Movie City Indie

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The price of Sundance love: Dargis' Sundance reality

Multi-Oscar-nommed Little Miss Sunshine and Kelly Reichardt's Old Joy were favorites of Sundance 2006; to highlight the divide, in NY Times, Manohla Dargis does the fiscal comparison-contrast. "The two films had their premiere the same day, within a half-hour of each other: Old Joy played in a 150-seat house, and Little Miss Sunshine, in a packed 1,270-seat theater. People who actually saw Old Joy, a low-fi story about two friends on a weekend trip in the Oregon woods, seemed to love it, but, like many Sundance films, it left the festival without a buyer." Later, "it was picked up by the small New York distributor Kino International for what Gary Palmucci, the head of its theatrical sales, called the “low five figures.” Film Forum in New York, a key house for movies like this, was offered only the fall-prestige slot of 20 September. Old Joy "did spectacularly well at Film Forum, bringing in more than $29,000 the first week. It earned more than $21,000 the second week, but by then was competing with new studio-division arrivals... Mr. Palmucci estimated that by the end of its nearly six-month theatrical run Old Joy will have played in almost every major market in the country. Kino can’t afford to buy full-page ads in big-city newspapers but did run a few small ones. It also spent about $40,000 to blow the film up from 16mm to 35mm; $24,000 on 22 prints; $6,500 on 200 trailers; $4,000 on 50,000 postcards and about $3,000 on Web advertisements. Kino also bought posters and radio spots, and hired outside publicists. It has been a heroic effort, but the postcards, the trailers and all the glowing reviews have not been enough to make the film a hit for the distributor. As I write, Old Joy has pulled in less than $200,000." The theatrical gross for LMS? Boxofficemojo.com says the recent DVD release earned $59,599,618.

Posted by Ray Pride at 12:36 PM | Comments (0)

David Lynch: Dancing dwarf. No. No? No.

David Lynch is not only on the road to peddle Inland Empire, he's also got a slim volume to sell, "Catching the Big Fish," about transcendental meditation and inspiration.Seattle Times' Mark Rahner shares the coffee and the bliss with the 61-year-old director. "One lady told me ... she went away partway through the film sleeping and dreaming, and she said she really wanted to tell me about the dream she had, because it was probably being fed by the film in some ways, and I didn't have time to get it from her, but she said it was quite something." Want to know what's missing? "What's missing?" Dancing dwarf. "No." No? "No." Cups of coffee per day? "Well, I always said 20. I don't know if it's quite 20. But it's between 10 and 20."

Posted by Ray Pride at 12:23 PM | Comments (0)

Quentin does what Quentin does: in the third person

Grindhouse gets the Sunday NYTimes treatment from Whitney Joiner, who speaks to directorial duo Robert Rodriguez about Planet Terror and Quentin Tarantino about Death Proof. Much lurid detail about the 1970s exploitation tribute, plus a de rigeur Tarantino quote. The theatrical versions will have missing reels, in a tribute to the chopped-up prints of the crappy movies that the director of Jackie Brown loves and collects. "My whole thing is to play with the audience," Tarantino tells the Times. "I guarantee you, when it pops up 'Missing Reel,' the entire theater is going to scream. They might very well be screaming my name: 'Quentin, you bastard! We hate you!" In the piece, Tarantino avers that the movie has "some of the best dialouge I've ever written in my life"; he sent it to Bob Dylan, who he thought might "appreciate the wordplay," but hasn't heard back. [My own encounter with Q3 was during interviews for Jackie Brown, when Tarantino told me, "All this time there was all these articles, what's Quentin doing, what's Quentin doing, when's Quentin gonna do something else? Well, Quentin was writing, okay? Quentin was doing what Quentin does, all right?"]

Posted by Ray Pride at 11:59 AM | Comments (0)

Silent movies: Sundance conversation

All sorts of serendipity can happen at a film festival like Sundance; one of the most spirited unexpected conversations I've had here is with Sk8 Life co-screenwriter Elan Mastai, talking about improvisation and the fiction film at the Vancouver-shot fiction/skate performance pic's release party: there's no audio on this clip, but I like it this way.

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January 25, 2007

It's a sin: confessing Sundance midfest

More than a couple of Sundance sins got committed yesterday: For one, I saw Once twice; who sees a movie twice at a film festival when there's so much else possibly to see and do? But the simple beauty of John Carney's romantic musical was even more powerful a second time around—I can't resist the pun "Once singular sensation®"—and it was truly heartening to see the fillum with a public audience, rather than at a presser for journos as I did on the first go. I wasn't esthetically wrong, I wasn't unduly sentimental: the bliss remained; deepened, even. If the reaction from the earlier screenings was anything like last night's standing ovations and general glow about the Prospector Square, Once is in the running for an Audience Favorite. Bonus: At the Q&A afterwards, the stars of the film, Glen Hansard and Markéta Irglová [pictured] played two songs. I'd blown off meeting a charming shorts director and the film's lead actress to see Once again, but it was the right choice, maybe not precisely a sin against cin-e-mah. Earlier, a filmmaker whose movie I'd criticized caught sight of my festival badge and introduced himself. I quickly looked down at his badge: Oh-oh. Is it so wrong that Brett Morgen of The Chicago 10 and I went for an off-the-record conversation over coffee to compare our notes? I liked that hour's give-and-take more than the movie, but I also have a better understanding of Morgen's hopes for getting a message of criticial resistance to younger viewers and certain intentions that I didn't quite get when I saw the pic on opening night. Late, late in the evening, packing for a move-of-house necessitated a fit of swag triage, which must always be followed by a steaming shower. Maybe any of the sins washed away as well.

[Photo © 2007 ray pride.]

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Swag the dog: Crass? Brilliant? You decide (Black Snake Moan)

This is the rear of the Black Snake Moan promotional hat; after you see the back side, you may think it's both crass and brilliant, as a handful of people think of the movie itself. Reports Anthony Breznican at USATODAY: "Even the poster trumpets Black Snake Moan as an homage to the sexploitation thrillers of the 70s, with Ricci posed seductively and wrapped in chains, while Jackson towers over her. [Writer-director Craig] Brewer, who made his name at Sundance in the same theater two years ago with Hustle & Flow, said he laid out multiple chains for Ricci to choose from. He imitated her posing with different links. "She picked up a padlock and said, 'Oh yeah, this is it. I could see this on a runway.'" [At the jump, the front side of the leering swag.]

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S07 Fortune cookie #7-Jo Rowling's cupboards

Popular success must be a fine thing: most times I think of "Harry Potter" I also think of J. K. Rowling in a teashop in chilly Scotland and scrunching her toes in her trainers against the damp and coming up with that freight train of adolescent dread. She's always claimed to have written the ending first. (Some plans are better laid than others, something you're reminded every day at Sundance.) This quote comes from a 2001 BBC special. "JKR [laying in her pile of notes]: This is the thing that I was very dubious about showing you, and I don't really know why because what does this give away? [It's a big folder] But this is the Final Chapter of book Seven. Um ... [laughs] which I'm still dubious about showing you, I don't know what I feel like, the camera's gonna be able to see through the folder. So this is it, and I'm not opening it for obvious reasons. This is really where I wrap everything up, it's the Epilogue, and I basically say what happens to everyone after they leave school -- those who survive, because there are deaths, more deaths, coming. It was a way of saying to myself, Well, "you will get here, you will get to book Seven, one day. And ... then you'll need this!" So I'd just like to remind all the children I know who come round my house and start sneaking into cupboards that it's not there, anymore. I don't keep it at home any more for very very very obvious reasons. So there it is."

