events 2009

The American Documentary Showcase in Prague

When: Wednesdays from March 25 to April 15
Where: Kino OKO, Františka Křížka 15, Praha 7

U.S. Embassy Prague in cooperation with Jihlava International Documentary Film Festival and Bridge Publishing screens every Wednesday at OKO cinema in Prague 7 prestigious contemporary documentaries that focus on America's racial and ethnic heritage, the environment and nature, culture, and the democratic process, among other themes, and it will travel to over 20 countries. Two Academy Award nominated films from 2009 — "The Garden" and "The Betrayal" — will be shown.

Free Entry!

Screenings are in English.

Guests of the Show

On April 15th directors David O'Shields (at 5:30 p.m. America's Lost Landscape: The Tallgrass Prairie) and Chuck Workman (at 7:30 p.m. The People's President) will introduce their movies and will join the afterwards discussion.

The Showcase and filmmakers will then travel to the Academia Film Festival in Olomouc on April 16 and Kino Art in Brno on April 17.

Chuck Workman has been involved in filmmaking and theater for over twenty- five years as an award-winning director, writer, and producer. Workman’s theatrical short, PRECIOUS IMAGES, made for the Directors Guild of America, won an Academy Award for Best Live Action Short and has become the most widely shown short in film history, and is circulating in the collection of The Museum of Modern Art in New York. Workman created several short films and opening sequences for ten Academy Awards presentations and two Emmy Award shows, and in 1992 he was nominated for an Emmy for Directorial Achievement for his work on the Oscar show, and has also been nominated six times for editing on the Oscar show.

David O'Shields has been a working member of the production community since 1985. In addition to his work in public television, he has extensive experience as a cameraman and director in commercial television. O'Shields founded New Light Media in 1995 to pursue his dream of making important and engaging documentary films. New Light Media's goal is to develop a diverse and distinctive body of documentaries. The natural environment, democracy, race and American History are primary areas of interest.

Betsy A. McLane, Ph.D., documentary film expert, http://documentarydiva.com

Program

March 25, 19:30
Beginning Filmmaking
Director: Jay Rosenblatt / 2008 / 23 min.
A portrait of a very young artist and an enthusiastic father who discovers truth in the cliché "creative differences" when he attempts to teach his

4-year-old daughter about filmmaking. Ella learns what she wants to, discards what she doesn't, and is determined to be a star in her own mind.
Director Rosenblatt is a former film and video production instructor at Stanford University, and his films have won over one hundred awards and have been screened throughout the world.

Note By Note (The Making Of Steinway L1037) 
Director: Ben Niles / 2007 / 80 min.
Won Best Documentary at the Sarasota Film Festival
The journey of a Steinway concert grand piano from forest to stage, by way of the New York factory where a legion of laborers lovingly handcraft one of the

world's finest instruments.

April 1, 17:30
The Garden
Director: Scott Hamilton Kennedy / 2008 / 80 min.
Won Grand Jury Award At Silverdocs Documentary Festival; 2009 Academy Award Nominee for Best Documentary Feature; Nominee, IDA Pare Lorentz Award
Follows the plight of immigrant farmers from the tilled soil of the largest American urban
farm to Los Angeles City Hall, telling the story of back room deals, land developers, green politics, poverty, power and racial discord as the farmers organize and speak out while bulldozers are poised to level their 14-acre oasis in South Central Los Angeles.
Director Kennedy: his debut documentary, "OT: Our Town" won awards at top film festivals and was nominated for Best Documentary by the IFP Independent Spirit Awards.

April 1, 19:30
The Sputnik Moment
Director: David Hoffman / 2008 / 55 min.
Chronicles the radical change in education that the United States underwent as a result of the launching of Sputnik, reinventing the system to make science and math and engineering a top priority. Over a 40-year career, Director Hoffman has made four feature-length documentaries and more than 100 primetime documentary television specials. His reality-style films present a view of recent American events and how the American people experienced them.

