Here’s the second of the New Breed videos discussing the current and future states of distribution. From the makers: Filmmakers Zak Forsman and Kevin K. Shah of Sabi Pictures arrive at Park City with an intent to define the questions most relevant to independent distribution options. Insights from Brian Newman, Dan Mirvish, Jon Reiss and Ira Deutchman open a path toward discovering some real solutions. NEW BREED PARK CITY – Discovering the Questions from Sabi Pictures on Vimeo. Watch New Breed Part 1.
[PREMIERE SCREENING: Sunday, Jan. 24, 2:15 pm — Racquet Club, Park City] The hardest decision for me was getting well with the fact that the entire film goes up against everything I was ever taught. To not question the leader of the church of my birth. To not point a critical view in the direction of the religion I was always taught to be the ONLY true religion on the planet and the ONLY way to attain the highest level of Heaven. We are the product of our cultures, and shedding the fear that was ingrained in my psyche was […]
This piece was originally printed in our 2009 Fall issue. As a filmmaker, British writer-director Michael Winterbottom (24 Hour Party People, In This World, A Mighty Heart) doesn’t linger long in one place. Just consider the globe-hopping locations he shoots in (Scotland, Pakistan, Iran, Shanghai), the hyperkinetic pace at which he works (there have been 18 features since 1995), and the versatility of his films, which cover every conceivable genre from sultry neo-noir and dolorous period drama to near-future sci-fi and Gold Rush-era Western. But the restlessness extends to his personality as well. In conversation, Winterbottom is so voluble that […]
[PREMIERE SCREENING: Sunday, Jan. 24, 11:30 am — Prospector Square Theatre, Park City] My film takes place in the basketball arena of the early-to-mid 1990s. I listened to hundreds of hip-hop songs and fell in love with a few. But I always felt Reggie Miller was a performance artist, and Madison Square Garden/New York City was his Carnegie Hall. Therefore I decided that operatic music could carry the drama in a different and hopefully funny way. So I chose Puccini over Puff Daddy.
[PREMIERE SCREENING: Sunday, Jan. 24, 12:00 pm — Temple Theatre, Park City] 12th & Delaware takes place over one year on a single street corner in coastal Florida. On one side of the street stands an abortion clinic. On the other a pro-life operation whose single objective is to persuade women who are considering abortion to continue with the pregnancy. We discovered these pro-life organizations (known as crisis pregnancy centers, or CPCs) while filming Jesus Camp, and to our knowledge no filmmaker had unveiled the goings-on of any of the 4,000 such places in the United States. CPCs represent the […]
[PREMIERE SCREENING: Sunday, Jan. 24, 12:15 pm — Eccles Theatre, Park City] I was born and raised in Texas and have a strong loyalty to the state. One thing I’ve known since I was a child is that while they may appear to be similar, New Mexico and Texas might as well be Venus and Mars. The Dry Land’s characters, setting and nuances are all rooted in Texas. However the lack of substantial tax incentives in Texas made it very difficult to argue for a Texas shoot. With this in mind my financiers pushed for me to consider shooting in […]
[PREMIERE SCREENING: Sunday, Jan. 24, 3:00 pm — Holiday Village Cinema IV, Park City] In Star Trek there’s the “prime directive,” Starfleet’s code of noninterference. What do filmmakers abide by? Should documentaries interfere with their subjects’ lives? But how could they not? I don’t believe in objectivity. I observe the observer’s paradox every moment I’m filming. Your presence is changing everything; there’s no mistaking it. And when you’re climbing Everest with eight blind people (as I did for my last film Blindsight) there is no acceptable margin for mistakes. So now when the artist Vik Muniz and I were conceiving […]
Originally posted as part of our Sundance 2010 coverage, Lovers of Hate will screen at SXSW and is available on VOD beginning March 15. Playing in competition this year is Austin filmmaker Bryan Poyser’s Lovers of Hate, starring Alex Karpovsky and Chris Doubek as brothers, Paul and Rudy, vying for the attention of Rudys’ soon-to-be ex-wife, Heather (Heather Kafka.) Paul is enjoying wild success as the author of a Harry Potter-like series of children’s books, which are based on stories that Rudy used to make up for Paul when they were children. Rudy, who calls himself a writer but who […]
[PREMIERE SCREENING: Saturday, Jan. 23, 8:30 pm — Prospector Square Theatre, Park City] Decisions, decisions. I was practically penniless again and semihomeless after finishing my last film, Great Speeches from a Dying World (ironically enough a film about homeless people) when I decided to start on Bass Ackwards. Not the best time to make a movie, one could argue. So…why? Well, I like to make movies and I have things to say, and because my friend, Todd Rohal, sent me a link to a Craigslist ad for a “strange van.” Of course, I bought the van and started writing a […]
[PREMIERE SCREENING: Saturday, Jan. 23, 11:30 pm — Library Center Theatre, Park City] Ninety minutes inside a coffin. Ninety minutes. Inside a coffin. Underground. In an old wooden coffin. Darkness. No room. The most difficult decision? Believe it or not there was no choice for me, I didn’t see any blue pill, I simply NEEDED to do this. The most difficult decision would have probably been saying no. And I didn’t. Maybe I should have.