By Robert Bahar and Almudena Carracedo

Over five years, our documentary Made in L.A., which tells the story of three Latina immigrants fighting for better working conditions in Los Angeles garment factories, grew from a short educational video into a feature doc that would premiere on the PBS primetime series P.O.V. and win an Emmy. Hundreds of educational and community screenings followed the broadcast, and we are now entering our second year of outreach and community engagement.

But Made in L.A.'s journey began in the living rooms and gardens of its "core audience." Individuals with a passion for social justice, fair trade, women's issues, labor and immigrants' rights reached out to their communities and made this journey possible. Throughout the subsequent production, post-production and distribution processes, our audience's support has been crucial to making Made in L.A. a success.

In this article, we explore how we combined traditional funding and distribution with more innovative, niche-oriented approaches built on a strong relationship with our core audience. As we have taken the film to communities around the world, we will also explore how we have succeeded in maintaining a "double bottom line"--engaging communities with the message of the film while generating enough revenue to sustain our continued work on the project.

Grassroots Beginnings

Made in L.A. began when Almudena Carracedo read a newspaper article about sweatshops in Los Angeles. It talked about deplorable conditions faced by immigrants working in some downtown garment factories: long hours, sub-minimum wage (or no pay) and unsafe and unsanitary conditions. Shocked that this was happening in the US, she set out to make a short educational video that would expose these issues, and would take about five months to complete--or so she thought!

She approached Los Angeles' Garment Worker Center, then newly opened, and started spending time there, sometimes filming, often just talking with workers. Speaking in her native Spanish, being a woman and working alone, she gradually established trust. The workers had just launched a boycott campaign, and there was much to film. The five months that she had planned to devote to the project passed quickly.

But Almudena did create a ten-minute educational video for the organization, which showed the piece at all of its classroom presentations and whenever new workers came to the Center. With four years of work still ahead, Made in L.A. was already serving its audience and advocates, and making an impact.

As the workers' campaign dragged on, Almudena began to focus on three women, and she was amazed to observe their growing sense of self-confidence and empowerment. A real film was unfolding, and she was capturing the subtleties of a transformative journey. But she knew that it would take more than just one person to bring the project to fruition, so Robert Bahar came on board; together we restructured the film and began to think seriously about fundraising for the first time.

Community Fundraising

Initially, we were declined by major funders, but we did raise money from small foundations dedicated either to supporting emerging filmmakers or to the issues in the film. Clearly, while the film had not yet attracted larger institutional funders, it appealed to our core audience in an emotional, powerful way. With our passion for the project and with the support of the Garment Worker Center and the national coalition Sweatshop Watch, we began to inquire about who might be willing to host fundraising events. One contact led to another, and, like a tree branching out, we got to know many people who believed in the importance of completing the film. In a series of five fundraising house parties, graciously hosted by these community members, we reached thousands of people, and were able to raise more than 10 percent of our ultimate budget-enough to cover our modest expenses during the first four years of production. (For details on how we created these house parties, we've written a brief guide called "Reach Out! Planning a Fundraising House Party in Your Community." A free download is available here.

In addition to successfully yielding funds, these house parties served a number of additional purposes. Instead of our being locked away writing grant proposals or struggling to re-edit a scene, the events gave us a forum to connect with hundreds of our audience members, and we listened carefully to their compliments and criticisms. The moral support was also essential: In one case, a woman came up to us in tears, saying "You must complete this film!" Such moments were powerful reminders of why we had started making the film in the first place, and of why our struggle to complete the film was worthwhile!

We kept track of everyone we met, and the network of supporters that emerged from these events would lay the groundwork for our successful outreach and distribution campaign--and for building a real community around Made in L.A.

Seeking Out Completion Funding

While grassroots funding supported our shooting process, we knew that we'd need significant finishing funds to be able to stop working on other jobs and begin editing. So, with the crucial moral and financial support from our core audience, we began to position the film for bigger funders.

