Fruitvale
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The Invisible Filmmakers
Black films don’t travel. It’s one of the oldest clichés in the movie business. And it may be as true today as it was 20 years ago when producer Andrew Vajna famously declared, “There are no black actors today [who] mean anything to the foreign marketplace.” Hollywood may have made some headway in overcoming the racial road-blocks that exist in overseas markets; the foreign box-office for Quentin Tarantino’s Jamie Foxx-starring Django Unchained, for example, has well surpassed domestic sales, as did, surprisingly, Martin Lawrence’s 2011 comedy Big Mommas: Like Father, Like Son. But those films remain the exception, not the […]
by Anthony Kaufman on Apr 23, 2013 -
Fruitvale and Blood Brother Take Top Sundance Awards
Tonight at a ceremony in Park City, the Sundance Film Festival handed out the awards for this year’s edition. The night’s top awards went to Fruitvale — directed by one of the “25 New Faces” of 2012, Ryan Coogler — in the U.S. Dramatic Competition, and the documentary Blood Brother, directed by Steve Hoover (previous a guest blogger for the Filmmaker site), with both movies taking both the Grand Jury Award and the Audience Award in their respective categories. Fruitvale, based on the true story of the killing of Oscar Grant, was picked up by The Weinstein Company earlier in the week, following a frenzy […]
by Nick Dawson on Jan 27, 2013 -
The Crowded Stages of the Sundance Film Festival
When I published my piece, “How To Do a Festival Q&A,” there was one word of advice from Trevor Groth that I wondered about: “#5: Don’t bring too many people onstage”: “It slows everything down and tends not to work with the vibe of a good Q&A,” says Groth about long lines of cast and crew marching to the stage after a film’s premiere. “Just bring the key actors and someone who played a crucial role — maybe a production designer or editor.” Apparently many of the Sundance filmmakers didn’t read my article — or heed Groth’s advice — because […]
by Scott Macaulay on Jan 23, 2013 -
Five Questions with Fruitvale Director Ryan Coogler
On January 1, 2009, a Bay Area Rapid Transit officer shot and killed unarmed 22 year-old Oscar Grant, who was being detained on the BART train’s platform for alleged fighting. With the help of cellphone cameras, witnesses filmed the officer shooting Grant and both the footage and news went viral. When the officer was convicted of only involuntary manslaughter instead of second degree murder or voluntary manslaughter, peaceful protests turned violent and riotous throughout the Bay Area as the city made its anger known. Raised in the Bay Area himself, Ryan Coogler tackles the sensitive topic of Oscar Grant’s life […]
by Alexandra Byer on Jan 19, 2013 -
Profiling the SFFS/KRF Filmmaking Grant Finalists (Part 1)
Following on from the Bay Area Boom article about the San Francisco Film Society’s Filmmaker360 program, we are profiling the 13 finalists for the SFFS’s Kenneth Rainin Foundation Filmmaking grant. The winners of this award will be announced on December 8. RYAN COOGLER, FRUITVALE Synopsis: Based on a true story, Fruitvale follows Oscar Grant, a 22-year-old Bay Area resident, who crosses paths with friends, enemies, family, and strangers on New Year’s Eve 2008. Bio: Ryan Coogler is a 26-year-old filmmaker based in the Bay Area. He earned his MFA at the University of Southern California School of Cinematic Arts in 2011, where he made several short […]
by Filmmaker Staff on Nov 21, 2012
