Archive for August, 2004
Sunday, August 22nd, 2004
The last time I linked to the Cyan Pictures Web site it was to make fun of founder Josh Newman’s constant posting of new film sales and starts that never seem to quite happen. So it’s only fair that I eat some crow and link to the site again now that a new film, a doc called More than a Game has gone into production.
From the site: “Late this may, B’nei Sakhnin became the first Arab-led soccer team to win the Israeli national cup. Now the team heads off to Europe to represent Israel on the world stage of the UEFA tournament. Comprised of seven Arabs, four Jews and four foreigners, the team is a microcosm of the divided Israel that exists today; can they work through their differences in pursuit of a common goal?” Newman is regularly updating the blog with a blow-by-blow of MidEast doc producing. Check it out.
I got an e-mail from Todd Rohal thanking us for blogging his new feature, The Guatemalan Handshake. He noted in his e-mail that, a la George Washington, he shot the no-budget feature in 35mm anamorphic scope. Now he’s got a lovely trailer up that appropriately whets one’s appetite for the feature while showcasing the beauty of the ‘Scope format.
… Read the rest
Saturday, August 21st, 2004
There’s been a bunch of cool stuff popping up in the film blogosphere lately. Below are a couple of links that have caught my attention; the sites these links are from should be immediately bookmarked!
The Movieblog, subtitled “The Official Home of Correct Movie Opinions,” actually isn’t a compendium of hastily scribbled film “reviews” but rather a sharp assortment of interesting movie links with a particular emphasis on Asian horror and art films. Click over there now for stuff like a stylish Japanese website for Wong Kar-Wai’s 2046 and a giant Quicktime trailer of Wes Anderson’s new The Life Aquatic.
Over at Moviecity News, Ray Pride has a great interview with Donnie Darko director Richard Kelly on the occasion of that film’s new director’s cut re-release.
By the way, most of the above I was alerted to by the beyond essential Greencine Daily, still the best film blog out there.
… Read the rest
Saturday, August 21st, 2004
In Jeff Levy-Hinte’s piece, “The Digital Divide,” in the current issue of Filmmaker, Levy-Hinte discusses the major studio’s battle against new technologies like the file-sharing services which, while they enable the free distribution of copyrighted materail, also have legitimate uses. Levy-Hinte’s fears of expanding governmental control over legal technologies were abated this week by a federal appeals court ruling stating that two file sharing services, Grokster and Streamcast, weren’t liable for the distribution of copyrighted works on their networks.
Judge Sidney R. Thomas wrote, “History has shown that time and market forces often provide equilibrium in balancing interests, whether the new technology be a player piano, a copier, a tape recorder, a video recorder, a personal computer, a karaoke machine, or an MP3 player. Thus, it’s prudent for courts to exercise caution before restructuring liability theories.”
Download Levy-Hinte’s piece if you haven’t, and check out also David Poland’s combative three-part reply in his The Hot Button.
… Read the rest
Friday, August 13th, 2004
When Travis Crawford last interviewed director Paul Schrader for Filmmaker in Fall 2002 he was looking forward to beginning work on a prequel to the 1973 film The Exorcist. “It will be nice to do something with a larger tableaux from a quality script,” said Schrader. “I don’t feel like I’m doing something beneath me. It’s been 20 years since Cat People, and it will be refreshing to work the big arena again.”
Little did he know what was in store for him.
In the LA Weekly Scott Foundas details the behind-the-scenes debacle that led to Schrader’s eventual replacement by Renny Harlin at the helm of Exorcist: The Beginning.
… Read the rest
Thursday, August 12th, 2004
Nerdy Brooklyn Math teacher Keith Black, who still lives at home with his mother at age 35, has gone from your “average joe” math teacher to a cult movie star through the unlikely success of his award winning $3,000 short Get the Script to Woody Allen. Against all odds, Black has garnered national press and recently closed movie, TV and airline deals.
Black’s critically acclaimed short will play before several classic films by Allen as part of Loews Cineplex Entertainment’s tribute to Woody Allen’s 35th anniversary in films during the month of August.
Performance Schedule:
Thursday, August 12 at 7pm – Annie Hall
Thursday, August 19 at 7pm – Broadway Danny Rose
Thursday, August 26 at 7pm – Manhattan
Theatre: Loews @ 34th Street, NYC
Vicinity: 34th St. (8th & 9th Ave)
Screenings are free; no reservations
… Read the rest
Wednesday, August 11th, 2004
As reported in The Guardian today: “A silent film cinema in Hollywood has been forced to cancel a screening of the landmark 1915 movie The Birth of a Nation following protests from members of the public and the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. The film was due to screen on Monday at the Silent Movie Theatre in Hollywood, California, until owner Charlie Lustman bowed to pressure. Lustman said that he was concerned that customers would have to cross a picket line and was also fearful for the safety of Bob Mitchell, his 92-year old organist.”
Paul D. Miller a.k.a. DJ Spooky that Subliminal Kid, recently toured the country with a remix of Birth of a Nation. As Ana Finel Honigman writes in Artnet: “Today, while the film is reviled for its politics, it is revered by film critics and scholars for its cinematic innovations (including the first color sequence). Its power as propaganda remains unnerving and it is reportedly still used as a recruitment piece for Klan membership. During a private screening at the White House President Woodrow Wilson is reported to have exclaimed: ‘It’s like writing history with lightning.’
“Miller’s Rebirth of a Nation [premiered] in mid-May at the Vienna Festival and [travelled] to the Spoleto Festival USA in Charleston South Carolina [prior to arriving] at the Lincoln Center Festival in New York on July 23, 2004. For each performance Miller [mixed] audio and video on-site and a DVD of Rebirth of a Nation will be released in the upcoming year.”
