January 2010

Tune in to Comcast's SportsNite tomorrow night at 10:30pm to catch interviews and footage with Filmmakers Steve James and Peter Gilbert, as well as Arthur Agee and William Gates, from our recent Hoop Dreams 15th anniversary celebration at the Gene Siskel Film Center. Watch nationwide on Comcast cable channel 37, Direct TV Channel 640, and Dish TV Channel 429.

Kartemquin is excited to announce that Typeface is an official selection of this year's Wisconsin Film Festival in April of 2010.  In the meantime, you can catch the film in Chicago, Boise, Minnesota and London.  Screenings are in the works for Charlotte, Savannah, New York and a handful of other cities too - stay tuned!

And if you're in Chicago, tune in to Heartland Radio this Saturday, 01/09 at 9-10am when Lisa Smith interviews Director Justine Nagan about Typeface. Broadcast on WLUW, FM 88.7. Listen in!

Kartemquin is pleased to confirm the North American premiere of Prisoner of Her Past at the 2010 Big Sky Film Festival, in Missoula, Montana, at 1.30pm on February 14th. The film, directed by Gordon Quinn, is based on Chicago Tribune Jazz critic Howard Reich's book The First and Final Nightmare of Sonia Reich: A Son's Memoir. It will screen as part of the 'New Doc City: Non-Fiction Films From Around the World' section of the festival.

Illinois audiences will also be able to catch a "sneak peek" screening of the film at the Illinois Holocaust Museum & Education Center in Skokie on February 28th. Howard Reich will be present for the screening and a panel discussion following the film.

An engaged and enthusiastic audience ventured out into the cold to watch Kartemquin's classic 1994 documentary Hoop Dreams in Evanston, IL yesterday. What was most notable about the crowd was the number of families with young children in attendance, clearly showing the continuing legacy of this great film. After the screening finished, the film's stars William Gates and Arthur Agee took part in a lengthy question and answer session, before autographing postcards and posters for the delighted fans, both old and new.

For photographs of this and other Hoop Dreams anniversary events, please visit our Facebook page.

Kartemquin would like to thank REELTIME for co-organizing the event, and our other outreach partners: All Our Sons Fund of the Evanston Community Foundation, and Black Men and Boys Initiative - Evanston.

The image also posted here is taken from Basketball Pioneers, a newspaper founded by Jordan Lee, who was inspired to become a writer after watching Hoop Dreams. He interviewed the film's director Steve James during Steve's recent trip to China for the IDOCS International Documentary Forum in Beijing, where Hoop Dreams and Stevie played for the first time to receptive Chinese audiences.

Mr. Lee stated that "at least half a million people" have read this article, "and from I have heard they loved it. I am sure that they are looking forward to watching the new Allen Iverson documentary, which I believe will be a great movie."

For more photos and interviews with Steve James from IDOCS, visit the offfical website.

Kartemquin's Diversity Fellow Usama Alshaibi was interviewed by author and comedian Ray Hanania yesterday for Radio Chicagoland AM 1530 WJJG. Usama discussed the early progress that has been made on his documentary American Arab, and how working on the project has given him a fresh perspective on a number of pressing issues affecting Arab Americans today.

To listen to the interview, click here.

The award-winning 2003 Kartemquin documentary Refrigerator Mothers was mentioned in a new blog on the Pyschology Today website about a worrying trend towards the racial and class stereotyping of autism. Click here to read this important article.

Kartemquin Films is proud to announce that the National Alliance for Media Art and Culture (NAMAC) has selected our Executive Director Justine Nagan to be a 'Featured Leader.' Click here to read the interview. 

Kartemquin is delighted to announce that the 01/29 Chicago premiere of Justine Nagan's Typeface is now sold out.

Tickets are still available for all shows from 01/30 - 02/04 via Ticketmaster and the Gene Siskel Film Center box office.

The influential SpringBoardMedia blog has identified Kartemquin's Justine Nagan as one of the top 20 Leaders in film aged under 40. The blog's author Brian Newman wrote:

"Justine is the new head of Kartemquin Films, the legendary, Chicago-based documentary film organization. She’s a filmmaker, producer and is now heading one of the best film nonprofits in America. She’s very smart about the business and I think she’ll keep Kartemquin at the forefront of changes in the business and teach us a lot in the next few years."

