January 2008

Kartemquin's latest doc, Mapping Stem Cell Research: Terra Incognita, will have its American broadcast premiere on PBS' Independent Lens on January 15th and in the days afterwards. Check your local listings.

Additionally, in the coming weeks, the film will continue to screen in community venues across the country. Find out if it's showing in your neighborhood.

Lastly, watch and rate the trailer on Current TV!

Chicago Magazine covers Kartemquin's Terra Incognita in a feature story in their January 2008 issue. Check it out on newsstands or read it online.

Filmmaker Maria Finitzo will appear tonight on WTTW's Chicago Tonight, at 7:00pm to discuss the upcoming national broadcast of Mapping Stem Cell Research: Terra Incognita. The program will also be re-broadcast at 1:00am and 4:30am.

Maria can also be heard interviewed on WBEZ's morning radio program, Eight Forty-Eight, on Tuesday, January 15th (the day of the PBS broadcast) at 9am and again at 8pm. Tune in!

In anticipation for tonight's national premiere of Mapping Stem Cell Research: Terra Incognita, Director Maria Finitzo and Dr. Jack Kessler have been providing radio interviews about the film. Here are a few samples:

Dr. Kessler on WNYC's The Leonard Lopate Show

Maria Finitzo on WBEZ's Eight Forty-Eight

Additionally, tonight's broadcast has been featured in several publications as recommended viewing for tonight. Check out this piece by the Chicago Tribune.

Kartemquin's Hoop Dreams was recently mentioned on the Oxford University Press Blog on a list of favorite documentaries. Check it out.

We hope that you are able to catch one of the national broadcasts this week of Kartemquin's Mapping Stem Cell Research: Terra Incognita. Make sure you tell PBS's Independent Lens what you think in their Audience Award Poll. Vote now.

Kartemquin's Justine Nagan participated in a panel at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago yesterday afternoon as a part of their Career Development series on getting jobs in creative industries. Justine, along with three other panelists from around Chicago, spoke with Art Institute students about resumes, interviews and other miscellaneous tips for getting your foot in the door.

Kartemquin's 1994 hit, Hoop Dreams, will screen this afternoon at the Westport Massachusetts Public Library, next Wednesday at the Wakefield Branch of the New York Public Library and then again in March in Essex, Connecticut as a part of a community series of important documentaries at the Essex Library. Get more information.

Kartemquin's JJ Hanley and Justine Nagan participated Friday in a panel for the Chicago Bar Association Media and Law Committee's January gathering on "Television Production and Fair Use." Other panelists included Greg Jacobs and Jon Siskel. Over 60 people gathered at host firm Holland + Knight to hear the presentation.

Kartemquin is excited to announce the Washington DC premiere of Mapping Stem Cell Research: Terra Incognita, Saturday, February 9th. Filmmakers Maria Finitzo and Justine Nagan will be in attendance. Get the details.

Kartemquin's Justine Nagan spoke to a group of teenagers Saturday morning at the Peggy Notebaert Nature Museum in Chicago about social-issue documentary production and promotion in Chicago. The group of high school interns were participating in a year-long program focusing on website creation and media production. The teens provided much-appreciated feedback and suggestions for the Kartemquin website.

This winter Prisoner of Her Past raised nearly $80,000 in individual donations as a result of a screening and benefit generously underwritten by Sage Foundation. The event, hosted by WTTW's John Callaway, featured new footage from the documentary, a photography exhibit from the film by the Tribune's Zbigniew Bzdak, and a discussion between youth-trauma expert Dr. Joy Osofsky and producers Howard Reich and Gordon Quinn. The Prisoner of Her Past team is extremely grateful to all of the amazing donors who contributed to the success of the event.

Kartemquin's Director of Development Joanna Rudnick is scheduled to participate in the closing plenary of the Grantmakers in Health National Conference in Los Angeles in February 2008. The plenary, "Lights, Camera, Action: Working with Media to Stimulate Change", will feature a campaign director working with Michael Moore's Sicko, the California Newsreel's outreach efforts around Unnatural Causes and Joanna with In the Family.

Continuing their "Project Sunday" Chicago documentary series, the Chicago History Museum will screen Kartemquin's 1968 classic, Inquiring Nuns, on Sunday March 9th at 1:30pm. Tickets to the screening are free with museum admission. Filmmakers Gordon Quinn and Jerry Temaner will be present.