Filmmaker Miao Wang, a Beijing native now based in Brooklyn, is currently racing to finish her feature doc Beijing Taxi in time for SXSW, where it's scheduled to world premiere. She needs to raise $11,000 to cover post-production expenses and is just under half way there with five days left to go at Kickstarter. From the Kickstarter page:

BEIJING TAXI is a feature length documentary that vividly portrays Beijing undergoing a profound transformational arch. Through a humanistic lens, the intimate lives of three taxi drivers connect a morphing city confronted with modern issues and changing values. With diverse imagery combined with a contemporary score rich in atmosphere, we experience a visceral sense of the common citizen's persistent attempts to grasp the elusive. Candid and perceptive in its filming approach and highly cinematic in style, BEIJING TAXI takes us on a lyrical journey into fragments of a society riding the bumpy roads to modernization. Though the destination is unknown, they continue to forge ahead.

Wang has a great list of pledge rewards, including, for $5,000, a 7-day tour of Beijing (including airfare) with the cab drivers featured in the movie. A grand less gets you Wang's services as a website designer. Yes, for $4,000 towards her film she'll design you a professional portfolio website. Check out more from the artist at the site linked above. To donate, click on the widget below.

# posted by Scott Macaulay @ 2/09/2010 12:28:00 AM Comments (0)

Most movie-moment montages work an A-B-A structure in which "A" is sentimental uplift. This montage by Paul Proulx goes for something different. (Hat tip: Anne Thompson.)

the films of the 2000s from Paul Proulx on Vimeo.

# posted by Scott Macaulay @ 2/08/2010 11:02:00 PM Comments (0)

# posted by Scott Macaulay @ 2/08/2010 10:35:00 PM Comments (0)

Indie film champions are often fond of comparing what we do to indie music. If bands can tour, why can't we? If bands can sell merch, then we should too. If recording artists can form boutique labels, then why can't film distributors? Like, for example, Oscilloscope, the film label of Beastie Boy Adam Yauch.

At Flavorwire, Judy Berman takes this assumption to task in a piece called "Why is Indie Film Dying While Indie Music Thrives?" She bases her assessment of indie film's slow-motion death on Edward Jay Epstein's "Can Indie Movies Survive?", which I found to be a pretty reductive piece. The central question — how can indie movies survive in an event-based moviegoing culture? — is a good one, but Epstein's article uses one very specific model of independent film production to speak for the whole field. (On this point about indie films and their event-fullness, check out Ted Hope's newly redesigned Truly Free Film — he wrote about just the issue and came up with ten solutions in a post titled "What Defines an Event: 10 Thoughts on Transforming Small to LARGE.") Nonetheless, Berman's article raises some points and perhaps touches a nerve or two. She boils it down to five points, the last two of which speak to broader issues involving our art:

4. Community
This is a simple one: Music fandom is generally a very social activity. Friends dance at shows together and trade tips on (and share the music of) artists they like. While much has been made of the internet’s power to attract fans around the world, local scenes — especially in smaller cities — remain vital. More established bands help promote their newer, more obscure brethren, kids move into warehouses that they quickly convert into DIY show spaces and great performers (many of whom haven’t even recorded an album yet) become well known and loved in their home city, generating momentum that will eventually help them garner the attention of a label.

Film just doesn’t have nearly as many outlets. Yes, there are small groups of experimental and underground filmmakers working together around the country, watching and critiquing each other’s work, volunteering to hold a light on the set of their friends’ project. But this community is much smaller and attracts few fans who aren’t filmmakers themselves. Film just isn’t social the way music is; sure, you go to a movie with friends — and then you sit there, silent, in the dark.

5. Coolness
This point is something of a corollary to the one above. Independent music has a built-in fanbase: young, urban, largely white, middle-class kids — otherwise known as hipsters. That isn’t their only audience, but it’s a major one, and it’s also a group with a lot of cultural capital. They are the trendsetters, the early adopters and (perhaps most importantly) the unencumbered young professionals who spend a ton of money on their own entertainment. For better or for worse, they’re who marketers spend untold amounts of cash trying to win over, and their allure is such that a new shipment of post-college 20-somethings arrives every year in cities around the country to get some freelance graphic design gigs and drink cheap beer at loft parties. Indie music is at the center of this social life.

Contrast that to your stereotypical film geek: unwashed, anti-social, constantly spouting quotes from cult movies you’ve never heard of at inopportune times. (Perhaps the best examples can be found in the documentary Cinemania.) Of course, most indie film fans (ourselves included) aren’t eccentric loners: They’re everyone from the same hipsters who make the underground music world go ’round to, well, our 55-year-old dentist dad who single-handedly keeps Netflix in business. But the fact remains that indie music is an essential element of a certain, increasingly popular, lifestyle, while its film counterpart just isn’t.

Ouch.

In terms of responding to Berman, perhaps the first thing to do is to take issue with her definition of participation in independent film. If it's just holding a boom on a cold set, going on an awkward first date, or talking to your cineaste dentist while you wait for the novocaine to kick in, then, yes, maybe it's not an activity you are going to be super passionate about. But independent film should offer more, and the palpable difference between it and mainstream media should create its own need for a certain segment of the moviegoing population. Hope addresses this in the first item on his list as he talks about the imperative of independent film to inspire conversation:

A conversation that inevitably will continue after the screening is over. It is an event if you are compelled to discuss it afterwards. Is that a memorable scene? A relationship to the world we live in? Truth? Understanding? Passion? Beauty? Transcendence? What? What is the return the audience gets on their 90 minute investment? It’s the after-effect, the conversation.

I have a few more thoughts about this that dovetail into another post I've been writing that will go up later today. For now, though, I'd be curious your thoughts on Berman's piece.

# posted by Scott Macaulay @ 2/08/2010 01:03:00 PM Comments (4)

In the new issue of Filmmaker, Esther Robinson penned "The Big Art/Little Debt Plan," which discusses the relation of filmmakers to risk, their films, and their money. She reached out to several filmmakers by email, and their responses helped shape her article. We are running several of the responses Esther received here on the blog. Below is the one from Paola Mendoza, director of Entre Nos.


What strategies did you employ to stay no/low debt during your production?

My strategy was pretty simple: I refused to go into debt. While making art is the essence of who I am, I cannot make art at the expense of my future and my family’s future. If I cannot find a creative way to tell stories without spending my money irresponsibly than I shouldn't be telling stories or making movies. The same creative energy I put into writing, directing, acting I put into making movies with little or no money. In the case of Autumn's Eyes (feature doc) that meant borrowing cars, tape stock, asking people who loved me for their ez passes, asking huge favors from friends and colleagues to work for free or very little money. We built a community around the film, that believed in the story, they believed in us, they believed in our vision. In the end it was that community that allowed us to finish the film for under 4k. My co-director Gabriel Noble and I split the cost over two years of production, which means that I never didn't pay my rent to make our movie...

In the case of Entre Nos (feature narrative) again I was very clear that I would not go into debt to make the film. I made a deal with myself if I couldn't raise the money I would not make the film. I think this ultimatum with myself actually made me work harder to find the money because I knew the only way to make the film was to find the money. Yet again the success of Entre Nos was building our community...from our investors to our PA's we all sacrificed we all worked hard and we were all part of the film.

In what ways did it effect your production positively? Negatively?

As anything else in life when you have very little at your disposal you have no other choice but to be creative. I just returned from Cuba and the Cuban people are the most creative people on the planet... they have a saying there "lo resolvemos" which translates to we'll resolve it which is very frequently followed by "no es facil" it's not easy... words to live by as an indie filmmaker.

Did it change your attitude or options going into post? Fest circuit? Distribution negotiations? How will this approach affect you going forward?

Committing to making a certain type of movie and committing to making sure I don't go into debt can be exhausting and sometimes very frustrating. At times the fast money from a credit card can seem so easy but since I have made three movies without going into debt I now KNOW I can't do it any other way. I can't trick or lie to myself...so this is the path I have chosen...this is where I will remain through the good and the bad.

