During the 2004 Awards Ceremony of the International Film Festival Rotterdam today, VPRO Tiger Awards were granted to Bu Jian (The Missing), a minimalist parable about loneliness, alienation and emotional traumas by first-time director Taiwanese Lee Kang-sheng, who frequently appears as an actor in the films of Tsai Ming-liang; Unterwegs (En Route), the debut film by German director Jan Kruger in which a manipulative, slightly sinister but charming young man falls in with a young mother, her daughter, and the daughter's boyfriend on a camping holiday and leads them astray; and the Hubert Bals Fund-supported Ljeto U Zlatnoj Dolnini (Summer in the Golden Valley) by first-time director Srdjan Vulectic from Bosnia-Herzogovina, in which two young guys who dream of life elsewhere, hustle, hang out, get stoned and are soon caught up with a beautiful rich girl and a blackmail scam.

Following the IFFR Awards Ceremony, the City of Rotterdam awarded IFFR director Simon Field the Wolfert van Borselen Medal as a token of appreciation for his hard work and passionate commitment to the International Film Festival Rotterdam. The French Ministry of Culture and Communication also awarded Field with the grade of "Officier dans l'ordre des Arts et Lettres" for his achievements in the artistic domain and for his contributions to propagation of French culture. The farewell ceremony for Field, who will leave the IFFR after this 33rd edition, concluded with a series of cinematographic homages by some of his favourite filmmakers like Kitano Takeshi (Japan), Jan Svankmajer (Czech Republic), Catherine Breillat (France), Patrick Keiller (UK), Abolfazl Jalili (Iran), Tsai Ming-liang (Taiwan), Kees Hin (The Netherlands) and Kawase Naomi (Japan).

# posted by Steve Gallagher @ 1/30/2004 02:51:00 PM Comments (1)

For fans of the work of recently-deceased Helmut Newton, Nerve has put together an excellent collection of some of the master photographer's best-known work. Each image is accompanied by testimonials about Newton's influence by Nerve's contributing photographers. It's a touching farewell to the man who revolutionized fashion and erotic photography more than 50 years ago (he once earned the nicknames the "35mm Marquis de Sade" and the "King of Kink") and continued to work consistently until his death last week, at age 83, in a car accident outside L.A.'s Chateau Marmont. For more about Newton's work, Barnes and Noble is a good place to start.

# posted by Matthew Ross @ 1/30/2004 01:58:00 PM Comments (0)

Upon hearing the awards news from Sundance this past Sunday in Rotterdam, most of the buyers and sales agents at the Cinemart all wanted to know one thing from me: "What the hell is Primer?" The small minority who caught the film in Utah, though, had a different question: "Why the hell did this film win the Sundance Grand Prize?"

International film business types customarily feel somewhat lost and bewildered at Sundance, unable to figure out the shuttle bus routes or how to make it into the evening parties. But to be completely confused by what's on screen? That's a new one that made their sense of cultural alienation all the more acute.


Primer happened to be the first film I caught at the festival. I was drawn, perversely, by Geoff Gilmore's catalog copy, which dubbed the dialogue "borderline incomprehensible." Indeed, from its first frame, Primer plunges you into the world of scientific research as it follows a small group of amateur scientists who stumble onto a world-changing invention. And yes, unless you're a physics and biochemistry dual major, the dialogue is impossibly hard to follow. Virtually every sentence is comprised of scientific lingo uttered in variations of the same measured-but-urgent cadence. At Rotterdam, I tried to explain to a Japanese distributor, who felt that her English wasn't good enough to "get" the movie, that it was okay not to understand it. I couldn't follow it either. Or at least I couldn't follow the moment-by-moment progressions of the plot. I did get the film's story of curiosity leading to exhiliration leading to fear as the "invention" wobbles out of control.

I interviewed Shane Carruth, the film's writer, director, producer, star, editor, sound editor and composer at the festival, and our talk, which is a fascinating explanation of how this autodidact made the film and got it into Sundance, will appear soon in the magazine. One thing he told me though was how his inspiration for the film came from a cable-television '70s movie marathon he watched while recovering from an accident. Carruth said he was fascinated by movies like The Conversation, The Parrallax View and, particularly, All the President's Men. Most obviously Primer shares with Pakula's Watergate docudrama a focus on process, a belief that people doing important things is in itself dramatic. Like All the President's Men, Primer has little need for backstories and B-plots, and it doesn't dawdle with girlfriends, wives or "relationships" other than those between the scientists. And there's also no traitor within the group selling their secrets to the evil giant corporation. There's just a few guys in a garage -- and one storage locker -- trying to figure out why they are are getting the results that they are getting.

For me, though, what's most refreshing about Primer -- other than the stunning story of its realization -- is that it's one of the first films that acknowledges what writers as diverse as David Foster Wallace, Richard Powers and James Ellroy have been doing in their fiction for years. Primer completely refuses to buy into standardized Hollywood -- or even independent film -- ideas of how drama must be created from fact-based source material.

I haven't spoken to anyone on the jury, but I can imagine the conversations that resulted in Primer winning the Grand Prize. The Sundance awards usually are some sort of public reworking of the perennial "what is an independent film" argument, and in wake of Biskind book, which claims that American indie film has degenerated into its own crushing orthodoxy, the jury was compelled to award a film that is not only independent of Hollywood but also independent of the whole alternative system that makes and markets specialty movies. For Carruth, there was no Independent Feature Project, no Sundance Filmmaker Lab or AIVF, no Good Machine or Killer Films, no HBO or IFC, no Manhattan Film School or McKee Three-Day Seminar. There was no filmmaking mentor as exec producer or even, really, any producer at all -- other than Carruth, who taught himself how to make the film by reading books (and, he told me, Filmmaker magazine). There was no indie-friendly "professional d.p." -- no Jim Denault or Ellen Kuras or Tom Richmond -- behind the lens. Carruth lit and shot the film himself, buying fluourescent lighting banks from Walmart and checking exposure by testing his lighting setups in preproduction by shooting similarly rated slide film. There was no editing guru "fixing" the film in post. And making the above all the more impressive, Primer is a film, not some kind of "digital feature" that explains away its production shortcomings by huddling under the Dogme 95 umbrella.

Did the jury have any other choice?

More on this fascinating film in issues ahead.

# posted by Scott Macaulay @ 1/29/2004 07:02:00 PM Comments (0)

Only Skin Deep: Changing Visions of the American Self, an exhibition at the International Center of Photography co-curated by Brian Wallis and Coco Fusco, explores the question "How do photographs make us see race?"

The exhibition, which includes over 350 works in a variety of formats spanning nearly 200 years of photographic history, is organized in five thematic sections -- such as Humanized/Fetishized, which "contrasts photographs that emphasize a subject's individuality with those that objectify or dehumanize their subjects," and Assimilate/Impersonate, which "compares images of people attempting to look or act white with those of people assuming the characteristics of non-whites."

In conjunction with the exhibition, which runs through February 29, a free interdisciplinary symposium, Visualizing Race in American Photography, will take place Saturday, February 7 from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. at the Columbia Law School Jerome Greene Hall, Room 101. For further info or to register, call the ICP Education dept. at (212) 857-0001.

