Sundance DocSource

Exploring Ways To Help In Haiti

kfeeley — Thu, 14 Jan 2010 23:28:51 +0000

From texting and twittering to flying there yourself, here are some of the many ways that we can all make a difference right now!

THE FACTS: On January 12, 2010, at 4:53pm local time, a magnitude 7.0 earthquake struck Haiti, approximately 10 miles from Port-au-Prince. Thousands of people are feared dead and the capital city has been devastated.

IMMEDIATE SUPPORT: Established disaster recovery organizations and national governments have been mobilized. These organizations are also raising funds for relief efforts:

• Oxfam: www.oxfam.org
• Doctors Without Borders: www.doctorswithoutborders.org

LONG-TERM SUPPORT: Crucial recovery and rebuilding efforts are always underfunded in comparison to immediate relief efforts. We saw this in the wake of Katrina as well as the Tsunami. Following are some organizations and projects working on long-term recovery efforts that have a long-standing, grassroots presence in Haiti. Here are three that have distributed staff in the country now and are well positioned to aid in the long-term recovery effort.

•   Partners in Health: www.pih.org
•   Fonkoze: www.fonkoze.org
•   The Lambi Fund of Haiti: www.lambifund.org

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These organizations have been vetted by my dear friends at Air Traffic Control, a San Francisco-based nonprofit organization dedicated to supporting musicians and their managers on activism, philanthropy, and political activities. www.atctower.net

QUICK WAYS THE CREATIVE COMMUNITY CAN HELP:

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1. Donate and let your colleagues, fans, and audiences know how they can donate: Spread the word via personal and professional websites/email/text/twitter/social networks etc. Feel free to rewrite the below suggested text or post as is.

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2. Suggested Twitter text: Please RT: Support the Earthquake Relief Efforts in Haiti by making a donation to Oxfam’s Response Fund http://rev.ms/303

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3. Suggested text for your professional and fan sites + social network pages: On January 12, 2010, at 4:53pm local time, a magnitude 7.0 earthquake struck Haiti, approximately 10 miles from Port-au-Prince. Tens, if not hundreds, of thousands of people are feared dead, as the capital city has been devastated. You can help. Make a donation to one of these incredible and long-standing organizations in Haiti. They have distributed staff in country now, but most importantly, they are well positioned to aid in the long-term recovery effort. Partners in Health: www.pih.org Fonkoze: www.fonkoze.org The Lambi Fund of Haiti: www.lambifund.org

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4. If you are speaking or performing at public events, you can use text-donation systems: Ask people to text “HAITI” to 90999 to donate $10 to the Red Cross

Stories of Change Convening at SFF Twenty Ten

kfeeley — Fri, 08 Jan 2010 21:49:11 +0000

The Sundance Institute Documentary Program will host a unique gathering of four of the world’s leading social entrepreneurs in Park City, January 26-29, 2010. STORIES OF CHANGE: SOCIAL ENTREPRENEURSHIP IN FOCUS THROUGH DOCUMENTARY, is a three-year initiative of the Sundance Documentary Film Program in partnership with the Skoll Foundation, to explore the art of nonfiction storytelling with the impact of social entrepreneurship. The goal is to create new possibilities in democratic practice and contemporary public thought through the dynamic engagement of these two vital fields and to cultivate and fund new documentary films which tell the stories of social entrepreneurs as they meet the world’s great challenges with creativity and innovation.

Convenings were designed as a bridge to create a new network of professional exchange between documentary filmmakers and social entrepreneurs, and discover new pathways for exploring independent documentary film’s role in advancing knowledge about social entrepreneurship.The Convening at Sundance Film Festival Twenty Ten will mark the third year of convenings. The DFP and Skoll Foundation look forward to welcoming four incredible social entrepreneurs to Park City.

Quratulain Bakhteari is the first of her five siblings born to young socially marginalized parents in Multan after the 1947 migration from India to Pakistan. Her family later moved to a refugee camp in Karachi. At 22 having three sons and family responsibilities she did her master in social work from Karachi University. During her Master’s course work and later with UNICEF’s project she mobilized 5,000 families and constructed household pit latrines in 1979 which became the policy for of sanitation for low income people in the country. The main objective was to conclude all her experiences in to courses for the young people, isolated, inexperienced and excluded young people. Her aim is to create self development processes by serving the communities.

