The Calling is a groundbreaking four-hour PBS documentary series and community engagement campaign that follows the stories of Catholic, Protestant, Jewish and Muslim Americans who are training for religious leadership. It takes viewers into the unknown world of seminaries to reveal the real people "behind the robes." The Calling will have a national two-night premiere on the ITVS/PBS series Independent Lens on Monday the 20th of December and Tuesday the 21st of December 2010 at 8 PM CT, 9 PM ET, and 9 PM PST. (Check local listings for PBS station information.)
The Calling’s companion national digital and community engagement campaign, What’s Your Calling? (WYC), explores the notion of “calling” from both religious and secular perspectives through a variety of rich media and written commentary. Through this content and user commentary, WYC engages participants in conversations about why and how people are following their “calls”, seeking to make the world a better place through art, politics, business, music, aid, sports, medicine, philanthropy, media, religious leadership, and beyond. WYC will also provide participants with opportunities to take action around the issues and causes they feel called to by connecting with WYC partner organizations that focus on service and leadership. The What’s Your Calling? is a partnership between The Kindling Group, See3 Communications, Active Voice and ITVS.
The Calling is produced with the support of the from the Independent Television Service (ITVS), the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB), the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS), the Henry Luce Foundation, the Hartley Film Foundation, Pacific Islanders in Communications, the Irving Harris Foundation, Samuel Zell Foundation, National Black Programming Consortium, The Richard H. Driehaus Foundation, the E. Rhodes and Leona B. Carpenter Foundation and the Zarrow Family Foundation.
PAST PRODUCTIONS: DO NO HARM
Do No Harmtells the incredible and often outrageous story of two men in a small, southern town who endured relentless attacks in order to draw national attention to the plight of the medically uninsured and bring about reform.
“I couldn't hire enough staff to know where all of the skeletons are buried. We need whistleblowers,” says Sen. Charles Grassley of Dr. John Bagnato and Charles Rehberg, who exposed significant unethical practices towards uninsured patients at Phoebe Putney Hospital, a non-profit hospital in Georgia. They uncovered millions of dollars in offshore bank accounts and lucrative for-profit businesses under the control of the non-profit hospital. Board members held exclusive contracts with the hospital and politicians received timely contributions. And shockingly – it was all legal.
Do No Harmfollows the stories of these unlikely activists who sacrificed much in order to expose and rectify injustices in the non-profit hospital system.
Psychotherapy is becoming as American as apple pie. The Surgeon General reports that about 42 million Americans, almost one quarter of our fellow citizens, seek treatment every year. While more and more "normal" people turn to mental health professionals to improve their quality of life, many are inhibited from considering therapy for fear of judgment by friends, colleagues and family. These apprehensions may be justified until the public has a better understanding of what psychotherapy really is and how the process works. Talk Therapy is a four-hour documentary series that will take viewers on an unprecedented journey into the intimate world of psychotherapy. The programs create a tapestry of the clients’ lives, the therapists’ analyses and the therapeutic process.
The backbone of this series will be the therapy sessions between practitioners and clients. Programs will also include vérité scenes from the clients' daily lives, discussions among therapists about their work and captivating tales by additional people (from both sides of the couch) about their most profound experiences in treatment. Talk Therapy promises to provide a captivating, dramatic and insightful glimpse into what it means to be human in our society today.
Talk Therapy has received development funds from the Betty O'Shaugnessy Foundation.
PAST PRODUCTIONS: A HISTORY OF GOD
Since the dawn of history, humanity has wrestled with the question of God. To answer this universal query, billions have turned to the three major monotheistic faiths: Christianity, Islam and Judaism.
Monotheists believe that a single being or force is at the center of all things - an entity above and apart from all others whose works underlie every phenomenon. This being, essence, force or idea is known by many names - among them Yahweh, Al-lah or simply God.
A History of Godis an extraordinary feature-length film, based on Karen Armstrong's acclaimed book of the same name, which traces the fascinating quest for God from its roots in the ancient world through the rise of Judaism, Christianity and Islam.
This thought-provoking look at the heart of these three great religions reveals the commonalities between their understandings of God as well as the profound differences between them.
Through balanced analysis of historic and holy texts and extensive use of ancient art and artifacts, A History of God reveals the long road to today's understanding of God and what the journey - and the destination - tells us about humanity and its never-ending search for a meaning to existence beyond itself.
PAST PRODUCTIONS: I GOT WHAT IT TAKES
I Got What It Takes explores the life of 70-year-old Chicago blues legend Koko Taylor, her place in the history of the blues and the complexities of who she has become today.
