Typeface

The University of Wisconsin at Madison has awarded Kartemquin's Executive Director Justine Nagan the 2010 Ralph O. Nafziger award for "distinguished achievement by an alumnus within 10 years of graduation." Justine, a 2000 BA graduate from the School of Journalism and Mass Communication, will collect the award at a dinner reception on Friday April 16th in Madison.

That same weekend, Justine will also present her debut film as director, Typeface, which screens as an official selection of the 2010 Wisconsin Film Festival. Get more information.

Some beautiful new posters and t-shirts are now available in the Typeface store! New items include exclusive prints by designer Jason Early, and prints and signed monoprints by Stacey Stern of Steracle Press that were designed especially for the film's sold out Chicago premiere. Grey and Black t-shirts are also available in all sizes. Buy yourself (or a super-cool friend) some sweet Typeface merchandise today! As this brilliant recent review of the film on the TCM Movie Morlocks blog states: "Typeface makes wood type and letterpress artistry look cool, even sexy."

London College of Communication designers Alexander Cooper and Rose Gridneff stopped by Kartemquin yesterday on their way to delivering a paper at the 'Case for Letterpress' session at the College Art Association Annual Conference in Chicago. They met with Justine Nagan to find out more about how her award-winning film Typeface documents the recent resurgence of interest in the near dormant letterpress artform. Check out their photos of the visit here.

Click here to check out a new video on Kartemquin's YouTube channel from the Chicago premiere of the award-winning Typeface on January 29th 2010 at the Gene Siskel Film Center.

Director Justine Nagan, Cinematographer Tom Bailey and Jim Moran of the Hamilton Woodtype Museum are among those featured in this video of the SOLD OUT event.

Typeface's Associate Producer Starr Marcello spoke this morning to over 100 attendees at the national College Art Association conference in Chicago before a panel entitled, "A Case for Letterpress."  Professor Dennis Ichiyama, featured in Typeface, and Artist Ashley Pigford (who designed a poster in support of the film) presented on the panel.

Justine Nagan's Typeface will have its Greek premiere at the 8th AGON Archaeological Film Festival in Athens this May 11-16, 2010. The festival exhibits films "dealing with Archaeology in its wider sense (i.e. Antiquity, Middle ages, or even Industrial archaeology), Patrimony and dying Popular Art and Traditions."

Click here for a full list of films and more information on the festival.

Starting today, Friday January 29th, "documentary powerhouse" (Chicago Reader) Kartemquin Films will be showing three films inside a week at the Gene Siskel Film Center in Chicago - and the press and public are ramping up the excitement with a flurry of blogs and reviews.

Typeface kicks off proceedings with its SOLD OUT Chicago premiere + reception at 7pm tonight (the film starts at 8pm). Director Justine Nagan will be present, along with representatives from Kartemquin, Steracle Press, Hamilton Wood Type Museum, the Center for Block and Paper Arts, the Post Family, and the screening's sponsors the Society of Typographic Arts. Merchandise will be available for sale, including new posters and t-shirts. The screening begins a week-long run at the Siskel Center, with each screening accompanied by Kartemquin's classic short Viva La Causa. Justine Nagan will also attend the 1/31 screening. Tickets available now via the Gene Siskel Film Center and Ticketmaster.

Check out an interview with Justine Nagan on Design Feaster, a feature in Reel Chicago and reviews in New City Film, Time Out Chicago, and Inksie Journal. And we'd be remiss if we didn't mention the recent Idsgn feature on the film that, along with the trailer, has lit up the blogosphere and twitterverse with Typeface talk!

Kartemquin is also very excited about the exclusive "sneak peeks" Chicago documentary fans will get of No Crossover: The Trial of Allen Iverson, the new film director Steve James (Hoop Dreams, Stevie) this Sunday 1/31 and Thursday 2/4. Grab tickets now for a chance to be the first to see this film before it's official world premiere at the South by Southwest film festival in March. Steve James will attend both screenings. Ticket holders to Sunday's screening will also be invited to a post-screening reception.

Before you go, check out this excellent in-depth Chicago Reader feature on No Crossover, and a review in Metromix Chicago.