# posted by Steve Gallagher @ 1/29/2004 05:58:00 PM Comments (0)

The Berlin International Film Festival's Panorama section has confirmed another documentary, Traveling with Che Guevara (Italy, 110 minutes) by Gianni Mina, which will contribute further to shaping the festival's special focus this year on Latin America.

The film, made during the shooting of Walter Salles's Motorcycle Diaries, illuminates the circumstances behind Ernesto "Che" Guevara's motorcycle trip through South America in 1952 and how it politicized him.

Guevara, at the time a 23-year-old medical student, kept diaries about his six-month-long journey with his friend, the biologist Alberto Granado. The two traveled as leprosy specialists all across Argentina, Chile, Peru, Colombia and Venezuela.


Salles, who received the Golden Berlin Bear in 1998 for his film Central Station, convinced Granado to be his advisor on the film and to accompany the shooting. In Gianni Mina's documentary about the film's making, Granado clarifies incidents, recounts his own memories, gives guidance on details and lends his support to the actors Gael Garcia Bernal (Che) and Rodrigo de la Serna (Alberto).

81-year-old Alberto Granado told the documentary filmmaker, "Re-living all this seems like a dream".

Both Gianni Mina and Alberto Grando are expected to attend the Berlinale for the film's presentation. Walter Salles's Motorcycle Diaries, on the other hand, is reportedly headed to Cannes.


The Berlinale has also announced the creation a new series in its Official Program, the Berlinale Special, which will include the latest works of master filmmakers as well as revivals of important films related to the Festival's special focuses or to particularly explosive political topics.

This inaugural series includes four components:


1) the most recent films of directors Peter Greenaway (The Tulse Luper Suitcases, part 2, featuring Isabella Rosselini, Franka Potente and Ornella Muti) and Ermanno Olmi (Cantando dietro i paraventi / Singing Behind Screens);



2) three revivals: Jacques Demy's 1970 adaptation of the fairy tale Peau d'ane (Donkey Skin), starring Catherine Deneuve, Jean Marais, Jacques Perrin and Delphine Seyrig (to be preceded by Agnes Varda's short film, Peau d'ane); from Germany, a newly restored printed of the long-missing film Das Boot ist voll (The Boat is Full), for which director Markus Imhoof won a Silver Bear at the Berlinale in 1981 (the film was nominated for an Oscar the following year); and Peter Schamoni's Fruhlingssinfonie (Spring Symphony), featuring Nastassja Kinski, Rolf Hoppe and Herbert Gronemeyer, from 1984, which will be screened on the occasion of the director's 70th birthday.



3) two productions examining the political past: Egidio Eronico's Papa -- Rua Alguem 5555 (My Father, 2002), featuring Charlton Heston (as Joseph Mengele!), F. Murray Abraham and Thomas Kretschmann, in which a son confronts his father about his role conducting human experiments while he was a doctor at the Nazi concentration camp in Auschwitz; and Pour l'amour du peuple (I Love You All) by Eyal Sivan and Audrey Maurion, based on a former Stasi major's authentic eye-witness reports, which provide a kaleidoscopic portrait of a society (the GDR) under constant surveillance;



4) and three films related to the Festival's special focus on music: Rhythm Is It!, an unconventional German music film by Thomas Grube and Enrique Sanchez Lansch, which shows the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra and their chief conductor Sir Simon Rattle during their first season together at their rehearsals for Igor Stravinsky's Le sacre du printemps; a silent film by German director Oliver Herrmann -- who died last autumn -- that sets Stravinsky's ballet Le sacre du printemps in the world of Cuban Santeria, which will be accompanied by the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra under the direction of Sir Simon Rattle on February 15; and CS Leigh's Process, featuring Beatrice Dalle, Guillaume Depardieu and Daniel Duval, which will be presented as a live event with a score performed by John Cale.

# posted by Steve Gallagher @ 1/28/2004 05:55:00 PM Comments (0)

After World War II, western European countries received not only economic aid but also cultural and psychological aid from the U.S.


June 1947 marked the start of the Marshall Plan -- officially entitled the "European Recovery Program" -- which gave 16 European states financial and economic support, including food, raw materials and machines. Yet ideals were also disseminated: by the time the Marshall Plan came to an end in 1952 over 200 films had been produced documenting American aid efforts, motivating self-help and promoting intercultural understanding, democracy and pluralism -- and reinforcing boundaries against communist Eastern Europe.

At the same time the films offered very practical introductions to new technologies and forms of agriculture: the spectrum ranged from a European electricity network to the construction of chicken coops.

This year's Berlin International Film Festival will present a selection of films produced under the Marshall Plan in 10 unique programs.

The retrospective and its films with their emphatic vision of a united Europe not only bring to light present-day parallels; these ambitious works by talented young directors are also still very compelling in their consciousness of form and occasionally light-hearted, imaginative tone. For instance, the Dutch production Houen Zo!, about the reconstruction of Rotterdam, received an award at the Cannes Film Festival in 1952. One of the filmmakers, Georg Tressler, later became a very successful German feature film director (Die Halbstarken / The Hooligans): his film Traudls neuer Gemusegarten (Traudl's New Vegetable Garden) elucidates new methods of cultivation and was one of the many films explicitly aimed at children.

42 films will be screened at the Zeughaus-Kino, Berlin, as part of the series from February 5 to 15. Georg Tressler and others involved in the Marshall Plan film program will speak at accompanying events.

# posted by Steve Gallagher @ 1/26/2004 06:40:00 PM Comments (0)

Last night the Sundance Film Festival announced the winners of the Independent Feature Film Competition and the Audience Awards for the 2004 Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah.


The Documentary Grand Jury Prize was given to DIG!, directed and produced by Ondi Timoner. Shot over a seven-year period, DIG! follows the parallel careers of two musicians, Anton Newcombe, leader of the Brian Jonestown Massacre, and Courtney Taylor, head of The Dandy Warhols -- star-crossed friends and bitter rivals. The 2004 Documentary Competition Jurors included Rory Kennedy, Mary Ellen Mark, Robb Moss, Robert Shepard,and Chris Smith.



The Dramatic Grand Jury Prize was presented to Primer, the debut feature by Shane Carruth. The low-budget film, reportedly made for only $7,000, tells the story of small-time entrepreneurs who build a cottage industry of error-checking devices that very quickly begin to test the limits of their friendship. The 2004 Dramatic Competition Jury included Lisa Cholodenko, Frederick Elmes, Danny Glover, Maggie Gyllenhaal, and Ted Hope.


The festival's Directing Awards went to Morgan Spurlock, director of Super Size Me and Debra Granik for the documentary Down To The Bone.


The Documentary Audience Award was presented to Born Into Brothels, a film by Ross Kauffman and Zana Briski.







The World Cinema Dramatic Audience Award was given to Seducing Doctor Lewis, directed by Jean-Francois Pouliot. The World Cinema Documentary Audience Award was presented to The Corporation, directed by Mark Achbar and Jennifer Abbott.



The Dramatic Audience Award winner was presented to Maria Full of Grace, directed and written by Joshua Marston.





The festival's Excellence in Cinematography Awards, honoring exceptional photography in both a dramatic and documentary film at the Festival was awarded to Ferne Pearlstein for Imelda from the Documentary Competition, and Nancy Schreiberfor November from the Dramatic Competition received the 2004 Cinematography Awards.


