Here’s your daily dose of an indie film, web series, TV pilot, what-have-you in progress, as presented by the creators themselves. At the end of the week, you’ll have the chance to vote for your favorite.
In the meantime: Is this a project you’d want to see? Tell us in the comments.
Diamond Diplomacy
Logline: Devotion to baseball has been tossed between the U.S. and Japan since the late 1800s, and mirrors profound shifts in diplomacy between the two nations. “Diamond Diplomacy” charts this story revealing pivotal moments of often-controversial duality.
Elevator Pitch:
Baseball is the national pastime of two very different countries. “Diamond Diplomacy” is the never-before-told story about the dramatic ups and downs of U.S. and Japan diplomacy, since 1872, through the lens of a shared love of baseball. Several players and managers (including Babe Ruth and Lefty O’Doul) have been important ambassadors through baseball.
In the meantime: Is this a project you’d want to see? Tell us in the comments.
Diamond Diplomacy
Logline: Devotion to baseball has been tossed between the U.S. and Japan since the late 1800s, and mirrors profound shifts in diplomacy between the two nations. “Diamond Diplomacy” charts this story revealing pivotal moments of often-controversial duality.
Elevator Pitch:
Baseball is the national pastime of two very different countries. “Diamond Diplomacy” is the never-before-told story about the dramatic ups and downs of U.S. and Japan diplomacy, since 1872, through the lens of a shared love of baseball. Several players and managers (including Babe Ruth and Lefty O’Doul) have been important ambassadors through baseball.
- 10/24/2016
- by Steve Greene
- Indiewire
"Havana Curveball" is a funny and personal documentary film by Ken Schneider & Marcia Jarmel about their son Mica’s efforts to send baseball gear to kids in Cuba—a project that started with his Bar Mitzvah and his love of baseball, and his wish to give thanks for his Grandpa’s refuge during the Holocaust.
The film explores the rewards and challenges of doing good in the world and educators are confirming that the film will be a valuable tool for inspiring kids to get involved in the issues they care most deeply about. They raised more than their $40K goal to help finish the film on Kickstarter.
And now Ken has been in Cuba following Potus and the Stones as he and Marcia are off on a new Cuban adventure, “Cuban (R)evolution” where “Art for the people” collides with market forces in six short portraits of Cuban artists at the vanguard of an evolving nation. You can see the promotion on Kickstarter where they have succeeded in raising $30,000+ in 30 days.
Ken Schneider (director/producer/editor) is a Peabody-winning producer who believes in the power of documentaries to move people. His passions are stories of war and peace, human rights, artists’ lives, and Cuba. In addition to his feature and short work for PatchWorks, Ken has edited over 35 feature length documentaries for PBS, HBO, Al-Jazeera, and others. Films he edited have been nominated for an Oscar and multiple Emmys, and won prime-time and documentary Emmys, a Columbia-Dupont, two Peabodys, an Indie Spirit award and top awards at the Sundance Film Festival. (See www.kenschneidereditor.net for details.)
In addition to her PatchWorks work, Marcia Jarmel (co-director/producer/writer) worked as consulting producer on HBO’s Emmy-nominated "50 Children," consultant to Academy Award nominee "Last Day of Freedom," and Ifp Mentor to "The Last Season." Other credits include co-editing the Academy-award nominee,"For Better or For Worse," and assistant producing the Academy Award nominees, "Berkeley in the Sixties" and "Freedom on My Mind." She is also an impact consultant for documentary filmmakers.
“We are PatchWorks Films (www.patchworksfilms.net). For more than 20 years we have created award-winning documentaries exploring contemporary social issues through intimate character stories that build innovative partnerships for strategic use with organizations and educators. Our films have broadcast worldwide and shown at museums, libraries, schools, universities, community centers, conferences, and film festivals. Our previous documentary features include: “The Return Of Sarah’s Daughters”, “Born In The Usa”, “Speaking In Tongues”, And “Havana Curveball”. “(R)Evolution Cuba” is PatchWorks' 8th collaboration.
