Film about Novelist and ’60s Icon Doc Humes to Have Television Premiere on the Emmy® Award–Winning PBS Series Independent Lens, Tuesday, December 9, 2008 at 10 PM

Wed, 05 Nov 2008 17:36:05 -0800

DOC is an unorthodox portrait of the life and times of the almost forgotten, yet fascinating literary and counter-culture figure Doc Humes. Featuring a whole generation of cultural luminaries, from Timothy Leary to Norman Mailer, the film tells a moving story about a sort of cultural Zelig—the man who founded The Paris Review, wrote two great novels and then, after becoming mentally ill in the 1960s, reappeared as the original Hippie Philosopher King. A stylistically original take on a literary “beautiful mind,” DOC is a political and personal tale filmed over many years by Immy Humes, an Academy Award–nominated filmmaker and Doc’s daughter.

GREY GARDENS: From East Hampton to Broadway, Produced by East of Doheny, to have its Broadcast Premiere on the PBS Series Independent Lens Tuesday, December 23, 2008

Wed, 05 Nov 2008 17:35:10 -0800

Captured in the landmark 1975 Maysles’ Brothers film Grey Gardens, the indomitable Edith Beale and her daughter, Edie, aunt and cousin to Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy Onassis, respectively, were revealed to have a most unique and engaging mother-daughter relationship, built upon powerful interdependence, quirky eccentricity, courage, devotion and love. Living in squalor in a rundown Hamptons mansion, their indomitable spirit soon catapulted them to a cult icon status of a sort that was an ironic counterpoint to Mrs. Onassis’s own such status.

OPERATION FILMMAKER to Air Nationally on PBS Series Independent Lens Tuesday, December 30, 2008

Wed, 05 Nov 2008 17:34:38 -0800

OPERATION FILMMAKER tells the complex, funny, sad and insightful story about what happens when some well-intentioned Hollywood insiders try to intervene in the life of a young Iraqi film student. Featuring Liev Schreiber, Elijah Wood and Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, Nina Davenport’s acclaimed OPERATION FILMMAKER will have its television premiere on the Emmy® Award–winning PBS series Independent Lens, hosted by Terrence Howard, on Tuesday, December 30, 2008, at 10 PM (check local listings).

WONDERS ARE MANY: The Making of Doctor Atomic, a Behind-the-Scenes Look at the Making of a Grand Opera about Oppenheimer and the Atomic Bomb

Fri, 07 Nov 2008 17:34:04 -0800

In WONDERS ARE MANY: The Making of Doctor Atomic, acclaimed filmmaker Jon Else achieves the impossible by combining two of his epic fascinations—nuclear weapons and opera—in one film. Each subject had been explored by Else in earlier projects: nuclear weapons in the Academy Award–nominated The Day After Trinity: Oppenheimer and the Atomic Bomb (1979) and opera in Sing Faster: The Stagehands Ring Cycle (2000), which took viewers backstage from the perspective of those who really do the heavy lifting.

THE NARCOTIC FARM Tells the Fascinating and Untold Story of a Unique Federal Prison and U.S. Public Health Service’s 40 Year-Long Experiment There to Discover a Cure for Drug Addiction

Fri, 10 Oct 2008 14:38:01 -0700

From its opening in 1935, the United States Narcotic Farm in Lexington, Kentucky, epitomized the nation’s ambivalence about how to deal with drug addiction. On one hand, it functioned as a compassionate and humane hospital, an “asylum on the hill” on 1,000 acres of farmland where addicts could recover from their drug habits. On the other hand, it was an imposing federal prison built for the incarceration of drug addicts.

ITVS GARNERS FOUR WINS AT THE 29TH ANNUAL NEWS AND DOCUMENTARY EMMY® AWARDS

Tue, 23 Sep 2008 16:12:19 -0700

Independent Television Service (ITVS) announced today that three of its acclaimed films have won four Emmys at the 29th annual News and Documentary Emmy® Awards. The awards recognize outstanding achievement in broadcast journalism during the 2007 calendar year. Since 1997, ITVS-funded projects have garnered 13 wins at the News and Documentary Emmys.

AIMEE’S CROSSING, an Intimate Journey of One Young Woman’s Exeperience in the Juvenile Justice System

Thu, 18 Sep 2008 16:10:24 -0700

Female juvenile offenders have the fastest growing rates of incarceration; yet, media access to their stories and lives is extremely limited because they are minors. However, Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich granted veteran documentary filmmaker Tod Lending unprecedented access to female juvenile correctional facilities in Illinois in order to tell the story of one such young woman. The result is the astounding film, AIMEE’S CROSSING, which will air on public television nationwide throughout the month of October (check local listings or visit itvs.org).

Michael Chandler And Sheila Canavan’s Award-Winning KNEE DEEP

Thu, 04 Sep 2008 16:10:23 -0700

If you travel through Maine and leave behind the familiar coast of idyllic summer vacations, you find yourself in a different Maine, the Maine of fields, farms, work and dirt. It’s a place most tourists never see—it is, as the locals say, the real Maine. Winner of the Maysles Brothers Award for Best Documentary, KNEE DEEP is a true-crime tale as strange and fascinating as anything the Coen brothers could dream up.

MARCH POINT Follows Three Teens from the Swinomish Indian Tribe as They Become Filmmakers and Environmental Activists

Thu, 04 Sep 2008 16:09:20 -0700

“This is a powerful and poetic environmental coming-of-age story. In defending their tribal lands, three young men find a mission, even a vision!” —Sherman Alexie (Spokane, Wash./Coeur D’Alene, Idaho), poet, author and screenwriter

ITVS Continues Strong Presence at 33rd Annual Toronto International Film Festival With Four Films

Thu, 28 Aug 2008 16:08:44 -0700

Adding to a substantial catalogue of films which have screened at many of the most prestigious festivals around the world garnering top festival and industry awards, the Independent Television Service (ITVS) announced today that four of its funded films have been selected for the upcoming Toronto International Film Festival, to be held from September 4-13, 2008. The three documentaries, SEA POINT DAYS, UNMISTAKEN CHILD and WALTZ WITH BASHIR, represent the ITVS International initiative, while the narrative program GOODBYE SOLO, from ITVS’ domestic funding and production services program, will screen in the Contemporary World Cinema section, on the heels of its world premiere this month at the 65th Venice Film Festival.

New Season of Independent Lens Premieres on PBS with CHICAGO 10 Wednesday, October 22 at 9 PM

Thu, 28 Aug 2008 16:05:37 -0700

Once again hosted by Academy Award nominee Terrence Howard, Independent Lens takes viewers across the country and around the world, exploring subjects as diverse as Pakistani politics, atom smashing, the U.S. deficit, revolutionary typefaces, Texas justice, the Mobile, Alabama Mardi Gras color line, and women and gays in the military.