We'll see you at the Siskel Center!

Kartemquin's recent doc Typeface will screen in Goteburg, Sweden on March 3rd at BioCapitol.  The screening is free and open to the public, hosted by ADA Sweden. Details TBA.

In the meantime, read these recent press mentions leading up to tonight's Chicago premiere: DesignFeast, New City and TimeOut Chicago.

Tonight's UK premiere of Justine Nagan's Typeface has sold out! Thanks to all at St. Bride Library for their help in making the screening a success.

Kartemquin is delighted to announce that the 01/29 Chicago premiere of Justine Nagan's Typeface is now sold out.

Tickets are still available for all shows from 01/30 - 02/04 via Ticketmaster and the Gene Siskel Film Center box office.

Kartemquin Films is proud to announce that the National Alliance for Media Art and Culture (NAMAC) has selected our Executive Director Justine Nagan to be a 'Featured Leader.' Click here to read the interview. 

Kartemquin is excited to announce that Typeface is an official selection of this year's Wisconsin Film Festival in April of 2010.  In the meantime, you can catch the film in Chicago, Boise, Minnesota and London.  Screenings are in the works for Charlotte, Savannah, New York and a handful of other cities too - stay tuned!

And if you're in Chicago, tune in to Heartland Radio this Saturday, 01/09 at 9-10am when Lisa Smith interviews Director Justine Nagan about Typeface. Broadcast on WLUW, FM 88.7. Listen in!

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!

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!

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.

Justine Nagan lectured last night on her recent film "Typeface" to students and faculty from the University of Texas-Austin.  The group asked insightful questions and created a great poster to support the film.  Kartemquin is thankful to David Shields from the UT faculty for hosting the film.  Typeface screens tonight and Sunday at Austin's Alamo Drafthouse Theatre, sponsored by AIGA Austin.

Kartemquin is excited to announce that its latest release, Typeface, will have its Chicago premiere with a week run at the Gene Siskel Film Center beginning January 29th.  Save the date!  Details coming soon.  We're grateful for the support of the Society of Typographic Arts who is helping to sponsor the Chicago premiere of the film.

Kartemquin is happy to congratulate Justine Nagan, Gordon Quinn, Maria Finitzo, Liz Kaar and the rest of the Typeface team on winning Best Documentary at the 2009 Flyway Film Festival in Pepin, WI. This is the first award for the documentary about the Hamilton Woodtype Museum and the current resurgence of interest in letterpress printing among designers and artists.  Associate Producer Starr Marcello attended the festival on behalf of the film.

Kartemquin's documentary about community based conservation in Africa, Milking the Rhino also played at the festival. Listen to an interview by film website Row Three with the film's Associate Producer Xan Aranda here.

As we gear up for upcoming California and South Dakota premieres this week, read this great review from last week's screening in Maine.

The highly anticipated Kartemquin documentary Typeface was featured on the WB/CW "Daily Buzz" this morning in advance of tomorrow's Wisconsin premiere!

Watch the video to see sneak peeks from the film and find out where the film's title came from!

The beautiful posters designed to promote Typeface are meeting with praise from typography and design communites online. A glowing mention of the film and its artwork from the respected printmaking resource site Printeresting first sparked the Cirox blog to post a reproduction of Dennis Ichiyama's stylish poster, before the "Je Ne Suis Qu'une Pauvre Plume" blog went one better with a tragic story of how they may miss the screening this Thursday 17th at Portland, Maine's Space Gallery.

Typeface also screens in Green Bay this Wednesday 16th (with director Justine Nagan in attendance!).

Also just confirmed: The Maryland Institute College of Art (MICA) and the AIGA will host the Maryland premiere of the film on November 9th, and Typeface has been accepted into the New Orleans Film Festival, where it will screen at 3pm on October 10th.

Kartemquin is excited to announce that Typeface will have its California premiere at the Wine Country Film Festival on Sunday September 27th in the Napa valley.  Other screenings are in the works for Rhode Island, Memphis, Baltimore, Indiana and others.  Check the Typeface and Kartemquin websites for details.