“CONVENTO” DIRECTOR JARRED ALTERMAN

Since I spend part of my year in Amsterdam I’m always on the lookout for interesting Dutch folks to write about. Kinetic artist Christiaan Zwanikken fit the bill and then some. Zwanikken lives most months at his family’s retreat in Portugal, which was once a monastery but now serves as the laboratory for his Frankenstein creations, robots crafted from servomotors and the remains of wildlife he finds on the ancient grounds. American filmmaker Jarred Alterman is also fascinated by Zwanikken’s work – so much so that he crafted Convento, an “art/doc” that follows not just the Dutch artist and his creatures but the Zwanikken clan, including mom Geraldine, a former prima ballerina. I spoke with the passionate director prior to the film’s NYC opening — appropriately enough, at the American Museum of Natural History on November 11. Zwanikken’s sculpture show at the museum opens a day earlier.

Filmmaker: So over the summer I convinced you and Christiaan to interview each other for Amsterdam Magazine, yet I never learned how you two met in the first place. What made you decide to cast Christiaan and his family (including his robots) as the subjects of a doc?

Jarred Alterman: I was traveling in Portugal with friends when a small ad in Lonely Planet caught our attention. There was more mystery in the description than actual substance – something about a monastery and artists in a remote village. It sounded intriguing so we left the coast and headed into the countryside. Little did I know this chance encounter would be the focus of my first feature.

I ended up staying at this former-monastery-turned-artist-retreat for two weeks and developed an intense friendship with the Zwanikken family. (Late night dinner discussions about alien abductions fueled by red wine brought us all a little closer.) I also spent a lot of time with Christiaan in his studio and we began collaborating on short films, primarily experimenting with ways to best capture his kinetic sculptures. I was not thinking about a documentary at this time, I was thinking about creating micro-narratives for these incredible robotic … Read the rest

WILL THE SECTION 181 FILM TAX INCENTIVE BE EXTENDED?

By Scott Macaulay

The film tax incentive known as “Section 181″ is due to expire at the end of this year, removing one enticement producers have been using to convince investors to finance independent feature films. Part of the American Jobs Creation Act of 2004, Section 181 allowed investors to write off the complete cost of a qualified film in the first year. (Normally, this write-off is amortized, occurring in future years as a film demonstrates that it is money-losing.) If and when profits then occur, they are treated as ordinary income by investors.

At the close of 2009, Section 181 was similarly endangered, but after a hiatus Congress signed an extension. Could the same thing happen this year?

Matthew Savare, an attorney at Lowenstein Sandler PC, isn’t holding his breath. “Although I’m hopeful Congress will renew Section 181 as it did last year, I’m very skeptical that will happen,” Savare says. “The political climate is very different – and even worse – than it was a year ago. Also, the economic climate is gloomy and with several states rolling back or discontinuing their incentive programs – such as New Jersey – I just don’t think Congress will have the appetite to extend this. I hold out hope, though, especially if an extension can be incorporated into a larger jobs bill to reduce the high unemployment rate.”

Filmmakers who have been pitching their projects using Section 181 as an incentive have one option to still qualify — begin production by the end of the year. “Filmmakers seeking to take advantage of Section 181 must commence (not necessarily complete) principal photography before December, 31, 2011, so they should get their cameras rolling right away!” advises Savare. “Also, they obviously need to ensure that their production otherwise qualifies. The most important condition is that at least 75% of the service wages need to be performed and paid in the U.S.”

At Indiewire, Dana Harris outlines other requirements, most importantly the formation of an LLC able to accept investors. At Film Closings, Jeff Steele stresses that filmmakers shooting just a day on their film to qualify … Read the rest

JEREMIAH ZAGAR ON “STARVED FOR ATTENTION”

It’s been awhile since I sat down to chat with director Jeremiah Zagar, one half of Brooklyn-based Herzliya Films, which he runs with his producer Jeremy Yaches, so I was pretty excited to hear about their latest venture, Starved For Attention. A short film series created at the behest of Doctors Without Borders and VII Photo designed to highlight childhood malnutrition around the world Starved For Attention also seems to be the rarest of public service announcements, doubling as works of cinematic art. I spoke briefly with Zagar as he was preparing for the release of the eighth doc in the series, dealing with the food crisis in Somalia and Northern Kenya.

Filmmaker: So how did you get involved with Doctors Without Borders and VII Photo? Can you talk a bit about this Starved For Attention series?

Jeremiah Zagar: Last spring my friend Tim Hetherington let us know that MSF and VII Photo were collaborating on a campaign about malnutrition, and that they needed a production house to take all of the photos and footage and turn them into multimedia short films. My producer, Jeremy Yaches, and I were immediately excited about the prospect of working with such incredible photographers and for such a positive organization so we took the weekend to put a proposal together with our friend, the insanely talented Cassidy Gearheart. Our aim was to create pieces that were fast-paced and moving, that could combine commercial editing techniques with powerful messaging in order to create a different kind of PSA. As it turned out our goal was very much in line with those of MSF & VII so they brought us on and we got to work right away. I’m really proud of what we created, and the campaign has been hugely successful. The goal of the campaign is to raise awareness about the crisis of global childhood malnutrition and to highlight new ways to combat the problem. To date over 120,000 people have signed the petition, and they’re getting more signatures every day.

