January 2005

At first it sounds hard to believe: students in a journalism course at Chicago’s Northwestern University managed to exonerate some convicts on death row in Illinois. They merely followed their stories and examined the cases, but the closer they looked the more it seemed that something was not right. The, albeit popular, system of capital punishment had failed, and people took notice. From the press to Illinois Governor George Ryan, the debate over capital punishment had moved to the forefront in the state in 2002. After some read more...

What better way to celebrate progressive cross-cultural encounters than to hole up inside the house each winter? Well, the annual Margaret Mead Film and Video Festival offers a slightly better-informed alternative. Now in its 28th year, the festival screens new works in the un-genre of ethnographic (or "cross-cultural" or "inter-cultural" or "anthropological" or simply "documentary") film, a field that, since the 1960s, has defined itself by stretching its own boundaries, read more...

If you're making your way out to Park City this month, be sure to check out some of the local films (and filmmakers) being celebrated through the many festivals in the Beehive State (yes, Utah).

In 1999, Mary Healey-Conlon began research on a scandal in the Catholic Church. Five years later, Conlon has completed a documentary on one of the most important events in the history of the Church. "Holy Water-Gate" examines the victims and cover-up of the Church’s sexual abuse charges. 

It’s been a whirlwind of activity for Somerville filmmaker Inbal Goldstein since completing his first feature-length documentary film, "The Mothers’ Triangle" in August. Most recently, the film was one of 20 feature documentaries that screened in September at the IFP Market & Conference in New York, after having been selected from nearly 1,800 project submissions -- an extraordinarily competitive year for all film categories, but in particular, for documentary. Inbal financed, directed, produced, filmed and edited "The read more...

Email news to news@newenglandfilm.com. 

Reprinted from Association of Independent Video and Filmmakers

The truth about Emmett Till was supposed to be buried with him.

But a new documentary film has unearthed enough overwhelming evidence to prompt a new investigation into a murder case that was closed nearly 50 years ago.