Filmmaker Profile
Unfolding BETWEEN THE FOLDS
In cooperation with OrigamiUSA and The Mathematical Association of America Community Cinema presented 42 free screening events for BETWEEN THE FOLDS a documentary by Vanessa Gould that delves deeply into the magical intersection of mathematics, science, and art that is paperfolding which is also known as origami. The film drew record-breaking crowds across the country.
Rodger Despres, a local Michigan paper folder, displays a 45-foot long paper model train that took him 1,500 hours to construct.
Our first free event for BETWEEN THE FOLDS took place at the fabulous Urban Institute for Contemporary Art in Grand Rapids, Michigan where Community Cinema is in its 3rd smash season. Emily Maurin, Community Cinema Producing Partner with WGVU, told us, “We were extremely lucky to have two amazing paper folders with us––Richard Alexander, one of the film’s participants, and Rodger Despres, a local paper folder who has constructed a 45-foot long paper model train. They each offered a different perspective on paper folding. Richard spoke about his artwork as well as his experiences making his own paper. Rodger discussed how he has used paper to engineer working train cars and tracks. He was very excited since Richard was the first paper folder he had met! They talked about how paper folding is almost a secret society that is just now emerging as a mainstream art.”
In the video below, director Vanessa Gould gives a behind-the-scenes look at what it was like making the film, how she worked with artists and a discusses a variety of issues related to independent filmmaking.
“Crease Is the Word!” Jim Ridley wrote in Nashville Scene about BETWEEN THE FOLDS at the Nashville Public Library. “Vanessa Gould’s documentary has received rapturous notices for concentrating on the intersection of art and science that the ancient paper-folding art represents.”
Mary Delach Leonard wrote in the St. Louis Beacon about our event at the Missouri History Museum. “Watching a former sculptor in France fold a flat sheet of paper into a three-dimensional human caricature … is worth far more than 1,000 words — which makes “Between the Folds” one of those unexpected documentaries you have to see to appreciate.” Read more>>
In St. Louis, approximately 340 people showed up for the viewing of the film at the Missouri History Museum. Sydney Meyer of Community Cinema Producing Partner KETC said, “I was amazed watching the diversity of people fill the auditorium and overflow onto the steps and the sides of the theater. People of all ages laughed and clapped at various parts of the film, signaling they understood what the artists were trying to communicate to them. After the film, the fun continued as more than 120 folks stayed to try their hand at paper-folding with artist Sugi Taylor. There was a lot of laughter and concentration as people attempted to make a paper box and bird.” As I walked around the tables, I heard comments like “I thought the simple figures would be easier. Now I admire the film artists even more!” or “I loved the film and I am amazed I can make this figure out of almost nothing… one simple square of paper.”
Director Vanessa Gould spent 3 days at 3 Community Cinema events in The Los Angeles area, and we were so lucky that she took time to write about it. › Continue reading
COPYRIGHT CRIMINALS Demystified Sampling from its Roots in Early Hip-Hop to Modern Day Video Mash-ups
Kembrew McLeod, co-producer of COPYRIGHT CRIMINALS, answers questions from the audience with Tony Berman of Berman Entertainment and Technology Law, who is featured in the film.
For more than 30 years, as hip-hop evolved from the urban streets of New York to its current status as a multibillion-dollar industry, hip-hop performers and producers have been reusing portions of previously recorded music in new, otherwise original compositions. But when lawyers and record companies got involved, what was once referred to as a “borrowed melody” became a “copyright infringement.” Through interviews with many of hip-hop music’s founding figures—like Public Enemy, De La Soul and Digital Underground—along with emerging artists such as audiovisual remixers Eclectic Method, COPYRIGHT CRIMINALS by Benjamin Franzen and Kembrew McLeod illuminates both sides of the debate, from traditional musicians who view sampling as pillaging to those who argue that the practice of borrowing is by no means new nor is it unique to hip-hop or even music: Think of Andy Warhol’s Campbell’s soup cans.