What limitations/possibilities could you see it having for other filmmakers?

I never studied film so I don't have any idea of how your supposed to make a movie... I only know how I make movies. Meaning some filmmakers can't imagine making a film without a 2nd AD or even a 3rd AD but to be honest I don't even know what a 3rd AD does... So in my ignorance I have found a lot of freedom to be creative on HOW to get my movies MADE. I'm very lucky in that respect because so often I have heard directors say I can't make my movie without XY and Z meanwhile all I need is X cause Y and Z are luxuries. I understand this will not work for all filmmakers or for all movies...so you have to know your story and know what type of filmmaker you are.

What advice would you give filmmakers in this regard?

The same creative energy you use when writing and directing use when dealing with money... and somehow someway find the joy in it... you'll be happier for it.

(Photo: Richard Koek)

Labels: Big Art/Little Debt

# posted by Scott Macaulay @ 2/07/2010 09:40:00 AM Comments (1)

Bristol's Massive Attack return this week with a new album, Heligo Land, and word has it that the band that once invented trip-hop and now is probably best known for providing the theme music for House may be revisiting the former glory of their classic albums Blue Lines and Protection. Preceding the album is this website, Massive Attack Tweatre, which is unveiling seven music videos commissioned for the album. Three are up so far, and the grabber is "Paradise Circus/Life of a Pornstar." It's a beautiful downtempo song sung by Hope Sandoval, and the video, directed by Toby Dye, is truly something. It features Georgina Spelvin, the now 70-something star of Gerard Damiano's '70s porn classic The Devil in Miss Jones, discussing her work on that film, her emotions at the time, her thoughts on sexuality, and, finally, her love of the camera. "We are our own devils," she says somewhat chillingly at the end. Intercut with the interview are scenes from the film itself. It's the most arresting video I've seen in some time. I haven't embedded it because it's explicit, adults only and NSFW, but you can find it at the link above. (The "tweater" requires you to sign in with your Twitter account; when doing so, you send a tweet out telling people you are watching the videos.) Or, various sites are uploading it, including this Vimeo page.

# posted by Scott Macaulay @ 2/07/2010 12:31:00 AM Comments (0)

As Scott posted earlier today, 3-D is not just on the minds of the majors. And with the news that JP Morgan has raised millions to finance the digital conversion of around 12,000 screens, it's a first step for one day indie filmmakers to share their own 3-D projects with studio fare in theaters.

According to the Los Angeles Times piece, the investment bank raised close to $700 million. The funding was delayed over a year due to the credit crunch. This comes three years after a consortium was formed by three of the largest exhibitors (AMC, Cinemark and Regal) to pay for digital conversion.

Currently, there are only 3,500 digital 3-D screens in the country.

Labels: 3D

# posted by Jason Guerrasio @ 2/06/2010 04:09:00 PM Comments (1)

# posted by Scott Macaulay @ 2/06/2010 02:38:00 PM Comments (0)

Baltimore director Matt Porterfield's (Hamilton) latest film Putty Hill premieres this month at the Berlin Film Festival's Forum. On the film's nicely-done website, Porterfield describes coming up with a five-page treatment that would use 15 locations when financing for a larger project, Metal Gods, fell through. About the result, he writes:

Putty Hill is not quite like anything I’ve ever seen. On a most basic level, it is an amalgam of traditional forms of documentary and narrative realism. But it is an approach to realism in opposition to the anthropological, lyrical, and romantic currents present in most of the genre. More importantly, though the structure of the film was plotted, the details of individual scenes were largely improvised, breathing life into the dialogue and bringing an enhanced degree of naturalism to the relationships between characters. I had already established firm bonds with my cast working with them on Metal Gods, so they trusted me enough to take risks and bring a level of emotional honesty to the material that will resonate with audiences.

There's a lot more on the site, including photos and behind-the-scenes video. The site also has a Kickstarter page that, with 11 days to go, has reached its goal of $10,000 to help defray post-production expenses and travel to Berlin. But, that number won't cover it all, and monies are still being collected.

Below is the trailer for a film that's synopsized like this:

A young man dies of a heroin overdose in an abandoned house in Baltimore. On the eve of his funeral, family and friends gather to commemorate his life. Their shared memories paint a portrait of a community hanging in the balance, skewed by poverty, city living, and a generational divide, united in their pursuit of a new American Dream

PUTTY HILL trailer from Matt Porterfield on Vimeo.

Labels: Berlin, Kickstarter

# posted by Scott Macaulay @ 2/06/2010 11:02:00 AM Comments (0)

Okay, it's not Avatar, but if you have a pair of those old red and blue cardboard glasses lying around you can check out Gray Miller's proposal for Sea Monster, which is being billed as a "3D stereoscopic web series exploring new film grammar." He's raising money for the "pulp sci-fi hard science mix" through Kickstarter and is about a third of the way towards his $5,000 goal with 37 days left. From his proposal:

We're launching a sci-fi 3-D web series inspired by Moby Dick. It's designed to be shot in our own DIY stereoscopic 3-D, around Coney Island and Brooklyn next summer, and the budget for the pilot is $5,000. It's going to be a lot of work, but a lot of fun. I have a group of talented New York actors that I've worked with on my previous films, and we've shot test footage showing our new approach to 3-D storytelling.

What makes this 3-D web series unique is a completely new film grammar for 3-D stereoscopic filmmaking that I've been working for the last two years called Stereo Expressionism. You can watch the test footage above (we'll mail you 3-D glasses for a $1 pledge) or a HD quality version and some tests from an early version of this project here.

The main idea of Stereo Expressionism is this: 3-D filmmaking works by sending a slightly different image to your left and right eye. Your brain puts those two images together when you wear the 3-D glasses and interprets it as depth. But no one has thought to explore the creative storytelling potential in having the option to slightly tweak the difference between what the left and right eye are seeing. It's exciting because it's actually new film grammar-- for the first time, a story is being told by two images that aren't 1) shown in a sequence through editing, and not 2) shown through being double exposed or composited together with visual effects, but 3) by being literally juxtaposed and combined in the audience's brain.

For more, visit the project Kickstarter's page. For more of Gray Miller's work, visit Daydream Glacier. And for his SXSW-winning film, Visit, click here.

Labels: 3D, Kickstarter

# posted by Scott Macaulay @ 2/06/2010 10:41:00 AM Comments (0)

In the new issue of Filmmaker, Esther Robinson penned "The Big Art/Little Debt Plan," which discusses the relation of filmmakers to risk, their films, and their money. She reached out to several filmmakers by email, and their responses helped shape her article. We are running several of the responses Esther received here on the blog. Here is Jonathan Goodman Levitt's.


What strategies did you employ to stay no/low debt during your production?

I've had to take on a lot of more roles myself than would be ideal for the film, or for me personally. Life has been pretty much on-hold during the course of making this film, which has been an ongoing struggle. I had a colleague/friend shoot a few interviews so that I could focus on engaging with subjects, but was a one-man-band on over 90% of shoots out of necessity, which sacrificed some sound and picture quality overall. And it makes it all a more lonely process than I'd like it to be. There are benefits on shoots themselves in terms of intimacy and ease of scheduling — and you'll see that in real terms at times in the film -- but on balance it would have been better for me and the eventual film to have at least one colleague involved consistently.

Because it was also going to be a long production — 2-3 years shooting, with an overlapping edit that I knew would last over a year in all — producing on my own was a separate issue that was more consequential than working alone on shoots themselves. It would have taken a lot of time pressure off me if someone else was helping to schedule and finance everything. But there wouldn't be money to pay someone unless they were able to raise more money than I have; so it's unclear whether this was the right choice or not. In the recession especially, financing has become a lot more time-consuming than it would otherwise be; so to keep from sinking too far into debt (which I know from experience on a previous feature, which luckily sold to BBC Storyville and others in Europe -- a rare happy ending 7 years after production began) the process has also taken longer. Instead of everything happening at once, I've taken time away from directing or editing to spend time financing — for instance, going to a European festival or market followed by a couple of other trips within Europe for meetings — and our schedule has shifted rather more than I or already invested broadcasters would like.

