This week, we check out the Media That Matters Festival and catch up with some POV alums.
The 10th annual Media that Matters Festival, which showcases short films about social issues, premiered in New York City this week. About.com:Documentaries covered the festival, and filmmaker Angela Tucker, who is also the Director of Production for Arts Engine, the organization that runs the festival, wrote about the importance curating media in the era of YouTube on the Huffington Post. You can watch the short films from Media That Matters online at the festival’s website.
New Muslim Cool, which focused on Hamza Pérez, a Puerto Rican-American rapper who pulled himself out of the street life and became a Muslim, aired on POV last summer. Hamza and filmmaker Jennifer Maytorena Taylor are interviewed by Wheel Me Out about their collaboration and the film.
In 1971, Daniel Ellsberg, a leading Vietnam War strategist, concluded that America’s role in the war was based on decades of lies. He leaked 7,000 pages of top-secret documents to The New York Times, a daring act of conscience that led directly to Watergate, President Nixon’s resignation and the end of the Vietnam War. Ellsberg’s story is told in the Academy Award-nominated The Most Dangerous Man in America: Daniel Ellsberg and the Pentagon Papers, which will air on POV this fall. The AARP Magazine interviewed Ellsberg about the Oscars, parallels between Vietnam and Afghanistan, the film and more.
Still in Motion Blog interviewed POV alum Marlo Poras, whose film Mai’s America aired on POV in 2002. In the extensive interview, Poras talks about how she started her filmmaking career, the making of Mai’s America, and her new film, The Mosuo Sisters, which tells the story about two sisters from China’s last remaining matriarchal society.
Finally, this week, the Gucci Tribeca Documentary Fund, which provides finishing funds to documentary filmmakers, announced its 2010 recipients. Congratulations to all the filmmakers!