INDEPENDENT FILM WEEK BEGINS
New York goes very quiet on major Jewish holidays and today happens to be the Jewish New Year, Rosh Hashanah. Happy 5770!
On top of that, it happened to be a glorious day weather-wise, something we New Yorkers have been sorely lacking of late. So the opening day of the Independent Film Week Conference (starting today through the 24th) was a bit subdued and mellow, but there was still a good-sized crowd checking in, picking up creds, and attending the first day’s selection of six panels, all geared towards the neophyte filmmaker, today’s theme being Making Your First Feature: From Concept to Completion, where emerging filmmakers could evaluate creative options for various aspects of their productions: writing and directing content for the Internet; development of concept and script; film scoring, music budgets and licensing; top DPs, producers and lab technicians talking about the array of film and digital format options; production and post services; and, lastly, the role of agents, managers and lawyers as part of your resource team. A pretty heady day with most of the seats filled in the Haft & Murphy auditorium at the Fashion Institute of Technology in Chelsea.
With the likes of president of Paradigm Consulting, Peter Broderick; Wendy Ettinger, co-founder of Chicken & Egg Pictures; P.O.V. series producer, Yance Ford; Ted Hope, partner and founder, This Is That; Dylan Leiner, executive VP of acquisitions and production, Sony Pictures Classics; and, Mark Elijah Rosenberg of Brooklyn’s own Rooftop Films, appearing throughout the week, IFW attendees will, once again, be able to hear and learn from some of the most successful entrepreneurial minds in indie film these days.
With IFP deputy director, Amy Dotson, on maternity leave (what timing!), most of the heavy lifting is being done by a very small crew of intrepid and dedicated staff and volunteers. Senior director of programming, Milton Tabbot, was helping to man the press check-in when I arrived (always a welcoming face to encounter) and community manager, Danielle DiGiacomo, intro’d every single panel throughout the day. Newfest’s director, Lesli Klainberg, is producing the Conference this year with the usual calm and polite demeanor of the pro that she is.
I got to speak to a few, very excited, filmmakers participating in the various labs and market strands and, this year, the FILMMAKER blog will host an array of filmmaker posters, some of whom have already appeared to say “hey” to you all, and to tell us about their projects. Just a quick gander at this year’s catalog shows that this is a very strong market in terms of content and talent. The Emerging Narrative strand is comprised of ten films, all at rough-cut stage, all alums of IFP’s June Independent Filmmaker Lab. In fact, tomorrow night, Sunday, there will be a free public outdoor screening co-hosted by the IFP and Rooftop Films that will showcase portions of ten documentary lab and ten narrative lab projects at Fulton Ferry Park. (There will be an industry-only screening of same on Tuesday morning at 10:00 at the Chelsea Clearview Cinemas.) Emerging US narrative feature rough cut projects include The Imperialistas Are Still Alive!, by Zeina Durra, The Myth of Time by Jaguar X, and Perfection by Christina Beck. I met Christina at the market the last year it was at the Puck Building. She participated in a script reading workshop with Perfection. It’s encouraging to see her back two years later with a rough cut.
The No Borders International Co-production Market projects include works from the US, Australia, South Africa, France, Germany, Canada, Belgium, Finland and the UK. Benh Zeitlin is participating with his Beasts of the Southern Wild; dark comedy feature Cockeyed has the inestimable Jodie Foster at the helm; there’s James Ponsoldt‘s Refresh, Refresh; and an animated feature from Canada called The White Circus by Clyde Henry.
The biggest category, with 80 films, is the Spotlight on Documentaries (works-in-progress), a very exciting and tantalizing array of nonfiction stories from around the world, an impressive roster of talent featuring directors such as, David Modigliani, Rachel Boynton, Cameron Yates, Andrew Berends, Scott Hamilton Kennedy, Celia Peck, Greg King and David Teague, Nina Davenport, Beth Murphy, and Tanaz Eshaghian. I look forward to watching as many projects as I can and getting to chat with many of these filmmakers throughout the week.
Also, don’t forget: tonight ‘s screening is the world premiere of IFP 2008 lab alums Cambria Matlow and Morgan Robinson‘s Burning in the Sun (film still pictured above) along the water at East 23rd Street and the East River in Manhattan starting about NOW. Visit the Rooftop site for directions.
More news from the IFW coming soon.
