A Vietnamese feast provided by the Seattle Vietnamese Chamber of Commerce

In over 50 cities nationwide, thousands of free documentary film screenings were followed by lively panel discussions, performances, filmmakers, and the brightest minds who choose to give of their time as community volunteers.

As you know, Community Cinema events bring together citizens, organizations, and public television stations to encourage dialogue and action around important and timely social issues.

The numbers aren’t quite in yet on this most recent season, but in past seasons over tens of thousands have attended thousands of events nationwide.

Community Cinema is the largest civic engagement program in broadcast television. We serve communities large and small, and we attract diverse audiences including singing activist senior citizens and young filmmakers using the latest technology to tell their stories.

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 which we learned at the YOUNG@HEART screening in L.A.

I’m working on a wrap up of this entire dazzling season which started off rocking, rolling, and spinning vinyl and ended with shamanic journeys to Mongolia and the inspiring and innovative New Orleans’ Vietnamese community.

Thank YOU our fans and audiences. Thanks too to our thousands of partners nationwide who help present Community Cinema in their town, city, or metropolis. We’ve been honored to work with the New York City Parks Department, The John Michael Kohler Arts Center, the San Francisco Public Library, and the Dinosaur Discovery Museum. Thank you to the truly delightful Maggie Gyllenhaal for hosting this past season of Independent Lens (oh! and she was nominated for an Oscar too)! Good year.

Public television stations deserve a standing ovation (for a number of reasons) including their support of Community Cinema and Independent Lens. Still “America’s Network,” PBS provides top quality programming for all ages. Children will continue to grow up with Sesame Street and eventually end up eagerly anticipating the PBS News Hour.

Community Cinema will be back in October of 2010 with an exciting season of  nine fresh new documentaries to make you think, inspire you, and hopefully lead to positive change in your community. Have a great summer, but be sure to check back here regularly for sneak peeks, updates on film selections, and information about our special Women’s Empowerment Film festivals coming in August in select markets. You do not want to miss that!

Don’t forget your sunscreen!

We asked audience members at last month’s events for The Horse Boy about what brought them to the event, how the film affected their feelings about the topic of autism and alternative healing, and finally what was their experience at Community Cinema.

In March, we presented Dirt! The Movie in dozens of communities nationwide. One of our most successful events was at the San Francisco Public Library. This video is an edited wrap-up of the event including speakers, the audience, and what people were talking about after watching the powerful film.

We presented the award winning documentary Garbage Dreams in January. This edited video captures the activities surrounding our event in Oakland, California.

December’s gift to Community Cinema goers was the delightful and touching Young@Heart about the Young@Heart chorus which is made up of older folk who sing punk, rock, and a lot of roll. We were so fortunate to be joined by many talented seniors at our events. Including Legendary jazz musician Willie Pickens at Community Cinema Chicago.

In Seattle, Young@Heart audiences were treated to a few numbers by Seattle’s Raging Grannies.

And in West Hollywood we were inspired by a number fo talented seniors at the Community Cinema Senior Talent Show.

In November, the runaway smash hit of the Fall was Between The Folds a compelling documentary about paperfolding and origami. Many of our events included interactive paperfolding workshops with local experts sharing their talents. Here’s a glimpse of the paperfolding activities.

Copyright Criminals asked, “Is sampling stealing?” at dozens of events throughout October. We had some stellar DJs and other artists speak and perform at events around the country. We talked to Seattle’s DJ Hypen who was the host of our event.

The audience also weighed in on the question of music as an artform and/or a business.

We want to hear from you.

Rowan (center) and his family travel Mongolia

We had an amazing screening! One of our biggest crowds of the year, and a truly great speaker. Liane Holliday Willey, our speaker, is a local author who has Asperger’s Syndrome – as do her father and daughter. She discussed her own experiences at length, especially the difficulties she had with her daughter, who had terrible tantrums, much like in the film. She shared experiences about when her daughter and father had been bullied and beat up as children. Her daughter was bullied even in the first year of college, because of her differences. Liane herself suffered several attacks.

Liane also discussed her work with a local group who uses horses in therapy with children who have mental and physical disabilities. She spoke of the amazing changes she has seen in these children, as well as adults who have been victims of abuse and violence. We discussed the effect of animals on children with autism. Several people in the audience shared their experiences with family members who are autistic, including siblings and children. We also discussed whether genetic engineering should be used to eliminate autism, and the general consensus between both Liane and the audience was a resounding no. Liane talked about her friendship with Temple Grandin and the amazing work that Dr. Grandin has accomplished because of the focus that autism gives her. She said that her father had a similar experience, as he became a gifted engineer.

It was a very emotional and touching discussion overall, with lots of tears and smiles. Liane’s books are: Pretending to be Normal: Living with Aspergers Syndrome; Asperger Syndrome in the Family: Redefining Normal; and Adolescents and Asperger Syndrome in the Adolescent Years: Living With the Ups and Downs and Things in Between. She is working on a new book that tells her personal story now.

