Filmmaker recently moved from Blogger to Wordpress and also changed servers. I posted previously about this but from my recent trip to SXSW it seems that many people didn't know. (I was asked by several people why I stopped blogging.) So, if you are reading this, please take a moment and change your Filmmaker blog bookmark to this:

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# posted by Scott Macaulay @ 3/16/2010 11:56:00 PM Comments (0)

... we are in the midst of moving to Wordpress. For the next week or so the Filmmaker blog is being mirrored in two places. New posts are here. After this move is complete this URL will be the correct one again. Sorry for any confusion.

# posted by Scott Macaulay @ 3/03/2010 03:35:00 PM Comments (0)

The Film Society of Lincoln Center and Museum of Modern Art have announced the films selected for this year's New Directors/New Films.

In its 39th year, the series, taking place March 24 - April 4 at the Walter Reade Theater at Lincoln Center and the Roy and Niuta Titus Theaters at MoMA, will screen 38 films from emerging filmmakers.

Richard Press's documentary Bill Cunningham New York will be the opening film, while acclaimed Canadian writer-director Xavier Dolan will close ND/NF with the New York premiere of I Killed My Mother (J'ai tué ma mère).

For tickets and more on ND/NF, click here.

The full list of films are below.



OPENING NIGHT
Bill Cunningham New York
Richard Press, USA, 2010; 84 min.
In a city of dedicated originals, New York Times photographer Bill Cunningham stands out as one who both captures the essence of the singular personality and clearly represents one himself. Entering his ninth decade, Cunningham still rides his Schwinn around Manhattan, putting miles between his street-level view of personal style and what the titans of fashion will come to discover down the road. This heartfelt and honest documentary turns the camera on one who has so lovingly and selflessly captured the looks that have defined generations, and the events and people that captivate our beloved New York.
Wednesday, March 24 - 7:00 p.m. (MoMA)
Thursday, March 25 - 9:15 p.m. (FSLC)

CLOSING NIGHT
I Killed My Mother (J'ai tué ma mère)
Xavier Dolan, Canada, 2009; 96 min.
Director Xavier Dolan's cri de coeur bracingly exposes the limits of love. Dolan himself plays the lead character, Hubert, a fiery creature full of lust and venom. His burgeoning (homo)sexuality is distinctly and intensely at odds with his mutually parasitic maternal relationship. The more Hubert and his aggravatingly conventional mother (Anne Dorval) realize they cannot continue to live as child and parent, the more they are drawn to each other. Their intimacy can only manifest through vicious arguments, lending an Albee-esque absurdity to their encounters. Dolan brilliantly situates the violence of the relationship within an exquisite filmic structure, allowing the humor and the pathos of his tale to emerge. A Regent Releasing Film
Sunday, April 4 - 7:00 p.m. (MoMA)

3 Backyards
Eric Mendelsohn, USA, 2010; 85 min.
Eric Mendelsohn (Judy Berlin, ND/NF 1999) returns with this exquisite, unsettling trio of life-changing episodes set in a leafy, tranquil corner of Long Island suburbia. After his business trip is canceled, John (Elias Koteas) finds himself minutes from home yet lost and distanced from everything familiar. Part-time painter and full-time mom Peggy (Edie Falco) is delighted when asked by a celebrity neighbor for a lift to a distant ferry, but the trip has a trajectory profoundly different than what she'd expected. And when 8-year-old Christina (Rachel Resheff) runs to school after missing the bus, the journey takes her to places she never imagined existed. Endowed with the mystery of a John Cheever short story, 3 Backyards is a beautifully composed film, with light, color, sound, and action blending together to create the vibrant sense of a world full of interior and exterior secrets.
Looking at Animals
Marc Turtletaub, USA, 2009; 25 min.
After a lifetime photographing animals in the wild, Raymond retires to a small town and starts observing his neighbors.

Amer
Hélène Cattet/Bruno Forzani, Belgium/France, 2009; 90 min.
The title is the French word for "bitter" but this provocative and sensational debut is anything but. An oneiric, eroticized homage to 1970s Italian giallo horror movies reimagined as an avant-garde trance film, Hélène Cattet and Bruno Forzani's pastiche tour de force plays out a delirious, enigmatic, almost wordless death-dance of fear and desire. Its three movements, each in a different style, correspond to the childhood, adolescence, and adulthood of its female protagonist-and that's all you need to know. Drawing its stylized, hyperbolic gestures from the playbooks of Bava, Leone, Argento, and De Palma and taking them into a realm of near-abstraction, Amer has genre in the blood. Its bold widescreen compositions, super focused sound, emphatic music (lifted from original giallo soundtracks), and razor sharp cuts make for an outrageous and intoxicating cinematic head trip.
Catafalque
Christoph Rainer, Austria, 2010; 13 min.
For two boys locked in a basement, boundaries become blurred between dream and reality, light and shadow, life and death.

Beautiful Darling: The Life and Times of Candy Darling, Andy Warhol Superstar
Written and directed by James Raisin, USA, 2010; 82 min.
Born James Slattery in Massapequa, Long Island, in 1944, Candy Darling transformed herself into a stunning blonde actress who in the mid-Sixties became an active player in New York's "downtown" scene. In her passionate act of self-creation, Candy Darling mesmerized. A party fixture, she appeared in Warhol films, and Tennessee Williams cast her in a play. She was seen and written about, and then, before she turned 30, cancer claimed her life. Using vintage footage and interviews old and new, and anchored by the presence of Candy's very close friend, Jeremiah Newton, director James Rasin creates a critical and loving portrait of a singular and audacious life. With Jackie Curtis, Holly Woodlawn, Penny Arcade, Paul Morrissey, Fran Lebowitz, John Waters. Candy's letters and diaries read by Chloë Sevigny.
Slate
Carmen Vidal, USA/Spain, 2010; 15 min.
A film editor working late finds himself mysteriously drawn to the raw footage he is cutting.

Bilal's Stand
Sultan Sharrief, USA, 2009; 83 min.
For almost 60 years, Bilal's family has run a taxi business-known to everybody in the neighborhood as "the stand"-started by his grandfather. But times are getting tougher: there's more competition, and Bilal is thinking of leaving the stand and going off to university. Based on a true story, Bilal's Stand is a delightful and moving look at a world rarely seen: a stable, loving, black Muslim family, struggling to keep a business alive amid both internal and external pressures. For his crew, debut director Sultan Sharrief used many of the students from EFEX, the inner-city outreach program he founded in his native Detroit, as well as many nonprofessional actors, some of whom even play themselves.

