April 2008

There's a flurry of Kartemquin activity at this year's Full Frame Film Festival in North Carolina starting tomorrow morning! Kartemquin's award-winning 2004 series The New Americans is screening in segments beginning tomorrow morning at 10:45. Then, fresh from SXSW and the Dallas Film Fest, At the Death House Door is screening at 7:15pm Friday night. Lastly, Erik Weihenmayer, one of the subject's of Kartemquin's Vietnam Long Time Coming, is the focus of Blindsight, a film about a group of Blind Tibetans scaling Mt. Everest.

Kartemquin's Gordon Quinn, Steve James, Peter Gilbert and Aaron Wickenden are attending the festival to represent the films.

Kartemquin staff members, and UW Madison alumni, Justine Nagan and Liz Kaar will be heading to Madison tomorrow for the 10th annual Wisconsin Film Festival. Mapping Stem Cell Research: Terra Incognita is screening Sunday morning at the fest at 11:15am.

Zak Piper, Kartemquin's Director of Production, represented Kartemquin today at a College and Career Fair co-hosted by The Peggy Notebaert Nature Museum and the Chicago Botanic Garden, for high school students participating in teenage programs throughout the Chicago area. He spent the afternoon hosting a booth and talking to students about possible careers in documentary film.

Kartemquin's recent doc, At the Death House Door, was awarded the "Inspiration Award" at this year's Full Frame documentary festival in Durham, NC. Filmmakers Steve James, Peter Gilbert, Gordon Quinn and Aaron Wickenden attended the festival on behalf of the film.

Kartemquin's Director of Communications and Distribution Justine Nagan spoke on an alumni panel this morning at the University of Chicago. She joined four other alums of the Humanities Master's program to discuss their experiences for a group of prospective students.

Kartemquin's Steve James and Peter Gilbert are being honored this evening at the 2008 IMAGE film awards gala in Atlanta for their recent work on At the Death House Door, in addition to their past film works. Congratulations to the duo!

Recent interest in Kartemquin's 1968 film, Inquiring Nuns, continues with a screening at the 2008 Rincon International Film Festival in Puerto Rico on April 24th. The film will screen with the feature documentary, The Listening Project. Get the details.

Kartemquin's At the Death House Door will screen on Friday, April 18th as a part of the Minneapolis / St. Paul International Film Festival. Get tickets now.

Kartemquin's The Chicago Maternity Center Story was referenced in an article today in the Chicago Reader by J.R. Jones covering a series of film screenings called, "For a Better America: The New Deal on Film." The collection of work illustrates how cinematic experimentation wove its way through the New Deal sponsored government films. Jones describes one of the films included in the event, The Fight for Life, and how clips from it are featured in Kartemquin's Maternity Center doc.

Gordon Quinn and Maria Fintzo's journey to Virginia next week was recently covered by the Virginia Tech Collegiate Times. A reminder that both Golub: Late Works are the Catastrophes and Mapping Stem Cell Research: Terra Incognita will be screened during events on campus next week.

Kartemquin's Peter Gilbert will be at the Sarasota Film Festival this weekend for screenings of At the Death House Door. The documentary is screening this afternoon as well as on Sunday evening at 5:15pm.

Recently, our intern Nick shared his experiences at Kartemquin on the Columbia College Doc Center Blog. Read his thoughts.

Joanna Rudnick recently guest lectured at her alma matter Northwestern University. She presented at colleague Chris Booker’s digital media class for undergraduates in the Medill School of Journalism. Joanna presented In the Family as a case study and shared a clip from the film.

Kartemquin is excited to announce that fresh from the festival circuit, At the Death House Door will premiere in downtown Chicago with a week-long run at the Gene Siskel Film Center. Join filmmakers Steve James, Peter Gilbert and Gordon Quinn for the Chicago premiere and discussion following, at 8:00pm May 10th.

Stay tuned for news of future Chicago screenings around the city.

Kartemquin’s Gordon Quinn and Beth Iams spoke on Fair Use this evening at the Chicago-Kent College of Law at an event hosted by Banner & Witcoff. The filmmakers presented the tenets of the fair use doctrine and showed clips from Kartemquin works to illustrate how fairuse works in modern documentary production.

A reminder to join us for two Kartemquin screenings this week…

First, Kartemquin's first film, Home for Life is screening on Wednesday night the 23rd at 7:30pm in Evanston as a part of the REELTIME series. Join filmmakers Gordon Quinn and Jerry Temaner for this evening of documentary and discussion. Get the details.

Also, Vietnam Long Time Coming, is screening on Saturday night the 26th at 5:45pm at the Hyde Park Art Center as a part of their Creative Move event. Director Jerry Blumenthal will introduce the film and answer questions afterwards. Get the details.

We hope you can join us!

Mark your calendars now for the Chicago premiere of Kartemquin's In the Family, directed by Joanna Rudnick. The Center for Genetic Medicine at Northwestern University is sponsoring the screenings as a part of the Silverstein Lecture Series.

• Monday, May 19; 7 pm
• Thorne Auditorium, Arthur Rubloff Building at Northwestern University
• 375 East Chicago Avenue Chicago, IL

• Wednesday, May 21; 7 pm
• Ryan Family Auditorium, Technological Institute at Northwestern University
• 2145 Sheridan Road Evanston, IL

Both screenings are free and open to the public. Seating is first come, first served. Get more information.

Kartemquin is excited to announce that At the Death House Door won "Best Documentary Feature" at the 2008 Atlanta Film Festival. Congratulations to the filmmakers!

Read some coverage of the recent Virginia Tech screening of Terra Incognita.

Come to the New England premiere of At the Death House Door at the Independent Film Festival in Boston today and tomorrow. Get tickets.

Reel Chicago recently covered Kartemquin's recently initiated Executive Director search. Read the article. Read the job posting.

Get your tickets now for the Chicago premiere of Kartemquin's latest, At the Death House Door, at the Gene Siskel Film Center at 8pm. Filmmakers Steve James and Peter Gilbert will be in attendance.

The premiere has started to generate press coverage.

We are excited to announce that Mapping Stem Cell Research: Terra Incognita has been accepted into the 3rd annual International Science Film Festival in Athens next month. The film will premiere in Greece on Wednesday May 21st at 8:00pm. Get more information.

Get your tickets now for the Baltimore premiere of At the Death House Door at the Maryland Film Festival, May 2nd. The film will screen again at the festival on May 4th.