|
October
Newsletter
Human
Rights Film Series All Month!
Filmmaker Patricia
Flynn will launches the 5th annual series with
Discovering Dominga Monday and Wednesday at American University!
October
4/6: Discovering Dominga
By Patricia Flynn with Mary Jo McConahay
October 11/13: Afghanistan Unveiled
By Brigitte Brault and Aina Women Filming Group
Oct. 18/20: Control Room
By Jehane Noujaim
October 25/27: Deadline
By Katy Chevigny and Kirsten Johnson
Chevigny and Johnson will be present for Q & A
after the film!
Films
on Mondays at the Washington College of Law (6:00 p.m., Room 602)
and Wednesdays on the Main Campus, Mary Graydon Center, Wechsler
Theater at 5:30 p.m. See
the Center website for complete film descriptions and details: http://www.centerforsocialmedia.org/humanrights/index.htm
Magnum Photographer Chien-Chi
Chang to lecture at the Center
On October 7 at 10:00 a.m. in Wechsler Theater, Chien-Chi Chang
of the Magnum photography collective will discuss his latest work
and discuss photography and social change.
Chang
has always been fascinated by the human conditions of alienation
and connection. Both are in evidence in his signature work, The
Chain, which is a collection of portraits made of inmates in
a mental asylum in Taiwan. The subjects are people who have had
their bonds to the rest of society--family, community--severed.
And yet, as part of their treatment, they are chained to one another,
physically linked in pairs throughout their days and only unlocked
to sleep. These powerful photographs, nearly life size, have been
exhibited at the Taipei Fine Arts Museum (2001), La Biennale di
Venezia (2001), and the Bienal de Sao Paolo (2002).
This
lecture is co-sponsored by International Student Services and the
Office of the University Chaplain. More information at: http://www.centerforsocialmedia.org/photographers/visitingphotographers.html
Visiting Filmmaker Katy Chevigny
to lecture on "What makes media independent?"
Joining
the Center as part of the Visiting Filmmaker program, Katy Chevigny
will present her newest film, Deadline as part of the Human
Right Film Series, and on Thursday, Oct. 28 at
5:30 p.m. in Wechsler Theater,
Chevigny will discuss the role of independent media today from her
experiences with her issue-based documentary film company, Big Mouth
Productions. Chevigny will also discuss how she and her colleagues
created a resource to help expand the reach of independent media
through the website and activities of MediaRights.org. Chevigny's
first-hand view of what "independence" in media really
means leads her to explain how it is both critical to society and
commonly misunderstood.
For
more information Chevigny, visit: http://www.centerforsocialmedia.org/filmmakers/visitingfilmmakers.html
Aufderheide
to moderate panel at Virginia Film Festival
The
Center for Social Media is proud to once again sponsor a panel discussion
at the Virginia Film Festival in Charlottesville, Virginia. This
year's theme, "Speed," will be examined within the context
of media and the political cycle.
Speed
and Spin: Fox, Outfoxed, and the Changing Politics of Media
Saturday, October 30, 3pm, Commonwealth Room, Newcomb Hall,
University of Virginia (FREE)
Documentaries
have skyrocketed into public recognition this election year, and
the films produced by Robert Greenwald—Unprecedented,
Uncovered, Outfoxed and the forthcoming Unconstitutional—
have become standard-bearers of a new way to fund docs, get them
to audiences, and get them to make a difference. What is this new
model and what does it mean for an already overheated news cycle
in politics? Join us for a lively discussion of docs, politics and
ethics. Invited participants include Barbara Ehrenreich,
Larry Sabato, Jonathan Rintels,
and Robert Greenwald Productions producer Jim Gilliam.
Moderated by Pat Aufderheide, director, Center for Social Media,
American University.
For
more information, visit: http://www.vafilm.com
Major
CSM Study on Doc Filmmakers and "Clearance Culture" to
Debut November 8
Documentary filmmakers have
to clear rights for everything from songs hummed in church to a
picture on a wall to a scene on a TV set someone may be watching.
