DeepFocus Productions - News Archives: 2003

News Archives 2003
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STORIES FROM THE WAR ON HOMOSEXUALITY: THE ARTHUR DONG COLLECTION, VOL. 1

Filmmaker Arthur Dong’s multi-award winning films covering American stories of conflict over homosexuality will be available November in a DVD box set, loaded with special bonus features. The three-title collection includes digitally re-mastered presentations of Family Fundamentals, Licensed to Kill, and Coming Out Under Fire.

For more information, click here.

FAMILY FUNDAMENTALS DVD RELEASED

Family Fundamentals is now available on DVD, packed with special bonus features, including over 80 minutes of previously unreleased material and a 12-page viewers guide. “Heartfelt but evenhanded – a battlefield report from America’s disquieting cultural wars over gay issues” - Los Angeles Times.

Please visit the Family Fundamentals DVD page for more information.

ARTHUR DONG DVD COLLECTION LAUNCHES IN SAN FRANCISCO

The San Francisco Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Community Center will celebrate the DVD release of Stories From the War on Homosexuality: The Arthur Dong Collection, Vol. 1 with a preview screening and signing. At the event, filmmaker Arthur Dong will present highlights from his new DVDs, including a look at the many bonus features. DVDs will be available for purchase. The event is co-sponsored by PFLAG, CUAV, and Alexander Hamilton Post 448. It is scheduled for Friday, November 14, 2003 at 7:30 pm in the Rainbow Room at the San Francisco Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Community Center, 1800 Market Street @ Octavia. The event is free to the public.

For more information: www.sfcenter.org, info@sfcenter.org, 415/865-5555

NEW RESOURCE FOR THEATRICAL DOCUMENTARIES

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences’ documentary awards are given in recognition of excellence in theatrically released non-fiction motion pictures. In that spirit, a list of venues interested in showing documentaries has been compiled to encourage engagements nationwide.

To access the list, visit: www.oscars.org/76academyawards/rules/venues_index.html

RESEARCH GRANT AWARDED

The Center for the Study of Sexual Minorities in the Military has awarded a research grant to DeepFocus Productions, Inc. Funds will support a viewer’s guide to accompany the DVD of Coming Out Under Fire, a documentary about the military’s World War II anti-gay policies. The Center promotes the interdisciplinary analysis of lesbians, gays, bisexuals, transgenders, and other sexual minorities in the armed forces through a variety of programs and resources.

For more information: www.gaymilitary.ucsb.edu

ARTHUR DONG ON MORELIA INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL JURY

Arthur Dong will serve on the Documentary Jury of the first Morelia International Film Festival in Morelia, Mexico October 3-10, 2003. The festival hosts a competitive selection of Mexican short films, a competition dedicated to the feature documentary, and the premieres of selected Mexican feature films. Other guests include Selma Hayak, Barbet Schroeder, and Werner Herzog.

For more information: www.moreliafilmfest.com

FORBIDDEN CITY CROONER RELEASES CD

Larry Ching, headliner and subject of the documentary about the San Francisco 1940s nightclub, Forbidden City, released his very first CD this summer. Till The End of Time features 12 newly recorded standards, plus four bonus songs recorded in the 1940s. Three of these tracks were featured in the documentary, Forbidden City, U.S.A. Unfortunately, Ching passed away just one month after his CD’s release but was able to celebrate and perform at the CD’s release party with fans, friends, and family before his unexpected departure at age 82.

For more information: www.larryching.com

ARTHUR DONG PROFILED IN NEW FUNDRAISING BOOK

Filmmaker Arthur Dong is the subject of a chapter in the newly published The Art of Funding Your Film: Alternative Financing Concepts. The book was written by Carole Dean, founder of the Roy W. Dean Grant Foundation which has given some $2,000,000 in grants to documentary films. “A great new addition to the filmmaker's lexicon" -Morrie Warshawski, Author of Shaking the Money Tree.

