Archive for January, 2010
ITVS Celebrates Black History Month
Nine-year-old Pricilla from P-Star Rising, airing Feb. 9 at 10:00 PM on Independent Lens on PBS.
Mine, premiering Feb. 16 at 10:00 PM on Independent Lens on PBS.
ITVS and PBS offers viewers the opportunity to explore the rich and vibrant history and cultural contributions of African Americans throughout the year, but this month offers a special slate of new and encore programs in honor of Black History Month.
Independent Lens brings race to the forefront with four new films in February. Herskovits at the Heart of Blackness, debuting Feb. 2, explores the often-overlooked legacy of Jewish anthropologist Melville Herskovits, whose ideas in the 40s and 50s challenged the accepted assumptions about race and culture. Then, tune in on Feb. 9 for P-Star Rising, which looks at nine-year-old Pricilla who wants to be the youngest female rap star ever and her single father who is determined to help her make it big. This film also closes out the special line-up of compelling films as part of Independent Lens’s Music Month.
A third film, Mine, premiering Feb. 16, tells the poignant and powerful story of animals left behind during Katrina, and of the struggles of hurricane victims to reunite with their beloved pets. Finally, Behind the Rainbow, airing Feb. 23, unearths once-hidden realities of South Africa’s political obstacles on the path to democracy.
Other ITVS films airing this month on PBS include: February One: The Story of the Greensboro Four, which looks at the pivotal event in the Civil Rights Movement when four college students staged a sit-in at a Woolworth’s lunch counter in Greensboro, North Carolina in 1960, and Scarred Justice: The Orangeburg Massacre 1968, which investigates the continued cover-up of the tragedy of 1968 on the campus of South Carolina State University and follows ongoing efforts to seek justice.
Get local broadcast information >>
Thousands of hours of PBS programming are available on the PBS Video Portal, including a special collection for Black History Month.
Watch these video clips of upcoming new Independent Lens programs (check local listings):
Herskovits at the Heart of Blackness, Feb. 2 at 10:00 PM on Independent Lens on PBS
Garbage Dreams Events Make People Look At Garbage Differently
37 free Community Cinema events for Garbage Dreams raised recycling awareness across the country. From the sheer number of questions about recycling at events, we know that the film sparked discussion, moved people to action, and provided education on the local level. Filmed over four years, Garbage Dreams follows three teenage boys born into the trash trade and growing up in the world’s largest garbage village, a ghetto located on the outskirts of Cairo. When their community is suddenly faced with the globalization of its trade, each of the teenage boys is forced to make choices that will impact his future and the survival of his community.
Filmmaker Mai Iskander
Filmmaker Mai Iskander sat down in January with Kojo Nnamdi on WAMU in Washington, DC to talk about global environmental challenges and how the “Zabaleen” — or garbage collectors — has captured the world’s attention for their startlingly efficient, eco-friendly, and low-tech methods of recycling.
Listen to the full interview [20 minutes] >>
The New York Times’ Jeannette Catsoulis reviewed Garbage Dreams. She says, “…this new film digs deeper into the politics of a life that few would choose but many depend on.” Read her full review.
At one of our first events for Garbage Dreams in Saratoga Springs, NY at the Saratoga Springs Public Library, our partner organization for the free screening of Garbage Dreams was the local chapter of GAIA, The Global Anti-Incerator Alliance, The Global Alliance for Incinerator Alternatives. Our speaker from GAIA was Tracy Frisch, who is active in several other nonprofit organizations in the area. We also had as audience members a husband and wife who own a local Egyptian products store who were brought up in Cairo.
In sunny San Diego, California at the San Diego Public Library, Garbage Dreams was the best screening of the season according to our partners at the library. It was the biggest audience so far, and we had an excellent speaker follow the film who kept more than half the audience in their seats for Q&A. The film presented a wonderful opportunity to discuss grassroots activism and how to mobilize now on recycling issues in San Diego. We had press coverage from the the San Diego Reader.
Read on for more event outcomes and a chance to win a gift from The Recycling School in Cairo!
