News

June 7, 2011 - [ Esquire ]

In a scene from Page One, Bill Keller informs his staff about the 2010 Pulitzer Prize winners.

When Andrew Rossi began quietly documenting the New York Times in 2010, he had no idea the Iraq war would end, Wikileaks would expose government secrets, and the Times would roll out a new paywall, effectively symbolizing the marriage of old and new media. He did, however, suspect that Executive Editor Bill Keller would step down, a move that shocked Times readers. Between conversations with Keller himself before and after his announcement, we spoke with the filmmaker about the editor's legacy and his new documentary, Page One.

June 6, 2011 - [ Ted's Take ]

Jeff Skoll is a good man.
 
He believes in a double bottom line set of deliverables.
 
Do well by doing good.
 
He started Participant Media, a great studio and enterprise to produce and distribute "good news" film.
 
He and they are having an impact. A positive impact on movie goers as well as on filmmakers. And on causes.

June 6, 2011 - [ The New York Times ]

Doing well is difficult. So is doing good.

In Hollywood, doing both turns out to be more complicated than you might think.

Participant Media, the film industry’s most visible attempt at social entrepreneurship, turned seven this year without quite sorting out whether a company that trades in movies with a message can earn its way in a business that has been tough even for those who peddle 3-D pandas and such.

June 6, 2011 - [ Mediaite ]

Director Andrew Rossi’s upcoming film Page One: Inside The New York Times (opening June 17th in New York, and nationally July 1) documents a year in the life of the Gray Lady, but also sets the table for what may either be the print media’s suffocation within, or emergence from, the chrysalis of the brave new media world. Rossi spoke with Mediaite about his film, its de facto star (Times Media reporter David Carr), and what it all means for journalism.

For the average viewer, Page One is an engrossing look inside the machinery of the news, but it is a must-see for anyone with more than a passing interest in the state of journalism. The film focuses on The Times’ Media Desk, particularly on David Carr and Brian Stelter. They are fitting proxies for the audience, as they’re each outsiders, of a sort.

June 3, 2011 - [ Huffington Post ]

NEW YORK -- The New York Times made it onto page one of Friday’s New York Times.

In a management shakeup the day before, the paper announced that Jill Abramson would succeed Bill Keller as executive editor in September, a move that garnered headlines across the country and was catnip for Times Kremlinologists speculating about what the masthead change portends.

But in two weeks, the Times will get a different kind of “Page One” treatment, as Andrew Rossi’s fly-on-the-wall documentary opens in New York City prior to a national release on July 1. Rossi, in an interview with The Huffington Post, acknowledged that “having a huge news story break on your subject two weeks before release is good.”

June 2, 2011 - [ Politico ]

Jill Abramson has been named The New York Times’s first female executive editor, succeeding Bill Keller in an historic and sudden shakeup of the paper’s top masthead announced Thursday.

Dean Baquet, the paper’s assistant managing editor and Washington bureau chief who became a kind of journalistic folk hero when he refused to cut staff as editor of the Los Angeles Times, will replace Abramson as managing editor.

June 2, 2011 - [ Huffington Post ]

Participant Media, the production powerhouse behind films including "Waiting for Superman," "An Inconvenient Truth," "Good Night and Good Luck," and "Charlie Wilson's War," bills itself as a company that "exists to tell compelling, entertaining stories that also create awareness of the real issues that shape our lives."

It is hard to overstate the impact that some of these movies have had on the popular conversation. "An Inconvenient Truth" –- and its star, Al Gore -– were largely credited with making global warming a topic of national concern, while "Waiting for Superman" has sparked a fierce national debate over education reform in America.

June 1, 2011 - [ Business Wire ]

DreamWorks Pictures and Geffen Records announced today that multiple Grammy® Award–winning recording artist Mary J. Blige wrote and recorded an original song for the soundtrack of DreamWorks Pictures and Participant Media’s The Help, a film based on the New York Times best-selling novel of the same name, opening in theaters August 12, 2011. “The Help” soundtrack - music from the Motion picture, will feature the original song from Mary J. Blige “The Living Proof.” The soundtrack, from Interscope Records, will be available Tuesday, July 26 at select Starbucks locations.

May 31, 2011 - [ Expect More Arizona ]

Expect More Arizona recently partnered with PM, Stand for Children Arizona, Valley of the Sun United Way, and  12 News to present an Arizona education town hall. 12 News produced a half hour special with footage from the event, which aired May 26. To view video of the special, click on the below link to Expect More Arizona’s webpage.

May 26, 2011 - [ Xtra! ]

With Circumstance, Iranian-American director Maryam Keshavarz delves where no President of Iran suggests there’s reason to go: Into a love affair between two Iranian women. Her first feature film, Circumstance is making its Canadian debut at Inside Out after winning the audience award at the Sundance Film Festival earlier this year.

The daughter of Iranian immigrants who were recruited to the US as doctors in the 1960s, Keshavarz’s interests have always lied in issues surrounding Iran. Initially an academic focusing on Middle Eastern Studies, Keshavarz stumbled upon filmmaking after the media’s portrayal of Middle Eastern people after 9/11 infuriated her. As a reaction to that, she made a collection of experimental films with some friends and ended up using them to apply to film school. She got in (on a scholarship, no less), and shifted from academia to film – but her focus remained on Iran.