For more information: www.fromtheheartproductions.com/theartofbook.html

FAMILY FUNDAMENTALS NATIONAL BROADCAST PREMIERE SLATED FOR PBS

The national broadcast premiere of Family Fundamentals is scheduled for August 26, 2003 (check local listings) on P.O.V., public television's award-winning showcase for independent non-fiction films. Over 600 productions were submitted for consideration and 16 films were chosen through an in-depth editorial process involving independent media professionals, PTV station programmers and PBS. Passionate, powerful and poignant, P.O.V. films are personal and unvarnished reportage on our lives.

For more information: www.pbs.org/pov.

TALK BACK TO PBS

Did you watch Family Fundamentals and have something to say about it? Now's your chance to be seen and heard on national television -- TALK BACK on video and send it to P.O.V., the award-winning nonfiction PBS series. Your comments will be considered for broadcast when the film airs on August 26, 2003 or webstreamed as part of the P.O.V website. Phone calls, emails, and letters will also be accepted -- but your personal message on home video works best. Send your response by July, along with your name, address, phone, and email to: Talking Back "Family Fundamentals," P.O. Box 5034, Bowling Green Station, New York, NY 10274.

For more information: www.pbs.org/pov/talkingback.html or 1-800/688-4768.

ARTHUR DONG RE-ELECTED TO REPRESENT ACADEMY DOC BRANCH

Arthur Dong was re-been elected to the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences’ Board of Governors for a three-year term. He joins fellow Documentary Branch governors Frieda Lee Mock and Michael Apted.

For more information: www.oscars.org/press/pressreleases/2003/03.07.16.html

PFLAG PARTNERS WITH FAMILY FUNDAMENTALS

Parents, Families & Friends of Lesbians & Gays (PFLAG), a national organization with over 250,000 members and supporters and more than 499 affiliates in the United States has joined forces with P.O.V. to support the PBS broadcast of Family Fundamentals this summer. PFLAG chapters nationwide will hold “sneak preview” screenings to raise community awareness and to inspire action around the issues raised in the film. PFLAG programs provide opportunities for dialogue about sexual orientation and gender identity in order to create a society that is healthy and respectful of human diversity.

For more information, contact: Alicia Leeds, PFLAG Senior Communications Advisor, aleeds@pflag.org, or visit www.pflag.org/advocacy/familyfundamentals.html

Please see Screenings for locations and dates.

EVANGELICALS CONCERNED PARTNERS WITH PBS BROADCAST OF FAMILY FUNDAMENTALS

Evangelicals Concerned Western Region (ECWR), an evangelical resource
organization, will partner with P.O.V. for the PBS broadcast of Family
Fundamentals this summer (August 26, 10pm). Chapters nationwide will organize
community-based “sneak preview” screenings and will help promote the broadcast through
their grass-roots network. ECWR is a non-denominational community of
fellowship that is a safe place for gay and lesbian Christians to reconcile and
integrate their faith and sexuality. This gay-affirming ministry provides
conferences, retreats, local groups, bible studies, resource materials, education,
leadership training, and personal support.

For more information: www.ecwr.org, ecwr@ecwr.org, 206/621-8960

LIBERTY HILL FOUNDATION GRANT AWARDED

The Liberty Hill Foundation’s Lesbian & Gay Community Fund awarded a grant to support the production of a study and discussion guide to accompany the community outreach of Family Fundamentals. This fund provides critical support to new or ongoing projects addressing the issues of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgendered (LGBT) communities. Grants are targeted to groups actively working for institutional, policy, or public opinion changes that improve LGBT life and well-being and build alliances between LGBT and straight communities. A condensed version of the study and discussion guide will also be created for personal use. The anticipated publication date will coincide with the DVD release currently scheduled for September 2003.