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Nashville Garbage Dreams Event a Homecoming After 2009 NaFF Success
Community Cinema hosted a screening of the Independent Lens film Garbage Dreams this past weekend at the Nashville Public Library. The film follows three teenage boys born into the trash trade and growing up in the world’s largest garbage village, a ghetto located on the outskirts of Cairo. Regional Outreach Coordinator Allison Inman gives an overview of the event.
Al Gore presents filmmaker Mai Iskander with the REEL Current Award for extraordinary insight into global issues at the 2009 Nashville Film Festival.
Saturday, Community Cinema welcomed more than 125 people into Nashville Public Library’s downtown branch auditorium for a screening of Garbage Dreams. The event was a homecoming of sorts; Mai Iskander and her film were the talk of last year’s Nashville Film Festival (NaFF) when Al Gore presented Mai with the REEL Current Award for extraordinary insight into global issues. Because of Garbage Dreams, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation donated $1 million to benefit the Zaballeen, the “garbage people” profiled in the film. When announcing the grant, Garbage Dreams’ producers credited Nashville Film Festival and the REEL Current Award with part of the film’s success. As NaFF Director Sallie Mayne said, “We feel like a small but important part of its journey.”
Garbage Dreams Events Make People Look At Garbage Differently: Houston
Producing Partners are local community organizations that co-present Community Cinema screenings across the country. Last night, HoustonPBS screened the Independent Lens film Garbage Dreams. Filmed over four years, the film follows three teenage boys born into the trash trade and growing up in the world’s largest garbage village, a ghetto located on the outskirts of Cairo. Manar Hindi, Community Cinema assistant coordinator, talks about the event and how she’ll never look at trash the same way again.
Harry Hayes talks with audience members after the Community Cinema screening and panel discussion.
Speakers Harry Hayes, director of the city’s Solid Waste Management Department; Dr. H.C Clark, professor at Rice University; and Cindy Yepez of the Houston Green Scene.
I’ve always wondered what happens with my trash. It seems to magically disappear each week and I don’t really have any idea what happens to it or what impact it has on my community. Well that all changed last night. What I learned at the HoustonPBS Community Cinema screening of Garbage Dreams was fascinating.
Houston recycles about 22 percent of its solid waste. While the number shows an improvement, we still lag behind cities like Portland (63 percent) and San Francisco (72 percent). Harry Hayes, director of the city’s Solid Waste Management Department, said that one of the things needed to increase the number of people recycling in Houston is legislation. He talked about how people in San Francisco are fined if they don’t recycle properly. He said if people are really concerned about recycling they need to contact their elected officials.
One audience member asked what he could do to implement a recycling plan in his apartment building, since there was no real precedent for him to follow. Mr. Hayes’ answer was that there was no “curbside” pick up currently for apartment building, so his suggestion was to speak with the owner’s of the apartment building about possibly hiring a private company to collect and haul the recyclables away.
Garbage Dreams Events Make People Look At Garbage Differently: St. Louis
Audience members and partner organizations mingle and share at the Garbage Dreams event in St. Louis.
Producing Partners are local community organizations that co-present Community Cinema screenings across the country. Last Thursday night, Producing Partner KETC in St. Louis, MO, screened the Independent Lens film Garbage Dreams at the not-to-be-missed Missouri History Museum for over 300 local folks. Sydney Meyer of KETC shares her experiences at the event below.
January 14, 2010 was a great night for passionate recycling people in St. Louis. The free screening of Garbage Dreams drove over 300 people to the Missouri History Museum. The film is a story about the Zaballeen (Arabic for “garbage people”), a peasant community whose only source of income is to recycle trash collected from the streets of Cairo – a city with no municipal waste-disposal system.
The film touched members of the audience as they watched the boys work hard to make life as good as possible and aspire to live a better life like they see Westerners enjoying. One panel member wondered what would happen to the Zaballeen –would they become wards of the state if newer recycling methods replaced their outdated ways? The film in her eyes was a wonderful way to put a human face to trash or the “people side of trash” to quote her exactly. Another provoking question concerning the human side of trash that came up was “Do people who see recycling and reusing as a moral responsibility not to waste become the ‘always recycler’ opposed to the ‘sometime or not at all recycler’?”
