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Hello!
For 30 years, New Day's independent filmmakers have produced award-winning educational films and videos on social issue topics. Our films have won an Academy Award, eight Academy Award nominations, four Emmys and top honors at film festivals around the world. 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. Please check our website for all the latest news: http://www.newday.com!
CONTENTS
- New Releases
- Awards/Grants
- Broadcasts & Screenings
- Member News
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NEW RELEASES
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EVERYDAY HEROES by Rick Goldsmith and Abby Ginzberg, takes a behind-the-headlines look at a diverse group of young adults who give a year of their lives through a San Francisco area AmeriCorps program to tutor and mentor needy kids. Despite their good intentions, they are confronted by a host of obstacles, including a racial divide that threatens to thwart their efforts. While documenting a year both turbulent and exhilarating, the film reveals the hopes and dreams, successes and setbacks of a group of individuals--potentially tomorrow's leaders-- searching for their place in the world and trying, against odds, to make a difference. Issues of race and diversity permeate every scene, with the impassioned voices of the service providers "talking across differences." The soundtrack includes music by Tupac Shakur, Ben Harper, Moby, Beth Orton, Ani DiFranco, John Coltrane, Christian McBride, The Braids, Thelonius Monk, Public Enemy, Lemon 'N' Ice and others.
FIVE DAYS TO CHANGE THE WORLD by Robert Richter offers a riveting account of an historic event ignored by U.S. mainstream media. The film follows young rebels at the largest world peace conference in history as they create plans for their own future. Striking archival footage puts the issues they grappled with into context: child soldiers, land mines, small arms trade, nuclear weapons, racism, an international criminal court, debt relief for poor nations, women in the peace process, and peace education. Among others, the film includes appearances by Nobel Peace Prize winners Desmond Tutu, Kofi Annan, José Ramos Horta, Aung San Suu Kyi, Jody Williams; authors Arundhati Roy, Jonathan Schell, Vandana Shiva; Queen Noor of Jordan; conference leader Cora Weiss; singer Judy Collins and hip hop artist/actor Mos Def.
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AWARDS/GRANTS
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Beth Harrington, producer/director of the New Day film THE BLINKING MADONNA & OTHER MIRACLES, is pleased to announce that her latest film "Welcome to the Club - The Women of Rockabilly", a women's studies/music documentary, was nominated for a Grammy Award in the Best Long Form Music Video category.
Jane Gillooly, director of the award-winning documentary LEONA'S SISTER GERRI, has been nominated for a Rockefeller award for a new film with the working title "The Not Dead Yet Club".
Nancy Kelly’s New Day film, DOWNSIDE UP was the basis for the "Downside UP Listening Tour", a nationwide tour funded by the Ford Foundation, which is now wrapping up. The Foundation is taking the Listening Tour findings to the next step, by funding a demonstration project. The project has also received outreach grants from the NEA Heritage and Preservation Division and from the LEF Foundation. Additionally, Nancy Kelly was recently awarded a residency at the Mesa Refuge in California where she worked on the manuscript for her book, "When We Were Cowgirls," which will be published by the University of Utah Press.
Susan Stern, creator of the award-winning film BARBIE NATION has received a grant from the San Francisco Art Commission for her new film, "The Entrepreneur" -- a poetic examination of the philosophical and psychological issues underlying the stormy debate on physician-assisted suicide. "The Entrepreneur" is about Susan Stern's father -- who killed himself rather than undergo treatment for terminal illness -- and left her a 50-minute video of his decision. The film is expected to be released in the fall of 2004.
Walter Brock has just received ITVS/LinCS support for a new documentary on land-use conflict, tentatively entitled "Land (and how it gets that way)", which will be done by early summer. Walter was also recently awarded a KET grant to begin an as-yet-untitled follow-up to his New Day film, A SEASON IN HELL.
Marlene Booth, maker of YIDL IN THE MIDDLE: GROWING UP JEWISH IN IOWA, received a grant from Pacific Islanders in Communications to research her new film, "Pidgin: Language and Culture in Hawai'i."