North American fans of Oscar-nominated director Steve James (Hoop Dreams, Stevie) will get the chance to see his new film No Crossover: The Trial of Allen Iverson on April 13th 2010 at 8pm ET on ESPN. The film is part of the acclaimed 30 for 30 documentary series (click here for more information about the series' Spring schedule) and sees James examine the impact of a controversial 1993 incident on the life of basketball star Allen Iverson and their shared hometown of Hampton, VA.

Can't wait until April to see it? Get tickets to 'sneak peek' screenings in Chicago, or catch the film at its official world premiere at the 2010 SXSW Film Festival in March.

Tonight's UK premiere of Justine Nagan's Typeface has sold out! Thanks to all at St. Bride Library for their help in making the screening a success.

Kartemquin would like to acknowledge the passing of our longtime friend and valued sound mixer Ric Coken, who died on Dec 31 2009. Ric, a professor in Columbia College Chicago's Film and Video Department, worked with Kartemquin over a number of years, getting sound mizing credits on Hoop Dreams, Golub, The Last Pullman Car, and Taylor Chain.

Read an obituary of Ric Coken here.

Kartemquin Board Member Patricia Aufderheide has been chosen as a 'Community Choice' finalist for the 2010 WeMedia "Game Changer" Awards. The awards recognize "projects, ideas and organizations leading change and inspiring a better world through media." Pat has been nominated for her groundbreaking work at the American University Center for Social Media in producing Codes of Best Practices in Fair Use for Documentary Filmmakers, Media Literacy Educators, and Online Video creators. As she states,

"I've been arguing that fair use, which creates a "floating" public domain composed of copyrighted work, is a critical tool for a vibrant participatory culture.
 
The Center's codes of best practices in fair use, created with the Washington College of Law's Program on Information Justice and Intellectual Property and (for the media literacy code) with Temple University's Media Education Lab, have been real gamechangers for the communities of practice that created them with our help."

As part of Kartemquin's commitment to advocating for a strong public media and fair use in filmmaking, we offer our congratulations and support to Pat. To vote for her, please go here and select her name before February 3rd.

Kartemquin's recent doc Typeface will screen in Goteburg, Sweden on March 3rd at BioCapitol.  The screening is free and open to the public, hosted by ADA Sweden. Details TBA.

In the meantime, read these recent press mentions leading up to tonight's Chicago premiere: DesignFeast, New City and TimeOut Chicago.

Starting today, Friday January 29th, "documentary powerhouse" (Chicago Reader) Kartemquin Films will be showing three films inside a week at the Gene Siskel Film Center in Chicago - and the press and public are ramping up the excitement with a flurry of blogs and reviews.

Typeface kicks off proceedings with its SOLD OUT Chicago premiere + reception at 7pm tonight (the film starts at 8pm). Director Justine Nagan will be present, along with representatives from Kartemquin, Steracle Press, Hamilton Wood Type Museum, the Center for Block and Paper Arts, the Post Family, and the screening's sponsors the Society of Typographic Arts. Merchandise will be available for sale, including new posters and t-shirts. The screening begins a week-long run at the Siskel Center, with each screening accompanied by Kartemquin's classic short Viva La Causa. Justine Nagan will also attend the 1/31 screening. Tickets available now via the Gene Siskel Film Center and Ticketmaster.

Check out an interview with Justine Nagan on Design Feaster, a feature in Reel Chicago and reviews in New City Film, Time Out Chicago, and Inksie Journal. And we'd be remiss if we didn't mention the recent Idsgn feature on the film that, along with the trailer, has lit up the blogosphere and twitterverse with Typeface talk!

Kartemquin is also very excited about the exclusive "sneak peeks" Chicago documentary fans will get of No Crossover: The Trial of Allen Iverson, the new film director Steve James (Hoop Dreams, Stevie) this Sunday 1/31 and Thursday 2/4. Grab tickets now for a chance to be the first to see this film before it's official world premiere at the South by Southwest film festival in March. Steve James will attend both screenings. Ticket holders to Sunday's screening will also be invited to a post-screening reception.

Before you go, check out this excellent in-depth Chicago Reader feature on No Crossover, and a review in Metromix Chicago.

We'll see you at the Siskel Center!