March 2008

Kartemquin is thrilled to announce that its latest documentary feature, In the Family, has been accepted at the Milan International Film Festival in April.

A handful of Kartemquin staff and interns volunteered last night for the local PBS station's pledge drive. The group took calls for hours to help raise money for WTTW.

Kartemquin's Joanna Rudnick and Gordon Quinn were recently interviewed about their experience on In the Family for a "Learning from the Pros" feature on Independent Lens' Filmocracy website. Visit the site to watch their interview, access other independent filmmakers’ tricks of the trade with short films, conversations and demonstrations that cover topics such as stop-motion animation, the use of archival footage, finding a point of view, getting behind the headlines and more.

Kartemquin is happy to announce that Mapping Stem Cell Research: Terra Incognita has been selected for the 2008 Wisconsin Film Festival. Get tickets here. This festival has special meaning as Madison, WI is where James Thomson and coworkers derived the first human embryonic stem cell line, and several of the film's crew are alumni of the University of Wisconsin. The Isthmus featured the film in a recent article about the festival.

The Sun Times featured a full-page story today about Kartemquin's 1968 film, Inquiring Nuns, and the film's upcoming screening at the Chicago History Museum this Sunday. Reporter Andrew Herrmann tracked down the pair of nuns from the film and talked with them about their experience making the film. Read the article to see how their lives have unfolded since the film and how the filmmakers feel about the work 40 years later. Additionally, the sidebar explores the relationship between the political events of the times and today.

Inquiring Nuns will screen at the Chicago History Museum on North and Clark at 1:30pm this Sunday. Tickets to the film are free with museum admission.

Kartemquin is excited about At the Death House Door's upcoming world premiere at SXSW in Austin on Sunday. The premiere and the several related community events and screenings in the days following are generating significant buzz in the lone-star state. Read coverage in the Austin Chronicle.

At the Death House Door premiered to a sold-out house at the historic Paramount Theatre in Austin on Sunday at SXSW. The enthusiastic crowd of over 600 gave two standing ovations to the filmmakers and the film's star, Reverend Pickett, from the main floor and the balcony.

Read press coverage in the Chicago Sun Times, Salon, Reuters and The Hollywood Reporter.

Read audience responses and interviews on local blogs.

Kartemquin's Joanna Rudnick will be participating in a proposal workshop with ITVS's Richard Saiz as a part of IFP Chicago's Doc-u-mania producer's series. They'll be using In the Family as a case study for discussion.

Check out

IFC's new "Lunchbox" feature where bloggers interview filmmakers about a variety of topics. To help kick-off the initiative, Kartemquin's Peter Gilbert and Steve James are featured (March 12th edition) talking at SXSW about At the Death House Door.

Kartemquin's Gordon Quinn and Justine Nagan hosted a graduate class in Ethnographic documentary from Northwestern University earlier this afternoon. The class, led by professor Hamid Naficy, discussed Kartemquin's history and watched clips from a handful of films during the conversation.

Kartemquin's Stevie screened to an enthusiastic crowd of over 150 people yesterday at the Lake Theatre in Oak Park, IL as part of a two-year mental health initiative going on in the community. A lively discussion followed the screening.

Kartemquin's Steve James will give the keynote address at the National Education Writers Association Annual Seminar in Chicago on April 24th. In addition to his remarks, he will also show clips from At the Death House Door.

Howard Reich will discuss his mother's story and screen clips from Kartemquin's documentary in progress, Prisoner of Her Past at the Pritzker Military Library on March 31st. The interview and live webcast start at 6:00pm. The event is free and open to the public, but reservations are strongly recommended by phone, 312-587-0234, or email, events@pritzkermilitarylibrary.net.

Kartemquin is excited to announce that At the Death House Door will be screening at Hot Docs, Canada's premiere documentary festival. Get tickets for April 23rd or April 24th.

Tune in Friday morning to the WGN morning news at 7:45am in Chicago, to see an interview with Kartemquin's Gordon Quinn and former Inquiring Nun Kathleen Westling, as well as clips from the 1968 Kartemquin Film, Inquiring Nuns. The documentary was recently screened at the Chicago History Museum and a late 2008 DVD release is planned.

Hoop Dreams tied with Hoosiers for #1 placement on a recent MSN list of the top Basketball films of all time. Check out the list.