In what ways did it effect your production positively? Negatively? Did it change your attitude or options going into post? fest circuit? distribution negotiations?

(With reference to above) The time and effort it's taken to raise money has been more than I would have dreamed with what is in fact a 'sale-able' film, and increasingly bad as the recession has hit public broadcasters internationally — so it's certainly affected our schedule. Having to take time to raise money made meetings deadlines for Sundance and Berlin an impossibility, and meant that we wouldn't be competitive for premiering at top festivals until later in 2010. Having less money has also meant that I'm editing on my own, which is less than ideal and has the same delaying effect. Even now, we are at the mercy of a handful of people, who may well decide whether the film can be finished by late Winter, early Spring, or later. In past years, I might have been more optimistic about sales prospects following completion — whether those ideas were realistic or not — and might have been willing to take greater risks financially. But with sales prospects clearly diminishing, I have to be more conservative in how leveraged my company becomes; unfortunately have to disappoint broadcasters by delivering later than we would all like; and have to sacrifice what might be better festival launches for the film because I need to spend more time raising money, in the knowledge that it is worth more to buyers before it is done than after. On the positive side, we will have a better film in the end; but it would have been better had it come out earlier, so this too cuts both ways.

The ideal world probably only existed for less than 1% of filmmakers before the reality check of the recession, but when I started this film I was shooting for that sort of happy ending. Mid-way through the goals became more modest — namely, making a strong film that would last; having a lot of people see the film; and not ending up in debt like the last time. And I think we have more than a 50% chance now at meeting those relatively modest but by no means small goals. We're looking to be the film that provokes and promotes intelligent dialogue surrounding the 2010 US midterm elections too, and the film aside, we'll still need a good portion of luck to achieve this new definition of success.

How will this approach effect you going forward?

I think I'll be hesitant in the future to go into production on an observational documentary that follows characters over time. This type of film is my passion, and the motivation for naming our company Changeworx in fact, but being a third-funded going into a years-long shoot isn't something I'll probably take on again for a long time. A more contained shoot might be different, and so this experience will probably lead to less 'ambitious' work in the future, which isn't necessarily a bad thing. American filmmakers in general have a habit of being too ambitious, even when making 'small' films that are essentially about domestic life as I do, and some scaling back is probably good.

And for me personally, I'll be working for other people more in specific roles rather than taking close to 100% of my time to work on my own films. This shift has already happened as I've been helping produce and finance a film for other directors that's being made for ZDF/Arte. Manageable involvement in others' work is certainly more fulfilling and predictable in terms of both commitment and reward.

What limitations/possibilities could you see it having for other filmmakers?

I think the recession is going to make people more realistic overall, which (again) isn't a bad thing. Maybe there will be less films made in the coming years for the first time since production became so "cheap" because anyone could afford the basic tools even before they knew what they were going to do. And I think the recession is already having an impact on creating community within the industry...struggling is more common, and therefore cooler to share in a way, and you can see that happening in meaningful if also less meaningful ways... — Jonathan Goodman Levitt


Jonathan Goodman Levitt is a documentary filmmaker who also works as a cameraman, editor, journalist, and teacher. In Spring, 2010, he will finish Follow the Leader, a coming-of-age story about three conservative teenage boys growing up during a time of “change” in America, for Channel 4, VPRO, & SVT. His company Changeworx has a second film currently in production with Germany’s DreamTeam Media, Rebel with a Cause, about the Chilean eco-conservation work of American former clothing magnate (founder of Esprit & North Face) Doug Tompkins. Jonathan’s last film, Sunny Intervals and Showers (2006), played festivals including Sheffield, Chicago, & One World; aired on BBC and other European channels; and was nominated for Grierson & Mental Health Media Awards. Other credits include consulting on Best Documentary Emmy-winning BBC Series The Secret Life of the Manic Depressive featuring Stephen Fry, effects editing on art installations, and short films. Jonathan studied psychology, painting & political theory at Stanford before a Fulbright Scholarship allowed him to attend the UK’s National Film and Television School (NFTS) in 1999. Native to New Jersey, he moved “home” to New York from London in 2008.

Labels: Big Art/Little Debt

# posted by Scott Macaulay @ 2/06/2010 09:34:00 AM Comments (0)

In the new issue of Filmmaker, Esther Robinson penned "The Big Art/Little Debt Plan," which discusses the relation of filmmakers to risk, their films, and their money. She reached out to several filmmakers by email, and their responses helped shape her article. We are running several of the responses Esther received here on the blog. Below is the one from Dan Cogan of Impact Partners.


What drives most filmmakers, and especially documentary filmmakers, is their deep passion to tell a story. It's not about money or about a career for many filmmakers — it's about the story. This is very much a good and a bad thing. The passion is the good part — the refusal to think about money or budgets in a practical way is a bad thing.

Many filmmakers, especially first-time filmmakers, are definitely unrealistic about financing. The thing is, it's easy to write a budget for a film. The problem is, that budget is irrelevant if you can't raise the funding.

When we finance films at Impact Partners, we start from the point of passion — do we think this could be a great film? And if the answer is yes, then we quickly move to the most practical question: what is the revenue that we can project for the project? After all, if we invest money, we need to know how we can earn it back. We think about the state of the U.S. and international TV markets — the most important sources of revenue for docs — and then also if there are educational and niche markets that can be served by DVD, downloads, etc. We then work backwards from the revenue that we think the film can generate to figure out how much we think we can invest.

Filmmakers can do the same thing. They can and should write budgets, but then they also have to look at what they can realistically think they can earn at the back end. If their budget exceeds their projected earnings, they need to figure out sources of soft money to close the gap. If they don't think that can be done, they need to consider bringing the budget down.

Of course, none of this is easy for filmmakers who are near the beginning of their careers. How do they figure out what the market will bear? The answer is: get help early on. Knock on doors of experienced producers, sales agents, and directors whose films you like. Submit your project to Independent Film Week, the IDFA and Hot Docs pitching forums. As you approach filmmaker for help, maybe you'll even find an EP who can help you put it all together. You may also find crucial bad news early on — such as the film you want to make was just made last year by someone in France and all the int'l buyers bought it, so you'll never do any sales outside the U.S. This isn't fun to hear, but better to learn it now than when you're done and have sunk all your own money into a film you can't sell.

Depending on the film, I do think it's possible to self-finance and then come out with manageable personal debt — but you need to think from the point of view of "earnings", not just what your dream budget says you need. When push comes to shove, independent filmmakers can figure out how to do things cheaply — that's what we do. But it helps to do this from the very start. — Dan Cogan

Labels: Big Art/Little Debt

# posted by Scott Macaulay @ 2/05/2010 09:07:00 AM Comments (1)

In the continuing series of videos by SABI Pictures executive produced by Filmmaker and the Workbook Project, here's part 2 on the subject of exploring solutions:

SABI filmmakers Zak Forsman and Kevin K. Shah speak with Dan Mirvish, Brian Newman, Ira Deutchman and Ted Hope to further explore the solutions that are emerging for independent filmmakers – featuring a proposal for a new relationship between filmmakers and festivals as outlined by Peter Baxter at the 2010 Filmmaker Summit.

NEW BREED PARK CITY – Exploring the Solutions, Part 2 from Sabi Pictures on Vimeo.

Watch New Breed videos.

Labels: New Breed, SABI, Video, Workbook Project

# posted by Jason Guerrasio @ 2/05/2010 09:06:00 AM Comments (0)

With Super Bowl Sunday a few days away you may be getting ready by watching the old NFL Films of Super Bowls past. But how would they come out if they were directed by famous filmmakers? The Herzog one is my favorite.

Labels: David Lynch, Jean-Luc Godard, Quentin Tarantino, Super Bowl, Video, Werner Herzog, Wes Anderson

# posted by Jason Guerrasio @ 2/04/2010 08:47:00 PM Comments (0)

The South by Southwest Film Festival unveiled its lineup for this year's fest, which will take place in Austin, Texas March 12-20.