Munqeth Mehyar serves as Chairman and Jordanian Director of EcoPeace/ Friends of the Earth Middle East. Friends of the Earth Middle East is a unique regional organization that brings together Jordanian, Palestinian and Israeli environmentalists to promote sustainable development and advance peace efforts in the Middle East. The organization has offices in Tel-Aviv, Bethlehem and Amman, employs over 40 paid staff and actively involves hundreds of volunteers. Friends of the Earth Middle East’s three co-Directors were honored by TIME magazine as Environmental Heroes in 2008 and the organization was awarded the prestigious Skoll Award in 2009.

Bunker Roy started the Barefoot College 38 years ago. It is the only fully solar electrified College in India built by the poor and managed by the poor who earn less than $ 1/day. One of the few places in India where the work style and life style of Mahatma Gandhi is still alive. The demsytified and decentralised barefoot approach has reached 13 States of India and 21 of the Least Development Countries in Africa.

Martin von Hildebrand has worked for more than 40 years for the recognition and exercise of indigenous rights, and the protection of diversity in the Amazon region. He has received national and international awards including the Right Livelihood Award (Sweden, 1999), National Environmental Prize (Colombia, 1999), Order of the Golden Ark (The Netherlands, 2004), National Prize of Ecology (Colombia, 2004), Skoll Award for Social Entrepreneurship (USA, 2009) and Latin-American Social Entrepreneur (WEF Rio de Janeiro, 2009).

A Warm Congratulations to all of our DFP grantees nominated for an Oscar!

kfeeley — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 20:48:42 +0000

From a pool of 89 feature-length documentaries eligible for Oscar consideration this year, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences’ documentary screening committee narrowed the decision to a final 15. The Sundance Documentary Film Program would like to congratulate Rebecca Cammisa (Which Way Home) and Mai Iskander (Garbage Dreams), for officially making the 2009 Oscar Short List.

Which Way Home
Rebecca Cammisa (Director)

As the United States continues to build a wall between itself and Mexico, Which Way Home shows the personal side of immigration through the eyes of children who face harrowing dangers with enormous courage and resourcefulness as they endeavor to make it to the United States.

http://whichwayhome.net/

Garbage Dreams
Mai Iskander (director)

The Zabbaleen people are trash collectors and proud of it. This community of around 60,000 Coptic Christians inhabits a suburb of Cairo. For generations, they have been collecting, sorting, processing and recycling the trash this metropolis produces. Garbage Dreams follows three Zabbaleen boys as they each find their own ways to deal with the new challenges facing them — by either working harder or joining their rivals.

The Sundance Documentary Film Program would like to extend a further congratulations to all the films and filmmakers previously supported by the Sundance Institute who have also made the Oscar Short List:

Burma VJ (Sundance Film Festival, 2009)
Director: Anders Østergaard (Magic Hour Films)
http://burmavjmovie.com/

The Cove (Sundance Film Festival, 2009)
Director: Louie Psihoyos (Oceanic Preservation Society)
http://thecovemovie.com/

Sergio (Sundance Film Festival, 2009)
Director Greg Barker (Passion Pictures and Silverbridge Productions)
http://www.sergiothemovie.com/

A Warm Congratulations to all of our DFP grantees nominated for the IDA Doc Awards.

kfeeley — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 02:08:49 +0000

The Sundance Documentary Film Program would like to congratulate Ngawang Choephel (Tibet In Song) and Natalia Almada (El General), for their nominations at this year’s International Documentary Association Doc Awards.

IDA Music Documentary Award Nominee
Tibet In Song – Ngawang Choephel (Director)
http://www.tibetinsong.com/

Tibet in Song is both a celebration of traditional Tibetan folk music and a harrowing journey into the past fifty years of cultural repression inside Chinese controlled Tibet. Director and former Tibetan political prisoner, Ngawang Choephel, weaves a story of beauty, pain, brutality and resilience, introducing Tibet to the world in a way never before seen on film.

Recipient of the 2009 Jacqueline Donnet Emerging Documentary Filmmaker Award
Natalia Almada
http://www.altamurafilms.com/

Natalia Almada was born in Mexico. Her directing credits include El General (DFP grantee), All Water Has a Perfect Memory, an internationally recognized experimental short, and Al Otro Lado, an award-winning feature documentary about immigration and drug trafficking. Almada’s work has screened at Sundance, the Museum of Modern Art, and the Whitney Biennial as well as on ARTE and PBS. She is a 2008 Guggenheim fellow and has received support from Creative Capital, the Sundance Institute, and the MacDowell Colony, among others. She shares her time between Mexico and Brooklyn.