The long journey of securing completion funding could easily be the subject of another article. Suffice it to say, we took Made in L.A. to the 2004 IFP Market and had the opportunity to meet with public television series, major cable networks and foreign broadcasters. While there was much enthusiasm and interest, no one was ready to jump on board. As we listened to their feedback, we saw that the film still faced challenges in crossing over beyond its core audience. That winter, we began to work to make the film feel urgent and relevant to wider audiences while maintaining our core audience's connection to the material. We made the film more personal, we studied and shaped each character's arc, and we worked even harder to tell the "big story" and "the issues" through the specific stories of our three protagonists. As the film finally found its voice, almost a year later, we were able to secure completion funding from ITVS, P.O.V. (through its "Diverse Voices Project") and the Sundance Institute Documentary Fund.

It's worth mentioning that we had contemplated giving up on getting funding more than once. It's such a delicate balance to determine whether you should be cutting trailers and writing grant proposals, or should simply use that time to make the film without funding. In retrospect, we're glad that we didn't give up on pursuing funding. Not only did it allow us to complete the film properly, but the process pushed us to make an important leap in developing the film.

Festival Premiere

After an intense and creative year of editing, we completed Made in L.A. in June 2007. The P.O.V. broadcast was scheduled for Labor Day, so this gave us a narrow US festival window. Luckily, we were invited for a world premiere screening at Silverdocs, and a West Coast premiere one week later at the Los Angeles Film Festival. Both events were tremendously successful, with two packed screenings at Silverdocs and nearly 600 people in attendance in LA! We attribute much of this success to the effort we made to reach out to the core audience that had been supporting the film through the five-and-a-half years of production. Through e-mails, bilingual flyers, extensive coverage in Spanish-language media and support from partner organizations, we reached far and wide. As a result, one of our Silverdocs screenings featured a contingent of immigrant workers from the worker center Casa De Maryland. In LA, day laborers came from more than two hours away to see the film, and a huge number of progressive organizations were represented at the event.

P.O.V. Broadcast

As our national broadcast approached, P.O.V.'s Communications and Community Engagement teams worked tirelessly to get press, catalyze community screenings and develop resources around the film. At the same time, the San Francisco-based Active Voice brought national partners on board, planned additional screenings and convened a braintrust of Washington-based organizations to discuss how best to frame Made in L.A., and how the film might fit into policy discussions around low-wage work and immigration.

With support from Latino Public Broadcasting, P.O.V. organized a satellite media tour featuring us and Lupe Hernandez, one of the women in the film. The tour garnered coverage on news programs across the country, including Fox News' Fox and Friends, Univision's Primer Impacto, CNN en Español, Telemundo and MSNBC, in addition to countless interviews on local and national radio.

At the same time, we waited with trepidation for our first reviews. We were confident that our core audience would embrace the film, but how would the mainstream press respond to it cinematically? And would the film communicate the issues? So it was with joy that we read The New York Times review: "Labor protest is not dead. Nor is it futile, according to Made in L.A., an excellent documentary...about basic human dignity."

Making an Impact: Long-Term Community Engagement

As we emerged from the whirlwind of the broadcast, and in the midst of international festival premieres and a huge number of events in the United States, we began to strategize about what our outreach would look like and how we would sustain ourselves during the effort.

Our first step was to release the DVD ourselves on our website (www.madeinla.com) and publicize it to our core audience through our e-mail list and partnerships with relevant organizations, and at screening events. Since then, self-distributing to home video and community groups has provided a small, steady revenue stream.

At the same time, there was great demand among educators, and we knew that we wouldn't be able to serve this market on our own. Instead, California Newsreel, a leading educational distributor with a specialized collection on Economic Globalization, took on the educational rights. Our self-distribution and their distribution efforts have complemented each other, and this has provided another important revenue stream.

