Latest News

Mark your calendars! As a part of the first annual Inspire Films Symposium at Northwestern University, Gordon Quinn will be giving a master class on social issue documentary filmmaking on May 10th. Details to come!

Tune in to Free Speech TV tomorrow for Kartemquin's Emmy Award-winning, Vietnam Long Time Coming. As an added bonus, the recently released DVD of the film will be offered as a pledge premium!

Continuing their "Project Sunday" Chicago documentary series, the Chicago History Museum will screen Kartemquin's 1968 classic, Inquiring Nuns, on Sunday March 9th at 1:30pm. Tickets to the screening are free with museum admission. Filmmakers Gordon Quinn and Jerry Temaner will be present.

Kartemquin's Director of Development Joanna Rudnick is scheduled to participate in the closing plenary of the Grantmakers in Health National Conference in Los Angeles in February 2008. The plenary, "Lights, Camera, Action: Working with Media to Stimulate Change", will feature a campaign director working with Michael Moore's Sicko, the California Newsreel's outreach efforts around Unnatural Causes and Joanna with In the Family.

This winter Prisoner of Her Past raised nearly $80,000 in individual donations as a result of a screening and benefit generously underwritten by Sage Foundation. The event, hosted by WTTW's John Callaway, featured new footage from the documentary, a photography exhibit from the film by the Tribune's Zbigniew Bzdak, and a discussion between youth-trauma expert Dr. Joy Osofsky and producers Howard Reich and Gordon Quinn. The Prisoner of Her Past team is extremely grateful to all of the amazing donors who contributed to the success of the event.

Kartemquin's Justine Nagan spoke to a group of teenagers Saturday morning at the Peggy Notebaert Nature Museum in Chicago about social-issue documentary production and promotion in Chicago. The group of high school interns were participating in a year-long program focusing on website creation and media production. The teens provided much-appreciated feedback and suggestions for the Kartemquin website.

Kartemquin is excited to announce the Washington DC premiere of Mapping Stem Cell Research: Terra Incognita, Saturday, February 9th. Filmmakers Maria Finitzo and Justine Nagan will be in attendance. Get the details.

Kartemquin's JJ Hanley and Justine Nagan participated Friday in a panel for the Chicago Bar Association Media and Law Committee's January gathering on "Television Production and Fair Use." Other panelists included Greg Jacobs and Jon Siskel. Over 60 people gathered at host firm Holland + Knight to hear the presentation.

Kartemquin's 1994 hit, Hoop Dreams, will screen this afternoon at the Westport Massachusetts Public Library, next Wednesday at the Wakefield Branch of the New York Public Library and then again in March in Essex, Connecticut as a part of a community series of important documentaries at the Essex Library. Get more information.

Kartemquin's Justine Nagan participated in a panel at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago yesterday afternoon as a part of their Career Development series on getting jobs in creative industries. Justine, along with three other panelists from around Chicago, spoke with Art Institute students about resumes, interviews and other miscellaneous tips for getting your foot in the door.

We hope that you are able to catch one of the national broadcasts this week of Kartemquin's Mapping Stem Cell Research: Terra Incognita. Make sure you tell PBS's Independent Lens what you think in their Audience Award Poll. Vote now.

Kartemquin's Hoop Dreams was recently mentioned on the Oxford University Press Blog on a list of favorite documentaries. Check it out.

In anticipation for tonight's national premiere of Mapping Stem Cell Research: Terra Incognita, Director Maria Finitzo and Dr. Jack Kessler have been providing radio interviews about the film. Here are a few samples:

Dr. Kessler on WNYC's The Leonard Lopate Show

Maria Finitzo on WBEZ's Eight Forty-Eight

Additionally, tonight's broadcast has been featured in several publications as recommended viewing for tonight. Check out this piece by the Chicago Tribune.

Filmmaker Maria Finitzo will appear tonight on WTTW's Chicago Tonight, at 7:00pm to discuss the upcoming national broadcast of Mapping Stem Cell Research: Terra Incognita. The program will also be re-broadcast at 1:00am and 4:30am.