Posted by Ray Pride at 11:41 AM | Comments (0)

January 24, 2007

Awaiting Waitress: a friend recollects

Read it and weep: Reid Rosefelt recalls the late Adrienne Shelley, whose Sundance triumph, Waitress, also sold for big money to Fox Searchlight. "For many years, Adrienne Shelly was my best friend. She was the one I turned to when my love life went awry—which was often—and I played the same role for her. We emailed and talked pretty much every day and saw each other every weekend, for F&B hot dogs and a movie at the Chelsea Cineplex. Our relationship was never romantic, though. Even though I had a big crush on her when I saw her in The Unbelievable Truth and Trust, it was different when I met the actual person. She wasn't for me and I wasn't for her. I quickly settled into playing the role of heterosexual gay best friend in her life, and as we all know from the movies, the gay best friend knows things that lovers never do..." Shelley acted in Rosefelt's short, Tiger: His Fall & Rise, which he concedes, "The problem with Tiger wasn't that it was silly; the problem with Tiger was that it was awful." But there is this reward: "[T]he film will stand the test of time as a documentary on her poor eating habits. Many people were disgusted by the way she ate, but I'm a big slob myself and the way she nudged the food onto her fork with her finger just made me feel more comfortable. The truth is that I loved the way Adrienne ate so much that I had her eat all the way through Tiger: Chinese food, sub sandwiches, hamburgers, meat loaf, you name it... [T]he truth is it gave me boundless joy to see her talking with her mouth full. I loved Adrienne a lot, but I can't remember loving her more than when she had a giant burger in her trap. Choose your bliss; that was mine. I will be paying off that damned film for the rest of my life, but I'm extremely proud I had the opportunity to record her eating that burger for posterity. This is my contribution to film history." [The rest, at the link, is a must-read.]

Posted by Ray Pride at 03:22 PM | Comments (0)

S07 Fortune cookie #6-Martin Luther King

While trying to find a way into writing about a half-dozen vital documentaries with social awareness—including Cocalero and White Light/Black Rain, the day after An Inconvenient Truth, Deliver Us From Evil, Iraq in Fragments, Jesus Camp and My Country, My Country constituted an incredibly strong selection of Best Documentary Feature nominees, this quotation from Martin Luther King fell out of my notebook: "He who passively accepts evil is as much involved in it as he who helps to perpetrate it. He who accepts evil without protesting against it is really cooperating with it." These filmmakers know this, too, and demonstrate that knowledge through their actions.

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To The Nines: John August gives it away

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January 23, 2007

S07 reviews: Once

BOY MEETS GIRL: HOW HARD CAN THAT BE? Sometimes a movie leaves you with such a warm feeling, you just want to point people in the general direction of its reflected light, and not write about it, not describe modest virtues in a way that oversells genuine heart and soul. Once, a grand, effortless Irish musical povera (shot in two weeks on DV for 100,000 euros), written and directed by John Carney, who was for several years in the fine band The Frames with star-composer Glen Hansard, is one of those movies. I saw it first thing Thursday morning and kept putting off writing about it... my eyes have welled up happily every time the fillum comes up with someone else who's seen it, adores it, loves it, too. Carney + Co. also work with some very sophisticated insights about the representation of music on film and also how one walks, talks, lives, breathes, stumbles, fumbles, triumphs, while trying to fashion any form of art. Hansard is the lanky, ginger-bearded "Guy" busking in a Dublin square who meets the "Girl," a slightly goofy, younger Czech émigré (Markéta Irglová) with an uncertain command of English. Carney introduces them with a simple shot that's breathtakingly right: we are watching Hansard play for a bit and then the camera pulls back, revealing Irglová's shoulder. Our POV becomes hers. The narrative strategy, built more around small misunderstandings and the making of songs, is similar. (Naked lyrics are quickly clothed in melody.) Layers peel away, their preconceptions of each other (and ours of them) fall away, and Hansard's music, as urgent and lovely as ever, grows in collaboration with someone who turns out not only to be a classical pianist, but a good lyricist and a fine singer. The Girl is not just a girl; they have talent to share. Let's make music together, all right? The most masterful stroke is this: Concert scenes in movies bear a simple ontological quandary. Live music is live music, and simply shooting a scene of a live gig with adequate or even innovative coverage is a representation of the live show, and not innately cinematic in itself. And, of course, the Dionysian element of the live performer enacting fantasy a few feet or yards away is meaningless on screen, lacking their human presence. A secondary insight is having songs play almost always to their conclusion, rather than cutting them into snippets of catchy hooks as many music-heavy movies do. There are so many things I've personally considered about how to depict the life of an artist, any form of artist, but especially musicians, without pretension or preciousness that these long-time mates have solved, and more than that, have made a wonderful, heartfelt movie. The music under the final scenes reprises a song we’ve seen the pair record; it’s heartbreaking on several levels, largely because Carney’s canny at how a song grows and thrives, as well as being a true king of Dublin. Once is more than just the best movie I've seen at Sundance so far, and I hope to have many occasions to write more about it later. Now pass me that feckin' tissue, wouldja? Fair play.

Posted by Ray Pride at 01:34 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Putting the EW in Ewwwwwwww

Oh, Lord, this press release just came sailing over the transom: Entertainment Weekly (which likes to be called EW, which I presume they expect to be pronounced E-W) touts their Sundance bloggers: Billy Baldwin, Elle Fanning, Rainn Wilson and Tara Reid. Blogs Wilson, who acts in New Line topper Bob Shaye's The Last Mimzy, which screens for free on Tuesday night: "Hello everyone on the internet and in the world of entertainment. It's me, Rainn Wilson, international superstar... promoting myself as un-official [sic] "spokesman of a generation" and gynecologist to the stars... I'm here because of the greatest movie ever made, The [L]ast Mimzy... I am actually raped by Dakota Fanning in this film. It was very disturbing and is causing quite an uproar in the blogosphere... So anyhoo, check out the family sci-fi epic adventure, The Last Mimzy and you will see my thighs. Good-bye." Tara Reid: "HI its Tara Reid and i'm in Sundance its freezing here but alot of fun and alot of work my movie premieres tonight and i'm really excited." Baldwin? "What can I tell ya... I don't know what bothers me more about Sundance: all of the free shit that they give to the rich and famous who don't need it, or the way that I behave when thrown into the den of swag. I can sit here and pretend that I'm above it all, but in reality, after being given free iPods and Razr telephones, jewelry and vacations, if my grandmother--may she rest in peace--stood between me and the last Philips flat screen television, I'd lay her out right on her ass for that bad boy. I hired a publicist to come here with me because I had two films.... She wound up becoming my swag mule, schlepping the hoards up and down Main Street so that I didn't look like the gluttonous whore that I am in front of the throngs of media and paparazzi." [Apparently Carrot Top was not available to serve.]

Posted by Ray Pride at 01:33 PM | Comments (0)

Sundance on Ice (Monday-Tuesday)

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Sunderance: "It's not really germane to this document"

I've posted a review and want to get another one done in ten minutes. Deadlines are a fine pressure. The man beside me in the lounge outside festival headquarters press/filmmakers lodge, loudly conducts business on a cell phone, insisting he has to "helm" the "elements" for DVD extras, and says the project's music he "got for a steal." A man is throwing a baby in the air while its mother shakes a pair of large maracas loudly. The child squeals. Usually, there's only a low hum of voices here. The man continues his checklist aloud. I have no idea who he is or who he thinks he is. He's not wearing the small sandwich board of name and face that is the festival I.D. I catch his eye. He looks away, speaks louder. The baby and the man are equally unaware of their surroundings. It makes it almost impossible to type any words except the stream he's letting: "There are a couple of non-integral clips that my attorney advised me and even wrote an opinion that passed E&O muster. If you guys want to take them out, we can talk about that. It's Jane Pauley and some audio. We could always just re-track it.

People do that. As far as the headlines go, we could pay for them." Several other people look toward his voice. "As for the Jane Pauley show, I would be really bummed if it had to go, but I think we could make a very good Fair Use argument. An argument could be made that it's integral to the story, but between you and me, we could pull it out. Just so you guys don't freak out, like, we didn't clear '60 Minutes' or something." The baby burbbbbbbles. "Of course, the television/airline materials are the same." Time for coffee. Time for quiet. "It's not really germane to this document," he says, and I try to remember the review I was trying to write as I pour cream into the cup.