How does the complex and arcane "clearance culture" affect
their creativity? The Center has been interviewing documentary filmmakers
to find out. The research, funded by the Rockefeller Foundation,
was conducted in partnership with Washington College of Law's Program
on Intellectual Property and the Public Interest.
The
report will be launched at a panel discussion on November 8, Washington
College of Law, Room 603 (note room change), 4:00 p.m.,
detailing the findings of the report and policy recommendations.
Panelists include Jim Gilliam of Robert Greenwald
Productions and Grace Guggenheim of Guggenheim
Productions; also, Mike Madison, University of
Pittsburgh Law School; Joseph Turow, University
of Pennsylvania Annenberg School; and Peter Jaszi,
Washington College of Law; the panel will be moderated by Center
director Pat Aufderheide. The panel will begin
with a new short film by Brigid Maher, Untold
Stories.
In
addition to the report, the Center will be re-launching the accompanying
website with information for filmmakers on intellectual property.
Have a question? Want to find out what you can do? Visit: http://www.centerforsocialmedia.org/rock/index.htm
Best
of INPUT 2004 Screenings in Washington DC
INPUT, the annual International Public Television Conference, showcases
international public service television and draws together producers
and executives from around the world. (You've read here about INPUT
2005 in San Francisco, which the Center is proud to co-sponsor.)
In
Washington, D.C., Nov. 9-13, the Center is co-sponsoring selections
from INPUT 2004, held in May in Barcelona, Spain, as a chance to
see the kind of international programming this event hosts. Partners
include the Goethe-Institut Washington, US Independents,
WETA TV 26, WHUT-TV/Howard University, Women in Video & Film,
Silverdocs: AFI/Discovery Channel Documentary
Festival and Brazilian-American Cultural Institute. At the
Center, come and see one of the most talked-about films in the doc
world--a film that took the top award at three doc festivals already!
Checkpoint
November
11, 6:30 p.m. Wechsler Theater
Over
the course of a year, filmmaker Yoav Shamir unobtrusively
filmed what really goes on at the Israeli checkpoints between Israeli
soldiers and Palestinians. The resulting film, which has shocking
and poignant moments--and even touches of humor--has not only created
a stir on Israeli TV and on international film festivals, but within
the Israeli Army.
For
the complete program of Best of INPUT 2004, visit: http://www.centerforsocialmedia.org/input2004.htm
Aspen
Film Fest panel showcases political documentaries
At
the Aspen Film Festival on October 2, Center director Pat Aufderheide
chaired a panel of filmmakers on the ethics of documentary filmmaking
on political topics.
Robert
Greenwald (Outfoxed) discussed Fox's refusal to permit
him access to Fox archives when he made Uncovered--a project
that led him to hire a team of researchers to record and analyze
Fox news for bias. "We're discovering an audience that's hungry
for information they just aren't getting in mainstream media,"
he said of his Internet-based distribution strategies. He also noted
that, unlike traditional distribution, his films are being released
simultaneously in theaters and on DVDs, with Internet "viral
networking" driving demand for both kinds of audiences. "We're
learning as we go," he said.
Julia
Bacha, editor of Jehane Noujaim's Control Room, which takes
viewers inside the Arab news channel Al-Jazeera during the Iraq
invasion, noted that this film was in the tradition of cinema verite--letting
a viewer experience what the subjects of the film are experiencing.
She said the choice of style matched the challenge of showing a
perspective most people in the U.S. simply don't know. "We
didn't want to lecture, and we didn't want to preach," she
said. "So we thought, let's just take people there, show them
what it is like, and have them draw their own conclusions."
Jeff
Gibbs, producer and sound editor for Fahrenheit 9/11, spoke
about the need to combine rigorous fact-checking with creative approaches
to engage audiences. "Teams of lawyers looked over every single
fact in the film," he said, "and we've never been sued."
At the same time, he said, it was important to engage audiences
with humor and drama, in which sound played an important role.