The Freedom of Expression Award, given to a documentary film that informs and educates the public on issues of social or political concern, was awarded to the Korean documentary Repatriation, directed by Kim Dong-won. The 2004 Freedom of Expression Jury included Molly Haskell, Jorgen Leth, and Siven Maslamoney.

The Dramatic Jury presented the Waldo Salt Screenwriting Award for outstanding achievement in writing to Larry Gross for We Don't Live Here Anymore.

In addition, this year's Documentary Jury bestowed a Special Jury Prize to Farmingville, directed and produced by Catherine Tambiniand Carlos Sandoval.

This Dramatic Jury presented two Special Jury Prizes, to Brother to Brother, directed by Rodney Evans, and to Vera Farmiga for her performance in Down to the Bone.

# posted by Steve Gallagher @ 1/26/2004 03:43:00 PM Comments (0)

In its Main Program and two other series, Special and Dokumente, the 2004 Panorama of the 54th Berlin International Film Festival will present 34 features and 16 documentaries.

The Panorama's Main Program will open on February 5 with Walk on Water by American-born Israeli director Eytan Fox, whose film Yossi and Jagger premiered in last year's Panorama to great acclaim, and was subsequently released in the U.S. by Strand Releasing. Walk on Water tells the story of a Mossad agent and a German tourist in Israel who uncover the truth about the "last Nazi".


The Panorama Special section will open on February 6 with two films: the angst-driven arthouse indie A Problem with Fear -- or Laurie's Anxiety Confronting the Escalator by the Canadian director Gary Burns (Lions Gate), and with Untold Scandal by E J-Young, a rising star of Korean cinema.

In addition, the Panorama will enhance the Festival's special focus this year on Latin America with three political documentaries and two fiction features: Mexican director Felipe Cazals's Digna hasta el ultimo aliento, and Che -- The Last Hours by Romano Scavolini, from Italy -- along with three films from Brazil: the documentary Fala tu by Guilherme Coelho and the features O outro lado da ruaby Marcos Bernstein and Contra todos by Roberto Moreira.

And finally, the Dokumente program of the 19th Panorama will offer ample opportunities for exploration and debate on a wide variety of subjects -- from Woody Harrelson's passion for green issues and an anarchistic political satire on the WTO to the illumination of politically uncharted regions in Latin America, to portraits of artists like Klaus Nomi and The Ramones, and new essay films by Bruce Weber and Romuald Karmakar.


Complete list of feature film titles:

BRAZIL

Contra todos/Up against them all by Roberto Moreira with Silvia Lourenco, Giulio Lopes, Leona Cavalli, Ailton Graça, Martha Meola, Dionisio Neto

Fala Tu/Fala Tu -- Lives of Rhyme by Guilherme Coelho/Brazil


BRAZIL / FRANCE

O outro lado da rua/The Other Side of the Street by Marcos Bernstein, with Fernanda Montenegro, Raul Cortez, Luis Percy, Laura Cardoso


CANADA

A Problem with Fear -- or Laurie's Anxiety Confronting the Escalator by Gary Burns, with Paulo Costanzo, Emily Hampshire, Camille Sullivan, Willie Garson, Benjamin Ratner, Keegan Connor Tracy, Jennifer Clement

La face cachee de la lune/Far Side of the Moon by Robert Lepage, with Robert Lepage, Anne-Marie Cadieux, Marco Poulin, Celine Bonnier

Go Further by Ron Mann


DENMARK

2 ryk og en aflevering /Kick'n Rush by Aage Rais-Nordentoft, with Jacob Oliver Krarup, Esben Smed Jensen, Cyron B. Melville, Marie Bach Hansen, Niels Ellergaard, Ann Eleonora Jorgensen


FRANCE

Je suis votre homme/I Am Your Man by Daniele Dubroux, with Catherine Frot, Isabelle Carre, Melvil Poupaud, Francois Berleand, Julie Depardieu

L'Esquive by Abdelatif Kechiche, with Osman Elkharraz, Sara Forestier, Sabrina Ouazani, Nanou Benahmou

Wild Side by Sebastien Lifshitz, with Stephanie Michelini, Edouard Mikitine, Yasmine Belmadi


FRANCE / BELGIUM

Demain, on demenage/Tomorrow We Move by Chantal Akerman, with Sylvie Testud, Aurore Clement, Jean-Pierre Marielle, Natacha Regnier, Lucas Belvaux, Elsa Zylberstein, Dominique Reymond


FRANCE / ISRAEL

Avanim by Raphael Nadjari, with Asi Levi, Uri Gabriel, Florence Bloch, Shaul Mizrahi

Zohre & Manouchehr by Mitra Farahani


GERMANY

Die Spielwutigen/Addicted to Acting by Andres Veiel

Die Mitte/The Center by Stanislaw Mucha

Freedom2Speak V2.0 by Markus C. M. Schmidt, Christoph Gampl, Brigitte Kramer, Marc Meyer, Uwe Nagel

Land der Vernichtung/Land of Annihilation by Romuald Karmakar

The Nomi Song by American director Andrew Horn

The Raspberry Reich by Canadian filmmaker Bruce LaBruce, with Susanne Sachsse, Daniel Batscher, Andreas Rupprecht, Dean Stathis

Texas -- Kabul by Helga Reidemeister

Was nutzt die Liebe in Gedanken/Love in Thoughts by Achim von Borries, with European Film Award 2003 winner Daniel Bruhl, with August Diehl, Anna Maria Muhe, Thure Lindhardt, Jana Pallaske


GERMANY / SWITZERLAND /FRANCE / ITALY / THE NETHERLANDS / UK

The Stratosphere Girl by M. X. Oberg, with Chloe Winkel, John Ng, Tuva Novotny


HONG KONG / PEOPLE'S REPUBLIC OF CHINA

Lost in Time by Derek Yee, with Cecilia Cheung, Lau Ching Wan, Daichi Harashima, Paul Chun Pui, Louis Koo


ICELAND / GERMANY / NORWAY / UK

Kaldaljos/Cold Light by Hilmar Oddsson, with Ingvar E. Sigurosson, Aslakur Ingvarsson, Kristbjorg Kjeld, Ruth Olafsdottir


ISRAEL / GERMANY

Lalecet Al Hamaim/Walk On Water by Eytan Fox, with Lior Ashkenazi, Knut Berger, Caroline Peters, Hanns Zischler, Carola Regnier


ITALY

Le ultime ore del Che/Che -- The Last Hours by Romano Scavolini

Mi piace lavorare/Mobbing (I Like To Work) by Francesca Comencini, with Nicoletta Braschi, Camille Dugay Comencini


JAPAN

A Day on the Planet by Isao Yukisada, with Rena Tanaka, Satoshi Tsumabuki

Akame shijyuyataki shinjyumisui/Akame 48 Waterfalls by Genjirou Arato, with Takijirou Onishi, Shinobu Terajima, Michiyo Okusu, Yuya Uchida


MEXICO

Digna hasta el ultimo aliento/Digna -- Worthy to Her Final Breath by Felipe Cazals


THE NETHERLANDS

Shouf shouf habibi! by Albert ter Heerdt, with Mimoun Oaissa, Touriya Haoud, Najib Amhali, Bridget Maasland


