Being Innu color, 53 & 76 minutes
This film takes an unvarnished look at life in the village of Sheshatshiu, Labrador. Six savvy, gutsy young people talk to Montreal filmmaker Catherine Mullins about addiction, suicide, lack of jobs, hopelessness. Interviews with Elders, grandparents and teachers round out this portrait of a community in crisis - sadly a situation not unlike that of many other aboriginal nations.

Death Row color, 59 minutes
When this film was made in March 1979, 114 men were housed in the special death cells of Ellis prison’s (Texas) rows J-21 and J-23. The men spend their time waiting for the State to kill them or fighting as hard as they can to prevent that death from happening. Death Row is about how men get by on the Row, how they fill the years between fixing of a death sentence by a judge and ultimate resolution in freedom, commutation or death by lethal injection.

The Lost Water color, 21 minutes
As bonded laborers, the Agariya salt workers of Little Rann of Kutch (LRK), Gujarat are not only victims of wage discrimination, they are endure serious physical and mental health hazards due to the dangerous nature of their work. This short film relates the extreme conditions in which they work and their struggle for both their ancestors’ land and their livelihood.

Out of Order color, 89 minutes
In Out of Order six former Catholic nuns tell why they entered and why they left religious life. The women (filmmaker Diane Christian is one of them) describe their years in the convent and their return to the secular world. This film offers unique insight into female socialization and identity in modern America by probing ideals and realities of womanhood, sex, work and service from an unknown and unusual perspective.

San Fransisco-Still Wild at Heart color, 57 minutes
As San Francisco grapples with what it means to have coyotes as new residents, along comes San Francisco-Still Wild At Heart, a compelling one-hour natural history film that chronicles the return of coyotes to this city’s landscape. Lyrical in style, the film is a virtual case study of the coyote’s arrival in urban America, as it explores the complexity, conflicts, and richness of this fertile interface between urban life and wild nature.

Robert Gardner’s classic Dead Birds is one of the most highly acclaimed and controversial documentary films ever made. This detailed and candid account of the process of making Dead Birds, from the birth of the idea through filming in New Guinea to editing and releasing the finished film, is more than the chronicle of a single work. It is also a thoughtful examination of what it meant to record the violent rituals of warrior-farmers in the New Guinea highlands and to present to the world a graphic story of their behavior as a window onto our own. Letters, journals, telegrams, newspaper clippings, and over 50 images are assembled to recreate a vivid chronology of events. Making Dead Birds not only addresses the art and practice of filmmaking, but also explores issues of representation and the discovery of meaning in human lives.

Gardner led a remarkable cast of participants on the 1961 expedition. All brought back extraordinary bodies of work. Probably most influential of all was Dead Birds, which marked a sea change in nonfiction filmmaking. This book takes the reader inside the creative process of making that landmark film and offers a revealing look into the heart and mind of one of the great filmmakers of our time.

This revealing text is a serious addition to written and visual publications about Dani encounters, and it leaves the reader wishing for more.
— Steven Feld, editor-translator of Jean Rouch: Cine-Ethnography

Robert Gardner returns cinema to its most primal and far-reaching task and mission: discovering the world.
— Tom Gunning, author of The Films of Fritz Lang: Allegories of Vision and Modernity

The regular edition of Making Dead Birds is now available through Amazon and the Peabody Museum Press. A limited edition signed book with signed, numbered fine art print of the photograph Ritual War II (edition of 100) is available through DER. Please email us for more information.

The WGBH/Boston filmmakers lab is a great resource for aspiring talent to break in and get noticed.

The WGBH Lab and National Black Programming Consortium invite filmmakers and other aspiring media-makers to pitch ideas for video shorts that look at the issue of how we resolve past wrongs, especially around matters of race.

Check out the latest opportunity:

lab.wgbh.org/open-call

The Tribeca Film Institute and Gucci Announce

New Finishing Fund for Documentary Films

[New York, NY - November 20, 2007] - The Tribeca Film Institute and Gucci announced today the launch of the Gucci Tribeca Documentary Fund. The Fund will offer finishing funds and post production guidance to independent filmmakers in need of finances to complete documentaries that promote social change and illuminate issues in need of comprehensive coverage currently missing from mainstream media.

The Fund will provide grants totaling $80,000 to a minimum of three filmmakers in 2008 and will be administered by the Tribeca Film Institute. Recipients will be selected by the Tribeca Film Institute along with Gucci and a selection committee of documentary filmmakers, to be announced at a later date.