For more information about the Liberty Hill Foundation, please visit: www.libertyhill.org

FAMILY FUNDAMENTALS NAMED TOP TEN BY NEW YORK PRESS

New York Press film critic Matt Zoller Seitz named Family Fundamentals one of the Top Ten films of 2002. He writes: "Simply calling Arthur Dong a documentary filmmaker doesn't capture the full scope of his talent or integrity...He tends to whisper rather than shout—his self-delivered narration is introspective and oddly soothing—and unlike many nonfiction filmmakers with an obvious political agenda, he’s a good listener...Dong is part of a modern tradition in nonfiction filmmaking—a documentarian who admits he has an agenda, that he is actively involved in his subjects’ lives and that his films are works of personal expression meant to explore his own fascinations. But unlike Nick Broomfield (Biggie & Tupac) and Michael Moore (Bowling for Columbine), he doesn't make himself the star of his movies, he doesn't treat any of his subjects with smug superiority and he doesn't turn the idea of subjectivity into a self-aggrandizing clown act. It’s an honest approach by an honest filmmaker."

For the complete review, please visit: www.nypress.com/print.cfm?content_id=7159.

DOCUMENTARY COFFEE TALK AT IFP/LOS ANGELES FILM FESTIVAL

Documentary filmmakers Penelope Spheeris (Decline of Western Civilization, Wayne’s World) and George Hickenlooper (Hearts of Darkness, The Man from Elysian Fields) will be the focus of a special Coffee Talk session at the 2003 IFP/Los Angeles Festival. This lively discussion touching on the art and business of documentary production and crossing over between narrative filmmaking will be moderated by filmmaker and IFP Board of Directors Executive Committee member, Arthur Dong. Coffee will be served. June 15, 2003, 1pm, Director’s Guild of America, 7920 Sunset Blvd., Los Angeles.

For more information: 310/951-7090, lafilmfest@ifp.org, www.lafilmfest.com

ARTHUR DONG VISITING ARTIST IN AUSTIN

As part of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Visiting Artist Program, Academy governor Arthur Dong will be the focus of several events in Austin, Texas on April 9, 2003. He first joins the University of Texas Center for Asian American Studies at their Brown Bag lunchtime speakers series. In the afternoon, Arthur conducts a master class for film students, showing clips of his work and discussing his career as a film artist. And at 7:30pm, the Austin Film Society will host a public showing of Arthur's film, Coming Out Under Fire, with the filmmaker in attendance at the Alamo Drafthouse Downtown, 409 Colorado Street.

For information on the evening screening, contact: Chale Nafus, 512.322.0145, chale@austinfilm.org, www.austinfilm.org. (University programs are for the campus community only.)

Over the Rainbow: Building an Inclusive Movement

This conference will bring together a wide range of scholars and activists to highlight current research on lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) issues, drawing from various academic perspectives. The conference is free and open to the public, although registration is required. Three nationally known speakers, writers, activists and artists will be headlining this three day conference: Urvashi Vaid, Leslie Feinberg, and Arthur Dong, who will present his film Family Fundamentals. As LGBT activists, artists, and public intellectuals, their work broadens our understanding of the LGBT community and makes connections with other political struggles and oppressed communities.

March 27-29, 2003
Arizona State University @ Tempe
lind@asu.edu sbrzuzy@asu.edu http://rainbow.asu.edu/contact.html

Sundance Film Festival: "Come Meet the Academy's Doc Governors"

Join Academy governors Freida Lee Mock, Michael Apted and Arthur Dong for a discussion about documentaries and the Academy. Hear about the new rules governing Academy consideration, the screening and nomination process, the Academy Doc Branch, membership, theatrical distribution, and preservation of documentaries. Refreshments courtesy of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences

January 22, 2003, Wednesday, 7:00 p.m. to 8:30 p.m.
House of Docs/Filmmaker's Lodge, Elks Lodge 550 Main St., Park City
http://festival.sundance.org/pages/program/places_events/places05.aspx