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Wikipedia / ITVS

ITVS (Independent Television Service) is a service in the United States which funds and presents documentaries on public television through distribution by PBS and American Public Television, new media projects on the Internet, and the weekly series Independent Lens on PBS. Aside from Independent Lens, ITVS funded and produced films for more than 40 television hours per year on the PBS series POV, Frontline, American Masters and American Experience. Some ITVS programs are produced along with organizations like Latino Public Broadcasting and KQED.

Besides Independent Lens, ITVS series include Indie Lens Storycast on YouTube and Women of the World with Women and Girls Lead Global. Prior series include Global Voices (on World) and FutureStates.

ITVS was funded by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB), and is based in San Francisco.

ITVS has funded more than 1,400 films, with an eye on diversity and underrepresented audiences and filmmakers. The organization champions inclusion on the screen and behind the camera: Nearly 70% of ITVS funds go to diverse producers, 50% to women.

In 2024, ITVS, in partnership with American University, NORC at the University of Chicago, and Columbia University, released a ground-breaking study entitled Ethical Responsibility and Impact in Documentary Filmmaking.

History

ITVS was established through legislation by the United States Congress in 1988, "to expand the diversity and innovativeness of programming available to public broadcasting," and began funding new programming via production licensing agreements in 1990. From 2005 to 2010, it expanded its reach through the creation of the Global Perspectives Project, which facilitated the international exchange of documentary films made by independent producers. In 2017, ITVS was named the recipient of a Peabody Institutional Award for its contributions to storytelling in television; the Peabody board of jurors cited "an accomplished range of work as rich as any broadcaster or funder," and in the same year the organization learned it was to receive the 2017 Emmy Governors Award chosen by the Television Academy Board of Governors, awarded during the Creative Arts Emmy Awards ceremony on Saturday, September 9, 2017.

ITVS has discovered and nurtured prominent filmmakers, including one of the first films by Oscar-winning director Barry Jenkins, who made a film. In 2015, ITVS created a new digital journalism initiative

Notable works

Among the prominent films funded by ITVS:

Independent Lens

Since 1999, ITVS has produced Independent Lens, a weekly television series airing on PBS presenting documentary films made by independent filmmakers. For the first three seasons Independent Lens aired 10 episodes each fall season. In 2002, PBS announced that in 2003 the series would relaunch and expand to 29 primetime episodes a year.

In 2017, ITVS announced Indie Lens Storycast, a free subscription-based docuseries channel on YouTube, co-produced with PBS Digital Studios. Storycast launched in September of that year with docuseries Iron Maidens and The F Word.

In addition, ITVS produces Indie Lens Pop-Up, formerly Community Cinema, an in-person series that brings people together for film screenings and community-driven conversations, featuring documentaries seen on Independent Lens.

Awards

32 ITVS films have won Peabody Awards, including How to Survive a Plague by David France; Marco Williams and Whitney Dow's Two Towns of Jasper; Leslee Udwin's India's Daughter; and The Invisible War by Kirby Dick and Amy Ziering.

ITVS-Supported Peabody Winners

ITVS-Supported News & Documentary Emmy Winners

ITVS-Supported Primetime Emmy Winners

  • Have You Heard From Johannesburg

  • A Lion In The House

References

Official ITVS site

Independent Lens