Dogtooth
2009. Greece. Directed by Yorgos Lanthimos. A Kino release. 96 min.
The most perverse film of the year-you'll be scratching your head when you're not laughing it off. In an inscrutable scenario that suggests a warped experiment in social conditioning and control, Dogtooth presents scenes from the life of a not-so-average family that inhabits an idyllic villa compound sealed off from all contact with the outside world. In a new spin on home schooling, the head of the household has taught his adolescent children a drastically rearranged vocabulary: a salt shaker is a "telephone," an armchair is "the sea" and-you get the idea. Moreover, to attend to the teenagers' sexual needs, he arranges occasional visits from a female employee. With echoes of Buñuel, Arturo Ripstein and early Atom Egoyan, this is a deadpan satire on patriarchy and the sexual Pandora's box concealed within every family.
Quadrangle
Amy Grappell, USA, 2010; 20 min.
An unconventional look at the director's conventional parents, who lived in a group marriage in the '70s.

Down Terrace
Ben Wheatley, UK, 2009; 89 min.
Mike Leigh meets The Sopranos in this extraordinary family crime drama, shot in eight days largely in one location. Fresh out of jail, Bill (Robert Hill) is obsessed with finding out who snitched on him. His son, Karl (Robin Hill), also just released, is similarly concerned but has other things on his mind-namely, what to do about his pregnant girlfriend. Bill, eager to ferret out the informer, lays out a series of traps and ruses for his associates-that is, when he's not singing old Fairport Convention songs while accompanying himself on guitar. Director Ben Wheatley (BBC's The Wrong Door) makes a powerful feature-film debut, creating an astonishing sense of normalcy laced with jet-black humor. A Magnolia Pictures/Magnet release.
Break a Leg
Jesse Shamata, Canada, 2009; 7 min.
You talking to me? A tightly wound hit-man meets his mark for breakfast.

The Evening Dress (La robe du soir)
Myriam Aziza, France, 2009; 95 min.
Juliette lives with her two siblings and mother, and while a bit shy, seems to lead an average life. Then she develops a crush on her French teacher, Madame Solenska (Belgian-Portuguese singer Lio), who at first seems to appreciate her pupil's admiration. Juliette becomes convinced that she's as special to Madame Solenska as she feels the teacher is to her. But the crush veers off into obsession, as Juliette starts to follow Madame Solenska around town and even to her home. Myriam Aziza beautifully captures the stifing small-town atmosphere, as well as the complex, contradictory emotional life of this twelve-year old: even if Juliette's feelings are misguided or naïve, they are no less susceptible to being hurt. Lio is terrific as the teacher, a proud woman comfortable with her beauty.

Every Day Is a Holiday (Chaque jour est une fête)
Dima El-Horr, France/Germany/Lebanon, 2009; 90 min.
A stunning first scene immediately establishes the highly charged atmosphere in Dima El-Horr's carefully controlled first feature, filled with absurd moments and symbolic gestures. Three women (Hiam Abbass, Manal Khader, Raïa Haïdar) with very different motives board a bus on the Lebanese Day of Liberation to visit their husbands in jail. When the bus is stopped short by a stray bullet, the women are left to find their own way in the hot sun through mountains full of mines, amid sounds of muffled explosions, throngs of refugees, and rumors of massacres. Their perilous journey becomes an internal one towards liberation, as individual life and collective memory blend, and the personal and political are blurred.
Felicità
SaloméAleksi, Georgia, 2009; 30 min.
A Georgian woman working in Italy finds a very modern way to uphold a custom from her old homeland. A microcosm of relations in the global economy.

The Father of My Children
Mia Hansen-Løve, France/Germany, 2009; 110 min.
Inspired by the life and death of the late, legendary French film producer Humbert Balsam, Mia Hansen-Løve's film is a work of two halves. The first follows the business dealings of Grégoire (Louis-Do de Lencquesaing), frantically shuttling between office and home, juggling the demands of artistic egos, lawyers, and bankers and the needs of his beloved family-not to mention his surrogate family at work. Then the focus shifts dramatically to Grégoire's wife Sylvia (Chiara Caselli), who together with her three daughters, must cope with devastating loss and struggle to keep Grégoire's company going and preserve his legacy. If the first half of this moving yet never sentimental drama is among the most convincing depictions of life in the movie business ever filmed, the second is an incredibly tender look at picking up the pieces after heartbreaking bereavement. An IFC Films release.


Frontier Blues
Babak Jalali, Iran/UK/Italy, 2009; 95 min.
Iran's northern border ranges from mountains to plains to the Caspian Sea; Persians, Turkmen, and Kazakhs share the landscape. Filmmaker Babak Jalali presents an assortment of hometown stories that evoke the potential and diversity of this unfulfilled gateway between Europe and Asia. Alam is in love with a girl he has never spoken to; Kazem owns a clothing store but can't seem to stock anything that fits; and Hassam, at age 30, counts a pet donkey and a tape player as his only companions. Meanwhile, a minstrel who claims his wife was stolen by someone in a green Mercedes years ago is chronicled by a Tehran photographer. With a cinematic style that is a study in elegant simplicity, Frontier Blues is a sweet, slightly absurdist snapshot of desperate men, absent women, and waiting for whatever the future may hold.
The Bizarre Friends of Ricardinho
Augusto Canani, Brazil, 2009; 20 min.
A weird trainee. A stifling job. In the midst of corporate oppression, a worker passively fights back with stories from home.

The Happiest Girl in the World
Radu Jude, The Netherlands/Romania, 2009; 99 min.
Romanians are back with another bone-dry, pitch-black comedy-this time bearing a particularly cynical view on happiness, the cruelty of families, and the making of inept television commercials. In his feature-film debut, Radu Jude is already a master of uneasy hilarity. When a plucky provincial duckling of a young lady wins a contest, she must travel with her parents to the buzzing metropolis of Bucharest to claim her prize. But there's a catch-in fact, there are several, the most troublesome aimed straight from home... Jude's film is a bittersweet experience that's as nasty as it is enjoyable, and as true to life as fiction can get over one hot summer afternoon. And as "the happiest girl," Andrea Bosneag is a breakthrough discovery.
Logorama
François Alaux, Hervé de Crécy, and Ludovic Houplain, France, 2009; 17 min.
Cops and robbers and wild animals, oh my! Brought to you by every possible sponsor under the sun.

How I Ended This Summer
Alexei Popogrebsky, Russia, 2010; 124m
Immersing us in the frozen wilds of the Russian Arctic, writer/director Alexei Popogrebsky makes an impressive addition to the canon of films about man's extraordinary ability to cope with harsh nature and extreme isolation. Young Pavel (Grigory Dobrygin) arrives at a remote research station for a summer of adventure under the tutelage of the wise and crusty Sergei (Sergei Puskepalis), whose multi-year assignment to the post is coming to an end. Misplaced confidence and youthful immaturity lead to a string of potentially deadly deceptions. The deliberate pace of life in the Arctic, combined with the disorienting round-the-clock sunlight, sets the stage for a thriller infused with equal parts psychological trauma and physical endurance.

