Young@Heart director Bob Cilman doing a run-through of the James Brown classic "I Feel Good"

As a gift to our audiences, Community Cinema presented the heart-warming and inspiring hit documentary YOUNG@HEART this past December 2009. Many of our over 42 free events included live performances. Exceptional seniors shared their talents and personal stories of courage, persistence, and triumph in the face of adversity.

Our national partners created unique ways for audiences to learn more about the link between creativity, culture, and aging. The mission of the National Center for Creative Aging is to foster an understanding of the vital relationship between creative expression and healthy aging and to developing programs that build on this understanding. Learn more about their public awareness campaign “The Art of Aging: Creativity Matters” and the center’s free online resource guide “Creativity Matters: The Arts and Aging Toolkit.”

WTTW Reception for young musicians and their families at the Chicago Cultural Center

Local partners connected our audiences with “on the ground” resources to turn the passion they experience during the film into action in their community. Audience members have said after an event, “I’m going to look for a local choir for my husband!” and “Made me want to join a chorus even if I can’t sing.” Our partners included such distinguished and esteemed partners as the Jazz Institute of Chicago, WTTW Channel 11, the Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs, the Brattleboro Museum and Art Center (BMAC), KETC, the Missouri History Museum, the SIFF Cinema at Seattle Center, the Office of Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, Office of Los Angeles Councilwoman Janice Hahn, Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs, San Pedro Chamber of Commerce, and Project:Involve. Project:Involve’s mission is to foster diversity in the film industry and to promote independent film making.

Our events included many super seniors who keep young at heart by performing their talents into their 70′s, 80′s, 90′s, and beyond. Watch videos and see photos from our events.

In Chicago, jazz legends Fred Anderson, Mwata Bowden, and Willie Pickens who have all known each other for years spoke following the film. Mwata and Willie have made regular appearances and Fred’s famous club, The Velvet Lounge.

Pianist Willie Pickens explained that constantly exploring such a vast art form keeps one young at heart.

From left to right: Steve Martin (Young@Heart chorus member), Bob Cilman (Young@Heart chorus director), Danny Lichtenfeld (BMAC director), Jeanne Hatch (Young@Heart chorus member), Joe LoMonaco (BMAC trustee)

At our free event at the Brattleboro Museum and Art Center we had the great pleasure of welcoming Bob Cilman, director of the Young@Heart chorus, and two members of the chorus, Steve Martin and Jeanne Hatch. Despite the worst weather forecast of the winter, about 35-40 audience members showed up for the event, which included a pre-screening meet-and-greet and a post-screening Q&A session. Bob and the chorus members were, in fact, the first to arrive — the trip up to Brattleboro from Northampton, Mass. being much shorter than they had anticipated. All the guests and the hearty and courageous audience members enjoyed mingling and talking about the film.

Seattle's Raging Grannies Keep Young at Heart By Performing Humorous Songs About Current Events

The Seattle Raging Grannies opened the show in Seattle with a few humorous ditties they’ve written about the issues of today. The Grannies say on their web site, “In the tradition of wise women elders, the mission of the Seattle Raging Grannies is to promote global peace, justice, and social and economic equality by raising public awareness through the medium of song and humor.” The audience in the crowded theatre applauded after each of the Grannies’ numbers. Though they rarely all perform together, the Grannies chorus has over 20 members throughout the area. They told us, “We sing out to gain respect for all persons and encourage everyone to grow above their prejudices.” Please enjoy a clip from the Seattle Raging Grannies performance ripped from the headlines.

Gloria Lockhart (63, in pink on the right) has the distinct honor of being one of the first African American women to reach the summit of Mt. Kilimanjaro

At the historic Warner Grand Theatre in the Los Angeles area, 15 amazing seniors wowed the crowd at a pre-film talent show. The show ended with a very inspiring senior, Gloria Lockhart – 63 years young – who has the distinct honor of being one of the first African American women to reach the summit of Mt. Kilimanjaro. She is currently the President and CEO of Toberman Neighborhood Center, where she works to assist over 18,000 people to move from poverty to self-sufficiency. A once aspiring Olympic runner, Gloria went on to compete in master track meets for the older American; and now kickboxes as a way to relieve stress. She was joined on stage by her 43 year old coach Michele.

