FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Contact: Loretta Ramos
lramos@mtr.org
Festival to
Include:
·
Seven premiere screenings of
current television documentaries,
followed by panel discussions with
filmmakers, production teams,
and film subjects
·
Opening seminar, “To Be, or
Not to Be, in the Picture: The Documentary Filmmaker and the Search for Truth”
·
Hands-on pitch
workshop for aspiring documentarians
·
A reunion of Top Value Television (TVTV) filmmakers and
a retrospective of TVTV documentaries
·
Docu-Jam: A Youth Documentary Showcase
This year’s film premieres will include a Members-only screening of The
Fight, an engrossing
look at the intertwined careers of boxing greats Joe Louis and Max Schmeling; Born into Brothels, a transformative
journey through the slums of Calcutta; David Grubin’s
epic look at the political career and tragic life of Robert Kennedy; Hank Williams: Honky Tonk
Blues, an exploration of the myths and legends surrounding the country
music icon; a candid study by MTV News of Americans and Iraqis dealing with the
aftermath of the war; Ivy Meeropol’s Heir to an Execution, a pilgrimage to
learn more about her grandparents Julius and Ethel Rosenberg; and Still Doing It, a provocative new social-issues
film on aging and sexuality.
This
year’s Festival will also include a reunion of Top Value
Television (TVTV) filmmakers, along with retrospective screenings
of this 1970s countercultural video
collective’s work; a screening of the classic 1969 documentary Johnny Cash! The Man, His World, His Music; the Festival-opening
seminar, To Be, or Not to Be, in the
Picture: The Documentary Filmmaker and the Search for Truth, examining the
reasons and ways a filmmaker becomes a participant in the documentary process; a hands-on workshop on crafting a
successful pitch for aspiring documentarians; and the continuation of Docu-Jam: A Youth Documentary Showcase, featuring the work of young filmmakers from around the country.
All Festival programs have been selected based on criteria in keeping with the Museum’s ongoing mission to make available the finest collection of programs that uphold traditions of excellence, cultural impact, and historical significance.
A complete Festival schedule and ticketing information follows.
Funding
for this Festival has been generously provided by The Hearst Corporation,
A&E, Discovery Communications, HBO, The History Channel, and Court TV. Additional support provided by IDA.
The
Museum’s Television Documentary Advisory Committee members are Jon Alpert,
Downtown Community Television Center; Nancy Dubuc,
A&E; David Fanning, Frontline; Paola Freccero,
Sundance Channel; Liz Garbus, Moxie Firecracker
Films; Chana Gazit,
Steward/Gazit Productions; Rena Golden, CNN
International; David Grubin, David Grubin Productions; Diana Holtzberg,
Films Transit International; Marjorie Kaplan, Discovery Kids/Discovery
Communications, Inc.; Lynne Kirby, Court
TV; Barbara Kopple, Cabin Creek Films; Susan Lacy, American
Masters; Lauren Lazin, MTV News and
Documentaries; Ruby Lerner, Creative Capital; Al Maysles,
Maysles Films, Inc.; Cara Mertes,
P.O.V.; Stanley Moger, SFM Entertainment, LLC;
Nina Henderson Moore, BET; Sheila Nevins, HBO;
Elizabeth Peters, Association of Independent Video and Filmmakers; Steve Rosenbaum,
Broadcast News Networks Inc. and Camera Planet; Prof. George Stoney, Tisch School of the Arts;
Rosalind P. Walter; Susan Werbe, The History Channel;
Christopher Wilcha, Filmmaker; and Kristal Brent Zook, Columbia
University.
SCHEDULE OF EVENTS
Members-Only Festival Preview
Wednesday, April 14 at
The Fight
On June 22, 1938, when heavyweight champ Joe Louis stepped
into the ring at Yankee Stadium to defend his title against Max Schmeling, the world knew that this was no ordinary bout. Schmeling, a German,
was Hitler’s mascot: a two-fisted symbol of Nazi aggression. Louis was the most celebrated black athlete
in segregated
In Person: Barak Goodman (Filmmaker)
Museum Members
should call (212) 621-6780 or e-mail membership@mtr.org to make reservations.