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The Dude abides

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S07 Fortune cookie #5-Peter Morgan

On hearing he'd received an Oscar nomination for his screenplay for The Queen this morning, screenwriter Peter Morgan said, "This is, of course, the highest compliment our industry bestows and the greatest honor. I am proud and thrilled The Queen has been embraced internationally like this. The whole journey has been mind-boggling and exciting. I sincerely hope friends at home will still talk to me."

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January 22, 2007

Sundance on Ice (Sunday-Monday)

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Park City: it's hard out there for a party

Park City's pulled a big ol' crackdown on big parties, and rental agencies have followed suit, writes Dana Harris in Variety. "There are perhaps 100 top-flight private homesfive-, six- or seven-bedroom places that include hot tubs, wi-fi, granite countertops and daily maid service—available for rental during the Sundance Film Festival. But if you want to throw a party, the available number drops to just about zero... [M]ajor property rental companies in Park City like Deer Valley Lodging and Alpine Ski Properties say they have a clear-cut policy on renting to Sundance's would-be party monsters: They don't do it." Two night's cash damage deposit is required, as well as a no-party contract. Past damage "included wine-stained and cigarette-burned carpet and furniture, broken glasses, impassable neighborhoods and a general disregard for the fact that renters were, in fact, using someone's home." Harris does find one person skirting the rule, the owner of PM, a New York nightclub, who calls himself "Unik." "It's noon on Sunday, and Unik (say "unique," no last name) is in a T-shirt and slippers, eating scrambled eggs and cilantro sausage as his staff clears away the last bits of detritus from the house party for 300 that ended just seven hours before. Laminated printouts are still pasted to the staircase, warning that your presence constitutes permission to use your name and likeness. .. "What a party last night," said Unik. "We mobilized the whole Park City: Josh Hartnett, Sienna, Diddy, Nick Cannon, Harvey, Damon Dash, Jamie Lynn, Pharrell..." Unik and his right hand man "spent most of the night standing guard at the foot of their driveway, personally approving every would-be guest. Sometimes they wouldn't let passengers get out of a cab. "If it's three girls and one guy, fine," said Unik. "Three guys and one girl? No way."

Posted by Ray Pride at 03:08 PM | Comments (0)

S07 Fortune cookie #4: Todd Field

On the eve of Oscar noms in LA Times' Sunday Calendar, Little Children writer-director-producer Todd Field sums up what he thinks about getting to make independent-minded movies to Paul Cullum: "The enormity of this opportunity is mind-blowing, but it is a privilege, and it's not to be squandered. It's serious. Yes, in the end, for a lot of people, it will just be entertainment, something they did one afternoon. But it can't be that for you. You're telling someone a story, and that's the only connection we have to each other—the stories that we tell."

Posted by Ray Pride at 02:29 PM | Comments (0)

Broken English: is the MPAA still all smoke and p.r.?

When This Film is Not Yet Rated preemed at Sundance 2006, producers Kirby Dick and Eddie Schmidt knew they'd be doing more research and editing before its release, and they said it might be an ongoing project. Voila! While the MPAA's execs are in Sundance to announce a number of alterations to the ratings system, Dick and Schmidt in town as well. From the press release about their continued adversary role (in its entirety in extended entry): “The MPAA’s reforms simply address the public’s perceptions of the system, rather than affecting real change in the system itself,” says “Rated” director Kirby Dick. “All the basic problems of the ratings system remain: its secrecy and lack of accountability; its bias toward independent and gay filmmakers; its excessively harsh rating of films with adult sexuality.” [Bulletpoint pro-con at the jump..]

MPAA REFORMS DON’T SOLVE THE PROBLEMS OF A BROKEN SYSTEM

This Film Is Not Yet Rated Filmmakers, Kirby Dick and Eddie Schmidt, Weigh in on the MPAA’s Ratings Reforms

Los Angeles, CA (January 18, 2007) - Director Kirby Dick and Producer Eddie Schmidt are pleased that their IFC documentary This Film Is Not Yet Rated has put pressure on the MPAA to make changes needed for nearly 40 years. Unfortunately, they find that the MPAA’s changes, as announced yesterday, are all cosmetic except for one – that in the appeals process, filmmakers can refer to scenes from other films.

“The MPAA’s reforms simply address the public’s perceptions of the system, rather than affecting real change in the system itself,” says “Rated” director Kirby Dick. “All the basic problems of the ratings system remain: its secrecy and lack of accountability; its bias toward independent and gay filmmakers; its excessively harsh rating of films with adult sexuality.”

Dick also notes the unprofessional nature of the board and its lack of adequate written standards; and finally, the fact that the NC-17 rating will continue to play a significant role in the censorship of films made and exhibited in this country. At the root of the problem is the built in conflict of interest between the profit motive of the MPAA studios and the MPAA’s responsibility to filmmakers and the public to fairly and effectively oversee the ratings system.

Outlined below are a list of the specific MPAA changes and responses to them from Dick and Schmidt:

MPAA: Most members of the ratings board will remain anonymous, although CARA will describe the demographic make-up of the board, which is composed of parents. The names of the three senior raters have always been public; now, they will be posted online.

RESPONSE: It will still be a secret ratings board because “most” of the raters will still be secret. Anonymity still = unaccountability. The MPAA says its rating system is for the public. If it’s for the public, it should be public, and the entire rating process and all the raters should be known to the public. Also, it is untrue that the senior raters were ever known to the public – until This Film Is Not Yet Rated, they were known only to members of the film industry.

MPAA: For the first time, CARA will post the ratings rules on the MPAA Web site, describing the standards for each rating. The ratings and appeal processes also will be described in detail, along with a link to paperwork needed to submit a film for a rating.

RESPONSE: CARA has never given enough information to parents and has consistently resisted giving out any more. Even the current descriptors such “some horror violence” came about only through intense pressure and criticism – and those are still useless to parents. Meaningful details? We’ll believe it when we see it.

MPAA: A filmmaker who appeals a rating can reference similar scenes in other movies, although the appeals board still will focus heavily on context.

RESPONSE: We are pleased they have finally removed this absurd restriction. However, there are quite a few other excessive restrictions that unfairly limit filmmaker appeals, such as a 2/3’s majority vote to overturn and not allowing an attorney of the filmmakers’ choice to be present.

MPAA: CARA will formalize its rule that a member of the ratings board doesn't stay on the board after his or her children are grown.

RESPONSE: Joan Graves has stated that the senior raters’ positions are permanent. These three senior raters, and chairwoman Graves, all have adult children. Are Joan Graves and the senior raters all going to step down, or will the MPAA continue to allow its most powerful raters to violate its rules?

MPAA: CARA also will formalize its educational training system for raters.

RESPONSE: According to former raters interviewed in our film, there is no educational training. And since the MPAA has consistently avoided “expert” opinions from child psychologists, etc, who will train them and to what standards and sensitivity?

MPAA: When the CARA rules are implemented later this year, the MPAA and NATO will designate additional members to the appeals board who don't come from the MPAA or NATO fold. (Indie filmmakers might be one possibility.)

RESPONSE: Most appeals board members will still be from the major exhibitors and studios. With a 2/3 vote to overturn the rating, it is unlikely that a few “additional” members will be enough to level the playing field for independent and foreign filmmakers. There is still a huge built-in conflict of interest in this process. Also, apparently they still plan to keep the names of the appeals board members secret, which means that the only people who know these names will be people within the studio film industry.

MPAA: NATO and MPAA will occasionally be able to designate additional observers from different backgrounds to the appeals board.

RESPONSE: The MPAA has been shamed into opening their doors in response to quiet arrangements revealed in our film that allowed Catholic and Protestant religious representatives into the appeals process. *Adding MORE religious representatives *wouldn’t necessarily solve this problem. What are they doing there in the first place? The MPAA needs to give full disclosure as to the nature of these “observers,” their role in the proceedings, and the process by which other observers will be selected.

“With the MPAA continuing to conduct its business in private, yet pretending to operate in the public good, they are still doing a disservice to parents and filmgoers, never mind filmmakers themselves. We’re grateful that they’re listening, but they should be trying much harder,” concluded director Kirby Dick.

