Unfolding BETWEEN THE FOLDS
In cooperation with OrigamiUSA and The Mathematical Association of America Community Cinema presented 42 free screening events for BETWEEN THE FOLDS a documentary by Vanessa Gould that delves deeply into the magical intersection of mathematics, science, and art that is paperfolding which is also known as origami. The film drew record-breaking crowds across the country.
Rodger Despres, a local Michigan paper folder, displays a 45-foot long paper model train that took him 1,500 hours to construct.
Our first free event for BETWEEN THE FOLDS took place at the fabulous Urban Institute for Contemporary Art in Grand Rapids, Michigan where Community Cinema is in its 3rd smash season. Emily Maurin, Community Cinema Producing Partner with WGVU, told us, “We were extremely lucky to have two amazing paper folders with us––Richard Alexander, one of the film’s participants, and Rodger Despres, a local paper folder who has constructed a 45-foot long paper model train. They each offered a different perspective on paper folding. Richard spoke about his artwork as well as his experiences making his own paper. Rodger discussed how he has used paper to engineer working train cars and tracks. He was very excited since Richard was the first paper folder he had met! They talked about how paper folding is almost a secret society that is just now emerging as a mainstream art.”
In the video below, director Vanessa Gould gives a behind-the-scenes look at what it was like making the film, how she worked with artists and a discusses a variety of issues related to independent filmmaking.
“Crease Is the Word!” Jim Ridley wrote in Nashville Scene about BETWEEN THE FOLDS at the Nashville Public Library. “Vanessa Gould’s documentary has received rapturous notices for concentrating on the intersection of art and science that the ancient paper-folding art represents.”
Mary Delach Leonard wrote in the St. Louis Beacon about our event at the Missouri History Museum. “Watching a former sculptor in France fold a flat sheet of paper into a three-dimensional human caricature … is worth far more than 1,000 words — which makes “Between the Folds” one of those unexpected documentaries you have to see to appreciate.” Read more>>
In St. Louis, approximately 340 people showed up for the viewing of the film at the Missouri History Museum. Sydney Meyer of Community Cinema Producing Partner KETC said, “I was amazed watching the diversity of people fill the auditorium and overflow onto the steps and the sides of the theater. People of all ages laughed and clapped at various parts of the film, signaling they understood what the artists were trying to communicate to them. After the film, the fun continued as more than 120 folks stayed to try their hand at paper-folding with artist Sugi Taylor. There was a lot of laughter and concentration as people attempted to make a paper box and bird.” As I walked around the tables, I heard comments like “I thought the simple figures would be easier. Now I admire the film artists even more!” or “I loved the film and I am amazed I can make this figure out of almost nothing… one simple square of paper.”
Director Vanessa Gould spent 3 days at 3 Community Cinema events in The Los Angeles area, and we were so lucky that she took time to write about it. › Continue reading
Community Cinema Rocks the Bay Area
Sara Brissenden-Smith, regional outreach coordinator for the Bay Area, gives us highlights from a season of Community Cinema screenings.
I just completed my first full season of Community Cinema — that’s 18 screenings, with more than 30 community partners, 40 panelists, and more than 1,000 audience members.
A DJ spins at the Copyright Criminals screening in Oakland
Copyright Criminals brought out some of our most energetic and diverse viewers. People flooded into the theater and almost immediately lost themselves in the music. Maybe it’s because I’m a hip hop fan, but having youth DJs mixing Lauryn Hill and Tribe Called Quest started my night off right. Law students, hip hop enthusiasts, teenagers, established authors, and DJs all contributed to conversations about artistic expression, creative ownership, and the overall impact on hip hop.
Glee and Independent Lens — Peabodys in a Pod
Lois Vossen, series producer of Independent Lens and Vice President of ITVS, attended the Peabody Awards ceremony Monday night at the Waldorf Astoria Hotel in New York City, where the films Between the Folds (a Community Cinema selection) and The Order of Myths won the prestigious award. She talks about the unprecedented evening:
From L to R: Vanessa Gould, Lois Vossen and Margaret Brown at the Peabody Awards Ceremony
The 69th Annual Peabody Awards ceremony, hosted by Diane Sawyer on Monday, marked the third consecutive year that Independent Lens received two Peabody Awards in one year, perhaps the only television series to ever achieve this honor.
Dr. Susan Douglas, the chair of the Peabody Awards Board, said that the 34 honorees were selected from nearly 1,200 finalists, confirming that the Peabody selection process is perhaps the most rigorous of any of the top industry awards.