This film follows Taylor from her dirt poor upbringing on a sharecropper's farm to her arrival in Chicago in 1953 at the tail end of the "Great Migration" of Blacks from the south; from her greatest hit, "Wang Dang Doodle," which placed her in the company of blues greats Willie Dixon, Muddy Waters and Buddy Guy to the hard days that followed the decline of the blues when she cleaned houses to make ends meet; and, finally, to her comeback.
I Got What It Takes tells the story of the self-reliance and determination of the woman who reigned as the "Queen of the Blues."
PAST PRODUCTIONS: A DOULA STORY
A Doula Story documents one woman’s fierce commitment to empower pregnant teenagers with the skills and knowledge they need to become confident nurturing mothers. A woman of remarkable magnetism and complexity, Loretha Weisinger returns to the same disadvantaged neighborhood, where she once struggled as a teen mom. She uses compassion and humor to teach the young mothers-to-be about everything from the importance of breast-feeding and reading to their babies to the practical details of communicating effectively with health care professionals.
Teenage pregnancy is a fact of American life. Nearly 10 percent of births in this country are to teens, many of them poor, uneducated and alone. A community doula (from the Greek word for birth attendant) for more than 10 years, Loretha knows that pregnant teens need guidance and education, not judgment or pity. In the face of overwhelming challenges—from absentee fathers and drug addiction to the disparagement of society—doulas are making a difference in the futures of young mothers and their babies.
IN PRODUCTION: DEVON AVENUE: AN AMERICAN STREET
There are few "Main Streets" left in today’s American cities — a place where consumers can find all of their needs from insurance to groceries on the same street, and more than likely buy them from a familiar face. Director Fenell Doremus' film, Devon Avenue: An American Street, is a feature length documentary that tells the stories of one such neighborhood on the north side of Chicago where independent, locally-owned small businesses boast a thriving retail economy. But this street is far from the stereotypical "Main Street USA," it is home to a crowded host of ethnically diverse populations — from Indian and Pakistani to Ethiopian, Assyrian and Orthodox Jewish — naming just a few.
What makes the neighborhood viable in today’s big business economy is just one layer of our exploration. The idea that groups that rival each other in their homelands and live in such close proximity to each other in American cities sheds an interesting light on how immigration affects national and religious identity.
Viewers will move onto Devon Avenue and get to know who, exactly, is living around the corner from them. By observing special events like the back-to-back Indian and Pakistani Independence Day parades, shopping for the Jewish high holidays and the ritual bargaining in one popular sari shop, we will provide viewers with new ways of thinking about urban life and the complexity of immigrant identities.
Devon Avenue has received production grants from the Illinois Humanities Council and the Community Foundation of Northern Illinois.
PAST PRODUCTIONS: ARTISTS IN RESIDENCE
In 1991, led by the Near Northwest Arts Council (NNWAC), several Chicago artists who were fed up with gentrification and the splintering of their creative community banded together to create their own affordable housing complex for artists. The idea was that the artists would purchase their own safe and legal live/work space, which would remain affordable to any artists who moved there in the future.
Twelve years later, they achieved their dream. The Acme Artists’ Community is a 25-unit former factory building that provides affordable live/work space to artists. In order to meet their goals for affordability, the residents had to move in before construction was completed.
It soon becomes clear that there are serious problems with the building. Sewer and plumbing problems cause several units to flood, and a leaky roof causes other units major damage. Some units get both. As NNWAC scrambles to work with their contractors to solve the problems, the residents are at their wits' end.
It takes four years to complete repairs and finish construction. Although the community stays together, decades-long friendships are strained, if not ruined, and the utopian vision of artists working together in an intentional community is forever altered.
Artists In Residence is a view into an alternative lifestyle, and ultimately a story of a group of disenfranchised people taking their destinies into their own hands as they create a permanent space for themselves.
“I couldn't hire enough staff to know where all of the skeletons are buried. We need whistleblowers,” says Sen. Charles Grassley of Dr. John Bagnato and Charles Rehberg, who exposed significant unethical practices towards uninsured patients at Phoebe Putney Hospital, a non-profit hospital in Georgia. They uncovered millions of dollars in offshore bank accounts and lucrative for-profit businesses under the control of the non-profit hospital. Board members held exclusive contracts with the hospital and politicians received timely contributions. And shockingly – it was all legal. 
This thought-provoking look at the heart of these three great religions reveals the commonalities between their understandings of God as well as the profound differences between them.