This Film Is Not Yet Rated debuted at the Sundance Film Festival in 2006, and will be released on DVD January 23, 2007 from Genius Products and air on IFC TV in March.

Posted by Ray Pride at 01:26 PM | Comments (0)

January 21, 2007

Swag the dog: Sam Jackson's givin' it away

The tsunami of swag has only begun, and this bit of p.r. is an auspicious leap into the absurd: "When Samuel L. Jackson presents his new film at Sundance, he’ll fuel the buzz of Black Snake Moan with a bluesy thump. Jackson will be gifting OAKLEY THUMP PRO digital music eyewear to a lucky few. Only 20 Special Edition versions of the Oakley invention will be created and each will come preloaded with three songs from the film soundtrack. The frame will be customized with Jackson’s guitar graphic and signed with the film title, laser etched in the lens. And because Jackson loves to golf with lenses that darken automatically, we’re crafting them with Oakley Activated by Transitions Photochromic™ lenses... THUMP PRO combines the world’s best optics with a fully integrated digital audio engine. Its adjustable speakers can be positioned for a perfect fit, and all controls are built into the frame for easy access. Engineered for sport training, the sweat resistant design blends all-day comfort with the freedom of interchangeable lenses that let you adapt to any environment." [Including Park City, Utah.]

Posted by Ray Pride at 03:38 PM | Comments (0)

January 20, 2007

S07 review: Snow Angels

NOTHING LIKE A BITTERSWEET COMEDY-TRAGEDY AT 8:30 IN THE MORNING at Sundance: sigh. David Gordon Green’s fourth feature, the casual yet deeply serious, soulful Snow Angels continues along his own lovely path, reaching into particulars of working class life with wit and empathy. Life is a river, and sometimes it freezes over: Gordon, working with generous breadth in adapting Stewart O’Nan’s book, warms the heart. The cast is large, Altman-sized. Green moves between them fluidly. There are at least ten major characters, their interactions marshaled with novelistic care. It’s a tapestry of overwhelming complication, adroitly described, demonstrating well the abiding truth that you must forgive trespasses in tiny towns. Set in an unnamed Pennsylvania town (but shot in Nova Scotia), the movie conveys the chill of disillusionment, yet in the foreground or in the corner of many of the widescreen shots, tendrils reach. Trees, rooted, that will revive come spring. Annie (Kate Beckinsale) is the mother of Tara, a small girl. Working as one part of the seemingly entirely non-Asian staff of the local China Town restaurant, Annie tries to avoid estranged husband Glenn (Sam Rockwell), who's developed a few messianic tics since their separation, and keep meetings with Nate (Nicky Katt), husband of China Town co-worker Barb (Amy Sedaris), a secret from all. Another co-worker is teenaged Arthur (Michael Angarano), whom Annie babysat for many years, and who is in a want-a-first-kiss flirtation with Lila, a proto-glamour-geek behind cats-eye glasses, under rats-nest tangle of dark hair (Olivia Thirlby). Theirs is a sweetly hopeful young romance despite the quietly catastrophic onset of middle-aged disillusionment in Arthur’s parents (still floppy-haired Griffin Dunne, weary yet luminous Jeanneta Arnette). The acting is very, very good, with the performers matching the capacity of Green’s fully furnished world to surprise from shot-to-shot.

The world falls apart terribly in this small, unspecified town and the landscape swallows many sorrows. And yet. Things change but life does not stop: young love, old love, they are as true as the hurts notched across years of acquaintance or relationship. Establishing shots are used as socioeconomic shorthand, and meticulously gathered props and interior design have talismanic weight.

As always, Green and his regular cinematographer Tim Orr observe landscape, working as the first-est second unit of them all. (How do they find the time to shoot all this concrete yet lyrical coverage?) Shots matter in movies like George Washington, All the Real Girls, Undertow and Snow Angels: An overweight grandmother with faded tattoos on her forearm. Kate Beckinsale’s bare calf, cocked, across a motel room bedspread. Snowflakes on red wool. A lovemaking scene that builds from the elegant example of Don’t Look Now (plus a bonus goofball cunnilingus button). We see a boy in class seen drawing an enormous power transmission line, and Green cuts to the real line, which dominates a hillside and horizon without a lick of majesty. Among many other glorious instants, I would single out one of Lila, outdoors, watching Arthur leave the school grounds, taking a photograph of this boy to whom she is all the time more drawn; it’s from a bit of distance, and unsteady, framed just a little high on her as she looks over her glasses through the glass viewfinder of her twin-lensed medium format camera, contrasting geometry both above and below her of the outdoor stadium, and her bulky-at-the-base winter coat planting her there like a tree. The next couple of shots? Landscapes in the style of the photographs she’s taken: for a second, her eyes are the film’s omniscient vision. Green is good at this, at throwaway beauty. “Let me take your breath, okay? Now let’s move along.”

Dialogue matters to this still-young writer-director, too, as anyone who likes his films would tell you. A girl browsing a slang dictionary as a tease: “Fellatrix. I like that”; “If Tom Cruise were a little girlie, girlie, he’d look like you”; “Can you say that in Spanish?”; “She had a pickle”; “I’ll suck you right up my tailpipe, bud”; “I’m nice, aren’t I?... Do you have any idea of how adorably cute you are? … Right now?” And emotion, with motion: a girl’s “Stupid things you say make me like you even more,” caught in a handheld shot that moves uneasily back from a two-shot into an empty high school corridor, leaving them framed at the center of their world.

Aside from worthy embellishments on Robert Altman, Green makes a wry nod to Cameron Crowe with a bit involving a pencil earlier; the two men are parallel sweethearts. An end-credit bonus unlikely to be found in Altman or Crowe: there’s a tune in the movie entitled “Four Robots Fucking in A Wool Sock.”

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Sundance on Ice (Saturday)

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S07: Spletzer on Mudede on Zoo and AOL

For an admiring piece, Andy Spletzer's interview at GreenCine with screenwriter Charles Mudede (Police Beat) about his essayistic Sundance doc entry, Zoo, has quite the lede: ""It's hard to believe, but one of the most beautiful films at Sundance this year will be about a guy who was fucked to death by a horse." "Back in 2005, when the Seattle Times reported on the "Enumclaw Horse Sex Incident," the story spread like wildfire across the Internet and became their most-read story of the year. It also caught the eyes of Seattle-based director Robinson Devor and writer Charles Mudede, whose dreamily poetic feature film Police Beat debuted at Sundance just six months prior. The resulting documentary essay is Zoo... Far from a traditional documentary, the narration is taken from extensive audio interviews with members of the group and was edited together to form the spine of the story. On top of that, they hired actors to portray the incidents that were being spoken about, and they brought in their Police Beat cinematographer Sean Kirby to create beautifully evocative images to punctuate the story." The story broke in the summer of 2005, with the revelation that bestiality was legal in the state of Washington. "[T]he Internet made it possible. There's no other reason why they got together, which is wonderful when you think about it. We didn't get this out in the film and I wanted to express this, but you can only do so much. I like the fact that the Internet, this advanced form of technology, made it possible to do something that you'd almost say was kind of... primitive. Right? You know what I mean? At the root, at the center of all of this, the exchange between nature, the wild, the animal and the human was only made possible by the foremost technology of our time." Spletzer notes that the caretaker of the barn says, "I got a computer in 2002 and started with AOL." Mudede: "Yes. That's right. "And I discovered myself. I discovered who I was. I was a zoo." I mean, he discovers it on the Web, which is amazing." [More amazement and perplexity at the link.]

