Happy New Year! Our December was filled with exciting plans for 2006, including the launch of our Public Media Roundtable (January 13), and the workshop, Making Your Documentary Matter (January 30). We hope to see you at a Center event this month.

Monday, January 30, 2006, 9 a.m. - 6 p.m.
American University, McDowell Hall

Join us for a rare opportunity to learn and share successful strategies for high-impact social documentaries. Meet award-winning filmmakers such as Gerardine Wurzburg, John de Graaf, Chris Palmer, Charlene Gilbert and Sandi DuBowski; officers from major foundations and nonprofits; industry executives such as Paula Silver and Lisa Smithline; and outreach professionals such as Ellen Schneider, Robert West and Judith Ravitz.

REGISTER TODAY!

?Making Your Documentary Matter? is funded by the Ford Foundation, and cosponsored with Active Voice and Grantmakers in Film and Electronic Media (GFEM).

January 13, 2005 ? 12 noon to 2 p.m. Hall of States Building, Conference Room 333
444 North Capitol Street NW
Washington DC

A provocative talk by and discussion with one of the new-tech gurus of public broadcasting, David Liroff, Vice- President and Chief Technology Officer, WGBH Educational Foundation.

To reserve a box lunch, call the Center for Social Media at (202) 885-3107 by Monday January 9.

Race is the Place
Thursday, January 19 2006, 6:30 pm
Wechsler Theatre, Mary Graydon Center, AU Main Campus

Race is the Place is a daring approach to the troubling issues of race in the U.S. day: a video performance documentary. Ray Telles and Rick Tejada-Flores look at race through the prism of performance, music, poetry and art. It?s sure to spark lively discussion!

Artists featured in Race is the Place include: Danny Hoch (actor, writer), Culture Clash, Amiri Baraka (poet), Kate Rigg (satirist), Piri Thomas (poet), Boots Riley (musician), Haunani Kay Task (writer), Andy Bumatai (comedian), and many more.

Los Angeles attorney Michael Donaldson, one of the legal advisors to the Center?s fair use project, is providing a free overview of the basic issues filmmakers need to look at every time someone asks ?Do I have to clear this?? and work with attendees to answer questions concerning specific projects. Learn more>>

Three of the Future of Public Media?s working groups are up and running: Cyberpublics, Local Media Engagements, and Accountability and Standards in Public Media. To check out their research and reports, go to their NEW Wiki space>>

When nearly 100 bloggers and journalists from around the world converged in London December 10, two of the Center's associates were on the scene to cover the event and pick out lessons for the future of public media.

Read No?le McAfee's report, which feeds right in to current research on how these new participatory media ventures can make public media even more public. Go>>

And don't miss the report of New York-based filmmaker and media activist, Martin Lucas, on why the blogosphere matters. Go>>

The Center has teamed up with Arts Engine, sponsors of the Media That Matters Film Festival (check out the ?From Our Partners? section below!) to launch a "Fair Use Award" with a $1,000 prize at the sixth annual Media That Matters Film Festival awards ceremony.

CSM at 2005 International Documentary Festival at Amsterdam

The International Documentary Festival at Amsterdam is more than a film festival?it?s an annual reunion of people who believe in media that matters. Each day is packed not only with films? more than 300 of them?but also with discussions and panels.

Center Director Aufderheide moderated a panel, ?America Rules!,? showcasing American films with perspectives you are unlikely to encounter in mainstream media. Go>>

Kim Longinotto?s Master Class

One of the highlights of IDFA was a master class by veteran social documentarian Kim Longinotto. The British filmmaker has long won awards and audiences for her films exploring the worlds of women across cultural boundaries. Her film Sisters in Law, delving into the world of two sisters who serve as family court judges in Cameroon, opened the festival. The sisters fiercely defend the rights of women in a society where child abuse and spousal abuse are often sanctioned. Read some of Longinotto?s insights>>

World Congress of History Producers ? Rome, Italy

At the World Congress of History Producers, held in Rome November 28-December 1, Center director Pat Aufderheide participated in a panel on access to archival materials. Moderator Taylor Downing led a discussion of corporate consolidation in archives, clearance problems and employment of fair use. Aufderheide illustrated the main points of the Documentary Filmmakers? Statement of Best Practices in Fair Use. ?This is exactly what we?ve been missing,? said one producer. ?We need something like this for the U.K.,? said another.

Submit Your Short Film to the Sixth Annual Media That Matters Film Festival
Deadline: January 6, 2006

If a film is made and no one sees it, does it make an impact? Submit your film to Media That Matters and be heard. Sixteen winners get an international distribution deal -- DVD, broadcast, web streaming and hundreds of community screenings around the country.

- The shorter the better! 8 minutes max

- All genres and youth media welcome

- Seeking films on ALL social and environmental issues - particularly interested in submissions on Fair Use, Food Politics and Sustainability, Elections and Democracy, Response to Katrina, Bullying and LGBT Rights

- Cash awards, including a CSM/Arts Engine award for the best employment of fair use

- Submission fee: $25, FREE for youth/students

- Deadline: January 6, 2006

Learn more and submit your film>>

ITVS OPEN CALL

Attention filmmakers! Looking for funding for your next project? INDEPENDENT TELEVISION SERVICE (ITVS) seeks proposals for public TV programs which take creative risks, serve underrepresented audiences and express points of view seldom seen on commercial or public TV. Applicants must be independent producers with previous film or TV production experience in a principal role. Students are not eligible. ITVS accepts proposals for single programs (not series) in any genre (drama, documentary, animation, experimental).

Open Call provides finishing funds to projects in production or post. Deadline: February 10 and August 4

Diversity Development Fund supports ethnic minority artists for research and development, up to $15,000. Deadline: March 31

LInCS provides matching funds up to $100,000 to partnerships between public TV stations and independents. Deadline: May 26

For complete guidelines and to apply online visit www.itvs.org/producers/

"Will Fair Use Survive? Free Expression in the Age of Copyright Control"

>From the Free Expression Policy Project at the Brennan Center for Justice, NYU School of Law - Read the report>>

The result of more than a year of research -- including many firsthand stories from artists, historians, Web bloggers, and others -- "Will Fair Use Survive?" documents how the rights to fair use and free expression are being threatened by an intellectual property system that is perilously out of balance. For printed copies, email kafayat@nyu.edu

SILVERDOCS & ACE Documentary Grant

SILVERDOCS is joining forces with ACE (Animal Content in Entertainment), a new program of the Humane Society of the United States, to offer a feature-length documentary film grant of $10,000 for the creation of films which include animal issues.
Submission Deadline: (postmarked by) March 24, 2006

For more information visit:

ACE
SILVERDOCS: AFI/Discovery Channel Documentary Festival