PEOPLE'S REPUBLIC OF CHINA

Jing Zhe/The Story of Er Mei by Wang Quanan, with Yu Nan, Yan Ming


POLAND / CZECH REPUBLIC

Nienasycenie/Insatiability by Wiktor Grodecki, with Cezary Pazura, Michal Lewandowski, Weronika Marczuk-Pazura, Katarzyna Gniewkowska, Leon Niemczyk


RUSSIA

Ja ljublju tebja/You I Love by Olga Stolpolskava, Dmitri Troitsky, with Ljubowj Tolkalina, Jewgenij Korijakowskij, Damir Badmajew


SOUTH AFRICA / CANADA

Proteus by John Greyson, with Rouxnet Brown, Shaun Smyth, Neil Sandilands, Kristen Thomson


SOUTH KOREA

Chosun Nam Nyo Sang Yeol Jisa/Untold Scandal by E J-Yong, with Bae Yong-Jun, Lee Mi-Sook, Jeon Do-Youn, Cho Hyun-Jae, Lee So-Youn


SPAIN

Cachorro/Cachorro (Bear Cub) by Miguel Albaladejo, with Jose Luis Garcia-Perez, David Castillo, Diana Cerezo, Mario Arias, Arno Chevrier, Ampar Ferrer

The Machinist by American director Brad Anderson, with Christian Bale, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Aitana Sanchez-Gijon


THAILAND

Beautiful Boxer by Ekachai Uekrongtham, with Asanee Suwan, Sorapong Chatree, Orn-Anong Panyawong, Nukkid Boonthong


UNITED KINGDOM

Death in Gaza by James Miller

Trollywood by Madeleine Farley


USA

A Letter to True by Bruce Weber

Anonymous by Todd Verow, with Todd Verow, Dustin Schell, Sophia Lamar, Shawn Durr, Craig Chester

Brother To Brother by Rodney Evans, with Anthony Mackie, Roger Robinson, Aunjanue Ellis, Larry Gilliard Jr.


D.E.B.S. by Angela Robinson, with Sara Foster, Jordana Brewster, Meagan Good, Devon Aoki, Jill Ritchie, Geoff Stults, Jimmi Simpson, Jessica Cauffiel

End of The Century -- The Story of the Ramones by Jim Fields & Michael Gramaglia

Gettin' The Man's Foot Outta Your Baadassss! by Mario Van Peebles, with Mario Van Peebles, Joy Bryant, Nia Long, Khleo Thomas, Ossie Davis

The Graffiti Artist by James Bolton, with Ruben Bansie-Snellman, Pepper Fajans

Quattro Noza by Joey Curtis, with Brihanna Hernandez, Victor Larios, Robert Beaumont, Greg Leone, Fabiola Barrios

The Yes Men by Dan Ollman, Sarah Price & Chris Smith

# posted by Steve Gallagher @ 1/23/2004 06:00:00 PM Comments (0)

In the first post on this new Filmmaker blog, I wrote about how we'd use this space to break out of the quarterly confines of the magazine's publication schedule. Well, that's still the intention, but after a few days here at the Sundance Film Festival, this blog has been filling up with news items filed by the New York office while the Sundance-attending staff has been seeing the movies, going to the parties, but not quite figuring out how to get into the rhythm of daily online journalism.

One of the good things about publishing quarterly is that it allows time to let film reactions gel over a period of weeks. One of the bad things about publishing quarterly is that it encourages a kind of OCD-ish approach to writing. Opinions can be futzed over for months -- one Filmmaker writer typically sends me as many as 26 self-generated revisions of a single article -- and then spastically reworked one last time in the days before press.

But this Sundance, I thought, would be different. And each day, I'd work out a lead paragraph in my head while riding the shuttle busses from theater to theater, struggle to remember it through the nightly parties, return home, and then -- and here was my mistake -- would scan online film sites like Moviecity News to check out what I'd missed that day before writing. And suddenly, the jazzy lead that seemed pithily entertaining on the bus would read painfully dull and obvious as I'd realize that countless versions of it were already all over the web. Like the Dean scream, news blips involving the Biskind book (included in the Diesel/Cinetic party gift bag but not, as many claimed, discussed here all that much), Paris Hilton, The Motorcycle Diaries (the raves for which are truly deserved, as I'll post here soon), and Redford sightings would surface, quickly scour the internet and then be replaced by the next celebrity mix-up or tidbit of acquisitions news.


Which is why the film I feel like writing about first is one that's somewhat invisible to the hype merchants. Alison Maclean and Tobia Perse's Persons of Interest is an hour-long series of interviews with innocent Muslim Americans detained and locked up by the FBI and U.S. Justice Department in the days following 9/11, The material is sad, disturbing and usually shocking. A guy with a rented car gets picked up in front of a Burger King and locked up for weeks before he's released; a father is dragged out of his home and incarcerated when police find a videogame flight simulator on his son's computer; an American-born wife learns that her imprisoned husband was suddenly deported and must decide how -- and where -- to raise her family now that he's gone. Maclean -- whose previous fiction films include Crush and Jesus' Son -- and Perse intercut their stories with televised statements by John Ashcroft in which the Attorney General makes clear that sweeping overenforcement is now official policy.

Maclean and Perse take a minimalist filmmaking approach to tell these stories. All of the interviews are conducted in a fluorescent-lit white room from a single stationary camera angle. The interviewees often stand uncomfortably before the camera, and almost all clasp their hands behind their back, as if they're handcuffed. The set provides a simple visual metaphor that is made painfully apt when one man describes his months spent suffering sleep deprivation in a perpetually lit cell.

What gives the otherwise austere Persons of Interest the strange rhythms of real life, however, is the directors' penchant for leaving the camera running at all times, capturing their subject's awkward human moments pre and post interview. And when several participants show up with their famililes, Maclean and Perse let the tape roll as the kids mug for the lens, stomp around the room and, in one clip, cheerfully trash the place. Simple and elegant, Persons of Interest is an essential document of our current "war on terrorism."

In a scene from John Curran's We Don't Live Here Anymore, Laura Dern asks the alienated adulterous college professor played by Six Feet Under's Peter Krause why, if he wants to make a difference in the world, he doesn't work with cancer patients or teach fetal-alcohol-syndrome-damaged kids how to read. "Because those people aren't very interesting," he replies.

Indeed, Curran's and Maclean and Perse's films could easily swap titles. In We Don't Live Here Anymore, scripted by Larry Gross from two Andre Dubus short stories, four rather unlikeable people eventually become "persons of interest" through a penetrating script, sharp performances by Dern, Krause, Naomi Watts and Mark Rufalo, and Curran's bold, musical, occasionally arch direction.

Gross began writing this script in 1969 -- yes, 1969 -- and it's definitely of a piece with other works of marital discord like John Cassavete's films Faces and Husbands, Whose Afraid of Virigina Woolf, but also "suburban fiction" like Richard Yates's Revolutionary Road. Like Virginia Woolf, this is a "two couples" movie, and we instinctively know that somehow the deck will be shuffled on these four lost souls and that when the dust settles, some characters will fare better than others.

The challenge facing a film like this is the one posed by Maclean and Perse's movie. Should we care about relatively privileged characters such as these in times like this?