Morgan
Spurlock, director of Super Size Me, roused a cheer from
the audience when he said, "Documentaries are the last bastion
of free speech on the American screen." Other panelists ruefully
noted that the independence of documentarians was associated with
their relative lack of access to mainstream media. "We're moving,
though, into a whole new way of reaching audiences," said Greenwald.
Look for excerpts
from the panel on the Center website soon!
Partner
Announcements
INPUT
2005 Call for Submissions
INPUT
2005 is seeking the best and most innovative programs for inclusion
in this prestigious screening conference. Here's your chance to
have your work viewed and discussed by some 2,000 attendees--independent
filmmakers, public media professionals, journalists, television
executives and others from over 60 countries.
INPUT
offers producers, broadcasting stations and public television entities
a rare opportunity to gain invaluable insight and experience from
discussing their work with an international audience, as well as
benefit from the exchange of ideas and production techniques with
colleagues from around the world.
Selection
Criteria
Selection panelists look for:
* Programs that take risks in form and content;
* Programs that are original, courageous, experimental;
* Programs that offer new insight to viewers and which strive
to elicit audience reaction;
* Programs that offer new ways of seeing television and which
stress the creative aspects of the work of its creators.
There
is no charge for program submissions, so submit your work now! Don't
miss out on this exceptional event!
Submit
online: http://www.input2005.org/submissions
Submission deadline (U.S. Pre-selection): Friday, November
5, 2004
Each
country sets their own schedule for national pre-selection. Contact
your country's INPUT National Coordinator to confirm the deadline
for your region.
http://input-tv.org/about/org/national_list.html
For
all countries without National Coordinators, the deadline is January
1, 2005.
If
your program is chosen, you must attend INPUT to present and discuss
your work.
United
Nations Association Film Festival, Oct. 20-24
Sponsored by the Stanford
Film Society and the UNA Mid-peninsula Chapter will take place on
October
20-24, 2004 at Stanford University with
a special screening in San Francisco on October 14
at the Delancey Screening Room, 600 Embarcadero.
The
theme for UNAFF 2004 is THE VALUES OF TOLERANCE.
UNAFF
celebrates the power of international documentary films and videos
dealing with UN related issues of human rights, environmental survival,
protection of refugees, famine, homelessness, racism, disease control,
women's issues, children, universal education, war and peace.
The
documentaries selected for 7th UNAFF showcase topics from Afghanistan,
Albania, Australia, Bolivia, Canada, Colombia, Cuba, France, Ghana,
India, Indonesia, Israel, Italy, Japan, Kenya, Mexico, Moldova,
Palestine, the Philippines, Rwanda, Senegal, Sudan, Sweden, Thailand,
Turkey, the United Kingdom, the United States and Yemen.
Festival
Screenings:
Wednesday,
October 20, 5:30 pm, Cubberley Auditorium
(School of Education, Stanford University)
Thursday, October 21, 6:00 pm, Annenberg Auditorium
(Cummings Art Building, Stanford University)
Friday, October 22, 6:00 pm, Annenberg Auditorium
(Cummings Art Building, Stanford University)
Saturday, October 23, 1:00 pm, Annenberg Auditorium
(Cummings Art Building, Stanford University)
Sunday, October 24, 1:00 pm, Cubberley Auditorium
(School of Education, Stanford University)
*Each
film session will last approximately two to three hours
SPECIAL
SCREENING in San Francisco:
Thursday,
October 14, 7:00 pm, Delancey Screening Room
600 Embarcadero, San Francisco
For
more information please call (650) 724-5544 or visit the UNAFF 2004
web site at http://www.unaff.org.
If you cannot make the festival, look for selections from UNAFF
at the Center in March as part of the DC Environmental Film Festival.
If you
prefer not to receive any further announcements, please reply with
REMOVE in the subject line. If you prefer a plain text newsletter,
reply with TEXT in the subject line.
The
Center for Social Media does not share email addresses with any
outside organizations.
|
