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Long-time Kartemquin associate Judy Hoffman will be at the Tribeca Film Festival, to support Albert Maysles’ latest film, “The Gates,” for which she was one of the Cinematographers. The documentary was selected for the closing film of this year’s festival. Read the press release here .

Kartemquin filmmaker Maria Finitzo participated in The Midwest Independent Film Festival's Producer Panel on Tuesday the 3rd. The panel of local independent producers, moderated by Rich Moskel of the Chicago Film Office , discussed "The art of the distribution deal" in front of a crowd assembled at the Landmark Century Cinema to see the hip-hop documentary, Rock the Bells.

Dear Kartemquin friends,

We are thrilled to have this opportunity to announce some wonderful and unexpected news. Kartemquin has been selected as one of eight organizations to receive the 2007 MacArthur Award for Creative and Effective Institutions.

Kartemquin will use its MacArthur Award for board and staff development, the preservation and digitization of older films, the expansion of its presence in the community, and the creation of a fellowship fund for minority filmmakers.

We are honored to be in the company of such invaluable, courageous and inventive institutions from around the world. The staff at Kartemquin realizes that we would never have received this recognition without the countless filmmakers, community leaders, advisors, partners, and friends who have contributed so much to our work over the years. We share this distinction with you.

Thank you,

All of us at Kartemquin Films

Please read some of the press coverage of this award if you are interested:

The Chronicle of Philanthropy

Chicago Sun Times

Crain’s Chicago Business

Chicago Tribune

European Documentary Portal

"> The Week Behind

On Friday March 30th, Gordon is presenting the DOC Universe Award to longtime Kartemquin friends John Iltis and David Sikich on behalf of the Chicago International Documentary Festival for their “unwavering commitment to promoting documentary cinema in the Windy City.” The Awards Cermony is part of the festival’s Opening Night Gala, which kicks off the 10-day documentary fest. Gordon is also serving on this year’s Grand Prix jury.

Kartemquin President Gordon Quinn was recently interviewed for a piece on independent documentaries for Alaska Airlines Magazine. Read the article here (1.7m pdf).

On Thursday, April 5th, Kartemquin’s Jim Morrissette is giving a seminar as a part of Columbia College’s “Viva Docâ series on his experience in the industry. For more information, click here (1.3m pdf).

Terra Incognita is nearing completion and a Chicago-area premiere screening, hosted by Northwestern University’s Center for Genetic Medicine, is scheduled for May 10th at Thorne Auditorium. The event is free and open to the public. A follow-up screening is scheduled for May 16th in Evanston. Save the date and check back for further details

Wednesday night a group from Kartemquin volunteered their time for the WTTW - Channel 11 pledge drive, raising nearly $10,000 to help keep Chicago’s PBS station on the air.

Kartemquin’s new Board of Directors gathered last Saturday for an inaugural meeting in Chicago. Much was covered over the course of the day, including staff presentations and the year ahead. The meeting was the center of an orientation weekend including dinner at Wishbone on Friday and a brunch at the home of filmmaker Maria Finitzo and her husband, attorney Tony Valukas.

Thanks to Wishbone for dinner and to The Hyde Park Art Center for hosting the Board meeting Saturday.

Read an article about the new Board in Reel Chicago.

The Society of Cinema and Media Studies held its annual conference in Chicago over the weekend. Kartemquin was the topic of two scholarly presentations. Angela Aguayo, from Eastern Illinois University, presented a paper entitled, “Radical Labor Documentary and Social Change: A Case Study in the Films of the Kartemquin Film Collective” and Judy Hoffman, a Kartemquin alum, presented “Kartemquin Films and the Making of Political Documentaries.” Jerry Blumenthal also participated in the weekend conference, hosting a screening of Taylor Chain I: A Story in a Local Union, The Last Pullman Car and [[What’s Happening at Local 70?|film:whats-happening-at-local-70]].

On February 27th, Gordon Quinn and Peter Gilbert represented Kartemquin at the 10th Anniversary Hoop Dreams Scholarship Fund event at the Ritz-Carlton Hotel in Washington DC. The fund has been providing opportunities for inner-city DC public school children since 1996.

Peter Gilbert reflected on the event: “For Gordon and I, it was an exciting evening. Hoop Dreams was a work of passion for all of us at Kartemquin. Seeing the film used as the inspiration for such a wonderful and important organization 10 years after the release of the film was heartwarming. We all make social issue films with the hope that they will make some small impact in the community. Being at The Hoop Dreams Scholarship Foundation anniversary gave us great joy in knowing that we played just a small part in a wonderful organization that carries the film’s name.”

Susie Kay, the fund’s founder, found inspiration in Kartemquin’s documentary Hoop Dreams while teaching American Government at H.D. Woodson High School. She wanted to reward students who were working hard despite immense adversity and help them find means to attend college. Over the last 10 years, Susie and her Board have funded over 1,400 academic scholarships and sent 800 Washington DC Public School children to college. Each student is matched with a mentor in the business world who helps guide him or her through college and life.