Vanessa Gould received a Peabody Award for her first film, Between the Folds, a film exploring the intersection of fine art and science embodied in the practice of origami. Margaret Brown received a Peabody Award for The Order of Myths, an examination of the joyous yet still segregated celebration of Mardi Gras in Mobile, Alabama.
It’s A Video Festival In Your Blog
Community Cinema has amassed quite a collection of videos from our free documentary screening events. We’ve talked to community leaders, performers, a few DJs, and audience members just like you. Here are a few of the short video clips we’ve collected from this exciting season of Community Cinema. We’ll have videos from our current film selection A Village Called Versailles coming very soon.
We asked audience members at last month’s events for The Horse Boy about what brought them to the event, how the film affected their feelings about the topic of autism and alternative healing, and finally what was their experience at Community Cinema.
In March, we presented Dirt! The Movie in dozens of communities nationwide. One of our most successful events was at the San Francisco Public Library. This video is an edited wrap-up of the event including speakers, the audience, and what people were talking about after watching the powerful film.
We presented the award winning documentary Garbage Dreams in January. This edited video captures the activities surrounding our event in Oakland, California.
December’s gift to Community Cinema goers was the delightful and touching Young@Heart about the Young@Heart chorus which is made up of older folk who sing punk, rock, and a lot of roll. We were so fortunate to be joined by many talented seniors at our events. Including Legendary jazz musician Willie Pickens at Community Cinema Chicago.
In Seattle, Young@Heart audiences were treated to a few numbers by Seattle’s Raging Grannies.
And in West Hollywood we were inspired by a number fo talented seniors at the Community Cinema Senior Talent Show.
In November, the runaway smash hit of the Fall was Between The Folds a compelling documentary about paperfolding and origami. Many of our events included interactive paperfolding workshops with local experts sharing their talents. Here’s a glimpse of the paperfolding activities.
Copyright Criminals asked, “Is sampling stealing?” at dozens of events throughout October. We had some stellar DJs and other artists speak and perform at events around the country. We talked to Seattle’s DJ Hypen who was the host of our event.
The audience also weighed in on the question of music as an artform and/or a business.
We want to hear from you.
Two Independent Lens Programs Win Peabody Awards
The George Foster Peabody Awards, administered by the University of Georgia’s Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication, is the oldest, and one of the most prestigious honors in electronic media. Among this year’s winners are two Independent Lens programs:
Between the Folds, by Vanessa Gould, chronicles the stories of 10 fine artists and intrepid theoretical scientists who have abandoned careers and hard-earned graduate degrees — all to forge unconventional lives as modern-day paper-folders. Thousands previewed Between The Folds at free Community Cinema screening events nationwide. Many events included paperfolders and workshops to teach paperfolding.
The Order of Myths, by Margaret Brown , a complex story about race relations and the ever-present racial divide in America told through the pageantry at America’s oldest Mardi Gras in Mobile, Alabama.
Congratulations to the filmmakers on this incredible achievement! This brings the total number of Peabody awards for ITVS films to 16.
The Peabody awards will be presented May 17 at a luncheon at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel in New York City with ABC’s Diane Sawyer as host.
Visit the Peabody Award website for a complete list of winners >>
ITVS Partners With telegraph21
ITVS is proud to announce a partnership with telegraph21 (t21), a curated website that features documentaries and art videos from around the world as well as films from Independent Lens, Community Cinema, and other ITVS initiatives.
Part-gallery and part-video magazine, t21 will launch January 11 and offer short (10 minutes or less), interactive video package three times a week that provide viewers access to hard-to-find videos, and the ability to get involved and contribute their own ideas.
The site will feature works from award-winning journalists, filmmakers, and artists and provide an ongoing platform for media producers and film festivals to promote their work and interact with viewers –– providing an invaluable resource to those in the independent film community.
Ultimately, t21 plans to offer it’s viewers a new kind of “cinematic” experience –– online and offline –– using qualities of the digital space (mobility, flexibility, engagement and social interaction) to personalize the experience of watching full-length documentaries.
Currently two Independent Lens broadcasts Between the Folds and Young@Heart are featured on t21 with exclusive interviews from the directors and interactive features. P Star Rising by Gabriel Nobel will be featured in the coming month.