Wine expert Gary Vaynerchuck can taste terroir in soil.

On March 6, a diverse audience enjoyed part of their day at the free Community Cinema Seattle premiere screening of Dirt! The Movie at Seattle Center. On an unusually gorgeous sunny day in Seattle – especially odd for early March – the audience was eager to discuss what was being done to help Seattle’s ecosystem heal itself and ways they could help.

Our panelists and local event partners are inovators in an already crowded field of bioneers in the Seattle and Puget Sound region. We were so fortunate to be joined by Kathryn A. Gardow, Executive Director of PCC Farmland Trust and Brad Halm, a farmer and co-owner of The Seattle Urban Farm Company, which has garnered quite a bit of press for its creative and friendly approach to urban gardening and farming.

On March 10 at the Joel D. Valdez Main Library in Tucson discussion highlights included audience members talking about their experiences with composting and gardening. We has a guest from the Community Gardens of Tucson, who spoke after the discussion. Community Gardens of Tucson is an all-volunteer not-for-profit group devoted to promoting health, knowledge, joyfulness and a sense of community by helping Tucson residents establish and maintain neighborhood vegetable and flower gardens. It is made up of gardening experts, novices, homeowners and volunteer coordinators.

Wine expert Gary Vaynerchuck can taste terroir in soil. Let him tell you about it.

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

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.

The Missouri History Museum was ready and equipped with special earpieces so blind film goers could get a better idea of the picture The Eyes of Me was really painting. Actually, having the earpieces available was exactly what panelist, Pastor Dave Andrus -who runs the Lutheran Blind Mission and who has been blind since age 11- said society needs to move toward. The city of Austin, Texas featured in the film is very equipped to handle its blind residents, and although St. Louis still has a ways to go, the panelists agreed the city is making progress in supporting persons with disabilities especially in the area of transportation services.

Panelist Joy Waddel, Assistant Superintendent of the Missouri School for the Blind, said she and her staff loved the film. She said, “Teens are teens and they all have similar problems growing up. It’s just that these teens have an extra handicap to deal with.” She especially loved the film because as she put it, “It was so great in the film to see the teens put into words how they feel. That is an issue that we often have to work with in school.” Other than that she said, “I could have put St. Louis faces on each of the characters in the film I really have seen those students right in my own school.”

Busboys and Poets owner Andy Shallal holds up both the Braille and printed versions of the restaurant menus

Busboys and Poets was intentionally created to be “community space” with tasty food as an extra perk. Busboys and Poets has been hosting Community Cinema in the Langston Room for nearly 5 seasons. The introduction of Braille menus is yet another effort to bring more communities to Busboys and Poets and our Community Cinema events.

Our Community Cinema Regional Outreach Coordinator (pro tem) partner Sara Zia Ebrahimi shares her thoughts about the upcoming free screening of The Eyes of Me.

ADAPT Philadelphia (Photo by Harvey Finkle harveyfinkle.com)

The Community Cinema Philadelphia program was excited to work with a new venue for their event at the Overbrook School for the Blind (OSB). Overbrook has been providing schooling opportunities to young people with visual impairments for over 100 years, similar to the school featured in Maitlin’s film.

“While I’m incredibly grateful that places like OSB exist, an unfortunate result of separate schooling means that most of us who are able-bodied and have full vision and hearing end up almost never interacting with a person with a disability for the majority of our lives,” explains Regional Outreach Coordinator (pro tem) for Philly Sara Zia Ebrahimi. She also says,”The Eyes of Me screening provides an opportunity to bridge the gap in bringing these communities together.”

Philadelphia has a vibrant chapter of ADAPT that is part of Liberty Resources, one of the community partners for our screening. Over the past twenty years they have won several successful campaigns to create more autonomy and freedom for people with disabilities by creating more accessible housing, transportation and employment options for people in the Philadelphia region. They continually remind people in this area that people with disabilities are not some heroic stories that should be pitied or used as inspirational fodder for the able-bodied, but people who want full vibrant lives like anyone else. They also remind us that if you truly want to be an ally to a person with a disability, occasional charity will not do. Real change will come about through policy changes that consciously integrate deaf, blind, and physically impaired people into all aspects of daily life alongside able-bodied, seeing and hearing people.

In this video extra, a new student at the school, Denise, explores a brand new store in the neighborhood and learns to navigate on her own, with the help of a coach.

Tune in tomorrow.

Vandana Shiva - Environmental activist - India

Community Cinema invites you to join us for Dirt! The Movie starting today in Brooklyn, New York and then screening for free daily throughout the country in March.

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.

Our national partners create ways for audiences to learn more about the issues raised in the film and “get dirty” through environmental service learning projects and be part of imagining solutions for a sustainable future.

Bioneers is inspiring a shift to live on Earth in ways that honor the web of life, each other and future generations. Bioneers provides solutions-based education and social connectivity through the Bioneers national and local conferences and programs, including: The Bioneers: Revolution From the Heart of Nature radio series; anthology book series; television programs and online community.

