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THE NEW INDIE SCENE... THE GAMING SCENE, THAT IS
One topic Graham Leggat's Game Engine column in Filmmaker regularly returns to is the rise of "independent gaming" in the videogame world. Just as independent filmmakers reacted against studio monoliths in the '80s to start a new wave of indie production, there is now a slowly emerging groundswell of developers doing something similar in the world of videogaming.
From the Guardian's gaming weblog comes this beginning-of-the-year piece, "Nine Foolish Videogame Predictions for 2005." One of these predictions is "The Rise of the Indie Scene":
"The dominance of EA doesn't necessarily mean the death of smallscale videogame production. Far from it. independent developers who distribute their wares via download sites will find that the combination of exploding broadband use and consumer alienation with asinine sequels, licenses and entrenched genres, will provide them with a growing audience. Check out sites like DIYgames and MadMonkey for more info. This year may well see the first genuine breakthrough indie hit, perhaps something like Zap from GarageGames, a vector-based multiplayer shooter melding iconic eighties visuals with modern gameplay depth. All that's required is a little canny word of mouth marketing. And an astonishing game, of course."
# posted by Scott Macaulay @ 1/8/2005 01:02:32 PM Comments (0)
JOHNNY SPOTS
23-year-old Cam Archer has created a series of surreal mini-films, "The Johnny Spots," to promote his latest film American Fame Pt. 2: Forgetting Jonathan Brandis, about the child former child actor who committed suicide last year. The film premieres at the 2005 Sundance Film Festival."I have my actors in the film wearing masks, writes Archer on his Web site. " I did this deliberately. I want people to see that fame, this thing (beast) that so many obsess over, is not as 'person specific' as we might think. Jonathan [Brandis] could've been any kid that got a lucky break and had pushy parents. So, once again, I had my main actor wear a faceless, or 'all-white' mask, the idea of it not really mattering as to what this character looked like underneath."
# posted by Steve Gallagher @ 1/7/2005 04:16:54 PM Comments (0)
The AFI Silver Theatre with XXIV/VII Africa will co-present a celebration of some of the best films from the Nigerian ("Nollywood") Film Industry, every Saturday at 5 p.m., from February 5 - 26. It is the first-of-its-kind showcase of low-budget video films from Nigeria in a mainstream American theater. The series will include guest appearances and films by Tunde Kelani, Kingsley Ogoro, Charles Novia and Simi Opeoluwa.
# posted by Steve Gallagher @ 1/7/2005 03:42:07 PM Comments (0)
The organizers of the Berlin International Film Festival, February 10 - 20, 2005, have announced the first films in the lineup of the Panorama, which celebrates its 20th anniversary this year.
According to the festival's press release, the organizers of Panorama 2005 sought to address the following questions: "What preoccupies contemporary filmmakers? What stories motivate them? Which life scripts do they pursue and which filmic forms do they use to tell them?"
The initial selection includes Kevin Spacey's Bobby Darin biopic Beyond the Sea, Ira Sach's Sundance-bound Forty Shades of Blue, and Sally Potter's latest film, Yes (pictured right), Childstar by Canadian director Don McKellar, and Bruce McDonald's The Love Crimes of Gillian Guess.# posted by Steve Gallagher @ 1/7/2005 02:30:33 PM Comments (0)
LIKE SUNDANCE USED TO BE...
From a story in Variety:
"The porn industry's AVN Adult Entertainment Expo has always been a colorful, if slightly tawdry, event, a reliable resource for camera crews looking to goose news ratings in the name of covering the multibillion-dollar adult entertainment industry.
However, in what is the AEE's seventh year since splitting away from Las Vegas's concurrent Consumer Electronics Show, the porn event has begun to look a little more like Park City...
Like the Sundance Film Festival of a decade ago, the once scrappy trade show has begun to make big deals with corporate sponsors. It's attracting celebs who aren't scared to show their faces."
The article goes on to talk about how AVN publisher Paul Fishbein is an Endeavor client and the various mainstream music acts like Smashmouth who are performing at the awards. Pam Anderson is reportedly launching a line of cruelty free clothing there on Saturday night. And the article speculates that next year the AEE will be cablecast and sponsored by mainstream corporations. It closes with a quote from inexplicable NYC cable show host Robin Byrd:
"'I've got respect from Time Warner,' said former porn star Robin Byrd, host of New York's long-running cable access talkshow that features porn stars and strippers. She's also made a deal with Verizon to sell a package of Robin Byrd ringtones.
'They do not hassle me anymore,' she said. 'You work within the system.'"