During over 42 events throughout December, thousands of guests attended free Community Cinema events featuring the inspiring hit documentary YOUNG@HEART which was followed by dozens of senior citizens across the country who refuse to let their advancing age limit their increasing talent. We hope to have inspired more people young and old to join choruses in their communities and share their messages and passions through song.

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.

“…I entered the room [at LA’s Pitches Detention Center] with Deputy Bates and a few other staff members just as [the prisoners] had finished the film. …It was quite possibly the most enthusiastic reception the film has ever seen: a room brimming with almost-rowdy excitement and big smiles, a few thumbs up and hands on hearts. Even some paper hats and paper stars made out of the local county newspaper were floating around. There were far more questions and comments than we had time for. After about 20 questions, we all folded a simple model of a fox. I tried to remind them that if anyone made a mistake it was okay. They could try again. One of the good things about paperfolding is you can start over. More chances are possible.” And, with that apt metaphor the afternoon was clearly a success. Community Cinema hopes to bring more films to prisoners through our new partnership with the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department. Read Vanessa’s complete post here.

Members of the Puget Area Paperfolding Enthusiasts Roundtable (PAPER) assisted audience members in folding a range of origami pieces in Seattle at the SIFF Cinema. PAPER founder Mark Morden spoke about paperfolding after the event while the audience members folded all around him.

Even months after BETWEEN THE FOLDS screened for thousands at Community Cinema, and aired nationally for millions on PBS, the film’s impact continued.

Lois Vossen, series producer of Independent Lens and Vice President of ITVS, attended the Peabody Awards ceremony at the Waldorf Astoria Hotel in New York City, where the film Between the Folds won the prestigious award. Ms. Vossen  talks about the unprecedented evening:

From L to R: Vanessa Gould, Lois Vossen and Margaret Brown at the Peabody Awards Ceremony

The 69th Annual Peabody Awards ceremony, hosted by Diane Sawyer, marked the third consecutive year that Independent Lens received two Peabody Awards in one year, perhaps the only television series to ever achieve this honor.

Dr. Susan Douglas, the chair of the Peabody Awards Board, said that the 34 honorees were selected from nearly 1,200 finalists, confirming that the Peabody selection process is perhaps the most rigorous of any of the top industry awards.

Vanessa Gould received a Peabody Award for Between the Folds, her first film, a film exploring the intersection of fine art and science embodied in the practice of origami.

In what surely must be a Peabody first, paper-folding artist Robert Lang created a true-to-scale origami Peabody statuette that everyone at the ceremony admired — though I don’t think there were any offers to trade it for a real Peabody statuette.

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.

Northwestern University law professor Peter DiCola.

Our guest speaker at the Community Cinema event in Evanston, Illinois was Northwestern University law professor Peter DiCola, who co-authored the forthcoming book Creative License: The Culture and Law of Digital Sampling with filmmaker Kembrew McLeod.

We could not have asked for a better guest speaker when it comes to questions of copyright. DiCola was able to give in-depth answers that helped the audience understand legal issues in a clear and engaging manner.

In St. Louis, DJ Alejan talks about how the film exposes the many layers and areas of sampling that have never previously been explored on film.

Find more videos like this on Community Cinema Series St. Louis

Community Cinema partnered with Future of Music Coalition to present COPYRIGHT CRIMINALS. Future of Music Coalition encouraged discussions about sampling and more as part of their 8th Policy Summit in Washington DC in early October 2009. Community Cinema Regional Outreach Coordinator Michon Boston explains, “Fair use is … described for documentary makers, as follows:

Fair Use is the right, in some circumstances, to quote copyrighted material without asking permission or paying for it. It is a crucial feature of copyright law. In fact, it is what keeps copyright from being censorship. You can invoke fair use when the value to the public of what you are saying outweighs the cost to the private owner of the copyright.

