SXSW REVEALS FULL 2012 FEATURE FILM LINEUP

By Dan Schoenbrun

SXSW has announced their complete 2012 feature film slate. Over 90 films will screen across the festival’s ten categories, including the already announced opening night premiere of Joss Whedon’s Cabin in the Woods and a special preview screening of Lena Dunham’s new HBO series Girls.

New additions include the sixteen films premiering in narrative and documentary competition. The eight films competing on the narrative side include Booster, directed by Matt Ruskin, Eden, directed by Megan Griffiths, Gayby, directed by Jonathan Lisecki, Gimme the Loot, directed by Adam Leon, Los Chidos, directed by Omar Rodriguez Lopez, Pilgrim Song, directed by Martha Stephens, Starlet, directed by Sean Baker, and The Taiwan Oyster, directed by Mark Jarrett.

On the documentary side, the eight competing films include Bay of All Saints, directed by Annie Eastman, Beware of Mr. Baker, directed by Jay Bulger, The Central Park Effect, directed by Jeffrey Kimball, Jeff, directed by Chris James Thompson, Seeking Asian Female, directed by Debbie Lum, The Sheik and I, directed by Caveh Zahedi, The Source, directed by Jodi Wille & Maria Demopoulos, and Welcome to the Machine, directed by Avi Zev Weider.

Other lineup highlights include the world premieres of Nelson George’s The Announcement, Adele Romanski’s Leave Me Like You Found Me, Tim Sutton’s Pavilion, Jay & Mark Duplass’ Do-Deca-Pentathalon, Matthew Lillard’s Fat Kid Rules the World, and a special in-progress screening of Drew Denicola’s documentary Big Star: Nothing Can Hurt Me.

The full feature film lineup:

NARRATIVE FEATURE COMPETITION

This year’s 8 films were selected from 1,112 submissions. Each film is a World Premiere.

Booster
Director/Screenwriter: Matt Ruskin
When Simon’s brother is arrested for armed robbery, he is asked to commit a string of similar crimes in an attempt to get his brother acquitted.
Cast: Nico Stone, Adam DuPaul, Seymour Cassel, Kristin Dougherty, Brian McGrail (World Premiere)

Eden
Director: Megan Griffiths, Screenwriters: Richard B. Phillips, Megan … Read the rest

FIVE QUESTIONS FOR “JEFF, WHO LIVES AT HOME” WRITER-DIRECTORS MARK AND JAY DUPLASS

Last year Mark and Jay Duplass ventured into the world of studio filmmaking when they made the dramedy Cyrus for Fox Searchlight. At this year’s TIFF the Duplass brothers and Searchlight will premiere their next effort, Jeff, Who Lives at Home, starring Jason Segel, Ed Helms and Susan Sarandon.

Filmmaker: Tell us a little about what your film is about?

Duplass Bros: It’s about a 30 year-old guy named Jeff (Jason Segel) who believes, heavily, in fate. He bides his time in his mom’s basement, eagerly awaiting the day that the universe will deliver his destiny upon him. When his mom sends him out one morning to get some wood glue, Jeff starts getting some signs that today might be his big day.

Filmmaker: What were the motivations behind telling this story?

Duplass Bros: We’ve always loved the idea of what we call the “epically small” in movies… that there are big, funny, beautiful things happening in the most boring and unexpected of places. In many ways, Jeff is a grand, sweeping adventure story about two brothers (Segel and Ed Helms) finding themselves and their place in the world. It just happens to be set in the banal strip malls of middle america instead of in space (or Narnia).

Filmmaker: Did you always have Jason Segel in mind to play Jeff?

Duplass Bros: Jason came to mind very early on. The character of Jeff is very unique. Yes, he’s a stoner. But he’s a believer, and he’s sad, but he also needed to be inherently funny to watch. Jason is such a complex and wonderful person. He really got that combination of “funny sad” that was required for this character.

Filmmaker: What do you hope audiences will take away from your film?

Duplass Bros: Life can be awesome. It may suck and disappoint most of the time, but sometimes it’s fucking awesome and full of incredible surprises.

Filmmaker: What’s the biggest lesson you learned from making Cyrus and how did it help you with making Jeff, Who Lives at Home?

Duplass Bros: Our movies are about the people … Read the rest

JAY DUPLASS TALKS KEVIN GANT

By Lauren Wissot

While I usually avoid Q&As (due to my impatience with too many audience members making statements rather than asking actual questions) I’m glad I stuck around after the screening of Jay Duplass’s short biopic Kevin, if only to meet the doc’s admirable director and arrange for an interview later. Unlike other filmmakers attending this year’s Arizona Int’l Film Festival, Duplass wasn’t in Tucson to publicize his film, per se, so much as to promote its subject Kevin Gant (who also showed up to treat us to a post-screening acoustic set), the Duplass brothers’ musical hero in the early ’90s who seemingly vanished from the Austin scene and into obscurity way back in 1995. Due to an insurmountable time difference — Duplass is based in L.A. while I’m reporting from Amsterdam — we spoke briefly via email about several issues both onscreen and off that Kevin the doc and the artist himself bring up. Also, check out Duplass’s Kickstarter campaign for a feature documentary on Gant, now in its final hours.