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Sundance movies are bad for you, Corliss sez

Sundance defines indie, by the definition of Time magazine's Richard Corliss. "[T]he kind of indie film nurtured by Sundance has become the dominant non-Hollywood movie form for smart people," he asserts in a predictable plaint that could use some fresh reporting. "Sundance has become the crucial farm system for the major studios. Problem is, indie movies are getting as predictable as Hollywood's. Sundance movies have devolved into a genre. The style is spare and naturalistic. The theme is relationships, beginning in angst and ending in reconciliation. The focus is often on a dysfunctional family (there are no functional ones in indie movies) that strives to reconnect... Given the typical Sundance pace, which is leisurely to lethargic, these road movies rarely get in the passing lane. The predictability of recent Sundance films is a pity, because the fest used to discover original movie minds. The honor roll of those who introduced their early work there includes both the big fish of indie cinema (among them Joel and Ethan Coen, Jim Jarmusch, Kevin Smith and Darren Aronofsky) and some of the mainstream's champion swimmers (including Steven Soderbergh, Quentin Tarantino, Bryan Singer and Christopher Nolan). What most of these directors share is a gift for bending, sometimes gleefully mutilating, film form: taking old narratives styles like the crime movie or musical or horror film and making them fresh, vital, dangerous... You don't find as much originality in Sundance films these days, and for a simple reason. In the beginning, the festival was a home for the homeless... There was no need to be cautious, since indie films were rarely hits. But as Sundance became the showcase for a form of movie gaining marketplace pull, young directors naturally made films to fit the new mold. Sundance films weren't quirky; they did quirky. Quirky became another genre. In fact, truly imaginative movies have always been anomalies at Sundance..." [More of less at the link.]

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S07 fortune cookie #3—Baudelaire

After watching the gentle teen romance inside the darker matter of David Gordon Green's Snow Angels: "Genius is childhood recovered at will"—Baudelaire.

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January 19, 2007

S07 reviews: The Savages

Note-perfect, Tamara Jenkins' The Savages puts an awful lot of American moviemaking to shame. Witty about neurosis and unblinking about mortality, her long-in-coming second feature is an unlikely fusion of the comedic precision of Annie Hall and the melancholy humanism The Death of Mr. Lazarescu, and I mean that in the most admiring and positive fashion. Line for line, The Savages has some of the most formidable comic dialogue I've been fortunate enough to hear in ages, and the screenplay is lovingly structured. I'll have more in a bit, but here's a sampling of Jenkins' ear for dialogue: "We're not in therapy right now, we're in real life"; "I'm not leaving you alone, I'm hanging up"; and "It's back to Krakow for Kasia. Your brother won't marry me, but when I make him eggs, he cries." [Like many other behavioral niceties one could cite, Cara Seymour's limpid yet freighted delivery of that line is dead-on lovely.] A quick free-range free-association: The surreal, heartfelt final shot, in its own strange way, evokes the "We need the eggs" scene that closes Annie Hall.

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S07 Fortune cookie #2—on fashion(able) criticism

After a couple hours up-down Main Street sampling the weave of swag and branding and "gifting," this small thought: Fashion criticism often falls victim to fashion’s function in socializing and acculturation. If fashion bears the dual roles of self-expression and social registration, its criticism is inevitably a cultural criticism, addressing the abstract and applied terms of dress and appearance as a reflection of self-expression and self-confidence, but also implicating the terms of dress within the social contract. Fashion as a consumerist system exerts prodigious power; society, the entirety of our small and large social constructs, wields a like power over each client and potential purchaser… We expect fashion to be superficial, possessing beauty only in the limited category of craft/dazzle; we assume that fashion’s timely brevity is the soul of witlessness. (Richard Martin, “Addressing the Dress,” from “The Crisis of Criticism” (1998).)

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S07 reviews: Chicago 10

“Look out, Haskell, it’s animated.” Brett Morgan’s The Chicago 10, aka Friends of Graydon Carter, continues the tradition of less-than-imperfect Sundance opening night attractions. Intercutting events on the streets of Chicago during the 1968 Democratic Convention and a recreation of the “Chicago Seven” trial of Yippie leaders Abbie Hoffman, Rennie Davis, Jerry Rubin,and others, the film makes a lurid, even fatal mistake: using crude, cheap-looking, never beautiful, merely illustrative videogame-style animation (with motion capture work as well) to capture the notorious courtroom theatrics. When you see footage of these young longhairs in all their indelicate stubbornness, especially Rubin in his red-yellow stripy jumper the colors of the Vietnamese flag, you look away from the failed anime and await the next burst of history. You can’t top the real stuff in the archival snippets: glimpses from the waterfront park of the John Hancock to the north, still under construction; a pale pair of martial shadows advancing against backlit teargas; a whip pan on Michigan Avenue that rests abruptly upon the dazed face of a pale young man with a high forehead riven and crusted with blood from his scalp; the vast jowls of the father of the current mayor, bleating about the threat of “terrorism” or smirking, “No, a snake dance never disturbed me”; Walter Cronkite, during the Convention week lockdown, stating flatly that the events are “about to begin in a police state. I’m afraid there is no other word.” It’s like seeing images from 1956 Budapest, except it’s the streets of the city I’ve lived in most of my adult life. Jeff Danna’s diverse, eclectic score stitches many rough transitions and boasts a few impressive passages of rangy guitar rock, as well as an ominous theme built on Philip Glass-like arpeggios as the riot starts to happen. The voice talent is largely mediocre and unsuited, seemingly chosen for their vantage to the reflective surface of Vanity Fair’s page including Mark Ruffalo, Hank Azaria, Nick Nolte, Jeffrey Wright, Liev Schreiber, and an unrecognizable Roy Scheider mewling as the doddering Judge Julius Hoffman. Almost, just almost, the fragments of historical material are pungent enough, iconic enough, to stand out against the underwhelming animation. It ain’t “Boondocks,” an accomplished feat of animation which is also far more incendiary and subversive while beguiling the eye. [At least one historical quibble: in a bit of testimony, reference is made to a “squadron,” when the correct word is “squadrol,” Chicago copspeak for police wagons.]

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Sundance on Ice (Friday)

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Sundance on Ice (Thursday)

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Sunderance: "Some mornings..."

SOME MORNINGS WHEN SUNLIGHT IS BRIGHT AND CLEAR, there’s a band of light on the south, bedroom wall in front of me, slicing beneath the venetians as through squinted eyes, and if the door is cracked more than slightly, I can into the next room, only part of one white wall and all of a white ceiling and on those mornings there is the flush of light followed by shapes of birds, or more properly, the Birds. The Birds circuit and spiral above the building, over the urban intersection, shadows like furious origami conveyed in flickery, reflected anime, avian Muybridge of piercing presence. They gather in hope of a market. They remember the market that’s gone; they can’t know a new supermarket is being built to replace the old one, the 1950s supermarket founded as an A&P. They expect flat roofs the span of a small beach, with irregular, shallow mirrors of sky from regular rain. That’s why the seagulls join the pigeons two, three miles inland from Lake Michigan. They recall the market, they expect the mirror. How easy it’s been to slip from lucid dreaming the past few weeks to morning light and into a metaphor for the braces, coveys, rookeries, sieges and flocks soon to circle baggage claim 8 at SLC then ascend I-80 up the hill toward Summit County and lodging and the Albertson’s off Park Avenue.

Disguised as subarctic fowl, skinnier birds from lower climes forage. We know there was a market. Last year, the year before, back into the past century. We sense the market to come. We circle, land, marvel at the band of silver carts operated by other shoppers in Albertson’s, carts so full the wheels fail to squeak, gliding with near- silent hydraulic precision. Steaks and soups and Stouffer’s and Ben & Jerry’s smooth forward motion. A market is a place. A city is a market. The birds are like a marvelous cave painting in my mind. I close my eyes and envision sharp, cutting anime shadows and think of Park City. [To be continued.]

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January 18, 2007

S07 Fortune cookie #1—Joe Carnahan

"Commerce marches, Art wanders." —Joe Carnahan.

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January 17, 2007

Sun '07: begin the penguine

WEATHER FOR THURSDAY AFTERNOON on 7,000 foot elevation Main Street, Park City, about 35 miles up the hill from Salt Lake City: 17 degrees and partly cloudy. Lovely weather for penguin slapdown!