– Source: “Documentary Filmmakers’ Statement of Best Practices in Fair Use”

Boston continues during her chat with Kembrew McLeod, “When it came to fair use, he appeared cautious about their selection process for COPYRIGHT CRIMINALS.”

McLeod said, “We didn’t want to ruin it for people following us through the door.”

Speakers and audience members in St. Louis feel the music after the film an discussion.

For the hundreds of people who attended our free screening events for COPYRIGHT CRIMINALS nationwide, McLeod and Frazen busted the door open for musicians, artists, and others to explore the myriad aspects and themes of sampling, borrowing, mashing-up, and paying tribute. Now get out there and make some music. Holla!

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!

A Versailles resident in a community where both young and older came together to protest a landfill in their backyard.

While British Petroleum has pledged to compensate fishers who are losing their livelihoods because of the spill, the choices they offer aren’t very appetizing: fishers may file a claim for up to $5,000 for losses related to the spill, or sign up for training to do oil clean-up work. In each case, they sign waivers agreeing to never hold the company liable for future losses or injury. The problem is, all of the paperwork — and all of the training — is in English, and most of the fishers cannot read or speak English, let alone understand legal fine print. BP has not provided any Vietnamese-speaking claims personnel to connect with this demographic.

Father Vien Nguyen, who rallied his community against a toxic landfill in the months after Katrina, is fighting back against BP’s seemingly cavalier approach to this devastated local economy and the Vietnamese people who keep it alive.

Watch A Village Called Versailles featuring Father Vien’s battle against the landfill in 2005, on Independent Lens Tuesday, May 25th on PBS (Check local listings).

And watch Father Vien’s update on what’s happening in Versailles since the oil disaster began:

From L to R: Vanessa Gould, Lois Vossen and Margaret Brown at the Peabody Awards Ceremony

The 69th Annual Peabody Awards ceremony, hosted by Diane Sawyer on Monday, marked the third consecutive year that Independent Lens received two Peabody Awards in one year, perhaps the only television series to ever achieve this honor.

Dr. Susan Douglas, the chair of the Peabody Awards Board, said that the 34 honorees were selected from nearly 1,200 finalists, confirming that the Peabody selection process is perhaps the most rigorous of any of the top industry awards.

Vanessa Gould received a Peabody Award for her first film, Between the Folds, a film exploring the intersection of fine art and science embodied in the practice of origami. Margaret Brown received a Peabody Award for The Order of Myths, an examination of the joyous yet still segregated celebration of Mardi Gras in Mobile, Alabama.

Both filmmakers spoke eloquently about what winning their first Peabody Award meant after years working as truly independent filmmakers (perhaps most notably with little or no budget). Vanessa spent 4 1/2 years making her film with no budget, and Margaret shared a story about how this personal story challenged her to look deeply at parts of her family history that are not always flattering.

In what surely must be a Peabody first, paper-folding artist Robert Lang created a true-to-scale origami Peabody statuette that everyone at the ceremony admired — though I don’t think there were any offers to trade it for a real Peabody statuette. At the “Winner’s Tribute” later in the day at the Paley Center, one veteran journalist winner spoke about how deeply honored he and his team were to be honored with their first Peabody Award claiming, “Most of my colleagues would trade five Emmys for a single Peabody.”

Craig Ferguson was unable to attend the ceremony to pick up his Peabody for Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson, but sent a note purporting that, “It is unlikely our show will ever lapse into this level of excellence again” and so thanked the Peabody Board for honoring his episode with Bishop Desmond Tutu.