Red Gold
Directors: Travis Rummel and Ben Knight / 2008 / 55 min.
A film about a proposed pebble mine told through the unique and disparate voices of commercial, subsistence and sport fisherman of Bristol Bay, Alaska. The film documents the tension between mine officials--who say they will build a "clean" mine that will leave the salmon's habitat untouched--and local fisherman who oppose the project.
Directors Rummel and Knight are environmentalists who believe in utilizing film to raise awareness and to be vehicles for change.

April 8, 17:30
Empowering The Yard
Directors: Emily Kirsch, Erin Persley, Vincent Horner / 2007 / 11 min.
The film profiles an inspiring project at a women's prison in Oklahoma and introduces five prisoners who work as peer educators, conducting training for fellow prisoners on preventing HIV, AIDS and other diseases. The project serves as rehabilitation, job training and effective public health outreach because the five prisoners gain both public health knowledge and skills as educators while also delivering a powerful and important message to their peers. Prison officials are hoping to replicate the project.

The Betrayal
Director: Ellen Kuras, Thavisouk Phrasavath / 2008 / 97 min.
2009 Academy Award Nominee for Best Documentary Feature
Shot over 23 years, this film follows a family's epic journey from war-torn Laos to the mean streets of New York. Thavisouk Phrasaveth tells his own story of struggling as a young man to survive both the war and the hardships of immigrant life, as well as his mother's astonishing tale of perseverance.
Director Kuras is an Award-winning cinematographer and three-time winner at Sundance; this film is her directing debut. Laotian co-director Phrasavath is also the main subject of the film.

April 8, 19:30
Flow - for Love of Water
Director: Irena Salina / Producer: Steve Starr, / 2008 / 84 min.
Nominated for Grand Jury Prizea at Sundance, Won Best Documentary at Vail Film Festival
An investigation into what experts label the most important political and environmental issue of the 21st century--the world water crisis--that builds a case against the growing privatization of the world's dwindling fresh water supply with a focus on politics, pollution, human rights, and the emergence of a domineering world water cartel.  Includes a look at people and institutions providing practical solutions to the water crisis and those developing new technologies for successful global and economic turnaround.
Producer Starr, founder of the online video-sharing media network revver.com, is also a writer/director/producer of award-winning independent films.

April 15, 17:30
Meet The Director David O'Shields
America's Lost Landscape: The Tallgrass Prairie
Director: David O'Shields / 2005 / 58 min.
Winner of the Ida Pare Lorentz Award
Tells the story of how and why the prairie was changed by Euro-American settlement. The film highlights prairie preservation efforts and explores how the tallgrass prairie ecosystem may serve as a model for a sustainable agriculture of the future.
Director O'Shields was also the film's writer, producer and director of photography. He has extensive experience as a cameraman and  director in commercial television. He founded New Light Media to focus on films about the environment, democracy, race and American history.

April 15, 19:30
Meet The Director Chuck Workman
The People's President
Director: Chuck Workman / 2006 / 55 min.
Examines the role of Hollywood film and television industries in both shaping and reflecting America's views of the presidency with commentary from historians, media critics and former presidents.
Director Workman is an Award-winning director, writer, and producer for over twenty-five years. His theatrical short film "Precious Images," made for the Directors Guild of America, won an Academy Award for Best Live Action Short and is the most widely shown short in film history. Workman also created short films and opening sequences for ten Academy Awards shows and two Emmy Award shows.

April 15, 21:30
Street Fight
Director: Marshall Curry / 2005 / 83 min.
Won Awards at the Tribeca Film Festival, Silverdocs, and Hotdocs and was nominated for an Academy Award and Writers Guild of America Award
This film follows the bare-knuckles race for Mayor of Newark, NJ between a 32 year-old African American Rhodes scholar/Yale graduate and the four-term incumbent, the undisputed champion, who is also an African American, of New Jersey politics.  Fought in Newark's neighborhoods and housing projects, the battle pits the young challenger against an old style political machine.
Director Curry: in addition to directing the film, he was also the producer, director of photography, and editor. Curry has been guest lecturer at Harvard University, Duke University, and New York University, among others, and he has served on numerous festival juries.