Read The Examiner’s coverage of the event here (pdf).

On Wednesday, February 28th, Leslie Simmer and Adam Singer spoke at the Chicago Final Cut Pro User’s Group on their experiences working on The War Tapes. Although the film was, in fact, cut on an Avid, there was plenty of interest by members of the FCPUG on how to approach editing over 1,000 hours of most non-professionally shot video into a compelling and truthful depiction of these soldiers and their families’ experiences as part of Operation Iraqi Freedom.

Kartemquin has been working with the Center for Social Media and their “Documentary Filmmakers Statement of Best Practices”, striving for gains in the field concerning fair use. The Newsgrist blog recently covered a big shift in insurance policy. Click here to read.

Milking the Rhino Producer/Director David E. Simpson and Associate Producer Xan Aranda have just returned from San Francisco, where they finalized licensing contract negotiations with the Independent Television Service. This contract includes significant levels of funding which will aid the Rhino crew in finishing its goals for this feature-length film.

Milking the Rhino’s exploration of the triumphs and pitfalls of community-based conservation continues, with plans for a third and final trip to Africa this summer. The director and crew venture back to Namibia and Kenya to follow up with Maasai and Himba communities, torrential rain in East Africa now in place of devastating drought, and the continually unpredictable landscape of conservation, rural development, and poverty reduction.

A “bridge between producers and public television”, the Independent Television Service (ITVS) - subsidized by the Corporation For Public Broadcasting - provides film funding, feedback during production and a comprehensive public television launch including marketing, publicity, station relations and outreach support.

In the Family has recently launched a website designed by Dizzy Giant. Come visit us here.

On Friday, February 23rd, Kartemquin’s Director of Communications Justine Nagan traveled to Madison to participate in the University of Wisconsin’s School of Journalism and Mass Communication’s Undergraduate Colloquium on Professional Practices in Journalism and Strategic Communications. She spoke to a class of Journalism undergraduates about her background and experience in the industry.

A letter to the Editor on "Torture in Art" from Kartemquin's Jerry Blumenthal to "The Nation" was published in the February 12th edition of the magazine. Click here to read the letter.

Joanna Rudnick was profiled on the local NBC 10 o’clock news on Monday, February 13th. The story focused on Joanna’s personal story and the production of In the Family.

Tune in Tuesday, February 13th at 9am to WBEZ, Chicago’s Public Radio station 91.5, to hear filmmaker Joanna Rudnick interviewed on local current affairs program Eight-Forty-Eight about her film, In the Family. If you miss it, listen online.

Kartemquin’s stem cell doc, Terra Incognita, was one of 20 selected for funding out of over 300 submitted projects this round. The funds from the Sundance Institute Documentary fund will go toward completing post-production on the film, which will be released later this year. View the full Sundance press release here.

Check out the coverage of this award in Variety and Screen Magazine.

George Brummell, one of the characters from Kartemquin’s Emmy-award winning film Vietnam: Long Time Coming, has published a memoir entitled, Shades of Darkness. Brummell, who was blinded by a landmine in Vietnam, recounts his experiences during the war and in the aftermath. Visit www.georgebrummell.com for more information or to order.

Join Kartemquin Filmmaker Joanna Rudnick on February 13, 2007, as she screens scenes from her documentary in progress, In the Family, as part of an Illinois Humanities Council evening entitled,“What Would You Do? Genetic Testing and Life Decisions.â

The event runs from 6:00pm – 8:00pm at the Illinois Institute of Technology (IIT) McCormick Tribune Campus Center (3201 S State St) in Chicago.

The event is free, but registration is required.

The program is part of the Illinois Humanities Council 2006-2007 series Future Perfect: Conversations on the Meaning of the Genetics Revolution.

Reel Chicago published an update to their 2006 article about local docs in production, including five current Kartemquin films. Check it out.

Former Kartemquin intern, Shana East, is hard at work on her first documentary. Read about her efforts in this month’s issue of Reel Chicago.

Gordon continues the fair-use discussion in the University of Chicago Alumni magazine’s Op-Ed section.

On November 4th, Stevie screened to members of the American Society of Criminology as a part of their annual meeting weekend. According to conference organizers, the film was extremely well received. For more information about the ASC, click here.

University of Chicago professor James Chandler discusses the work of Kartemquin Films in his recent article for the Autumn 2006 issue of the French journal “Agenda de la Pensee Contemporaineâ. For an English translation, click here (40k Word file).

The film recently received a $10,000 production grant from the Jewish Women’s Foundation of Metropolitan Chicago.

In the Family also topped the list of Screen Magazine’s December “Call Sheet” - a rundown of the movers and shakers of independent film in the Midwest. Check it out here.

The Center for Social Media at American University recently posted clips from Refrigerator Mothers to be used to help understand “fair use” issues in documentary filmmaking. Check it out, you might learn something!

At the Death House Door, a new Kartemquin work by Steve James and Peter Gilbert, was recently mentioned in the Hollywood Reporter. The documentary is being produced by Kartemquin for the Independent Film Channel. Read the description.