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Steve James is traveling.

For the past month the Kartemquin director has been touring festivals across the country with his new film No Crossover: The Trial of Allen Iverson, presenting screenings in Austin at SXSW, Cleveland, Silver Spring, MD., and the Virginia peninsula in which both James and Iverson grew up. He is now back in Chicago to appear on The Interview Show tonight and present the film at the Midwest Film Festival on April 6th (read about in Time Out and the Chicago Tribune), but will then be traveling again to screenings in Durham, NC for the Full Frame Film Festival and to Sarasota, FL., and participating in a live online chat with viewers directly after the ESPN world TV premiere on April 13th.

Why is Steve James so committed to discussing the film in front of an audience? Perhaps because one of the main themes that emerges from No Crossover is that Americans, and particularly the residents of Hampton, are still very reluctant to talk about race. By taking the film across the country, James is using his documentary to open up a dialogue on this sensitive subject. It is therefore a good measure of the films impact to read blog posts like this one, taken from the AFI SilverDocs screening last week, containing this quote:

"And there we were, a group of 100+, black and white and diverse in
countless other ways (but unified in our interest in a film and a
filmmaker) talking about race – REALLY talking about it – agreeing and
disagreeing, pushing on points, relenting, listening, and maybe even (at
least for a moment, at least partially) understanding." 

If you would like to engage with this film, check upcoming screenings of No Crossover for a festival date near you, or sign-up for the live chat with Steve James.

Kartemquin's Peter Gilbert (Hoop Dreams, At the Death House Door) has again signed on to be a year-round mentor to independent filmmakers through IFP's Filmmaker Labs initiative. Peter was also one of two fellows selected for the mentor program in 2009. Find out more about 2010 IFP Independent Filmmakers Labs in Filmmaker Magazine.

A U.S. District judge has ruled in favor of the ACLU in their lawsuit against Myriad Genetics today, stating that it's patents for the BRCA1 and BRCA2 gene-test “are directed to a law of nature and were therefore improperly granted.”

This is a great victory for all who were involved in Kartemquin's documentary In the Family, which documented filmmaker Joanna Rudnick's investigation of the patenting issue after her own discovery that she carried the BRCA gene.

Watch a clip of the film that features Joanna interviewing Myriad Genetics about the patenting issue here. Read the court's decision here, and read more of the news about the court's decision here.

New festival dates have been announced for Steve James' documentary No Crossover: The Trial of Allen Iverson. The film, which is part of ESPN Films' 30 for 30 series and has already played at SXSW and Cleveland, will screen at Full Frame Festival on April 9th at 12:50pm. Also playing at Full Frame on April 9th at 10:20pm is Kartemquin's classic documentary Taylor Chain, at a screening which will be attended by director Gordon Quinn.

No Crossover is screening at Dallas on April 10th at 2:45, with a second Dallas screening on April 12th at 1:00pm.

The film is also playing in Hampton, VA., Silver Spring, MD., Chicago, Philadelphia and Sarasota in the coming weeks. The film has its television premiere on April 13th on ESPN at 8pm ET. For a full list of No Crossover events, click here.