Filmmaker: Kevin truly is a fascinating and charismatic character — so much so that I wanted to see more of him. Are you looking to develop the short into a feature at some point? Will you be filming his comeback tour?

Duplass: We are continuing to film him, and thinking about whether or not it will become a feature documentary, and how that might look and feel. There are so many more fascinating Kevin stories from his past that would be great fit in if we had a bigger movie.

Filmmaker: What I love about Kevin is that as a director you honestly wear your subjectivity on your sleeve. This isn’t cinema verite by any stretch of the imagination. You’ve gotten involved with your subject on a personal level, using the film as a means to an end — staging Kevin’s musical comeback. In the doc you even discuss having reservations about becoming so involved in the story you’re shooting. How have your feelings changed (or not) over the process?

Duplass: Well, we were lucky enough that Kevin’s “comeback” … Read the rest

THE DUPLASS BROTHERS TALK STUDIOS AND SNUGGLING

Alica Van Couvering’s interview with Mark and Jay Duplass in the current issue of Filmmaker was conducted at the Sundance Film Festival, where their latest film, Cyrus, premiered. Starring John C. Reilly, Marisa Tomei and Jonah Hill, the film is a comedy/drama about mid-life romance and the borderline aggro-child that stands in its way. Alicia’s interview was filmed by Zak Forsman, Kevin Shah and the Sabi Pictures team, and here’s an edit of their conversation. See more videos on our YouTube channel. The film opens Friday, June 18.

… Read the rest

“BAGHEAD” writer-directors, Mark and Jay Duplass

Penis size was definitely an issue on Baghead. In fact, we could have used a LOT more than 10 percent extra, but we would have been glad to have as much as we could get. Now please don’t think we’re superficial. We generally don’t concern ourselves with such things. We’ve traditionally viewed ourselves as nice, sweet brothers who lean toward more personal, relationship-oriented films like The Puffy Chair. Maybe we were even better off making these sensitive films with the limited equipment God gave us, you know? But Baghead turned out to be one demanding, feisty little bugger. And we just didn’t quite have the manpower to get the film under our control. In the end, Baghead broke loose from our feeble reigns and became what it wanted to become, and we sat back in fear and watched it happen.

Next time we’re thinking of hiring Vincent Gallo (haven’t personally seen Brown Bunny, but we hear good things).

[PREMIERE SCREENING: Tuesday, Jan. 22, 8:30 pm -- Prospector Square Theatre, Park City]… Read the rest

PUFFED UP

By Scott Macaulay

The Duplass Brothers have launched a website for their new movie, The Puffy Chair, which was one of the films spotlighted at the DIY distribution panel I moderated a couple of weeks ago. Their film will be out this summer in a unique deal in which Netflix partnered with the filmmakers and Roadside Attractions.

The film’s trailer is below.

… Read the rest

I POD

By Scott Macaulay

The distribution panel I moderated last week is now a podcast. (If I had known this was to be archived on all of your hard drives, I probably would have been more concise in my questions…)

Click on the link above to hear Caveh Zahedi, Jay Duplass, Susan Leber and me discuss the treacherous shoals of DIY distribution and offer some hard-earned advice to all of you aspiring directors and producers out there. For a print preview, here’s what Indiewire’s Eugene Hernandez had to say about it.… Read the rest

NOTES ON THE DISTRIBUTION PANEL

By Scott Macaulay

I posted below a response to Sujewa in the comments section, but I thought I’d repost it here along with a few notes coming out of the panel I moderated last night sponsored by the IFP entitled “Distribution Now! Distribution How?” Prompted by IFC’s opening of Caveh Zahedi’s I am a Sex Addict this week, the panel brought Zahedi together with two other filmmakers – Susan Leber, producer of Down to the Bone, and Jay Duplass, writer/director of the upcoming The Puffy Chair, whose films took the long road to getting their features in theaters. (Down to the Bone opened last year from Laemmle/Zellner distribution, and The Puffy Chair shows up in June from Roadside Attractions in partnership with Netflix.)

My response to Sujewa: “The panel went really well, I thought, although maybe someone in the audience would be a better person to answer that question. I thought the panelists were all smart, articulate, candid and funny (the latter of which is important to keep people’s attention). I think the audience was surprised and perhaps a tiny bit bummed out the financial bleakness of it all — there were some folks there who are putting together their own films and seeking investors, and the makers of both Puffy Chair and Down to the Bone both said that they forgoed some sure revenue in the ancillary markets in order to gamble on the theatrical releases. There was some good demystification going on too in terms of the role of festivals and prestigious sales agents — they are all key parts of the process, but at the same time, they are no guarantees as the filmmakers explained.

At the end of the day, I hope people took away from it that one’s passion for making a film has to also drive the distribution as well.”

And some notes from the panel:

1. Two of the three filmmakers used a producer’s rep – in both cases, Cinetic Media – to sell their films at their festival premieres. Leber premiered at Sundance without a rep and picked up Stephen Raphael after … Read the rest