December 2009

You can help Kartemquin Educational Films support the next generation of documentary filmmakers, with just a few clicks of a button!

Please visit our Chase Community Giving Page on Facebook, become a fan, and then register your vote for Kartemquin. Your support will help Kartemquin in its mission to be the home of the great American documentary, creating films that enrich, educate and positively impact the community.

Save the dates for a new film by Archimedia Workshop, produced in consultation with Kartemquin Films.

Make No Little Plans: Daniel Burnham and the American City is documentary about the fascinating life and complex legacy of architect and city planner Daniel Burnham. Tickets are now available for the film's Chicago theatrical premiere at the Gene Siskel Film Center at the following times:

Sunday, December 13th at 3pm

Monday, December 14th at 6pm

The film will also broadcast in the Chicago-area on WTTW Channel 11 on December 17th at 8pm.

Kartemquin's Jim Morrissette was Director of Photography for the film.

Visit the official website for more information.

Kartemquin Films and the producers of In the Family ask that you please join us in helping Martha Haley, who appeared in the film and is battling metastatic breast cancer, with her living expenses by donating to Martha through the Emergency Fund. Please specify "Martha Haley Fund" in the comments section. Thank you so much for your support.

http://donate.emergencyfund.org

Chinese papers are building up anticipation for the inaugural Beijing IDOCS International Documentary Forum, opening this weekend at the Beijing Film Academy. At the unprecedented event, which China's Global Times called "a week of pure delight" for documentary buffs, acclaimed director Steve James will present the Chinese premieres of the classic Kartemquin documentaries Hoop Dreams and Stevie as an unmissable double-bill on Sunday December 13th. Steve James will also present a masterclass on the production of Stevie on December 14th and participate in a number of panels.

Visit the official website for information and tickets.

Chicago fans of Kartemquin Films will get the chance to see two of our newest documentaries - and one rarely seen classic short - in a single week this January at the Gene Siskel Film Center. Get tickets online here (for Typeface + Viva La Causa) and here (for No Crossover).

Beginning on January 29th with its long-awaited Chicago premiere, Typeface will have a week-long run encompassing eight screenings. Many Kartemquin staff and associates, including Executive Director and Typeface director Justine Nagan, will be present for the premiere. The film, recently awarded the "Best Documentary" prize at the Flyway Film Festival, has been generating a great deal of buzz among the design and typography communities, and is presented here in partnership with STA Chicago. Kartemquin's 1974 short Viva La Causa (directed by Teena Webb), about muralists in Chicago's Mexican community, will accompany each screening.

Also at the Gene Siskel Film Center that week, Chicago documentary fans will get a sneak peek at director Steve James' hotly anticipated No Crossover: The Trial of Allen Iverson on January 31st and February 4th. The film is part of the ESPN 30 for 30 series and will have its official world premiere at SXSW in March 2010. Steve James will attend both screenings.

The screenings are part of the Siskel Center's Stranger Than Fiction: Documentary Premieres series. Tickets are on sale via Ticketmaster and may also be purchased directly at the Gene Siskel Film Center box office, with no service fees.

"Should human genes ever be the subject of patent protection?" - Wall St. Journal

Media coverage about the issue of gene patenting has increased in recent weeks relating to a landmark legal case on behalf of several patients who carry the BRCA1 and BRCA1 genes, filed against the United States Patent and Trademark Office and Myriad Genetics. Last week the Wall. St. Journal had an article about the case, and the issue of gene patenting was also the focus on NPR Radio's Science Friday.

In May 2009, Kartemquin's Joanna Rudnick wrote an article for the Huffington Post which describes her personal relation to the case, and also features a video clip of her meeting with Dr. Mark Skolnick of Myriad Genetics, taken from the Emmy-nominated In the Family.

Joanna Rudnick and In the Family are also featured in a video on the American Medical Association's Make Reform A Reality website, which recommends seven "critical elements necessary to improve access to affordable, quality care and reduce unnecessary costs."

In the Family is available on iTunes.

Get your tickets now for the Chicago premiere of Typeface at the Siskel Film Center in January.

Click here for Typeface (with Viva La Causa).

Click here also for sneak peek screenings of No Crossover.

We hope you'll join us!

A recent blog on the TCM Classic Movies site about William Friedkin's The French Connection details the rarely noticed influence that the 1960's Chicago documentary film movement, in which Kartemquin played a leading role, had on the Oscar-winning thriller's famously gritty style.

"The film’s down-and-dirty style derives from a short-lived Chicago-based documentary movement from the 1960s—now long gone and unchronicled in most documentary history books. A version of cinema verite, the visual style of this loose-knit movement included the use of hand-held camera, long takes, and direct sound, just like their well-known verite counterparts from New York—Richard Leacock, the Maysles, and others who were part of Drew Associates. And, the Chicagoans also took advantage of the new lightweight 16mm cameras and cableless sync-sound recorders. But, there was something more direct, earnest, and even anxious about Chicago’s answer to verite; theirs was a no-nonsense street style fashioned from the use of documentary as social activism.

I don’t know much about the roots of this movement, though I’ll bet my peaked interest will shortly turn into a quest to uncover every bit of information that I can. I first became aware of it through the work of Kartemquin Films, which was founded as a documentary co-op in the 1960s to make films as a way to examine and critique social issues, problems, and contradictions by focusing on the stories of real people. In 1966, Kartemquin released their first film, Home for Life, which is a  powerful chronicle of two elderly people entering a home for the aged shot in the low-budget, no-frills style of other Chicago documentaries of the time. Long after most Chicago documentary filmmakers left town or moved on to other opportunities, Kartemquin remained in the Windy City, expanding its enterprise and broadening its arena to worldwide issues."

