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REVAMPED ROTTERDAM FILM FEST
The International Film Festival Rotterdam (IFFR) will introduce three new program sections during its 34th edition (January 26 - February 6, 2005). The new sections will replace the fest's Main Program Features and its Hubert Bals Fund Harvest. Together, the new sections will include approximately one hundred fiction features and documentaries. IFFR director Sandra den Hamer explains: "The three sections represent the IFFR's main strands of interest: young and innovative filmmaking, the commitment to global developments and the 'cinema d'auteur'.
"Cinema of the Future: Sturm und Drang groups films by promising talents and offers an overview of recent developments within independent filmmaking; Cinema of the World: Time & Tide brings together films that reflect the festival's social and political awareness or show the human condition in the film's regions of origin; and The Maestro's: Kings & Aces section reunites the works of the more established auteurs whose oeuvre has the ongoing interest of the Rotterdam festival."
In other IFFR news: French cineaste Benoit Jacquot has been selected to receive a Rotterdam tribute program of part of his film and television oeuvre along with the screening of his recent feature film A Tout de Suite (2004).
The thematic program S.E.A. Eyes, curated by programmer Gertjan Zuilhof, will put a "spotlight on the South East Asian region where independent film production is emerging strongly through a new generation of filmmakers," says den Hamer. "The section will include new films by Lav Diaz (Philippines), U Wei bin Hadji Saari (Thailand) and James Lee (Malaysia), who has already generated festival attention worldwide. But S.E.A. Eyes will go further, introducing more young filmmakers [as it reflects] on a region currently undergoing fast changes in several parts of its societies."
Finally, Paradise Girls by Dutch filmmaker Fow Pyng Hu has been selected for Rotterdam's VPRO Tiger Awards Competition.
# posted by Steve Gallagher @ 10/15/2004 05:14:45 PM Comments (0)
Nick Nolte, who has worked in a number of independent and foreign films recently, has a rather charming online diary up. Check it out here.# posted by Scott Macaulay @ 10/15/2004 01:01:35 AM Comments (0)
THE POWER OF NIGHTMARES
Filmmaker has long been interested in smart modern horror, so check out these two web links. The first is the link to the elegantly eerie teaser trailer for The Ring 2, the sequel to the horror hit which also happens to be the first English language film to be directed by the great Hideo Nakata, who helmed the Japanese original. And then there's this thought-provoking feature in The Guardian about a three-part BBC series to be aired next week entitled The Power of Nightmares: The Rise of the Politics of Fear. Written and produced by the documentarian Adam Curtis, the series is a "riskily counterintuitive" response to the current "war on terror."
Writes The Guardian, "Much of the currently perceived threat from international terrorism, the series argues, 'is a fantasy that has been exaggerated and distorted by politicians. It is a dark illusion that has spread unquestioned through governments around the world, the security services, and the international media.' The series' explanation for this is even bolder: 'In an age when all the grand ideas have lost credibility, fear of a phantom enemy is all the politicians have left to maintain their power.'"
Read deep into the article and you find some provocative theorizing about the "Straussians," a group of political thinkers devoted to the teachings of political scientist Leo Strauss of the University of Chicago, who argued in the '50s that American needed to position itself as a battler of evil throughout the world and employ a series of "grand myths" to create a "higher form of political propaganda."
Explains the piece, "As Curtis traced the rise of the 'Straussians', he came to a conclusion that would form the basis for The Power of Nightmares. Straussian conservatism had a previously unsuspected amount in common with Islamism: from origins in the 50s, to a formative belief that liberalism was the enemy, to an actual period of Islamist-Straussian collaboration against the Soviet Union during the war in Afghanistan in the 80s (both movements have proved adept at finding new foes to keep them going). Although the Islamists and the Straussians have fallen out since then, as the attacks on America in 2001 graphically demonstrated, they are in another way, Curtis concludes, collaborating still: in sustaining the 'fantasy' of the war on terror.
# posted by Scott Macaulay @ 10/14/2004 11:43:26 PM Comments (0)
New York's legendary psychobilly outfit The Cramps is back, bringing their much-needed blend of horror imagery and rock and roll to the worshipping masses. They're hitting the road to promote a brand new release, How to Make a Monster, a two-disc CD set featuring rare early recordings and live performances.Also just out is a DVD, Live at Napa State Mental Hospital, a much coveted 1981 performance that finds lead crooner Lux sharing the stage (and mic!) with actual mental patients at said facility. Lo-fi and raw, it captures the essence of what The Cramps is really about.
