ITVS letter of support

To:
Wareham Development
Honorable Tom Bates, Mayor
Berkeley City Council

From:
Sally Fifer, President & CEO
Lois Vossen, Vice President, Independent Lens Series Producer
Claire Aguilar, Vice President of Programming
Mary Ann Thyken, Vice President of Production

Re: Filmmakers housed at the Fantasy Building

On behalf of the Board of Directors and the staff at the Independent Television Service (ITVS), we urge you to find a reasonable and equitable compromise to assist the group of filmmakers who are currently housed at the Fantasy building.

ITVS was created in 1991 by an historic act of Congress to bring diverse, high-quality programs by independent producers to public television. With a funding allocation from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, ITVS has brought over 600 programs to PBS and currently provides over 60 hours of programming annually to public television, including the largest independent film series on television, Independent Lens.

Our country's independent filmmakers are critical to the mission of public media--and an irreplaceable resource for the Bay Area, which is home to the best and most diverse documentary talent in the country. We have worked with many of the filmmakers who are tenants in the Fantasy building; they represent not only the lifeblood of the Bay Area documentary community but the pride of American independent filmmaking. We hope that you will support them in their efforts to stay in the Fantasy building and continue their groundbreaking work.

SF/em