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Knowing Dick: re-rating the MPAA

No, no, no, we never take advice, we never react, we are the sons of Jack Valenti, you'd think the MPAA would say in re: the ratings system, but it looks like Kirby Dick's bullhorn got heard. In the wake of This Film is Not Yet Rated, writes Variety's Pamela McClintock, the MPAA will be at Sundance tub-thumpingchanges to the film rating system that incorporate many of the suggestions in Dick's doc. "Looking to reform and demystify the ratings system, the MPAA and National Assn. of Theater Owners are planning... changes, including a new admonishment to parents that certain R-rated movies aren't suitable for younger kids, period." The surge starts Monday at Sundance "when MPAA topper Dan Glickman and Joan Graves, chair of the Classification & Rating Administration, will meet with indie filmmakers, producers and specialty arm execs to go over the alterations." When This Film was shown at Sundance 2006, McClintock avers, "Glickman had already been meeting with... various stakeholders [sic] in the ratings system—including filmmakers, guilds, parents' groups and Washington lawmakers—but Dick's film had an impact. "The documentary made it clear that we probably haven't done as much as we can to explain how it all works," Glickman [said], adding that the voluntary ratings system—devised and implemented by Jack Valenti, his predecessor—is a "gem," even if it needs some polishing." [Much like apples.] For the first time, CARA will post the ratings rules on the MPAA Web site, describing... The ratings and appeal processes also will be described in detail, along with a link to paperwork needed to submit a film for a rating... CARA will formalize its rule that a member of the ratings board doesn't stay on the board after his or her children are grown." [More particulars at the link.]

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S07: empaneling the juries

Sundance '07 announces its juries, highlighting these members: "Mos Def, Sarah Polley, Catherine Hardwicke, Carlos Sandoval, Raoul Peck, Carlos Bolado, Jared Hess, and Darren Aronofsky." Among the other 24 are Alan Berliner, Jared Hess, Lauren Greenfield, Julia Reichert, Lynne Ramsay and U-Wei Bin Haji Saari. [Full press release with bios in extended entry.]

2007 SUNDANCE FILM FESTIVAL ANNOUNCES JURY MEMBERS

U.S. and International Jurists include: Mos Def, Sarah Polley, Catherine Hardwicke, Carlos Sandoval, Raoul Peck, Carlos Bolado, Jared Hess, and Darren Aronofsky.

Park City, UT—The 2007 Sundance Film Festival announced today the members of the six juries awarding prizes at Festival, which runs January 18-28, 2007 in Park City, Sundance Resort, Salt Lake City, and Ogden, Utah. The juries are made up of twenty-four individuals selected from the global film community, each of whom are bringing a broad range of experience and a unique perspective on film. The award-winners will be announced on the evening of January 27 at the 2007 Sundance Film Festival Awards Ceremony at the Park City Racquet Club.

The six juries include: U.S. Dramatic Competition— Mos Def, Catherine Hardwicke, Dawn Hudson, Pamela Martin, and Sarah Polley; U.S. Documentary Competition— Alan Berliner, Lewis Erskine, Lauren Greenfield, Julia Reichert, and Carlos Sandoval; World Dramatic Competition — Carlos Bolado, Lynne Ramsay, and U-Wei Bin Haji Saari; World Documentary Competition—Raoul Peck, Juan Carlos Rulfo, and Elizabeth Weatherford; American and International Shorts—Jared Hess, Daniela Michel, and Mark Rosenberg; and the Alfred P. Sloan Prize—Darren Aronofsky, Ann Druyan, Dr. Brian Greene, Howard Suber, and John Underkoffler.

Many of the jurists will be in attendance at the 2007 Sundance Film Festival Opening Press Conference on Wednesday, January 18th at 2:00 pm at the Egyptian Theatre in Park City, UT.

“We are blessed to an enormously talented group of jurors this year, who include some of the most exceptional individuals in the independent film community both in here an abroad,” said Geoffrey Gilmore, Director of the Sundance Film Festival. “Ranging from influential directors, innovative editors, last year’s award-winners and industry leaders, these jurists truly bring a variety of experience and perspective to the table.”

The Independent Film Competition is the heart and soul of the Sundance Film Festival program. It has introduced audiences to many of the best American independent films and filmmakers of the past 23 years. American films selected to screen in the Dramatic and Documentary Competitions are eligible for a number of jury awards including: Grand Jury Prizes, Directing Awards, and Excellence in Cinematography Awards. The Waldo Salt Screenwriting Award will be presented by the Dramatic Competition Jury and the Documentary Editing Award, now in its third year, will be presented to the editor of an exceptional documentary film by the Documentary Competition Jury.

Launched in 2005, the World Cinema Competition reflects the Festival’s commitment to international film and to stimulating creative dialogue among and within cultures. The dramatic and documentary sections of the U.S. and World Cinema Competitions each present sixteen films, for a total of sixty-four films that screening in competition. The World Dramatic and Documentary Competition Juries will present a Jury Prizes in World Cinema.

The Shorts Jury will present the Jury Prizes in Short Filmmaking to American and international filmmakers as well as Honorable Mentions. Additionally, The Alfred P. Sloan Prize will be presented by its jury to acknowledge an outstanding film for the quality of its thematic presentation of science and technology. Films in both Independent and World Competitions are eligible for the Dramatic and Documentary Audience Awards.

U.S. Dramatic Competition Jury Members:

Mos Def—Regarded as one of hip-hop’s most introspective and insightful artists, Mos Def has shaped a career that transcends musical genres and artistic media. As an actor, Def has appeared in Spike Lee’s BAMBOOZLED, MONSTER’S BALL, and BROWN SUGAR, for which he received an NAACP Image Award nomination. Other films include THE ITALIAN JOB, THE WOODSMAN, JOURNEY TO THE END OF THE NIGHT, and his award-winning performance in SOMETHING THE LORD MADE.

Catherine Hardwicke—By choosing thought-provoking and controversial material, Catherine Hardwicke has secured her place as an auteur and a member of an all-too-diminutive group of female directors. Her most recent directorial efforts are the historical drama THE NATIVITY STORY and the skateboarding biopic LORDS OF DOGTOWN. Hardwicke’s feature-film directorial and screenwriting debut was the critically acclaimed film THIRTEEN, which won the Directing Award at the 2003 Sundance Film Festival.

Dawn Hudson—Dawn Hudson has been the Executive Director of Film Independent (formerly IFP/Los Angeles) since 1991. Under her leadership, Film Independent has grown seven-fold, from a 900-member organization to its current membership of 6,000. In 2001, Film Independent acquired the Los Angeles Film Festival. The Los Angeles Film Festival and the 20-year-old Independent Spirit Awards remain Film Independent's two signature events.


Pamela Martin—Pamela Martin is a feature-film editor who has many credits to her name, including LITTLE MISS SUNSHINE, SAVED!, HOW TO KILL YOUR NEIGHBOR'S DOG, SLUMS OF BEVERLY HILLS, THE HOUSE OF YES, THE SUBSTANCE OF FIRE, ED'S NEXT MOVE, and SPANKING THE MONKEY, which won the Audience Award at the 1994 Sundance Film Festival.

Sarah Polley—Sarah Polley has been writing and directing in Canada for the last several years. She directed the short films THE BEST DAY OF MY LIFE, DON’T THINK TWICE, and I SHOUT LOVE, which won a 2003 Genie Award for best live-action short. AWAY FROM HER, this year’s Salt Lake Opening Night Film, is her first full-length directorial effort.

U.S. Documentary Competition Jury Members:

Alan Berliner—Alan Berliner's uncanny ability to combine experimental cinema, artistic purpose, and popular appeal in compelling film essays has made him one of America's most acclaimed independent filmmakers. His films include WIDE AWAKE, which screened at the 2006 Sundance Film Festival, THE SWEETEST SOUND, NOBODY'S BUSINESS, INTIMATE STRANGER, and THE FAMILY ALBUM.

Lewis Erskine—Lewis Erskine's editing ear was honed by mixing sound for records and listening to 1970s Black radio, while his eye was trained by watching the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater grow. His work includes TOOTS, JONESTOWN: THE LIFE AND DEATH OF PEOPLES TEMPLE, and the TV series The American Experience.

