ITVS2005

April 30, 2005 - ITVS Proposal Writing Workshop - CLOSED OUT

NALIP-New York is pleased to once again host The Independent Television Service (ITVS) for a comprehensive Proposal-Writing Seminar in advance of its Open Call initiative. ITVS is the single largest supporter of independent work for broadcast television (http://www.itvs.org). You don't want to miss this one!

ABOUT THE WORKSHOP

THE PROGRAM:
What are the nuts and bolts of a well-written treatment? How do you make your proposal competitive? How do you target a specific audience? Richard Saiz, Program Manager for Open Call at ITVS, will answer these questions and demonstrate how to write proposals that get funded.

You’ll receive valuable handouts, with an example of a winning treatment. The seminar will feature a case study with John J. Valadez, producer/director of THE LAST CONQUISTADOR a documentary funded by ITVS currently in production.

Eight (8) producers with current projects will also have an opportunity to pitch their ideas at the end of the seminar (randomly drawn from a hat to participate).

The first half of the seminar will review some of the basic principles and elements that comprise a well written treatment with emphasis on the use of character in telling your story. We will focus on ways in which filmmakers' representation of “the other”, people and their communities that are frequently misrepresented in popular media and contribute to public misconceptions, stereotypes and prejudice.

The challenge for filmmakers is how to convey a more sympathetic and truthful picture of these members or our society that will hopefully engender new insights and understanding among viewers. Clips from four programs will be shown to illustrate some of the various methodologies utilized by filmmakers: THE EDUCATION OF SHELBY KNOX; SHAKESPEARE BEHIND BARS; IN THE REALMS OF THE UNREAL and THE CATS OF MIRIKITANI.

In the first half of the seminar we will concentrate on a case study of THE LAST CONQUISTADOR with John J. Valadez, one of the producers and director of the one hour documentary which is currently in production. The discussion about representation will continue as it relates to John's project but we'll also explore the idea of the director's vision in the making of a documentary. John will discuss and show clips from his project to illustrate some of the basic editorial and aesthetic considerations that go into developing character and how these strategies fall within his role as the director.

When:	Saturday, April 30, 2005
Where:	Thirteen/WNET - 450 West 33rd Street -- 6th Floor Board Room
Time:	9:00AM - 1:00PM (Lunch Provided)
Price:	FREE to current NALIP members ONLY, $15 to all others

HOW TO RSVP:
Space for this popular workshop will be limited, so please RSVP early. Reserve your seat by sending your name to Edwin Pagan at paganimage@aol.com.

ABOUT RICHARD SAIZ

Richard Saiz is a programming manager for the Independent Television Service (ITVS). He oversees Open Call, the organization's principle funding initiative. In that capacity, Saiz reads and evaluates about 600 program proposals a year.

Saiz has over 30 years experience as a broadcast journalist, producer, director and writer. His documentaries have won numerous awards including the duPont-Columbia Silver Baton and "Best TV Documentary" from the San Francisco International Film Festival.

ABOUT JOHN J. VALADEZ

John J. Valadez is the Executive Producer and Producer/Director (along with Cristina Ibarra) of The Last Conquistador, a feature length documentary about an artist’s quixotic quest to build the largest bronze equestrian statue ever created in human history and the terrible social implications of his work.

John has been producing nationally broadcast documentaries for the past twelve years. During that time he has worked on projects for Carlton UK Television, CNN, Granada Television, The Canadian Broadcast Corporation, The Learning Channel, HBO and the PBS series’ Frontline & American Masters.

His films have been exhibited theatrically, on television in the United States, Canada and Europe and at major festivals and cultural institutions including: The Berlin Film Festival, Cinema Du Reel, The Bombay International Film Festival, The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), The Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, The High Museum of Art in Atlanta, Lincoln Center, The Schomburg Center, The Mint Museum, INPUT, Southern Circuit and the Hirshhorn Museum at the Smithsonian Institute in Washington D.C. John has lectured at colleges and universities across the Untied States including: MIT, UC Berkeley, UC Santa Cruz, New York University, Duke University, Clemson University, Vanderbilt University, Lewis and Clark College and the University of Washington.

John has directed and produced several films for PBS including the landmark ITVS funded documentary Passin’ It On (Executive Producer Sam Pollard), about a former leader of the Black Panther Party who was falsely imprisoned for 19 years. The film aired on the PBS series POV. John went on to direct the first hour of the four-hour ITVS funded documentary series Making Peace about grassroots activists creating innovative ways to stop violence in their communities. He directed The Divide, the first hour of the nationally broadcast four-hour PBS series entitled Matters of Race (Executive Producer Orlando Bagwell). He was a producer for the nationally broadcast PBS series Visiones: Latino Arts and Culture (Executive Producer Hector Galan), and a producer of Beyond Brown: pursuing the promise (Executive Producers Stanley Nelson & Marcia Smith), an hour long documentary for national broadcast on PBS for the 50th anniversary of the Supreme Court decision Brown vs. Board of Ed. In May of 2005 John’s most recent film will air on the prime time documentary series CNN Present. Many Children Left Behind is an hour-long investigative documentary about the Bush Administration’s controversial education policy and its impact on America’s children.

John has twice been a New York Foundation for the Arts Fellow, is a Rockefeller Fellow, a PBS/CPB Producers Academy Fellow and currently sits on the Board of Trustees of the Robert Flaherty Film Seminar. John is a member of the National Association of Latino Independent Producers (NALIP) and is a graduate of the film program at New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts.

THE CASE STUDY

ABOUT "THE LAST CONQUISTADOR"

Executive Producer: John J. Valadez
Produced and Directed by: Cristina Ibarra, John J. Valadez

For the past twenty years the renowned sculptor John Houser has been creating a magnificent work that will make make art history. He is building the largest bronze equestrian statue ever created in the history of mankind and it will be dedicated in El Paso, Texas next year. There is only one problem. It is a statue of a mass murderer. His name was Juan de Oñate and he was the first European to establish permanent colonies in North America. In 1598 Oñate founded the city of Santa Fe, became the first Governor of New Mexico and explored the continent from the plains of Kansas to the Sea of Cortez. He did all this long before the Pilgrims even landed at Plymouth Rock. But Oñate also murdered thousands of people, enslaved many more, made Indian women into concubines and when his own colonists objected he killed many of them as well.

While The Last Conquistador follows John Houser as he realizes his artistic vision, it also chronicles the rise of a grass roots movement that stands in fierce opposition to the statue. Native Americans throughout the region vow to stop or destroy Housers' work because they see it as a monument to genocide, white supremacy and the a glorification of tyranny. Many feel it is simply evil.

The Last Conquistador raises troubling questions about race, power, the responsibility of the artist and the meaning of public art in an age of multicultural values and conflicting visions of the past. How does one group honor an important legacy without dishonoring those who were murdered, enslaved and abused?