In Progress
A Good Man
Producer : Joanna Rudnick
Director : Gordon Quinn, Bob Hercules
Cinematography : Keith Walker
Status: Production
For over two years, filmmakers Gordon Quinn and Bob Hercules tracked the creative evolution of the Bill T. Jones / Arnie Zane Dance Company's work Fondly Do We Hope...Fervently Do We Pray, from the initial Ravinia Festival commission to the final performance.
A Good Man explores one of this century’s most complicated, yet emotional and dramatic, modern dance choreographers, Bill T. Jones, and his diverse Company’s efforts to come to terms with today’s most searing questions and contradictions about race and the legacy of the Civil War. In doing so, they mix dance, theatre, musical composition, songwriting and visual art to present an unforgettable performance that deepens our understanding of both Abraham Lincoln and Bill T. Jones—the man, the artist and his artistic process.
A Good Man is a co-production of American Masters, ITVS, Kartemquin Films, Media Process Group, and the Ravinia Festival. The documentary will air on PBS' American Masters series in 2011. Watch the trailer.
American Arab
Producer/Director : Usama Alshaibi
Executive Producers : Gordon Quinn, Justine Nagan
Co-Producer : Rachel Pikelny
Status: Production
In the days after 9/11, Usama Alshaibi’s mother suggested that he change his name. Suddenly, Usama’s name was not solely his own. He unfortunately shared it with a criminal mastermind.
In American Arab, the Iraqi-American filmmaker will share his own story and introduce us to others, sparking a frank conversation about the identity of, and perceptions about, Arab-Americans. Seamlessly weaving historical footage, animation, as well as real-life scenes of people living as Arabs in the U.S., the film will put a human face on the vague complexities of racism in post-9/11 America.
What does it mean to be an Arab living in America today?
Arab-Americans are not one monolithic group, but rather a diverse and complex array of many voices and cultures. By making a coherent and entertaining documentary on the Arab-American life and experience, we hope to educate as well as inform audiences on this contemporary American story.
American Arab is a project of Kartemquin's first Diversity Fellowship, sponsored by The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation and The Ford Foundation.
Click here to support this film.
Watch teaser clip 1: "Hijab" and teaser clip 2: "Taqwacore".
Invisible Seasons
Producer/Director : Maria Finitzo
Producers : Kelly Belanger, Mary Morrissette
Executive Producer : Gordon Quinn
Status: Production
Thirty- five years ago, a life-changing piece of legislation prohibiting sex discrimination in federally funded education, including athletics, was enacted into law. By mandating equal opportunity, Title IX gave legislative muscle to those who were campaigning for more girls’ teams, better sports facilities for girls and women, and higher pay for their coaches. It set in motion far-reaching changes that would not only revolutionize America’s playing fields, but its political, social and cultural landscape as well.
Kartemquin Films, in partnership with Professor Kelly Belanger and the Center for the Study of Rhetoric in Society at Virginia Tech University, is currently developing (In)Visible Seasons, a feature-length documentary that will look at how and why change takes place in a democracy--by not only exploring how Title IX has altered the face of sports, but also by understanding the meaning of sports in the American experience.
(In)visible Seasons will raise questions of inclusion and exclusion, fairness and tradition, principle and compromise… In the film we will come to understand the power of mentors and role models to inspire the acts of courage, sacrifice, and principle upon which our democracy depends. To be sure, this is a film about sports. But it is also a film about how a democracy achieves equality. In our country, who gets to play and who doesn’t is the yardstick by which we measure how close we are to achieving the goals of a democracy -a level playing field, be it at home, at work or at play.
On Beauty
Director/Producer : Joanna Rudnick
Executive Producer : Gordon Quinn, Justine Nagan, Melissa Sage Fadim
Status: Production
In the unflinching new film On Beauty, director Joanna Rudnick (In the Family) follows former fashion photographer Rick Guidotti, who after 15 years of working for clients such as Yves Saint Laurent, Elle, and Harpers Bazaar, grew tired of seeing the same ideal of beauty “spit up at us constantly”.
Disillusioned by the industry, in a moment of serendipity, Rick walked by a young woman with Albinism (a genetic condition that results in loss of pigmentation in the hair and eyes) at a New York City bus stop, and wondered why she wasn’t considered beautiful in his other world. This exploration resulted in a show-stopping magazine spread for Life Magazine featuring young women with Albinism styled to the gills smiling out from under the headline “Redefining Beauty”.
Over a decade later, Rick continues to focus his lens on individuals living in the shadows of overt, physical genetic conditions under the auspices of his not-for-profit Positive Exposure.
On Beauty weaves Rick’s fight to challenge public perceptions of difference with the lives of three women, who have overcome rejection by their peers, brazenly stood up to society’s inability to accept difference, triumphed over their own physical obstacles, and become tireless advocates:
~ Born with Albinism to a mother who abandoned her at birth out of fear and stigma, Jayne Waithera met Rick at a program for social entrepreneurs where she was working to establish a resource center for her peers in Kenya. Inspired by the work of Positive Exposure, Jayne has begun to lay the seeds to set up a branch of the organization in Kenya, addressing the significant needs, both medical and psychological, of the local Albinism community—a community on high alert with news of recent bloodshed against individuals with Albinism in neighboring Tanzania.
~ In Qatar, people question whether 3’6” medical student Nadia Merchant is really a doctor, despite her white coat and stethoscope. “Do you think I’m in a Halloween costume?” she responds. Living with a genetic form of skeletal dysplasia, Nadia has committed her life’s work to genetic pediatrics, where she can help mothers and children understand that difference never has to limit life’s possibilities.