With OVER 50 free screening events from coast to coast audiences were able to sample the flavor of hip-hip and electronic music first-hand from some of the subjects featured in the film. The Philadelphia event featured worldwide DJ sensation based in Philly, RJD2 (RJ Krohn – pictured to the right, on the left). The photo is a TwitPic uploaded live from the event. Our event in Oakland welcomed DJ legend Jeff Chang. Local hip-hop radio DJs hosted events in St. Louis and Seattle. In Seattle, KUBE 93 FM DJ Hyphen who co-hosts “Sunday Night Sound Session” introduced the film. “Sunday Night Sound Session” airs every Sunday night at 10:45 PM. “J. Moore and I offer listeners the newest, dopest hip-hop from all around the country, including local music from our own backyard,” boasts DJ Hyphen. Tune in around the Puget Sound Region or online worldwide. DJ Hypen introduced COPYRIGHT CRIMINALS and left the audience with some things to think about while watching the film.
Read on for more video clips, photos, and community connections.
Ask Not Snags Outstanding Doc at GLAAD Awards
ITVS-funded Ask Not by Johnny Symons was honored for Outstanding Documentary at the GLAAD Media Awards earlier this month in San Francisco. Ask Not originally aired in June 2009 on Independent Lens and was a Community Cinema selection in May of 2009.
Equally important is the attention such an award will draw to the national debate over Don’t Ask Don’t Tell (DADT.) The film explores the genesis of that policy from its inception under then-President Clinton in 1993.
Ask Not sheds light on how DADT has prevented some of America’s most talented recruits from serving their country. Examples include skilled Arabic translators so desperately needed in Afghanistan and Iraq combat, ordered to be silent and celibate or else be removed from duty.
“This was a fun award to receive and a great acknowledgment of the film and the issue,” said Symons.
The hype around Ask Not could not come at a more relevant time. At his State of the Union address this past January, President Obama vowed to repeal DADT during his first term. Soon after, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Adm Mike Mullen also denounced the policy before the Senate Armed Services Committee.
The film also recently aired on Capitol Hill to coincide with Congressional hearings on Don’t Ask Don’t Tell.
Congratulations to Johnny and his team!
Jerusalem Gay Bar as Metaphor for Peace and Unity
Filmmaker Yun Jong Suh
Filmmaker Yun Jong Suh discusses how she came to make a film about the only gay bar in Jerusalem. Her film, City of Borders, airs on public television this month. Check listings in your area here.
As a Buddhist Korean American, I am frequently asked why I am interested in the Middle East and how I discovered Shushan, Jerusalem’s only gay bar. I’m not the most obvious candidate to tell this story. But I believe my outsider status proved to be instrumental in making City of Borders.
I’m drawn to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict because I intimately relate to both sides of the war. Like the Israelis, I grew up in constant fear of my neighboring country, North Korea, attacking my small village in South Korea. I did not see North Koreans as humans but as demons determined to kill us if they had the chance. My childhood playtime often involved devising escape routes and places to hide in my home if North Koreans ever invaded.
S. Leo Chiang Goes to Jail (with Community Cinema)
Last month filmmaker S. Leo Chiang participated in a discussion after his picture, A Village Called Versailles, played before for an audience of inmates at the San Bruno County Jail in the San Francisco Bay Area. Chiang offered his account of what was an unlikely setting for a film festival…
When ITVS emailed me about showing A Village Called Versailles, In, of all places, a jail as a part of Community Cinema screenings, I was taken aback at first, and then I was excited. I had never been inside a jail, and I wasn’t about to pass up the chance. I am, after all, a documentary filmmaker with innate anthropological curiosities.
I set out to the San Bruno County Jail #5, which is a part of the San Francisco County Jail system. My ITVS rep and I clear up confusions about our security clearances, pass through many remotely operated thick, metal, sliding doors, and walk down long, non-descript hallways. I see guards and rooms full of inmates in bright orange jumpsuits. So far, the experience looks a lot like a scene out of Oz on HBO.