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BROADCASTS & SCREENINGS
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Laurel Chiten's multiple-award-winning New Day film about Tourette Syndrome, TWITCH AND SHOUT was recently shown at a Neuroscience symposium sponsored by MIT and Harvard. Laurel was there to speak after the film, along with actor Christopher Reeve. Laurel's new film, "Touched", which was shot and co-produced by New Day member Andy Abrahams Wilson, recently opened at the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston to a sold-out crowd. The film is about people who think they have been abducted by aliens and the Harvard Professor who believes them.
After premiering at the 2002 Sundance Film Festival, Johnny Symons' latest film DADDY & PAPA has screened at over 75 international film festivals and won 15 awards, including Best Documentary at the Miami Gay & Lesbian Film Festival and Best First Person Documentary at the San Francisco International Film Festival. The New York Times calls the film "inspirational." DADDY & PAPA will be broadcast nationwide on PBS in June as part of the Independent Lens series. The film is now available from New Day Films on DVD.
Tony Silver reports that the Tribeca Film Festival in NYC will feature his films STYLE WARS and STYLE WARS REVISITED as part of a special presentation in its 'NY NY' section. The latter is a new 35 minute film completed from the upcoming DVD. Additionally, Tony’s new film "Arisman: Facing the Audience" screened at both the Chicago International Documentary Film Festival and the Newport Beach Film Festival.
Marlene Booth's New Day film, YIDL IN THE MIDDLE: GROWING UP JEWISH IN IOWA screened on public television in Boston, at the Bedford, Massachusetts public library, and as part of a retrospective of her work at Congregation B'nai B'rith in Somerville, MA.
New Day filmmaker Joan Mandell, director of TALES FROM ARAB DETROIT, has produced a short video, "Vote for Children" for the SEIU/Sierra Club Vote for Children Campaign about their voter registration drive. She spoke about the impact of the Patriot Act on Feminism in the Arab and Muslim Communities at the New Jersey National Writers Union conference in January. She also premiered a sequel to "Tales from Arab Detroit" ("Arab Americans After 9-11") at the annual Middle East Studies Association Film Festival in Washington DC in late November. In addition, she screened "I, Too, Sing America", a short video about patriotism and stereotyping.
Heather Courtney’s New Day title, LOS TRABAJADORES/THE WORKERS recently aired on PBS. The film explores the myriad contradictions that haunt America's dependence on and discrimination against immigrant labor.
Rick Goldsmith’s EVERYDAY HEROES was broadcast on more than 80 public television stations nationwide in October, 2002. Several stations created broadcast-related events centered around community service, "making a difference," or honoring their own local "everyday heroes." Another New Day title of Rick’s, the Academy Award nominated TELL THE TRUTH AND RUN: GEORGE SELDES AND THE AMERICAN PRESS screened at the Rafael Film Center in San Rafael, California in May.
DOWNSIDE UP by New Day filmmaker Nancy Kelly was recently broadcast on PBS's Independent Lens series. In the past year, it screened at the annual conferences of the American Planning Association, Region 1; Grantmakers in the Arts, Preservation North Carolina, the Michigan Society of Planners, and the American Planning Association national conference.
Jack Ochs’ film LETTERS NOT ABOUT LOVE has been making the semi-theatrical film rounds to great acclaim. Most recently it screened at the Urban Institute of Contemporary Art, voted Grand Rapids' "best alternative film theatre" in Michigan. In addition, Milwaukeeans packed the house to see it at Woodland Pattern Book Center where it was part of the University of Wisconsin film series on writing and film.
Jonathan Skurnik and Kathy Leichter tell us that A DAY'S WORK, A DAY'S PAY continues to flourish on the festival circuit, showing in human rights film festivals in Peru and Brazil, Women in the Director's Chair in Chicago, and the Director's View Film Festival in Connecticut. What’s more, since its national broadcast on PBS, cable access stations all over the country have requested the right to broadcast the film on their stations (which PBS has graciously granted).