To answer, the same question can be asked -- but somehow isn't -- about the misfits in Napoleon Dynamite or dreamers of Garden State. Watching We Don't Live Here Anymore, one senses that Curran and Gross understand the challenge and have responded by throwing down the gauntlet in return. On the one hand, the film is really just about hunkering down with these four actors as they unravel the neuroses and compulsions that make their characters tick. On the other, Curran's technique is far from invisible. The movie is fabulously visual -- Maryse Alberti's cinematography has a burnished elegance, and the editing by Alexandre de Franceschi is exceptionally fluid, cutting from tense moments to symbolic imagery. (A red light at a train crossing is a recurring shot.) Most boldly, Lesley Barber's original score consistently affects one's point-of-view in the film, adding a mock solemnity, distancing humor, or sometimes just a queasy empathy to the scenes. But as the film progresses, the distancing elements fade away. One comes not to "like" or "bond with" any of these characters but to recognize and perhaps guiltily understand their behavior.

Female executives at a couple of distributors told me that they loved the film and argued about it with their male colleagues. The Bush administration can continue to wage their "war on terror" -- and filmmakers like Maclean and Perses can respond -- but for Warner Independent, let's hope that the age-old "war between the sexes" still retains its power to shock and awe.

# posted by Scott Macaulay @ 1/22/2004 05:10:00 PM Comments (0)

Warner Independent Pictures made its first feature film acquisition yesterday at the Sundance Film Festival, purchasing all rights in North America and the UK to We Don't Live Here Anymore for $2 million. The film is directed by John Curran from a screenplay by Larry Gross, based on two short stories by Andre Dubus (who also wrote the story that inspired In the Bedroom).


Front Street Productions's Harvey Kahn and Jonas Goodman reportedly hammered out deal points with William Morris agent Cassian Elwes and Mark Gill of Warner Independent, while cast members Naomi Watts, Mark Ruffalo and Laura Dern sequestered themselves in a stairway of the Wireimage Portal Studio for more than six hours at last night's premiere party for the film, which debuted in Competition.

The film tells the story of two couples in a New England college town whose lives become inextricably intertwined and turned upside-down in a tide of passion, suspicion, humor, anger and stunning revelations.

"We are really pleased to be the first [finished] film to be acquired by Warner Independent," said John Curran. "Their passion was clear after the first screening, and is evident in their plans for its release [later this year]."

Warner Independent Pictures, founded in August 2003, finances, produces, acquires and will theatrically distribute up to 10 feature films per year largely budgeted under $20 million. It is a Warner Bros. Entertainment Company based on the Studio lot in Burbank.

In 2004, Warner Independent Pictures will also release Richard Linklater's Before Sunset which debuts in Competition in Berlin; first-time director Gregory Jacobs's Criminal starring John C. Reilly, Diego Luna and Maggie Gyllenhaal; Michael Mayer's A Home at the End of the World with Colin Farrell, Robin Wright Penn, Dallas Roberts and Sissy Spacek; first-time director Jordan Roberts's Around the Bend starring Michael Caine, Christopher Walken and Josh Lucas; and Jean-Pierre Jeunet's A Very Long Engagement, which is currently in production.

Warner Independent Pictures's The Jacket, directed by John Maybury and starring Adrien Brody, Keira Knightley, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Kelly Lynch, Daniel Craig and Kris Kristofferson started production on January 19 in Glasgow.


In other breaking news: CSA: The Confederate States of America, written and directed by Kevin Willmott, was been picked up by IFC Films for North American distribution. The announcement was made by Jonathan Sehring, President of IFC Entertainment, from the Sundance Film Festival where CSA screened to sold out audiences in the American Spectrum section.


Bold, satirical and wildly funny, the film poses the question: What would have happened if the South had won the Civil War? Played as a straight-faced Ken Burns-style documentary with uncanny parallels to our current society, CSA presents an alternative modern day America as a land in which slavery is alive and well throughout the 50 states, other non-whites and non-Christians are relegated to reservations, the country is in an ongoing Cold War with Canada and a Slave Shopping Network plays on TV. In the words of Spike Lee, an executive producer, the film is "eye opening and jaw dropping."


Sony Pictures Classics also announced the acquisition of North American rights to Ondrej Trojan's Zelary, which is the Czech entry for Best Foreign Language Film.

Set against the backdrop of Nazi occupation in the Czechoslovakia during World War II, Zelary is the story of a unique love brought together by two clashing cultures -- a free-spirited man of the mountains and a scholarly nurse devoted to the resistance.  After he is brought into her hospital with fatal injuries, she saves his life by sacrificing part of her own.  Set on the very edge of civilization, Zelary is a love story born of the common will to survive.


First Look Media acquired worldwide rights to Persistent Entertainment and Complex Media's American Spectrum entry September Tapes.


Peter Lawson, VP, Acquisitions, and Bill Lischak, President of First Look Media negotiated the deal on behalf of First Look.  ICM's Shaun Redick and Linda Lichter of Lichter/Grossman negotiated on behalf of Persistent Entertainment's Matthew Rhodes and Judd Payne and Complex Media's Christian Johnston and Brent Henry.

First Look Pictures will distribute September Tapes theatrically in North America. The film debuted in Sundance in the American Spectrum program.

A blend of factual activities in post 9/11 Afghanistan with dramatic overlays throughout, September Tapes, the debut feature of director Christian Johnston, fashions an authentic and powerful look at a single man's quest for answers to the current state of the world.

# posted by Steve Gallagher @ 1/22/2004 10:48:00 AM Comments (0)

The selection of films for the Competition of the 54th Berlin International Film Festival -- which opens with Anthony Minghella's Cold Mountain -- is now complete.

Twenty three of the twenty six films selected will compete for the festival's highest prize, the Golden Bear. (Three films will be shown out of competition.)

The films are from 18 countries; 19 are world premieres, two are directing debuts.

The Korean star director Kim Ki-Duk will present the world premiere of his film Samaria in which two teenage girls turn to prostitution to earn money for a trip to Europe.

Another world premiere screening in the Competition is the Hong Kong production 20:30:40 by Sylvia Chang. Set in the bustling city of Taipei, the film details the travails of three women in different phases of their lives. Director Sylvia Chang, who is herself an extremely popular actress and entertainer in Asia, co-stars in her own film with Ren Liu and Lee Sinje.

Two productions in the competition represent the Festival's special focus on Latin America this year:

Daniel Burman, one of the stars of New Argentine Cinema, will present the world premiere of El abrazo partido. His protagonist's world is the small, seedy shopping center in Buenos Aires where his mother runs a laundry -- a world of despair and decay from which many young people try to escape by reclaiming the nationality of their European ancestors.

The U.S./Colombian co-production Maria Full of Grace, by Joshua Marston, tells the story of seventeen-year-old Maria, from a small town near the Columbian capital of Bogota, who feels oppressed by the strict work regime at a flower plantation and the cramped situation of her family. In a desperate attempt to escape these conditions, she becomes a drug runner. Produced by Paul Mezey with funding from HBO, Maria Full of Grace debuted in Competition at this year's Sundance Film Festival.

The 26-year-old American director Omar Naim, who was born in Lebanon, will present the world premiere of his directing debut, a science-fiction thriller entitled The Final Cut. Alan Hackman (Robin Williams) works in a new field of technology. Anyone who has enough money can have a chip implanted which is capable of storing all the emotions and experiences of a lifetime. Hackman is a pro at his job, but one day when he is editing the memories of a stranger, he comes across "footage" from his own childhood. Robin Williams, Jim Caviezal and Mira Sorvino co-star.