In addition to the obvious, extraordinary honor of having two awards bestowed on two Independent Lens, yours truly showed her inner “Gleek-ness” when a chance encounter found her on the elevator with Ryan Murphy, the creator of Glee, before the ceremony. Mr. Murphy asked my advice in what he might say in his acceptance speech. While I take absolutely no credit for his funny and eloquent speech, I did applaud loudly when he said we need more television that celebrates diversity. In at least one important way, Independent Lens shares a very large and important goal with Glee, to better understand and sometimes celebrate our differences.

Lois Vossen
Independent Lens Series Producer and Vice President, ITVS

Whichever Earth Day style fits you best, we’d like to offer up some helpful resources to make your day a little happier and greener. First off, check out our slate of green-themed films for the occasion, including Dirt! The Movie, Garbage Dreams, and A Village Called Versailles, all airing this month on Independent Lens. And from last season, revisit Taking Root: The Vision of Wangari Maathai. That one’s definitely worth revisiting for its inspiration factor alone.

Ah but as Kermit said, it isn’t always easy bein’ green. For example, have you ever been confused about what you can recycle and what you can’t? Same here. As part of our film Garbage Dreams we’ve put together a handy tip sheet for you. Even better, we’ve launched a super-cool interactive recycling game so you can put your newfound wisdom to work. And check out a resource we found when we were researching this:  Earth911.com, a site that lets you know what recycling facilities are near you so you can really pump up your recycling efforts.

As they say, we’ve only got one planet so we better treat it right. We salute the filmmakers, community organizers, and educators who work every day to ensure that somebody speaks for the Earth when it can’t speak for itself. Stay green, people!

Dirt! The Movie tells the story of the underappreciated stuff beneath our feet. Narrated by award-winning actress, author and activist, Jamie Lee Curtis, Dirt!, tells the story of Earth’s most valuable and least valued source of fertility from its miraculous beginning to its current crippling degradation. Inspired by William Bryant Logan’s acclaimed book Dirt: The Ecstatic Skin of the Earth, the film deftly combines science and humor as it digs into the history and current state of the living organic matter from which we all come and where we will all one-day return. An eclectic group of passionate dirt lovers appear in Dirt! – from world-class biologists to Rikers Island convicts, from community activists to Nobel Laureates – to offer viewers answers to problems while inspiring us to clean up the mess that we have created.

Don’t miss Dirt! The Movie on Independent Lens (check local listings).

Watch an interview with Jamie Lee Curtis, the narrator for Dirt! >>

“An invigorating look at an invaluable substance we take for granted that makes the case that ‘dirt might be more alive than we are.’” -Los Angeles Times

Community Cinema previewed Dirt! The Movie at over 50 free events nationwide. We engaged audiences in communities large and small to challenge their understanding of soil, dirt, and our Earth.

It’s under our feet and under our fingernails, but what is it? And how did it get there? Inspired by William Bryant Logan’s acclaimed book Dirt: The Ecstatic Skin of the Earth, find out how industrial farming, mining and urban development have led us toward cataclysmic droughts, starvation, floods and climate change. Dirt is a part of everything we eat, drink and breathe. Which is why we should stop treating it like, well … dirt.

Dirt! The Movie premieres tonight, Tuesday, April 20 at 10:00 on Independent Lens on PBS (check local listings).

Between the Folds, by Vanessa Gould, chronicles the stories of 10 fine artists and intrepid theoretical scientists who have abandoned careers and hard-earned graduate degrees — all to forge unconventional lives as modern-day paper-folders. Thousands previewed Between The Folds at free Community Cinema screening events nationwide. Many events included paperfolders and workshops to teach paperfolding.

The Order of Myths, by Margaret Brown , a complex story about race relations and the ever-present racial divide in America told through the pageantry at America’s oldest Mardi Gras in Mobile, Alabama.

Congratulations to the filmmakers on this incredible achievement! This brings the total number of Peabody awards for ITVS films to 16.

The Peabody awards will be presented May 17 at a luncheon at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel in New York City with ABC’s Diane Sawyer as host.

Visit the Peabody Award website for a complete list of winners >>