Hello!!

For more than 25 years, New Day's independent filmmakers have produced award-winning educational films and videos on social issue topics. In this newsletter, you'll find descriptions of our newest films, notices of upcoming broadcasts and screenings in your area, recent awards, and up-to-date information on New Day films and filmmakers.

~~~~~~~~~
CONTENTS
~~~~~~~~~
---Recent Releases
---Recent Awards
---Upcoming Broadcasts & Screenings
---New Day Conference Beat
---Member News

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
RECENT RELEASES
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Daddy & Papa is a multiple award-winning new film by Johnny Symons. What happens when gay men decide to raise kids? Daddy & Papa takes us inside four families, including the filmmaker's own, to explore the personal, cultural, and political implications of gay fatherhood. From surrogacy and interracial adoption, to the complexities of gay divorce, to the battle for full legal status as parents, Symons presents a revealing look at the evolving picture of the American family.

What Do You Believe? -Spiritual lives of American teenagers by Sarah Feinbloom and Klara Grunning-Harris captures a rich collection of teens as they share their most personal beliefs about god, morality, prayer, death, suffering, the purpose of life, and freedom of religion in the United States. The film paints a broad picture of the religious and spiritual lives of American youth and delves deeply into the issues that are at the heart of being human.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
RECENT AWARDS
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Scout's Honor by Thomas Shepard traces the conflict between the anti-gay policies of the Boy Scouts of America and the broad-based movement by many of its members to overturn them. The film recently won First Place at the National Council on Family Relations 2002 Annual Media Awards Competition for Social Issue Documentary. It also won Best Documentary in the 2002 GLAAD (Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation) Media Awards.

Beauty Before Age, a film by Johnny Symons is a groundbreaking portrait of aging in the gay male community which examines the cultural focus on youth and beauty and men's fears about growing older. The film received an NEMN Gold Apple and an International Documentary Association Certificate of Merit as well as Honorable Mention at this year's Silver Images Film Festival, which recognizes films that address issues of aging.

What Do You Believe? -Spiritual lives of American teenagers by Sarah Feinbloom and Klara Grunning-Harris, recently received a Paul Robeson Grant for Independent Media.

New Day member, Joan Mandell, recently received a grant from the National Asian American Telecommunications Association (NAATA) and the Public Benefit Corporation (Detroit) for post-production work on her epilogue to Tales from Arab Detroit. Tales from Arab Detroit tells the story of how one diverse community weaves new traditions with the threads of old.

After premiering at this year's Sundance Film Festival, Daddy & Papa, by New Day member Johnny Symons, has screened at over 50 international film festivals and has won 11 awards including Best Documentary awards in San Francisco and Miami. The New York Times calls the film "inspirational."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
UPCOMING BROADCASTS & SCREENINGS
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Everyday Heroes by Rick Goldsmith gives a behind-the-headlines look at AmeriCorps and a provocative look at youth, race and national service. The film is being broadcast on more than 70 public television stations nationwide in October, with more to come throughout the fall and into 2003. For full broadcast schedule go to http://www.every-day-heroes.org.

Yidl in the Middle an award winning film by Marleene Booth examines the complicated process of negotiating identity as an American, a Jew, and a woman in Iowa. The film airs Oct 21st on the PBS affiliate station in Boston.

Heidi Schmidt Emberling’s new documentary Tangled Roots premiered at the San Francisco Jewish Film Festival in July and will screen over the next few months at festivals and events in Berlin, Los Angeles, Boston, Pennsylvania, San Diego, and Tucson, among others. This compelling film deals with Emberling’s struggle to reconcile her dual ethnic identity through the confrontation of her German father and Jewish mother.

In early October, Rick Goldsmith's Academy Award winning film, Tell the Truth and Run: George Seldes and the American Press had a sold-out screening at Simon's Rock College of Bard in western Massachusetts and continues to be cablecast on The Sundance Channel.

Thomas Shepard’s Scout's Honor will be screened at the 2002 American Child Psychiatry Association's Annual Meeting in San Francisco, the American Psychiatric Association Annual Meeting, the Teaching Respect to All Annual Conference by GLSEN (Gay and Lesbian Straight Education Network), and the 2002 Association of American Colleges and Universities Diversity and Learning Meeting in St. Louis, MO.

Sarah Feinbloom’s What Do You Believe? -Spiritual lives of American teenagers screened at the Mill Valley 25th Annual Film Festival.

Downside UP, by Nancy Kelly, captures the beginnings of America's largest museum of contemporary art, MASS MoCA (the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art) and the rebirth of its host-city, North Adams, Massachusetts. The film screened in Bangor, Maine and will soon begin broadcasting in Spring 2003 as part of the Independent Lens series on PBS (broadcast date TBA)

Joan Mandell was invited to screen a preview of her epilogue to Tales from Arab Detroit to an audience of 1500 at the annual Michigan ADC banquet. In November a related short video, "I, Too, Sing America", will screen at the Louisville Film Festival.

The Austin Chronicle described Letters Not About Love, a film by Jacki Ochs, as “a true and literal fusion of cinema and poetry”. Ochs’s film continues its national screening tour at the Urban Institute for Contemporary Arts in Grand Rapids Michigan on November 15th at 8PM. A live performance by Rova Saxophone Quartet, which contributed to the score of the film, will precede the screening.

Jonathan Skurnik’s next film, Stutter Step, is a personal portrait of a Jewish stutterer and his exploration of, and attitudes about, stuttering. It recently screened in rough-cut form to the Docuclub in NYC. HBO has expressed interest in the film, possibly as part of Cinemax’s “Real Life” series.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
NEW DAY CONFERENCE BEAT
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Nancy Kelly’s Downside UP has recently been part of the following conferences: the Michigan Society of Planners Annual Conference; the Preservation North Carolina Annual Conference; and the Grantmakers in the Arts Annual Conference.

~~~~~~~~~~~
MEMBER NEWS
~~~~~~~~~~~

Professor Todd L. Pittinksky at Harvard's Kennedy School has recently written an extensive teaching note to accompany Thomas Shepard’s Scout's Honor in the university classroom. It will soon be available at http://www.ksgcase.harvard.edu/.

The Los Angeles Times said New Day member Pamela Beere Briggs’ film, Women of Mystery: Three Writers Who Forever Changed Detective Fiction is “... an engrossing triple portrait of three writers who launched a new direction in crime fiction.” The film was featured in the August 2002 issue of the magazine "The Writer" as "Editor's Pick."

A Day's Work, A Day’s Pay by Jonathan Skurnik follows three welfare recipients in New York City from 1997 to 2000 as they participate in the largest welfare-to-work program in the nation. The film is selling well thanks in part to New Day’s mailing list and from continued debate of welfare reform on college campuses. Skurnik will soon spend six weeks at an artist retreat at the Ucross Foundation in Wyoming where he plans to develop future projects.

Nancy Kelly’s Downside UP recently screened in the following festivals: the Film Arts Festival of Independent Cinema; the San Francisco First Person Cinema in Seattle, WA; the Northampton Film Festival; the Hot Springs Film Festival; and the Breckenridge Film Festival.