Hunting & Sons
Sander Burger, Netherlands, 2010; 93 min.
Newlyweds and childhood sweethearts Tako and Sandra lead a cute suburban life. Tako relocated from the city to marry Sandra and runs the family bike business; she seems happy working at a small employment agency. Both the couple and their apartment look ripped from this season's Ikea catalogue-everything is perfectly lovely. Then things get even better: Sandra is pregnant. But the good news starts a small tear in the adorable façade that grows as the characters pull at it. Tako decides to take this opportunity to grow up, while Sandra, suffering from an eating disorder, starts to slim down-and the pretty scenery of their life starts to fall away. Panicked about the future, Tako takes measures that become more and more drastic. In his second feature film, director Sander Burger paints a sharp and biting portrait of the pitfalls of happiness.
Rob and Valentyna in Scotland
Eric Lynne, USA/UK, 2009; 23 min.
Long-lost - and just plain lost - cousins travel from the Ukraine to the Scottish highlands.

I Am Love
Luca Guadagnino, Italy, 2009; 120 min.
Luca Guadagnino's third narrative feature is a thrillingly melodramatic story of family business-in more ways than one. Set in the haut bourgeois world of modern-day Milan, the film ushers us into the seemingly perfect world of sumptuous elegance inhabited by the Recchi dynasty, whose fortune is built on its successful textile manufacturing business. After the firm's founder and patriarch transfers co-control of the business to his son Tancredi and grandson Edoardo, Tancredi's wife, Emma (Tilda Swinton), feels pangs of empty-nest syndrome and a growing sense of living in a gilded cage-until she finds herself led down an unlikely path by unexpectedly stirring desire. This compelling yet oh-so restrained drama of the eternal conflict between family ties and personal fulfillment unfolds with dazzling visual style, propelled by John Adam's distinctive staccato score. A Magnolia Pictures release.

Last Train Home
Lixin Fan, Canada/China, 2009; 88 min.
Each year the largest migration of people in human history happens over New Year's when city workers leave en masse for their homes in the countryside, often traveling days by train. For the first half of this remarkable documentary, you'll wonder how the filmmaker even shot it. But as that wonder subsides, an absorbing drama develops-a drama that plays out among families all over China yet is universally intense, powerful, and heartbreaking. With his 35mm camera, Lixin Fan follows one couple (out of one hundred and thirty million travelers!): the Zhangs, who make the long and crowded journey to their rural village. Sixteen years ago, they left their now-teenage rebellious daughter with her grandparents-and their welcome is not a happy one.
Snow Hides the Shade of Fig Trees
Samer Najari, Canada, 2009; 21 min.
Six immigrants eke out a living with humor. The bitter cold weakens the resolve of one, but not for long.

The Man Next Door (El hombre de al lado)
Mariano Cohn/Gastón Duprat, Argentina; 2009; 100 min.
The star of this dry and wicked black comedy is a building: The Curutchet House in La Plata, south of Buenos Aires-the only residence designed by Le Corbusier in the Americas. In this Argentine satire about class, the love of beautiful things, and violent urges, the landmark structure plays the fictional home of world-famous interior designer Leonardo and his wife and daughter. All cherish the privileged status conferred by living in the house. Then, horror strikes: a neighbor who wants more sun puts a window in the wall facing the family's courtyard! Suddenly, aesthetic symmetry is destroyed, and the neighbor-too friendly, too crude, and too insistent-can now peer into their pristine and elegant abode. With scalpel-like precision, filmmakers Mariano Cohn and Gaston Duprat chart the ebb and flow of this dramatic disturbance.
Suha
Robby Reis, Canada, 2009; 8 min.
A young graffiti writer marks her way through Montreal's graffiti art subculture.

My Perestroika
Robin Hessman, USA/UK, 2010; 87 min.
The history of the 20th century was bookended by the Bolshevik Revolution and the collapse of the Soviet Union, and in between came the era-defining Cold War. But for Russians who grew up during this history and now live beyond it, what does it mean to be Russian today? Robin Hessman's thoughtful and beautifully crafted documentary explores the lives of a group of former schoolmates who are finding their ways in a brave new world: two teachers, a businessman, a single mother, and a famous rock musician. Their stories, and the fabric of their lives, reveal a Russia that may or may not be worlds away from the Soviet model. Using propaganda films, home movies, and incredible access to her subjects, Hessman's film creates a touching portrait of ordinary people living through extraordinary times.

Night Catches Us
Tanya Hamilton, USA, 2009; 90 min.
The debut feature from Tanya Hamilton exposes the realities of African-American life during the final days of the Black Power movement, as potluck suppers, run-ins with the authorities, and lingering radicalism threaten to set off a neighborhood teetering on the edge. Set in Philadelphia in 1976, Night Catches Us focuses on two former Black Panther activists (Anthony Mackie and Kerry Washington) who reunite during the summer before Jimmy Carter's election. Through two people drawn together despite their past, the film paints a fresh perspective of the era and gives an allegory for our own times in the age of Obama. As friends forced to confront personal and political demons, Mackie and Washington give spectacular performances, while Hamilton's use of an intense soundtrack (by The Roots) and moving archival footage bring to life the history of black resistance.

Northless (Norteado)
Dima El-Horr, France/Germany/Lebanon, 2009; 93 min.
Cinema's fascination with illegal border crossings between Mexico and the United States is given a totally fresh take in Rigoberto Perezcano's delicately poised film. Focused on how life is lived precariously between desperate attempts to cross over, the story follows Oaxaca-born Andres (Harold Torres) as he bides his time in Tijuana. He finds a little work at a convenience store and gets friendly with the two women (Alicia Laguna and Sonia Couoh) who run it. As their friendship deepens and their individual stories emerge, the emotional costs of the ties that bind are explored with great sensitivity. The sincerity of the minimal story line is balanced by a liberating humor and breathtakingly beautiful images that give life and dignity to Andres and his fellow travelers.

The Oath
Laura Poitras, USA, 2010; 95 min.
Filmed over a two-year period, The Oath interweaves the stories of Abu Jandal, Osama bin Laden's former bodyguard (now driving a cab in Yemen), and Salim Hamdan, a Guantanamo Bay prisoner charged with war crimes. Filmmaker Laura Poitras (My Country, My Country, ND/NF 2006) takes us deep inside the world of Al Qaeda, Guantanamo, and U.S. interrogation methods through a dramatic structure filled with plot reversals, betrayals, and never-before-seen intelligence documents. The second in a planned trilogy on America post-9/11, The Oath is an intricately constructed work that keeps the viewer off balance and works on several levels. Shading the complexities of her subjects in the manner of great novelists, Poitras delivers an intimate portrait that precludes easy conclusions as it builds to question the methods of America's war on terror with uncommon eloquence.