Youth Service America improves communities by increasing the number and the diversity of young people, ages 5-25, serving in substantive roles. The impact of YSA’s work through service and service-learning is measured in student achievement, workplace readiness, and healthy communities.

Find your event! And, read on for more about dirt and Dirt! The Movie. Watch video clips and more!

2004 Nobel Peace Prize Winner Dr. Wangari Maathai

Shannon L. Bowen of The Hollywood Reporter calls Dirt! The Movie, “…an uplifting story about people from all walks of life who are striving to renew our relationship with the ground beneath our feet.”

Kenneth Turan of the Los Angeles Times says that Dirt! the Movie is “An invigorating look at an invaluable substance we take for granted.”

In this clip from the film environmentalists scratch the surface of dirt to get at just what it means to each of them and to us. “Our wealth is imaginary. It comes from soil,” says on environmentalist.

Dirt! The Movie is narrated by Jaime Lee Curtis who recently experienced living one day without electricity. Here she shares how the experience made her reconsider her environment.

A scene from Dirt! The Movie shot on Riker's Island

Dirt feeds us and gives us shelter. Dirt holds and cleans our water. Dirt heals us and makes us beautiful. Dirt regulates the earth’s climate. Dirt is the ultimate natural resource for all life on earth.

Yet most humans ignore, abuse, and destroy our most precious living natural resource.Consider the results of such behavior: mass starvation, drought, floods, and global warming, and wars. If we continue on our current path, Dirt might find another use for humans, as compost for future life forms.

It doesn’t have to be that way. Another world, in which we treat dirt with the respect it deserves, is possible and we’ll show you how.

Find your event and see you at the movies.

If you miss Community Cinema DC you miss an opportunity to meet and mingle with some great people in the DC area who bring their knowledge, stories, and even listening ears when they take the mic for the Q&A. Community Cinema seeks out these experts, educators, and anyone digging deeper for more information about a sensitive topic. Sometimes we connect, they connect, and we all reconnect at future events.

At one of the DC area YOUNG@HEART events (l to r) Pauline Jakobsberg, Douglas Yeuell, Adrienne Price, and Michon Boston

For our first YOUNG@HEART screening at Busboys and Poets just a few weeks ago, we welcomed Douglas Yeuell, executive/artistic director of Joy of Motion Dance Center, which has 4 dance studios in our city. Douglas was joined by Adrienne Price, a member of his dance ensemble, Jazzemotion. Adrienne studied dance before life took another course (marriage, children, career), now she’s back. Joy of Motion’s motto is “dance is for everyone.” That’s no joke, especially this past Halloween when Joy of Motion hosted a ‘Thriller” line dance event from their H Street studios.

Pauline Jakobsberg is a founder of Washington Printmakers Gallery which has been around since 1985. Pauline is a printmaker herself and a teacher. She’s worked with seniors with dementia. Art has a way of triggering memories; and that was no exception in Pauline’s experiences. One member of our audience said all the people on the panel were “inspirational.”

It’s always a treat when filmmakers come to Community Cinema events like Kembrew McLeod for COPYRIGHT CRIMINALS. But this season I was glad to have a chance to work with Mazi Mutafa founder and executive director of Words Beats & Life, Inc. His organization publishes a dynamic academic journal on hip hop. Mazi and I have bumped into each other at arts events, but this is the first time we’ve actually worked on something together. Hopefully, there will be more to come. More people should get to know Mazi and the work of WBL, Inc.

We also had some dynamic lawyers on our COPYRIGHT CRIMINALS events like Peter Jaszi of the Washington College of Law at American University. Jaszi is brilliant when it comes to fair use and documentary film and video. He’s about to take it to the music level. Jaszi advised the filmmakers of COPYRIGHT CRIMINALS on fair use issues; and Ken Kaufman currently with the law firm of Manatt, Phelps & Phillips, LLP. Ken has a lot of music copyright and intellectual property stories in his book including getting the first calls from soul brother number one James Brown with complaints about hearing his music in the hip hop mixes. At the time Ken was Senior Vice President, Corporate Affairs and General Counsel of PolyGram Records, Inc.

An intricate paper box folded by DC area folder Gloria Kim

Sometimes, friends or relatives of friends save the day for Community Cinema like Gloria Kim, who has been making origami boxes for 3 years. I know Gloria through her sister Eugenia who just published her first novel, The Calligrapher’s Daughter (picked one of the Best Books of 2009 by the Washington Post). Gloria gave a hands-on, challenging, lesson on making one of her octagon boxes at both the Busboys and Poets and Mathematical Association screenings of BETWEEN THE FOLDS.

But the real reward for me is to see collaborations in the making after each screening. DC is a networking maze. How the business cards can pile up on your table. But Community Cinema provides a relaxed, informal way to connect firstly through the film, then across the room.

Malcolm Gladwell author of The Tipping Point and other best sellers called “connectors” – “the kinds of people who know everyone and possess special gifts for bringing the world together.” After all, isn’t that what Community Cinema is all about?