Visit the t21 website for more information >>
Community Cinema DC: The Great Connector
You may remember our Washington, DC area Regional Outreach Coordinator, Michon Boston, from her recent appearance on WUSA9′s morning news. If you’ve been to one of our DC area events, you’ll recognize her as the person who keeps the movie rolling and the conversation going. In celebration of 4 years of Community Cinema, Michon shares one of her favorite aspects of working with Community Cinema.
If you miss Community Cinema DC you miss an opportunity to meet and mingle with some great people in the DC area who bring their knowledge, stories, and even listening ears when they take the mic for the Q&A. Community Cinema seeks out these experts, educators, and anyone digging deeper for more information about a sensitive topic. Sometimes we connect, they connect, and we all reconnect at future events.
At one of the DC area YOUNG@HEART events (l to r) Pauline Jakobsberg, Douglas Yeuell, Adrienne Price, and Michon Boston
For our first YOUNG@HEART screening at Busboys and Poets just a few weeks ago, we welcomed Douglas Yeuell, executive/artistic director of Joy of Motion Dance Center, which has 4 dance studios in our city. Douglas was joined by Adrienne Price, a member of his dance ensemble, Jazzemotion. Adrienne studied dance before life took another course (marriage, children, career), now she’s back. Joy of Motion’s motto is “dance is for everyone.” That’s no joke, especially this past Halloween when Joy of Motion hosted a ‘Thriller” line dance event from their H Street studios.
Pauline Jakobsberg is a founder of Washington Printmakers Gallery which has been around since 1985. Pauline is a printmaker herself and a teacher. She’s worked with seniors with dementia. Art has a way of triggering memories; and that was no exception in Pauline’s experiences. One member of our audience said all the people on the panel were “inspirational.”
It’s always a treat when filmmakers come to Community Cinema events like Kembrew McLeod for COPYRIGHT CRIMINALS. But this season I was glad to have a chance to work with Mazi Mutafa founder and executive director of Words Beats & Life, Inc. His organization publishes a dynamic academic journal on hip hop. Mazi and I have bumped into each other at arts events, but this is the first time we’ve actually worked on something together. Hopefully, there will be more to come. More people should get to know Mazi and the work of WBL, Inc.
We also had some dynamic lawyers on our COPYRIGHT CRIMINALS events like Peter Jaszi of the Washington College of Law at American University. Jaszi is brilliant when it comes to fair use and documentary film and video. He’s about to take it to the music level. Jaszi advised the filmmakers of COPYRIGHT CRIMINALS on fair use issues; and Ken Kaufman currently with the law firm of Manatt, Phelps & Phillips, LLP. Ken has a lot of music copyright and intellectual property stories in his book including getting the first calls from soul brother number one James Brown with complaints about hearing his music in the hip hop mixes. At the time Ken was Senior Vice President, Corporate Affairs and General Counsel of PolyGram Records, Inc.
An intricate paper box folded by DC area folder Gloria Kim
Sometimes, friends or relatives of friends save the day for Community Cinema like Gloria Kim, who has been making origami boxes for 3 years. I know Gloria through her sister Eugenia who just published her first novel, The Calligrapher’s Daughter (picked one of the Best Books of 2009 by the Washington Post). Gloria gave a hands-on, challenging, lesson on making one of her octagon boxes at both the Busboys and Poets and Mathematical Association screenings of BETWEEN THE FOLDS.
But the real reward for me is to see collaborations in the making after each screening. DC is a networking maze. How the business cards can pile up on your table. But Community Cinema provides a relaxed, informal way to connect firstly through the film, then across the room.
Malcolm Gladwell author of The Tipping Point and other best sellers called “connectors” – “the kinds of people who know everyone and possess special gifts for bringing the world together.” After all, isn’t that what Community Cinema is all about?
Quiz: Can You Match the Folds?
BETWEEN THE FOLDS, a big hit at over 40 free Community Cinema previews in November is premiering tonight Tuesday, December 8 at 10:00 PM on Independent Lens on PBS (check local listings), chronicles the stories of fine artists and intrepid theoretical scientists who have abandoned careers and hard-earned graduate degrees to forge unconventional lives as modern-day paper-folders.
Take our new quiz and see if you can spot the patterns.
Every finished origami object begins as a line or series of lines on a single plane. With each fold, the final shape begins to emerge.
Once you’ve completed the challenge, download some fold patterns provided by some of the artists featured in BETWEEN THE FOLDS and see if you can master the craft.
