Kung fu demonstration by Li-Leng Dzang at the Independent Lens launch party

ITVS marks its 10th year at the Sundance Film Festival, the renowned showcase for independent films, by screening seven films—a new ITVS record! Sundance 2004 will feature: Rodney Evans’s BROTHER TO BROTHER in the dramatic competition; David Petersen’s LET THE CHURCH SAY AMEN in American Spectrum; and Stanley Nelson’s A PLACE OF OUR OWN, Shola Lynch’s CHISHOLM ’72: UNBOUGHT & UNBOSSED, Catherine Tambini and Carlos Sandoval’s FARMINGVILLE, Ramona S. Diaz’s IMELDA, and Jessica Yu’s IN THE REALMS OF THE UNREAL in the documentary competition. Since 1994, ITVS has screened more than 40 projects at Sundance, including 11 Sundance Film Festival Award winners.

Tracy Tragos’s BE GOOD, SMILE PRETTY received the Best Documentary Feature Award at the IFP Los Angeles Film Festival and the President’s Award for Excellence in Documentary Film from the Vietnam Veterans of America. Tragos and her film were also featured on 60 Minutes II.

Congrats to Emmy honorees: Mark Brodin’s DELAFIELD won the Upper Midwest Regional Emmy Award and Gail Dolgin and Vicente Franco’s DAUGHTER FROM DANANG earned primetime Emmy nominations for Outstanding Cinematography for Nonfiction Programming and Outstanding Picture Editing for Nonfiction Programming.

Joel Katz’s STRANGE FRUIT won the Jewish Image Award for Cross-Cultural Excellence from the National Foundation for Jewish Culture. The film’s website also garnered an Exploratorium Ten Cool Sites Award for educational excellence.

The companion website for Anne-Marie Russell’s WORST POSSIBLE ILLUSION: THE CURIOSITY CABINET OF VIK MUNIZ was selected as a Cool Site of the Day. The site lets browsers “rummage about in Vik’s interactive Curiosity Cabinet, exploring his unique artworks made with sugar, thread, chocolate and wire.”

Independent Lens kicked off its new season with a gala launch party at the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York. Co-sponsored by CPB, PBS and Thirteen/WNET, the event included a performance by WORST POSSIBLE ILLUSION’s Vik Muniz and a kung fu demonstration by Li-Leng Dzang from SHAOLIN ULYSSES: Kungfu Monks In America. Special thanks to in-kind sponsors Champagne Veuve Clicquot, SKYY Vodka and Bosco Products, Inc.