Read the rest of the excellent article here.

Kartemquin is proud to announce that Library Journal has selected At the Death House Door (ISBN 978-1-56580-849-2) as one of the 10 best DVD's of 2009.

The award-winning film, directed by Steve James and Peter Gilbert, is available for purchase from the Kartemquin Store.

Kartemquin Films Co-Founder and Artistic Director Gordon Quinn is testifying in Chicago this afternoon at an FCC public Field Hearing focusing on how broadband technology can help small businesses spur growth and reach new markets. The hearing will take place at the University of Chicago's Gleacher Center at 450 North Cityfront Plaza Drive.

Gordon will be specifically addressing the value of broadband for distribution of media, and the challenges for public media as broadband adoption increases. Other speakers include:

~James Geiger, CEO, CBeyond.
~Matthew Guilford, Program Manager, Department of Innovation and Technology, City of Chicago
~Marianne Markowitz, Regional Administrator, Small Business Administration
~Roberto Cornelio, COO, Illinois Hispanic Chamber of Commerce
~Norma Reyes, Commissioner, Department of Business Affairs and Consumer Protection, City of Chicago
~Ed Scanlan, CEO, Total Attorneys
~Jay Sharman, CEO, TeamWorks Media
~Craig Shields, President, Graymills
~Ivy Walker, CEO, World Health Imaging, Telemedicine and Informatics Alliance

For more details, visit the Benton Foundation website.

Kartemquin is thrilled to announce that On Beauty – the story of how a former fashion photographer is redefining the way we see and experience beauty – received a grant for $45,000 from Sage Foundation to support production on the film. Thanks to this generous donation, producer/director Joanna Rudnick and a Kartemquin film crew will travel to East Africa with photographer Rick Guidotti and his organization Positive Exposure (www.positiveexposure.org) to document the courageous children living with Albinism in that region in 2010.

To support On Beauty, click here.

Kartemquin is proud to release the video of noted author and journalist Alex Kotlowitz (There Are No Children Here) delivering the keynote speech from our recent 15th anniversary celebration of Hoop Dreams. Discussing the impact of the film, his current film collaboration with director Steve James (The Interrupters), and the importance of Kartemquin's ongoing legacy of social issue documentary filmmaking, Kotlowitz states:

"Kartemquin, in my mind, is a national treasure. It's a place that nurtures storytellers and storytelling. What I've come to so admire about Kartemquin is that it recognizes the often fierce power of narrative. Because of that, in these times, I think Kartemquin feels absolutely essential."

Click here to watch the full video.

Kartemquin's latest award-winning documentary, Typeface, has a new trailer online. Click here to watch it.

With screenings in London, Chicago, and Minnesota already set for January and February, and a DVD release coming later in the year, 2010 should be a great year for a film that is already generating buzz among the design and typography communities!

Follow @typefacefilm on twitter for more news and updates!

Kartemquin Co-founder and Artistic Director Gordon Quinn testified to the FCC on Monday December 21st regarding broadband use by small businesses. CAN-TV has posted video of his testimony online; watch it here.

The Chicago Media Action report on the days' events stated the following:

"Gordon Quinn, artistic director of Kartemquin Films, emphasized a number of specific policy concerns including net neutrality and universal service, that the FCC should take to heart in crafting its National Broadband Plan. Quinn also highlighted the work in Chicago that helped make public access cable television happen in Chicago, and mentioned that the policy lessons from that fight should also go into the National Broadband Plan. (Quinn's speech was the only presentation which earned applause from the audience.)"

Bill Moyers featured footage from Kartemquin's work-in-progress, A Good Man, last night during his interview with Bill T. Jones.  Check it out.

As the 'noughties' draw to a close, many critics have been publishing their lists of the decade's best films. Kartemquin is honored that our 2003 film Stevie is represented in a few of these lists, capping an incredible decade of growth and achievement for our organization.

Stevie is increasingly being recognized as a modern documentary masterpiece, gaining acclaim as one of the top 25 essential documentaries of the decade in a list by popular online critic Marilyn Ferdinand. NewCity Film critic Ray Pride went even further, listing Stevie at #19 in his ranking of the decade's best films in any genre. Only one other documentary placed higher. Stevie also gained a #5 place on Filmsweep's list of the decade's best documentaries, was #1 on Collin Souter's list on eFilmCritic, and was the highest-placed documentary on this top 50. The Onion AV Club's Keith Phipps also placed the film at #57 on his top 100, and Sunday Morning Reviews ranked it at #19, calling Steve James "the best documentarian working today… to make Stevie and Hoop Dreams in one lifetime is an amazing feat."

Our 2004 series The New Americans was also heralded as "the greatest accomplishment of any documentary this decade" while placing at #2 on a list of the top 10 Chicago movies of the past decade by Chicago Beat.

During the past decade, Kartemquin Films has released ten documentaries and received numerous awards and accolades, including a MacArthur 'Genius' Award for Creative and Effective Institutions, a Peabody Award (for Terra Incognita: Mapping Stem Cell Research), an Emmy-nomination (for In the Family), a Gold Hugo (for The New Americans), and several other awards from film festivals across the world including Sundance, IDFA, Atlanta, Chicago, Full Frame, Florida and many more. Two Kartemquin films have also been short-listed for the Academy award for Best Documentary (Stevie and At the Death House Door).

As we enter into our 44th year, with three new films - Typeface, No Crossover: The Trial of Allen Iverson, and Prisoner of her Past - screening across the world in 2010, and a number of our classic films due to be released on DVD, we look forward another decade of successful cinematic social enquiry. Happy new year!