InCA - Independent Communications Associates

©2001-2009 InCA:
Independent Communications Associates Inc.
38 Miller Avenue, PMB #289, Mill Valley. CA 94941
Tel 415.389.5000 - Fax 415.381.0465 - Email dkennard@inca-productions.com

Independent Communications Associates, better known globally as InCA, is an award-winning documentary television production company with offices in San Francisco, Toulouse (France) and Nairobi (Kenya). Productions by InCA and its co-founder and president, David Kennard have won numerous prizes, including National and International Emmies, the Peabody, ASCAP and Dupont Columbia awards. From The Ascent of Man to The Hero's Journey, from Cosmos to Connections, from The Heart of the Dragon to Africa's Children, The Final Hours: Amelia Earhart's Last Flight and Keeping Score:The Making of a Performance, each project has been a milestone in its field.

InCA News: July 2009

• Keeping Score Series 3: production continues on new Mahler films

• Post-production for 1-hour Creativity film to be completed in September

• Keeping Score Series 2: national premiere in October 2009

• InCA's Amelia Earhart film to be reissued in the Fall

In September 2009 we'll be celebrating 25 years of InCA production

with a re-launched website, new company logo and a San Francisco

gala screening of highlights from InCA films since 1984.

Click here to see excerpts from classic InCA shows

Late-breaking news: The Final Hours – Amelia Earhart's Last Flight, originally broadcast on PBS nationally in 1999, is being relaunched on the network this fall by presenting station South Carolina ETV, to co-incide with the launch of the new feature film Amelia, starring Hilary Swank. Click here to see a clip from The Final Hours: Amelia Earhart's Last Flight

Now in production at InCA:

Production on the third series of this award-winning project is under way this summer in Austria, Hungary and the Czech Republic. Producers Joan Saffa and David Kennard are working with Michael Tilson Thomas and the San Francisco Symphony to create two new films on the composer Gustav Mahler, to be launched in early 2011 on the centennial of Mahler's death.

1) Berlioz: Symphonie Fantastique
2) Ives: Holidays Symphony
3) Shostakovich: Fifth Symphony

Created in High Definition and Surround Sound, the second series features lavish locations in ROME, PARIS, SWITZERLAND, ST PETERSBURG, MOSCOW, NEW YORK, NEW ENGLAND and SAN FRANCISCO, as well as live performances by the San Francisco Symphony and MTT. The final phases of post-production – online editing in 1080i High Definition and audio mixing in Dolby 5.1 Surround Sound – are now complete. The new series will premiere on PBS nationally on three Thursdays: October 15, 22 and 29, 2009 . See www.keepingscore.org

See below for more information about Keeping Score: The First Series, available on DVD.

It was back in October 2004 that David and Lizzie Kennard started consulting with OETA (Oklahoma Public Television) and the Kirkpatrick Foundation, with a view to developing a major state-wide and national media project on Creativity. Planned to be developed and produced over ten years, the goal is nothing less than creating a new sense of mission and purpose for the state of Oklahoma. For more information, please visit www.stateofcreativity.com

The full state-wide Creative Oklahoma project – impacting education, research, commerce and the arts – was launched at a major event in Oklahoma City on February 8, 2008, to celebrate the start of the second hundred years of Oklahoma statehood. This event saw the premiere of The Flower Mound Story, the first part of InCA's Recreating America national television series for PBS, featuring the astonishing accomplishments of the A+ Educational system.

On June 9 2008, the first major promotional campaign for the films was rolled out in Oklahoma City, to publicize the next stage of fund-raising and production for this ground-breaking multi-media project. More than $700,000 has already been committed.

In July 2008 our second film, The Chickasaw Story, was successfully filmed on location in southern Oklahoma. Telling the story of the remarkable re-birth of the Chickasaw nation, guided by the creative genius of Governor Anoatubby, this film has now been completed. It will form a part of the second one-hour PBS documentary, on creativity in the adult world.

In August 2008, InCA was commissioned to create stories #3,4 and 5, featuring creativity in education: the stories were filmed on location in November 2008 at the Educare pre-school in Tulsa, at Piedmont Middle School and at Santa Fe South charter high school in Oklahoma City.

The first one-hour film for PBS, featuring creativity in education and based on the Oklahoma stories, is currently in post-production, for release on OETA/PBS in October 2009.

A documentary feature produced and directed by David Kennard and Patsy Northcutt

In 2006, principal photography commenced for “Journey of the Universe”, a documentary epic written and presented by Brian Swimme, co-written and executive-produced by Mary Evelyn Tucker, directed by David Kennard, produced by Patsy Northcutt and Lizzie Kennard. The film, set in the Greek island of Samos, is a unique and exciting parable about the past 14 billion years, with stunning special effects. Special effects work commenced in 2007 and a first rough-cut was finished in October 2008. Final fund-raising is now in progress. The film will initially be distributed in a 60-minute version, with a 13-part web-based educational program, incorporating much extra footage and expert commentary,

For more information on the man behind the movie and the Center for the Story of the Universe, visit www.brianswimme.org.