Among the other American films in competition are Patty Jenkins's directing debut Monster, featuring Charlize Theron; Nancy Meyers's Somethings Gotta Give, starring Jack Nicholson, Diane Keaton, Keanu Reeves and Frances McDormand; Ron Howard's The Missing, with Kate Blanchett and Tommy Lee Jones; Antonine Fuqua's concert film Lightning in a Bottle featuring blues legends B.B. King, Solomon Burke, Natalie Cole and The Neville Brothers, which was filmed live at Radio City Music Hall; and Richard Linklater's Before Sunset which reunites audiences with the protagonists from Before Sunrise, winner of a Silver Bear at the Berlin Film Festival in 1994. Jesse (Ethan Hawke) and Celine (Julie Delpy) meet again in Paris, nearly ten years after their romantic encounter in Vienna, and spend an afternoon together. Before Sunset is a world premiere in Competition.

The Competition will conclude with the world premiere of the Belgian-French-Spanish co-production 25 degres en hiver by Stephane Vuillet. His first full-length feature film is an urban road movie with comic undertones featuring Jacques Gamblin, winner of a Silver Bear for acting in 2002, along with Carmen Maura, Ingeborga Dapkunaite and Raphaelle Molinier.

The award ceremony of the 54th Berlin International Film Festival will be held on February 14, 2004.


The complete program of the Competion:

20:30:40, Sylvia Chang, Taiwan/Hong Kong

25 degres en hiver/25 Degrees in Winter, Stephane Vuillet, Belgium/France/Spain

Ae Fond Kiss, Ken Loach, Great Britain

Beautiful Country, Hans Petter Moland, Norway/USA. Starring Nick Nolte, Tim Roth and Damien Nguyen. (Sony Pictures Classics)

Before Sunset, Richard Linklater, USA (Warner Independent Pictures)

Cold Mountain, Anthony Minghella, USA (out of competition, opening night)

Confidences trop intimes/Intimate Strangers, Patrice Leconte, France

Country of my Skull, John Boorman, Great Britain

Die Nacht singt ihre Lieder/Nightsongs, Romuald Karmakar, Germany

El Abrazo Partido/Lost Embrace, Daniel Burman, Argentina

Feux rouges/Red Lights, Cedric Kahn, France

The Final Cut, Omar Naim, USA

Forbrydelser/In Your Hands, Annette K. Olesen, Denmark

Gegen die Wand/Head-On, Fatih Akin, Germany/Turkey

La vida que te espera/Your Next Life, Manuel Gutierrez Aragon, Spain

Lightning in a Bottle, Antoine Fuqua, USA (out of competition) (Sony Pictures Classics)

Maria Full of Grace, Joshua Marston, USA/Columbia

The Missing, Ron Howard, USA

Monster, Patty Jenkins, USA

Om jag vander mig om/Daybreak, Bjorn Runge, Sweden

Primo Amore/First Love, Matteo Garrone, Italy

Samaria/Samaritan Girl, Kim Ki-Duk, Korea

Something's Gotta Give, Nancy Meyers, USA (out of competition)

Svedoci/Witnesses, Vinko Bresan, Croatia

Trilogia: To livadi pou dakrisi/Trilogy: The Weeping Meadow, Theo Angelopoulos, Greece/France

Triple Agent, Eric Rohmer, France

# posted by Steve Gallagher @ 1/21/2004 11:17:00 AM Comments (0)

As reported on Ratchet Up, John Schott's excellent blog about digital arts and culture, Hans Nyberg's panoramas using Quicktime are a real treat.

"This 360-degree Quicktime image of Mars has to be some kind of a landmark in photography, taking its place in a line that goes back to the great landscape photographers of the American west. Posted, ironically, as a new form of digital image display in the same week that Kodak announces it will no longer make traditional film cameras for the U.S. market."

# posted by Steve Gallagher @ 1/20/2004 04:28:00 PM Comments (0)

A debut feature 19 years in the making, Jonathan Caouette's "brutal and spellbinding musical-docudrama" Tarnation premiered as a rough cut at Mix 2003 and screens in the Frontier section of this year's Sundance Film Festival. (Tarnation was substantially reedited following its debut at Mix, and is tipped for the Director's Fortnight at Cannes following its screening in Park City.)

As per the Mix Festival's write-up: "Tarnation weaves a psychotronic whirlwind of snapshots, Super-8 home movies, old answering machine messages, video diaries, early short films, snippets of '80s camp pop culture and dramatic reenactments drawn from Caouette's entire life."


"It's kind of a fucked-up genius documentary/drama," says John Cameron Mitchell (Hedwig and the Angy Inch), who signed on as an editorial consultant after seeing an early version of the film. "[Jonathan] sent in an audition tape for my latest film that incorporated footage from Tarnation and it blew me away," says Mitchell. "He's been documenting his life with his beautiful, tragic, schizophrenic mom since he was 10 and this film is the incredible result. Example of a typical scene: a video diary entry of Jonathan at 11 in drag as his mother talking to the camera about being beaten up by her new boyfriend. He's been working on the film for many years and it was made on Apple's iMovie (editing, effects, sound & mix!) for about 200 bucks and change. He lives with his mom and boyfriend in Queens, New York now and has been supporting them -- as well as a son from a former marriage -- as a 5th Ave. boutique doorman. He had to quit to edit and is hoping they'll take him back (they have a good health plan)."

"I think Jonathan Caouette's Tarnation is the shit," adds Gus Van Sant, the film's executive producer. "I have always been waiting to see someone make something as moving as Jonathan's film with as little as he has had to make it. I knew something like this would appear, and I am glad that is has finally has."

# posted by Webmaster @ 1/20/2004 02:13:00 PM Comments (1)

After reportedly receiving threats of intimidation from conservative religious groups, Madstone Theaters has cancelled its upcoming Salt Lake City engagement of TLA Releasing's newest film, Latter Days, which tells the story of a young closeted Mormon who falls in love with another man while serving his missionary assignment in Los Angeles.

"We are extremely upset that Latter Days currently has no venue to premiere in Salt Lake City," says Raymond Murray, President of TLA Releasing. "We picked up the film through our partnership with production company Funny Boy Films, because of writer-director C. Jay Cox's amazing ability to tell a story about a man's struggle in dealing with his sexuality and faith, a subject many gays and lesbians can certainly relate to."

Latter Days, the directorial debut of C. Jay Cox (writer of Sweet Home Alabama), had been scheduled to open simultaneously in New York, Los Angeles and Salt Lake City on Friday, January 30. TLA Releasing reportedly received a phone call from Madstone Theaters saying that they were canceling the film's opening date in Salt Lake City because the company was being threatened with boycotts, protests and membership cancellations from religious groups.

Sources at TLA report that Madstone president Thomas Gruenberg confirmed the threats but denied that they were the cause of the cancellation. "Gruenberg claimed that Latter Days failed to meet the company's standards of 'artistic quality and integrity,' and that the film failed to tell a story that was sufficiently 'compelling' or 'gripping.'"

The release of Latter Days in Madstone Theaters outside of Salt Lake City, however, are still scheduled.

