The Tucker Center for Research on Girls and Women in Sport has chosen In the Game, a documentary by Peabody award-winner and Kartemquin Films Associate Maria Finitzo (Mapping Stem Cell Research: Terra Incognita and 5 Girls), as the featured film for the 6th Annual Tucker Center Film Festival. Continued

In 2016, several organizations in Chicago and around the country will host a series of screenings and events to celebrate Kartemquin’s 50th anniversary. We also invite you to watch all our films for free, week by week, at http://watch.kartemquin.com. From today until next Friday, January 29, the free KTQ50 film is HUM 255. In 1969, striking students at the University of Chicago occupied an administration building for 16 days. The protest was sparked by the firing of a feminist sociology professor. The college expelled 42 of the students. A year later, two expelled young women were asked by their former classmates to talk about the experience as a class project. The women confront the students about their convictions and how far they are willing to go to defend their values. Continued

WTTW, Chicago's premier public television station, will broadcast a year-long series of Kartemquin's award-winning films in honor of our 50th anniversary. The monthly series will feature films from each decade of Kartemquin’s history, including the classic Hoop Dreams (1994), which will air in June 2016, to coincide with a Kartemquin “Milestones” gala celebration at the Chicago Cultural Center and Harris Theater on June 24, and an art exhibition running May-August at Expo 72. Continued

Toronto's Hot Docs has chosen Steve James as the recipient of its 2016 Outstanding Achievement Award. As part of the honour, Hot Docs will screen a retrospective during the 23rd annual Festival, April 28 to May 8, celebrating James’s distinguished career as a director and producer. “It's an honour to celebrate a filmmaker of such depth, humanity and integrity as Steve James with the Hot Docs Outstanding Achievement Award,” says Hot Docs director of programming Shane Smith. “Over a career spanning three decades his body of exceptional work has demonstrated his commitment to illuminating stories of grit, honour and personal sacrifice; and solidified his status as a master of the documentary form.” Continued

In 2016, several organizations in Chicago and around the country will host a series of screenings and events to celebrate Kartemquin’s 50th anniversary. We also invite you to watch all our films for free, week by week, at http://watch.kartemquin.com. From today until next Friday, January 22, the free KTQ50 films are a double bill of Parents and Thumbs Down. Both released in 1968 as part of a series of films the nascent KTQ made for a Catholic Education Group, these two films were originally released on DVD in 2009 as the The Kartemquin Collection: Early Years, Vol 1. In Parents, a Chicago parish youth group discusses issues of parental authority, growing up, and the struggle to communicate with their parents. Continued

The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation has awarded a grant of $200,000 towards the production of To Bridge the Divide, a new Kartemquin documentary series directed by Steve James. To Bridge the Divide follows, in-depth, the stories of a dozen students, representing different races, grade levels, socioeconomic classes and educational tracks within a suburban high school grappling with how to address what is commonly (and now controversially) called a "racial achievement gap." The Kartemquin documentary series features teachers, administrators, and community policy-makers with differing perspectives. It also delves into the history and impact of the community's efforts to tackle issues of race and achievement. Continued

In 2016, several organizations in Chicago and around the country will host a series of screenings and events to celebrate Kartemquin’s work, and the power of documentary to inspire action. We also invite you to watch all our films for free, week by week, at http://watch.kartemquin.com. From today until next Friday, January 15, the free KTQ50 film is our second film, Inquiring Nuns, long established as a popular favorite among the Kartemquin community. In the film, two young nuns explore Chicago, from a supermarket to the Art Institute and in front of churches on Sunday, confronting people with the crucial question, “Are you happy?” The answers they get range in sincerity and depth. The humor and sadness of these honest encounters lift the film beyond its interview format to a serious and moving inquiry into the concerns of contemporary man, and also into the circumstances in which men will actually express their concerns. Continued

Usama Alshaibi’s documentary American Arab has its national television premiere on Tuesday, February 9, 2016, at 8 p.m. on WORLD Channel, as part of the fourth season of America ReFramed, public media’s newest documentary series. The film, made through Chicago production collective Kartemquin Films (makers of The Interupters), will be available for free streaming on www.worldchannel.org starting February 10, 2016. In American Arab, Iraqi-American Director Usama Alshaibi asks “Why is being an Arab suddenly the opposite of being a decent man?” Throughout the documentary, Alshaibi explores what it’s like to occupy the ‘space in between’ as a hyphenated American, specifically of Arab origin, during the surge of anti-Muslim sentiment that arose in post 9-11 America. Continued

Welcome to the 50th anniversary of Kartemquin! In 2016, several organizations in Chicago and around the country will host a series of screenings and events to celebrate Kartemquin’s work, and the power of documentary to inspire action. We also invite you to watch all our films for free, week by week, at http://watch.kartemquin.com. We begin with Kartemquin's first film, Home for Life (1966), an engrossing cinéma vérité depiction of the experiences of two elderly people in their first month at a home for the aged. A young Roger Ebert, reviewing the film at the 1967 Chicago International Film Festival for the Chicago Sun-Times, called it "an extraordinarily moving documentary." We've included Ebert's full review in the package, along with videos and documents that explain how Kartemquin began, got its name, and formed a philosophy of making films that investigate and critique society by documenting the unfolding lives of real people. Continued

For Almost There, 2015 comes to an end with the film hailed by critics as one of the year's best documentaries, after an award-winning worldwide festival run and US theatrical and VOD release. The story of Aaron Wickenden and Dan Rybicky's ethically complex seven-year relationship with reclusive elderly "outsider" artist Peter Anton is now available to watch on Fandor and Vimeo, and will soon be available on more VOD platforms thanks to distributor Factory 25. Continued