April 6, 2012 stacys
Set in the Patina V mannequin factory, Jesse Epstein’s short doc 34×25x36 has been selected for the first ever PBS Online Film Festival! And, the festival has been extended for voting till April 13th.
34 x 25 x 36 is the third installment in a trilogy of films called BODY TYPED (including THE GUARANTEE and the Sundance award-winning WET DREAMS AND FALSE IMAGES) examining physical perfection from quirky and revealing angles.
Watch 34×25x36 and help get it featured on the PBS homepage by clicking “like”. You can also check out and use PBS’s Lesson Plan for 34×25x36 here
In other news…
Part #1 of BODY TYPED, WET DREAMS AND FALSE IMAGES, is currently touring Cuba through The Museum of Modern Art and The Americas Media Initiative.The goal of Closing Distances/Cerrando Distancias is to screen a selection of U.S. documentary short films that present unique and diverse local U.S. experiences to a wide Cuban audience that has very little information about the U.S. and, through cultural exchange, to increase understanding and foster dialogue between U.S. and Cuban citizens.
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August 8, 2011 stacys
Pamela Yates receives the Founder’s Award for our film “Granito: How To Nail A Dictator” at the Traverse City Film Festival (I’m behind the iPhone). The TCFF is an amazing film festival started by Michael Moore that I’m sure all New Day members would love. It is run by 850 volunteers from the community with only 2 paid positions, and is the most organized, filmmaker friendly festival I have ever attended. A truly exemplary community effort!
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March 20, 2011 stacys
Alice Elliott and Diana Braun are having a fantastic time in Uzbekistan! They have been screening their film, Body & Soul: Diana & Kathy to many different audiences are getting a very positive response. Follow along with their trip at www.uzbekadventure.wordpress.com.
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March 16, 2011 stacys
This weekend marks the fourth annual Sebastopol Documentary Film Festival. A special program at 2:00 p.m. Saturday celebrates the importance of social activist documentary films over the past four decades. Award-winning filmmaker Jim Klein will screen his ground-breaking 1976 film “Union Maids,” followed by clips from other important documentaries over the past 40 years and will lead a discussion on the role and the impact of social issue documentaries.
Tickets may be purchased at Sebastopol Center for the Arts, 6780 Depot Street in Sebastopol, or call 829-4797.
http://www.sebastopolfilmfestival.org/
New Day at Sebastopol Film Festival
Saturday, March 19, 2:00PM
Union Maids
by Julia Reichert, Jim Klein, Miles Mogulescu
Discussion with Klein
USA | 1976 | 50 min
Saturday, March 19, 4:30PM
Wo Ai Ni Mommy (I Love You, Mommy)
by Stephanie Wang-Breal
USA | 2009 | 76 min
Saturday, March 19, 7:00PM
The Most Distant Placesby Michael SeelyDiscussion with SeelyEcuador and USA
2010 | 32 min
Sin País (Without Country)
by Theo Rigby
Guatemala and USA
2010 | 19 min
Saturday, March 19, 7:00PM
I’m Just Anneke
by Jonathan Skurnik
Canada and USA
2010 | 11 min
Out In The Silence
Buy tickets to Out In The Silence to see Anneke.
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January 12, 2011 stacys
Johnny Symons
, director of the films Ask Not (Independent Lens, 2009) and Daddy & Papa (Independent Lens, 2002), was invited to attend the ceremony for President Obama’s signing of the repeal of the Pentagon’s Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell policy, which forced gay military personnel to serve in secrecy or be discharged. Emotional as he left the ceremony, he sent us this dispatch from Dulles Airport.
It’s 7am. Hundreds of bleary eyed people, most of them LGBT, are standing in a long line that wraps around the outside of the Department of the Interior. It’s 30 degrees out. After a half hour of shivering, the line begins to move. IDs are checked, we clear security, and find ourselves inside an official-looking auditorium.
People greet and hug and pose at the base of the podium, which is graced by the flags of each branch of the military. Anticipation and jubilation are in the air. The room is filled with people who have been fighting for this day for decades: activists, veterans, politicians, lobbyists. I’m thrilled to discover that many of the subjects from Ask Not are there: Alex Nicholson, founder of the Call to Duty Tour profiled in the film, and currently executive director of Servicemembers United; Jacob Reitan of the Right to Serve campaign; Palm Center director and leading Don’t Ask Don’t Tell expert Aaron Belkin; and Rear Admiral Al Steinman, the most senior-ranking military officer to come out of the closet so far.
Eventually congress members come in: Senators Reid, Franken, Leahy, Gillibrand, and Collins, and Speaker Pelosi, among others. I catch Dustin Lance Black (Oscar-winning screenwriter of Milk) introduce himself to Attorney General Eric Holder. Soon we take our seats and the program begins.
A rabbi leads the invocation, we recite the Pledge of Allegiance … and then, in the midst of singing the national anthem, I start to choke up. There is something truly amazing about this moment, standing here surrounded by gays and lesbians who are about to be given rights they have been denied for years …
An assortment of key congressional figures and discharged veterans take the stage, along with Chairman of the Joint Chiefs Mike Mullen. Joe Biden approaches the mic, says a few words and then introduces the star of the show: Barack Obama. I happen to be sitting near a group of Log Cabin Republicans, but there is no shortage of applause: it’s thundering.
Obama begins with a moving story of a WWII soldier who was wounded in a firefight and whose life was saved by a comrade. Years later he discovered the comrade was gay. Of course, it didn’t matter. Obama reminds us that DADT has been in effect for 17 years, but this is a battle we’ve been fighting for over 200 years. Echoing the final lines from Ask Not, he speaks of the added burden of silence gay soldiers have made while serving their country — and that it’s time to make things right.
After thanking everyone on stage and many others for their contributions to getting us here, he encourages those gay servicemembers who were discharged to reenlist — and for other gay Americans to sign up. He promises a swift and efficient implementation of the new policy. And then he sits, picks up a pen, and signs the bill. He declares simply, triumphantly, conclusively, “This is done.”
People stand, cheer, cry. A long line forms at the front of the stage with people eager to meet Obama. I do my best to make it to the front, but I’m too far back. Later I run into Jacob Reitan, who tells me Obama shook his hand and told him, “This is one of the days when it’s good to be president.”
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