If this just isn't enough crampyness for you, then be sure to catch the gang playing live at a venue near you, as they kick off a fall tour to support the CD.
# posted by Andre Salas @ 10/14/2004 04:51:06 PM Comments (0)
At the Hollywod premiere party for Team America: World Police on Monday, Trey Parker is quoted in today's Variety as having said, "Since we'll never make another movie, Matt [Stone] and I are going to spend the next year bringing a class-action suit against the MPAA" for the "two-sidedness" in the way it deals with studio and indie films. "It really does favor the studio movies and it is illegal," said Parker. "As an independent filmmaker they make it almost impossible for you. So we're going to get the independent filmmakers together and sue them."Team America is a Scott Rudin production for Paramount Pictures and cost an estimated $20 million.
# posted by Steve Gallagher @ 10/14/2004 04:15:31 PM Comments (0)
From October 16-December 22, the Allan Stone Gallery, 113 East 90th St., New York, will present the exhibition Alfred Leslie 1951-1962: Expressing the Zeitgeist.
The exhibition will include the only two films by Alfred Leslie not destroyed in a studio fire in 1966 -- Pull My Daisy (1959), co-directed by Robert Frank and featuring Allen Ginsberg, Gregory Corso, Peter Orlovsky and Delphine Seyrig, with narration by Jack Kerouac, and The Last Clean Shirt (1964), with quirky dialogue by writer/poet Frank O'Hara -- as well as Leslie's abstract paintings from the period, including 11 large oil paintings and 27 small collages and mixed media works.
The gallery will also screen The Cedar Bar (2002), Leslie's first feature, which he says, "tells the truth about the war between people who make art and the people who write about it." According to an exhibition press release, The Cedar Bar, which premiered at the London Film Festival in 2002, is "pieced together from assorted film clips and remembered conversations at the infamous Greenwich Village artist hangout, The Cedar Tavern. Leslie creates a colorful collage that includes artists' opinions and critical commentary, shedding satirical light on the often contentious relationships between artists and critics."Alfred Leslie (standing left) directing Pull My Daisy in his 4th Ave. studio in 1959. Gregory Corso is in the chair, Allen Ginsberg is standing, right, and Robert Frank is reflected in the mirror.
# posted by Steve Gallagher @ 10/14/2004 01:49:39 PM Comments (0)
TALK -- NO LONGER CHEAP
Producer Ted Hope e-mailed me this New York Times article by Anne Thompson which is mandatory reading for all producers, writers and development executives. The article concerns the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals and its recent ruling in the Jeff Grosso v. Miramax Film Corporation case. In the case, Grosso, a freelance writer and high-stakes poker player, sued Miramax claiming that the John Dahl film Rounders lifted story details and characters from his own spec script The Shell Game, which he had submitted unsolicited to a production company that had offices in the Miramax building. As quoted in the Times, Grosso said, "[The poker phrase] 'Texas hold 'em' had never been used in a movie before... It was obvious to me that they stole my movie. Those two works couldn't be mutually exclusive. They realized that I was not powerful, had no connections, that they could rewrite the script and use it, for free."
The Federal District Court dismissed the part of Grosso's suit claiming copyright violations. But what is concerning producers is the part of the suit the court left standing. Basically, the court says that Miramax must go on trial on the charge of violating an "implied contract" with the writer, a contract that was presumably triggered by the mere act of Grosso's submission. (The details here are sketchier as to whether Grosso had more detailed discussions with the companies.) Continues the article, "Under California law, Judge Mary M. Schroeder wrote in a ruling for a three-judge panel on Sept. 8, 'a contract sometimes may be implied even in the absence of an express promise to pay.'"
For unagented writers, the ruling is a mixed blessing. Litigious scribes may wind up with the courts on their side when they claim to be "ripped off" by the movie business, while others struggling to break into the business may find that the courts are creating a new "barrier to entry" as skittish producers will shy away from reading any unrepresented work.
# posted by Scott Macaulay @ 10/13/2004 08:43:34 PM Comments (1)
According to the Hollywood Reporter, "A&E is getting into the independent film business. The cable network has launched A&E IndieFilms, a label aimed at pitching in on the finance and production of documentaries in the spirit of its own nonfiction programming."
The "adventurous" cabler is currently airing Growing Up Gotti and Dog The Bounty Hunter and will premiere Christopher Reeves's final film as director, The Brooke Ellison Story, on October 25.