# posted by Scott Macaulay @ 1/6/2005 08:35:18 PM Comments (0)
A few days ago we posted an email from independent producer Tanya Selvaratnum about the devastating effects of the tsunami in her homeland of Sri Lanka. Now, Selvaratnum in conjunction with Syndicate is organizing a benefit in New York on January 20 in which 100% of the proceeds will go towards tsunami relief. There will be appearances from Angela McCluskey, Metro Area (Morgan Geist + Darshan Jesrani), Moby, Vernon Reid, DJ Rekha, Anna Deavere Smith, DJ Spooky, and Colson Whitehead.
The Benefit Committee consists of: Alpana Bawa, Claude Arpels & Winsome Brown, Jennie Boddy, Gabri Christa & Vernon Reid, Nathan Ellis, Ken Friedman, Nelson George, Padma Laxmi, Rekha Malhotra, Sue Marcus, Sia Michel, Paul D. Miller, Naeem Mohaiemen, Mira Nair, Julie Panebianco, Sherwin K. Parikh, M.D., Jesse Peretz, Troy Selvaratnam & Mary Skinner, and Natasha Stovall & Colson Whitehead. The event will be held at Marquee (289 10th Avenue @ 27th Street), Thursday, January 20, 7 - 11 p.m. There is a $30 minimum donation and one can RSVP at tsunami@syndicate-ny.com.
A website is listed -- www.syndicate-ny.com/tsunamirelief -- although when I clicked on it, it wouldn't go through.
# posted by Scott Macaulay @ 1/6/2005 07:46:07 PM Comments (0)
I have been intrigued by the Russian Necrorealism film movement since I first read about it in the catalogue to the Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston, exhibition "Gothic" from 1997, but to date I have yet to see any of the films themselves. This year, in conjunction with a focus on "parallel cinema" from Russia at the International Film Festival Rotterdam Film, the festival has selected Yevgeni Yufit, a former student of Aleksander Sokurov and founder (in 1984/85) of the St. Petersburg-based Necrorealism film movement, as a Filmmaker in Focus. The festival will screen eight short films by Yufit and present the world premiere of his Hubert Bals-funded film Bipedalism.According to this downloadable PDF from a Russian Film Symposium in Pittsburgh, Pa., in 2001:
"Necrorealism appeared in Leningrad at the beginning of the 1980s, when socialism was still alive. As a system, however, it was more dead than alive, and although few believed that the corpse of the system would soon be buried, everyone understood that it no longer showed signs of life, evidenced by the gerintocracy, the death of one secretary general after another, the stagnation in the economic sphere, the negligible number of adherents to the ruling ideology, the absence of any sort of collective enthusiasm, and the demise of the aesthetic principles of socialist realism...
"In these conditions there existed a certain human, asocial mass, oriented away from generally accepted, rational, cultured activities. A portion of this mass was subsequently shaped into the artistic movement known as Necrorealism...
"The theme of death became a nexus of protest..."
# posted by Steve Gallagher @ 1/6/2005 10:25:55 AM Comments (0)
Interesing news via Variety (registration required) today. Producer Michael London is partnering with Tom Cruise and Paula Wagner to produce for Paramount "a coming-of-age film about James 'Bubba' Smith, a teen who is to motocross racing what Tiger Woods is to golf." It's interesting not just because this story seems to be staking out some territory before a new Paramount head, presumably Brad Grey, comes in (says Variety, somewhat obliquely, "In an unusual development, Par topper Donald De Line has allowed development to progress without assigning an exec. The producers wanted it that way so they could flesh out their script before delivering it to the studio."), but also because of the other talent behind the camera. Writing the script will be George Washington director David Gordon Green and directing will be Sam Jones, the celebrity photographer who previously helmed the Wilco doc I Am Trying to Break Your Heart.
Apparently, Jones and London had spent two years "winning the trust" of the Stewart family. When Jones photographed Cruise for a magazine cover, he mentioned the project to him. Cruise got excited and jumped in to help seal the deal.
Stewart will be racing in the 250cc supercross class this weekend in Anaheim. Adds Variety, "Jones, who with Green will be in the pits watching Stewart on Saturday, said the film's core will be the relationship between the phenom and his father, James Stewart Sr., a local racer who molded his son to achieve dreams he was denied. The son's sudden success has strained their relationship."
# posted by Scott Macaulay @ 1/6/2005 01:14:11 AM Comments (0)
DESPERATE CRITICS
A TV show used to be many years in syndication before it became critical fodder for academics and intellectuals. But as it has swiftly climbed the ratings ladders, Desperate Housewives has also attracted notice from the sorts of writers who wouldn't normally stoop to covering TV. Like Germaine Greer.