We are here to present the film to students in classrooms of a pioneer Charter high school inside the San Francisco County jails, the Five Keys Charter School. The inmates take classes from inside the jail with the aim of getting their high school diplomas.
I enter the classroom and am nervous. The students had seen my film the day prior, and I’m there to answer questions and discuss their reactions to the film. I wonder if anyone would even speak or, let alone, raise a hand to ask a question. Or, will they just be rowdy? Will the session disintegrate into chaos?
› Continue reading
Visit A Village Called Versailles Where Even Hurricane Katrina Couldn’t Keep New Orleans’ Vietnamese Community Down
A village called Versailles rises from the destruction of Hurricane Katrina
ITVS Community and National Alliance of Vietnamese American Service Agencies (NAVASA) are proud to support A Village Called Versailles with Community Cinema screening events and materials in support of its national broadcast on Independent Lens later this month.
The Vietnamese Americans were a quiet community, barely noticed outside of East New Orleans. Self-sufficient and industrious, they tended lush garden plots, ran a weekly farmer’s market, built homes, bought cars, and generally achieved the American dream.
The center of their community was — and still is — Mary Queen of Vietnam Catholic Church, and its pastor and leader, Father Vien, who joined the congregation in 2003.
When Hurricane Katrina destroyed all that they had built, it was an emotionally wrenching time. When the flood waters covered their community and they were forced to evacuate, those who had once fled their country in boats now found themselves in boats again, looking for refuge.
Although they were dispersed to several cities in Texas and to Ft. Chaffee, Arkansas (where many had originally come as refugees from Vietnam), the tight-knit network created by the church helped Father Vien to maintain communication with his flock. Six weeks after Hurricane Katrina, some residents of Versailles came back and started rebuilding.
Watch a preview of the film here.
A Versailles gardener takes a moment away from her work
The film’s director, S. Leo Chiang, says of the experience, “It took two and a half years to capture this story. I am grateful that members of the Versailles community trusted me to tell their story. Before I made this film, the word “community” would come up in conversations from time to time, but making this film has taught me what “community” really means — a group of people, family or not, who always have each other’s back. I want the audience to walk away from this film moved by this story as much as I have been and continue to be. I also want them to feel empowered, especially viewers who are a part of any underserved and/or underrepresented group. I want them to believe that, united with their friends and family, they, too, can make a difference.”
The film doesn’t just scratch the surface of the complex and frustrating reactions to hurricane Katrina it opens a new window on the story. Rebuilding a community (literally from the ground up) can only happen if all the residents young and old join together. This is the story of rebuilding… everything. Find your free event!
The Horse Boy Wraps Up A Month of Adventure and Healing
April is National Autism Awareness Month. Watch the exclusive video below with Independent Lens host Maggie Gyllenhaal who discusses The Horse Boy, which explores one family’s unforgettable journey as they travel halfway across the world in search of a miracle to heal their autistic son. The Horse Boy, airs Tuesday, May 11 at 10 PM, check local listings)
Our national partner The Autism Society, the nation’s leading grassroots autism organization, exists to improve the lives of all affected by autism. Learn more about their research initiatives and programs on their website.
Community Cinema held 42 free screening events for The Horse Boy throughout April. Here are few stories from those events. There is always a lot going on at Community Cinema events.
Bill Zukovsky with his son Andrew
On April 21st, WHYY and Community Cinema hosted a screening of The Horse Boy in Philadelphia. More than 200 people packed the venue, including many parents who are raising children with Autism. To create engagement opportunities, ITVS awarded WHYY’s Learning Lab a grant to support the Family Media Project, an innovative video project that explores how three local families have engaged in their child’s autism diagnosis. Parent Bill Zukovsky shares his experience working with the Family Media Project:
Wow… What an amazing experience! I couldn’t believe I was going to have a camera on my shoulder and a microphone wrapped around my arm while I tried to capture what it was like to be my son, Andrew. There is no way I would even take a photograph, let alone video tape something that was going to be shown online. What was I thinking taking on this project? But let me tell you something, I’m glad I did.
