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FUTURESTATES: A New Online Fictional Series From ITVS
X (Anthony Giangrande) is created as a robot in the story-within-a-story in Tent City by Aldo Velasco.
The wait is finally over!
Today, ITVS launched FUTURESTATES –– a brand new online fictional series that explores many of today’s complex social issues by imagining how they play out in the world of tomorrow.
Each of the 11 episodes are available for free on the series website www.futurestates.tv and will be available on pbs.org in April. FUTURESTATES will also have its theatrical premiere at South by Southwest on Sunday, March 14.
ITVS worked with some of today’s best and emerging indie filmmakers to complete the 11 films for the series. Contributors include acclaimed American director Ramin Bahrani, whose mini-feature entitled Plastic Bag is narrated by the legendary Werner Herzog, Greg Pak’s Mister Green and Tze Chun’s Silver Sling.
What life might look like in America in the decades and centuries to come?
ITVS Launches New Online Fictional Series on Monday
A surrogate (Diana Masi) looks at her new scar in Tze Chun's Silver Sling.
What will life look like in America in the decades and centuries to come?
On Monday, March 8, ITVS will launch FUTURESTATES –– a new online fictional series that represents a huge innovation for public media.
Each of the 11 episodes will be available for free beginning March 8 on the series website www.futurestates.tv with subsequent distribution on pbs.org. FUTURESTATES will also have its theatrical premiere at South by Southwest on Sunday, March 14.
Have your own predictions for the future? Be sure to tell us on the “Predict-o-Meter,” a unique feature on the FUTURESTATES website where you can submit your own predictions about life in the future, and comment on the predictions of others. Think you know when the ice caps will melt? Know when we’ll elect our first female president? Will the rainforest rebound or disappear? Share your predictions with us on Monday.
Are you as excited as we are? Then you won’t want to miss the extended series trailer below!
Community Cinema Brings Together Citizens, Organizations, and Public TV Stations
Just a quick reminder for those of you who are just discovering Community Cinema. Our free monthly documentary screenings are followed by lively panel discussions that bring together citizens, organizations and public television stations to encourage dialogue and action around important and timely social issues. Last season, over 40,000 people attended 500 events nationwide.
Are you a community organizer, educator or facilitator? We’ve got opportunities for you to get involved by using Independent Lens programs and resources in your community.
Interested in planning an event in your community? Visit our web site for step by step directions and free downloadable PDFs. Find a free event near you here.
Click here to watch a QuickTime video about Community Cinema presented by ITVS
KLRU Celebrates Local Filmmakers Featured on Independent Lens
Do you live near Austin, Texas? Love indie film?
Tonight, KLRU-Austin will commemorate Texas Independents’ Day by celebrating the work of three local filmmakers whose work appears on this season of Independent Lens on PBS.
Filmmaker and University of Texas Professor Paul Stekler will moderate a panel discussion with Michel O. Scott (The Horse Boy), Karen Skloss (Sunshine), and Keith Maitland (The Eyes of Me) starting at 8 p.m.
Following the discussion, there will be a special screening of the Independent Lens broadcast of The Eyes of Me at 9:00 p.m. Space is limited.
Can’t make the screening or live too far away to attend? Fear not – check out Beyond the Box blog next week for clips from the event and a full recap from Keith Maitland, filmmaker of The Eyes of Me. Stay tuned!
Sneak Preview of FUTURESTATES episode Fallout
It’s almost here… ITVS’s new fictional online series — FUTURESTATES — launches online March 8 and will have its theatrical world premiere at South by Southwest (SXSW) on March 14.
FUTURESTATES explores possible future scenarios through the prism of today’s global reality. America circa 2010 sits at the crux of competing and paradoxical forces of creation and destruction. Never before have we been capable of such great discovery and accomplishment, and yet our very existence hangs in balance as climate change, weapons of mass destruction, and economic collapse threaten our very existence.
Check out this sneak preview of Fallout, by Ben Rekhi. The War on Terror has escalated drastically, bringing America into conflict with countless enemies. Los Angeles has fallen victim to a nuclear attack from an unknown aggressor. In the aftermath of the bombing, a young man’s search for his girlfriend addresses the human toll of eternal war.
Join the FUTURESTATES Facebook Fan Page and watch other clips >>
The Eyes Of Me Finishes Community Cinema Run And Airs Tomorrow
Throughout the month of February, Community Cinema welcomed thousands of guests to our 47 free screening events for Keith Maitland’s documentary The Eyes Of Me. The Eyes of me airs tomorrow Tuesday, March 2 on Independent Lens at 10:00 PM on most PBS stations (check local listings).
Filmmaker Keith Maitland attended our screening in Houston presented locally by HoustonPBS. He shares his experience at the event.
Patrick Floyd (left), the producer of The Eyes of Me, and Keith Maitland (right), the director, at the HoustonPBS Community Cinema Screening of their film.
