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Win 10 FREE New Day Films on DVD!

Our latest online newsletter has a link where you can enter to win 10 FREE New Day Films on DVD! (Your choice of films, even!) Contest deadline is December 15, 2011!

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New Day Newsletter November Edition

The November E-Newsletter is up and ready for viewing. Learn about new titles and filmmaker news!

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New Day Films featured on documentary.org

documentary.org features New Day Films: Read it here!

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“Granito: How To Nail A Dictator” Gets Founder’s Award At TCFF

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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New Day Films featured in the Spring Issue of Filmmaker Magazine!

Check out the lastest issue of Filmmaker magazine for news about New Day Films!

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Follow the Adventures of New Day Filmmakers: Alice Elliot and Diana Braun

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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New Day at Sebastopol Documentary Film Festival

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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Ask Not Director Johnny Symons Attends DADT Repeal Signing

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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Free Streaming Offer in Response to LGBT Youth Suicides

As news of five suicides committed by youth who were targeted with homophobic harassment has spread across the country, the production company I work with, GroundSpark , and our distribution partner, New Day Films, have redoubled our commitment to helping communities do a much better job of addressing anti-LGBT bias, particularly in school.

Please share this “Spark” on your Facebook page, website, or by emailing it to friends.

We are making some of our tools available for free for the next two months in an effort to get them out far and wide during this time of intense public awareness.

But we need your help. And I don’t just mean by sending a donation.

We need your help in shaping the public conversation and getting these powerful tools into the right hands.

There is a lot of talk right now about more stringent laws and punishment for bullying. We definitely need strong, federal and state anti-bullying legislation. The full solution, though, involves much more than tough laws and rules.

We need to go deeper and address the underlying ignorance and stereotypes that contribute so painfully to the bullying epidemic. We need to build a culture of empathy and compassion. We need to get everyone on board—every student, every parent, and every adult who works with youth.

In recent days, many excellent new initiatives have popped up to support LGBT-identified students and their allies. GroundSpark is building on the good work of our sister organizations by sharing what we do best: sparking the transformation of whole schools from places of conflict and alienation to communities of respect and support.

We know from experience that people get inspired and motivated when they can see moving examples of honest, caring discussion about tough issues like bias-based harassment.

That’s what GroundSpark—through our films, curriculum guides and trainings—can provide. So for the first time our curriculum guides are available for free online and parents and students can stream our films for free into their homes.

Talking about how all students are negatively affected by anti-gay bias, no matter how they identify, is not easy. Nor is talking about stigmas regarding gender norms, race and class. But we have been doing this work, thoughtfully, and with great success for close to fifteen years.

To do our job well, though, particularly at this moment, we need you to help us spread the word.

You can help us reach out to the parents —of the youth who do the bullying, the youth who are scared to death to speak up on a classmate’s behalf for fear of being targeted themselves, the ones who don’t know what to do when their own kids are harassed.

You can help us reach the science teachers, baseball coaches, janitors, and school bus drivers so they understand that it is an important part of their job descriptions to model how to respond to anti-gay slurs.

You can help us give administrators and guidance counselors support and tools to launch in-depth dialogues and school-wide commitments that address bias and prejudice in serious, constructive ways, and not just through discipline.

Please take a moment to share GroundSpark’s Respect for All Project with everyone you know who cares about youth. We’ve brought together our best tools on addressing bias, particularly homophobia.

Just click here and you’ll see how easy it is to get started.

We’re committed to change. Join us. ‘

Debra Chasnoff
(director of these films)
P.S. Stream our Respect for All Project films, download our in-depth curriculum guides, get a film at a discount rate, make a donation, and share the spark. But please get involved. Start talking. Take action.

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New Day Digital Takes Off with Multiple Large Scale Streaming Deals

Going against the trend of difficult times for independent film and continuing red ink for digital distribution, one group of indie documentary filmmakers is enjoying significant success in streaming their films to universities and other academic institutions.

New Day Digital, the digital distribution site launched by the venerable, filmmaker-run New Day Films, has seen its streaming revenue climb steadily, fueled in part by multi-title deals with major institutions.

NDD recently closed a deal with University of Southern Florida to stream 15 of their documentary and social action films for 5 years. “There are increasing expectations on the part of faculty, students and researches for online video, said Rue McKenzie, Coordinator of Media Collections, Academic Resources, University of South Florida, Tampa Library. “With most resources available online they ask why isn’t there video as well? It makes them more widely available and streamlined to coordinate multiple uses and users.” Other educational institutions such as University of Connecticut and Lesley University have followed suit with multi-film streaming deals.

NDD, launched in 2008, streams documentary and social issue films from New Day Films, the filmmaker-owned distribution cooperative started in 1971. There are currently 123 films available for streaming and the group plans to expand its catalog. Licensing for viewing individually and as an institution are available and because the filmmakers own their own rights, they can offer customized options. The newest product is based on requests from professors – NDD InClass allows them to stream a film for a single class for $60. This product will launch in the Fall.

NDD helps schools answer the growing demand by students and faculty for readily_available, high_quality, online media. Schools that use NDD can stream video 24/7 without the additional costs of adding infrastructure and personnel, making films available to a wider audience, including the online classroom.

New Day Films is a cooperative of more than 100 member filmmakers, whose films have won Academy Awards, Emmys, and premiered at major film festivals. And although New Day has evolved enormously since the days of distribution on 16mm film prints, the group’s core values remain the same: Illuminate. Challenge. Inspire.

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