FUNDING & OPPORTUNITIES -

Chicken & Egg Pictures
- A hybrid film fund and non-profit production company dedicated to
supporting women filmmakers who are as passionate about the art of
storytelling as they are about the social justice, environmental and
human rights issues they’re embracing, translating and exploring on
film. Grants range from $2,500-25,000, with the average being $10,000. Apply by March 30th

Mark your calendars! On Saturday, June 12, Marion Stoddart: The Work of 1000 documentary film will celebrate its premiere at Lawrence Academy’s beautiful 500 seat theater in Groton, Massachusetts. Stay tuned for more details and information on how to procure tickets to the screening and party.

OTHER NEWS

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Join the Work of 1000 group on Facebook to stay up to date on exciting news!
www.facebook.com/workof1000


Ashburnham students meet Marion Stoddart.
Perhaps one of the most exciting aspects of the Work of 1000 project is witnessing rapt students engage with Marion. Thanks to a grant from the Ashburnham Cultural Council, Marion Stoddart delivered an inspiring talk to a large assembly of 7th graders at Ashburnham’s Overlook Middle School.



The Work of 1000 Documentary Project wishes to thank all of its volunteers, supporters, donors, and sponsors.  Our Sponsors.

With Gratitude,

Susan Edwards

Apply Now!

The Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) and the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) invite you to participate in the 2010 Producers Workshop which offers professional development activities designed to identify public broadcasting’s next generation of creative talent.

***The twenty-five producers selected will receive scholarships that pay for the cost of the Workshop and the week’s travel and living expenses***

Producers will be given the opportunity to work intensively on the skills that will benefit them most, through classes and direct contact with some of public television’s most talented personnel. It is open to both station-connected and independent producers; producer/writers and producer/directors; and to individuals who have worked locally and nationally in all genres of programming.

Information and applications are  at www.pbs.org/producers.

Cynthia Close, DER’s Executive Director, invites you to come to the Coolidge Corner Theater, Brookline MA at 7:30 pm Wed. March 10th for the next CONNECT THE DOCS meeting where she will discuss the importance of high stakes pitching for funding your documentary project.

This informative session is a must for any local Boston area documentary filmmaker who is planning to pitch at the up coming HOTDOCS forum in Toronto, IFP, IDFA or any of the other international venues open for documentary makers to present their projects.

Filmmakers who have pitched in a public setting are welcome to come and share their experiences.

April 30 & May 1, 2,  2010.

On April 30 & May 1, 2, Tom Kane is bringing a  3 Day Film Production Workshop to Boston.  Tom has had a long and distinguished career in the Film and Television industry.  As a Producer, Production Manager, and Assistant Director, his clients have included Twentieth Century Fox, Miramax Films, Columbia Pictures, Warner Bros., ABC Motion Pictures, Universal Pictures, Turner Network Television, CBS, NBC, ABC, and Hallmark Entertainment.

Tom’s Film Credits include: Prizzi’s Honor,  Raging Bull,  Kramer vs. Kramer,  The Flamingo Kid,  Taxi Driver,  The Stepford Wives,  Crossfire Trail.

Since 1984, Tom has taught Film and Video production to hundreds of students from around the world.  He created “The Line Producer, Assistant Director & Unit Production Manager Workshop” for The Maine Media Workshops in Rockport, Maine, where he  has instructed for 13 years.

The Workshop will teach you how to successfully plan, organize and manage a film or video production. You will break down a feature script, create a shooting schedule, production board, and day-out-of-days. You also go on a location scout to learn the professional approach to detail for each location. This workshop is ideal for aspiring producers, production managers, assistant directors, screenwriters, actors, and anyone wishing to explore a career in film and video production. Beginners are welcome.
20% Student Discount available.  10% Industry Discount also available.

Location:  TO BE DETERMINED

Log onto www.filmtvworkshops.com for details

or E-mail - tomjkane@mind.net.   541-324-3364 (cell).