With home video, community and educational distribution in place, we began to devote ourselves to community engagement. Our first year focused on community and university screening events, where we used Made in L.A. as a vehicle to raise awareness, increase public engagement, encourage coalition-building and catalyze action. Whenever possible, we'd follow each screening with a panel discussion that would introduce the audience to local organizations that could connect the film to what was happening in their own communities. For example, at an event at Yale University, we held a bilingual screening and panel discussion where organizers from the local group Unidad Latina en Acción explained how students could get involved supporting immigrant workers organizing in local restaurants. Several additional screenings have followed by local groups in New Haven, and the film has been incorporated into the work of local activists.

In addition to individual screening events, we have organized week-long screening tours in Northern California, New England and the Pacific Northwest, doing up to two campus and community events each day. The Northern California and New England tours were built around invitations that we'd received from various universities and groups, while the Pacific Northwest tour was a unique partnership with Sweatfree Communities, a national coalition that works to convince institutional purchasers to adopt "sweatfree" purchasing policies. Together, we used film screenings and appearances in six different cities to raise awareness about their campaigns. Less than a month after one of our Oregon screenings, the local city council passed a "Sweatfree" resolution!

The past year of screenings exemplifies the "double bottom line" approach. In addition to accomplishing our mission, the screening fees, honoraria and travel support from universities and local groups have provided an additional revenue stream and have been crucial to sustaining our efforts. Perhaps most importantly, they have also enabled us to bring the film to communities that aren't able to provide financial support but that vitally need the film.

Looking Ahead

In our second year of outreach, we are focusing on several core audiences that emerged during the first year, including youth organizers and the campus, civic and faith-based communities where the film is most likely to help catalyze change. We are also working to empower groups to incorporate the film into their work, and we have created "Screening Kits" that include DVDs, posters, postcards and online tools that make it easy to plan and promote one's own Made in L.A. events. We've designed the kits to be inexpensive, and we include enough extra DVDs in each kit to sell at the screening so that the kit can pay for itself. We hope that this approach will prove to be a sustainable model for us as social-issue filmmakers, and for grassroots groups that will use the film!

So, a year and a half after we finished our film, we're still working hard engaging audiences. We are living proof of the filmmaking adage: "When you finish your film, that's when the work begins!"

Robert Bahar and Almudena Carracedo are the producers of the Emmy Award-winning  documentary Made in L.A. For more information, visit www.madeinla.com and www.madeinla.com/blog.

Film Independent has announced that Rebecca Yeldham will assume directorship of the Los Angeles Film Festival, succeeding Richard Raddon, who resigned in November amid controversy over his support of the California-based Proposition 8 initiative, which effectively banned same-sex marriage. Rachel Rosen, the festival's director of programming, and Sean McManus, Film Independent's senior director, had been serving as interim co-directors since Raddon's departure.

Yeldham brings significant experience as a programmer, producer and production and acquisition executive. The Australian native, who had been serving on Film Independent's executive board, is currently developing, with Walter Salles, a film adapatation of Jack Kerouac's On the Road, and is in post-production on the documentary Searching for the Road. Yeldham also produced Sacha Gervasi's Anvil!: The Story of Anvil.

Prior to becoming an independent producer, Yeldham served as senior vice president of production at FilmFour, where she headed up the US production wing. From 1997 to 2001, she was the senior programmer of the Sundance Film Festival and associate director of the Sundance Institute's International Programs. From 1990 to 1994, Yeldham served as director of acquisitions and business affairs for Fox/Lorber and Associates,

"Rebecca has a wide range of experience in the industry and she's an inspiring leader; her many talents make her a natural fit for the Los Angeles Film Festival," said Dawn Hudson, executive director of Film Independent, in a statement. "She has been intimately involved in the building of this festival and the organization over the last nine years as a Film Independent Board member. Rebecca shares our vision of expanding the festival within Los Angeles and the global film community by introducing audiences to unique filmmakers and their films."

"Dawn and her team have done an amazing job growing the Los Angeles Film Festival over the last few years," said Yeldham. "In these times, there is such a desire to come together and celebrate our unique city, community and industry, to bridge differences and champion great filmmaking and film-going experiences. I'm thrilled to have the opportunity to join this dynamic team and lead the charge in taking this festival to the next level."      