"I find it quite sad that any conservative group would attempt to take such a choice away from the people of Salt Lake City," says Cox. "I truly hope that we will be allowed to screen this movie and give people the opportunity to discuss the issues it raises and to judge its 'artistic quality and integrity' for themselves."


For other news about Mormons and film, check out Ed Halter's fascinating article "Missionary Positioning", about the "unprecedented surge in features films made by Mormans, for Mormans, and set within the Morman World," in this week's Village Voice.

# posted by Steve Gallagher @ 1/20/2004 12:16:00 PM Comments (0)

Fox Searchlight Pictures and Miramax Films announced yesterday at the Sundance Film Festival that they have aligned with one another to create an unprecedented joint acquisitions agreement for the worldwide distribution rights to Garden State, the directorial debut feature from Zach Braff (television's "Scrubs"), who also wrote the screenplay and stars in the film along with Natalie Portman, Peter Sarsgaard and a strong ensemble cast. (Variety reported that the companies paid $5 million for the film.) Miramax and Fox Searchlight will share equally in the film's worldwide revenues, and the two companies are currently discussing which entity will distribute in which territory worldwide, based on their respective resources and desires. The film is produced by Camelot Pictures' partners Gary Gilbert and Dan Halsted, along with Pamela Abdy and Richard Klubeck. The film was executive produced by Danny DeVito, Michael Shamberg and Stacey Sher.

The film is a romantic comedy about a guy who returns to his hometown for the first time in ten years to attend the funeral of his clinically depressed mother, a journey of self-discovery that reconnects him with the world he left behind and gives him a chance to find love in an unexpected place.


Other Sundance acquistions include Walter Salles's The Motorcycle Diaries, based on Ernesto Che Guevara's autobiographical book The Motorcycle Diaries: A Journey Around South America, in which a young Che describes his race around South America on a Norton 500 motorbike (nicknamed "The Mighty One") with a best buddy, Alberto Granado, in 1952, making sweeping generalizations along the way on everything from the political underpinnings of Chile to the civility of the police in Peru. Focus Features reportedly paid between $3 and $4 million dollars for the film, which stars Gael Garcia Bernal and Rodrigo de la Serna and was executive produced by Robert Redford.


Sony Pictures Classics picked up Stacey Peralta's Riding Giants, about American surf culture and the advent of big-wave surfing, which opened the festival to great acclaim. Sony released Peralta's skateboarding doc Dogtown and Z Boys in 2001.

Napoleon Dynamite, the first feature from Jared Hess, who studied film at Brigham Young University, stars Jon Heder as Napoleon, a young man who spends his days drawing magical beasts, working on his computer hacking skills to impress the chicks, and begrudgingly feeding his grandma's pet llama, Tina. The film is an extension of Hess's short film Peluca, based on his experiences growing up in rural Idaho, which also featured Heder in the title role. Napoleon was bought by Fox Searchlight for $3 million following its debut in the Sundance Dramatic Competition.


And finally, Lions Gate Films has reportedly acquired worldwide rights for $2.5 million to Open Water, Chris Kentis's film about a scuba-diving couple who find themselves stranded in a shark-infested ocean. The film, which premiered at the 2003 Hamptons International Film Festival, opened Sundance's American Spectrum section.

# posted by Steve Gallagher @ 1/19/2004 12:18:00 PM Comments (0)

I ran into producer Mary Jane Skalski at the Salt Lake City airport this morning on the way into Park City, and she -- along with an e-mail from director Jem Cohen -- gave me material for an embarassing first post out of Sundance. In our new issue of Filmmaker, Anthony Kaufman writes in his "New York Scene" column about directors who choose, for whatever reason, not to make the festival and premiere their films in other venues. He writes about Michael Kang, whose Motel was unable to be finished in time, and also Jem Cohen, who is currently completing his new film Chain. Unfortunately, an editing mistake transposed the titles of two Cohen films, making it seem that Cohen has submitted Chain to Sundance only to see it rejected. This is not true. Cohen had actually said that his features Benjamin Smoke and Instrument had been turned down by the festival, but he didn't submit Chain and is still working on its postproduction. Our apologies to Jem and Mary Jane for the mistake and for the confusion it may have caused.

# posted by Scott Macaulay @ 1/16/2004 08:11:00 PM Comments (0)

On January 25, the Rotterdam Film Parliament, organized annually as part of the International Film Festival Rotterdam (IFFR) will debate the pro's and con's of digital distribution (satellite, computers, video projectors, DVD and Internet). Among the topics up for discussion will be the consequences for independent cinema of digital distribution, the dangers of piracy and future ways of retailing films (worldwide or by territory?). Titled Digital: Dream or Nightmare?, the Film Parliament is modelled after the English House of Commons. Chaired by Nik Powell, speakers will plea against or in favour of the motion: "This house believes that the digital dream of distribution is a nightmare for independent cinema," after which the motion will be brought into vote. (Here, here.)

From Thursday, January 22 through Friday, January 31 the IFFR will also organize daily interviews, debates and talk shows under the rubric What (Is) Cinema?. Directors scheduled to participate include: Takeshi Kitano (Zatoichi), Catherine Breillat (Anatomy of Hell), Michael Winterbottom (Code 46), Harmony Korine (screenplay, Ken Park), Raul Ruiz, Ken Jacobs, as well as 2004 IFFR Artist in Focus Isaac Julien.

# posted by Steve Gallagher @ 1/16/2004 05:10:00 PM Comments (0)

The IFP/New York has announced the deadline for a new documentary fund. Named for the ABC News producer -- and cousin of John F. Kennedy Jr. -- who died of cancer in 1999, The Anthony Radziwill Documentary Fund will provide seed money/development grants for independently produced documentary projects by U.S. resident filmmakers, and will be administered by IFP/NY. Six to ten grants up to $10,000 will be given annually, with the initial cycle's grants to be awarded in June 2004. Grant cycle deadlines are March 1 and September 1 annually. Initial cycle deadline is March 1, 2004. On-line applications, submission requirements, and complete guidelines for proposals are available at www.ifp.org/docfund. For further questions write docfund@ifp.org or call 212-465-8200, ext 830.


FILMMAKER magazine will again collaborate with the Flanders International Film Festival-Ghent to coordinate the selection of a sidebar of American independent films at the event, which runs October 5-16. Anyone interested in submitting work for consideration should send it by the August 10 deadline directly to:


Flanders International Film Festival-Ghent
Attn. Cis Bierinckx / A LOOK APART
Leeuwstraat 40b
B-9000 Gent
Belgium

Regulations and additional information can be found at the festival Web site: www.filmfestival.be

# posted by Steve Gallagher @ 1/16/2004 12:00:00 PM Comments (1)

Wil Wheaton, the actor-turned-blogger best known for his role in Stand By Me and as Wesley Crusher in the TV series Star Trek: The Next Generation, has signed a three-book deal with O'Reilly & Associates.

Says Wheaton, "This is a very exciting relationship for me, for several reasons. First, I am a huge geek, and without O'Reilly, I wouldn't know HTML from LMNOP. I never would have been able to get Linux running, and Perl would be one of the not-quite-as-good-as-Mrs.-Garrett replacements on Diff'rent Strokes."