Now in it’s 5th year, the Emmy-nominated International Documentary Challenge returns to the Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Festival in Toronto. This year’s challenge takes place March 4-8, 2010 with the Hot Docs premiere of the Finalists in early May.

http://www.docchallenge.org

The DocChallenge is a fun and innovative competition that will push your documentary skills to the limit. If you’re new to the idea, it’s very simple: Filmmakers from around the world are given a genre (Character Study, Music, 1st Person, etc.) and a theme (such as “Change”.)  Participants then have 5 days to develop, produce and edit a 4 to 7 minute non-fiction film. The result is an exhilarating five days for the filmmakers, and, as the films reveal, a joy for the audiences at Hot Docs and beyond.

Registration is now open. Entry forms can be found at:
https://www.docchallenge.org/Register.html

The 2010 Presenting Partners include Hot Docs, American Documentary/P.O.V., Documentary Educational Resources and Typecast Releasing. Supporting partners include the International Documentary Association, the Documentary Organization of Canada, DocuMentors, the Big Sky Documentary Film Festival, Dokufest, Docs In Progress and the 48 Hour Film Project.

The International Documentary Challenge.
Real Life. Filmed Real Fast.

Alabama Women’s Hall of Fame announces next two inductees

MARION, Ala. - Two courageous and tenacious Alabama women, Margaret Charles Smith (known to all who knew her as “Miss Margaret”) and Mary Burks, will be inducted into the Alabama Women’s Hall of Fame on March 4.

Margaret Charles Smith of Eutaw was a medical pioneer who practiced midwifery in rural settings for those who could not afford hospitalization.

Smith, born in 1906, was raised by her grandmother, who had been brought to the U.S. as a slave at the age of 13 and sold for $3 dollars.

DER is pleased to have a film in the collection honoring the life of Miss Margaret: http://www.der.org/films/miss-margaret.html

SURVIVAL INTERNATIONAL PRESS RELEASE
25 January 2010

Avatar’s story is being played out in real life.
(c) 20th Century Fox

Following the film ‘Avatar’’s win at the Golden Globes, tribal people have claimed that the film tells the real story of their lives today.

A Penan man from Sarawak, in the Malaysian part of Borneo, told  Survival International, ‘The Penan people cannot live without the rainforest. The forest looks after us, and we look after it. We understand the plants and the animals because we have lived here for many, many years, since the time of our ancestors.

‘The Na’vi people in ‘Avatar’ cry because their forest is destroyed. It’s the same with the Penan. Logging companies are chopping down our big trees and polluting our rivers, and the animals we hunt are dying.’

Kalahari Bushman Jumanda Gakelebone said, ‘We the Bushmen are the first inhabitants in southern Africa. We are being denied rights to our land and appeal to the world to help us. ‘Avatar’ makes me happy as it shows the world about what it is to be a Bushman, and what our land is to us. Land and Bushmen are the same.’

Davi Kopenawa Yanomami, known as the Dalai Lama of the Rainforest, said, ‘My Yanomami people have always lived in peace with the forest. Our ancestors taught us to understand our land and animals. We have used this knowledge carefully, for our existence depends on it. My Yanomami land was invaded by miners. A fifth of our people died from diseases we had never known.’

Director James Cameron received his Golden Globes awards for ‘Avatar’ last week, and revealed one of the central ideas of the film. ‘Avatar asks us to see that everything is connected,’ he said in his acceptance speech, ‘All human beings to each other, and us to the earth.

Cameron was inspired by the Maori language of New Zealand when devising the language spoken by the Na’vi. Survival’s director Stephen Corry says, ‘Just as the Na’vi describe the forest of Pandora as ‘their everything’, for most tribal peoples, life and land have always been deeply connected.

‘The fundamental story of Avatar - if you take away the multi- coloured lemurs, the long-trunked horses and warring androids - is being played out time and time again, on our planet. ‘Like the Na’vi of ‘Avatar’, the world’s last-remaining tribal peoples - from the Amazon to Siberia - are also at risk of extinction, as their lands are appropriated by powerful forces for profit-making reasons such as colonization, logging and mining.’