Lauren Greenfield—Award-winning photographer Lauren Greenfield is considered a preeminent chronicler of youth culture as a result of her groundbreaking projects Girl Culture and Fast Forward. Greenfield’s first documentary film, THIN, premiered in the documentary competition at Sundance last year. Her photographs have appeared in the New York Times Magazine, Time, ELLE, and American Photo.

Julia Reichert—Named by Filmmaker magazine as one of the "godmothers of American independent film", two-time Academy Award nominee Julia Reichert is no stranger to documentaries. After an appearance at the 1984 Sundance Film Festival with SEEING RED: STORIES OF AMERICAN COMMUNISTS and several screenings on PBS, her films have made an impact throughout the independent film community.

Carlos Sandoval—Carlos Sandoval is the co-producer/director of FARMINGVILLE, which won the Special Jury Prize at the 2004 Sundance Film Festival. His play, The Wolfman and His Wife, was part of the reading series at the Jungle Theatre in Minneapolis. He also worked on immigration and refugee affairs as a member of the U.S. delegation to the United Nations and as a program officer for the Century Foundation.

WORLD INDEPENDENT CINEMA COMPETITION
Films screening in the World Cinema Dramatic and Documentary Competition are eligible for the World Cinema Jury Prizes, as well as the World Cinema Audience Awards.

World Dramatic Competition Jury Members:

Carlos Bolado—Mexico native Carlos Bolado’s first film, BAJO CALIFORNIA EL LIMITE DEL TIEMPO, screened at 1999 Sundance Film Festival and won seven Ariels, Mexico’s highest cinematic award. He co-directed and edited the 2002 Academy nominated PROMISES, which also acquired two Emmys. His recent dramatic feature, SÓLO DIOS SABE, screened at the 2006 Sundance Film Festival.

Lynne Ramsay—Glasgow native Lynne Ramsay's short film, SMALL DEATHS, won the Jury Prize at the Cannes International Film Festival in 1996. Her other short films, KILL THE DAY and GASMAN, garnered numerous awards. Ramsay’s acclaimed debut feature, RATCATCHER, opened the Edinburgh Film Festival and won its director the 2000 BAFTA Carl Foreman Award for a newcomer in British film.

U-Wei Bin Haji Saari—Malaysia native U-Wei Bin Haji Saari’s first feature film, WOMAN, WIFE AND WHORE, won five awards at the Malaysian Film Festival, including best film, director, and screenplay. His latest film, MY BEAUTIFUL RAMBUTAN TREE IN TANJUNG RAMBUTAN, was selected for the Directors’ Fortnight at Cannes last year and opened the Singapore Film Festival.

World Documentary Competition Jury Members:

Raoul Peck—Raoul Peck has developed experimental works, sociopolitical documentaries, and features such as SOMETIMES IN APRIL, LUMUMBA, THE MAN ON THE SHORE, and LUMUMBA—DEATH OF A PROPHET. When democracy returned briefly to Haiti in 1995, he served as Minister of Culture for 18 months. In 2003, the Human Rights Watch awarded Peck with the Irene Diamond Lifetime Achievement Award.

Juan Carlos Rulfo—After three appearances at the Sundance Film Festival (1996, 2000 and 2006) Juan Carlos Rulfo has established himself as a cutting-edge documentarian. His most recent film, IN THE PIT, won the World Documentary Jury Prize at the 2006 Sundance Film Festival.

Elizabeth Weatherford—Elizabeth Weatherford is the founding director of the Film and Video Center of the Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian
and its international Native American Film and Video Festival. She is on the advisory board of numerous film festivals and has taught classes at New York University.

AMERICAN AND INTERNATIONAL SHORT FILM COMPETITION
The Short Film Jury will award prizes based on outstanding achievement and merit in filmmaking. These will go to American and an International Short Filmmakers for qualifying films under thirty minutes in length. The awards will be presented by Adobe Systems Incorporated.

Short Film Jury Members:

Jared Hess—Jared Hess’s first feature film, NAPOLEON DYNAMITE, debuted at the 2004 Sundance Film Festival and went on to become one of the most successful films of the year. His second feature, NACHO LIBRE, was released in 2006. He currently resides in Salt Lake City with his screenwriter and wife, Jerusha, and their two children.

Daniela Michel—In 2003, Daniela Michel became founding director of the Morelia International Film Festival. Michel has also been organizing film festivals since 1994, when she began co-directing the Mexican Short Film Forum. She has served as a juror for the Rockefeller Media Arts fellowships and the Fulbright Institute.

Mark Rosenberg—Mark Rosenberg is the founder and artistic director of Rooftop Films in Brooklyn, New York. Rooftop has shown more than 1,000 films to more than 30,000 audience members and has supported 50 emerging filmmakers through the Rooftop Filmmakers Fund and Production Collective.


ALFRED P. SLOAN PRIZE
The Alfred P. Sloan Prize carries a $20,000 cash award and is designed to increase the visibility of outstanding independent films on science and technology as well as to showcase the work of emerging filmmakers tackling compelling topics within these fields.

Alfred P. Sloan Prize Jury Members:

Darren Aronofsky—Darren Aronofsky won several film awards after completing his senior thesis film, SUPERMARKET SWEEP, starring Sean Gullette. He then went on to write and direct the groundbreaking films PI, REQUIEM FOR A DREAM, and THE FOUNTAIN.

Ann Druyan—Amy Druyan is a writer and producer who co-created CONTACT, co-wrote the Cosmos television series, and served as creative director for NASA’s Voyager interstellar message system.

Dr. Brian Greene—Dr. Brian Greene is a professor of physics and mathematics at Columbia University and author of The Elegant Universe and The Fabric of the Cosmos.

Howard Suber—Howard Suber is a longtime faculty member at the UCLA School of Theater, Film, and Television, and one of the founders of the UCLA Film and Television Archive. He is the author of The Power of Film, where he examines the patterns and principles that make films popular and memorable.

John Underkoffler—John Underkoffler has worked as a science consultant on MINORITY REPORT, THE HULK, and AEON FLUX, and is the founder of Oblong Industries.


FESTIVAL SPONSORS
The 2007 Sundance Film Festival sponsors help sustain Sundance Institute's year-round programs to support independent artists, inspire risk-taking and encourage diversity in the arts. This year's Festival Sponsors include: Presenting Sponsors — Entertainment Weekly, Volkswagen of America, Inc., HP, Adobe Systems Incorporated, and AOL; Leadership Sponsors—American Express, Delta Air Lines, and DIRECTV; Sustaining Sponsors—ABSOLUT®, Aquafina, Blockbuster Inc., CESAR® Canine Cuisine, KRUPS, L’Oreal Paris, The New York Times, Ray-Ban, Sony Electronics, Inc., Stella Artois®, Turning Leaf Vineyards, and the Utah Film Commission.

Sundance Film Festival
The Sundance Film Festival is the premier showcase for U.S. and international independent film. Held each January in Park City, Sundance Resort, Salt Lake City, and Ogden, Utah, the Festival is a core program of the Sundance Institute, a nonprofit cultural organization founded by Robert Redford in 1981.

Presenting 125 dramatic and documentary feature–length films in nine distinct categories and over 70 short films each year, the Sundance Film Festival has introduced American audiences to some of the most innovative films of the past two decades. The official website of the Sundance Film Festival, www.sundance.org shares the Festival experience beyond the streets of Park City with a global audience through the streaming of short films, filmmaker interviews, and current news and box office information.

Sundance Institute:
Dedicated year–round to the development of artists of independent vision and to the exhibition of their new work, Sundance Institute celebrates its 25th anniversary in 2006. Founded by Robert Redford in 1981, the Institute has grown into an internationally recognized resource for thousands of independent artists through its Film Festival and artistic development programs for filmmakers, screenwriters, composers, playwrights and theatre artists. The original values of independence, creative risk–taking, and discovery continue to define and guide the work of Sundance Institute, both with U.S. artists and, increasingly, with artists from other regions of the world.

