Archive for January, 2004
Wednesday, January 21st, 2004
The selection of films for the Competition of the 54th Berlin International Film Festival — which opens with Anthony Minghella’s Cold Mountain — is now complete.
Twenty three of the twenty six films selected will compete for the festival’s highest prize, the Golden Bear. (Three films will be shown out of competition.)
The films are from 18 countries; 19 are world premieres, two are directing debuts.
The Korean star director Kim Ki-Duk will present the world premiere of his film Samaria in which two teenage girls turn to prostitution to earn money for a trip to Europe.
Another world premiere screening in the Competition is the Hong Kong production 20:30:40 by Sylvia Chang. Set in the bustling city of Taipei, the film details the travails of three women in different phases of their lives. Director Sylvia Chang, who is herself an extremely popular actress and entertainer in Asia, co-stars in her own film with Ren Liu and Lee Sinje.
Two productions in the competition represent the Festival’s special focus on Latin America this year:
Daniel Burman, one of the stars of New Argentine Cinema, will present the world premiere of El abrazo partido. His protagonist’s world is the small, seedy shopping center in Buenos Aires where his mother runs a laundry — a world of despair and decay from which many young people try to escape by reclaiming the nationality of their European ancestors.
The U.S./Colombian co-production Maria Full of Grace, by Joshua Marston, tells the story of seventeen-year-old Maria, from a small town near the Columbian capital of Bogota, who feels oppressed by the strict work regime at a flower plantation and the cramped situation of her family. In a desperate attempt to escape these conditions, she becomes a drug runner. Produced by Paul Mezey with funding from HBO, Maria Full of Grace debuted in Competition at this year’s Sundance Film Festival.
The 26-year-old American director Omar Naim, who was born in Lebanon, will present the world premiere of his directing debut, a science-fiction thriller entitled The Final Cut. Alan Hackman (Robin Williams) works in a … Read the rest
Tuesday, January 20th, 2004
As reported on Ratchet Up, John Schott’s excellent blog about digital arts and culture, Hans Nyberg’s panoramas using Quicktime are a real treat.
“This 360-degree Quicktime image of Mars has to be some kind of a landmark in photography, taking its place in a line that goes back to the great landscape photographers of the American west. Posted, ironically, as a new form of digital image display in the same week that Kodak announces it will no longer make traditional film cameras for the U.S. market.”
… Read the rest
Tuesday, January 20th, 2004
A debut feature 19 years in the making, Jonathan Caouette’s “brutal and spellbinding musical-docudrama” Tarnation premiered as a rough cut at Mix 2003 and screens in the Frontier section of this year’s Sundance Film Festival. (Tarnation was substantially reedited following its debut at Mix, and is tipped for the Director’s Fortnight at Cannes following its screening in Park City.)
As per the Mix Festival’s write-up: “Tarnation weaves a psychotronic whirlwind of snapshots, Super-8 home movies, old answering machine messages, video diaries, early short films, snippets of ’80s camp pop culture and dramatic reenactments drawn from Caouette’s entire life.”
“It’s kind of a fucked-up genius documentary/drama,” says John Cameron Mitchell (Hedwig and the Angy Inch), who signed on as an editorial consultant after seeing an early version of the film. “[Jonathan] sent in an audition tape for my latest film that incorporated footage from Tarnation and it blew me away,” says Mitchell. “He’s been documenting his life with his beautiful, tragic, schizophrenic mom since he was 10 and this film is the incredible result. Example of a typical scene: a video diary entry of Jonathan at 11 in drag as his mother talking to the camera about being beaten up by her new boyfriend. He’s been working on the film for many years and it was made on Apple’s iMovie (editing, effects, sound & mix!) for about 200 bucks and change. He lives with his mom and boyfriend in Queens, New York now and has been supporting them — as well as a son from a former marriage — as a 5th Ave. boutique doorman. He had to quit to edit and is hoping they’ll take him back (they have a good health plan).”
“I think Jonathan Caouette’s Tarnation is the shit,” adds Gus Van Sant, the film’s executive producer. “I have always been waiting to see someone make something as moving as Jonathan’s film with as little as he has had to make it. I knew something like this would appear, and I am glad that is has finally has.”
… Read the rest
Tuesday, January 20th, 2004
After reportedly receiving threats of intimidation from conservative religious groups, Madstone Theaters has cancelled its upcoming Salt Lake City engagement of TLA Releasing’s newest film, Latter Days, which tells the story of a young closeted Mormon who falls in love with another man while serving his missionary assignment in Los Angeles.
“We are extremely upset that Latter Days currently has no venue to premiere in Salt Lake City,” says Raymond Murray, President of TLA Releasing. 