While Wheaton has continued to act, most recently in Damion Dietz's Neverland (2003), doing voiceover work for Brother Bear, The Simpsons, and for a forthcoming Pixar production, he has devoted most of his time to writing.

O'Reilly & Associates plans to release Wheaton's Dancing Barefoot, comprised of five short-but-true stories about life in the so-called Space Age. Originally released by Monolith Press, Dancing Barefoot "sold 3,000 copies in less than five months," reports Wheaton. "I can't wait to see how it does when it's got the power and budget of a major publisher behind it."

O'Reilly also plans to release Wheaton's Just A Geek, an autobiographical book about coming to terms with what it means to be famous, or, ironically, famous for being previously famous.

# posted by Steve Gallagher @ 1/15/2004 01:04:00 PM Comments (0)

Tribeca Enterprises, the latest business venture of Tribeca Film Festival co-founders Robert De Niro, Jane Rosenthal and Craig Hatkoff, has announced that it will launch a behind-the-scenes entertainment expo at New York City's Javits Center next November 20-22. The trio has joined forces with former Variety publisher Gerry Byrne who will help launch and run the consumer exposition dubbed "So You Wanna Be In Pictures?"


"So You Want To Be In Pictures?" will offer high-tech, interactive exhibits, panels and conferences, hardware and software. From screenwriting, casting and cinematography to music, makeup and costume design, the show will cover every aspect of how screened entertainment is conceived, made, and ultimately branded and marketed.

Additional expo features will include presentations on the filmmaking process, demonstrations of the latest in digital equipment, as well as a pavilion on the associated entertainment games market. A series of innovative competitions will be announced at a later date that will be part of the core of the expo.

The American Museum of The Moving Image, the nation's premiere museum devoted to film, television and digital entertainment, will be part of the expo to provide historical context and vision.

DeNiro, Rosenthal and Hatkoff recently set up a new business entity, Tribeca Cinemas, to operate The Screening Room in New York.

"In addition to its commercial potential, The Screening Room will also enable us to help support the non-profit Tribeca Film Institute and the growing needs of the Tribeca Film Festival," said Jane Rosenthal. "The acquisition of The Screening Room will provide some of the much-needed additional capacity for screenings and hospitality events during the Tribeca Film Festival that last year attracted 325,000 visitors to the streets of Lower Manhattan."

# posted by Steve Gallagher @ 1/15/2004 10:12:00 AM Comments (0)

Every summer Filmmaker runs a feature entitled "25 New Faces of Independent Film" in which we try to apply our long-lead editorial approach to talent spotting. We identify promising new writers, directors and actors who are flying well below the industry radar, and several of our pics usually show up at Sundance each year.

Here are Filmmaker's "25 New Faces" picks in this year's festival.


The advance industry buzz on The Clearing has been all over the map, but Justin Haythe's screenplay was the best I read a couple of years ago. It's a terse, emotionally rich drama about a kidnapping-gone-awry that, like In the Bedroom, is ultimately a dissection of marriage in America. The film is directed by Dutch-born producer Pieter Jan Brugge, whose credits include Bulworth, The Insider, and Heat, and is premiering, strangely, as a "work in progress" out-of-competition. Starring Robert Redford, Willem Dafoe and Helen Mirren, it will be interesting to see how Redford's iconic All-American screen persona gels with the bitter truths of Haythe's script.

Writer-director Angela Robinson makes it to the festival with her first feature, D.E.B.S. Produced by L.A. indie producing heroes Andrea Sperling and Jasmine Kosovic, the film is a lesbian-themed riff on a Charlie's Angels/Man from U.N.K.L.E. spy flick.

Josh Marston made our "25" list with his screenplay Maria Full of Grace, an honest and moving story of a Colombian woman who travels to the States as a drug mule. Marston premieres the film -- produced by Paul Mezey for HBO -- in Competition.

Greg Pak's own movie Robot Stories opens in theaters in February, but this 2003 "25" pick shows up at Sundance with the screenplay for Harry Davis's American Spectrum selection MVP. And fellow 2003 "New Face" Jessica Sharzer -- director of the award-winning short Wormhole -- makes her feature debut with Speak. Brought to Sharzer by Showtime after execs there saw her short, the feature -- which Sharzer did a rewrite on -- was produced under the cable channel's "Six-Figure Film" program.

Two below-the-line "25" selections -- cinematographer Tim Orr, and production designer Judy Becker -- worked together previously on Peter Sollett's Raising Victor Vargas. This year, they've teamed up again on Mark Milgard's Dandelion, which stars the usually amazing Taryn Manning (Eight Mile, Crazy/Beautiful) and premieres in the American Spectrum section. Becker adds one more Sundance credit to her resume with Garden State, Zack Braff's comedy.

Finally, one 2003 "25" pick won't be at Sundance because her film's already a theatrical hit. Director Patty Jenkins's Monster is, as you've no doubt heard, fantastic, but if you get a chance to catch a screening with a Jenkins Q&A, do so -- Jenkins is articulate, purposeful and, in person, a walking object-lesson on the qualities first-time directors must have to inspire confidence in those who'll finance (and star in) their films.

# posted by Scott Macaulay @ 1/15/2004 12:24:00 AM Comments (0)

There are frustrations in editing a published-quarterly magazine like Filmmaker. As media cycles accelerate around us, we still publish every ninety days, trying to write intelligently about the aesthetics, business, and reasons for making independent film while pretending not to care that, with our long-lead schedule, we can't really comment on that day or week's movie news. The current issue of Filmmaker, for example, went to bed in mid-December, will be first read at the Sundance Film Festival, and will linger on newsstands until early April or so. Which means that meaningful commentary on the latest breaking news is pretty much foolhardy to even attempt -- even though Anne Thompson did a pretty good wrapup of the whole "screener ban" issue in her new "Risky Business" column.

Hence, this film blog. Here you'll find postings, notes, and opinions from the magazine's staff encompassing topics that would be stale by the time they hit the pages of Filmmaker. Or, we'll be tossing out random thoughts and musings that would be likely be edited out of the book in a space crunch. Or, perhaps, we'll be covering our critical ass on stuff that should have been in the magazine but which we were simply too lame to pick up on in time.


An example of the latter is the French artist Pierre Huyghe's Streamside Day Follies, a film installation that closed this past weekend at the Dia:Chelsea in New York. Huyghe's 26-minute DV film dispassionately chronicles a young family relocating to a brand-new housing development. Deer wander through the half-constructed houses, costumed children parade the streets, and a giant helium-filled china-ball acts as a fake sun in a work that expertly pinpoints the horror within the perfectly mundane.


But what sends Huyghe's work over the top is its staging, which delivers a deft conceptual punch I wouldn't have wanted to reveal if I had reviewed this work earlier. Arriving in an empty gallery space, with only the artist's pencil-drawings on the wall, viewers are left to wonder just where the exhibition is. Slowly, though, the walls begin to move on mounted tracks, converging into the center of the space and gradually forming an exhibition space. There's a great moment when you have to decide if you're "in or out," and once you jump into the suddenly constructed theater, the lights dim and Huyghe's film begins.

With its grand metaphor about culture and nature, colonization and crowds, Hugyhe's piece is an alternative film for the e-Walk era. If I had done a ten-best list, it would have been on it.

# posted by Scott Macaulay @ 1/14/2004 01:43:00 PM Comments (1)