“We are so pleased to launch this finishing fund with Gucci,” said Jane Rosenthal, Tribeca Film Institute, Co-Chairman of the Board.  “It is our hope this new fund will not only aid filmmakers in completing compelling documentaries but propel those stories into the mainstream.”

“Our newly formed partnership with the Tribeca Film Institute  underscores the importance Gucci has placed on supporting important film projects like documentary filmmaking, film restoration and preservation,” said Daniella Vitale, President of Gucci America.  “The establishment of this fund further strengthens our long-standing commitment to the film community.  We are honored to be associated with such a prestigious organization.”   This is the second completion fund for documentary film projects established by Gucci.  In February of 2007 Gucci announced its first documentary film grant in partnership with Ambulante Film Festival to support the work of three Mexican filmmakers.

The Gucci Tribeca Documentary Fund is open to documentary filmmakers who have projects in production or postproduction. Filmmakers will be required to submit a proposal along with a trailer, scene assemblage or rough-cut. Submissions open on February 5, 2008 and must be postmarked by April 11^th, 2008. Additional details can be found at www.tribecafilminstitute.org. Recipients will be announced in the Summer of 2008.

A dinner celebrating the Fund will take place on December 18, 2007 in New York City hosted by Robert De Niro and Jane Rosenthal and will feature a conversation on the role documentary filmmakers play in bringing attention to critical stories.

About the Tribeca Film Institute

The Tribeca Film Institute creates innovative programs that draw on the unifying power of film to promote understanding, tolerance and global awareness.  Our commitment is to educate, entertain and inspire filmmakers and audiences alike, while strengthening the artistic and economic fabric of New York City and its Lower Manhattan community.

Programs developed and run by the Institute include: Tribeca All Access, Tribeca Talks, The Alfred P. Sloan Foundation Partnership, and The Tribeca Film Institute Youth Programs which include Tribeca Film Fellows, Tribeca Teaches, Summer Arts Institute Filmmaking Workshop, Tribeca Youth Screening Series and Our City, My Story. For more information visit www.tribecafilminstitute.org.

About Gucci

Founded in Florence in 1921, Gucci is one of the world’s leading luxury brands. It designs, manufactures and markets leather goods (handbags, small leather goods, and luggage), shoes, ready-to-wear, silk, timepieces and jewelry. The products are sold exclusively through directly-operated stores and through exclusive Gucci franchisee stores, duty-free boutiques, department stores and specialty stores around the world. Gucci brand eyewear and fragrances are manufactured and distributed under license by global industry leaders for these two categories. In 2006 Gucci posted another record year, with revenues amounting to 2,100.9 million Euro. The exclusive network of DOS reached 219 stores at the end of 2006. Gucci is part of Gucci Group N.V., owned by PPR, a global player in Retail and Luxury Goods. Shares in PPR are traded on the Euronext Paris (#121485, PRTP.PA, PPFP).

Contact:

Tribeca Enterprises - Tammie Rosen, (212) 941-2003, trosen@tribecaenterprises.com

Gucci - Brett Weisman, (212) 379-8592, brett.weisman@gucci.it

Great Work Space for Rent!
397 Moody St. 2nd floor, Waltham, MA

Contact:
Bonnie orJen
info@filmmakerscollab.org
781-647-1102

The Grant Institute’s Grants 101: Professional Grant Proposal Writing Workshop will be held at the Harvard Medical Center, February 20 - 22, 2008. Interested development professionals, researchers, faculty, and graduate students should register as soon as possible, as demand means that seats will fill up quickly. Please forward, post, and distribute this e-mail to your colleagues and listservs.

All participants will receive certification in professional grant writing from the Institute. For more information call (888) 824 - 4424 or visit The Grant Institute at www.thegrantinstitute.com.

Please find the program description below:

The Grant Institute

Grants 101: Professional Grant Proposal Writing Workshop

will be held at

Harvard Medical Center

Conference Center

Boston, Massachusetts

February 20 - 22, 2008

8:00 AM - 5:00 PM

Date: December 4-5, 2007
Location: UMass Boston Campus Center
100 Morrissey Blvd
Boston, MA 02125

For more information about the Boston Summit, go to:
http://www.cfnps.org/Boston.aspx

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Tom Putnam’s moving WWII documentary, RED, WHITE, BLACK AND BLUE, is having it’s one-hour broadcast premiere this Tuesday November 6 at 10pm on Independent Lens, although that day and time will vary for some stations so people should check the PBS website for local listings.

Order the DVD for Veterans Day at www.der.org