It was wonderful to see so many friends and allies at Sundance, and we were delighted to welcome many more to our Making Your Documentary Matter event on January 30. We look forward to seeing you in February!

Wednesday, February 1, 2006
3-5 pm, Wechsler Theatre, Mary Graydon Center, AU Main Campus

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?” He will also work with attendees to answer questions concerning specific projects.

Thursday, February 23, 2006
6:30 pm Wechsler Theatre - Mary Graydon Center, AU Main Campus

This acclaimed documentary by the celebrated Stanley Nelson explores the roots and creation of the distinctive musical group Sweet Honey In The Rock. This group’s history is interwoven with the last three decades of civil rights struggles. Through behind-the-scenes rehearsal footage, the film also offers an acute understanding of the hard work that goes into honing this distinctive sound. Post-screening discussion with scholar, composer, singer, author, and activist Dr. Bernice Johnson Reagon, AU Distinguished Professor Emerita of History, Curator Emerita at the Smithsonian Institution National Museum of American History, and a member of the SNCC (Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee) Freedom Singers in the 1960's.

Co-sponsored by the Department of History, Multicultural Affairs in the Office of Campus Life, Department of Performing Arts, AU Choir, AU Gospel Choir, Washington College of Law, Women and Gender Studies Program, and the AU Chapter of the NAACP.

Feb. 24, 4-6 pm Film Arts Foundation, San Francisco

Profs. Pat Aufderheide and Peter Jaszi join Fred von Lohman from the Electronic Freedom Foundation and filmmakers in a workshop on using the free speech right of fair use.

March 2, 2006
Center co-hosts event with Demos in New York City! "The Republic of Blogs: New Media and Democracy." Hear public-spirited bloggers discuss how to build a better blogosphere. March 2, 2006. 220 Fifth Avenue (at 26th Street) Fifth Floor NY, NY 10001. To save a place, please RSVP online at www.demos.org or call 212.633.1405 x533.

• the challenges of collaborative production with the nonprofit sector (identified by co-sponsor Ellen Schneider of ActiveVoice as the fastest growing area in social issue documentary)—AU prof and filmmaker Chris Palmer gave participants a heads-up on the problems and opportunities. Read his remarks>>;
  
  
• the need to tailor distribution approaches to the target publics and goals of the film, as Academy-Award-winning filmmaker Gerardine Wurzburg explained Go>>;
  
  
• grassroots-fed distribution--Lisa Smithline of Brave New Films discussed the big “experiment” of Wal-Mart: The High Cost of Low Price, Shira Golding discussed the online Media That Matters Film Festival, and filmmaker John de Graaf (Buyer Be Fair) highlighted the innovations of the environmental film Oil on Ice;
  
  
• the importance of multiplatform approaches to making the best and most productive public conversations happen—as P.O.V. vice president Cynthia Lopez demonstrated with examples from the veteran doc series in her keynote speech.

The Local Public Media working group has issued its report on the group's first meeting and the principles these researchers are finding work best in making local media vital to the public life of their communities. Go>>

The Cyberpublics working group, cosponsored by the Charles F. Kettering Foundation, convened innovators in participatory media and leaders of public media initiatives for another convening on the future of public media. The group explored the opportunities -- and the clash of cultures -- that arise as new citizen media and more established public media try to find connections that serve the public interest and make democracy function well. Participants found that for all the challenges – preserving trust, increasing diversity in both cyberspace and broadcasting, cultivating civic dialog – new media and the online communities they are creating bring immense opportunities for public broadcasting’s future as media a democratic public needs. Read the rapporteur’s report>>

These blog posts also emerged from the meeting:
rconversation.blogs.com
www.peterlevine.ws 1
www.peterlevine.ws 2

The first Public Media Roundtable was held on January 13. WGBH’s media guru David Liroff asked the provocative question, “In a global village, where is the public square?” The webcast is coming soon!

Center director Pat Aufderheide will participate in an all day forum in Washington, D.C., open to the public, “The Telecom Act of 1996: Ten Years Later,” on February 6. The 1996 Act fundamentally changed the communications landscape—but not always for the better. Aufderheide argues that the Act’s public interest logic was badly flawed. Among other things, it assumed that industry competition would basically equate with the public interest. However, public culture does not just happen; it is cultivated and encouraged. Public media are therefore essential public services, and must be provided for in policy.