Filmmaker: Since I’ve already interviewed you both along with the Academy-Award winning … Read the rest

FAR FROM AFGHANISTAN: U.S. FILMMAKERS AGITATE ON 10TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE WAR

“Though I don’t have any children,” says John Gianvito, “I imagined a child someday saying to me, ‘You regard yourself as a political filmmaker, did you do anything during the longest war in U.S. history?’”

Gianvito, the Boston-based director of the acclaimed feature The Mad Songs of Fernanda Hussein, recalls this thought coming to him earlier this year as the 10th anniversary of the U.S. war in Afghanistan approached. On Thursday, October 6, in honor of that day of infamy, Gianvito and a team of filmmakers will unveil an ambitious omnibus project to raise awareness about the enduring conflict.

Still a work in progress, Far From Afghanistan: The October Edition (pictured) will premiere on-line for one-week only to coincide with the anniversary, both to help accelerate political resistance to the war as well as help boost funds for the project’s Kickstarter campaign. As of September 26, the project was far short of its $25,000 goal, raising only about $5,300.

Gianvito conceived of the project earlier this year, galvanized by several factors: a 2010 Pew Research Study which stated only 4% of U.S. media made any reference to the war, despite the fact that it was the war’s deadliest year and a talk he attended in March with female Afghan activist and legislator Malalai Joya and Noam Chomsky. “Listening to Joya’s impassioned and cogent assessment of the situation was the last step in making manifest that I had to do something,” he says.

At the time, Gianvito had been deeply ensconced in his four years-in-the-making Vapor Trail, a large-scale documentary about the legacy of the U.S presence in the Philippines. However, he says, “my conscience was prodding me more and more.” He realized he would have a tough time making an October deadline, and came up with the idea of an omnibus project as “a way to create something more than a short film and to build a stronger base of solidarity around the issue,” he explains.

Inspired by the 1967 French documentary Far From Vietnam, which includes nonfiction entries from Jean-Luc Godard, Agnes Varda, Alain Resnais, and … Read the rest

PLATFORMS, PMD’S & PERPETUATING OBSCURITY

By Gregory Bayne

Our innovation is stagnant. Stagnant and boring. Really. Boring.

The movies themselves are one thing having long been locked into a race to the bottom with their Hollywood counterparts in an often times futile effort to just be noticed, but most stagnant and boring is the proliferation of new ‘platforms’ on which filmmakers can ‘launch’ their careers. Everywhere I look there is some new upstart looking to get into the digital distribution realm touting how their platform puts the power in your hands and provides a direct gateway for your film to reach an audience. A claim which, of course, begs the question, “what audience?”

Yes, the internet is a grand and amazing vehicle to get your work seen, but in reality its promise is akin to the phonebook being a vehicle to see your name in print. Just because you can put your film on Facebook, stream it on YouTube, or even give it away via P2P, doesn’t mean people will seek it out and/or watch it. If nobody is looking for you then nobody is looking for you and the new platforms emerging to date, in and of themselves, are not truly assisting you in tipping the needle beyond obscurity and toward sustainability as they themselves have yet to attract the very thing you’re looking for… an audience.

Contests. Gimmicks. Audience engagement tools. Interactive. Cross platform. Wheel-spinners, all. There is not one single emergent platform that appears to ‘get it’ evidenced in large part by their primary marketing push being directed at the filmmakers and not the end user, and accentuated by the fact that many times their technical approach outweighs and/or inhibits the overall user experience.

Quantity, when it comes to strictly-independent, low budget, off-mainstream film, does not attract. Technological wizardry does not attract. Gimmicks are usually non-starters, interactive and cross platform come off as convoluted, and I as audience member will decide how I want to ‘engage’ thank you very much. Bottom line, if you have to explain it to me then it doesn’t make sense, and if your primary market is an audience of … Read the rest

WHEN SHOULD YOU CALL BULLS@#T?

By Gregory Bayne

I’ve been pondering Scott Macaulay‘s post WHEN SHOULD YOU GIVE UP? as it’s a question I’ve asked of myself on several occasions, quite recently even. It’s a question that hangs heavy on the psyche of anyone with a will to create and grow beyond the confines of their own feeble inheritance. I know this because I know that anyone who has ever made any attempt to do, or create, or make, anything, ever, has failed. Many times miserably and likely to the point where it feels as if hope has not just vanished from the horizon, but has finally revealed itself to be the self projected mirage it truly was.