In Cuba we work with a fabulous experienced crew that includes Cuba’s pre-eminent documentary cinematographer, Roberto Chile, veteran sound man, Javier Figueroa, and one of Cuba’s hottest jazz pianists, Harold López-Nussa, who is composing music for the series.”...
The film explores the rewards and challenges of doing good in the world and educators are confirming that the film will be a valuable tool for inspiring kids to get involved in the issues they care most deeply about. They raised more than their $40K goal to help finish the film on Kickstarter.
And now Ken has been in Cuba following Potus and the Stones as he and Marcia are off on a new Cuban adventure, “Cuban (R)evolution” where “Art for the people” collides with market forces in six short portraits of Cuban artists at the vanguard of an evolving nation. You can see the promotion on Kickstarter where they have succeeded in raising $30,000+ in 30 days.
Ken Schneider (director/producer/editor) is a Peabody-winning producer who believes in the power of documentaries to move people. His passions are stories of war and peace, human rights, artists’ lives, and Cuba. In addition to his feature and short work for PatchWorks, Ken has edited over 35 feature length documentaries for PBS, HBO, Al-Jazeera, and others. Films he edited have been nominated for an Oscar and multiple Emmys, and won prime-time and documentary Emmys, a Columbia-Dupont, two Peabodys, an Indie Spirit award and top awards at the Sundance Film Festival. (See www.kenschneidereditor.net for details.)
In addition to her PatchWorks work, Marcia Jarmel (co-director/producer/writer) worked as consulting producer on HBO’s Emmy-nominated "50 Children," consultant to Academy Award nominee "Last Day of Freedom," and Ifp Mentor to "The Last Season." Other credits include co-editing the Academy-award nominee,"For Better or For Worse," and assistant producing the Academy Award nominees, "Berkeley in the Sixties" and "Freedom on My Mind." She is also an impact consultant for documentary filmmakers.
“We are PatchWorks Films (www.patchworksfilms.net). For more than 20 years we have created award-winning documentaries exploring contemporary social issues through intimate character stories that build innovative partnerships for strategic use with organizations and educators. Our films have broadcast worldwide and shown at museums, libraries, schools, universities, community centers, conferences, and film festivals. Our previous documentary features include: “The Return Of Sarah’s Daughters”, “Born In The Usa”, “Speaking In Tongues”, And “Havana Curveball”. “(R)Evolution Cuba” is PatchWorks' 8th collaboration.
In Cuba we work with a fabulous experienced crew that includes Cuba’s pre-eminent documentary cinematographer, Roberto Chile, veteran sound man, Javier Figueroa, and one of Cuba’s hottest jazz pianists, Harold López-Nussa, who is composing music for the series.”...
- 3/26/2016
- by Sydney Levine
- Sydney's Buzz
Los Angeles, home of the most ambitious and successful environmental movements, will see eight free screenings of “A Fierce Green Fire” in late September and early October
The timing couldn’t be better for seeing A Fierce Green Fire: The Battle for a Living Planet -- the first big-picture exploration of the environmental movement, fifty years of activism from conservation to climate change. From Fukushima to fracking, Keystone Xl to climate change, the world has never been more in need of a reminder that people can, and have, solved huge environmental problems.
And what better place to show this landmark film than Los Angeles, home to some of the most ambitious, innovative and successful environmental efforts in the country. From saving Mono Lake and healing Santa Monica Bay, to leading efforts to reduce smog that changed the entire automobile industry and pioneering climate legislation, no region in America has had a more distinct record of environmental success.
Directed and written by Mark Kitchell, Academy-Award nominated director of Berkeley in the Sixties, and narrated by Robert Redford, Meryl Streep, Ashley Judd, Van Jones and Isabel Allende, A Fierce Green Fire premiered at Sundance Film Festival. It chronicles the largest movement of the 20th century and one of the keys to the 21st. It brings together all the major parts of environmentalism and connects them. It focuses on activism, people fighting to save their homes, their lives, the future – and succeeding against all odds.