Here's the author of The Female Eunuch on the hit ABC show, as reviewed in The Guardian:
"The series has nothing to say about the vicissitudes of the average or even the well-to-do American stay-at-home wife; it is neither feminist, nor pro-feminist nor proto-feminist nor post-feminist. Feminism has as little to do with Desperate Housewives as it did with Sex and the City. Indeed, it is difficult to imagine in either case what outright misogynists would have done differently."
# posted by Scott Macaulay @ 1/5/2005 01:24:12 AM Comments (0)
Via press release we learned of producer Effie T. Brown's ambitious new production and development slate -- eight pictures ranging from a horror movie with a black cast to a couple of period dramas. She also announced that her production company, Duly Noted, has a first-look deal with HBO's Original Programming Department.
Brown, who received the IFP Producing Spirit Award three years ago, has been a producer on several HBO movies, including Real Women Have Curves, and The Stranger Inside, and she was also Executive Producer of Jane Campion's hugely underrated In the Cut, which is on cable a lot these days if you haven't seen it. Her new projects are from such directors as Silas Howard (By Hook or By Crook), Jeffrey Blitz (Spellbound), and Ben Berkowitz (Straightman).
Describing the films, the release writes, " The Duly Noted line-up includes a period biopic about a legendary transgendered jazz pianist; a gritty urban drama depicting working class Blacks and Jews living in a Polish neighborhood in Chicago; a satirical comedy about a group of directionless thirtysomethings; a poignant coming of age story that charts the joys and travails of a Puerto Rican boy and his military family living in 1970s Georgia; and a horror film featuring a predominately Black cast."
The first film to be produced is Cold Kiss, directed by Wendy Rubin and financed with funds from the German Hettleman-Berger Film Fund.
# posted by Scott Macaulay @ 1/5/2005 12:14:18 AM Comments (0)
VPRO TIGER AWARDS
The 34th International Film Festival Rotterdam (IFFR), January 26 - February 6, has selected fourteen films for its VPRO Tiger Awards Competition. The jury members choosing the winning films will be photographer Nan Goldin (U.S.), producer Jan Chapman (Australia), Lia van Leer, director of the Jerusalem Film Festival (Israel), filmmaker Bahman Ghobadi (Iran), and filmmaker Lisandro Alonso (Argentina).
The three winners will be announced during IFFR 2005's Awards Ceremony, to be held on Friday February 4. Each of the three equal VPRO Tiger Awards comes with Euro 10,000 and guaranteed Dutch television screening by IFFR's main sponsor, Dutch public network VPRO.
The fourteen films in IFFR 2005's VPRO Tiger Awards Competition:
(in alphabetical order by director's name)
O AMIGO DUNOR (DUNOR MY FRIEND) by Jose Eduardo Alcazar (Brazil/Paraguay, 2005), world premiere, Hubert Bals Fund supported film.
EL CIELO GIRA (THE SKY TURNS) by Mercedes Alvarez (Spain, 2004), international premiere.
HAT MUA ROI BAO LAUY (BRIDE OF SILENCE) by Doan Minh Phuong & Doan Thanh Nghia (Vietnam/Germany, 2005), world premiere.
ALLEIN (ALONE) by Thomas Durchschlag (Germany, 2004), international premiere.
ONDE (WAVES) by Francesco Fei (Italy, 2005), world premiere.
LAS MANTENIDAS SIN SUENOS (KEPT AND DREAMLESS) by Vera Fogwill & Martin Desalvo (Argentina, 2005), world premiere.
NEMMENO IL DESTINO (CHANGING DESTINY) by Daniele Gaglianone (Italy, 2004), international premiere. Dutch distribution: Bright Angel Distribution.
SANCTUARY by Ho Yu-hang (Malaysia, 2004), European premiere.
PARADISE GIRLS by Fow Pyng HU (The Netherlands, 2004), European premiere. CineMart 2002 Project. Dutch distribution: 1morefilm.
4 by Ilya Khrzhanovsky (Russia, 2004). Hubert Bals Fund supported film.
BOGINYA: KAK YA POLYUBILA (GODDESS) by Renata Litvinova (Russia, 2004), international premiere.
HAWAII, OSLO by Erik Poppe (Norway, 2004), European premiere. Dutch distribution: A-Film Distribution.
ARU ASA SOUP WA (THE SOUP, ONE MORNING) by TAKAHASHI Izumi (Japan, 2003), European premiere.
FRAKCHI (SPYING CAM) by Whang Cheol-Mean (South Korea, 2004), European premiere.