Maria can also be heard interviewed on WBEZ's morning radio program, Eight Forty-Eight, on Tuesday, January 15th (the day of the PBS broadcast) at 9am and again at 8pm. Tune in!

Chicago Magazine covers Kartemquin's Terra Incognita in a feature story in their January 2008 issue. Check it out on newsstands or read it online.

Kartemquin's latest doc, Mapping Stem Cell Research: Terra Incognita, will have its American broadcast premiere on PBS' Independent Lens on January 15th and in the days afterwards. Check your local listings.

Additionally, in the coming weeks, the film will continue to screen in community venues across the country. Find out if it's showing in your neighborhood.

Lastly, watch and rate the trailer on Current TV!

Kartemquin Films is sad to convey the passing of a long-time friend of our organization. Dr. Barbara Temaner Brodley (75), ex-wife of Kartemquin founder Jerry Temaner, was active in her career and community, and will be missed by many. Barbara, with then husband Jerry, starred in Kartemquin's 1970 film Marco about parental rights in childbirth.

Read her obituary in the Chicago Tribune.

Independent Lens recently hosted a community screening of Kartemquin's Mapping Stem Cell Research: Terra Incognita in Philadelphia. The post film discussion included Father Tad who appears twice in the film and presents the Catholic church's perspective on embryonic stem cell research. Read about the event.

For those of you in Chicago who haven't yet had a chance to see Kartemquin's latest release, Terra Incognita, you're in luck! The film is screening this Saturday at the Chicago Cultural Center as a part of Independent Lens' Community Cinema program. The event is free and open to the public, and will conclude with a discussion of the film with filmmaker Maria Finitzo and Dr. Jack Kessler.

December 15, 2007, 2:00 PM

Chicago Cultural Center

78 E. Washington St.

Read a capsule review in The Chicago Reader by Jonathan Rosenbaum.

Kartemquin's recent DVD release of Vietnam Long Time Coming was covered in "Movie City News." Check it out.

The holidays have come early for In the Family! In December we received a $30,000 grant from the Michael Reese Health Trust and $10,000 from the Jewish Women's Foundation of Metropolitan Chicago. These grants will support our outreach and education intiatives in 2008. This is the third year of support from MRHT and the second year of support from the JWF. In the Family is grateful to have these strong community partnerships helping us to raise awareness about genetic testing and hereditary cancer throughout Chicagoland and around the country.

Indiewire's latest production report includes Kartemquin's work-in-progress, Prisoner of Her Past. Read the story.

Kartemquin's Mapping Stem Cell Research: Terra Incognita aired Sunday night across Canada on the CBC's popular series, "The Passionate Eye." Read viewers responses to the film.

Terra Incognita was also highlighted in The Toronto Star

Chicago's ABC affiliate, ABC7, recently featured Kartemquin's Steve James during their "People, Places, & Things" program. This weekend's show sought to bring audiences an update on Kartemquin's doc Hoop Dreams– by interviewing William Gates, Arthur Agee and Steve James. The program aired Saturday and Sunday evenings.

Kartemquin's latest, Mapping Stem Cell Research: Terra Incognita, is playing tomorrow afternoon at the Northwest Film Forum in Seattle. Get tickets.

Please join us this Sunday at 1:30 as Kartemquin's documentary, The Chicago Maternity Center Story, screens at The Chicago History Museum. Get the details, as the event is featured on the flavorpill website and in The Chicago Reader.

A Kartemquin crew recently visited local Chicago designers, The Post Family, during a shoot for Typeface. Read The Post Family's Blog about the experience.

In the Family filmmaker Joanna Rudnick is the featured interview this week on ReachMD's "Advances in Women's Health" Series, airing on XM Channel 157. You can visit here to download the podcast and find out the interview's broadcast schedule.

As a part of its Community Cinema program, PBS' series Independent Lens is screening the 60-minute version of Kartemquin's latest release, Mapping Stem Cell Research: Terra Incognita, at venues around the country. These community events draw in local audiences for the screening and discussion afterwards. Check the list for an upcoming screening in your community.

Kartemquin was featured yesterday in an insert in the Chicago Sunday New York Times, sponsored by the MacArthur Foundation. Read the article in Chicago Life.