The film unfolds in five acts, each with a central story and character:
• David Brower and the Sierra Club’s battle to halt dams in the Grand Canyon • Lois Gibbs and the Love Canal residents’ struggle against 20,000 tons of toxic chemicals • Paul Watson and Greenpeace’s campaigns to save whales and baby harp seals • Chico Mendes and Brazilian rubber tappers’ fight to save the Amazon rainforest • Bill McKibben and the 25-year effort to address the impossible issue – climate change
Surrounding these main stories are strands like environmental justice, going back to the land, and movements of the global south such as Wangari Maathai in Kenya. Vivid archival film brings it all back and insightful interviews with activists shed light on what it all means. The film offers a deeper view of environmentalism as civilizational change, bringing our industrial society into sustainable balance with nature. It’s the battle for a living planet.
The film arrives at a moment of promise: 25 years after Dr. James Hansen first warned of global warming; 8 years after Katrina; 3 years after the Gulf oil disaster; 2 years after meltdown at Fukushima and first stopping the Keystone Pipeline; and 1 year since the wake-up call that was Hurricane Sandy, the capper to the hottest year on record. 2013 may be the year that grassroots pressure finally forces action to halt climate change. A Fierce Green Fire gives us reason to believe.
All of the Southland screenings are free and (except UCLA) open to the public. Each will be followed by a discussion featuring local environmental leaders and the filmmaker. Below is a list of screenings and participants.
The Big Four:
Wednesday, September 25, at 7 pm Santa Monica Public Library, 601 Santa Monica Blvd., Santa Monica, CA Panel discussion: Matthew King, Heal the Bay; Robert Gottlieb, renowned author of “Forcing the Spring” and professor at Occidental College
Friday, September 27, at 5:30 pm West Hollywood Public Library, 8272 Santa Monica Blvd., West Hollywood, CA Panel Discussion: Angelo Logan, East Yard Communities for Environmental Justice; Juana Torres, Sierra Club; Michele Prichard, Liberty Hill Foundation’s Common Agenda
Thursday, October 3, 6 pm Pasadena Central Public Library Auditorium, 285 East Walnut Street Pasadena, CA Speaker: Shannon Biggs of Global Exchange on fracking coming to California
Friday, October 4, at 6 pm G2 Gallery, 1503 Abbot Kinney Blvd., Venice, CA Panel Discussion: Bill Gallegos, Communities for a Better Environment; Michele Prichard, Liberty Hill Foundation’s Common Agenda (opening of G2’s Green Earth Film Fest -- space is limited, so RSVP: theG2Gallery.com)
Three area colleges and an arts center in Long Beach:
Pitzer College, Robert Redford Conservancy -- Monday, September 30 in Claremont, CA UCLA Institute of Environmental Sciences -- Wednesday, October 2 (campus community only) Csu Long Beach, Multicultural Center -- Thursday, September 26, noon CALBArts, Bungalow Art Center, 729 Pine, Long Beach -- Friday, September 27th, 7pm
About The Film
Early Praise for A Fierce Green Fire:
"The material is vast and it’s an incredibly dynamic film. It’s shaping up to be the documentary of record on the environmental movement." - Cara Mertes, former director of Sundance Institute’s Documentary Film Program
"Winningly spans the broad scope of environmental history… connecting its origins with the variety of issues still challenging society today." - Justin Lowe, The Hollywood Reporter
"Rarely do environmental-themed films come with the ambitious scope of ‘A Fierce Green Fire’… which aims at nothing less than the history of environmentalism itself." - Mark Olsen, Los Angeles Times
"The most ambitious environmental documentary since 'An Inconvenient Truth' tries to make the case that we just might win." - Michael Roberts, Outside Magazine
"The film left me emotionally drained and profoundly hopeful." -Bruce Barcott, On Earth Magazine
"Brilliant! Should be assigned viewing for all of us, especially those political leaders currently manning the helm of spaceship earth." - Jay Meehan, Park Record
About The Principals And People Featured In The Film
Director/Producer/Writer Mark Kitchell’s Berkeley in the Sixties – one of the defining films about the protest movements that shook America during the 1960s – received the Sundance Audience Award and was nominated for an Academy Award. Executive Producer Marc Weiss is the creator and former Executive Producer of P.O.V., the award-winning series now in its 26th season on PBS. Interviews were shot by Vicente Franco. It was edited by Ken Schneider, Veronica Selver, Jon Beckhardt and Gary Weimberg. Original music is by George Michalski and Dave Denny, Garth Stevenson, Randall Wallace and Todd Boekelheide. Narrators include: Robert Redford; Ashley Judd; activist Van Jones; author Isabel Allende; and Meryl Streep.