The Los Angeles Film Festival runs June 18 to June 28 in Westwood Village. With an expected audience of more than 100,000, the festival will screen more than 175 narrative features, documentaries, shorts, and music videos, alongside gala premieres, panels and seminars, free outdoor screenings, Family Day and live musical performances.

The 2009 Creative Handbook--a great Southern California production resource guide--is now available free of charge to IDA members.

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Your copy will be sent to you via USPS. Please remember to include a street address for prompt delivery.

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Pass this offer to a friend and they'll send them a book, absolutely free as well.

Get more information about the Creative Handbook at www.creativehandbook.com.

John Cooper, a 20-year veteran of the Sundance Institute and Film Festival, was appointed Director of the festival, succeeding Geoffrey Gilmore, now Chief Creative Officer at Tribeca Enterprises. Cooper, whose appointment was widely expected in indie circles, previously served as Director, Creative Development for the Sundance Institute and Director of Programming for the Sundance Film Festival. Under his new title, he will serve as the festival's artistic director,  leading the festival's programming and strategic growth, as well as overseeing activities such as content production, online initiatives and key national and international partnerships.

Cooper joined the institute in 1989, and has played a vital role in encouraging the development of the "New Frontier on Main" strand of the festival, enhacing Sundance's presence through its website, and instigating the distribution of short films through through strategic relationships with iTunes, Netflix and Xbox 360 platforms. In addition to programming the popular Sundance at BAM series, since 2005 Cooper has spearheaded The Sundance Institute Art House Project, a national initiative of 18 art-houses from across the country designed to connect regional audiences to the Sundance's films and filmmakers.

"This is a tremendous opportunity not just for me but for the entire programming team," Cooper said in a statement. "Our industry is at a crossroads: Innovative technology and global accessibility are making filmmaking wildly creative while, at the same time, traditional funding and distribution models are being challenged. Never has our festival been more relevant. I am honored to accept this position and ready to get to work on shaping the festival of the future."

"When we established the festival, it was always with two goals in mind: supporting new artists and inspiring new audiences," Robert Redford, Sundance Institute President and Founder, added, in the statement. "Cooper has never lost sight of these goals. He brings to the position an infectious enthusiasm as well as a deep understanding of the Sundance brand and culture. Forward thinking, he is a natural choice of succession to lead the festival into the 21st century."

The Tribeca Film Festival, which runs April 22 to May 3, just announced its lineup. The highlights of the World Documentary Feature Competition include world premieres from Kirby Dick, Marshall Curry and Liz Mermin, and North American premieres from Jose Padhila and Yoav Shamir, while the Discovery strand includes a doc about CBGB's, the legendary and lamentedly departed New York City venue for punk aesthetes.

Here's the World Documentary Feature Competition lineup:

The Burning Season (Dir.: Cathy Henkel; Australia--International Premiere)

Defamation (Hashmatsa) (Dir.: Yoav Shamir; Denmark, Austria, USA, Israel--North American Premiere)

Fixer: The Taking of Ajmal Naqshbandi (Dir.: Ian Olds; USA--North American Premiere)

Garapa (Dir.: José Padilha; Brazil--North American Premiere)

Only When I Dance (Dir.: Beadie Finzi; Brazil, UK--World Premiere)

Outrage (Dir.: Kirby Dick; USA--World Premiere)

Partly Private (Dir.: Danae Elon; Canada--World Premiere)

Racing Dreams (Dir.: Marshall Curry; USA--World Premiere)

Shadow Billionaire (Dir.: Alexis Manya Spraic; USA--World Premiere)

Team Qatar (Dir.: Liz Mermin; UK--World Premiere)

Transcendent Man (Dir.: Barry Ptolemy; USA--World Premiere)

Yodok Stories (Dir.: Andrzej Fidyk; Norway, Poland--North American Premiere)