Out of the 119 titles shown this year some of the highlights will be the opening night film, fanboy fav Kick-Ass, as well as Mark and Jay Duplass’s Cyrus, Steven Soderbergh’s And Everything Is Going Fine, Michel Gondry’s The Thorn in the Heart and Bernard Rose’s Mr. Nice (pictured).

The full list of films are below.


HEADLINERS

Cyrus
Directors and Screenwriters: Jay and Mark Duplass
With John’s social life at a standstill and his ex-wife about to get remarried, a down on his luck divorcee finally meets the woman of his dreams, only to discover she has another man in her life – her son. Written and directed by Jay & Mark Duplass, the iconoclastic filmmaking team behind The Puffy Chair, Cyrus takes an insightful, funny and sometimes heartbreaking look at love and family in contemporary Los Angeles. Cast: John C. Reilly, Jonah Hill, Marisa Tomei, Catherine Keener, Matt Walsh

Get Low
Director: Aaron Schneider, Screenwriters: Chris Provenzano and C. Gaby Mitchell
A film spun out of equal parts folk tale, fable and real-life legend about a mysterious, 1930s Tennessee hermit who plans his own rollicking funeral party... while still alive. Cast: Robert Duvall, Bill Murray

Kick-Ass
Director: Matthew Vaughn. Screenwriters: Jane Goldman and Matthew Vaughn
A twisted, funny, high-octane adventure, based on the comic written by Mark Millar and John S. Romita, Jr. The film tells the story of average teenager Dave Lizewski, a comic-book fanboy who decides to take his obsession as inspiration to become a real-life superhero. Cast: Aaron Johnson, Christopher Mintz-Plasse, Mark Strong, Chloë Grace Moretz and Nicolas Cage. (World Premiere)

MacGruber
Director: Jorma Taccone. Screenwriters: Will Forte & John Solomon & Jorma Taccone
Will Forte brings his clueless soldier of fortune to the big screen in the action-comedy MacGruber.
Cast: Will Forte, Kristen Wiig, Ryan Phillippe, Powers Boothe, Maya Rudolph and Val Kilmer (World Premiere)

Micmacs / Micmacs à tire-larigot (France)
Director: Jean-Pierre Jeunet. Screenwriters: Jean-Pierre Jeunet and Guillaume Laurant
Drawing on one of France's most popular screen stars, the incorrigible Dany Boon from the comedy megahit Bienvenue chez les Ch'tis, as well as a cast of some of the country's best-known actors, Jeunet turns on the afterburners in this searing piece of romantic filmmaking set against the storm clouds of warring arms dealers. Cast: Dany Boon (U.S. Premiere)

Mr. Nice (United Kingdom)
Director and Screenwriter: Bernard Rose
The true story of Howard Marks. He was Britain's most wanted man. He spent seven years in America's toughest penitentiary. You'll like him. Cast: Rhys Ifans, Chloë Sevigny, David Thewlis, Luis Tosar, Crispin Glover, Omad Djalili. (World Premiere)

The Runaways
Director and Screenwriter: Floria Sigismondi
The Runaways follows two friends, Joan Jett (Kristen Stewart) and Cherie Currie (Dakota Fanning), as they rise from rebellious Southern California kids to rock stars of the now legendary group that paved the way for future generations of girl bands. Cast: Kristen Stewart, Dakota Fanning, Scout Taylor-Compton, Michael Shannon, Alia Shawkat, Tatum O'Neal.


SPOTLIGHT PREMIERES

Audrey the Trainwreck
Director and Screenwriter: Frank V. Ross
Audrey the Trainwreck is a comedy about attempting to keep life simple, and the beauty of such an absurd pursuit. Most men live lives of quiet desperation – Ron’s desperation is about to get loud. Cast: Anthony Baker, Alexi Wasser, Danny Rhodes, Rebecca Spence, Joe Swanberg, Jess Weixler & Nick Offerman (World Premiere)

Barbershop Punk
Directors: Georgia Sugimura & Kristin Armfield (Co-Director). Screenwriter: Georgia Sugimura
Keeping the independent/punk spirit alive, barbershop quartet fan Robb Topolski takes on the nation’s largest cable company, only to find himself at the center of a federal investigation, inspiring a larger story of censorship, individual voice and access. Featuring interviews with Ian MacKaye, Damian Kulash of OK Go, Henry Rollins, Janeane Garofalo, John Perry Barlow among others. (World Premiere)

BARRY MUNDAY
Director and Screenwriter: Chris D’Arienzo
Barry Munday wakes up after being attacked to realize that he's missing his family jewels. To make matters worse, he learns he's facing a paternity lawsuit filed by a woman he can't remember having sex with.
Cast: Patrick Wilson, Judy Greer, Chloë Sevigny, Jean Smart, Malcolm McDowell, Cybill Shepherd, Billy Dee Williams (World Premiere)

Cold Weather
Director and Screenwriter: Aaron Katz
A former forensic science major and avid reader of detective fiction, who, after making a mess of his life in Chicago, returns to his hometown of Portland, Oregon. There, he, his sister Gail, and new friend Carlos become embroiled in something unexpected. Cast: Cris Lankenau, Trieste Kelly Dunn (World Premiere)

Elektra Luxx
Director and Screenwriter: Sebastian Gutierrez
A convoluted day in the life of recently retired porn superstar Elektra Luxx as she tries to make it in the straight world. Cast: Carla Gugino, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Timothy Olyphant, Malin Akerman, Adrianne Palicki
(World Premiere)

Greenlit
Director: Miranda Bailey
It ain't easy bein' green. (World Premiere)

Hood to Coast
Directors: Christoph Baaden and Marcie Hume (Co-Director)
Hood to Coast follows four unlikely teams on their epic journey to conquer the world's largest relay race. Winning isn't everything in a documentary that takes a celebratory look at personal motivation and attempting the extraordinary. (World Premiere)

Le Donk & Scor-zay-zee
Director and Screenwriter: Shane Meadows
In this unpredictable, irrepressible ode to spontaneous filmmaking, Paddy Considine stars as rock roadie and failed musician, Le Donk. Along the way he's lost a girlfriend but he has found a new sidekick in up-and-coming rap prodigy Scor-zay-zee. With Shane Meadows' fly-on-the-wall crew in tow, Donk sets out to make Scor-zay-zee a star...with a little help from the Arctic Monkeys. Cast: Paddy Considine, Dean Palinczuk, Olivia Colman
(North American Premiere)

Leaves of Grass
Director and Screenwriter: Tim Blake Nelson
Tim Blake Nelson’s Leaves of Grass is a comic thriller that weaves together the diametrically opposed lives of identical twin brothers, both played by two-time Academy Award® nominee Edward Norton.
Cast: Edward Norton, Keri Russell, Tim Blake Nelson, Melanie Lynskey, Richard Dreyfuss (U.S. Premiere)

Lebanon, Pa.
Director and Screenwriter: Ben Hickernell
Philly ad man Will travels to Lebanon, Pa. to bury his father. He meets his teenage cousin CJ and they form an unexpected bond, as both try to find their place in a splintered American landscape.
Cast: Josh Hopkins, Samantha Mathis, Mary Beth Hurt, Rachel Kitson, Iain Merrill Peakes (World Premiere)

Lemmy
Director: Greg Olliver and Wes Orshoski
This documentary delves into the personal and public lives of heavy metal icon and Motörhead frontman Lemmy Kilmister. Nearly three years in the making, and featuring appearances by such friends/peers as Metallica, Dave Grohl, Billy Bob Thornton and pro wrestler Triple H, the film follows Kilmister from his Hollywood bedroom to the hockey arenas of Scandinavia and Russia. (World Premiere)

Man On A Mission
Director: Mike Woolf
Man On A Mission is a feature length documentary that follows gaming millionaire Richard Garriott as he becomes the first second-generation American astronaut. (World Premiere)

