April 2009

Congrats to Kartemquin's Steve James and Peter Gilbert for their "Best Filmmaker" award in this year's "Best of Chicago" list in the Chicago Reader.  Read all about it.

Kartemquin is excited to announce that we have been awarded a 2008 Peabody Award for Mapping Stem Cell Research: Terra Incognita.  The award will be given May 18th at the Waldorf Astoria in New York City.  Read the press release.

Leading up to the 2009 Full Frame Documentary Festival this weekend, read this great article about Kartemquin's Steve James in The Independent Weekly, or this one in the Duke Chronicle.  Steve curated a sports series for this year's fest.  Additionally, Kartemquin's David Simpson will attend the fest with his recent doc, Milking the Rhino.  Get the details.

Read this coverage on the BroadwayWorld blog about Kartemquin's doc in progress, A Good Man.

Following yesterday's great screening at the festival, listen to this interview with Director David E. Simpson from last night on the Digital Production Buzz.  Also, check out this review in Indyweek and this coverage of the festival in "The Film Talk."  The doc heads to Egypt for a screening at the International Film Festival there on Sunday.

Kartemquin staff and associates are scattering around Chicago this weekend in a flurry of exciting activity.  Tomorrow at 10am, Kartemquin's Gordon Quinn, Jerry Blumenthal and Leslie Simmer kick off the 2009 IFP Doc Summit with a panel on producing a series.  Then, featured in the next panel is Milking the Rhino Associate Producer Xan Aranda discussing the ways and means of collaborating with ITVS.  Simultaneously, a little further north, visit the Kartemquin booth at the Chicago Creative Expo at the Cultural Center from 10-4.   At 1pm, a little further north still, Facets hosts the Chicago premiere screening of Kartemquin's acclaimed series The New Americans.  The screening runs from 1pm-9pm with a break for dinner and discussion from 5pm - 6pm.  Get tickets.

Sunday you can catch The New Americans at the same times, with a great panel discussion scheduled for the dinner break.  Gordon Quinn will present another panel at the IFP Summit, this time on fair use, on Sunday from 2-4pm. Get all the details.  Hope to see you around town!

Catch Kartemquin's Executive Director discussing recent Kartemquin excitement tonight on WTTW's Chicago Tonight at 7pm. Watch the interview. Then tomorrow night, join Justine for a Producer's Panel on music licensing at the Midwest Independent Film Festival, prior to a screening of The Merry Gentleman.  Get more information. Get tickets.

Don't forget to visit www.kartemquin.com/chat at 3:00PM CT today, April 8, for a live question&answer session with Milking the Rhino Director David E. Simpson.

Read this great article in Indyweek featuring a conversation with William Gates, one of the central characters in Hoop Dreams, about his experience with Kartemquin's classic doc.  Gates attended the festival and participated in a panel discussion with Steve James.

This week Artistic Director Gordon travels to Michigan State University for two-days of workshops and master classes. Working with professors in the department of Communication Arts, Gordon will visit several courses, present on fair use, and teach a master class of his own. The class will cover a variety of topics ranging from documentary editing to ethics. During the visit Michigan State University will screen “At the Death House Door” followed by a discussion with Gordon, who executive produced the film.

Kartemquin is thrilled to announce that two recent docs have been selected to screen at this year's prestigious Council on Foundations Film Festival.  In the Family will be screening May 3rd, and Mapping Stem Cell Research: Terra Incognita will be screening on the 4th.  Get the details and see the other selected films.

Check out some of the Milking the Rhino post-broadcast buzz by listening to this New Hampshire Public Radio interview with Co-producer and idea originator Jeannie Magill.

Then head over to the Chicago Tribune website to read this Peabody Award shout out to Terra Incognita and Director Maria Finitzo.

Kartemquin's Executive Director Justine Nagan will be on "The Roadhouse" tonight on WTIP out of Grand Marais, MN.  Tune in from 5pm-7pm streaming online to hear her interview on the latest Kartemquin news and what's up next for Typeface. 

