The School Project | |
---|---|
Country of origin | United States |
Original language | English |
No. of episodes | 6 |
Production | |
Executive producers | Bob Hercules Gordon Quinn |
Producers | Rachel Dickson Danny Alpert Jon Siskel |
Running time | 10 minutes |
The School Project is an independent cross-platform media project. It explores what a healthy public education system looks like through the lens of Chicago Public Schools. It focuses on issues including standardized testing, charter schools, privatization, and school closings. It is a collaboration between Kartemquin Films, Siskel/Jacobs Productions, Free Spirit Media, Kindling Group, Media Process Group, and several freelancers. Its media partners include Catalyst Chicago, Chicago Sun-Times, and WTTW/Channel 11. [1] [2]
The School Project episodes were each released as a free public screening in locations ranging from the Chicago History Museum to the University of Chicago. [3] Each screening was followed by a panel discussion and was broadcast on Chicago news station WTTW. [4] The School Project continues to collect stories.
The School Project is supported by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, the Woods Fund of Chicago, the Driehaus Foundation, and Chicago Filmmakers. [5] [6]
The project began as a result of the 2013 closing of 49 neighborhood schools in Chicago — the largest school closings in American history. [7] In response to this decision, filmmakers Gordon Quinn of Kartemquin Films and Bob Hercules of Media Process Group combined their talents, with the additional partners of Siskel/Jacos Productions, Free Spirit Media, and Kindling Group, to create a short documentary series and Transmedia project investigating the state of education in Chicago. [8] The collaboration came about out of a desire to merge all of the groups' differing experiences with the subject matter and interested networks. [9]
No. | Release Date | Title |
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1 | 10/28/14 | Chicago Schools: The Worst in the Nation? |
2 | 01/22/15 | Chicago's School Closings |
3 | 03/05/15 | The Impact of School Discipline Policies |
4 | 03/31/15 | Testing Season |
5 | 04/25/15 | UnChartered Territory with WTTW |
6 | 05/21/15 | Teaching |
WTTW is a PBS member television station in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Owned by not-for-profit broadcaster Window to the World Communications, Inc., it is sister to commercial classical music radio station WFMT. The two stations share studios in the Renée Crown Public Media Center, located at 5400 North Saint Louis Avenue in the city's North Park neighborhood; its transmitter facility is atop the Willis Tower on South Wacker Drive in the Chicago Loop. WTTW also owns and operates The Chicago Production Center, a video production and editing facility that is operated alongside the two stations.
Hoop Dreams is a 1994 American documentary film directed by Steve James, and produced by Frederick Marx, James, and Peter Gilbert, with Kartemquin Films. It follows the story of two African-American high school students, William Gates and Arthur Agee, in Chicago and their dream of becoming professional basketball players.
Eugene Kal Siskel was an American film critic and journalist for the Chicago Tribune. He is best known for co-hosting various movie review television series with colleague Roger Ebert.
The Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Festival is the largest documentary festival in North America. The event takes place annually in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. The 27th edition of the festival took place online throughout May and June 2020. In addition to the annual festival, Hot Docs owns and operates the Hot Docs Ted Rogers Cinema, administers multiple production funds, and runs year-round screening programs including Doc Soup and Hot Docs Showcase.
Kartemquin Films is a four-time Oscar-nominated 501(c)3 non-profit production company located in Chicago, Illinois, that produces a wide range of documentary films. It is the documentary filmmaking home of acclaimed producers such as Gordon Quinn, Steve James, Peter Gilbert, Maria Finitzo, Joanna Rudnick, Bing Liu, Aaron Wickenden, and Ashley O’Shay (Unapologetic).
The Midwest Film Festival is the USA's only film festival solely dedicated to Midwest films. Only films from the eight-state Midwest region of Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Ohio and Wisconsin are considered for screening.
International Documentary Association (IDA), founded in 1982, is a non-profit 501(c)(3) that promotes nonfiction filmmakers, and is dedicated to increasing public awareness for the documentary genre. Their major program areas are: Advocacy, Filmmaker Services, Education, and Public Programs and Events.
Inquiring Nuns is a 1968 Kartemquin Films production directed by Gordon Quinn and Gerald Temaner. The documentary film features Sisters Marie Arne and Mary Campion, two young Catholic nuns who visit a variety of Chicago locales to ask people the question, "Are you happy?" They meet a variety of individuals ranging from hippie musicians to intellectuals, whose responses are everything from the mundane to the spiritual. The film was directly influenced by Jean Rouch's Chronique d'un été, which Quinn and Temaner had watched at Doc Films while they were undergraduates at the University of Chicago. The film was shot on Kartemquin's “Camera #1”, a custom-modified crystal sync Auricon with a used manual zoom lens Quinn purchased from Albert Maysles, and to which he added a World War II gunner handle bought from a pawn shop as an extra grip for steadiness.
