In Progress

A ferocious kill on the plains of the Serengeti... dire warnings about threats to endangered species... These staples of nature documentaries are familiar to every TV viewer. What we don’t see or hear -- because the camera rarely turns around -- are the voices of people who live in close proximity to wildlife and navigate its dangers and challenges on a daily basis. In recent years, conservation in Africa and elsewhere has been turned on its head by a growing consensus that the world’s remaining wildlife will not survive unless local people are given a say, and a stake, in preserving it. A feature-length documentary, Milking the Rhino... and Other Tales of Community Conservation casts a new light on human-wildlife conflict and co-existence in an ever-shrinking world. It portrays African communities at the vanguard of Community-based Conservation -- a radical rethinking of conservation practice that integrates the goals of animal welfare, rural development and poverty reduction. Milking the Rhino tells powerful and complex tales of indigenous people gaining authority over their own natural resources. The film is also that rare event that places Africans at the center of a hopeful story on the world stage.

Kartemquin Films and award-winning journalist Howard Reich are in production on a documentary feature based on "Prisoner of Her Past," a searing article written by Reich and published in the Chicago Tribune as a special section of the newspaper on Nov. 30, 2003. The article recounts Howard's journey to Dubno, in Ukraine, where he reconstructs the harsh childhood of his mother, Sonia, who began running and hiding from the Nazis when she was 10 years old during the Second World War and who now suffers from late-onset post-traumatic stress disorder. Visit official site

In rural Wisconsin, a lone employee waits in a cavernous old museum for visitors to come. A few individuals straggle in every few days and then, come Friday, the museum fills with life. Machines hum, presses print, artists buzz about. One weekend each month, the quiet of Two Rivers is interrupted as carloads of artisans drive in from across the Midwest. The place comes alive as printmaking workshops led by, and filled with, some of Chicago’s top design talent descend on the sleepy enclave. Typeface will illuminate the little-known craft of wood type design and printing, preserve the knowledge of this historically significant industrial tool, and introduce the greater graphic design community and the general public to the eclectic, brilliant, and sometimes unconventional individuals who perpetuate the use of wood type today. It will also demonstrate how a small museum is valuable to its neighbors on one level, and the larger community of enthusiasts on another--providing insight into the complex role that museums play in our society. The museum is significant to the town’s history, but more importantly, its existence is critical to the worldwide design community who are passionate about the history of their craft and its function in the contemporary field. They believe the future of their industry may lie in the past. While people have been zealous about wood printing since Gutenberg’s first press, the scenario at the Hamilton Museum illustrates an intriguing convergence where the historical evolution of type is moving beyond academic study or appreciation toward having a direct influence on contemporary graphic design.

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