La Pivellina
Tizza Covi/Rainer Frimmel, Austria, 2009; 101 min.
Looking for her lost dog, a middle-aged circus worker, Patti (Patrizia Gerardi), instead finds an abandoned two-year old child near her trailer. In this engaging unsentimental tale of human decency and solidarity, the little orphan finds home and family with circus folks in a trailer park on the outskirts of Rome. As they look for the mother, Patti and her friends and neighbors slowly but surely fall in love with the kid. Drawing on their background in documentary, filmmakers Tizza Covi and Rainer Frimmel naturally depict the easygoing rapport among generations in a small community where everyone depends on one another. The superb acting brings us close to a marginalized group rarely depicted with such unpretentious dignity, displaying a joie de vivre and infectious family vibe.

The Red Chapel
Mads Brügger, Denmark, 2009; 87 min.
Denmark launches an all-out attack on North Korea in this has-to-be-seen-to-be-believed documentary that ventures into territory somewhere between Michael Moore and Borat. Bankrolled by Lars von Trier's Zentropa production company, the aptly named Mads Brügger travels to Pyongyang on a feigned mission of cultural exchange, bringing a camera crew and the Danish-Korean slapstick-comedy team Red Chapel. The duo consists of Simon, who aims to perform an acoustic rendition of Oasis's "Wonderwall" accompanied by a choir of Korean schoolgirls, and Jacob, a self-described "spastic" whose mangled speech is incomprehensible to the minders assigned to "assist" the troupe. And while the duped hosts get more than they bargain for-a lot more-the Danish visitors find things aren't as ethically clear-cut as they'd prefer them to be.

Samson and Delilah
Warwick Thornton, Australia, 2009; 101 min.
Samson (Rowan McNamara) and Delilah (Marissa Gibson) are two young people struggling to find themselves and each other. Set in the aboriginal communities of Australia, what might have been an age-old love story explodes cliché and convention through unvarnished and unyielding authenticity. Director Warwick Thornton-who, like the principal cast, hails from aboriginal background-plunges us into red-dirt landscapes that serve in equal measure as oasis and prison. Traditions both nourish and entrap, and as boy and girl wrestle with a fate that may seem inevitable, love shows the way forward. Winner of the Caméra d'Or for best debut feature at the 2009 Cannes Film Festival.

Tehroun
Nader T.Homayoun, Iran/France, 2009; 95 min.
A man holds a sickly child in his arms, begging passersby for money with a tale of how his wife has recently died and he desperately needs help. We soon learn the man is Ibrahim, a recent arrival in the big city, and that the child isn't really his-the boy's actually rented from a local gang-lord to make Ibrahim a more effective beggar. Welcome to Tehroun, as Iranians call their capital city. Nader Homayoun's debut feature presents a searing portrait of the city's hidden, seamier side, a world of child trafficking, smuggling of just about anything, and assorted other criminal activities. A sensation in the Critics' Week at last year's Venice Film Festival, where it won the audience award, Tehroun marks a new chapter in the fascinating evolution of Iranian cinema.

Women Without Men
Shirin Neshat, Germany/Austria/France, 2009; 100 min.
Directed by Shirin Neshat in collaboration with Shoja Azari. Winner of the Silver Lion for best director at the 2009 Venice Film Festival, Shirin Neshat's feature-film debut represents an assured shift from the gallery-based moving images for which she is known, to the grand screen of the cinema. Devotees of Neshat's earlier work will recognize her signature visual virtuosity and narrative grace in the story of four women in early 1950s Iran, played by Pegah Ferydoni, Arita Shahrzad, Shabnam Tolouei, and Orsi Toth. Then as now, the ambitions and actions of these women from across the spectrum of Iranian society inform and affect the course of events-public, private, and often political. With history as a backdrop, and imagination extending the limits of lives lived under oppressive conditions, Neshat offers an exquisitely framed window onto these women's world. An Indiepix release.

# posted by Jason Guerrasio @ 2/25/2010 10:04:00 AM Comments (0)

FEBRUARY - shot on the Canon EOS 550D / Rebel T2i (preprod unit) from Nino Leitner on Vimeo.

From filmmaker Nino Leitner.

This short film, FEBRUARY, was shot on a pre-production unit of the new Canon EOS 550D / Rebel T2i. This is UNGRADED footage straight off the camera (converted to ProRes LT first for easy editing). I used a "flattened" picture style as outlined by Stu Maschwitz on his blog.

Check out his blog for a detailed review of the camera, which comes out next month and is priced at $799.

# posted by Scott Macaulay @ 2/25/2010 09:59:00 AM Comments (0)

Big news out of Sundance tonight: Keri Putnam, former President of Production at Miramax Films and Executive Vice President at HBO Films, has been named the new Executive Director of the Sundance Institute. The position was previously held by Ken Brecher, who left Sundance last April.

Keri is well known to many of us in the independent community for her leadership at Miramax and HBO, where she opened the door to both new directors as well as established veterans looking to explore new ideas that wouldn't fly in the mainstream studio system. Among the films she has been involved with are Elephant, There Will Be Blood, Adventureland, The Laramie Project, Lackawanna Blues, The Diving Bell and the Butterfly and If These Walls Could Talk. Keri, who I have worked with, is smart, passionate and dedicated, and this is, I think, a great choice for Sundance. Congratulations to both Keri and the Sundance Institute.

The complete press release is below.

Los Angeles, CA – Wally Weisman, Chairman of the Board of Sundance Institute, today announced the appointment of Keri Putnam as the Institute’s new Executive Director. Putnam, who recently served as President of Production for Miramax Films, the Walt Disney Company's specialty film division, has an extensive background in independent film production and acquisition, as well as years of experience in programming. Based in Los Angeles, Putnam is expected to start her new position in mid April reporting directly to the Institute’s Board of Trustees.

“Keri Putnam has a passion for the arts, a leading profile in the film community, and a stellar reputation for her intelligence, creativity, collaboration and leadership at the highest levels of business,” said Robert Redford, President and Founder, Sundance Institute. “Working together to expand our international presence, connect to new audiences, and experiment with emerging areas of artist support, I have every confidence Keri’s knowledge and talent will be critical to the fulfillment and expansion of the Institute’s mission and vision in the years ahead.”

Added Mr. Weisman, “The exceptional health of Sundance Institute afforded the Board the opportunity to take its time selecting the right person for this key position. With Keri ours was a unanimous, enthusiastic decision.”
As Executive Director, Putnam will oversee all programs of the twenty-nine year old, non-profit Sundance Institute, which include its Feature Film Program, Documentary Film Program, Sundance Film Festival, Film Music Program, Theatre Program, and Native and Indigenous Program. She will also be responsible for continuing the Institute’s international work, initiating strategic partnerships, cultivating relationships with foundations and corporate sponsors, and growing the Institute’s annual operating budget.

