- TheBlaze has named Amy Holmes anchor of “The Hot List” on TheBlaze.com. She will be stepping aside from her role at “Real News.” Meanwhile, Pete Hegseth will join “Real News” as a contributor.
- Time is making a big push in the video journalism space, launching Red Border Films. The documentary film unit will live on an interactive site of Time.com, and will produce films of varying lengths and topics. Time journalists and photojournalists and will produce at least one short documentary per month and two expanded projects a year. Details below.
- At The Wrap, Sara Morrison writes that Al Jazeera America and PBS are diversifying their on-air talent, and wonders if others will follow suit.
TIME LAUNCHES RED BORDER FILMS
New Documentary Film Unit on Time.com Premieres With “One Dream,”
Marking the 50th Anniversary of Martin Luther King Jr.’s Iconic SpeechNEW YORK (August 12, 2013) — Today, TIME launched Red Border Films, a new documentary film unit to be hosted on an interactive digital site on Time.com. Red Border Films will feature deeply reported original films by award-winning filmmakers, TIME journalists and photojournalists and will produce at least one short documentary per month and two expanded projects a year. These cinematic films will vary in length and will be presented along with interactive features at time.com/redborder, where users will be able to watch video, explore in-depth information about the filmmakers and their subjects and view photo galleries and other multimedia elements around each project.
Red Border Films’ first project is “One Dream,” a multimedia site commemorating the 50th anniversary of the March on Washington and Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I Have a Dream” speech. It will go live on Thursday, August 15 along with a TIME special issue on the subject. “One Dream” will feature ten films—five marquee documentaries and five brief personal histories—totaling one hour of original video by TIME photographer and filmmaker Marco Grob. The films include interviews with 17 participants from the movement from John Lewis to Joan Baez to Harry Belafonte as well as rarely seen photos and archival footage. “One Dream” is divided into five chapters covering the history of the march, King’s speech, logistics, memories from that day and its legacy.
This fall, TIME’s Red Border Films will release two short films. The first profiles Bobby Henline, an injured Iraqi war veteran who is now a stand up comedian. It is directed by Peter van Agtmael and produced by Shaul Schwarz. The second reports on the rise of surrogacy for Western couples in India and is directed by Schwarz.
TIME’s Red Border Films is executive produced by TIME Director of Photography Kira Pollack and Time Inc. Executive Producer, News & Sports Ian Orefice. TIME photographer and filmmaker Shaul Schwarz is a consulting executive producer. Many of Red Border Films’ original productions will be created by TIME photographers, who are increasingly bringing their unique visual perspectives to film, drawing on the traditions of photojournalism to inform their decisions as filmmakers.
“Red Border Films will combine TIME’s authoritative journalism and perspective with the unique power of cinematic storytelling,” Pollack said today. “We’re excited to combine the traditional elements of film and TIME’s iconic photography with new multimedia features on Time.com that push the frontiers of digital storytelling.”
The multimedia concept of Red Border Films was inspired by the success of TIME’s Emmy Award-winning “Beyond 9/11” project, which commemorated the tenth anniversary of the September 11 attacks. “Beyond 9/11” was executive produced by Pollack and shot by Grob and featured 40 oral histories coupled with portraits on a Time.com microsite at time.com/beyond911.
Red Border Films’ documentaries are in addition to Time.com’s robust daily video coverage of news and entertainment at time.com/video. The new venture is one element of a major Time.com relaunch planned for this fall and is part of Time Inc’s. strategy to roll out a slate of new branded video programming across all of its sites. The name – Red Border Films – refers to the trademarked red border on the cover of TIME, and readers will find elements of each project in the pages of the magazine.
For more information, go to time.com/redborder