“With more than 125 audience members in attendance –– many of them blind or visually-impaired –– HoustonPBS hosted a wonderful Community Cinema screening of The Eyes of Me. It’s always exciting for me to be able to sit in a crowded theater and share the film with a new audience but there was something very special about this particular screening. Along with producer Patrick Floyd, I was happy to travel to Houston from Austin, Texas, to experience Community Cinema firsthand. Meagan McComic (one of the main characters from the film) and Bill Daugherty, superintendent of the Texas School for the Blind and Visually Impaired (TSBVI), joined Patrick and I on the panel after the film, to share their reflections and perspectives with the Houston community –– many of whom had ties to TTSBVI directly. Two of the audience members were alumni of TSBVI –– Michael Garrett, class of ‘69, and Bernice Klepak, class of ‘55. It was exciting to hear Michael and Bernice’s response to the film, and the contrasts between their days at the school and the stories of Chas, Meagan, Denise, and Isaac represented in the film. Bernice was impressed with how honest and natural today’s students were compared to her days when she feels that they were all “pretty straight-laced.”
Meagan McComic (right), one of the subjects of The Eyes of Me, with her mom at the HoustonPBS Community Cinema screening.
At this screening, as we have done at all of our festival screenings before this, we were able to offer live audio description through the use of wireless receivers and transmitters. This system (provided by a grant from the Austin Film Society) gives blind and visually-impaired audience members the opportunity to hear an additional audio track that offers visual information, and reads onscreen text, so that users can experience the film as fully as any audience member. Use of this technology offers accessibility and also educates sighted audience members about accessibility. It’s not surprising that most people have never heard of or considered audio description, we didn’t know about it before making the film either, but I’m happy to be an advocate for accessible media and accessible websites too! (Our website, http://EyesofMe.com, is fully accessible via use of screen reading software, and we offer a fully accessible trailer that is both audio described, and open captioned for the hearing impaired.) What made Community Cinema such a great screening event was that the audience was so active and engaged. The Q&A following the film was a mixture of questions and comments about the film, the specific characters and stories, as well as how themes within the film affected the local community. It was exactly what we’ve hoped Community Cinema would be –– it was wonderful. Thanks so much HoustonPBS.”
Read on for more event highlights, exclusive video, and broadcast information. › Continue reading
Special Community Screening of P-Star Rising
A special community screening of the Independent Lens film P-Star Rising was recently held in Chicago. The film, which airs Tuesday night at 10:00 PM on Independent Lens on PBS, 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. Find out what happened from Chicago-based National Outreach Coordinator Naomi Walker.
P-Star (aka Priscilla Diaz) and her father Jesse Diaz visited Chicago to participate in the 2nd Annual Winter Block Party for Chicago Hip-Hop Arts, presented by Chicago Public Radio and hosted by hip-hop poet Kevin Coval.
The morning began with a screening of P-Star Rising followed by a Q&A with Priscilla and Jesse. The audience at the Victory Gardens Theatre was full of families eager to hear about the struggles of navigating the often cut-throat music industry. After the Q&A, Jesse and Priscilla were treated to a performance by the Half Pint Poetics team, made up of 5th to 8th graders from Kuumba Lynx. Priscilla was deeply moved by the young talent and asked for some beat-box assistance from one of the young performers and showed her own skills with the mike.
The director of P-Star Rising –– Gabriel Noble –– joined Jesse and Priscilla during their week in Chicago for two screenings of the film for Chicago public high school and middle school students, courtesy of Cinema/Chicago’s Education Program. Schools participating included Curie High School, Dumas Technical Academy, Lincoln Park High School, Chicago Vocational Career Academy, Austin Career Academy, and King College Prep.
After the film, host Kevin Coval introduced the guests while the students greeted them with an enthusiastic reception. Several students in the audience spoke about their own ambitions for careers in the entertainment industry. Priscilla and Jesse gave sage advice on learning the business, honing your craft and not giving up despite the many setbacks that aspiring performers always encounter. And Jesse added that you should ALWAYS have a demo on you because you never know what opportunities might come along. For instance, Jesse is starting a label and looking for talent and said that if anyone had a CD they wanted to pass along, he’d be happy to check it out.
Check out these clips from the Chicago screening:
Environmentalists Talk Trash in Oakland and San Francisco
On Wednesday, January 27, Garbage Dreams was screened at Oakland’s Asian Cultural Center. The screening was packed by audience members from every demographic and every age group, including an entire fifth grade class from the Lighthouse Community Charter School. Audience members were struck by the degree to which the Zaballeen managed to find a use for everything. Many attendees were inspired to integrate this consideration into their own lives and think more about the value of the things they view as trash. The screening was followed by an exciting discussion featuring panelists, Monica Wilson, International Co-coordinator at the Global Alliance for Incinerator Alternatives (GAIA), Aaron Ableman, Co-Founder of Communitree, and Ambessa Cantave, Co-Founder of Grind for the Green and Oakland Climate Justice Activist. Following is a video including interviews with panelist, Ambessa Cantave and a few of the audience members. A week before this screening, on Tuesday, January 19th, the San Francisco Main Library also hosted a screening of Garbage Dreams.