“Throughout my career I have witnessed the breadth and impact of the many programs of Sundance Institute, and I am both thrilled and privileged to become a part of this organization’s leading work,” Putnam said. “Sundance is truly unique not only for its mission but for its entire culture, brand and influence. This is an incredible opportunity for me personally and there is also tremendous potential for all of us -- staff, trustees, alumni and friends alike -- to explore new opportunities and expand on our global reputation. I can’t wait to get started.”

Well known throughout the independent and commercial film communities, Putnam has spent her career forging relationships with top producers, writers, directors and financiers worldwide. As President of Production, Putnam was responsible for all production, acquisitions, co-production and development at Miramax Films. During Putnam’s tenure there, Miramax Films won or was nominated for multiple Academy Awards, including the Best Picture Academy Award for the Coen Brothers’ No Country for Old Men and multiple nominee Julian Schnabel’s The Diving Bell and the Butterfly. Putnam was involved with several Miramax films with ties to Sundance artists such as Paul Thomas Anderson (There Will Be Blood), Greg Mottola (Adventureland), John Patrick Shanley (Doubt), Scott Frank (The Lookout), Ben Affleck (Gone Baby Gone), Stephen Frears (The Queen) and Lasse Hallström (The Hoax).

Putnam has worked closely with international artists from North America, Europe, Asia and Africa, focusing on discovering and supporting new talent, and has worked with a myriad of Sundance Institute alumni including Julian Jarrold (Becoming Jane), Moisés Kaufman (The Laramie Project), Taika Waititi (Eagle vs. Shark), and Allison Anders (Mi Vida Loca). She also came to the Sundance Film Festival with films she supervised directed by George C. Wolfe (Lackawanna Blues), Mira Nair (Hysterical Blindness) and Jane Anderson (Normal), among many others.

Prior to joining Miramax in 2006, Putnam was Executive Vice President, HBO Films, responsible for overseeing the development and production of films for both the cable network and for theatrical release. Among the theatrical films she supervised at HBO was Gus van Sant’s Palme d’Or winner Elephant. Putnam is credited for numerous HBO Emmy Award winners including Warm Springs, directed by Joseph Sargent and featuring Kenneth Branagh; The Life and Death of Peter Sellers, directed by Stephen Hopkins and starring Geoffrey Rush; Something the Lord Made, directed by Joseph Sargent and starring Alan Rickman; Empire Falls, directed by Fred Schepisi and co-starring Ed Harris and Paul Newman, and the Humanitas Prize winning The Girl in the Café written by Richard Curtis and directed by David Yates.

From 1996 to 1999, before being named Senior Vice President, HBO Films, Putnam served as Vice President, HBO NYC Productions. Under the HBO NYC banner, she was responsible for some of the division's most successful projects, including HBO's highest-rated original movie If These Walls Could Talk, directed by Sundance alumna Nancy Savoca; In the Gloaming, Christopher Reeve's directorial debut starring former Institute Trustee Glenn Close, and Subway Stories, executive produced by Jonathan Demme and Rosie Perez.

A graduate of Harvard, Putnam studied theater and began her career working for Williamstown Theater Festival, McCarter Theater, Arena Stage, the ART, and others. She lives in Los Angeles with her husband and two children.

About Sundance Institute: Founded by Robert Redford in 1981, Sundance Institute is a not-for-profit organization that fosters the development of original storytelling in film and theatre, and presents the annual Sundance Film Festival. Internationally recognized for its artistic development programs for directors, screenwriters, producers, film composers, playwrights and theatre artists, Sundance Institute has nurtured such projects as Angels in America, Spring Awakening, HOWL, Trouble the Water, Boys Don't Cry and Sin Nombre. www.sundance.org.

# posted by Scott Macaulay @ 2/25/2010 12:01:00 AM Comments (0)

Of all the people I know — artists, musicians, filmmakers — who make dark, dark things, the French director Philippe Grandrieux is the sunniest. In person, he projects a passionate joy about his filmmaking craft, and the disturbing events contained within his films are not projections of surface-level angst or garden-variety emotional torment but rather philosophical inquiries into our relationship with Nature, our bodies, and our selves. To hear him talk about his work is to realize that he comes from a line that includes De Sade, Blanchot, and Bataille as well as later post-structuralists like Gilles Deleuze. (Grandrieux's bloody work puts a different spin, in fact, on Deleuze's concept of the "body without organs.")

And then there's the other side of Grandrieux's work, one that, these days, is dominant. (In fact, my last paragraph's fixation on physical violence is perhaps unfair, because after his debut film, Sombre, which is about a serial killer, the violence in Grandrieux's later films, La Vie Nouvelle and Un Lac, has been growing more abstract and metaphoric in its presentation.) I'm speaking of demanding optics of his films, his interest in pushing the extremes of what is visible on the film screen. Sombre, which has what I can honestly say may be the best opening of any film ever, is photographed several stops under, and his latest, film, Un Lac, is also a literally dark film in which the projected image has the density of a sculptural object.

Here, at The Auteurs, is Glenn Kenny on the challenges of Grandrieux's work:

The sure-to-be controversial centerpiece of sorts of this year's Film Comment Selects screenings is a three-film retrospective comprising fiction features by French director Phillipe Grandrieux. So exacting and precise is Grandrieux with respect to the creation and projection of the cinematic image that he's been known to try to have the exit lights in theaters blacked out at screenings where he's in attendance. The immersion in total darkness is said to be particularly crucial to his latest picture, 2008's Un lac. The Grandrieux immersion occurs on Wednesday, February 24—a separate admission triple feature of sorts. It seems that each of the director's fiction films is less specific than the last in terms of time and place; Un lac is set in a forest in a territory somewhere in, we suppose, Europe...and features Russian actors speaking in heavily accented French. The film begins with its lead character, a young, rather pasty-faced young man, hacking away almost hysterically at something, with a tool of some sort. Given that Grandrieux's Sombre, the first of the troika screening at the Walter Reade, is an unusually harrowing picture about a serial killer, one cannot be blamed for being a little relieved that the object being hacked away at by the boy is a tree.

After the hacking, the boy falls into an epileptic seizure that proves, among other things, to be a not-particularly-efficient way of making a snow angel. Later, a handsome, non-epileptic fellow happens along and announce that he's here to "chop wood." He's also pretty attentive to the other young man's sister, for whom the epileptic boy seems to have something like an incestuous attraction.