The WHYY Learning Lab creates an opportunity to help others understand what it’s like to be you; your problems, your issues, your trials, and your triumphs.
Rowan holds hands with his father on a ride in The Horse Boy.
Producing Partners are local community organizations that co-present free Community Cinema screenings across the country. Here are a few snippets from a recent event for The Horse Boy. Our producing partners at the San Diego Public Library shared these highlights from their event.
This screening turned out differently from all the previous Community Cinema screenings. Not only did many new attendees show up, the film also attracted several audience members with autism spectrum disorders. There was a mother and her young son who were attending a library film screening for the first time. An older mother with Asperger’s Syndrome has a son in Montana taking part in a horse and autism therapy center similar to the one founded in West Texas by the Isaacsons at the end of the movie. She had read the book before and was thrilled to see the movie. She also saw parallels between the ‘big sky country’ of Montana and Mongolia.
Director of the film, Michel Orion Scott, comments on the many adventures depicted the film as well as the process of making a documentary about an adventure, “So off we went — into the magnificent, unknowable land of Genghis Kahn, where horseback riding started; where the word shaman (“one who knows”) originated; and where shamanism is, even today, the official state religion. As I galloped through the countryside in my attempt to keep up with the family, a camera in one hand and reins in the other, across the rugged and
Michel Orion Scott, director of The Horse Boy
isolated Mongolian landscape, it all seemed surreal and impossible. I was thrown from my horse, contracted Giardia, and faced each day with a level of aching soreness beyond what I had ever experienced. And all of this for a film? Yes, but even more for the sake of a boy with autism whose parents were willing to go, literally, to the ends of the earth to find healing for their son. To me, this is the true beauty of the story. The beauty of the outcome is that the family did accept it, while at the same time, Rowan was healed. I challenge the viewer, as I was challenged in the making of this film, to imagine how we can embrace the idea of ‘healing’, while understanding that unique individuals who think and behave differently than the status quo, are an integral part of human culture and development. Perhaps the line between the healer and the healed is not as clearly defined as it appears.”
We talked to a lot of people at the Community Cinema Seattle event and asked them to share their personal adventures both big and small. Even a short journey can change one’s life. Adventure can happen on your own block or on the other side of the globe. Some folks shared their stories on video and some wrote out their thoughts.
Amber, an audience member wrote, “I’ve travelled mexico and lived near the Arizona-Mexico border and witnessed extreme contrast of developed vs. less-developed countries – as well as the tourist exploitation of Mexico.”
The Horse Boy will air nationally on Independent Lens on May 11 at 10:00 PM on PBS (check local listings).
Denise Zmekhol on the Making of Children of the Amazon
Children of the Amazon (airing this month on public television and Link TV — check local listings) follows filmmaker Denise Zmekhol as she travels a modern highway deep into the Amazon in search of the indigenous children she photographed 15 years before. Her journey tells the story of what happened to life in the largest forest on Earth when a road was built straight through its heart. Beyond the Box caught up with Zmekhol who shares her story about the making of Children of the Amazon, one of the few films about the Brazilian Amazon made by a Brazilian filmmaker.
Denise Zmekol with Chief Almir Surui
I traveled to the Brazilian Amazon on several occasions between 1987-1990 to assist on television documentaries. During my journeys, I had the opportunity to visit many indigenous and rubber tapper communities, always with my camera by my side. What caught my eye were the children. Born to parents who had relied on the rainforest for their survival, these children were growing up surrounded by new ways — ways that were destroying the forest. I also photographed the legendary rubber tapper Chico Mendes and his family. Chico had become renowned the world over for his nonviolent resistance movement to protect the rainforest.
Fifteen years later — and a world away — I returned to these slides, which were never printed, never shared. The images brought back a particularly searing memory: a phone call from Chico in December 1988, asking me to film his funeral. Two weeks later he was shot dead by a rancher. Stirred by faces of the children in my photographs and haunted by Chico’s untimely death, I was inspired to travel to the Amazon again — this time, to make Children of the Amazon.