CHAOS in Chicago
This past Saturday – over the Thanksgiving Holiday Weekend – Community Cinema Chicago competed with shopping-mania, blockbuster movie openings, and a nationwide travel stampede to present BETWEEN THE FOLDS, a documentary about the quiet, peaceful beauty of paperfolding and origami …to a surprisingly packed house. Our National Community Cinema Coordinator Naomi Walker tells us all about it. Included are short videos of the free folding workshop at the event.
I had my doubts but was reassured that the Chicago Cultural Center is always popular on Thanksgiving weekend for people stuck in town and looking for things to do. My doubts quickly evaporated! I think this was probably the most popular event I have had yet. I have never had so many people come up to me afterward to give a personal “thank you.” The theater was packed to capacity.
I had seen a wonderful short film about the Chicago Area Origami Society (CHAOS) online, made by a city organization called Chicago Works for public access, and I knew that they would be a wonderful match for this preview community event.
The Cultural Center set up workshopping space in a large open room on the first floor. We thought we might lose some of the audience in the move from the theatre to the 1st floor space. But, it appeared as if the entire audience couldn’t wait to start folding!
The workshop was led by Jean Mishima from the Chicago Japanese American Historical Society. She brought two assistants and we had prepared seating for 25 people. We added more chairs and tables while the film was playing and increased our workshop to accommodate 50 people. We ended up with over 100 eager attendees streaming into to the workshop.
Despite the overcrowding (think of it as cozy), the event was an amazing success. I had anticipated the possibility of running out of paper by designing a square event program and having the program paper cut to size. By the end of the workshop, there were several BETWEEN THE FOLDS programs folded into art!
Two different attendees told me that the film was a life-changer. A journey of a thousand miles can start with just one fold.
BETWEEN THE FOLDS Gets America Folding Paper
In cooperation with OrigamiUSA and The Mathematical Association of America Community Cinema presented 42 free screening events for BETWEEN THE FOLDS a documentary by Vanessa Gould that delves deeply into the magical intersection of mathematics, science, and art that is paperfolding which is also known as origami. The film drew huge crowds across the country.
Rodger Despres, a local Michigan paper folder, displays a 45-foot long paper model train that took him 1,500 hours to construct.
Our first free event for BETWEEN THE FOLDS took place at the fabulous Urban Institute for Contemporary Art in Grand Rapids, Michigan where Community Cinema is in its 3rd smash season. Emily Maurin, Community Cinema Producing Partner with WGVU, told us, “We were extremely lucky to have two amazing paper folders with us––Richard Alexander, one of the film’s participants, and Rodger Despres, a local paper folder who has constructed a 45-foot long paper model train. They each offered a different perspective on paper folding. Richard spoke about his artwork as well as his experiences making his own paper. Rodger discussed how he has used paper to engineer working train cars and tracks. He was very excited since Richard was the first paper folder he had met! They talked about how paper folding is almost a secret society that is just now emerging as a mainstream art.”
In the video below, director Vanessa Gould gives a behind-the-scenes look at what it was like making the film, how she worked with artists and a discusses a variety of issues related to independent filmmaking.
“Crease Is the Word!” Jim Ridley writes in Nashville Scene about the upcoming free event for BETWEEN THE FOLDS at the Nashville Public Library THIS Sunday. “Vanessa Gould’s documentary has received rapturous notices for concentrating on the intersection of art and science that the ancient paper-folding art represents.”
Mary Delach Leonard writes in the St. Louis Beacon about our event at the Missouri History Museum. “Watching a former sculptor in France fold a flat sheet of paper into a three-dimensional human caricature … is worth far more than 1,000 words — which makes “Between the Folds” one of those unexpected documentaries you have to see to appreciate.” Read more>>
In St. Louis, approximately 340 people showed up for the viewing of the film at the Missouri History Museum. Sydney Meyer of Community Cinema Producing Partner KETC said, “I was amazed watching the diversity of people fill the auditorium and overflow onto the steps and the sides of the theater. People of all ages laughed and clapped at various parts of the film, signaling they understood what the artists were trying to communicate to them. After the film, the fun continued as more than 120 folks stayed to try their hand at paper-folding with artist Sugi Taylor. There was a lot of laughter and concentration as people attempted to make a paper box and bird.” As I walked around the tables, I heard comments like “I thought the simple figures would be easier. Now I admire the film artists even more!” or “I loved the film and I am amazed I can make this figure out of almost nothing… one simple square of paper.”
Director Vanessa Gould spent 3 days at 3 Community Cinema events in The Los Angeles area, and we were so lucky that she took time to write about it. › Continue reading
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