Vote for Milking the Rhino in the Independent Lens Audience Award poll.  If you missed the film, it's available via Comcast On-Demand until Tuesday the 14th, for free through Independent Lens.  For the ultimate Rhino experience, buy the DVD and gain access to a number of great extra features including additional scenes and updates on the conservation movement.

Come join us in Peoria, IL for the One State: Together in the Arts conference, hosted by the Illinois Arts Alliance and the Illinois Arts Council.  Kartemquin's Executive Director Justine Nagan and Artistic Director Gordon Quinn have been invited to share their experience with leadership succession and strategic planning on a panel entitled "Changing of the Guard" on June 2nd at 2pm.  Get the full schedule.

Congratulations to In the Family and Director Joanna Rudnick. The film has been chosen as one of the ten finalists for the National Institute for Health Care Managment Foundation’s Second Annual Health Care Television and Radio Journalism Award. The finalists will be recognized at the combined Journalism and Research Awards Dinner on June 15, 2009 in Washington, D.C., where the winner will be presented with an award and $10,000 prize.

Head over to the Eugene Lang College, The New School for Liberal Arts, for a 6:30pm screening and panel discussion tonight of Terra Incognita, part of the public seminar and film series titled “Stem Cells in the City,” designed to engage the public in conversations around the ethics, politics, and biology of stem cell research.

Buzz around the Peabody award continues; the event and film were covered today in this New York Times Health and Wellness blog and on the Reel Chicago website.

Kartemquin is excited to be involved with the upcoming 10th anniversary of Hamilton Wood Type Museum.  As we work to put the finishing touches on Typeface for its US premiere, we're planning a sneak preview of the film in Two Rivers on May 29th during the Museum's anniversary weekend.  Get the schedule.

Also read this great interview with one of Typeface's vibrant subjects, Bill Moran, about the museum and the film in the AIGA Voice.  Then shop the Typeface site for handcrafted movie posters to help us raise completion and distribution funds for the film.

In March, RealScreen, an international magazine devoted to the non-fiction film and television industries announced its Global 100, a "listing of the most influential production companies in the world for 2008." Get the list.

Kartemquin Board member and Producer Peter Gilbert's With All Deliberate Speed screens tonight at Virginia Tech University. A panel discussion with Peter, Kartemquin's Gordon Quinn, and Virginia Tech professors will follow. Sponsoring organizations are The Center for the Study of Rhetoric in Society (Virginia Tech Department of English) and the Office for Equity and Inclusion.

Kartemquin board member and producer Peter Gilbert serves this year as a pre-lab mentor at this year's Independent Filmmaker Lab. Twenty fellows are selected to participate in the free mentorship program for low-budget first feature films. Read about this year's picks in IFP's Filmmaker Magazine.

Kartemquin's At the Death House Door won a Silver Hugo at last night's Hugo Television Awards Ceremony in Chicago.  Directors Steve James and Peter Gilbert were on hand to accept the award for outstanding documentary in the social/political category.  Congratulations to all the winners.

Get updates with the subjects of Kartemquin's Mapping Stem Cell Reseach: Terra Incognita interviewed on Chicago Public Radio's Eight-forty-eight today (or listen online after tomorrow). This is the second time the film has been featured on the show; listen to the original interview with Director Maria Finitzo and Executive Producer Gordon Quinn.

As Operations Manager Jennie Gambach works to utilize Kartemquin's Twitter account, read this recent piece about new media from the University of Wisconsin- Madison's Journalism School featuring Executive Director Justine Nagan as a "journalism stand out." 

As production on the Kartemquin/MPG/Ravinia collaboration A Good Man amps up, read this article about the work-in-progress in Reel Chicago.

Kartemquin's latest work-in-progress, No Crossover: The Trial of Allen Iverson, is featured in this article in the Hollywood Reporter.  Director/Producer Steve James is working on the film for ESPN as a part of their "30 for 30" anniversary initiative.

Bill Stamets references Kartemquin's The New Americans in his review of Sugar for Newcity Film. Read about the films similarities. Don't forget the entire New Americans series will rebroadcast on PBS's Global Voices this July and was recently released on DVD (find it in our store).

From Georgia to Namibia, Hoop Dreams is still in the news. Check out this list of top sports films in The Daily Citizen and this mention in The New Era.