Feature Documentary Nominees:

Afghan Star (Sundance Film Festival, 2009)
Director/Producer: Havana Marking

Anvil! The Story of Anvil (Sundance Film Festival, 2008)
Director: Sacha Gervasi
Producer: Rebecca Yeldham

DFP Nominees in the category of Short Documentary:

Sari’s Mother
Director/Producer: James Longley (DFP grantee: Iraq in Fragments)

DFP Nominees in the category of Limited Series Award:

Time for School
Producer/Writer: Oren Rudavsky (DFP grantee : Chato Is Dead: An Immigrant Story)

We Shall Remain
Writers: Anne Makepeace (DFP grantee: As Nutayunean)

DFP Finalists in the category of ABCNews VideoSource Award:

Earth Days (Sundance Film Festival, 2009)
Director/Producer/Writer: Robert Stone

Sergio (Sundance Film Festival, 2009)
Director: Greg Barker (Doc and Edit Lab Advisor, 2009)

Shouting Fire: Stories from the Edge of Free Speech
Director/Producer: Liz Garbus (SDF grantee: Fallen Cradle, Girlhood)
Producers: Rory Kennedy (SDF grantee: Fallen Cradle)

Thank You, Mr. President: Helen Thomas at the White House
Director/Producer: Rory Kennedy (SDF grantee: Fallen Cradle)
Producers: Liz Garbus (SDF grantee: Fallen Cradle, Girlhood)

Pare Lorentz Award—Finalists:

The Cove (Sundance Film Festival, 2009)
Director: Louis Psihoyos
Producers: Fisher Stevens, Paula DuPre Pesmen

Bombhunters

Skye Fitzgerald — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 00:58:39 +0000

Director: Skye Fitzgerald

Logline: An unsettling look at people who hunt bombs for a living.

Synopsis: This film project documents the effects of UXO on Cambodian people, both within their homeland and in the US. In particular, Bombhunters documents villagers efforts throughout rural Cambodia as they seek out UXO and attempt to render it safe for sale to the scrap metal industry in order to survive. Since completion, the film has been credited by the US Department of State with influencing national legislation in Cambodia that has lead to a 50% drop in UXO tampering casualties. In addition to broadcast on US public television the film has aired on the History Channel Asia, Free Speech television in the US and on select national channels in Europe, including national broadcast on TV2 in Sweden.

http://www.bombhunters.com/

9 Star Hotel

Ido Haar — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 00:20:10 +0000

Director: Ido Haar

Logline: Slipping through the predawn darkness over highways, through traffic and across the border, Palestinian construction workers go to work clandestinely in Israel every day. Raw, handheld photography follows workers who build their own border shanty community to enter Israel more easily, with no choice but to risk their lives simply to earn a living.

Synopsis: 9 Star Hotel introduces the audience to a cadre of Palestinian men who have built a transient community on the Israeli border, comprised of jerry-built huts and tiny, sarcophagus-like sleeping compartments. The men leave these quarters and systematically cross the border each morning before dawn, to work illegally at construction jobs in Israel – risking their safety and their lives to simply draw a regular income. Throughout, the workers stick close together (Haar suggests that the circumstances actually engender tighter social bonds between them) and evince a surprising sense of humor, tenacity and resilience. Meanwhile, constant hopes for improved circumstances in the future belie their lingering fears of being discovered and shot or arrested by Israeli authorities.

http://www.edenproductions.co.il/detailProduction.asp?pID=15&fromPage=productions

Beijing Taxi

Miao Wang — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 20:12:59 +0000

Director: Miao Wang

Logline: BEIJING TAXI is a feature length documentary that vividly portrays the ancient capital of China going through a profound transformational arch. Through a humanistic lens, the intimate lives of three taxi drivers thread through the morphing city of Beijing confronted with modern issues and changing values.

