Weekly Roundup: September 11 - 17, 2010

Here are snippets from this week's most interesting film-related news, including latest updates from current and past TFI projects:

Good news for documentary filmmakers around the world! At last week’s UK Good Pitch, the Channel 4 BRITDOC Foundation and PUMA announced a new partnership, which will provide financial support, creative counsel and industry recognition to international documentary filmmakers whose creative storytelling highlights social justice, peace or environmental issues.

Looking for weekend activities? How about spending your Saturday with Reframe partner Ken Jacobs at the screening of his epic film Star Spangled to Death at Union Docs? Shot for only "hundreds of dollars," this 400 minute film combines found films with some staged filming, at once capturing a fleeting moment in the 1950's American culture while critiquing a certain "stolen and sold out" America of the era. You'll even be treated to a guided tour (by Ken Jacobs himself, of course) of the original Star Spangled to Death East Village locations. The screening takes place this Saturday, September 18 at 1:30pm.

Deadline Hollywood reports that Lions Gate Entertainment is forming a joint venture with Mexican media giant Televisa to produce and distribute movies for Latino audiences in America. Pantelion Films will release a slate of eight to 10 films a year over the next five years, starting with the January 2011 release of From Prada to Nada.

Next week marks the return of IFP's Independent Film Week, with Project Forum meetings in full force for hundreds of filmmakers and industry reps. On Tuesday, September 21, TFI's Documentary Programming Director Ryan Harrington will moderating the Financial Realities for Social Issue Filmmaking" panel as part of the Independent Filmmaker Conference. Panelists include Dan Cogan of Impact Partners; Wendy Ettinger of <a .="" 000="" 2010.="" 2011="" a="" additional="" all="" america="" and="" announced="" arts="" at="" big="" bring="" by="" character-driven="" chicken="" credit:="" deadline="" december="" discuss="" distribution="" documentaries.="" documentary="" each="" early="" egg="" executive="" fellowships="" film="" filmmaker="" final="" for="" grants="" gucci="" here="" homepage="" how="" href="http://www.starspangledtodeath.com" in="" including="" institute.="" is="" it="" latin="" louise="" media="" message="" more="" new="" november="" opened="" outreach="" photo="" please="" presented="" provide="" s="" sloan="" target="_blank" tfi="" than="" the="" to="" together="" tribeca="" visit="" was="" we="" week="" which="" who="" will="">Ken Jacobs</a> via Union Docs)