Thursday,
April 15 at
OPENING SATELLITE
SEMINAR
To Be, or Not to Be,
in the Picture: The Documentary Filmmaker and the Search for Truth
Many of today’s documentary filmmakers
come out from behind the camera rather than passively filming. Such directors as Michael Moore and Nick Broomfield
play a visible, even catalytic role in their documentaries, flagrantly
violating rules of cinema-verité filmmaking. This seminar will examine the reasons and ways
a filmmaker becomes involved in the documentary process—from extensive use of
narration to the aggressive pursuit of subjects. Panelists will also explore the ethical and
ideological implications of the director becoming a participant in his or her
documentary.
This seminar is presented as part of the Museum’s University
Satellite Seminar Series.
Sent via satellite to universities and colleges across the
country, this seminar includes a live question-and-answer session between
panelists and the off-site audience.
In Person: Alan Berliner (The Sweetest Sound, Intimate
Stranger); Chris Hegedus
(Startup.com, The War Room); Alexandra
Pelosi (Journeys With George); DA Pennebaker
(Don’t Look Back,
Tickets: $15 ($12 for individual Museum Members).
Friday,
April 16 at
Viva Video! TVTV
Reunited
Incisive and irreverent, the ad-hoc video collective Top
Value Television (TVTV) defined the countercultural documentary movement of the
1970s. Armed with Sony’s mobile PortaPak and driven by a belief in the progressive
potential of television, the young guerrillas of TVTV sought to break the
corporate stronghold on the medium they had grown up with by probing the
institutions and structures of power that hold sway over our lives and culture.
Their iconoclastic approach to verité—which foreshadowed everything from the mockumentary to the ubiquitous genre of reality
programming—had an everlasting impact not only on how documentaries are made,
but on television itself. In addition to
showcasing several TVTV documentaries throughout the Festival, the Museum will
bring together principal members of the group for this lively discussion about
journalism, politics, satire, and the media. (See below for schedule of TVTV
retrospective screenings Saturdays and Sundays throughout the Festival.)
In Person: Wendy Apple; Skip Blumberg; Paul
Goldsmith; Allen Rucker; Michael Shamberg;
Tom Weinberg; Megan Williams; and Deirdre
Boyle (Media Historian)
Saturday,
April 17 at
WORKSHOP
The Art of the
Documentary Pitch: How to Turn an Idea into a Reality
A Workshop
Cosponsored by the International Documentary Association
All documentaries begin with an idea that is eventually
pitched to a producer or network. In
this workshop, modeled on the Museum’s “Pitch to Polish”
sitcom-writing seminars, a panel of veteran producers will discuss the process
of developing a documentary and will simulate situations that filmmakers will
face in trying to sell a nonfiction concept. Several novice documentarians
will be preselected to make public pitches to the
panelists, who will evaluate their proposals for uniqueness and viability.
Panelists will also take questions from the audience about how a documentary
idea grows from seed to fruition.
In Person: Chana Gazit (Producer/Writer,
Steward/Gazit Productions); Diana Holtzberg (Acquisitions &
Project Development Director, USA, Films Transit International); Lauren Lazin (Executive
Producer/Senior Vice President, MTV News and Documentaries); Cara Mertes (Executive
Director, P.O.V.); Steve Rosenbaum (President/CEO, CameraPlanet Pictures)
Tickets: $15 ($12 for individual Museum Members).
Saturday, April 17
at
VIVA VIDEO!: TVTV RETROSPECTIVE
The World’s Largest TV Studio and Four More
Years
Formed in 1972,
TVTV first gained prominence for its warts-and-all coverage of the rallies,
receptions, and ruckus surrounding that year’s Democratic and Republican
National Conventions. By subverting
mainstream broadcast news tactics with spontaneity and wit, these
no-budget, free-form documentaries rewrote the book on presidential
election coverage while providing viewers with an alternative and unfettered
view of the political process. (1972; 120 minutes)
Saturday,
April 17 at
Born Into Brothels:
“...a work of art so deep and resonant that it puts most narrative films to shame.”