“We picked up the film through our partnership with production company Funny Boy Films, because of writer-director C. Jay Cox‘s amazing ability to tell a story about a man’s struggle in dealing with his sexuality and faith, a subject many gays and lesbians can certainly relate to.”
Latter Days, the directorial debut of C. Jay Cox (writer of Sweet Home Alabama), had been scheduled to open simultaneously in New York, Los Angeles and Salt Lake City on Friday, January 30. TLA Releasing reportedly received a phone call from Madstone Theaters saying that they were canceling the film’s opening date in Salt Lake City because the company was being threatened with boycotts, protests and membership cancellations from religious groups.
Sources at TLA report that Madstone president Thomas Gruenberg confirmed the threats but denied that they were the cause of the cancellation. “Gruenberg claimed that Latter Days failed to meet the company’s standards of ‘artistic quality and integrity,’ and that the film failed to tell a story that was sufficiently ‘compelling’ or ‘gripping.’”
The release of Latter Days in Madstone Theaters outside of Salt Lake City, however, are still scheduled.
“I find it quite sad that any conservative group would attempt to take such a choice away from the people of Salt Lake City,” says Cox. “I truly hope that we will be allowed to screen this movie and give people the opportunity to discuss the issues it raises and to judge its ‘artistic quality and integrity’ for themselves.”
For other news about Mormons and film, check out Ed Halter’s fascinating article “Missionary Positioning”, about the “unprecedented surge in features … Read the rest
Monday, January 19th, 2004
Fox Searchlight Pictures and Miramax Films announced yesterday at the Sundance Film Festival that they have aligned with one another to create an unprecedented joint acquisitions agreement for the worldwide distribution rights to Garden State, the directorial debut feature from Zach Braff (television’s “Scrubs”), who also wrote the screenplay and stars in the film along with Natalie Portman, Peter Sarsgaard and a strong ensemble cast. (Variety reported that the companies paid $5 million for the film.) 
Miramax and Fox Searchlight will share equally in the film’s worldwide revenues, and the two companies are currently discussing which entity will distribute in which territory worldwide, based on their respective resources and desires. The film is produced by Camelot Pictures’ partners Gary Gilbert and Dan Halsted, along with Pamela Abdy and Richard Klubeck. The film was executive produced by Danny DeVito, Michael Shamberg and Stacey Sher.
The film is a romantic comedy about a guy who returns to his hometown for the first time in ten years to attend the funeral of his clinically depressed mother, a journey of self-discovery that reconnects him with the world he left behind and gives him a chance to find love in an unexpected place.
Other Sundance acquistions include Walter Salles’s The Motorcycle Diaries, based on Ernesto Che Guevara’s autobiographical book The Motorcycle Diaries: A Journey Around South America, in which a young Che describes his race around South America on a Norton 500 motorbike (nicknamed “The Mighty One”) with a best buddy, Alberto Granado, in 1952, making sweeping generalizations along the way on everything from the political underpinnings of Chile to the civility of the police in Peru. Focus Features reportedly paid between $3 and $4 million dollars for the film, which stars Gael Garcia Bernal and Rodrigo de la Serna and was executive produced by Robert Redford.
Sony Pictures Classics picked up Stacey Peralta’s Riding Giants, about American surf culture and the advent of big-wave surfing, which opened the festival to great acclaim. Sony released Peralta’s skateboarding doc Dogtown and Z Boys in 2001.
Napoleon … Read the rest
Friday, January 16th, 2004
I ran into producer Mary Jane Skalski at the Salt Lake City airport this morning on the way into Park City, and she — along with an e-mail from director Jem Cohen — gave me material for an embarassing first post out of Sundance. In our new issue of Filmmaker, Anthony Kaufman writes in his “New York Scene” column about directors who choose, for whatever reason, not to make the festival and premiere their films in other venues. He writes about Michael Kang, whose Motel was unable to be finished in time, and also Jem Cohen, who is currently completing his new film Chain. Unfortunately, an editing mistake transposed the titles of two Cohen films, making it seem that Cohen has submitted Chain to Sundance only to see it rejected. This is not true. Cohen had actually said that his features Benjamin Smoke and Instrument had been turned down by the festival, but he didn’t submit Chain and is still working on its postproduction. Our apologies to Jem and Mary Jane for the mistake and for the confusion it may have caused.
… Read the rest
Friday, January 16th, 2004
On January 25, the Rotterdam Film Parliament, organized annually as part of the International Film Festival Rotterdam (IFFR) will debate the pro’s and con’s of digital distribution (satellite, computers, video projectors, DVD and Internet). Among the topics up for discussion will be the consequences for independent cinema of digital distribution, the dangers of piracy and future ways of retailing films (worldwide or by territory?). Titled Digital: Dream or Nightmare?, the Film Parliament is modelled after the English House of Commons. Chaired by Nik Powell, speakers will plea against or in favour of the motion: “This house believes that the digital dream of distribution is a nightmare for independent cinema,” after which the motion will be brought into vote. (Here, here.)