In 2008, six years after I shot Children of the Amazon, I returned to the Amazon to film with the Surui tribe again — this time documenting its unique collaboration with Google Earth Outreach. The partnership, a result of Chief Almir Surui’s request that Google help raise visibility for his tribe, involves training the Surui people to use Internet technology to protect their forest, preserve their culture, and empower their people.
—Denise Zmekhol, Producer/Director of Children of the Amazon
Get broadcast listings for public television and Link TV and learn more at www.childrenoftheamazon.com
Previous Community Cinema Filmmaker Byron Hurt Turns Lens on Soul Food
This month marks National Nutrition Month –– an annual campaign sponsored by the American Dietetic Association designed to focus attention on the importance of making informed food choices and developing sound eating and physical activity habits. ITVS recently funded filmmaker Byron Hurt (Hip-Hop: Beyond Beats and Rhymes was a SMASH hit at Community Cinema screenings nationwide) for his latest documentary Soul Food Junkies, which explores the health advantages and disadvantages of soul food –– a quintessential American cuisine. Read Byron’s blog post below to get his personal connection to the subject.
In 2007, my father passed away from pancreatic cancer. One of the many factors leading to pancreatic cancer is a high fat, meat-based diet. My father’s diet consisted of both. While I am not certain that my father’s diet alone contributed to his disease, his illness capped off what had been my lifelong concern for him: his health.
From the earliest time that I can remember, my father was overweight. He loved to eat and he particularly loved soul food. He also loved fast food and sugary desserts, like many people do. Growing up, I wanted to be just like my father so I ate what he ate: grits and eggs covered with cheese and topped with bits of salt pork and bacon for breakfast; overcooked collard greens seasoned with ham hocks, fried pork chops, macaroni and cheese, fried chicken, or other delicious but fatty foods right out of the black southern tradition.
In college, though, I began to slowly change my eating habits after learning more about how to eat healthy. I stopped eating red meat and pork and did my best to avoid greasy fried foods. On weekends, when I came home from college, I began to confront my father about his eating habits, often to no avail. I’d challenge him about his food choices. He’d ridicule me for no longer eating beef or pork. We had several tense conversations about his weight. My family and I were concerned he would one day suffer a heart attack or a stroke. We wanted my dad to live a long, healthy life so he could be here to one day meet his grandchildren. Eventually he would make small changes to his diet and began to exercise more, but unfortunately the changes came too late in his life. Doctors diagnosed him with terminal pancreatic cancer and he died at the young age of 63. He never got a chance to meet his first grandchild.
Keith Maitland at KLRU’s Texas Independents’ Day
Earlier this week, PBS affiliate KLRU in Austin, Texas, commemorated Texas Independents’ Day by celebrating the work of three local filmmakers whose work will appear on this season of Independent Lens. Learn more about the event from Keith Maitland, filmmaker of The Eyes of Me.
Filmmaker Keith Maitland with film subjects of The Eyes of Me.
Panel moderator Paul Stekler leads a round table discussion with Keith Maitland, filmmaker of The Eyes of Me; Karen Skloss, filmmaker of Sunshine; Michel Scott, filmmaker of The Horse Boy.
Last night, nearly 200 people gathered in a dark room to share an hour-long look into the lives of four blind teenagers. With the twinkling lights of the Austin City Limits stage as a backdrop, I couldn’t ask for a more fitting place to experience the incredible communal experience of watching the live Independent Lens broadcast of The Eyes of Me.
The Eyes of Me follows four blind teens over the course of one dynamic year. It’s about watching these teens growing up before our eyes. As they discover who they are, it is my hope that you will discover something about yourself –– it’s about challenging your own perception and seeing yourself in a new way… at least that’s what it’s always been about for me.
The entire process of creating this film, from a nascent idea, through 250 hours of rolling cameras, and two and half years of editing, has been both rewarding and challenging in degrees that I’m still not sure I can register. Along the way, I have learned many lessons about my creative processes, and my own humanity.
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