—The
First-time filmmakers Zana Briski and Ross Kauffman take us into a dark and squalid
corner of
In Person: Zana Briski (Director);
Ross Kauffman (Director)
Sunday,
April 18 at
VIVA VIDEO!: TVTV
RETROSPECTIVE
The Lord of the
Universe
TVTV thrived on chronicling spectacles of the absurd, such
as the epochal gathering—billed as “the most holy and significant event in
human history”—that brought together the Guru Maharaj
Ji, a sixteen-year-old shaman who claimed to be God,
and the lunatic fringe of ex-hippies who believed him. (1974; 60 minutes)
Adland: Where Commercials Come From
TVTV turned its camera to the mechanism that drives
commercial television—ads and the men who make them—and revealed the inner
workings of Madison Avenue, a surreal place where cynicism and braggadocio
reign supreme, and little hamburgers dance and sing. (1974; 60 minutes)
Monday,
April 19 at
WORLD PREMIERE
RFK
This new biography of Robert Kennedy traces his
much-tortured odyssey from “a black-and-white moralist” working for Senator
Joseph McCarthy to a thoughtful man discovering his own identity after his
brother’s assassination. Writer/producer
David Grubin frames this portrait as a tragedy,
inspired by a line from Aeschylus that Kennedy could recite from memory: “He
who learns must suffer.” Grubin documents Bobby Kennedy’s capacity for change and
growth with firsthand testimony from Jack Newfield, Adam Walinsky,
and Kathleen Kennedy Townsend, among others. Like many Greek protagonists, Kennedy is often
consumed with fury, especially directed toward Jimmy Hoffa and Lyndon Johnson,
but is finally chastened by loss and grief, which taught the senator to
empathize with the poor and disenfranchised. (2004; 110
minutes. Directed and written by
David Grubin. Produced by David Grubin and Sarah Colt. Executive produced for American Experience by Mark Samels.)
In Person: David Grubin (Producer/Writer);
Jack Newfield (Journalist/Author, RFK: A Memoir)
Wednesday,
April 21 at
Still Doing It: The
Intimate Lives of Women over 65
With startling candor that would make even Sex and the City’s Samantha Jones blush,
Still Doing It is one of the first
documentaries to delve into the complex issues of desire and identity for the
aging generation of women influenced by the sexual revolution. Director Deirdre Fishel
spent over two years finding and creating relationships with nine courageous
women—partnered, single, straight, gay, black, and white—who speak frankly
about love and sex in later life, as well as the poignant realities of growing
older. As the senior population begins
to swell, this film raises revelatory questions about aging and sexuality. (2004; 55 minutes. Directed
by Deirdre Fishel; Produced by Deirdre Fishel and Diana Holtzberg.)
In Person: Deirdre Fishel (Producer/Director); Betty Dodson (Film Subject); Ellen
Ensig-Brodsky (Film Subject); Diana Holtzberg
(Producer)
Thursday, April 22
at
DOCU-JAM: A YOUTH DOCUMENTARY SHOWCASE
In Association with
Across the country
young people are documenting their lives and interests with video cameras. This year’s Festival spotlights eight
documentary shorts that explore identity, stereotypes, addiction, loss,
cultural heritage, youth activism, and inequality. After the screenings, the youth producers will
discuss the impact that making documentaries has had on their lives and future
plans. This event is free to students
with valid ID.
Films to be
screened include:
·Vicki Who? (5 minutes; Raw
Art Works)
·Strictly Family: Changing the Definition (11 minutes;
Downtown Community Television/DCTV)
·I Wish (9 minutes; Reel Stories/HBO Young Filmmakers
Lab)
·El Ojo Malo: The Evil Eye (3.5 minutes;
·Meth: Don’t Go There (16 minutes;
·El Otro Lado de America: The Other Side of
·Me and My Mustache (6.5 minutes; Spy
Hop Productions)
·Whose Streets? Our Streets! The True Face of
Youth Activism (14 minutes;
Thursday, April 22
at
WORLD PREMIERE
MTV News—True Life: I’m Living
in
As the New York Times noted, MTV is not all
dazzle, but “has a conscience, too.” The
channel’s sense of social responsibility is certainly evident in its extensive
reporting from
In Person: Marshall
Eisen (Supervising Producer); Chris Herzfeld
(Film Subject); David Schisgall (Director/Producer);
Gideon Yago (Chief Political Correspondent,
MTV News)
Friday, April 23 at
Heir to an Execution
During the cold
war hysteria of 1950s
In Person: Ivy Meeropol
(Director/Coproducer); Michael Meeropol
(Film Subject/Eldest Son of Ethel and Julius Rosenberg); Miriam Moscowitz (Film Subject)
Saturday, April 24
at
CLASSIC DOCUMENTARY
Johnny Cash! The Man, His World, His Music
The intimate
nature of television had a way of deepening the mystique of Johnny Cash. Nowhere is that more evident than in this
classic (and long out of circulation) verité portrait
of a genuine American folk hero. Filmmaker
Robert Elfstrom pinpoints Cash on the cusp of his
extraordinary late-1960s comeback—back from the wilderness but forever on the
road. As the prodigal troubadour
crisscrosses the country, performing at prisons and fairgrounds, recording with
Bob Dylan, stealing moments with wife June, touring Wounded Knee, and returning
to the Arkansas shack that was once his home, Elfstrom’s
camera finds a route into the Cash mythos that is as captivating and
unvarnished as the man himself. (1969; 90 minutes. Directed and filmed by Robert Elfstrom. Produced by Arthur and Evelyn
Barron. A Verité Production in association
with Hyrkin-Wiland for Public Broadcasting Laboratory.)