# posted by Steve Gallagher @ 10/13/2004 03:00:26 PM Comments (0)
IMPAKT FESTIVAL
Impakt Online is the annual Web-based project of the Impakt Film Festival, October 27-31, in which projects with a common theme are launched on www.impaktonline.nl. Oddly, the 2004 selection is not online, but you can still sample 2003's selection, organized in three thematic packages: Art of the Narrative, Out of the Box and Database Dilemmas. "Each of these themes involves a differing set of technologies, approaches and viewpoints about the Internet and the new media technologies which are becoming more and more part of our daily lives."
# posted by Steve Gallagher @ 10/12/2004 01:55:58 PM Comments (0)
Benoit Jacquot, the director of The Single Girl, Sade and Keep it Quiet is the first of six French filmmakers who will direct master classes in American universities this fall as part of the the program "On Set with French Cinema," organized jointly by Unifrance and the French Embassy with the participation of the French American Cultural Exchange.
Other participating directors include: Luc Besson (The Fifth Element, Joan of Arc), Jean-Paul Rappeneau (Bon Voyage , Cyrano), Claire Denis (Chocolat, Friday Night), Olivier Assayas (Demonlover, Clean), and Jean-Pierre Jeunet (Delicatessen, Amelie) who will also premiere his latest movie, A Very Long Engagement, starring Audrey Tautou.New York, Columbus and Chicago Program:
Participating Universities: Columbia University, City College of New York, and the School of Visual Arts in New York, The Ohio State University in Columbus, Columbia College and Northwestern University in Chicago.
Benoit Jacquot: October 18 - October 21
Claire Denis: October 29 - November 5
Olivier Assayas: November 14 - November 19
Los Angeles Program:
Participating Universities: University of Southern California, University of California of Los Angeles, and the American Film Institute.
Luc Besson: October 27 - October 28
Jean-Paul Rappeneau: November 1 - November 2
Jean-Pierre Jeunet: November 10 - November 11, and November 22
San Francisco Program:
Participating Universities: San Francisco State University and Stanford.
Jean-Paul Rappeneau: November 3 - November 5
A series of public screenings will also be held in each city. For the complete schedule, please log onto www.onsetwithfrenchcinema.com.
# posted by Steve Gallagher @ 10/12/2004 01:24:41 PM Comments (0)
"I thought you might be interested in the 25-film retrospective of Marshall Plan films called Selling Democracy that screens this coming week at the New York Film Festival," writes Sandra Schulberg in a recent e-mail. "I curated a 40-film series that was shown at the Berlin Film Festival in February. These films are an hommage to the work of my father, Stuart Schulberg, and his Marshall Plan colleagues. But more importantly, they demonstrate what an exceedingly well-planned 'democratization' effort looks like, in stark contrast to what we're seeing today in Iraq and Afghanistan. The films were banned in the U.S. until John Kerry introduced legislation in 1990 to lift the ban. They illustrate in surprisingly specific terms the strategy implemented by the Truman Administration for 'winning the peace.' Since this issue has been so central to the presidential campaigns of both candidates, I think these films have great insights to offer. If you are not in town for the screenings at the Festival, you may be interested to read more about them on the Selling Democracy Web site."
Schulberg is also working on a national tour and DVD collection.
# posted by Steve Gallagher @ 10/12/2004 01:03:36 PM Comments (0)
Offscreen.com, an online film journal dedicated to independent and international films, has just put up a new issue on its Web site, www.offscreen.com. The new issue includes articles on Robert Bresson and Rainer W. Fassbinder, as well as commentary on Kim Ki-duk's Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter... and Spring, Alexander Sokurov's Father and Son, and John Greyson and Jack Lewis's Proteus.# posted by Steve Gallagher @ 10/12/2004 11:46:24 AM Comments (0)
HD, XXX AND INDIE FILM
Variety has a short article up (sorry, subscription only) on Island Fever 3, the first hardcore porn movie to be shot on HD and released on a high definition DVD. Writes Variety's Claude Brodesser, "Much has been made about the changes ultrasharp HDTV will wreak on newsdesk anchors -- every nick and blemish magnified, foundation that looks like pancake makeup -- but no one spared a thought for the plight of porn stars -- until now."
The piece goes on to note the sudden importance of highly skilled makeup artists when shooting in HD, and ends with some cryptic comments by director Joone about the relationship between porn, HD and indie film: "The way I see it, independent film sort of died in the early '90s when Miramax got bought by Disney. HD is changing that. I'm hoping people see sex as just the commercial that pays for the movie."
Huh?
# posted by Scott Macaulay @ 10/10/2004 07:51:06 PM Comments (0)
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