The Center will co-sponsor a conference on The Future of Public Media, to be held May 11-12 at The Berkman Center for Internet and Society at Harvard University. Among the coordinators will be Jake Shapiro, a fellow grantee in the Ford Foundation initiative on public media.

The Center is sponsoring a contest for documentarians in university film programs who use the Documentary Filmmakers’ Statement of Best Practices in Fair Use in their films. Students and professors can, separately or together, enter a contest with several cash prizes, through the University Film and Video Association. Learn more>>.

CSM will cohost a seminar on fair use at the CINE Golden Eagle Awards event on April 18 in Washington, D.C. CINE, a filmmakers' organization that recognizes and fosters the highest quality of non-theatrical film and video production through its semi-annual competitions, has endorsed the Documentary Filmmakers' Statement of Best Practices in Fair Use. The CSM panel, "Fair Use, Free Speech and Copyright Clearance: Year One of The Fair Use Initiative," will showcase industry activity in adopting and publicizing the change in the clearance environment brought about by filmmakers' decision to announce collectively their standards for fair and reasonable employment of fair use.

SUNDANCE: “Awesome!” “This is huge!” This time at Sundance, they weren’t talking about a movie, but about the Documentary Filmmakers’ Statement of Best Practices in Fair Use. On the invitation of the festival, the Center presented the Statement at the Filmmakers’ Lodge, a gathering place for festival attendees, and was joined by most of the co-authoring and endorsing organizations throughout the festival. Filmmakers shared their own frustrations with outrageous copyright clearance demands, and Professors Pat Aufderheide and Peter Jaszi answered questions. Katy Chevigny, head of executive production company Arts Engine (which also runs the Media that Matters Film Festival), one of the Statement’s endorsers, found filmmakers snapping up free copies of the Statement. “They were so jazzed by the news—‘This is just what I needed,’ ‘Wow, and I was just about to cut that scene!’” Chevigny said. At an opening reception hosted by the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS), outgoing president Pat Mitchell celebrated the statement as an “important initiative.” Several of the filmmakers whose films were chosen at Sundance had already made use of fair use, encouraged by the principles in the Statement. Byron Hurt’s incisive, thought-provoking critique of hip-hop, Beyond Beats and Rhymes, employed fair use to quote from copyrighted music videos and music.

CINE ANNOUNCES SPRING 2006 FILM AND VIDEO COMPETITION GOLDEN EAGLE AWARDS RECOGNIZE EXCELLENCE

(Washington, DC) --- The competition is now open for the Spring 2006 CINE Golden Eagle Awards. Film and video professionals as well as students and adult amateurs are invited to compete for over $25,000 worth of prizes. All entries are due February 15 with an early bird discount for entries received by February 1.

The CINE Golden Eagle is recognized internationally as a symbol of excellence in film and video production.

Networks, producers, distributors, and other film and video makers and sponsors are invited to enter by completing the form on the CINE Website or by contacting the CINE offices at 202-785-1136 for an entry form and more information.


OPEN SOCIETY INSTITUTE - KATRINA MEDIA FELLOWSHIPS

The Open Society Institute (OSI) offers a fellowship competition in response to critical issues laid bare by Hurricane Katrina. Katrina’s aftermath placed in sharp relief persistent problems of poverty, racism and government neglect plaguing the United States. Just five months after the destruction of New Orleans and other parts of the Gulf Region, the public’s attention has, for the most part, shifted elsewhere. By supporting in-depth journalism and media projects, OSI aims to stimulate and sustain a national conversation on these issues.

The Katrina Media Fellowships will support dynamic print and radio journalists, photographers and documentary filmmakers to generate and improve media coverage of issues exposed by Katrina. Applicants should propose projects that will expand and deepen the public’s understanding of race and class inequalities in the United States. Applicants may also propose projects that will address the government’s response to problems caused or illuminated by Katrina, the use or misuse of public funds, the role of private contractors, the effectiveness of clean-up and rebuilding efforts, citizen involvement in these efforts and lessons learned that should inform the handling of future natural and man-made disasters. In addition, applicants may propose projects that draw attention to OSI’s current or past programmatic priorities using Katrina as the frame. These priorities include access to legal services and government assistance, criminal justice reform, improving end of life care and access to health care and education reform. For more information and an application form, please see the fellowship guidelines.


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 the ITVS website


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