Does this sound like a compendium of old-school art-cinema commonplaces, or, to use a less nice word, clichés to you? I'm not trying to create that impression, honest. And for all that Grandrieux is one of the most critically revered filmmakers working today. I'll tell you one thing: I can't hazard even trying to render a verdict here. (Aside from saying that Grandrieux is obviously a deliberately difficult, demanding auteur.) One could counter that the "story" isn't what Grandrieux is about; that with each successive film he has strove to make his imagery literally palpable, and that is finally what is important. But in order for the imagery to be palpable it has to be beautifully projected. (And another question: once the imagery is palpable, do the clichés of the "story" and "characters" become irrelevant? Or are they transcended?)

Here is a long and thoughtful interview with Grandrieux by Nicole Brenez. And make sure to check out his amazing website, which is an art object all its own. Grandrieux's films screen beginning today at 4:00PM at Lincoln Center. For the open-minded, adventurous lovers of challenging cinema and, yes, dark, dark things, they are are recommended. Click here for more info.





(Above: Grandrieux photographed by me at Newark airport, 2001).

# posted by Scott Macaulay @ 2/24/2010 11:00:00 AM Comments (0)

Here's the just-released trailer for Elijah Drenner's American Grindhouse, which plays SXSW next month.

# posted by Scott Macaulay @ 2/23/2010 12:00:00 PM Comments (0)

American Hardcore filmmakers Paul Rachman and Steven Blush have a new project: Lost Rockers, a documentary "about great musicians overlooked by pop culture." From the project's Kickstarter page:

LOST ROCKERS... offers insight into what it takes to “make it,” and why so many of equal talent to famous stars fall through the cracks. The film tells the life stories of these forgotten artists — of different eras, genres, creeds and orientations — from their doomed paths to fame to their ultimate redemption. You’ll experience amazing music you can’t believe you never heard.

LOST ROCKERS has only just begun. We’ve shot our first four interviews (Gloria Jones, Jake Holmes, David Peel and Dr. israel) with many more to come, including famous rock stars commenting on their lesser-known contemporaries. Completing our research and moving into the post-production phase will require travel across the US, UK and Europe.

I don't know whether it's the subject matter, the success of American Hardcore, or the fan base of the filmmakers, but they are already 38% of the way towards their goal of $15,000 just after the start of their campaign. You can join up with them by clicking below.

# posted by Scott Macaulay @ 2/23/2010 10:22:00 AM Comments (0)

The Wall Street Journal-hosted Venture Capital Dispatch blog linked to my article yesterday about the closing of independent film distributor and festival website service business B-Side Entertainment. Scott Austin's piece focused on comments made in the piece by CEO Chris Hyams and President of Distribution Paola Freccero about the company's fate at the hands of the VC funding model. The executives said that B-Side was on the road to being profitable but couldn't deliver large enough returns in the time period desired by financier Valhalla Partners.

Austin points to another B-Side investor: original Series A-funder Mike Maples, Jr. and his VC firm Silverton Partners. Maples and his firm invested $3.1 million in B-Side in 2006. Last week, Maples gave a talk at the Future of Funding conference about "Thunder Lizards," companies who, he said, "think different than other kinds of cmpanies. They exist to be huge in a very important future market, and there is no Plan B." The talk has generated a lot of buzz in the VC community.

From TechCrunch :

The talk is highly entertaining and thought provoking. He argues against the notion that startups that want to have a huge exit need to raise big money, noting that Microsoft raised just $1 million and eBay just $5 million, in venture capital.

He says small startups can be hugely disruptive, and have proportionally huge exits. he calls these companies Thunder Lizards. He’s talking about Godzilla, which eats his competitors and disrupts like crazy. These are the market leaders, he says. Second place is boring.

This is an entertaining talk, and it's a great window into the priorities and desires of a certain type of tech investor. Among the things Maples talks about are the imperative for new companies to be different than their competitors and for companies to have huge potential markets.

Venture Capital Blog recommends the talk for entrepreneurs. I'll recommend it to those who are seeking investment from these kind of entrepreneurs. It's just under an hour long and you can watch it below.

Thunder Lizard by Mike Maples Jr. from Adeo Ressi on Vimeo.

# posted by Scott Macaulay @ 2/23/2010 09:00:00 AM Comments (0)

B-side Entertainment, the Austin-based tech and distribution company that provides website services to film festivals, is closing. The company, which launched a New York-based distribution arm just 13 months ago, lost its funding from venture capital fund Valhalla Partners in late 2009. “We have spent the last four or five months looking for a [financing] alternative,” B-Side CEO and founder Chris Hyams told Filmmaker. “But we reached the end of our cash before we could secure new investment. We had to shut the company down.”

B-Side laid off the majority of its staff last week and throughout the weekend notified its filmmakers and festival partners. In the coming weeks Hyams and core staffers will seek new homes for B-Side’s films and its online festival scheduling service, Festival Genius.

In an interview, Hyams, President of Distribution Paola Freccero, and V.P. of Marketing Liz Ogilvie discussed the history of the company and recent events. Hyams launched B-Side in 2005 after working in the software industry as V.P. of Engineering at Trilogy. “I had spent 15 years in the software business, building huge websites for Fortune 500 companies,” he said. “At the end of 2004, Wikipedia was taking off and showing how groups of fans could create the largest encyclopedia in the world. I believed something like that could work in the film business. The goal was to build a business that connected directly with audiences — to help films be financially successful, and to do so in a way that was fair and transparent to filmmakers.”

B-Side’s first round of funding came from an early-stage VC fund in Austin, Texas. Said Hyams, “The [funders] said, ‘We don’t know anything about the movie business, but we think the idea of applying information science to a business with no access to that is intriguing.’”

The company’s initial thrust was in developing online festival guides that added social networking functions — audiences would rate films and trade recommendations — to a fest’s traditional assortment of informational and schedule materials. Said Ogilvie, “By doing the back-end of film festivals, B-Side used technology in order to explain how films connected to their audiences.”

The company did not charge festivals for running these sites. “The idea behind our business was to connect with audiences and filmmakers through the online program guides,” Hyams said. “[The festival business] gave us a direct line to audience opinion. We collected audience ratings and reviews for over 40,000 films on the festival circuit, and we built up a dedicated mailing list of people who love indie film.”

B-Side's user base was four million people annually, and the company ran websites for over 250 festivals, including the Sundance Film Festival, Silverdocs and Fantastic Fest.

