Exceeding its initial fundraising goal of $30,000, Eating Up Easter raised $35,182 in finishing funds through its Kickstarter campaign. A new Kartemquin film by filmmaker and Easter Island native Sergio Rapu, Eating Up Easter follows members of the native Rapanui community on Easter Island as they battle the globalizing effects of a booming tourism industry. A departure from previous films that have often sensationalized the "mysteries" of this remote Pacific island known for its moai, massive stone status, the documentary provides an intimate look at the actions of the Rapanui from a native filmmaker's perspective as they come face to face with the consequences of their rapidly developing island. Continued

Eating Up Easter, a new Kartemquin film currently in production is raising finishing funds for the project––and needs your help! Support their Kickstarter campaign for finishing funds HERE. After four trips to the island and 5 years of working nights and weekends on the film, filmmakers Sergio Rapu and Elena Rapu are in the process of finalizing the film––an expensive process to bring the footage and sound of the film to its highest quality possible before submitting to festivals and broadcasters. Continued

Kartemquin's very first Fall Festival, in partnership with ArcLight Cinemas Chicago, spanned three days and exhibited 26 films, 62% of which were directed by filmmakers of color and 50% by women. We were thrilled to be joined by so many members of the diverse Chicago documentary community, and to share in the viewing of groundbreaking work and lively post-screening discussions. Continued

We're one week away from Kartemquin's Fall Festival Nov. 2-4 in partnership with ArcLight Cinemas Chicago! The festival features groundbreaking work from our filmmaker development programs, Chicago Premieres of newly completed films Unbroken Glass and City of Trees, and never-before-seen previews of docs-in-progress America to Me, Dilemma of Desire, and Eating Up Easter. Continued

November 2-4, in partnership with ArcLight Cinemas in Lincoln Park, Kartemquin presents a three night festival to cap off our 50th Anniversary year! The Kartemquin Fall Festival features two Chicago premieres, sneak previews of three works-in-progress, and fresh new work from emerging Midwest documentary makers who have graduated from Kartemquin’s acclaimed filmmaker development programs. More information can be found at www.ktq50.org/fall-festival, and to purchase tickets please go to https://www.arclightcinemas.com/en/news/kartemquin-fall-festival. Featuring: Continued

The 2016 Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Festival begins this week, with Steve James being honored as the 2016 Hot Docs Outstanding Career Achievement Award Winner. Continued

The 2016 Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Festival announced their full line-up today, unveiling 232 films from 51 different countries, including 69 world premieres & 49 international premieres. Included in the line-up at North America's largest documentary festival are eight completed Kartemquin films, and our in-progress film Eating up Easter will also be pitching in the prestigious Hot Docs Forum. Continued

Kartemquin Films is proud to reveal news of our co-production deal with Mara Films on Eating Up Easter, an in-progress documentary that was today announced as a selected project of the prestigious Hot Docs Forum, taking place over May 3-4 in Toronto during the 2016 Hot Docs festival. In Eating Up Easter the most isolated community in the Pacific uses lessons learned from their past to solve environmental and social challenges brought on by booming tourism and rapid development. Director Sergio Rapu, the only native Easter Islander to be actively working in production in an English speaking country, and his wife and producing partner Elena Rapu have been in production on the documentary since 2014. Now residing in Minneapolis, they brought the film to Chicago-based Kartemquin in 2015. Continued