American Arab

This week Kartemquin Films took delivery of the newest Sony tapeless HD video camera, the PMW350. The camera is one of the first in the country (serial #33) to be in service. Featuring a shoulder mount design with 2/3 inch chips, the camera replaces a tape based Panasonic HD camera. The 350 uses the same memory card based workflow as our smaller EX3 camera, thus allowing producers to shoot many hours of high quality HD footage with no tape or digitizing costs.

Due to the larger chips, the new camera features a very high light sensitivity of ASA 850 at "0" gain to allow available light High Definition shooting in almost any setting. With a low power draw of only 16 watts, fewer batteries are needed for a full day of shooting.

The camera is full 1080x1920 resolution, and shoots 24P, 30P, and 1080i.

For smaller projects and web videos, the Sony 350 also shoots 16x9 standard definition DVCam to memory cards.

This morning, Kartemquin's technical director Jim Morrissette gave a quick workshop on the new camera to various Kartemquin staff members including artistic director Gordon Quinn, post-production director Liz Kaar, post-production associate Nora Gully, administrative and media assistant Dinesh Sabu, and Usama Alshaibi, director of the forthcoming American Arab and DP Chris Rejano. Usama will be putting the camera in service tomorrow as he shoots for American Arab, and we will be putting video excerpts of Jim's workshop on the Kartemquin YouTube channel soon. Stay tuned!

Kartemquin's Diversity Fellow Usama Alshaibi was interviewed by author and comedian Ray Hanania yesterday for Radio Chicagoland AM 1530 WJJG. Usama discussed the early progress that has been made on his documentary American Arab, and how working on the project has given him a fresh perspective on a number of pressing issues affecting Arab Americans today.

To listen to the interview, click here.

Kartemquin is proud to announce two groundbreaking new documentaries, currently in development in Chicago.

The Interrupters, directed/produced by Steve James (Hoop Dreams, No Crossover: The Trial of Allen Iverson) and produced/written by acclaimed journalist Alex Kotlowitz (There Are No Children Here, Never a City So Real), tells the story of a group of men and women, many of them former gang leaders, who now work for the group CeaseFire and risk their lives by intervening in violent situations across the city of Chicago.

Also, Kartemquin's first ever Diversity Fellow, Usama Alshaibi, is developing American Arab, (working title) a feature-length documentary.

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