B-Side also offered distribution and marketing services to filmmakers like Doug Benson, whose Super High Me was an early success. B-Side organized a grass-roots “Roll Your Own Screening” program for the marijuana-themed doc. Marshalling demand from viewers who connected to the film through B-Side’s site, the company coordinated a “peer-to-peer theatrical” release for Super High Me in over 1,000 alternative venues in a single day in 2008. B-Side partnered with Netflix’s Red Envelope and Screen Media, and Hyams says the entire campaign cost $8,000. “Every screening was planned, booked, and executed by the venue or an individual, not by us,” he said. “It was a ‘no P and no A’ release, but it had the impact of [traditional] theatrical. Super High Me grossed $3.5 million on home video.”

Encouraged by this success, B-Side raised second-round financing from Virgina-based Valhalla Partners in Fall, 2008, and hired Freccero, formerly of the Sundance Channel and Tribeca Enterprises, to head a New York-based distribution division. Said Hyams, “Our film distribution strategy was to use our market research to identify films [to be acquired] and then use our audience to help market these films. The distribution side of business looked almost like a straight-to-video business where the primary revenue was coming from DVD, VOD and television. But we were also handcrafting grassroots alternative theatrical releases.”

B-Side quickly acquired nine films, paying no advances but deducting no expenses and splitting revenue with the filmmakers 50/50. The diversification away from pure service work, however, had its challenges. Said Freccero, “On a tactical level, there were barriers. Every filmmaker wants to see their film distributed to traditional theaters. We believe in the power of people in a dark room, but we didn’t want to fall into the old trap of spending gargantuan amounts of money. When filmmakers heard that we didn’t do traditional theatrical distribution, they’d say, ‘Maybe I want to go with IFC or Magnolia, where I know my film will open in a traditional theater.’”

The company’s most recent release, however, did open in a traditional theater. Still Bill, a documentary about soul singer Bill Withers by directors Damani Baker and Alex Vlack, played the IFC Center in January where it grossed $12,500 in its first week. “It was our first opening in New York with a New York Times review,” said Hyams.

Freccero says the specialty film business’s fixation on the traditional theatrical release was ultimately detrimental to B-Side. “When it comes to the DVD world and to some extent VOD, statistics drive sales, so when you have a film that is not reported on Rentrak, it doesn’t matter that it had 900 engagements across the country. Video buyers just know it is not on Rentrak.” Hyams also points out that B-Side’s acquisitions have played traditional theaters alongside alternative venues. “Lots of arthouse theaters around the country have been embracing our model all along,” he said. “Tim League at the Alamo Drafthouse has played all of our films.”

Still, B-Side’s films were never heavily advertised in traditional media, and its opt-out of traditional P&A spends, while curtailing costs, made it hard for the company to achieve the visibility of its distributor competitors. “I don’t think quarter-page ads in the New York Times make that big a difference when you are targeting small niche audiences,” Freccero said. “But from a perception standpoint, sure, if we had spent more money on films we would have closed contracts faster and caused some bigger films to come our way. But it wouldn’t have made our films more profitable.” “We would have had an easier time getting covered in the trades,” said Hyams, “but our financials would have been worse.”

In the last few months, Hyams says the company’s prospects were encouraging. “We were in the process of translating our festival business from a free model to a pay model,” he said. “It would have paid for itself in another year. And on the services side, we were making money. We established B-Side as an entity that people could understand, and we had a lot of demand from other distributors looking for ways to connect directly with audiences. Distributors are realizing that in a VOD world they need to be in direct contact with their audiences, but no distributors today are. B-Side has something to offer them.”

Freccero said the mainstream success of Paranormal Activity, which relied on fans to spread the initial word and to request screenings, has also stoked recent interest in B-Side’s model. “People initially wrote us off as a kooky distribution attempt to digitalize the film distribution world,” Freccero said. “But recently people were saying, ‘Wait, you guys are onto something.’ Younger filmmakers, who grew up experiencing film content in a different way, have been more open to our model, and in the last couple of months they have started to come to us first, before their films were even finished.”

Ultimately, though, the revenue being generated wasn’t enough to satisfy B-Side’s funders. Valhalla had invested $2.5 million but in November, 2009 declined their option to continue financing the company. Said Frecero, “The VC world is one that looks for astronomical success in short amount of time, but the film business has never been about quick success. It’s about who can stay in the business long enough to become profitable. There is just a big discrepancy between what a traditional VC [fund] wants to see as a success and what is possible in independent film’s new world order. It’s not anyone’s fault — just unfortunate timing.” “It takes 12 to 18 months to release a film and begin to collect,” Hyams said. “Everything we know about the films is that they would have been profitable, but we had yet to collect 80 percent of the revenue.”

In recent months, B-Side, represented by William Morris Endeavor Entertainment, has met with potential new funders. “We have gotten in front of everyone,” said Hyams. “However, the larger companies have longer decision-making processes. The independent film business is in some kind of freefall, and there is tightness in the capital markets. Quick deals are not getting done. We haven’t been getting ‘no’s,’ but, instead, ‘We could put in ‘X’ in six months’ or, ‘This is a perfect fit for us but we’d like to be in business with you for a year first.’ The clock just ran out.”

Concludes Hyams, “We find ourselves at a time of great upheaval in the film industry. We are somewhere between the old and the new world. Technology is altering the way films are being made, and there are new avenues for how films can be consumed. How audiences discover and find films — that’s what’s we have been focused on. We have proven an amazing amount of things about how audiences become engaged and how to connect with them, but we were not able in that time to build a business that would sustain itself.”

Now, Hyams says, “We are wrapping up the distribution business, working with different partners to find the best homes for the films. We want to make sure the filmmakers are being taken care of. Lots of times when companies go out of business, the films go into limbo, and it’s important to us that that not happen. We are also looking to find a home for the festival technology we have been building for five years. Lots of people have been interested — there’s been a tremendous outpouring. This festival technology will be back.”

# posted by Scott Macaulay @ 2/22/2010 10:25:00 AM Comments (0)

Congrats to Kathryn Bigelow and the whole team behind The Hurt Locker for winning Best Director and Best Film at this year's BAFTA Awards.

# posted by Scott Macaulay @ 2/21/2010 10:16:00 PM Comments (0)

I saw Russian director Alexei Popogrebsky’s How I Ended This Summer only near the tail end of the festival, at a screening an expensive cab ride away from the usual venues and with German subtitles. Thankfully, I studied just enough German in school to follow it, but it was a strain. The projection was late at night as well, and I was exhausted. But I smelled an excellent work, in part from a critics’ grid at the back of the daily issue of Screen (where I review) that gave it multiple stars, and in part from the intuition of a programmer (Sarajevo Film Festival). I only recite these boring details because a) I was right in my hunch; and b) I think that we often suppress accurate feelings on account of tiredness, or competing activities, or laziness, so we need to push ourselves to go with them.