American Casino (Dir.: Leslie Cockburn; USA--World Premiere)

Burning Down the House: The Story of CBGB (Dir.: Mandy Stein; USA--World Premiere) 

Con Artist (Dir.: Michael Sladek; USA--World Premiere)

Off and Running (Dir.: Nicole Opper, written by Avery Klein-Cloud and Opper; USA-World Premiere) 

P-Star Rising (Dir.: Gabriel Noble; USA-World Premiere)

Playground (Dir.: Libby Spears; USA-World Premiere)

Which Way Home (Dir.: Rebecca Cammisa; USA-World Premiere)

For more information, go to http://www.tribecafilm.com/.

Ten of Tyson's most well-known opponents are interviewed in the film, with Von Kaiser, Soda Popinski, Don Flamenco, King Hippo, and others reminiscing about the boxer's career.

As reported in Variety, The Cove, the Sundance Audience Award-winner from Louie Psihoyas, will hit theaters in the US this summer, courtesy of Lionsgate and Roadside Attractions; The doc, a thriller/adventure story of sorts, follows filmmaker Psihoyas, dolphin trainer/activist Richard O'Barry and a band of enterprising seafarers as they aim to expose the capture and slaughter of dolphins in a cove off the coast of Japan. Participant Media has also signed on to develop an outreach/awareness campaign, focused on the issues raised in the film. UK-based Works International and Quickfire Films Fund acquired all other territories.

Oscilloscope Laboratories acquired US theatrical distribution rights to another Sundance Award-winner, Anders Østergaard's Burma VJ, which comes to theaters this spring, followed by a DVD release in 2010. Dogwoolf will handle theatrical and DVD distribution of the film in the UK. The film, which documents an intrepid group of Burmese journalists who use tiny cameras and cell phones to document the 2007 crackdown in their country, will also air on HBO. Burma VJ won a documentary editing award at Sundance, as well as two prizes at IDFA.

As reported in indieWIRE, Theater of War, John Walter's behind-the-scenes look at playwright Tony Kushner's adaptation and production of Bertolt Brecht's Mother Courage, was acquired by Alive Mind, the documentary distribution arm of Lorber HT Digital. Alive Mind will handle theatrical and DVD distribution rights in North America, with bookings at such specialty venues as the Coolidge in Boston, the Walker in Minneapolis, the Wexner Center in Columbus, Ohio, slated for April and May.

Docs in the Big D

AFI Dallas International Film Festival, whose third edition bows March 26 and runs through April 2, just announced its full slate. Here are the documentaries:

Target Documentary Feature Competition
Americana (Dir.: Topaz Adizes)
The Eyes of Me (Dir.: Keith Maitland)
Houston We Have a Problem (Dir.: Nicole Torre)
Prom Night in Mississippi (Dir: Paul Saltzman)
Rough Aunties (Dir.: Kim Longinotto)
Whatever It Takes (Dir.: Christopher Wong)

Documentary Showcase
Art & Copy (Dir.: Doug Pray)
Dungeon Masters (Dir: Keven McAlester)
Food Inc. (Dir.: Robert Kenner)
The Garden (Dir: Scott Hamilton Kennedy)
Tyson (Dir: James Toback)

Deep Ellum Sounds
Rip: A Remix Manifesto (Dir.: Brett Gaylor)
Rock Prophecies (Dir.: John Chester)
Say My Name (Dir.: Nirit Peled)
Soul Power (Dir.: Jeffrey Levy-Hinte)

Dallas Premiere Series
Valentino: The Last Emperor (Dir.: Matt Tynauer)

Texas Competition
One Nation (Dir.: Justin Wilson)
St. Nick (Dir.: David Lowery)
Tattooed Under Fire (Dir: Nancy Schiesari)

Environmental Visions Competition
At The Edge of the World (Dir.: Dan Stone)
Crude (Dir.: Joe Berlinger)
Sundance Channel: Eco Trip: Cotton Shirt (Dir.: Remy Webber)/Addicted To Plastic (Dir.: Ian Connacher)
Upstream Battle (Dir.: Ben Kempas)

