Having listened to several panels yesterday, I decided to start my day viewing some WIP (works-in-progress) documentaries in the viewing library and am hoping to catch some more screenings at the Angelika, as well. Today's focus at the market is international in scope with the thought that forming co-productions to finance, produce and distribute your film might benefit you greatly in all kinds of ways.
There are a lot of great companies from all over the world here at the market participating in the No Borders strand. Tomorrow morning, the UK Film Council's New Cinema Fund is hosting a special showcase of their upcoming projects, followed by a brunch.
Lenny Crooks, the new head of the Fund will host, along with its senior executive,
Himesh Kar.
(In fact, behind me right now,
M Dot Strange is dazzling a small audience of Asian and European producers with his material (shown off his laptop, natch) and holding forth in his energetic, articulate manner about all things DIY--a great ambassador for independent filmmaking, if ever there was one.)
This morning I viewed samples of the following projects in the Spotlight on Documentaries--Works-in-Progress:
Matthew Kohn's short
Site Specific: The Legacy of Regional Modernism;
Matthew Wallin's
I Die Daily: The Making of Matthew Barney's Cremaster Cycle (it took Barney nine years to create his full cycle and took Wallin ten to do this doc--I'll have an in-depth interview with him on my own blog soon);
Brittany Huckabee's
The Mosque in Morgantown;
Jennifer M. Taylor's
New Muslim Cool;
Troy Word's
The Presence of Joseph Chaikin;
Micah Garen and
Marie-Helene Carleton's
The Road to Nasiriyah;
Marcia Jamel and
Ken Schneider's
Speaking in Tongues; and
Peggy Stern's
Upside Down and Backwards. All these projects look amazing--I'm looking forward to seeing the finished films and speaking more to these filmmakers.
After lunch, I sat in on the "Navigating Foreign Film Festivals" panel with representatives from
Rotterdam,
Berlin, the
UK Film Council and
IFC. Lenny Crooks of UK Film Council said that a "good, creative producer should pursue these partnerships." He's looking for the emerging first time filmmaker making his/her signature film and is interested in sustaining long-term relationships. "The passion of the filmmaker is the most important thing; that's where it starts with me and that's a privilege a lot of funding entities don't have." He also believes that festivals are the best way to find an international audience.
Marit Van Den Elshout of Rotterdam feels that it's not necessarily the best strategy to hit the big festivals if you have a little film. She stresses that it's important to do your research and learn about the different "signatures" or brands all these festivals have. For instance, Rotterdam gives a lot of attention to experimental work. These days, presenting your project as "an American independent" is rather meaningless, really. Festivals stand for something quite specific and are an alternative to mainstream programming. Good festival programmers task themselves with adjusting the balance of what gets programmed in more traditional outlets and this means that things get more competitive for an American filmmaker, not less. Your work is being gauged against the best of whatever is coming out of Asia, Europe, the Middle East or South America. And every festival programmer, of course, wants to find a project to champion and nurture its development--it's a point of pride for them to make those magical discoveries and showcase them at their festivals.
This afternoon, a really cool program took place in the Puck Building lobby called "Raw Word," sponsored by Brooklyn-based
Raw Word and
Kodak.
Sidetrack Films'
Jared Moshe was responsible, in part, for this new program by bringing in the Raw Word-ers, a Brooklyn-based arts group. There was a presentation of 5 - 10 minute excerpts from the scripts of the six Emerging Narrative Screenwriter Award finalists read by professional actors, cast specifically for this reading by
Laura Verbeke (
Flight of the Conchords). This is all new material that the writers got to test in front of a live audience filled with film executives and fellow writers. The winner will receive a $5,000 grant. The projects are:
Ryan Lakenan's
Get A Life Desmond Jones,
Don Handfield's
Jason Scott,
Nir Paniry's
Kamikaze Dolls,
Christina Beck's
Perfection,
Kathy Christopherson's
The Wind Effect and
Avi Weider's
Zeroes and Ones.
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posted by Pamela Cohn @ 9/18/2007 11:14:00 AM
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