Some studies confirm that moral responsibility does make a difference in the way people recycle, according to Katy Mike of the Missouri Botanical Gardens EarthWays Center which conducts recycling education programs. Aside from the human side of the story, which by the way reminded me of how much I take for granted, there were the other questions of the night: “Why is it hard for people to recycle?”; “Are we doing any better than 30 years ago?”; “What are St. Louis’ statistics in recycling?” and “What do we still need to do to get better at recycling after we leave here tonight?”. Good questions but not easy to answer in one evening!
Useful materials that help now, and will one day be recycled and used in another way.
Our panelists and facilitator did a great job and rose to the occasion to address the issues- not a piece of cake in my eyes. But we did learn that St. Louis recycles about 35% of its waste and that over the past 30 years, St. Louis has made a concerted effort to increase that percentage. As one audience member observed, “It looks funny to see soda cans in a regular waste can and not in a recycle container and we don’t use just one side of the paper.”
So we are more aware and better, but still are we really committed? Do we take charge of everything that comes in our house and how we will dispose of it? Are adults good models for our children? Will teaching children to recycle at a young age make them more likely to recycle throughout their lifetimes? More questions……
But we did leave the night with a few practical ways to keep on the reuse, reduce, and recycle pathway. Take home the fliers in the lobby on “Reduce—What You Can Do” provided by Missouri Botanical Gardens EarthWays Education Programs (and be sure to recycle them after you’ve incorporated the tips into your daily life). Buy recycled products so there will be a market for recycled items. Compost food waste and encourage schools to compost and grow gardens. Stop using Styrofoam products! Buy a water filter instead of bottled water. And the most important practice source reduction: reduce the waste we generate in the first place. Consume less.
Guess we all left feeling like there was more we could do….but at least I took the pamphlets home and I will try to add another recycling habit to my repertoire– change is the hardest thing but we need to do it for our country and our earth. Oh! and I do plan to volunteer at the Missouri History Museum’s Swap-O-Rama-Rama on April 10 which will recycle old clothing into new, re-deigned outfits or make stuffing out of the “lost causes” pile!
Copyright Criminals Premiering Tonight on Independent Lens on PBS
“What’s the difference between creative ‘borrowing’ and outright theft? The Independent Lens documentary Copyright Criminals offers a thought-provoking discussion of the subject filtered through a history of hip-hop ‘sampling’ culture.”
- United Features Syndicate
Can you own a sound? As hip-hop rose from the streets of New York to become a multibillion-dollar industry, artists such as Public Enemy and De La Soul began reusing parts of previously recorded music for their songs. But when record company lawyers got involved everything changed. Years before people started downloading and remixing music, hip-hop sampling sparked a debate about copyright, creativity and technological change that still rages today.
Copyright Criminals premieres tonight, January 19, at 10:00 PM on Independent Lens on PBS (check local listings).
Learn more about Copyright Criminals and other special Music Month programs >>
From our first free preview screening event at the Saratoga Springs Public Library in Saratoga Springs, New York on October 3, 2009 to our last two events on October 29, 2009 in Charleston, South Carolina and Indiana, Pennsylvania Community Cinema thrilled audiences with live DJs, hip-hop dancers, and fascinating panelists from musicians to lawyers. Co-producer of COPYRIGHT CRIMINALS Kembrew McLeod told us “I feel honored to be part of the Community Cinema program which has allowed the film to be seen far and wide by a diverse range of audiences. Plus, it’s free. Who doesn’t like free?”
In the News: The Latest on ITVS Programs
Chicago Public Radio gives an in-depth look at the upcoming Independent Lens broadcast of Garbage Dreams, which also screened at the Chicago Cultural Center as part of Community Cinema. For decades, a group of people known as the “Zabaleen”, Arabic for “garbage people”, have been Cairo’s unofficial trash collectors, sorters and recyclers. They survive by recycling some eighty percent of the trash they collect. Compared to American cities, which recycle roughly thirty two percent of their waste, that’s no small feat.