Featured In The Film Are:
The incomparable Lois Gibbs, leader of Love Canal; Paul “I work for whales” Watson; Bill McKibben, author and founder of 350.org; Paul Hawken and Stewart Brand, alternative ecology visionaries; Martin Litton, at 92 thundering, “If you haven’t got any hatred in your heart, what are you living on?”; Carl Pope and John Adams, longtime heads of the Sierra Club and Nrdc; and Bob Bullard, who closes the film on a universal note: “There’s no Hispanic air. There’s no African-American air. There’s air! And if you breathe air – and most people I know do breathe air – then I would consider you an environmentalist.”...
The timing couldn’t be better for seeing A Fierce Green Fire: The Battle for a Living Planet -- the first big-picture exploration of the environmental movement, fifty years of activism from conservation to climate change. From Fukushima to fracking, Keystone Xl to climate change, the world has never been more in need of a reminder that people can, and have, solved huge environmental problems.
And what better place to show this landmark film than Los Angeles, home to some of the most ambitious, innovative and successful environmental efforts in the country. From saving Mono Lake and healing Santa Monica Bay, to leading efforts to reduce smog that changed the entire automobile industry and pioneering climate legislation, no region in America has had a more distinct record of environmental success.
Directed and written by Mark Kitchell, Academy-Award nominated director of Berkeley in the Sixties, and narrated by Robert Redford, Meryl Streep, Ashley Judd, Van Jones and Isabel Allende, A Fierce Green Fire premiered at Sundance Film Festival. It chronicles the largest movement of the 20th century and one of the keys to the 21st. It brings together all the major parts of environmentalism and connects them. It focuses on activism, people fighting to save their homes, their lives, the future – and succeeding against all odds.
The film unfolds in five acts, each with a central story and character:
• David Brower and the Sierra Club’s battle to halt dams in the Grand Canyon • Lois Gibbs and the Love Canal residents’ struggle against 20,000 tons of toxic chemicals • Paul Watson and Greenpeace’s campaigns to save whales and baby harp seals • Chico Mendes and Brazilian rubber tappers’ fight to save the Amazon rainforest • Bill McKibben and the 25-year effort to address the impossible issue – climate change
Surrounding these main stories are strands like environmental justice, going back to the land, and movements of the global south such as Wangari Maathai in Kenya. Vivid archival film brings it all back and insightful interviews with activists shed light on what it all means. The film offers a deeper view of environmentalism as civilizational change, bringing our industrial society into sustainable balance with nature. It’s the battle for a living planet.
The film arrives at a moment of promise: 25 years after Dr. James Hansen first warned of global warming; 8 years after Katrina; 3 years after the Gulf oil disaster; 2 years after meltdown at Fukushima and first stopping the Keystone Pipeline; and 1 year since the wake-up call that was Hurricane Sandy, the capper to the hottest year on record. 2013 may be the year that grassroots pressure finally forces action to halt climate change. A Fierce Green Fire gives us reason to believe.
All of the Southland screenings are free and (except UCLA) open to the public. Each will be followed by a discussion featuring local environmental leaders and the filmmaker. Below is a list of screenings and participants.