~ Sarah Kanney loves to compete in motor-cross competitions; she also works in the local spa in her small, upstate New York town. With a large port-wine stain birthmark across her face (a result of the genetic condition Sturge Weber Syndrome), Sarah has spent years in surgery to treat the glaucoma in both of her eyes and overcome debilitating seizures. Now 21 and studying for her GED, Sarah has decided not to seek laser treatment or use heavy makeup to cover the mark that is a major part of her identity.
How can a society, whose image of “perfection” and “normalcy” is so horribly rigid, learn to grasp the ever evolving, and incredibly diverse definition of beauty? On Beauty attacks this complex question through Rick’s global work and the eye-opening, unforgettable stories of Jayne, Nadia, and Sarah, with commentary from Rick’s close friend and Manhattan-based couture designer Ralph Rucci among others.
The Interrupters
Director / Producer : Steve James
Producer/Writer : Alex Kotlowitz
Co-Producer : Zak Piper
Executive Producer : Gordon Quinn, Justine Nagan, Teddy Leifer, Paul Taylor
Status: Production
The stubborn, persistence of violence in our urban centers is both troubling and perplexing. And Chicago has been at the epicenter, particularly with the recent brutal beating of a Chicago Public School student caught on videotape. As Tio Hardiman of the group CeaseFire asks: "Why the madness?"
The Interrupters tells the story of a group of men and women in Chicago – most of whom are in their 40s and 50s, most of them former gang leaders who have been privy to, if not participants in the brutality of the streets. They now work for CeaseFire, and they have a singular mission: to interrupt the flow of violence. The program is the brainchild of epidemiologist Gary Slutkin, who for ten years battled infectious diseases in Africa. Slutkin believes that the spread of violence mimics that of infectious diseases like tuberculosis and AIDS. Therefore the treatment should be similar: go after the most infected, and stop the infection at its source. He’s recognized that most street violence is caused by tit-for-tat retaliation or retribution for personal slights.
The Interrupters, whose reputations command respect in their neighborhoods (in public health terms they’re thought of as “credible messengers”), intervene in disputes before they turn violent. The film follows them on the streets as they deal with potentially explosive situations – everything from a stolen watch that threatens to become a shooting to a funeral where young men in bulletproof vests prepare to defend against a retaliation to the beating death of Derrion Albert. The Interrupters go about their work with a combination of bravado, humility and even humor. Their work is fraught with moral quandaries, as they walk a precipitous line: stepping between adversaries (sometimes people they know) to make peace, keeping the police at arms length and resisting the lure of the streets which gave them their reputations.
From acclaimed director Steve James (Hoop Dreams, Stevie) and bestselling author Alex Kotlowitz (There Are No Children Here, The Other Side of the River) in partnership with ITVS, Frontline, and Rise Films, The Interrupters is an unusually intimate and provocative journey into the debilitating effects of the thousands of shootings each year in our urban centers. This is a film that goes to the center of “the madness,” in an attempt to grapple with the causes of the violence, and more importantly with how we might best defuse it.
Encounters with the Other
Director/Producer : Maria Finitzo
Executive Producers : Gordon Quinn, Justine Nagan
Encounters with the Other is a feature length Kartemquin documentary film that will examine the transition from a subsistence life style to the modern ways of life through the lives of the Tsimane' people who live in the lowlands of Bolivia.
Encounters with the Other will identify key factors in the Tsimane' society such as preservation of traditional knowledge about the forest and a deep connection to cultural values that appear to be responsible for promoting well- being in the face of massive social change. By following the story of individuals making this transition we will witness first hand the forces of modernization and the dangers Indigenous People face- poverty, illness, and environmental degradation- as they encounter the "other" world. Ultimately we will see how and why preserving a deep connection one's traditional world and culture eases this transition, empowering those who make this journey to live in the modern world on their own terms.
The Fine Print
Director/Producer : Maria Finitzo
Executive Producer/Producer : Gordon Quinn
Executive Producer : Justine Nagan
Producer : Mary Morrissette
The Fine Print, a feature-length documentary produced by Kartemquin Films in partnership with Director Maria Finitzo, will explore and decode the financial woes now affecting every sector of this country by looking at the immensely complicated situation from the bottom up. As we do in all of our films, our understanding starts with the story of the people most deeply affected- in this case with the financial crisis: families struggling to survive and keep their homes. We will explain our nation’s financial downfall by telling these individual stories. We will look at how they were sold their mortgage, by whom and we will trace this mortgage all the way through the maze of securitized instruments to see where it has ended up. Examining how we got here, what happened and why, The Fine Print will ask basic questions: What do banks do? How have they been operating and how should they have been operating? What were the pressures to make so many bad loans? What does securitization mean…liquidity and credit? How did changes in regulations foster the crisis we now face? Finally we will unpack the complicated economics of derivatives, the why and wherefore of risky subprime loans, the thinking both good and bad behind securitization…in short the entire financial disaster that has befallen us.
But The Fine Print is not a film about the world of finance. Our characters will not be CEOs, hedge fund managers, or investment bankers. Our stories will be found in Marquette Park, a community that has suffered great losses, and our characters will be the people on the front lines of foreclosure: homeowners caught in the nightmare of fine print, community activists struggling to maintain the integrity of their neighborhood, a grade school principal trying to save her school, legal aid lawyers helping their clients navigate the confusing world of foreclosure, and sheriff’s deputies forced to carry out evictions. Through their stories we will learn how bad mortgages were only the beginning and we will see how every aspect of our economy was dangerously interrelated to risky schemes very few people truly understood.