No Crossover: The Trial of Allen Iverson
Director: Steve James
Steve James returns to his hometown of Hampton, Virginia to examine the 1993 bowling alley brawl that landed Allen Iverson, the nation’s top high-school basketball player, in jail and divided the community along racial lines. (World Premiere)

One Night in Vegas
Director: Reggie Rock Bythewood
On the evening of 9/7/96, Mike Tyson attempted to regain the WBA title in Vegas. Sitting ringside was his friend Tupac Shakur. This ESPN Films documentary tells not only the story of that infamous night but of their remarkable friendship. (World Premiere)

The People vs. George Lucas
Director: Alexandre O. Philippe
A no-holds-barred cultural examination of the conflicted dynamic between George Lucas and his fans over the past three decades. (World Premiere)

The Ride
Director: Meredith Danluck
A journey into the heart of America through the rough and tumble, rock and roll world of bull riding Cowboys. (World Premiere)

SATURDAY NIGHT
Director: James Franco
With unprecedented access to the behind the scenes process of the writers, actors and producers, Franco and his crew document what it takes to create one full episode of Saturday Night Live. (World Premiere)

The White Stripes: Under Great White Northern Lights
Director: Emmett Malloy
A visual and emotional feature length film documenting The White Stripes making their way through Canada and culminating with their 10th anniversary show in Nova Scotia. The film documents the band playing shows all over Canada; from local bowling alleys, to city buses, and onward to the legendary Savoy Theater for the 10th Anniversary show.


NARRATIVE FEATURE COMPETITION

Brotherhood
Director: Will Canon. Screenwriters: Will Canon and Doug Simon
When an initiation ritual spins dangerously out of control, one young man must stand up to save a friend's life. Cast: Jon Foster, Trevor Morgan, Arlen Escarpeta, Lou Taylor Pucci (World Premiere)

Dance With The One
Director: Mike Dolan. Screenwriters: Smith Henderson and Jon Marc Smith
An emotionally explosive thriller set in the troubled heart of Texas. Tragic family history rises to the surface when a teenager races to protect his family from a lethal drug-runner.
Cast: Gabriel Luna, Xochitl Romero, Gary McCleery, Mike Davis, Dana Wheeler-Nicholson (World Premiere)

Earthling
Director and Screenwriter: Clay Liford
Tragedy aboard the international space station triggers a discovery that some lives have been a lie.
Cast: Rebecca Spence, Peter Greene, Amelia Turner, William Katt, Matt Socia (World Premiere)

Helena from the Wedding
Director and Screenwriter: Joseph Infantolino
Newlyweds Alex and Alice Javal host a New Year’s Eve party at a cabin in the mountains for their closest friends and an unexpected guest in this nuanced and often funny portrait of marriage and anxiety in the late blooming professional class. Cast: Lee Tergesen, Melanie Lynskey, Gillian Jacobs, Dagmara Dominczyk, Paul Fitzgerald, Dominic Fumusa, Jessica Hecht, Corey Stoll (World Premiere)

The Myth of the American Sleepover
Director and Screenwriter: David Robert Mitchell
Four young people cross paths as they navigate the suburban wonderland of Metro-Detroit looking for love and adventure on the last night of summer.
Cast: Claire Sloma, Marlon Morton, Amanda Bauer, Brett Jacobsen (World Premiere)

Phillip The Fossil
Director and Screenwriter: Garth Donovan
Centering around an aging party animal chasing the endless summer, Phillip The Fossil is an uncompromising and raw, portrait of everyday people who struggle in all their blemished glory for a life of meaning.
Cast: Brian Hasenfus, Nick Dellarocca, Ann Palica, Angela Pagliarulo, J.R. Killigrew (World Premiere)

Some Days are Better than Others
Director and Screenwriter: Matt McCormick
Why do the good times go by so fast while the bad times always seem so sticky?
Cast: Carrie Brownstein, James Mercer, Renee Roman Nose, David Wodehouse (World Premiere)

Tiny Furniture
Director and Screenwriter: Lena Dunham
22-year-old Aura returns home after college to her artist mother’s loft with the following: a useless film theory degree, 357 hits on her YouTube page, and no shoulders to cry on. Starring Dunham and her real-life family, Tiny Furniture is tragicomedy about what does and does not happen when you graduate with no skills, no love life, and a lot of free time. Cast: Lena Dunham, Laurie Simmons, Grace Dunham, David Call, Alex Karpovsky
(World Premiere)


DOCUMENTARY FEATURE COMPETITION

Beijing Taxi
Director: Miao Wang
Through a humanistic lens, Beijing Taxi vividly portrays China undergoing a profound transformational arch in an era of Olympic transitions. The intimate lives of three cabbies connect a morphing cityscape and a lyrical journey through fragments of a society riding the bumpy roads to modernization. (World Premiere)

Camp Victory, Afghanistan
Director: Carol Dysinger
Using almost 300 hours of footage shot over the course of three years, Camp Victory, Afghanistan tells the story of the Afghan officers charged with building a new Afghan National Army and the U.S. National Guardsmen sent to mentor them. (World Premiere)

The Canal Street Madam
Director: Cameron Yates
An FBI raid on Jeanette Maier’s infamous family-run brothel in New Orleans destroyed her livelihood. Stigmatized by felony, fearing recrimination from powerful clients and determined to protect her children, Jeanette sets out to re-invent herself. (World Premiere)

Dirty Pictures
Director: Etienne Sauret
Dirty Pictures is an intimate portrait of the life and work of Dr. Alexander "Sasha" Shulgin, one of the world’s most renowned chemists who is considered by many to be the "Godfather of Psychedelics." (World Premiere)

For Once In My Life
Directors: Jim Bigham and Mark Moormann
The film takes an inspiring journey with a unique band of musicians with the common goal of making and performing music. Their story tells of the fine balancing act of taking on new challenges while living day-to-day with disabilities. This documentary shows what people can do when given a chance. (World Premiere)

Marwencol
Director: Jeff Malmberg
After a vicious attack leaves him brain damaged and broke, Mark Hogancamp seeks recovery in “Marwencol,” a 1/6th-scale World War II-era town he creates in his backyard. (World Premiere)

Pelada
Directors: Luke Boughen, Rebekah Fergusson, Gwendolyn Oxenham and Ryan White
Away from the bright lights and manicured fields, there's another side of soccer. (World Premiere)

War Don Don
Director: Rebecca Richman Cohen
The war is over, a trial begins. (World Premiere)


EMERGING VISIONS

11/4/08
Director: Jeff Deutchman
Weaving together footage recorded throughout the world on the day Obama was elected President, this vérité documentary explores how people choose to live through “history.” (World Premiere)


A Different Path
Director: Monteith McCollum
In an automobile dominated society, a cast of characters uses ingenuity and wit to forge a new way to commute. One by foot, one by bike, two by boat. (World Premiere)

American: The Bill Hicks Story (United Kingdom)
Directors: Matt Harlock and Paul Thomas
At last the true life story of the outlaw comic who tried to save the world. Three years in the making, using a stunning new animation technique, American: The Bill Hicks Story finally brings the amazing tale of one of modern culture's most iconic heroes to the big screen. (North American Premiere)

Bear Nation (Canada)
Director: Malcolm Ingram
What if your biggest perceived flaw became you greatest asset? Bear Nation is a thorough and stylistic examination of the sub culture sweeping gay culture, the sexualization of fat and hair. From the director of small town gay bar and Exec Produced by honorary bear Kevin Smith. (World Premiere)

Cherry
Director and Screenwriter: Jeffrey Fine
A college freshman gets a different kind of education when he falls for an older woman who has returned to school and her teenage daughter develops a crush on him.
Cast: Kyle Gallner, Laura Allen, Britt Robertson (World Premiere)

The Happy Poet
Director and Screenwriter: Paul Gordon
Bill, an out of work poet, puts his heart, soul, and last few dollars into starting an all-organic mostly-vegetarian food stand. Complications with the business jeopardize his dreams for a hot dog-free future. Cast: Paul Gordon, Jonny Mars, Chris Doubek, Liz Fisher, Amy Meyers-Martin (World Premiere)