This screening was also followed by a very interesting discussion. Panelists, Kevin Drew, Residential Zero Waste Coordinator at the San Francisco Department of the Environment, Neil Tangri, Climate Change Campaign Director at the Global Alliance for Incinerator Alternatives (GAIA), and Bradley Angel, Executive Director at GreenAction, had some very eye-opening things to say about recycling:
“When you burn this stuff (trash), no matter how state-of-the-art, no matter how conscientious the company, you are getting emissions of the most toxic substances known to science- that are having a profound effect on our population worldwide.”
-Neil Tangri, Climate Change Campaign Director, Global Alliance for Incinerator Alternatives (GAIA)
“The fact of the matter is, companies are producing stuff for which there is no solution and they take no responsibility. And it’s left in the hands of Kevin (San Francisco Department of the Environment) and your tax dollars to solve that problem…If you can’t recycle it, if you don’t have a plan for it, you shouldn’t be producing it in the first place.”
-Bradley Angel, Executive Director, GreenAction
“We really shouldn’t be shipping things a long way away, we should be trying to live locally to the extent that we shouldn’t expect to get avocados year-round or other things, until very recently, we didn’t get year-round. Living within our means from a local ecosystem sense is where you’re going to find the right answer.”
-Kevin Drew, Residential Zero Waste Coordinator, San Francisco Department of the Environment
“If the waste pickers in Cairo can do eighty percent, I think San Francisco can do eighty percent as well.”
-Neil Tangri
New Films Available on the PBS Video Player
ITVS programs regularly explore the rich and vibrant history and cultural contributions of African Americans. In fact, three ITVS films –– Brother to Brother, Hip Hop: Beyond Beats and Rhymes, and Life and Debt –– were recently recognized by The Grio’s “Ten Most Important Black Films of the Decade.”
In celebration of Black History Month, ITVS and PBS are offering a special slate of new and encore programs throughout February. Select programs are also available on the PBS video player. Be sure to check out the Independent Lens documentary 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. Also, be sure to check out last year’s Independent Lens Audience Award winner Adjust Your Color: The Truth of Petey Greene, which tells 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.
Hip-Hop: Beyond Beats and Rhymes and P-Star Rising, both Independent Lens documentaries, will be available online February 10.
Oscar Noms for The Most Dangerous Man in America; Indie Lens Host Maggie Gyllenhaal
This morning, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences officially announced that The Most Dangerous Man in America: Daniel Ellsberg and the Pentagon Papers was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature. This marks the 11th Academy Award nomination for ITVS.
In 1971, Daniel Ellsberg, a leading Vietnam War strategist, concludes that America’s role in the war is based on decades of lies. He leaks 7,000 pages of top-secret documents to The New York Times, a daring act of conscience that leads directly to Watergate, President Nixon’s resignation, and the end of the Vietnam War. Ellsberg and a who’s-who of Vietnam-era movers and shakers give a riveting account of those world-changing events. The film is by award-winning filmmakers Judith Ehrlich (The Good War and Those Who Refused to Fight It) and Rick Goldsmith (Tell the Truth and Run: George Seldes and the American Press). The film will air later this year on P.O.V. on PBS.
Nominees for Best Documentary Feature of the year include:
- Burma VJ
- The Cove
- Food, Inc.
- The Most Dangerous Man in America: Daniel Ellsberg and the Pentagon Papers
- Which Way Home
Also, Independent Lens series host Maggie Gyllenhaal received a nomination for Best Supporting Actress for her compelling role as a journalist and single mom in the film Crazy Heart. When shooting the Independent Lens host introductions in New York City last August, Maggie talked about this flim and how proud she was of the work. She praised her co-star Jeff Bridges and predicted that his performance would receive wide acclaim. We want to congratulate Maggie on her Academy Award nomination and are honored to be working with her on Independent Lens.
Nominees for Best Actress in a Supporting Role include:
- Penélope Cruz in Nine
- Vera Farmiga in Up in the Air
- Maggie Gyllenhaal in Crazy Heart
- Anna Kendrick in Up in the Air
- Mo’Nique in Precious: Based on the Novel Push by Sapphire
Check out the entire list of this year’s nominees >>
The 2010 Academy Awards ceremony will take place on Sunday, March 7. Stay tuned to the ITVS blog Beyond the Box for further coverage. Congratulations and good luck to all the filmmakers!
Watch a clip of The Most Dangerous Man in America:
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communitycinema (communitycinema): #free #film screening today DIRT! THE MOVIE http://bit.ly/FreeDirt in Grand Junction, CO at 6 PM at Mesa County Central Library #eco -
communitycinema (communitycinema): RT @aetn: Community Cinema will be at the Arkansas School for the Blind, Tuesday at 6:00 p.m. Everyone is invited! http://ow.ly/1fC5Y @communitycinema
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celiaalario (celiaalario): Omg moab!! Rt @communitycinema: #free #film screenings DIRT! THE MOVIE TOMORROW! http://bit.ly/FreeDirt in Grand Junction, CO