May 26, 2011 - [ TakePart ]

Whether he likes it or not, New York Times media columnist David Carr is about to become much more famous than the vast majority of newspaper writers will ever be. Carr is a primary force in Page One: Inside the New York Times, a documentary coming in June from filmmakers Andrew Rossi and Kate Novack (and distributed by Participant Media, TakePart’s parent company).

Capping a 16-year career that included editing alternative weeklies in Minneapolis, Minnesota, and Washington, D.C., with stops at Inside.com and the Atlantic Monthly and New York magazine, Carr joined “the paper of record” in 2002. A self-described "ex-crackhead with a voice like Kermit the Frog," Carr's presence in Page One: Inside the New York Times is brash, voluble and irascibly protective of the Times as institution and workplace.

May 24, 2011 - [ Business Wire ]

IRE, Investigative Reporters and Editors, will host a special advance screening of the acclaimed new documentary from Magnolia Pictures and Participant Media, PAGE ONE: Inside The New York Times, at its 2011 Conference in Orlando, Florida. The screening, with writer-director Andrew Rossi and Participant Media’s EVP of Documentary Films Diane Weyermann in attendance, will take place at the Renaissance Orlando Resort at SeaWorld, Oceans 2 Ballroom on Friday, June 10th at 6:30PM, with a pre-screening cocktail reception to take place in the area just adjacent to the Oceans 2 Ballroom. The screening is scheduled to follow a panel featuring the film’s Bill Keller, executive editor of The New York Times.

May 20, 2011 - [ Beverly Hills Patch ]

People do ride their bikes to work in this town.

May is National Bike Month and Friday is Bike to Work Day. It's great to hear about people who cycle to Beverly Hills for their 9-to-5.

For those on the green scene, it couldn't get much better than working for a socially conscientious company like Participant Media, housed in a Beverly Hills-built LEED building. Workers here can cycle to the office and park at bicycle racks provided by the city inside the building's parking structure.

May 19, 2011 - [ 12News Phoenix, AZ ]

12 News is partnering for a change to work to improve Arizona's public school system.

Only 27 percent of Arizona 8th graders are proficient in reading. Less than half of Arizona high school graduates are eligible for admission to Arizona universities. We are failing our students and there is an urgent need to fix the problem fast.

12 News along with the Participant Foundation as well as Participant Media, who brought you "Waiting for Superman" as well as Stand for Children Arizona, Expect More Arizona and Valley of the Sun United Way present the 12 News Partnering for a Change School Solutions Town Hall. We are bringing together some of the greatest minds working to improve education in Arizona.

May 19, 2011 - [ Outfest ]

In a vibrant contemporary Tehran, two beautiful teenage girls struggle for their personal freedom. Atafeh and her best friend Shireen are full of youthful exuberance and a healthy streak of rebellion as they drink, smoke and go dancing at underground parties. When Atafeh's brother Mehran returns from drug rehab, he embraces a new way of life and joins the Morality Police - much to the surprise of his affluent and liberal parents - and becomes increasingly obsessed with and involved in Atafeh and Shireen's intimate relationship.

May 18, 2011 - [ TakePart ]

For the making of Page One: Inside The New York Times, director Andrew Rossi and producer Kate Novack gained unprecedented access to the New York Times newsroom and the inner workings at the paper's media desk. With the Internet encroaching upon print as America's primary news source, and newspapers all over the country going bankrupt, Page One chronicles the transformation of the news media at a peak of great turmoil. As their paper struggles to stay vital and solvent, Times writers like Brian Stelter, Tim Arango and the salty but brilliant David Carr track print journalism’s metamorphosis, even while their editors and publishers grapple with emerging issues, such as controversial new sources and the implications of an online pay-wall.

May 18, 2011 - [ OurKids ]

They want to take action and be the "superman" they’ve been waiting for — now.
Inspired by the groundbreaking documentary that flagged the public school crisis, a packed town hall of 300 educators, students, politicians and parents in Honolulu was among a series of forums across the U.S. that was part of the social action campaign for the Waiting for "Superman" documentary. The forums were organized by Participant Media, the L.A.-based entertainment company behind the film.

May 17, 2011 - [ Reuters ]

Jodie Foster's wry look at depression and therapy in "The Beaver" got a warm reception at the Cannes film festival Tuesday, hinting at a possible second life in Europe after it flopped with U.S. audiences.

The film, which stars Mel Gibson in his first major role after a series of scandals tainted his reputation in Hollywood, fell flat on its opening weekend in the United States with ticket sales of just over $100,000.

May 12, 2011 - [ Film Comment ]

Literal-minded viewers will be pleased to know that Page One: Inside The New York Times occasionally shows what the title seems to promise: the process of deciding which stories get to live on the most valuable piece of real estate in the newspaper business. These scenes, however, are few and brief. For most of its 88 minutes, this documentary by writer-director-cinematographer Andrew Rossi and his co-writer, Kate Novack, is preoccupied not with the world of events you might read on page one, but with the question of whether newspapers can afford to keep printing anything there at all.

May 6, 2011 - [ Huffington Post ]

What inspired Jeff Skoll, former eBay president and man of great fortune, to create a Hollywood film company with a conscience? Are those not oxymoronic, with the American film industry often challenged for selling its soul in the merciless market of modern entertainment? Why buck the tide and risk reputational and economic ruin by founding a company that produced movies meant to "...inspire...and compel social change"? The answer seems to be their courage, leadership and commitment to excellence.