Les Signes Vitaux / The Vital Signs (Canada)
Director and Screenwriter: Sophie Deraspe
The Vital Signs: the amount of life beings have... or lack thereof. Cast: Marie-Hélène Bellavance, Francis Ducharme, Marie Brassard, Danielle Ouimet, Suzanne St-Michel (U.S. Premiere)

Mars
Director and Screenwriter: Geoff Marslett
Set in 2014, Mars is an interplanetary animated feature about mankind's first mission searching for life, love, and adventure on the red planet. Told in the playful style of a graphic novel, MARS explores why we explore.
Cast: Mark Duplass, Zoe Simpson, Paul Gordon, Howe Gelb, Liza Weil, James Kochalka, Cynthia Watros, Michael Dolan, and Kinky Friedman (World Premiere)

NY Export: Opus Jazz
Director: Henry Joost and Jody Lee Lipes. Screenwriter: Jody Lee Lipes
This scripted adaptation of a 1958 jazz ballet by Jerome Robbins (West Side Story) takes the original choreography and returns it to the streets that inspired it in this tale of disaffected urban youth. Shot on 35mm on location all over New York City with dancers from the New York City Ballet. Cast: Dancers with New York City Ballet, Jerome Robbins. (World Premiere)

The Parking Lot Movie
Director: Meghan Eckman and Christopher Hlad (Assistant Director)
“It’s not just a parking lot, it’s a battle with humanity.” The Parking Lot Movie is a documentary about a singular parking lot in Charlottesville, Virginia. The film follows a select group of Parking Lot Attendants and their strange rite of passage. Something as simple as a parking lot becomes an emotional weigh station for the American Dream. (World Premiere)

Passenger Pigeons
Director and Screenwriter: Martha Stephens
Set among the Eastern Kentucky Coalfields, Passenger Pigeons quietly interweaves four separate story lines over the course of a weekend as the town copes with the death of a local miner.
Cast: Kentucker Audley, Brendan McFadden, Bryan Marshall, Caroline White, Martha Stephens (World Premiere)

Putty Hill
Director and Screenwriter: Matthew Porterfield
A young man's untimely death unites a fractured family and their community through shared memory and loss. Cast: Sky Ferreira, Zoe Vance, Dustin Ray, Cody Ray (North American Premiere)

Red White & Blue (United Kingdom)
Director and Screenwriter: Simon Rumley
In Austin Texas, the lives of three young people “Erica, Franki and Nate” intertwine in a fateful, tragic way and head down a rocky and violent road to heart-rending oblivion.
Cast: Noah Taylor, Amanda Fuller, Marc Senter (North American Premiere)

Skeletons (United Kingdom)
Director and Screenwriter: Nick Whitfield
Skeletons is a surrealist comedy about two traveling salesmen in the business of cleaning skeletons out of people's closets. Cast: Andrew Buckley, Ed Gaughan, Paprika Steen, Tuppence Middleton, Jason Isaacs
(North American Premiere)

We don’t care about music anyway… (France)
Directors: Cedric Dupire and Gaspard Kuentz
"We don't care about music anyway"...In other words, "we make it and that's all". Beyond the music and beyond its performance, the future and mode of existence of a city, and society as a whole, are in motion.
(North American Premiere)

World Peace and other 4th-Grade Achievements
Director: Chris Farina
World Peace and other 4th-Grade Achievements portrays John Hunter, a remarkable public-school teacher who has dedicated his life to teaching children the "work of peace." (World Premiere)

World's Largest
Directors: Amy C. Elliott and Elizabeth Donius
Desperate for tourism, hundreds of small towns across the U.S.A. claim the "world's largest" something - from 15-foot fiberglass strawberries to 40-foot concrete pheasants. World's Largest visits 58 such sites and profiles Soap Lake, Washington’s five-year struggle to build the World’s Largest Lava Lamp. By documenting these roadside attractions, World’s Largest captures the changing, perhaps even vanishing, culture of small-town America. (World Premiere)


LONE STAR STATES

Citizen Architect: Samuel Mockbee and the Spirit of the Rural Studio
Director: Sam Wainwright Douglas
In Alabama, Samuel Mockbee’s radical design/build program brought architecture to the rural poor and a new set of ethics to architecture. His legacy has inspired a generation of architects dedicated to design for social good. (World Premiere)

For The Sake Of The Song: The Story of Anderson Fair
Director: Bruce Bryant
A devoted community of artists, volunteers and patrons transforms a politically subversive little coffee house and restaurant into a unique American music institution... a small place where big things happen.
Featuring Lyle Lovett, Lucinda Williams, Nanci Griffith, Guy Clark and Townes Van Zandt. (World Premiere)

Thunder Soul
Director: Mark Landsman
In the 1970's, Kashmere High School band director Conrad Johnson turned his band into an international funk sensation. Now thirty years later, his students return to pay tribute to the man who changed their lives.
(World Premiere)

Wake
Director and Screenwriter: Chad Feehan
Driving to a wedding in Los Angeles through the Mojave Desert, Paul and Adrienne pull off the highway and into Roy’s Motel and Café. This roadside artifact proves to be a strange and surreal place with an unsettling mix of travelers, who force our couple to discover the secret hidden between them and ultimately, the horrifying reality of their current situation. Cast: Josh Stewart, Jamie-Lynn Sigler, Chris Browning, Angela Featherstone, Afemo Omilami, Trevor Morgan (World Premiere)

When I Rise
Director: Mat Hames
When I Rise is the powerful story of Barbara Smith Conrad, a gifted University of Texas music student who becomes a lightning rod for civil rights and ultimately ascends to the heights of international opera.
(World Premiere)


24 BEATS PER SECOND

Ain't In It For My Health: A Film About Levon Helm
Director: Jacob Hatley
In Ain't In It For My Health Levon Helm finds himself thrust into the musical spotlight for the first time in a quarter century, but a Grammy nomination and ever-growing audiences force him to confront the dark times that have haunted him since The Band's demise: Throat cancer, bankruptcy, drug addiction and the tragic loss of bandmates Richard Manuel and Rick Danko. Win or lose, Levon is an artist who will not go quietly into the night.
(World Premiere)

No One Knows About Persian Cats
Director: Bahman Ghobadi. Screenwriter: Roxana Saberi
Two Persian teens jump through hoops doing what in many other countries is relatively simple: forming a rock band. Together they search the underworld of contemporary Tehran for other players, forbidden by the authorities to play in Iran. Cast: Negar Shaghaghi, Ashkan Koshanejad, Hamed Behdad

REJOICE AND SHOUT
Director: Don McGlynn
A documentary that explores the power and long lasting influence of gospel music. (World Premiere)

RIDE, RISE, ROAR
Director: David Hillman Curtis
A David Byrne concert film that combines riveting onstage performances with documentary footage that explores the creative collaborations that make the music happen. (World Premiere)

Strange Powers: Stephin Merritt and The Magnetic Fields
Directors: Kerthy Fix and Gail O’Hara
Ten years in the making, Strange Powers is an intimate documentary portrait of songwriter Stephin Merritt and his band The Magnetic Fields. (World Premiere)

TAQWACORE (Canada)
Director: Omar Majeed
Taqwacore: The Birth of Punk Islam follows a group of Muslim Punks as they travel across the U.S. and Pakistan, challenging Muslims and Non-Muslims with their punchy and provocative anthems. (U.S. Premiere)

The Weird World of Blowfly
Director: Jonathan Furmanski
The Weird World of Blowfly tells the provocative and revealing story of musician Clarence Reid and his alter ego Blowfly, the original dirty rapper. The film follows Blowfly as he tours the world, explores his 50-year career, and celebrates his influential and incendiary work as a music legend. (World Premiere)


SX GLOBAL

The DeVilles (Denmark)
Director: Nicole Nielsen Horanyi
The love between the American burlesque stripper Teri Lee Geary (aka Kitten DeVille) and her punk rock singer husband Shawn Geary is strong but rather complicated. They live in their own time bubble, hers from the 1950's and his from the 1980's. (U.S. Premiere)

Erasing David (United Kingdom)
Director: David Bond
Just how much of our personal information is floating around in government and corporate databases? Filmmaker David Bond decides to find out, by disappearing for a month and setting two of the world’s top private investigators the task of tracking him down, using only publicly available data. (North American Premiere)

The Erectionman (Netherlands)
Director: Michael Schaap
How one little pill changed the course of sexual evolution. (North American Premiere)

IDFA DocLab (Netherlands)
A curated program of new media and web documentary from the International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam's DocLab, bridging the gap between filmmakers and interactive storytellers.