# posted by Steve Gallagher @ 1/4/2005 05:30:45 PM Comments (0)
Indie producer Tanya Selvaratnum (On Line) sent an email out last week to her friends detailing the devastation that occured in her native Sri Lanka due to the tsunami. Her own family is safe but a number of family friends were lost, and Selvaratnum notes that 1/13th of the country's entire population has been displaced by the disaster.
In trying to figure out the best way to donate relief, she contacted the Sri Lankan government:
"Something hilarious happened when I tried to contact the Sri Lankan government directly. I emailed the Prime Minister asking how we expats can help the most. I received a response saying to make donations directly to a bank account, making checks out to 'The Secretary to the Prime Minister.' I guess the Sri Lankan government has not yet reformed!"
Today she sent out another email with more details from her contacts there:
"I have spoken to my family members many times over the past week. In Sri Lanka, the situation is far more dire than we will ever hear about from our news. In the most devastated areas, it has become Lord of the Flies land. There are cases of looting, robbing from the bodies of the dead, and raping of refugees and local aid workers. But hopefully the international mechanisms will get up to speed soon, and the situation will reach a manageable state. My aunt says that there is almost too much aid pouring into local relief groups, and that it needs to be spread out over time, so that it doesn't get squandered or end up in the wrong pockets. It is important to be careful about which organizations we give to. And what is needed desperately is an increased presence of foreign monitors to facilitate the relief process.
FYI, I have been in contact with Doctors Without Borders. As of today, they are not accepting any more donations specifically earmarked for 'tsunami relief' because they have received such a tremendous influx. They are still accepting donations that are more broadly applicable to 'emergency work.' Aside from Network for Good, you can also look at the sites below for suggestions of where to give:
CNN Quake Aid Sites
U.S. Aid.Gov
I am not traveling to Sri Lanka this week, but instead will organize a benefit of 'Artists for Tsunami Relief' to take place on either January 19 or 20. I will let you know the details."
# posted by Scott Macaulay @ 1/4/2005 01:32:43 AM Comments (0)
ARTIST/FILMMAKER GRETCHEN BENDER DIES AT 53
I learned over the holidays that artist Gretchen Bender, whose intelligent, visually seductive work crossed lines between visual art and film, sculpture and video, died in New York on Sunday, December 18 of cancer. She was 53.
Bender, who, early in her career exhibited at the East Village Nature Morte Gallery and later Metro Pictures, created conceptually concise and elegant work that often critiqued mainstream media and the power imbalances contained within its representations. And while many artists at this time were working with appropriation and engaging in similar sorts of critique, Bender's work always cunningly embodied within itself a kernel of that which she was attacking. There was a cold beauty to much of her work, and its allure to the viewer was very much a part of its oppositional strategy. "If Darth Vader made art, it might look like this," wrote New York Times critic Roberta Smith of one Bender exhibition in 1986.
Bender worked extensively in film, video and theater, creating backdrops for the Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane dance company and two large-scale multimedia exhibitions, Dumping Core and Total Recall, the latter of which I produced for The Kitchen when I was Programming Director there in the late '80s. The pieces used multiple video monitors and, in the case of Total Recall, multiple film screens against loud electronic rock scores to confront viewers with an intense barrages of imagery, creating visually thrilling experiences out of sometimes troubling source material. This work lead to her working in music video (she directed videos for Babes in Toyland, among others, and edited clips by Robert Longo for REM, New Order and Megadeth), and she also edited opening credit material for America's Most Wanted.
Said Bender in a 1991 interview with Peter Doreshenko, "Given material that is violent, racist, and sexist, I try to make it a little less violent, less racist, and less sexist. I'm still involved in a kind of questionable propaganda, but one small step makes a difference. At first, I turned down that work because of all the complications and all the incredible decisions you have to make about what you're promoting. But I decided to do it because I had a way to do what I considered socially positive propaganda."
I remember Bender as smart, charming and intellectually inquisitive, someone who from the beginning had her finger on the complex issues related to artmaking in a media-saturated world. As she said in an interview with artist Cindy Sherman, "The only constant to the style you develop is the necessity to change it. Style gets absorbed really fast by the culture, basically by absorbing the formal elements or the structure and then subverting the content...It's constantly having to accept the fact that your work will lose its strength...Accepting the fact that your work is going to become neutralized -- faster than you ever dreamed...I don't think the media is something that listens in the way we're talking about. I think of the media as a cannibalistic river. A flow or a current that absorbs everything. It's not "about." There is no consciousness or mind. It's about absorbing and converting..."
# posted by Scott Macaulay @ 1/3/2005 01:02:38 AM Comments (0)
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