"Powering Up" is a new multi-platform documentary project featuring individuals, families and communities who have embraced renewable energy and sustainable lifestyles. Produced by InCA and KRCB (Sonoma County Public Television), the first stage of production has been completed, with a newly-announced grant from CPB (the Corporation for Public Broadcasting). The first four stories have been edited and delivered by satellite to PBS stations nationally. These are short interstitial 60 and 90-second messages, being run between programs on Public Television stations, together with viral online marketing through www.krcb.org together with multiple websites and YouTube. Future versions, subject to funding, include 30 & 60-minute documentaries.

The Scottish Salmon and Mexican Shrimp stories
Produced by David and Lizzie Kennard

In December 2006, the first shooting for a new multi-part venture on sustainable fisheries commenced in Mazatlan, Mexico, in collaboration with the non-profit CleanFish organization.

In early 2008, location photography and post-production were completed for the second story in the far North-West of Scotland (featuring the 200-year-old salmon fishery at Loch Duart) and the third story, featuring the shrimp boats of Guaymas, Mexico. The first editions of these stories have been delivered, and will be updated in late 2008.

Please visit www.cleanfish.com for more information about the future of sustainable fishing, and for copies of these DVDs.

Hosted and narrated by John Cleese, InCA’s new one-hour documentary on Light and Solar Energy was featured at the Santa Barbara Film Festival in early February 2006, and has now been distributed to television networks worldwide (premiering in Europe on Austrian Television in November 2006). The show received its East Coast US premiere in Washington D.C. at the Solar Power industry Festival in October, 2005, and its West Coast premiere a month later at UCSB, (University of California, Santa Barbara), which commissioned the project.

Its US television premiere was on KRCB (San Francisco Bay Area Channel 22) on Tuesday April 17, 2007 at 9pm ( www.krcb.org ) following which it was uplinked to PBS stations nationally on May 27, 2007, and has been broadcast on Public Television across the country. So far, it has aired on more than 75 PBS stations, including twelve major markets.

“The Power of the Sun” is a 56-minute film, telling the story of photovoltaics – Light; History and Science; Implementation; and Future. It was filmed in Japan, Germany, England, Massachusetts, New Jersey and California.The film is a scientific morality tale: how, starting from the most pure and basic science (Einstein’s insight about light), through stages of brilliant applied engineering, there emerged one of the most promising multi-billion-dollar energy technologies. Solar power is an economically realistic, clean and safe energy source, which will help us replace fossil fuels as the new century unfolds.

The film is already in educational and international distribution. For more information and to order DVDs please contact www.powerofthesun.ucsb.edu

Premiered on PBS nationally in November, 2006, repeated multiple times since then

In these behind-the scenes documentaries, Michael Tilson Thomas (MTT) investigates three remarkable composers and their individual creative journeys: Ludwig Van Beethoven’s “Eroica”, Igor Stravinsky’s “Rite of Spring”, and Aaron Copland and the American Sound. MTT visits Vienna, Prague, St. Petersburg, Paris and New York to tell the stories of the composers’ lives. The San Francisco Symphony unlocks the powerful and vibrant emotions of each composer's music. Individual members of the orchestra explain the challenges and joys of creating these extraordinary works.

The "Keeping Score" series, completed in the Spring of 2006, aired nationally on PBS in November 2006, presented by KQED San Francisco (www.kqed.org). It is a part of a major initiative of the San Francisco Symphony called “Keeping Score: MTT on Music”, aimed at offering audiences of today new ways to connect to classical music. Keeping Score encompasses the Internet, radio, DVD’s, and educational and outreach programs around the United States. To order DVDs, please visit www.keepingscore.org

This funny, informative one-hour show premiered on the Food Channel in October 2004 and has already been repeated several times. It is now in distribution on DVD from Koch Entertainment. (to order your DVD, please visit www.kochvision.com)

Wine is Confusing. So where do you start if you want to learn more about it? In John Cleese's Wine for the Confused, John takes a witty personal look at the world of winemaking. He discovers:
- How to find wines that taste good to you
- How to get the best value
- How to keep and serve wine at home
As John says: "Don’t let anyone tell you what wine you should like because people have different tastes, and we shall honor that."

Winston Churchill's granddaughter, Edwina Sandys is one of the most remarkable artists of her generation. Her work defies easy categorization, ranging from surrealism and graphic art to monumental bronzes and marble pieces, from abstraction to high realism, from the deeply serious to the witty and provocative.

This engaging biography of Edwina, filmed on location in London, New York, Florida and Missouri, was co-produced with South Carolina ETV. It was distributed nationally on PBS in 2004, and has been repeated frequently on Public Television stations since that date.
For more information and to order DVDs, please contact www.edwinasandys.com.