Iron Crows (South Korea)
Director: Bong-Nam Park
Against a harsh environment of constant danger and toxic gases, workers here at the world's largest ship breaking yard in Bangladesh, risk their lives to feed their family on barely 2USD per day. (North American Premiere)

Like a Pascha / Som en Pascha (Sweden)
Director: Svante Tidholm
Welcome to the biggest brothel in Europe, a clear blue eleven story high house in the middle of Cologne, Germany. Around 200 women from all over the world work here. If you ask them why, they will tell you it’s the way it’s always been. Svante Tidholm filmed at Pascha for more than three years, looking for an answer to the eternal question: why are men so obsessed with sex? (North American Premiere)

The Living Room of the Nation (Finland)
Director: Jukka Kärkkäinen
The Living Room of the Nation opens a portrait-like view into six Finnish living rooms. A collage of everyday events the film is a story of changes, loneliness, responsibilities and the unavoidable passing of time.
(North American Premiere)

The Other Side of Life (Germany)
Directors: Stefanie Brockhaus and Andy Wolff
Being arrested for murder, two brothers exist between modern township life, gangsterism and ancient African culture. (North American Premiere)

Phantom of Liberty II (Czech Republic, Germany)
Director: Karel Zalud
A documentary about time which explores its physical quantity as well as its crucial impact on our actions, behavior, perception, social rituals and our outlook on the world. (North American Premiere)

Presunto Culpable / Presumed Guilty (Mexico)
Director: Roberto Hernández and Geoffrey Smith
The heart-wrenching story of a man who happened to be in the wrong place, at the wrong time. Through his struggle to regain freedom, two lawyers document the system’s contradictions. (U.S. Premiere)

Reel Injun (Canada)
Director: Neil Diamond
Cree filmmaker Neil Diamond takes an entertaining and insightful look at the Hollywood Indian, exploring the portrayal of North American Natives through a century of cinema. (North American Premiere)



FESTIVAL FAVORITES

And Everything Is Going Fine
Director: Steven Soderbergh
And Everything Is Going Fine is an intimate portrait of master monologist Spalding Gray, as described by his most critical, irreverent and insightful biographer: Spalding Gray. The film pulls from some 90 hours of material to fashion a new narrative exploring, among other things, art-making, mental illness and the sometimes thin line between the two.

Crying with Laughter (Scotland)
Director and Screenwriter: Justin Molotnikov
Comedian Joey's act is drawing interest from people in high places until he tells one little gag about an old school pal, who just happens to be in the audience and things begin to unravel...
Cast: Stephen McCole, Malcolm Shields, Jo Hartley, Andrew Neil, Laura Keenan, Michaiah Dring (U.S. Premiere)

Dogtooth
Director: Giorgos Lanthimos. Screenwriters: Efthymis Filippou and Giorgos Lanthimos
Winner of the Un Certain Regard prize at the 2009 Cannes Film Festival, Yorgos Lanthimos’ Dogtooth is a darkly surreal look at three teenagers confined to an isolated country estate and kept under strict rule and regimen by their parents — an alternately hilarious and nightmarish experiment of manipulation and oppression.
Cast: Christos Stergioglou, Michelle Valley, Aggeliki Papoulia, Mary Tsoni, Hristos Passalis

The Freebie
Director and Screenwriter: Katie Aselton
A young married couple decides to give each other one night with someone else.
Cast: Dax Shepard, Katie Aselton

The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo (Sweden)
Director: Niels Arden Oplev. Screenwriters: Rasmus Heisterberg and Nikolaj Arcel
40 years ago, Harriet Vanger disappeared from a family gathering on the island owned and inhabited by the powerful Vanger clan. Her body was never found, yet her uncle is convinced it was murder and that the killer is a member of his own tightly knit but dysfunctional family. He employs a disgraced financial journalist and a tattooed, ruthless computer hacker to investigate. The film is based on the trilogy of books by Stieg Larsson.
Cast: Michael Nyqvist, Noomi Rapace, Lena Endre, Sven-Bertil Taube,

The Good Heart
Director and Screenwriter: Dagur Kári
A homeless boy (Lucas) meets a grouchy bar-owner (Jacques) whose unhealthy lifestyle has resulted in five heart attacks. Jacques takes Lucas under his wing with the intention of having him continuing his legacy. Everything is going according to plan until a drunken stewardess (April) enters the bar.
Cast: Brian Cox, Paul Dano, Isild Le Besco (U.S. Premiere)

Google Baby (Israel)
Director: Zippi Brand Frank
In India, the latest form of outsourcing is surrogate mothers who carry embryos for couples who can’t have a child. Director Zippi Brand Frank follows an entrepreneur who proposes a new service – baby production for western customers. (U.S. Premiere)

Harry Brown (United Kingdom)
Director: Daniel Barber. Screenwriter: Gary Young
Set in modern day Britain, Harry Brown follows one man’s journey through a chaotic world where teenage violence runs rampant. As a modest, law abiding citizen, Brown lives alone. His only companion is his best friend Leonard. When Leonard is killed, Brown reaches his breaking point. Harry Brown is a powerful, character driven thriller starring two-time Academy Award® winner Michael Caine in a tour-de-force performance.
Cast: Michael Caine, Emily Mortimer, Charlie Creed-Miles

His & Hers (Ireland)
Director: Ken Wardrop
Seventy Irish women offer moving insights into the relationships between women and men.

How to Fold A Flag
Directors: Michael Tucker and Petra Epperlein
We were asked to believe that the war was over. We laughed, for we were the war.

Jean-Michel Basquiat: The Radiant Child
Director: Tamra Davis
An intimate portrait of the artist Jean-Michel Basquiat and the downtown New York scene, as told by his friend filmmaker Tamra Davis.

Last Train Home (Canada)
Director: Lixin Fan
Getting a train ticket in China proves a towering ordeal as a migrant worker family embarks on a journey, along with 200 million other peasants, to reunite with their distant family.

Life 2.0
Director: Jason Spingarn-Koff
More than an examination of new technology, the film is foremost an intimate, character-based drama about people whose lives are dramatically transformed by the virtual world called Second Life.

Lovers of Hate
Director and Screenwriter: Bryan Poyser
The shaky reunion of estranged brothers takes a turn for the worse when the woman they both love chooses one over the other. Cast: Chris Doubek, Heather Kafka, Alex Karpovsky, Zach Green

The Oath
Director: Laura Poitras
Filmed in Yemen, The Oath tells the story of Abu Jandal, Osama bin Laden’s former bodyguard, and Salim Hamdan, a prisoner at Guantanamo Bay Prison who is the first man to face the controversial military tribunals at Guantanamo.

The Red Chapel / Det Røde Kapel (Denmark)
Director: Mads Brügger
A journalist with no scruples, a self-proclaimed spastic, and a comedian travel to North Korea under the guise of a cultural exchange visit to challenge one of the world’s most notorious regimes.