The Berlin prizes may have been announced by the time you read this, but there is no question here for any of the trustworthy film journalists that How I Ended My Summer is so far superior to anything in the festival that it deserves the Golden Bear. But juries are juries, and are often comprised of the wrong people to judge the quality of films. This year’s jury president, however, is Werner Herzog, so our hope is that he, as a filmmaker, would appreciate its unique aesthetic and influence the other jurors, with “experts” such as Renee Zellweger.

The film’s plot is simple. Two men work taking readings from their partly radioactive surroundings at an isolated meteorological station in the Arctic, at the far east of Russia, near Alaska. Sergei (Sergei Puskepalis) is in his fifties and has adjusted to this life where 24-hour daylight is the norm, and the only connection to the rest of the world is radio. Pavel (Grigory Dobrygin) is his new partner, a young, eager man who surrounds himself with video games and other technologies foreign to Sergei. One day Sergei goes fishing, and Pavel screws up the daily report, then covers it up. He also gets a tragic message for Sergei that he does not have the strength to convey. Tension builds between the two men.

Simple, in terms of narrative, but an incredibly complex film in which rugged wintry landscape and industrial parts, often abstracted, embedded in the mise-en-scene are the prime movers. Not to mention skillful editing and manipulation of sound. As one critic here put it, it may be a cliché, but nature really is a character in the film.

Sitting in a café in a modern Hilton in the middle of what was East Berlin, the gentle, 37-year-old Popogrebsky explains his working methods. He speaks almost perfectly accented English. I nearly plotzed when he told me he had studied psychology at the University of Wisconsin at Oshkosh, but dropped out of a post-graduate program. “My dissertation subject was ‘The Meaning of Life,’ but I realized it would have to be the project of a full lifetime,” he says with a grin. He then went on to become a Russian/English interpreter. He never went to film school, never even applied.

I asked him if he worked from a screenplay, because the film, though controlled, is so unconventional in its structure. “I wrote a 30-40 page script, but I don’t do it the American way. Mine reads like a cross between a play and a novella. I took a very detailed script to the polar station. But life and nature were dictating things, so I would rewrite and give the rewrites to the actors daily.” He adds that after visiting the island (Valkarkai) with his d.p. and art director, he had rewritten the original script.

Popogrebsky has a master’s control. I asked him if he were tough to work with (meaning, dictatorial). Sipping green tea, he answered, “No, I’m very nice to work with. You can achieve amazing things with trust and friendship. And I get involved with every aspect of the film. I sat behind my composer for six months.”

Necessarily using a small crew, he shot on digital, and later transferred it to 35mm. For scenes like the one in which Pavel slides down a snow bank, he went through 30 takes (and no stunt doubles). The film’s very last scene is hypnotic, a vista that changes color over several minutes. “That was a five-hour single take,” he says. With some postproduction manipulation, he produced magic.

-- Howard Feinstein

# posted by Howard Feinstein @ 2/19/2010 07:22:00 PM Comments (0)

Variety reports that the IFP fiscally-sponsored documentary Chosin will be made into an $80 million 3-D narrative version with Journey to the Center of the Earth's director Eric Brevig taking the helm and Chosin director Brian Iglesias coming on as one of the executive producers. The film will be the first war epic made in digital 3-D.

Titled 13 Days of Winter, the film will follow the 1950 Battle of Chosin Reservoir, where United Nation troops, including 12,000 US Marines, fought against the Chinese as well as the North Koreans. Film will be shot in New Zeland and Korea. South Korea -- which is preparing for their 60th anniversary of the war -- will provide equipment, weapons, locations and military assistance for the film.

The film is slated for a winter 2012 release.

# posted by Melissa Silvestri @ 2/19/2010 05:00:00 PM Comments (0)

IFP has announced its recipients of its annual IFP Independent Filmmaker Lab Finishing Grants totaling $90,000. Congratulations goes to Stranger Things' Eleanor Burke and Ron Eyal and War Don Don's Rebecca Richman Cohen. Both will receive a package valued at $45,000, that includes post-production services from Goldcrest Post New York, post-graphic services from Edgeworx, Inc., legal consultation from Gray Krauss LLP, publicity consultation from International House of Publicity, test screening space courtesy of The Tank, and promotional materials from 4over4.

Additional award finalists included narrative projects Amy Seimetz's City on a Hill and Russell Costanzo's The Tested, and documentary projects Luisa Dantas's Land of Opportunity and Anna Farrell's Twelve Ways to Sunday.

Applications for 2010 IFP Independent Filmmaker Labs are available now. The Documentary Lab Deadline for submission is February 12; Narrative Lab Deadline for submission is March 26.

# posted by Melissa Silvestri @ 2/18/2010 10:57:00 PM Comments (0)

The film must-read of the moment is Chris Jones' beautifully written profile of Roger Ebert in Esquire magazine. Of course the article chronicles Ebert's recent health problems — cancer operations that have wound up removing much of his lower job and eliminated his ability to eat, drink, and speak. But the piece also succeeds in capturing the strange and inspiring mix of sagacity and serenity that Ebert is projecting in late career through not only his reviews but also his Twitter page and blog. I was talking to a colleague not too long ago about which traditional media types had managed to maintain their relevance in the digital age and which hadn't. When it came to Ebert, we both said, "His voice is stronger than ever."

An excerpt from Jones' piece:

There are places where Ebert exists as the Ebert he remembers. In 2008, when he was in the middle of his worst battles and wouldn't be able to make the trip to Champaign-Urbana for Ebertfest — really, his annual spring festival of films he just plain likes — he began writing an online journal. Reading it from its beginning is like watching an Aztec pyramid being built. At first, it's just a vessel for him to apologize to his fans for not being downstate. The original entries are short updates about his life and health and a few of his heart's wishes. Postcards and pebbles. They're followed by a smattering of Welcomes to Cyberspace. But slowly the journal picks up steam, as Ebert's strength and confidence and audience grow. You are the readers I have dreamed of, he writes. He is emboldened. He begins to write about more than movies; in fact, it sometimes seems as though he'd rather write about anything other than movies. The existence of an afterlife, the beauty of a full bookshelf, his liberalism and atheism and alcoholism, the health-care debate, Darwin, memories of departed friends and fights won and lost — more than five hundred thousand words of inner monologue have poured out of him, five hundred thousand words that probably wouldn't exist had he kept his other voice. Now some of his entries have thousands of comments, each of which he vets personally and to which he will often respond. It has become his life's work, building and maintaining this massive monument to written debate — argument is encouraged, so long as it's civil — and he spends several hours each night reclined in his chair, tending to his online oasis by lamplight. Out there, his voice is still his voice — not a reasonable facsimile of it, but his.

"It is saving me," he says through his speakers.

Read more: http://www.esquire.com/features/roger-ebert-0310-4#ixzz0frg9vHyL

# posted by Scott Macaulay @ 2/18/2010 12:58:00 AM Comments (0)