From Thursday, January 22 through Friday, January 31 the IFFR will also organize daily interviews, debates and talk shows under the rubric What (Is) Cinema?. Directors scheduled to participate include: Takeshi Kitano (Zatoichi), Catherine Breillat (Anatomy of Hell), Michael Winterbottom (Code 46), Harmony Korine (screenplay, Ken Park), Raul Ruiz, Ken Jacobs, as well as 2004 IFFR Artist in Focus Isaac Julien.
… Read the rest
Friday, January 16th, 2004
The IFP/New York has announced the deadline for a new documentary fund. Named for the ABC News producer — and cousin of John F. Kennedy Jr. — who died of cancer in 1999, The Anthony Radziwill Documentary Fund will provide seed money/development grants for independently produced documentary projects by U.S. resident filmmakers, and will be administered by IFP/NY. Six to ten grants up to $10,000 will be given annually, with the initial cycle’s grants to be awarded in June 2004. Grant cycle deadlines are March 1 and September 1 annually. Initial cycle deadline is March 1, 2004. On-line applications, submission requirements, and complete guidelines for proposals are available at www.ifp.org/docfund. For further questions write docfund@ifp.org or call 212-465-8200, ext 830.
FILMMAKER magazine will again collaborate with the Flanders International Film Festival-Ghent to coordinate the selection of a sidebar of American independent films at the event, which runs October 5-16. Anyone interested in submitting work for consideration should send it by the August 10 deadline directly to:
Flanders International Film Festival-Ghent
Attn. Cis Bierinckx / A LOOK APART
Leeuwstraat 40b
B-9000 Gent
Belgium
Regulations and additional information can be found at the festival Web site: www.filmfestival.be… Read the rest
Thursday, January 15th, 2004
Wil Wheaton, the actor-turned-blogger best known for his role in Stand By Me and as 
Wesley Crusher in the TV series Star Trek: The Next Generation, has signed a three-book deal with O’Reilly & Associates.
Says Wheaton, “This is a very exciting relationship for me, for several reasons. First, I am a huge geek, and without O’Reilly, I wouldn’t know HTML from LMNOP. I never would have been able to get Linux running, and Perl would be one of the not-quite-as-good-as-Mrs.-Garrett replacements on Diff’rent Strokes.”
While Wheaton has continued to act, most recently in Damion Dietz’s Neverland (2003), doing voiceover work for Brother Bear, The Simpsons, and for a forthcoming Pixar production, he has devoted most of his time to writing.
O’Reilly & Associates plans to release Wheaton’s Dancing Barefoot, comprised of five short-but-true stories about life in the so-called Space Age. Originally released by Monolith Press, Dancing Barefoot “sold 3,000 copies in less than five months,” reports Wheaton. “I can’t wait to see how it does when it’s got the power and budget of a major publisher behind it.”
O’Reilly also plans to release Wheaton’s Just A Geek, an autobiographical book about coming to terms with what it means to be famous, or, ironically, famous for being previously famous.
… Read the rest
Thursday, January 15th, 2004
Tribeca Enterprises, the latest business venture of Tribeca Film Festival co-founders Robert De Niro, Jane Rosenthal and Craig Hatkoff, has announced that it will launch a behind-the-scenes entertainment expo at New York City’s Javits Center next November 20-22. The trio has joined forces with former Variety publisher Gerry Byrne who will help launch and run the consumer exposition dubbed “So You Wanna Be In Pictures?”
“So You Want To Be In Pictures?” will offer high-tech, interactive exhibits, panels and conferences, hardware and software. From screenwriting, casting and cinematography to music, makeup and costume design, the show will cover every aspect of how screened entertainment is conceived, made, and ultimately branded and marketed.
Additional expo features will include presentations on the filmmaking process, demonstrations of the latest in digital equipment, as well as a pavilion on the associated entertainment games market. A series of innovative competitions will be announced at a later date that will be part of the core of the expo.
The American Museum of The Moving Image, the nation’s premiere museum devoted to film, television and digital entertainment, will be part of the expo to provide historical context and vision.
DeNiro, Rosenthal and Hatkoff recently set up a new business entity, Tribeca Cinemas, to operate The Screening Room in New York.
“In addition to its commercial potential, The Screening Room will also enable us to help support the non-profit Tribeca Film Institute and the growing needs of the Tribeca Film Festival,” said Jane Rosenthal. “The acquisition of The Screening Room will provide some of the much-needed additional capacity for screenings and hospitality events during the Tribeca Film Festival that last year attracted 325,000 visitors to the streets of Lower Manhattan.”
… Read the rest