Kartemquin's recent festival hit, At the Death House Door, will have its Chicago premiere at the Gene Siskel Film Center on Saturday night May 10th. Filmmakers Steve James and Peter Gilbert will be in attendance.

Last night, Kartemquin Executive Director Gordon Quinn visited Margie Nicholson's graduate seminar on arts, entertainment and media management at Columbia College to talk about arts policy issues and Fair Use in documentary.

Kartemquin's Justine Nagan traveled to Plymouth, MN on Thursday to speak to two classes at Robbinsdale Armstrong High School about her career in documentary film making. The ninth and tenth grade AVID students participated as a part of their english and social studies coursework and were inquisitive and open during the discussion. Thanks to Ms. Fuller and her colleagues for instigating the visit.

Kartemquin's In the Family will air nationally on PBS's award-winning series, P.O.V. on October 7th during breast cancer awareness month. Details to come!

Kartemquin's Joanna Rudnick has shared her story for the Ovarian Cancer National Alliance (OCNA) Campaign to help pass the Biomarker Bill in congress. Her BRCA story forms the core of Kartemquin's recent doc, In the Family.

Kartemquin's Justine Nagan and JJ Hanley are featured in an article in this month's Chicago Bar Association magazine in an article titled: "Documentary Filmmaking, Portraying Reality Under the Fair Use Doctrine." While an anecdote about fair use and Hoop Dreams is slightly incorrect, the rest of the story nicely outlines the tenets of current documentary fair use beliefs and quotes the filmmakers speaking about the changing documentary landscape, as well as other past experiences with fair use in Kartemquin films.

Visit Columbia College this weekend and next for IFP Chicago's Doc-u-mania! The annual producer's series, this year focusing on production trends in non-fiction filmmaking, is featuring Kartemquin staff on two panels. First, Joanna Rudnick will talk with ITVS's Richard Saiz this weekend about her experience making In the Family. Then, next weekend, Leslie Simmer will be speaking during a panel on editing feature docs. Read the full schedule of events.

You can now watch clips from several Kartemquin Films on youtube. More to come!

Kartemquin's Maria Finitzo will be participating in an event surrounding her recent film, Mapping Stem Cell Research: Terra Incognita, at Virginia Tech in April. Finitzo will be visiting a class, participating on a panel, and answering questions following a screening of the film. The documentary will screen Monday April 14th, at 3:00pm. The event is free and open to the public. Get the details.

We are pleased to announce that Milking the Rhino, the forthcoming documentary from Producer/Director David E. Simpson from a concept by Co-Producer Jeannie Magill, is the recipient of a $150,000 grant from the PBS Foundation Social Entrepreneurship Fund. The Fund was established in 2006 by way of a multi-million dollar grant from the Skoll Foundation, with the purpose of highlighting the work of people acting as change agents, improving systems, inventing new approaches, and creating sustainable solutions to better society.

Milking the Rhino

portrays rural Africans at the forefront of community-based conservation: a revolution that is turning poachers into preservationists and local people into the stewards of natural resources.

With this grant, a strong outreach plan will be built and executed for RHINO, as well as an informative and resource-rich website to support the film's life beyond broadcast. These materials will help the film achieve its dual goal of challenging a general audience's preconceptions of conservation, and providing inspiration for those working and teaching within the field.

Kartemquin's Golub: Late Works are the Catastrophes is screening at 7:00pm on Tuesday, April 15th at Virginia Tech University. The film will be followed by a panel discussion with Gordon Quinn and Virginia Tech professors from the Departments of Art and Art History, Communication/Film Studies, and Religious Studies. Get more information about the event.

Kartemquin is excited to announce that Cinema/Chicago, the parent organization of the Chicago International Film Festival, is awarding Kartemquin Films with its "Commitment to Excellence Award" for lifetime acheivement in television production at its annual Hugo Television Award ceremony on May 1st, 2008. Read press about the award.

Join us on Saturday April 26th at 5:45pm for a free screening of Kartemquin's Emmy Award-winning film, Vietnam Long Time Coming, at the Hyde Park Art Center, preceded by an introduction from the filmmakers. The screening is part of "Creative Move: Moving Mountains" a 24-hour arts extravaganza. Get the full-schedule.