Paul Miller offers the following rationale for his interest in Birth of a Nation: “[The film] focuses on how America needed to create a fiction of African American culture in tune with the fabrication of ‘whiteness’ that undergirded American thought throughout most of the last several centuries: it floats out in the world of cinema as an enduring albeit totally racist, epic tale of an America that, in essence, never existed. The Ku Klux Klan still uses this film as a recruiting device and it’s considered to be an American ‘cinema classic’ … Read the rest
Wednesday, August 11th, 2004
“TV’s new artistic credibility is making the small screen an alluring alternative for directors, offering freedom from the stresses of financing and distribution that beset any adventurous filmmaker,” writes Joy Press in this week’s Village Voice ["Out of the Box," August 11-17, 2004].
“According to film and TV director Barry Levinson, ‘Movies these days are less and less about characters and behavior. All that’s gone out the window. It’s television that’s taken over the role of capturing the small moments of human behavior — a role that’s been abdicated by theatrical films.”
… Read the rest
Wednesday, August 11th, 2004
The Toronto International Film Festival, the largest film event in North America, has announced additions to this year’s line-up:
“Six films, four world premieres and one North American premiere, have been added to the Special Presentations line-up at the… Festival, for a total of 13 films in Special Presentations announced to date.
“The world premieres are Crash, from Paul Haggis [and featuring Sandra Bullock, Brendan Fraser, Matt Dillon, Ryan Phillipe, Thandle Newton, Larenz, Nona Gaye, rapper Ludacris and Don Cheadle]; Haven, by Frank E. Flowers, [featuring Bill Paxton and Orlando Bloom]; Alexander Payne’s Sideways [with Paul Giamatti, Thomas Haden Church, Sandra Oh and Virginia Madsen]; and James Toback’s When Will I Be Loved [starring Neve Campbell and Frederick Weller].
“Also screening as part of Special Presentations are Niels Mueller’s The Assassination of Richard Nixon [starring Naomi Watts, Sean Penn Don Cheadle and Jack Thompson], a North American premiere, and John Duigan’s Head in the Clouds [with Charlize Theron, Penelope Cruz and Stuart Townsend].”
The Festival also announced two additions to its Gala Presentations:
Director David O. Russell’s I Heart Huckabees, which “delightfully explores the highs and lows of self-discovery, in an existential comedy that is simultaneously sublime and ridiculous.” The film featues Dustin Hoffman, Jude Law, Jason Schwartzman, Naomi Watts, Lily Tomlin, Mark Wahlberg, Isabelle Huppert.
Bill Condon’s Kinsey “tackles the life and relationships of a man who set out to research the sexuality of Americans and found himself at the height of a controversial media frenzy.” Starring Liam Neeson in his compelling portrayal of scientist Alfred Kinsey, the film is supported by a stellar cast that features Laura Linney, Chris O’Donnell, Peter Sarsgaard, Timothy Hutton, John Lithgow, Tim Curry, Oliver Platt, Dylan Baker and Lynn Redgrave.
The Festival will close with the world premiere of Adim Jean’s Jiminy Glick in Lalawood, in which Martin Short reprises his Comedy Central character, the exuberant entertainment critic Jiminy Glick. Also starring Jan Hooks, Linda Cardellini, Janeane Garofalo, John Michael Higgins, Elizabeth Perkins, Larry Joe Campbell, DeRay Davis, Aries Spears, and Gary Anthony Williams, the film … Read the rest
Tuesday, August 10th, 2004
A series of 24 anti-Bush campaign ads produced by filmmaker Errol Morris for MoveOn.org will began airing in select markets during the Republican National Convention later this month. According to Variety, each of the ads “feature real people who voted for Bush in 2000 but have been let down by the president’s performance and now support Kerry.
“‘This is a very simple idea: a different kind of political advertisement. Not a prepared speech, not a voiceover narrative, but rather people speaking one on one,’ said Morris.
“Others who are directing campaign ads for MoveOn include Rob Reiner, comedian Margaret Cho and helmer Allison Anders. A separate animated spot will feature the voices of Scarlett Johansson, Kevin Bacon and Ed Asner. Woody Harrelson is directing an ad that will star Alicia Silverstone.”
… Read the rest
Tuesday, August 10th, 2004
Andre Noble, who stars in the film Sugar, which has been playing to great success at the leading gay and lesbian film festivals this summer, died from inadvertant poisoning on July 30. According to a news release, Noble, 25, died a few hours after he came in contact with a poisonous plant known as monkshood on a small island near his Newfoundland home.
Noble appeared in productions of Shakespeare’s Hamlet, As You Like It and Twelfth Night and he co-founded a new theater group in Toronto, The Young Company. He began his television career by appearing in the popular CBC mini-series “Random Passage,” TVO/TFO’s “Ta Voix Dans La Nuit” and the TV-movie “Prom Queen: The Marc Hall Story.”
He made his feature film debut as “Adam” in Jacob Tierney’s Twist, a modern retelling of Oliver Twist, which opened in Canada in 2003 and is currently in limited release in the U.S. through Strand Releasing. Noble then got what might have been his breakout role as the lead in Sugar, an adaptation of Bruce LaBruce’s “JD” stories directed by John Palmer. Noble played “Cliff,” an 18-year-old suburban boy who heads into the city and falls in love with a seductive, crack-addicted hustler, played by Brendan Fehr (“Roswell”).
Sugar is currently in theatrical release in Canada through ThinkFilm; it will be released on DVD/VHS in the United States by TLA Releasing and ThinkFilm on November 16, 2004.
In his memory, Noble’s family has set up a scholarship fund in his name for the Theatre Department at the Sir Wilfred Grenfell School of Fine Arts in Newfoundland. Tel: 709-256-1600.
… Read the rest