The Taqwacores
Director: Eyad Zahra. Screenwriters: Michael Muhammad Knight and Eyad Zahra
When a Pakistani-Muslim engineering student moves into a house with punk Muslims of all stripes in Buffalo, New York, his ideologies are challenged to the core. Cast: Bobby Naderi, Noureen DeWulf, Dominic Rains, Rasika Mathur, Tony Yalda, Anne Marie Leighton

The Thorn in the Heart
Director: Michel Gondry
Michel Gondry’s newest film, further propels his groundbreaking filmography into the realm of the unvisited with a personal look at the life of Gondry family matriarch, his aunt Suzette Gondry, and her relationship with her son, Jean-Yves. Michel examines Suzette’s years as a schoolteacher and her life in rural France. During the course of filming the documentary, new family stories are unearthed and Michel uses his camera to explore them in a subtle and sensitive way.

Trash Humpers
Director and Screenwriter: Harmony Korine
A film unearthed from the buried landscape of the American nightmare, Trash Humpers follows a small group of elderly “Peeping Toms” through the shadows and margins of an unfamiliar world.
Cast: Rachel Korine, Travis Nicholson, Brian Kotzur, Harmony Korine

Winter’s Bone
Director: Debra Granik, Screenwriters: Debra Granik and Anne Rosellini
A 17-year-old must track down her father after he puts their house up for his bail and then disappears. If she fails, she and her family will be turned out into the Ozark woods.
Cast: Jennifer Lawrence, John Hawkes, Lauren Sweetser, Dale Dickey


MIDNIGHTERS

Amer (Belgium)
Directors: Hélène Cattet and Bruno Forzani. Screenwriter: Bruno Forzani
Ana is confronted to Body and Desire at three key moments of her life. Cast: Bianca Maria D’Amato, Cassandra Forêt, Charlotte Eugène-Guibbaud, Marie Bos, Harry Cleven (U.S. Premiere)

Cannibal Girls (Canada)
Director: Ivan Reitman. Screenwriter: Robert Sandler
They do EXACTLY what you think they do! Second City TV regulars Eugene Levy and Andrea Martin star in Ivan Reitman’s Canuxploitation classic as a couple on a romantic holiday who settle into a quaint little bed-and-breakfast run by a trio of flesh-eating ladies who fancy them for tomorrow's menu.
Cast: Eugene Levy, Andrea Martin, Ronald Ulrich, Randall Carpenter, Bonnie Neilson

Cotton
Director: Daniel Stamm. Screenwriters: Andrew Gurland and Huck Botko
After a career spent helping the devout through prayer and trickery, Rev. Cotton Marcus invites a film crew to document his final fraudulent days as an exorcist. Soon his faith is truly tested when a desperate plea from the father of a possessed girl brings him face to face with the devil himself.
Cast: Patrick Fabian, Ashley Bell, Iris Bahr, Louis Herthum, Caleb Landry Jones (World Premiere)

Enter the Void
Director and Screenwriter: Gaspar Noé
Oscar and his sister Linda are recent arrivals in Tokyo. Oscar is caught in a police bust and shot and as he lies dying, his spirit, faithful to the promise he made his sister that he would never abandon her refuses to abandon the world of the living. It wanders through the city, his visions growing evermore distorted, evermore nightmarish. Past, present and future merge in a hallucinatory maelstrom.
Cast: Nathaniel Brown, Paz de la Huerta, Cyril Roy, Emily Alyn Lind, Jesse Kuhn

Jimmy Tupper VS. The Goatman of Bowie
Director and Screenwriter: Andrew Bowser
Jimmy Tupper is no one, he's nothing, until one night he sees something in the woods that can't be real. It becomes his mission to prove its existence and find his purpose.
Cast: Andrew Bowser, Pedro Gonzalez, Chris Jones, Michael Eller, Tim Kuczka (World Premiere)

The Loved Ones (Australia)
Director and Screenwriter: Sean Byrne
Brent, a 17-year-old student grieving after the recent loss of his father, politely declines an invitation to the school formal from Lola, the quietest girl in school. Devastated by the rejection, Lola and her overly protective father kidnap Brent and force him to endure a macabre Formal of their own creation…
Cast: Xavier Samuel, Robin McLeavy, Victoria Thaine, Jessica McNamee, Richard Wilson

Tucker & Dale vs. Evil (Canada)
Director: Eli Craig. Screenwriters: Eli Craig and Morgan Jurgenson
Two West Virginian hillbillies go on vacation at their dilapidated mountain cabin, but their peaceful trip goes horribly awry. Cast: Tyler Labine, Alan Tudyk, Katrina Bowden, Jesse Moss


SX FANTASTIC

Higanjima (Japan/Korea)
Director: Tae-Kyun Kim. Screenwriter: Tetsuya Ôishi
Two years after losing contact, Akira discovers that his long-lost brother may be found on Higanjima Island. He may also find on Higanjima an army of blood-sucking vampires.
Cast: Koji Yamamoto, Hideo Ishiguro, Dai Watanabe, Asami Mizukawa (North American Premiere)

Monsters (UK)
Director and Screenwriter: Gareth Edwards
Six years after a NASA probe crashes, bringing alien life forms to Earth, a journalist agrees to escort a shaken tourist through an infected zone in Mexico to the safety of the US border.
Cast: Scoot McNairym, Whitney Able (World Premiere)

Outcast (Ireland)
Director Colm McCarthy. Screenwriters: Colm McCarthy and Tom McCarthy
Mary and Fergal live their lives on the run, using an ancient form of magic to hide from a terrifying hunter.
Cast: James Nesbitt, Kate Dickie, Niall Bruton, Hannah Stanbridge (World Premiere)

Serbian Film / Srpski Film (Serbia)
Director: Srdjan Spasojevic. Screenwriters: Aleksandar Radivojevic and Srdjan Spasojevic
Facing financial difficulties, a retired porn star is lured back for one final film by a wealthy, eccentric producer. This experience, however, will be vastly more taxing than his previous shoots.
Cast: Sergei Trifunovic, Srdjan Todorovic, Katarina Zutic, Ana Sakic (World Premiere)

Super Secret TBA (World Premiere)


SPECIAL EVENTS

All My Friends are Funeral Singers with Live Soundtrack by Califone
Director and Screenwriter: Tim Rutili
Zel, a fortune-teller, is aided in her prognostication by a band of ghosts, but when a mysterious light appears, she may have to give up the only family she knows. Cast: Angela Bettis, Emily Candini, Reid Coker, Kevin Ford, Joe Adamik, Jim Becker, Ben Massarella, Tim Rutili

Hubble 3D
Director: Toni Myers
Narrated by Leonardo DiCaprio and through the power of IMAX® 3D, Hubble 3D will enable movie-goers to journey through distant galaxies to explore the grandeur and mysteries of our celestial surroundings, and accompany space-walking astronauts as they attempt the most difficult and important tasks in NASA’s history. (First Public Showing)

The Lost World (1925) with Live Score by Golden Hornet Project
Director: Harry O. Hoyt. Screenwriters: Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (novel) & Marion Fairfax (screenplay)
In Hoyt's sci-fi classic, claymation dinosaurs came to spectacular life 70 years before Michael Crichton's modern retelling. Wyatt Brand helps to present Austin's premier alt-classical Golden Hornet Project and their new chamber-rock score. Cast: Bessie Love, Lewis Stone

The Passion of Joan of Arc (1928) with Live Score by In The Nursery (England)
Director: Carl Theodor Dreyer. Screenwriter: Joseph Delteil
One of the finest achievements of the silent film era, Dreyer's portrayal of Joan of Arc uses extraordinary, expressive close-ups to create a moving, intense and flawless work. With a new score by In The Nursery, who utilize state of the art music technology with a unique symphonic style, to produce a hauntingly evocative soundtrack. Cast: Maria Falconetti

The Unknown (1927) with Live Score by The Invincible Czars
Director: Tod Browning. Screenwriter: Mary Roberts Rinehart
Wyatt Brand helps bring a film/music convergence event to SXSW Film with The Invincible Czars screening and live, original score for the 1927 silent classic The Unknown starring Lon Chaney as an armless sharp-shooter. Cast: Lon Chaney, Joan Crawford

Labels: SXSW

# posted by Jason Guerrasio @ 2/04/2010 09:53:00 AM Comments (0)