Four ITVS Documentaries to Screen at the 2011 Sundance Film Festival
(San Francisco, CA)—The Independent Television Service (ITVS) announced today that four of its funded films have been selected to screen at the upcoming 2011 Sundance Film Festival, to be held in Park City, Utah January 20 to 30.
If a Tree Falls: A Story of the Earth Liberation Front directed by Marshall Curry will screen in the U.S Documentary competition. The film profiles The Earth Liberation Front, a radical environmental group that the FBI has called America's 'number one domestic terrorist threat.' Daniel McGowan, an ELF member, faces life in prison for two multi-million dollar arsons against Oregon timber companies. But who is really to blame? If a Tree Falls: A Story of the Earth Liberation Front is one of 16 films selected from 841 submissions in the U.S. Documentary competition. The film is slated to air 2011 on PBS’ P.O.V. series.
ITVS International film Family Portrait in Black and White by director Julia Ivanova is one of 12 films selected from 796 international documentary submissions for the World Cinema Competition. The film profiles Olga Nenya who lives in a small Ukrainian town, raising 16 black orphans amidst a population of Slavic blue-eyed blondes. Their stories expose the harsh realities of growing up as a bi-racial child in Eastern Europe.
Two additional domestic projects will premiere in the out-of-competition category, Granito by director Pamela Yates and The Interrupters, directed by Steve James. Granito intertwines with Guatemala’s turbulent history and emerges as an active player in a nation’s struggle to heal itself and serve up justice. From the Academy Award-winning director of Hoop Dreams comes The Interrupters, a story of ex-gang members who are now protecting their communities from the violence they themselves once employed.
The participation of these films in the festival brings the number of ITVS-funded films that have screened at the Sundance Film Festival to a total of 71, since ITVS’s first presence at the festival in 1994. Screening dates and times are still pending. Up-to-date information can be found online at http://www.sundance.org/festival/.
About ITVS
The Independent Television Service (ITVS) funds and presents award-winning documentaries and dramas on public television, innovative new media projects on the Web and the Emmy® Award-winning weekly series Independent Lens on Tuesday nights at 10 PM on PBS. ITVS is a miracle of public policy created by media activists, citizens, and politicians seeking to foster plurality and diversity in public television. ITVS was established by a historic mandate of Congress to champion independently produced programs that take creative risks, spark public dialogue, and provide for underserved audiences. Since its inception in 1991, ITVS programs have revitalized the relationship between the public and public television, bringing TV audiences face-to-face with the lives and concerns of their fellow Americans. More information about ITVS can be obtained by visiting itvs.org. ITVS is funded by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, a private corporation funded by the American people.
About Sundance Film Festival
Supported by the nonprofit Sundance Institute, the Festival has introduced global audiences to some of the most ground-breaking films of the past two decades, including sex, lies, and videotape, Maria Full of Grace, The Cove, Hedwig and the Angry Inch, An Inconvenient Truth, Precious, Trouble the Water and Napoleon Dynamite and, through its New Frontier initiative, has brought the cinematic works of media artists including Isaac Julian, Doug Aitken, Pierre Huyghe, Jennifer Steinkamp, and Matthew Barney. www.sundance.org/festival
CONTACT: Voleine Amilcar voleine_amilcar@itvs.org 415-356-8383, ext 244