Life Itself is a 2014 American biographical documentary film about Chicago film critic Roger Ebert, directed by Steve James and produced by Zak Piper, James and Garrett Basch. The film is based on Ebert's 2011 memoir of the same name. It premiered at the 2014 Sundance Film Festival and was an official selection at the 67th Cannes Film Festival. The 41st Telluride Film Festival hosted a special screening of the film on August 28, 2014. Magnolia Pictures released the film theatrically in the United States and simultaneously via video on demand platforms on July 4, 2014.
Judy Hoffman is an American filmmaker and arts activist based in Chicago. She graduated from Northwestern University with a MFA and currently holds a faculty position at the University of Chicago. Hoffman has played a major role in the development of Kartemquin Films, a documentary filmmaking company founded in Chicago in 1966. Hoffman has worked with extensively with Kwakwaka’wakw, a First Nation in British Columbia, to produce films. Hoffman has brought activism to her films, and continues to show different facets of the city of Chicago.
Annette Louise Barbier was an American artist and educator. She worked with video art, net art, installation art, interactive performance, and emerging and experimental technologies since the 1970s. Themes in her work address "issues of home, defined locally as domesticity and more broadly as the ways in which we relate to our environment." An early work, "Home Invasion [1995]," incorporating critical dialogue and audio, is accessible from Leonardo. "Domestic space—formerly inviolable—is increasingly disrupted by electronic communication of all sorts, including radio, TV, email and the telephone." She was Chicago-based.
On Beauty is a 2014 short documentary film, produced by Kartemquin Films. It follows the story of Rick Guidotti, a fashion photographer who in 1998 decided to quit the fashion industry to found a nonprofit based on promoting diversity and acceptance.
Almost There is a 2014 independent documentary film, produced by Kartemquin Films. It was directed by Aaron Wickenden and Dan Rybicky.
As Goes Janesville is a 2012 independent documentary film, produced by Kartemquin Films and 371 Productions. It explores the future of the American middle class by focusing on the stories of Janesville, WI.
Scrappers Film Group was the prior name of Truth & Documentary, a documentary film production company in Chicago, Illinois. Founding partners Ben Kolak and Brian Ashby's inaugural film Scrappers won “Best Documentary Feature” and the “Audience Award” at the 2010 Chicago Underground Film Festival. Scrappers Film Group was chosen by NewCity Film in 2016 and 2018 to be among the "50 Chicago Screen Gems."
Brent Edward Huffman is an American director, writer, and cinematographer of documentaries and television programs, including Saving Mes Aynak (2015). His work has been featured on Netflix, Discovery Channel, The National Geographic Channel, VICE, NBC, CNN, PBS, Time, The New York Times, Al Jazeera America and Al Jazeera English and premiered at International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam (IDFA), and many other U.S. and international film festivals. He is also a professor at the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University where he teaches documentary production and theory.
Kira Bursky is a filmmaker, screenwriter, and artist currently based out of Asheville, NC.
Tom Palazzolo is an American experimental filmmaker, photographer, and painter. From St. Louis, Missouri, Palazzolo moved to Chicago, Illinois in 1960 to attend the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Palazzolo is most known for his Chicago-centric documentary films. He is recognized for his ability to reveal the realities of the working class and urban life. Utilizing the Cinéma vérité style in films such as Jerry's (1976), his perspective often include panoramic views of a place or event. Palazzolo's editing style is said to add a sense of humor while still portraying his subjects honestly. He was an important part of the underground film scene in Chicago during the 1960-70s that set itself apart from the lights of Hollywood and New York City.
Peter Kuttner is a Chicago filmmaker, activist, and cameraman. He is known for his early socially-conscious documentary films that touch on topics such as opposition to United States involvement in the Vietnam War, gentrification of Chicago, racism, and social class. He produced many of these with the film collective Kartemquin Films, of which he was an original member. He is best known for his work on the film The End of the Nightstick (1993) with Cindi Moran and Eric Scholl, which documented police brutality in Chicago and torture allegations against commander Jon Burge. Kuttner has worked extensively in activism and community service, and was a founding member of activist group Rising Up Angry. Kuttner has worked with many collaborators including Kartemquin Collective founder Gordon Quinn, and filmmakers Haskell Wexler and Robert Kramer. He is also known for camera work on a number of major motion pictures including Man of Steel and Source Code.
Julia Bell Reichert was an American Academy Award-winning documentary filmmaker, activist, and feminist. She was a co-founder of New Day Films. Reichert's filmmaking career spanned over 50 years as a director and producer of documentaries.