“Even for someone who cares about the environment, [Jamie Lee] Curtis says Dirt! [The Movie] was an education. ‘I was as astonished as you will be when you see the film, about the earth being alive.’”
“Sam Cooke: Crossing Over on American Masters: The PBS series takes a respectful look at the life and death of the silky smooth singer, first in gospel and then in pop.”
“One from the heart, the documentary Mine relates yet one more wrenching, infuriating story about Hurricane Katrina and the devastation wreaked both by the storm and by human error and indifference.”
“What’s the difference between creative ‘borrowing’ and outright theft? The Independent Lens documentary Copyright Criminals offers a thought-provoking discussion of the subject filtered through a history of hip-hop ‘sampling’ culture.”
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. – At the Heart of American Civil Rights
“Nonviolence is a powerful and just weapon. It is a sword that heals. [It] cuts without wounding and ennobles the man who wields it.”
- Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
At the heart of the U.S. Civil Rights Movement in the 1950s and 1960s was the use of nonviolent direct-action protest. Inspired by the example of Jesus, and the teachings of Mahatma Gandhi during India’s struggle for independence, black church and community leaders in the United States began advocating the use of non-violence in their own struggle. Beyond spontaneous and planned student sit-ins, several organizations were formed to fight for civil rights using Gandhi’s model of nonviolent dissent and action. Three of the most influential groups—the Congress of Racial Equality, the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, and the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee—were pivotal in bringing about social change in America.
Read more about the life of King, Jr. on the Independent Lens website >>
Check out the PBS Indies page on iTunes where you’ll find these powerful films about the African American civil rights movement
Adjust Your Color: The Truth of Petey Green
The unlikely story of America’s original shock-jock — Petey Greene — who battled the system and his own demons during a time of civil unrest in the nation’s capital.
Banished
From the 1860s to the 1920s, towns across the U.S. violently expelled African American residents. Today, these communities remain virtually all white. As black descendants return to demand justice, Banished exposes the hidden history of racial cleansing in America.
Each film is now available for rent for $2.99 or for purchase at $9.99.
Garbage Dreams Events Make People Look At Garbage Differently: San Diego
In sunny San Diego, California at the San Diego Public Library, Garbage Dreams was the best screening of the season according to our partners at the library. It was the biggest audience so far, and we had an excellent speaker follow the film who kept more than half the audience in their seats for Q&A. The film presented a wonderful opportunity to discuss grassroots activism and how to mobilize now on recycling issues in San Diego. We had press coverage from the the San Diego Reader.
Michael Wonsidler, who works for both the local county waste department and Zero Waste San Diego a local grassroots group that advocates for increased recycling awareness and better alternatives to current recycling practices, spoke following the film. His combined knowledge of government action and grassroots perspective made him the perfect speaker to engage the audience in meaningful discussion about the issues presented in Garbage Dreams. The audience truly benefited from discussing the film afterward with an expert in the recycling field right here in San Diego where we may not quite have garbage dreams, but we’re certainly dreaming about recycling more and more.
Garbage Dreams Events Make People Look At Garbage Differently: Grand Rapids
In Grand Rapids, Michigan at the one-of-a-kind Urban Institute for Contemporary Arts we held a free screening of Mai Iskander’s hit film-fest favorite, Garbage Dreams. Our speaker was Michael from Padnos Iron & Metal, a local company that handles a lot of industrial and commercial recycling. Michael talked about what they do at Padnos, including describing how some of their equipment works (they have giant shredders that can shred an entire car at once – cool!).
Padnos Car Shredder
He talked about some of the misconceptions that people have about recycling, like not being able to recycle appliances. Michael made the point that in order for recycling to work, people have to be willing to make the extra effort. He also answered a question from the audience about expanding recycling, and said that recycling initiatives will expand as people become more willing to and focused on buying recycled goods.
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