"Murder At Harvard", directed by Eric Stange, will air on PBS's American Experience in July. The film is a historical who-dunnit that explores the question of what we can ever really know about the past. A mixture of film-noir drama and documentary, it follows historian Simon Schama's encounter with a notorious 1849 murder in Boston. Eric is spending this year at the Charles Warren Center in the History Department at Harvard, where he has a fellowship to research issues surrounding the presentation of history through film. Eric's previous New Day film is CHILDREN OF THE LEFT.
New Day-ers Debra Chasnoff and Helen S. Cohen are officially collaborating with four national organizations to provide free training to educators and community groups in cities around the country using their award-winning film about changing family structures, THAT'S A FAMILY!. Events will be hosted at member sites of the Association of Children’s Museums and promoted through networks of the US Conference of Mayors, the Afterschool Alliance, and the Child Welfare League of America. The collaboration marks the first time a group of national organizations has come together to promote family diversity in communities nationwide. Family and parent screenings of the film will also be held in each city. Helen took part in a keynote salon on family diversity using THAT'S A FAMILY at the national conference of the Association of Children’s Museums in Houston, Texas, in May.
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MEMBER NEWS
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Jenny Cool’s New Day film, HOME ECONOMICS: A DOCUMENTARY OF SUBURBIA screened at the New Cities New Media conference hosted by the University of Southern California, School of Architecture this past January. Jenny is currently working on a documentary about copyright and intellectual property in the digital age, and has a project web site at www.coolstudios.com/pirates/index.
WOMEN OF MYSTERY: THREE WRITERS WHO FOREVER CHANGED DETECTIVE FICTION screened at the 2003 National Popular Culture Association/American Culture Association Conference in New Orleans in April, with mystery writer Sara Paretsky and producer/director Pamela Beere Briggs on a special panel following the screening. A review of the film appears in the spring issue of "Journal of Popular Culture". Public librarians and others can keep their eye out for an article in an upcoming issue of "American Libraries", about California's highly successful statewide WOMEN OF MYSTERY screening-reading-discussion programs. The article, co-authored by Natalie Cole, Director of the California Center for the Book, and Pamela Beere Briggs, illustrates the exciting possibilities of combining documentary film screenings and book discussions within the stimulating venue of the public library.
J Clements, producer of New Day titles MAN OH MAN, MEANS OF GRACE and DEAR LISA, is finishing her documentary "Next Door" about a family as they come to terms with their teenage daughter's alcoholism. J tells us that the film should be completed this summer.
New Day-er David Yanofsky, director of the New Day film POETIC LICENSE was hired as the Executive Director of Just Think, a nonprofit that works with youth on media education and production. Just Think helps youth understand the way media is constructed and how they are often the targets of that media. David adds, “We then put cameras in their hands and ask them to create their own original stories.”
BARBIE NATION: AN UNAUTHORIZED TOUR by New Day member Susan Stern, will be coming out on DVD this fall. The new DVD version will feature never-seen-before footage of Ruth and Elliot Handler and their daughter Barbara -- the family which created Barbie and Mattel, Inc. Look for a new short film on Barbies of color, plus revealing interviews on the business of Barbie, telling outtakes, a director's commentary -- and more.
Earlier this year, the Chicago Public Schools’ Office of Curriculum and Instruction officially recommended that Debra Chasnoff and Helen S. Cohen's award-winning film about changing family structures, THAT'S A FAMILY! be included in the Principal’s Handbook as a supplemental resource for students in grades K–12. And in California, more than 1,000 educators and youth-service providers have participated in a free training program for the film. As a result, more than 10,000 children throughout the state have been exposed to the film’s message of respecting differences of all kinds. THAT'S A FAMILY! has also been screened at eighteen national and regional conferences in 2002–2003.
DADDY & PAPA, Johnny Symons’ multiple award-winning documentary about gay men raising kids, screened at the national conferences of the American Psychological Association and the American Psychiatric Association, as well as the Lavender Law Conference, the Lesbian & Gay Journalists National Convention, and the Annual Conference on Race, Class, Gender, and Ethnicity.
Thanks again for your interest in NEW DAY FILMS!!!
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