In Person: Robert Elfstrom
(Director/Filmmaker)
Saturday,
April 24 at
VIVA VIDEO!: TVTV
RETROSPECTIVE
The Good Times Are
Killing Me
The festive music and harsh life of legendary accordionist
Nathan Abshire figure prominently in this portrait of
the rites, heritage, and fading ways of Louisiana’s Cajun folk—the most
sensitive and impressionistic of TVTV’s efforts.
(1975; 60 minutes)
Hard Rain
The oddball in the TVTV oeuvre, this straightforward document of Bob Dylan performing in concert with Joan Baez marked the group’s crossover to the big time (an NBC special) and landed the notoriously media-shy balladeer on the cover of TV Guide. (1976; 60 minutes)
Saturday, April 24
at
American
Masters Hank
Williams: Honky Tonk Blues
With his seductive
musings on love and ruin, Hank Williams didn’t just embody the honky tonk ethos, he practically invented it. Dirt-poor and rail-thin, he blazed out of
In Person: Morgan
Neville (Director/Coproducer); Colin Escott (Biographer/Coproducer)
Sunday,
April 25 at
VIVA VIDEO!: TVTV
RETROSPECTIVE
Super Bowl
“Regular television—those fellows in the neat blazers—has
already told you who won.”—TVTV cofounder Michael Shamberg
TVTV goes behind the scenes to meet the players, their
wives, coaches, team owners, fans, and journalists in this wry deconstruction
of the hype and hoopla surrounding the nation’s annual “circus maximus.” (1976; 60 minutes)
TVTV Looks at the
Oscars
TVTV tackles America’s other hallowed tradition, the Academy
Awards, by blending priceless moments of veracity (such as nominee Lee Grant
rehearsing her “losing smile”) with wicked satire (Lily Tomlin, as housewife
Judith Beasley, blithely commenting on the televised pageantry). (1976; 60
minutes)
·Tickets for each Festival event, unless otherwise noted, are $10 each ($8 for Museum Members) and $5 for students with valid ID. The series price for any three events is $24 ($18 for Museum Members) and $12 for students.
·Tickets for the opening Satellite Seminar are $15 each ($12 for Museum Members)
·Tickets for the Art of the Documentary Pitch Workshop are $15 each ($12 for Museum Members)
·Admission to the Viva Video!: TVTV Retrospective Screenings is included with the
Museum’s suggested contribution: Members free; $10.00 for adults; $8.00 for
senior citizens and students; and $5.00 for children under fourteen.
·Admission to Docu-Jam is free to students with valid ID.
·Tickets may be purchased in advance
by calling the Museum at (212) 621-6600 Mondays to Fridays from
·Members of American Women in Radio and Television,
the Association of Independent Video and Filmmakers, the International
Documentary Association, and DocuClub may purchase
tickets at the Museum Members price.
Programs and participants are
subject to change. Doors open 30 minutes prior to scheduled
start time, and all seating is general admission. No refunds or exchanges. For
up-to-the-minute Festival information call the Hotline at (212) 621-6699,
e-mail tvdocfest@mtr.org, or visit the Museum’s website at www.mtr.org/tvdocfest/.
The Museum of Television & Radio, with locations in
###
The Museum of Television & Radio in New York,
located at 25 West 52 Street in Manhattan, is open Tuesdays through Sundays
from noon to 6:00 p.m. and until 8:00 p.m. on Thursdays. The Museum of
Television & Radio in
-30-