Six ITVS Documentaries to Screen in Competition at 2012 Sundance Film Festival

(San Francisco, CA)— Independent Television Service (ITVS) welcomed today the announcement that six of its funded films have been selected to screen in competition at the upcoming 2012 Sundance Film Festival, to be held in Park City, Utah, January 19-29. ITVS domestic co-productions claimed four out of the 16 spots in this year’s U.S. Documentary competition and two of the 12 spots in the World Documentary competition. 

“There could be no better recognition of the diversity and quality of our films and makers than such a large claim of the documentaries in competition at Sundance,” said Sally Jo Fifer, president and CEO of ITVS. “These films represent an extraordinary range of stories – both deeply personal and broadly profound – and it gives us great pride to know that each of them will eventually be presented to millions of viewers on public television.” 

ITVS FILMS IN U.S. DOCUMENTARY COMPETITION

DETROPIA by Heidi Ewing and Rachel Grady
The woes of Detroit are emblematic of the collapse of the U.S. manufacturing base. This is the dramatic story of a city and its people who refuse to leave the building, even as the flames are rising. 

The House I Live In by Eugene Jarecki
For over 40 years, the War on Drugs has accounted for 45 million arrests, made America the world's largest jailer and damaged poor communities at home and abroad. Yet, drugs are cheaper, purer and more available today than ever. Where did we go wrong and what is the path toward healing? 

The Invisible War by Kirby Dick
An investigative and powerfully emotional examination of the epidemic of rape of soldiers within the U.S. military, the institutions that cover up its existence and the profound personal and social consequences that arise from it. 

Love Free or Die: How the Bishop of New Hampshire is Changing the World by Macky Alston
One man whose two defining passions are in conflict: An openly gay bishop refuses to leave the Church or the man he loves. 

ITVS FILMS IN WORLD DOCUMENTARY COMPETITION

5 Broken Cameras by directors Emad Burnat and Guy Davidi
A Palestinian journalist chronicles his village’s resistance to a separation barrier being erected on their land and in the process captures his young son’s lens on the world. 

Putin’s Kiss by Lise Birk Pedersen
Nineteen-year-old Marsha is a model spokesperson in a strongly nationalistic Russian youth movement that aims to protect the country from its enemies. When she starts recognizing the organization’s flaws, she must take a stand for or against it. 

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 77, 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 www.sundance.org/festival/ 

About ITVS 
Mandated by Congress in 1988 to bring documentary films featuring underrepresented voices to public broadcasting, Independent Television Service (ITVS) is a global media organization that funds, presents, and promotes award-winning documentaries on public, cable, and foreign television, innovative new media projects on the Web, and the Emmy Award-winning series Independent Lens. ITVS is supported by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, a private corporation funded by the American people. 

About Sundance Film Festival 
A program of the non-profit 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 showcased the cinematic works of media artists including Isaac Julian, Doug Aitken, Pierre Huyghe, Jennifer Steinkamp, and Matthew Barney.  

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE 

CONTACT: Krissy Bailey, krissy_bailey@itvs.org 415-356-8383, ext 254