The Big Four:
Wednesday, September 25, at 7 pm Santa Monica Public Library, 601 Santa Monica Blvd., Santa Monica, CA Panel discussion: Matthew King, Heal the Bay; Robert Gottlieb, renowned author of “Forcing the Spring” and professor at Occidental College
Friday, September 27, at 5:30 pm West Hollywood Public Library, 8272 Santa Monica Blvd., West Hollywood, CA Panel Discussion: Angelo Logan, East Yard Communities for Environmental Justice; Juana Torres, Sierra Club; Michele Prichard, Liberty Hill Foundation’s Common Agenda
Thursday, October 3, 6 pm Pasadena Central Public Library Auditorium, 285 East Walnut Street Pasadena, CA Speaker: Shannon Biggs of Global Exchange on fracking coming to California
Friday, October 4, at 6 pm G2 Gallery, 1503 Abbot Kinney Blvd., Venice, CA Panel Discussion: Bill Gallegos, Communities for a Better Environment; Michele Prichard, Liberty Hill Foundation’s Common Agenda (opening of G2’s Green Earth Film Fest -- space is limited, so RSVP: theG2Gallery.com)
Three area colleges and an arts center in Long Beach:
Pitzer College, Robert Redford Conservancy -- Monday, September 30 in Claremont, CA UCLA Institute of Environmental Sciences -- Wednesday, October 2 (campus community only) Csu Long Beach, Multicultural Center -- Thursday, September 26, noon CALBArts, Bungalow Art Center, 729 Pine, Long Beach -- Friday, September 27th, 7pm
About The Film
Early Praise for A Fierce Green Fire:
"The material is vast and it’s an incredibly dynamic film. It’s shaping up to be the documentary of record on the environmental movement." - Cara Mertes, former director of Sundance Institute’s Documentary Film Program
"Winningly spans the broad scope of environmental history… connecting its origins with the variety of issues still challenging society today." - Justin Lowe, The Hollywood Reporter
"Rarely do environmental-themed films come with the ambitious scope of ‘A Fierce Green Fire’… which aims at nothing less than the history of environmentalism itself." - Mark Olsen, Los Angeles Times
"The most ambitious environmental documentary since 'An Inconvenient Truth' tries to make the case that we just might win." - Michael Roberts, Outside Magazine
"The film left me emotionally drained and profoundly hopeful." -Bruce Barcott, On Earth Magazine
"Brilliant! Should be assigned viewing for all of us, especially those political leaders currently manning the helm of spaceship earth." - Jay Meehan, Park Record
About The Principals And People Featured In The Film
Director/Producer/Writer Mark Kitchell’s Berkeley in the Sixties – one of the defining films about the protest movements that shook America during the 1960s – received the Sundance Audience Award and was nominated for an Academy Award. Executive Producer Marc Weiss is the creator and former Executive Producer of P.O.V., the award-winning series now in its 26th season on PBS. Interviews were shot by Vicente Franco. It was edited by Ken Schneider, Veronica Selver, Jon Beckhardt and Gary Weimberg. Original music is by George Michalski and Dave Denny, Garth Stevenson, Randall Wallace and Todd Boekelheide. Narrators include: Robert Redford; Ashley Judd; activist Van Jones; author Isabel Allende; and Meryl Streep.
Featured In The Film Are:
The incomparable Lois Gibbs, leader of Love Canal; Paul “I work for whales” Watson; Bill McKibben, author and founder of 350.org; Paul Hawken and Stewart Brand, alternative ecology visionaries; Martin Litton, at 92 thundering, “If you haven’t got any hatred in your heart, what are you living on?”; Carl Pope and John Adams, longtime heads of the Sierra Club and Nrdc; and Bob Bullard, who closes the film on a universal note: “There’s no Hispanic air. There’s no African-American air. There’s air! And if you breathe air – and most people I know do breathe air – then I would consider you an environmentalist.”...
- 9/28/2013
- by Peter Belsito
- Sydney's Buzz
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