August news

  Last week  I had a privilege to  be a mentor in the  National  Association of Independent Latino producers, academy(http://www.nalip.org/) . The producers academy is an annual event that is designed to help emerging Latino producers and directors to improve their projects  so they could reach wider audiences. For 3 days I was privileged to work with a diverse talented group of emerging directors and producers  from around the country,  whose dedication, talent and commitment to  their projects is inspiring. I intend to accompany  and help several of the projects  till completion. They will be featured on our site  and I hope you all can get involved.  They are refreshing, diverse and promising new voices so badly needed in this country.

Started in the fall  the Web site will undergo a “face lift” and will begin to feature a much bigger variety of upcoming  projects, updates  and  Internet initiatives   but until than here is a quick list of  news  :

SIX DAYS
 was shown  on July 30, August 2nd in Fort Lauderdale  Int’ Film Festival

It will be shown in November in San Jose Jewish film Festival and in the  Middle East Studies Association  national convention. In a newly designed  part of the site I will list more  up coming screenings in the fall. Please check the film’s site (www.sixdaysmovie.com)  as we will keep adding resource and background material.

IN THE NAME OF THE VICTIMS
Together with LINK TV ( www.linktv.org) ,we are designing a special web site that  will be available in the early fall. The site will provide information, background material  and links to organizations struggling on behalf of Holocaust  survivors.  The controversy of  what has been done with the billions of dollars raised “in the name of the Victims” and the growing destitution of  elderly  Holocaust survivors is growing. We hope our film and our Web site will help to draw attention to this  shameful episode .

IN THE NAME OF THE VICTIMS   was  broadcast  on the French /German channel ARTE and will premiere on November 10 both in Israel (Channel  Eight) and  on Link TV (US). The US version is narrated by Ed Asner

Stay tuned for more  in the fall.

…and finally  the controversy  surrounding the broadcast on SIX DAYS on PBS ( June 5 , 2007) is catching on. 

 The question why  American audiences  did not see the same version that was shown to the rest of the world has  becomes a “news’ issue.

It appeared first in Canada in a series of articles:

Globe and Mail : “ FiveTakes on six Days”  

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/LAC.20070602.SIX02/EmailTPStory/TPEntertainment

The Tornoto Star: “Viewers get whitewashed version of history”

(http://www.thestar.com/News/article/222996) .

These stories were picked up by the PBS Ombudsman ( http://www.pbs.org/ombudsman/2007/06/versions_of_a_war.html ).

The story will now appear in the September 1st  issue of Columbia Journalism Review. (http://www.cjr.org/) I will use the timing of the  CJR article to dedicate a full blog to the issue, provide you with useful links and lots of background documentary evidence so  you will   be able to explore for yourself this growing controversy. The issue is far more important than the fate of one program and goes to the heart of how the Middle East is  presented on television in the US.

This is it for now. I rush for a short ( and much needed ) vacation . I will be back with more by the end of the month.

take care

Ilan

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