Authors — Jason Guerrasio

CELEBRATING MELVIN

Out on DVD today is Joe Angio’s documentary, How to Eat Your Watermelon in White Company (And Enjoy It), on the life and work of Melvin Van Peebles. I saw the film at its premiere at the Tribeca Film Festival a few years back and when I watched it again on IFC not too long ago I was reminded by how well done the film is. Angio not only examines how Van Peebles’ Sweet Sweetback’s Baadasssss Song invented the Blaxploitation genre, but spotlights his renaissance life which includes working on Broadway and the New York Stock Exchange. But I think […]
by Jason Guerrasio on Jun 5, 2007
Cannes ’07: Wong Kar-wai on My Blueberry Nights

It’s a rainy mid-day in late August — the wetness welcome, following an intolerably hot week, even by New York City summer standards. At night during that unpleasant spell the postmodern auteur Wong Kar-wai — the master of lush visuals and unpredictable soundtracks, the absolute perfectionist concerned with memory, loss, loneliness, and the subjectivity of time — had been shooting scenes downtown on the West Side of Manhattan, on SoHo’s funky Grand Street, for My Blueberry Nights, his first movie in English and the out-of-competition opening night presentation at this year’s Cannes Film Festival (The Weinstein Company will release the […]
by Jason Guerrasio on May 15, 2007
TRIBECA WINNERS

Awards were handed out last night in Chinatown for the 6th annual Tribeca Film Festival. See list of winners below. The Founders Award for Best Narrative Feature – My Father My Lord (Hofshat Kaits), directed by David Volach (Israel). Best New Narrative Filmmaker – Two Embraces (Dos Abrazos), directed by Enrique Begne (Mexico). Best Actor in a Narrative Feature Film – Lofti Edbelli in Making Of (Akher film), directed by Nouri Bouzid (Tunisia, Morocco). Best Actress in a Narrative Feature Film – Marina Hands in LadyChatterley, directed by Pascale Ferran (France, Belgium). Best Screenplay – Making Of (Akher film), written […]
by Jason Guerrasio on May 4, 2007
DOCS @ TRIBECA

As the Tribeca Film Festival wraps up its 6th year this weekend its clear that as it expands throughout the city confusion mounts within the industry on what it actually is – a venue for high profile films or discovering new talent (I’ll go into greater detail about this in my Festival Wrap-Up in the Summer issue). But having attended every year there’s one thing I’m always impressed by: the documentaries. And this year is no exception. Two that I’ve enjoyed equally but are completely different in tone and style are Alex Gibney’s Taxi to the Dark Side and Bruce […]
by Jason Guerrasio on May 1, 2007
GOING MOBILE

If you’ve picked up our Spring issue you may have read the sidebar in our “Option Overload” Line Item (“Cell Capture”) where Dutch filmmaker Cyrus Frisch describes how he made his latest film Why Didn’t Anybody Tell Me It Would Become This Bad In Afghanistan with a cell phone. Which as far as we know is a first. It goes without saying that this is a shooting format that’s probably a decade before its time (at the least), but after seeing the film at the Tribeca Film Festival (it made its World Premiere at Rotterdam) the other day, this extremely […]
by Jason Guerrasio on Apr 28, 2007
GET CONNECTED AND GIVE BACK

On Saturday, April 28 the IFP will be doing a special Producing 101 panel with Waitress producer Michael Roiff, and veteran producers Lydia Dean Pilcher (The Namesake) and Big Beach’s Peter Saraf (Little Miss Sunshine). The three will be sitting down to discuss Roiff’s first producing effort with Waitress, written and directed by the late Adrienne Shelly, along with talking about some of the challenges producers face — developing material, finding money, building a strong team to get the project from script to screen. The panel (with reception to follow) takes place at the Helen Mills Theater (137 West 26th […]
by Jason Guerrasio on Apr 24, 2007
San Francisco Fest at 50

In 1957, when the Berlin International Film Festival was in its sixth year and the Festival de Cannes had recently turned 12, there was still no established annual film festival in the U.S. “Back in the ’50s, San Francisco needed to keep its place in the arts world with an international film festival. There wasn’t one in North or South America,” San Francisco International Film Festival (SFIFF) founder Irving M. “Bud” Levin recalled in 1995. Following Levin’s lead, the San Francisco Film Society has presented the SFIFF since 1957 and becomes the first North American festival to celebrate its 50th […]
by Jason Guerrasio on Apr 23, 2007
CHOOSE… BUT CHOOSE WISELY

With the Tribeca Film Festival a few days away, Anthony Kaufman has a great piece over at indieWIRE about the rivalry between Tribeca, SXSW and LAFF. As the three fests are scheduled so close to one another, most of the times they are fighting for the same films (and leaving regional fests like Sarasota, Florida Film Festival and Independent Film Festival Boston with little to choose from). This causes headaches for filmmakers who due to premiere-crazed programming aren’t choosing a festival that’s best for their film but what fest will give them the most exposure. Here’s an excerpt: “’Call me […]
by Jason Guerrasio on Apr 23, 2007
SUNDANCE ANNOUNCES DIRECTORS/SCREENWRITERS LABS

The Sundance Institute has announced the 13 projects for its annual June Directors and Screenwriters Labs, held May 28-June 28. The Labs have evolved to include filmmakers from around the world, with fellows this year from Africa, the Middle East, Europe and Haiti. The participants and projects selected for the Labs are: DIRECTORS LAB THE CAVANAUGHS / John Morgan (co-writer/director) and Meg LeFauve (co-writer), U.S.A. When the mother of a deeply evangelical family suddenly rejects motherhood, falls in love with a woman, and disavows her faith, the remaining members of the family are thrown into chaos, forcing each of them […]
by Jason Guerrasio on Apr 23, 2007
CHECK OUT THE SPRING ISSUE

For those who bookmark the blog, head over to the main page where you can see select stories from the Spring issue of Filmmaker, which hits newstands today. Some of the features you can view on the site include an in-depth look by Alicia Van Couvering on the twentysomething filmmakers who’ve been dubbed “Mumblecore,” and James Ponsoldt talks to Charles Burnett on his masterpiece Killer of Sheep, which has finally gotten a theatrical release after 30 years. Enjoy.
by Jason Guerrasio on Apr 20, 2007

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