When should you give up? It’s a scary question. It’s a question that by simply asking it, you’ve admitted to failing on some level… and that sucks. Over the years though, I’ve come to realize there is a question that precedes this one. It’s an equally honest, pragmatic and logical question in the face of presumed failure, impasse or impending doom. It’s this. When Should You Call Bulls@#t?

Don’t mistake this as a ‘fight the power’ fueled question, I mean it goes there for sure, but the first bulls@#t to call out is your own. Our biggest threat to individual growth as artists and to achieving any level of success in our careers is often times rooted in our complete lack of objectivity. About our work, about our abilities, and so many times, about the full scope of what it actually takes to create, complete and ultimately share our work with others.

Look, here’s the hard truth. Your movie most likely sucks. If it’s genuinely your first film, and you’ve yet to live, therefore been beaten up by, life, and aren’t some one in a million filmmaking savant, yes, it’s probably garbage. Your friends and family aren’t going to say it to your face, so I will. Trash it, move on. Hopefully you at least had the sense to not spend too much on it.

Over the past 2 decades, I have personally made 4 ‘first’ features, before finally landing on … Read the rest

YOU HAVE NO BUSINESS BEING IN THIS BUSINESS

By Gregory Bayne

I have been thinking about Kevin Smith quite a bit lately. Beyond the obvious happenings with his film Red State and his decision to follow in my footsteps (wink) by embracing the Topspin platform to go about his business of building a media empire, I’ve been a bit in awe of how this guy from New Jersey, who began his journey with a $27,000 ’90s Sundance hit that many in the artistic film world passed off as garbage, has weathered many a storm, some arguably manufactured, to be quite possibly the last man standing and perhaps most forward thinking in an independent film industry that can’t seem to get fully back on track.

I know there are many a ’90s & ’00s Sundance alum out there still working, making films, making TV, making it, but none (that I’m aware of) have taken such distinct advantage of their first outing to have turned it, and/or themselves, into such a full force media-making machine so in control of their own destiny that if they cut off ties with everyone they know in the industry today they would be able to continue working, making exactly the type of film/tv/art they want to, while making a very healthy living at it. Smith and Co. have done that.

My “history” with Smith begins all the way back in Vancouver, B.C., where we both attended film school in 1992/’93. He in Class 23 with my fellow Idahoan David Klein, and me in Class 24. Our only interaction was being on an elevator together and only connection was my friendship with Klein, who shot Clerks and many other of Smith’s films, and Scott Mosier, who produced them. When they hit in 1994, I was back in Idaho attempting to wrangle together my own ’90s indie hit to no avail. After the requisite amount of youthful envy, I stepped back and just enjoyed watching these guys capture early success and in that was able to witness the early steps toward where Smith finds himself today. Say what you will about the films — I know I’ve … Read the rest

THE MICROBUDGET CONVERSATION: DIRTY WORD

By John Yost

It seems that this column is really starting to draw out a conversation from us micro-budget folks, and beyond; I couldn’t be happier. There seems to be a lot of dialogue happening in the comments, and I’m getting constant feedback from filmmakers from all over the world who are trying to make a new DIY model work. Every once and a while I get requests from some folks who want to contribute to the column itself. Many times these requests come from publicists, or folks just looking to sell themselves, but every once and a while a real dialogue is jump started, and a new friend made. Christopher Boghosian is one of those folks. Chris is a filmmaker who works and lives in L.A., and our first conversations were about the no-budget scene in one of the biggest film cities in the world. Chris is currently working on his first feature Girlfriend 19 (pictured below), and was eager to share his thoughts on micro-budget budgets.

Why do filmmakers continue to get lost in the budget abyss?  Why do they talk about thousands, even millions of dollars as though it were nothing? Like a massive bear trap, unrealistic budgets continue to seize and maim far too many filmmakers.

I too was trapped. After leaving law school to make films, I spun my wheels conceiving of and writing scripts that demanded way too much.  Frustrated and ashamed, my break-through came when I stopped thinking “outside” the box and embraced it instead! If excellence is doing the best with what one has, then I needed to accept my limitations, especially finances. I call it “thinking outside the box, inside the box.” This paradox is the single biggest reason I made three short films in two years and I am now in post-production on a feature.

The value of art lies in execution, not materials, thus, a small budget does not necessarily mean a bad film. The elements that make a film great have little to do with budget, e.g., narrative craft, camera placement, and acting. I know what you’re thinking: to place the camera a certain way, or hire … Read the rest

WE ARE THE NIGHT

By James Ponsoldt

The Myth of the American Sleepover has seduced audiences from Austin to Cannes with the intimacy of its look at a group of teenagers during one long, magical summer night. Writer-director David Robert Mitchell and his team discuss the film’s journey to the screen. By James Ponsoldt

INDUSTRY BEAT: THE NEW STUDIO INDIES

By Anthony Kaufman

The New Studio Indies. By Anthony Kaufman