Synopsis: BEIJING TAXI is a feature length documentary that vividly portrays the ancient capital of China going through a profound transformational arch. BEIJING TAXI’s main character is the morphing city of Beijing. Through a humanistic lens, the intimate lives of three taxi drivers thread through the morphing city of Beijing confronted with modern issues and changing values. With stunning imagery of Beijing combined with a contemporary score rich in atmosphere, we experience a visceral sense of the common citizens’ persistent attempts to grasp the elusive. Its society is living through enormous contradictions adjusting to a new capitalist system from a Communist-ruled and educated society. BEIJING TAXI takes us on a lyrical journey into fragments of a society riding the bumpy roads to modernization. Though the destination is unknown, they continue to forge ahead. The story is told through the eyes of three taxi drivers. Through the struggles and aspirations in their every day life, a transitional city with its opportunities, hopes, shattered dreams, and social ramifications come alive. Bai Jiwen, a driver in his mid 50’s represents the older lost generation who came to age during the Cultural Revolution; Wei Caixia, a mother in her mid-thirties, with aspirations of a free-spirited life and entrepreneurial success; and Zhou Yi, an optimist and content man in his late thirties, who holds onto the more traditional Beijinger’s lifestyle of the past. The three taxi drivers are faced with socio-economic impacts in every aspect of society – from health care, unemployment, to marriage and family values. The city is transforming at a pace that is making long time local residents feel like strangers in their own city. Though each faced with their own struggles and limitations, the three characters radiate a warm sense of humanity. BEIJING TAXI uses the Olympic games as the backdrop for the film. The Olympics is a catalyst for change and aptly the biggest metaphor to mark this era of China in transition. It is the new China’s coming-out party to the world. BEIJING TAXI is a vérité film, candid and perceptive in its filming approach and highly cinematic and poetic in style.

http://www.beijingtaxithefilm.com/about.html

The Visitors

Melis Birder — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 20:43:10 +0000

Director: Melis Birder

Logline: The Visitors is a documentary about passengers of a charter bus that leaves New York City every weekend for various prisons located in Upstate New York. Reflecting the struggles of a unique culture living at the intersection of confinement and the free world, the story follows the coordinator of the bus -Denise- whose husband is coming home soon after 17 years of imprisonment.

Synopsis: An unexpected look at prison life, told through the voices of those on the outside. This intimate film begins in New York City in the middle of the night, as lines, mostly of women, assemble to board buses headed to prisons upstate. For these travelers the journey to see their partners has become routine, their relationship depending on a few hours’ visit each weekend and brief phone calls in between. Some were involved with their partners long before incarceration; others met after. There is no discussion of the crimes and little of redemption; instead the conversation lingers on the length of the sentence and how intense the longing can become, on the loneliness, and on the isolation of being in a situation that family members and outsiders cannot understand. As one woman poignantly states, “I’m doing my time, too.” This moving film leaves us to ponder the aching desire for companionship and the overwhelming dedication to love, as strained as it may be.

http://www.visitorsdocumentary.com/menu3.htm

Port of Memory

Kamal Aljafari — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 20:21:04 +0000

Director: Kamal Aljafari

Logline: In what is left of the city of Jaffa, a man about to lose his house contemplates his fate. Meanwhile two women remain tied to their homes. In a nearby cafe an old captain sits motionless the whole day through, while another man moves restlessly like a fish in an aquarium.

Synopsis: Since the moment of its inception as a nation, Israel’s most stubborn and sustained commitment has been the expulsion of Palestinians from their homes and property. While the spotlight is on the West Bank and Gaza, the emptying of Jaffa, a thriving urban and economic port city in pre-1948 Palestine, of its indigenous residents, is a story rarely told. Aljafari’s film follows his family after they receive an order to evacuate their home in Ajami, Jaffa’s once-wealthy sea-front neighborhood. Their lives and those of the other residents are thrown into disarray because they don’t have the means to fight back. Radically poetic, Port of Memory is a reflection on the absurdity of being at once absent and present, blending the mundane gestures of everyday life and collective memory. Traveling from the subjective to the objective, the film captures the essence of being Palestinian in Israel, as well as under occupation in the West Bank and Gaza.

The Learning

Ramona S Diaz — Sat, 31 Oct 2009 01:10:20 +0000

Director: Ramona S. Diaz

Logline: Filipino-American filmmaker Ramona Diaz’s new documentary THE LEARNING follows a group of four Filipino schoolteachers who have migrated to Baltimore, Maryland, to teach in inner-city schools.

Sundance DocSource

Exploring Ways To Help In Haiti

Other Articles

Stories of Change Convening at SFF Twenty Ten

Other Articles

A Warm Congratulations to all of our DFP grantees nominated for an Oscar!

Other Articles

A Warm Congratulations to all of our DFP grantees nominated for the IDA Doc Awards.

Other Articles

Bombhunters

Other Articles

9 Star Hotel

Other Articles

Beijing Taxi

Other Articles

The Visitors

Other Articles

Port of Memory

Other Articles

The Learning

Other Articles