World Cinema
Kassim The Dream (Dir.: Kief Davidson)

Midnight Specials
Not Quite Hollywood (Dir: Mark Hartley)

San Francisco International Film Festival Announces Doc Competition Slate

The 52nd edition of the San Francisco International Film Festival runs April 23 to May 7. Here are the documentaries in competition for the Golden Gate Awards:

The Age of Stupid (Dir.: Franny Armstrong)
Burma VJ: Reporting from a Closed Country (Dir.:Anders Østergaard)
California Company Town (Dir.: Lee Anne Schmitt)
City of Borders (Dir.: Yun Suh)
Crude (Dir.: Joe Berlinger)
D tour (Dir.: Jim Granato)
Kimjongilia (Dir.: N.C. Heikin)
My Neighbor, My Killer (Dir.: Anne Aghion)
New Muslim Cool (Dir.: Jennifer Maytorena Taylor)
Nomad's Land (Dir.: Gaël Métroz)
The Reckoning (Dir.: Pamela Yates)
Speaking in Tongues (Dir.: Marcia Jarmel, Ken Schneider)
Z32 (Dir.: Avi Mograbi)

SXSW to Teams Up with SnagFilms, IndiePix and Cinema Guild on Doc Premiere

The upcoming South by Southwest Film Festival, which runs March 13 to 21 in Austin, Texas, is partnering with SnagFilms, IndiePix, and Cinema Guild on a unique distribution deal, simultaneously premiering Clark Lyda and Jesse Lyda's documentary The Least of These at the festival and online via SnagFilms, and then online and on DVD and in theaters through IndiePix and Cinema Guild.

The film, which premieres March 16, takes a penetrating look at the T. Don Hutto Residential Center, a former medium-security prison that re-opened in 2006 as a prototype family detention center. The facility houses immigrant children and their parents from all over the world who are awaiting asylum hearings or deportation proceedings. As information about troubling conditions at the facility began to leak out, three activist attorneys sought to investigate and address the issues. In telling the story of their quest, the film explores the role (and limits) of community activism in bringing about change.

"This is a groundbreaking distribution effort to bring attention to an important question of human rights and public policy," said Rick Allen, CEO of SnagFilms, in a statement.  "We are building on relationships we have forged with the festival, with IndiePix and with the filmmakers to open up channels of distribution for this particular film."  SnagFilms and IndiePix collaborated with great success on simultaneous launch events with the Hamptons Festival last fall, he noted. "By combining the broad national reach of SnagFilms with the DVD distribution capability of IndiePix and the library and educational marketing of The Cinema Guild, we can ensure that this film and this topic have maximum visibility," he said.

Janet Pierson, producer of the SXSW Film Festival and Conference, said: "We are pleased to be part of the groundbreaking premiere and distribution launch of The Least of These. Our festival can provide a powerful launching platform for the film upon which SnagFilms and IndiePix can build their distribution strategies. We are committed to supporting new distribution models for SXSW premiere filmmakers."

Brooklyn's in the House: BAMCinemaFEST Set for Summer Premiere

Elsewhere on the festival circuit, there's a new game in town-BAMCinemaFEST, which debuts this June at the Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM) in New York City. The new festival is an outgrowth of BAM's Cinematek, which celebrates its tenth anniversary this year of providing dynamic programming to Brooklyn and beyond. As reported in indieWIRE, the festival will replace the Sundance at BAM series, which screened selections from the Sundance Film Festival for the past three years.

With the marketing muscle and storied cachet of BAM behind it, BAMcinemaFEST just might emerge as a third major film festival in New York City, alongside Tribeca in the spring and New York Film Festival in the fall. With Peter Scarlet having stepped down as artistic director of the Tribeca Film Festival last week., just ten days after the Twitter-tweaking announcement that Geoff Gilmore would leave his hallowed perch at Sundance to head up Tribeca Enterprises and ten days before Tribeca would announce its line-up, this sets the stage for an intriguing triumvirate.