‘One of the best ways of protecting the our world’s natural heritage is surprisingly simple; it is to secure the land rights of tribal peoples.’
* * *

A feature article about ‘Avatar’ and tribal peoples is available for publication from Survival International. Contact Miriam Ross (details below).

To read this story online: http://www.survivalinternational.org/news/5466

For more information and images, or to use the attached image, please contact Miriam Ross:
T (+44) (0)20 7687 8734 or (+44) (0)7504543367
E mr@survivalinternational.org
W http://www.survivalinternational.org/
Survival International
6 Charterhouse Buildings
London EC1M 7ET
United Kingdom

CONTACT:
Rachel Strutt
rachel@somervilleartscouncil.org
Somerville Arts Council
50 Evergreen Ave.
Somerville, MA 02145
617-625-6600 x2985
www.somervilleartscouncil.org

Mayor Joseph A. Curtatone, the Somerville Arts Council & Somerville Community Access Television present:

About the Event
Exploring the role of media as it relates to Haiti and the local Haitian community, we will screen excerpts from documentaries like The Agronomist, Secondhand (Pepe) and Belo’s Song of Peace, as well as samples of video work relating to philanthropic causes and excerpts from local Haitian TV shows. The following panel discussion will be led by Charlot Lucien, founder/co-director of the Haitian Artists Assembly of Massachusetts. Panelists are: Hanna Rose Shell, director of “Second Hand Pepe” and M.I.T. Assistant Professor; Patrick Sylvain, writer and educator; and Ronny Dorvil, SCAT producer.  Topics inlcude: Radio is the dominant form of media in Haiti, yet film, video and TV are playing an increasingly important role in
the local Haitian community; why is this? What Haitian films and documentaries are reaching and infl uencing the non-Haitian community? How can Haitian-related film and video support philanthropic causes—especially in the aftermath of the earthquake?

Gathering at the Independent to follow.

Co-produced by the Somerville Arts Council and Somerville Community Access Television.

Donations strongly encouraged; proceeds will go to Partners in Health Haiti
Earthquake Response. The screening & panel discussion will be broadcast live
on SCAT (Channel 3 in Somerville) and Cambridge Community Television
(Channel 10 in Cambridge) on Thursday, Feb. 4, 7-9pm

An Evening of Haitian Film & Video
A FUNDRAISER
Thursday, February 4, 6:30-9; afterparty to follow
SCAT, 90 Union Square, Somerville
6:30: doors and prescreening activities; 7 sharp: screening followed by panel discussion;
9pm: afterparty. @ the Independent, 75 Union Sq.
***SEATING IS LIMITED; please come on time***

18.01.2010

On April 27 Tribeca Film Institute is hosting The Good Pitch in New York. Now they are calling out to filmmakers involved in social justice film projects to apply. The deadline is Monday February 8.

The Good Pitch is one-day pitching event bringing together specially selected foundations, NGOs, social entrepreneurs, broadcasters and other media people to expand the resources aimed at maximizing the impact of social-issue documentary.

Eight filmmaking teams pitch their project and its associated outreach campaign with the aim of creating a unique coalition around each film to in order to accelerate its impact and influence.

The Good Pitch @ Tribeca will have a special emphasis on bringing corporate and brand partners to the table alongside non-profits. The involved corporate partners bring social change possibilities to filmmakers. Companies who have already participated in the Good Pitch include Whole Foods, Puma Vision, Ben and Jerry’s Foundation, Asda Walmart Foundation, Gucci Tribeca Documentary Fund, McKinsey & Co, Freud Communications, Edelman PR, Saatchi & Saatchi.

The Good Pitch @ Tribeca provides an opportunity to build on this involvement. This edition of The Good Pitch is taking place during the Tribeca Film Festival.

The Good Pitch is a project of The Channel 4 BRITDOC Foundation in partnership with the Sundance Institute Documentary Film Program. To find out more and to apply go to www.britdoc.org/goodpitch

Related links at edn.dk