September 2008

Ravinia and Kartemquin announced today that plans for a film documenting Bill T. Jones and company creating a piece on Abraham Lincoln are moving ahead. From the press release:

“Bicentennial celebrations by their very definition are about a single moment in time, but any artistic celebration of the great Abraham Lincoln requires something truly timeless. That’s why we sought out Bill T. Jones,” Welz Kauffman, president and CEO of Ravinia Festival, said. “And that’s why we’ve given full access to Kartemquin so that this unique moment is preserved for all time, not just in terms of a celebration of a bygone legend, but also as an exploration of a genius at work.” Kartemquin will create the film in conjunction with Media Process Group (MPG) of Chicago. Quinn will co-direct with MPG founder Bob Hercules (Forgiving Dr. Mengele). Joanna Rudnick (In the Family) will produce and Keith Walker (Senator Obama Goes to Africa) will shoot the film. Kauffman approached Jones, described by the New York Times as the dance world’s “political lion,” with the concept of creating a full-evening dance work inspired by Abraham Lincoln to be the centerpiece of Ravinia’s 2009 celebration of the Lincoln bicentennial. Tentatively titled A Good Man/A Good Man?, the work will receive its world premiere on Sept. 17, 2009, bookending a Lincoln celebration that begins in June with a jazz commission from Ramsey Lewis. Filming began with Jones’s initial visit to Springfield, IL, where the documentarians captured the Tony winner (Spring Awakening) emotionally interacting with artifacts (such as an iconic stovepipe hat) at the Lincoln Library and Museum, the Lincoln Tomb and his former home. “Bicentennial celebrations by their very definition are about a single moment in time, but any artistic celebration of the great Abraham Lincoln requires something truly timeless. That’s why we sought out Bill T. Jones,” Kauffman said. “And that’s why we’ve given full access to Kartemquin so that this unique moment is preserved for all time, not just in terms of a celebration of a bygone legend, but also as an exploration of a genius at work.” Jones said, “I live with the uneasy feeling that society has shaped me as a result of something that was stolen from us when Abraham Lincoln was killed. The cynicism and alienation that I have to cope with in my own head and heart arose as a result of a climate built systematically by such a strange turn of destiny as his assassination. Libraries are full of scholarly texts dedicated to the legacy of this singularly American man. I want to create a dance theater work that investigates a handful of key moments from his remarkable life and subject them to a process whereby song and memory deliver us beyond the boundaries of space and time.”

Kartemquin’s Joanna Rudnick has a blog entry on today’s Huffington Post. Check it out.

Read this feature article on former Kartemquin intern Josh Hyde in The Southern newspaper. It profiles the preparations leading up to his first feature film, soon to be shot in Peru.

Kartemquin’s Gordon Quinn and Justine Nagan met with a delegation of documentary filmmakers this afternoon visiting from South and Central Asia. They discussed current distribution and outreach trends in the field of social issue documentary. The group of 11 travels to New York later this week.

Director Joanna Rudnick will represent In the Family at a screening tonight sponsored by the Health Law Institute of DePaul University College of Law in cooperation with the Neiswanger Institute for Bioethics and Health Policy at the Loyola Stritch School of Medicine and the Clinical Ethics Consult Service at University of Illinois at Chicago. Following the film, a panel discussion on medical and legal ethics will commence.

As the Typeface crew strives to raise completion funds and finish editing the film concurrently, excitement about the documentary is building. On October 10th, a sneak preview of the film is planned at The Grolier Club in New York to kick off this year’s American Printing History Association annual conference. On Saturday the 11th, Director Justine Nagan will lead a panel discussion with Professor Dennis Ichiyama and designer Bill Moran, both subjects of the film, about issues of preservation and design. Read the full schedule.

In the meantime, two Chicago fundraisers are in the works. Stay tuned.

Read Rob Elder’s Screen Scene column in today’s Chicago Tribune and read how local filmmaker D.P. Carlson found inspiration for his new film in vintage Kartemquin classic Now We Live on Clifton.

Kartemquin Associate Maria Finitzo and Camerawoman Ines Sommer recently worked on a series of shorts of oncofertility for Northwestern University. Check them out.

Help us raise completion funds for Typeface this Friday, September 26th, from 8pm - 11pm at the AV-Aerie in Chicago. Get more information and buy your tickets now at www.typefacethefilm.com

Cocktails, film clips and an auction of limited edition movie posters! You don’t want to miss it.

Kartemquin is thrilled that two of its recent documentary features will be included in this year’s prestigious International Documentary Festival, Amsterdam (IDFA) in November. David Simpson’s Milking the Rhino will screen in competition for the Joris Ivens Award, screening details to be announced shortly. Additionally, Steve James and Peter Gilbert’s At the Death House Door will be screening, followed by “A Conversation with Steve James,” on Friday, November 21st.

In anticipation of tomorrow night’s US theatrical premiere of Milking the Rhino, listen to filmmakers David Simpson and Jeannie McGill interviewed on WBEZ’s Worldview.

Then, read the Chicago Tribune review of the film.

See you at the Siskel!

Catch Kartemquin’s At the Death House Door at the Lake County Film Society Doc Fest, ILL - DOCS this Saturday night.

College Of Lake County - Grayslake, IL 60030 8pm

Get more information.

Read this great blog about Kartemquin’s doc-in-progress, Typeface, on designworklife.com. Then, get your tickets for our fundraiser tomorrow night at www.typefacethefilm.com

Read reviews of Kartemquin’s latest in The Sun Times and Time Out, then go see the film this week at Siskel.

Kartemquin’s Zak Piper, Peter Gilbert and Adam Singer are on their way to the distant north to capture the the Cape Farewell expedition to the Arctic, with over 40 artists, scientists and musicians onboard. The expedition runs from September 25 to October 6. Read more.

Nearly 100 people gathered Friday night at the AV-Aerie in Chicago to raise funds for Kartemquin’s doc-in-progress, Typeface. Guests enjoyed music from Mar Caribe, clips from the film, and poster art from The Post Family, Pointed Press and Dennis Ichiyama. Thanks to the artists, the band, the staff of the AV-Aerie, Amy Cargill, Ian Arsenault and all those who attended to support the film.

In anticipation of In the Family’s national broadcast on PBS’ P.O.V. Wednesday night, tune in to NPR’s Talk of the Nation tomorrow afternoon at 2pm CST. Watch a clip from John Callaway’s interview with Joanna on Chicago Tonight and check out the P.O.V. website for the film.

Kartemquin’s What the Fuck Are These Red Squares? is included in an upcoming comprehensive exhibition at the Exit Art Gallery in New York. In Signs of Change: Social Movement Cultures 1960s to Now, “hundreds of posters, photographs, moving images, audio clips, and ephemera bring to life over forty years of activism, political protest, and campaigns for social justice. Curated by Dara Greenwald and Josh MacPhee as part of Exit Art’s Curatorial Incubator, this important and timely exhibition surveys the creative work of dozens of international social movements.”

The exhibition opened last week and the film will screen several times during the week of November 11 - 15. Get screening times in the Kartemquin events section.