UT Documentary Center | The University of Texas at Austin

June 16 – August 8, ITVS, San Francisco

How could I summarize in a couple of paragraphs my thoughts and feelings about the experience of spending the summer of 2008 in San Francisco working at the biggest founder of documentaries in the United States, ITVS? I guess I’ll start by encompassing everything into one word: perfect.

Independent Television Service, ITVS, was created more than 15 years ago by different concerned filmmakers, activists, and producers, who saw a very disturbing gap in public television that needed to be filled. Almost two decades later, this non-profit organization sponsored in part by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, has managed to grow into an American institution responsible of nurturing, funding and distributing some of the most interesting documentary programs that we have seen on the market.

As an independent filmmaker, the opportunity of seeing how the process of intake of applications, development of the projects, and finally funding of the films, got done was an invaluable experience that few people are able to have. I feel that it’s prudent to also note that ITVS does not usually take interns; this made my whole presence at their facilities a very unique opportunity worked out by Jean Lauer, Nancy Schiesari and Ellen Spiro from the UT Doc Center, along with Craig Harris from ITVS. It was certainly a privilege, as well as a very enlightening experience.

But let’s not forget about the City of San Francisco.

The San Francisco Bay Area is one of the most interesting places in the world. Besides its amazing ecosystem, its beautiful landscape, and its infamous hills, it has also been for decades an epicenter for the spawning of ideas that have changed life as we all know it. There’s something somewhat enigmatic about it. On one hand you have the massive, extremely diverse and open minded metropolis of San Francisco, which somehow still manages to keep a peculiar small town feeling, on the other you have Oakland and Berkeley; One a very wholesome city with a very distinctive identity, and the other one of the most famous, proactive college campuses in the world.

With all of this being said, I’ll conclude by stating that this past summer’s internship was the right thing I needed at the right time. First, it gave me the chance to see how things were done from the inside, right at the moment where I needed that information the most. Second, it allowed me to enjoy the pleasure of getting to know a very special place right at that time of pre-graduation when questions about location and/or relocation become almost impossible to avoid. Even if I could have been doing other things this summer, I doubt any of them would have been more appropriate than this particular experience.

Back to UT Documentary Center 2008 Scholarship Winners.