What resonates for me most about what turned out to be Gilmore's valediction from the podium at the Sundance Awards Ceremony was the point in his address when he raised his voice and exclaimed, "The independent arena needs to change. There are too many good films that need to be seen by audiences everywhere." I thought Sundance at BAM was a good start in getting the Sundance brand out, given the fact that a fair number of films come out of Sundance festooned with awards and accolades and promise, only to fall short of expectations in finding a significant audience. So, in taking the helm as Chief Creative Officer at Tribeca Enterprises, the for-profit media company that runs the festival and Tribeca Cinemas, Gilmore may well be taking the lead in transforming what a festival ought to be. The aforementioned SnagFilms/SXSW initiative is one means of changing the role of a festival; the Tribeca model of a festival as a component of a multi-platform synergy is another.

As the new kid on the block, BAMcinemaFEST takes a bold step planting its pole in the New York cultural arena-and going head to head in the festival calendar with the Los Angeles Film Festival. BAM thinks big and acts globally; its 25-year-old Next Wave Festival is a testament to that (Full disclosure: I worked at BAM in the 1980s). With BAM having partnered with Sundance for three years, and with Tribeca having lured the Sundance impresario eastward, it'll be interesting to see just where the festival paradigm will go.

And what about the New York Film Festival? A smaller festival in terms of number of films, and a grizzled veteran at 40+ years, this showcase has the misfortune of following on the heels of Telluride, Toronto and Venice. And the dearth of docs-sometimes as few as two or three-is lamentable. But the festival ushers in the fall cultural season in New York; cineastes set their watches by it; and for those who couldn't get to Cannes, they can check out a lot of what screened there, here. And Cannes is a little snooty about docs too.

As a footnote, True/False, which just concluded, has, in just seven years, rocked the doc world with its innovation, audacity and sheer sense of fun. I wasn't able to go, but ace blogger Pamela Cohn was, and she offers this well-considered take on the Missouri-based festival and why the doc community reveres it.

Since its release two weeks ago, Public Media 2.0: Dynamic, Engaged Publics, a report from American University's Center for Social Media, has attracted positive feedback from the twitterati and blognizanti from academia and, yes, public media. Authored by Jessica Clark, director of the Center's Future of Public Media Project and Pat Aufderheide, director of the Center for Social Media, Public Media 2.0 is a thorough examination of the participatory media infrastructure-the platforms, the tools, the players, the stakeholders--and the role it will continue to play in shaping democracy and democratic life. A product of four years of research-a period during which Public Media 2.0 arguably made its most dynamic manifestation in the 2008 US Presidential Election--the report looks forward, exploring new ideas about engagement and participation, propelled by the ever-expansive Web 2.0 world.

"The people formerly known as the audience have reorganized themselves into networks," said Clark, in a statement. "That throws open the doors for what public media can be."

"Tomorrow's public media will be media made by, for, and with the public, but it won't happen by accident," added Aufderheide. "This report provides a map of opportunities and ways to make the most of them."

Public Media 2.0 is available for downloading here here. And here's a Cliff's Notes/slideshow presentation of the report on Slideshare.net. And here's a clip of Jessica Clark explaining the essence of the report:

Peter Fonda hosted a screening this weekend in Santa Monica, CA of the movie that examines America's troubled relationship with oil and how alternative and sustainable energies can reduce our the world's addictive dependence on fossil fuels. He even appeared with Tickell on the local news in February.You can see the interview here.

Tickell was solo when he appeared on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, but it was an inspiring appearance nonetheless.

Some of the film's accolades include Audience Award for Best Documentary at the 2008 Sundance Film Festival and Best Documentary Jury Award at the 2008 Sedona Film Festival.

See the trailer for Fuel in our video gallery, here.

Fuel is wrapping up in L.A. this week before heading off to Colorado and Washington for screenings. Get updated screening information and more at http://thefuelfilm.com.