Kartemquin is thrilled to share that Abacus:Small Enough to Jail earned a spot on DOC NYC's 15-film Short List of Academy Award contenders. DOC NYC is America's largest documentary festival. Historically, most DOC NYC picks do land on the Academy's official 15-film Oscar Short List. Thom Powers, DOC NYC's artistic director as well as documentary programmer for TIFF (where Abacus world premiered), oversees curation of the DOC NYC Short List of films. For the past four years, the Short List had nine to 10 titles overlap with the Academy's official Short List, with four to five titles going on to Oscar nominations. Continued

Kartemquin Films is pleased to announce the world premiere of '63 Boycott and the Chicago premiere of Edith+Eddie at the 2017 Chicago International Film Festival. The short documentaries '63 Boycott and Edith+Eddie will screen together in a program entitled ‘Can’t Turn Back’ on October 22, 2017 at 3:30PM at the AMC River East, with the filmmakers attending. Tickets available here. Continued

Minding the Gap by director Bing Liu and producer Diane Moy Quon has just been announced as a recipient of the Sundance Institute's prestigious Documentary Fund grant. Minding the Gap is a journey into the post-industrial heartland of the American midwest with a filmmaker and two of his skateboarding friends. Together they navigate intergenerational abuse and battle a downward economic spiral as they transition from childhood to manhood. Continued

Award-winning Edith+Eddie is only gaining momentum following its nomination for the Cinema Eye Honors' "Shorts List" and the announcement that Cher will serve as Executive Producer on the project. Continued

Kartemquin is delighted to announce that Cher has joined the team on our award-winning short documentary Edith+Eddie as Executive Producer. The short film – directed, produced and edited by Laura Checkoway – follows the story of America's oldest interracial newlyweds, Edith Hill and Eddie Harrison, whose love story is interrupted by a family feud that threatens to tear the couple apart. Continued

Kartemquin Films is pleased to announce the addition of four esteemed new members to the organization’s board, including Caty Borum Chattoo, Fenell Doremus, Neal Robin and Stephen Whisnant. The four additions join the board ahead of the Chicago documentary production not-for-profit’s September board meeting. Kartemquin’s board is now comprised of 15 members, led by Chair Jason Stephens and Vice-Chair Susan Morrison. Continued

Edith+Eddie by director Laura Checkoway was named a semi-finalist for the 11th Annual Cinema Eye Honors' 2018 "Shorts List," which celebrates outstanding achievement in nonfiction short filmmaking. Edith+Eddie, as well as the other ten films on the "Shorts List"––consisting of the most acclaimed short documentaries of the year––will screen at the 2017 Camden International Film Festival. Edith+Eddie will screen on Sunday, September 17 at 10AM. The announcement comes on the heels of the film winning the Nevada City Film Festival's Best Documentary Short Award, winning the film an encore screening at the Nevada City Film Festival on Friday, September 15 9PM. Continued

Edith+Eddie by Laura Checkoway has been awarded Best Documentary Short by the fest, with an additional screening of the film slated for Friday, September 15 at 9PM PDT. The film has enjoyed an award-studded festival run since its world premiere in March, 2017 at the True/False Film Fest, earning Best Short at the Montclair Film Festival, Jury Honorable Mention at the Sheffield Doc/Fest, the Flickers' Youth Film Jury Award for Best Documentary at the Rhode Island International Film Festival and the Jury Award for Best Documentary. Continued

Deadline announced today that director Justin Lin will direct a feature film based on Abacus: Small Enough to Jail by director Steve James. Lin and his Perfect Storm Entertainment production company have optioned the remake rights to the documentary and the life story rights of the Sung Family. Kenneth Lin (House of Cards) will write the screenplay. Abacus producer Mark Mitten will be a producer on the feature, with the Abacus' director Steve James (Hoop Dreams, The Interrupters, Life Itself) serving as an executive producer. Continued

Kartemquin Films and The Community Film Workshop of Chicago will present the latest graduates of their acclaimed Diverse Voices in Docs (DVID) program on October 2, 6pm at the Reva and David Logan Center for the Arts in Chicago. Sabaah Folayan, the co-director of acclaimed 2017 documentary Whose Streets?, currently distributed in theaters by Magnolia Pictures, will deliver the keynote speech at the event, where each of the graduates will present a preview of their latest documentary project. The graduation is free to attend. RSVP here. Continued