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January 16, 2007

Sponso®ing Sundance 2007: con and p®o

IT ISN'T MUCH, but it's better than nothing in this cockeyed caravan: Over at indieWIRE, Anthony Kaufman leads the perennial charge against commercialism in the Wasatch range, as he composes "5 ironies of Sundance," among which are the fact that experimental work will be shown on Park City's Main Street at Sundance 2007. "Does it not strike anyone odd that Main Street, home to the horrible hawking of everything from movies to pet-food [sic], is the permanent home of Sundance's new avant-garde space, New Frontier on Main[?] To see the Martha Colburn installation, you must suffer through countless filmmakers carrying masks, sandwich-boards [sic], bullhorns, etc, in [addition] to the rabble trying to get into some party at Cicero's [sic] or Harry O's, etc...I'll never forget my days hiking up Main Street, trying to avoid the chaos as I try to catch some obscure entry from South Korea or Singapore." Plus, harsher words against idle swagolatry®: "What the hell is gifting, and how has this new verb become such an integral part of the entertainment business[?] I just got an email for the "Gifting Lounge," a place that has decided to take the high road and disguise its gross gluttonous impulse by giving celebrities a gift card so they can 'select their own swag in the privacy of their own home.'" Also today: the Sundance Institute pr's a few additional corporate sponsors to the festival itself, bringing the total to 20, including AOL, ABSOLUT®, EW, HP, KRUPS, VW, Adobe, Delta, AmEx, DIRECTV, Blockbuster, Aquafina, NY Times, Ray-Ban, L’Oreal Paris, Sony Electronics, Inc., Stella Artois®, Turning Leaf Vineyards, the Utah Film Commission and CESAR® Canine Cuisine. Sayeth Ken Brecher, Executive Director, Sundance Institute: “The sponsors are critical to the success of the Sundance Film Festival. Their continued support and dedication, enables Sundance Institute to present the work from the most diverse and original filmmakers from around the world. We are grateful to be able to work with a group of companies that support the mission and goals of Sundance Institute, and recognize the importance of art in today’s world." [Full P.R. below.]

2007 SUNDANCE FILM FESTIVAL RECIEVES [sic] SUPPORT FROM 20 CORPORATE SPONSORS DEDICATED TO SUPPORTING ARTISTS AND INDEPENDENT FILM

New Festival Sponsors include: AOL, ABSOLUT®, KRUPS, and Ray-Ban

Park City, UT—The Sundance Institute announced today the 20 sponsors of the 2007 Sundance Film Festival, including four new additions: AOL, ABSOLUT®, KRUPS, and Ray-Ban. These four newcomers join a distinguished group of companies who are dedicated to supporting independent artists and the presentation of more than 700 screenings by over 200 filmmakers at the 2007 Festival. Their support also extends to the year-round programs of the nonprofit Sundance Institute. Many of the 2007 Sundance Film Festival sponsors are introducing innovative activities and are providing services designed to support and enhance the Festival experience of filmmakers and festival-goers alike. Some of those activities include: editing workshops by Adobe, free internet at all official Festival venues by HP, limited edition pocket sized Festival Schedule from Entertainment Weekly and complimentary transportation for filmmakers provided by VW. The 2007 Sundance Film Festival runs from January 18-28 in Park City, the Sundance Resort, Salt Lake City, and Ogden, Utah.

“The sponsors are critical to the success of the Sundance Film Festival. Their continued support and dedication, enables Sundance Institute to present the work from the most diverse and original filmmakers from around the world. We are grateful to be able to work with a group of companies that support the mission and goals of Sundance Institute, and recognize the importance of art in today’s world,” said Ken Brecher, Executive Director, Sundance Institute.

As a program of the non-profit Sundance Institute, the Sundance Film Festival operates with the support of corporate sponsors as well as that of private foundations, nonprofit associations and guilds, government agencies, and individual donors. Behind the scenes, Festival sponsorship dollars make possible many of the services provided to filmmakers during the Festival. These contributions also support the Festival and Institute’s infrastructure, including: marketing, volunteer services, transportation, and communications.

2007 Sundance Film Festival Sponsors
The 2007 Sundance Film Festival sponsors help sustain Sundance Institute's year-round programs to support independent artists, inspire risk-taking and encourage diversity in the arts. This year's Festival Sponsors include: Presenting Sponsors—Entertainment Weekly, Volkswagen of America, Inc., HP, Adobe Systems Incorporated, and AOL; Leadership Sponsors—American Express, Delta Air Lines, and DIRECTV; Sustaining Sponsors—ABSOLUT®, Aquafina, Blockbuster Inc., CESAR® Canine Cuisine, KRUPS, L’Oreal Paris, The New York Times, Ray-Ban, Sony Electronics, Inc., Stella Artois®, Turning Leaf Vineyards, and the Utah Film Commission.

In addition to the behind-the-scenes support of the Festival, sponsors work closely with Festival planners to offer a wide rage of amenities and venues for filmmakers and festival-goers alike, including:

PRESENTING SPONSORS

Entertainment Weekly
· Celebrates its 16th year as a sponsor of the Sundance Film Festival–the longest standing supporter and sponsor of the Festival.
· Sponsors the Premiere section of the Festival.
· Supports the creation of the Festival’s Daily Planner, a unique and essential tool for filmmakers and festival attendees to keep up with screening times, venues, panels, and events.
Volkswagen of America, Inc.
· Presents one lucky 2007 filmmaker with the “VW Relentless Driver Award”.
· Provides a fleet of over 40 automobiles to transport filmmakers, actors, and Festival staff.
· Sponsors the Audience Awards for U.S. Independent Dramatic and Documentary Competition Films.
Hewlett-Packard Company
· Provides computers and wireless zones at all official Festival venues and offices.
· Presents the new “Meet the Artists” section on the Sundance Film Festival website at www.sundance.org, featuring Q&A interviews with the artists behind the films at the 2007 Festival.
· Creates an interactive photo journal to provide all competition filmmakers the opportunity to upload personal photos that capture their minute by minute Sundance experience.
· Partners with the Sundance Channel on their Snapshot Diaries initiative. Filmmakers and cast members from Festival films will use HP cameras to capture their Sundance experience.
Adobe Systems Incorporated
· Sponsors the Festival’s Short Film program which includes screenings, awards and parties.
· Presents free streaming of more than 40 of the shorts from the Festival at www.sundance.org.
· Hosts demonstrations of editing systems at the New Frontier on Main to provide amateur and professional filmmakers the opportunity to experience the power and ease of Adobe’s editing software.
AOL
· Creating a private space on Main Street for interviews with artists participating in the Festival Moviefone Unscripted series providing the millions of daily visitors to AOL with access to the filmmakers, artists and actors.
· Hosting a public venue open to all Festival attendees, providing an opportunity to experience the new free services being offered by AOL.



LEADERSHIP SPONSORS
Delta Air Lines
· Provides Sundance Institute with flight vouchers to fly all staff and filmmakers to the 2007 Sundance Film Festival.
· Partners with official Festival photographer, WireImage, to host a private lounge Festival portrait studio, for filmmakers and actors in the Festival.

SUSTAINING SPONSORS
Stella Artois®
· Returning to the Lower Patio of Sundance House at The Kimball Art Center, Stella Artois® is hosts a daily Happy Hour from 4:00p.m. to 7:00p.m. that is open to all Festival Credential holders 21 and over.
Turning Leaf Vineyards
· Hosts the Leaf Lounge on Main Street for the fourth year in a row. In the lounge, open daily from 3:00p.m. until 9:00p.m., Turning Leaf is serves complimentary Turning Leaf Vineyards Wine and light hors d’oeuvres . Open to all Festival Credential holders 21 and over.
KRUPS
· Hosts a full service coffee bar at the Rabbit Hole Lounge at New Frontier on Main.

Sundance Film Festival:
The Sundance Film Festival is the premier showcase for U.S. and international independent film. Held each January in Park City, at the Sundance Resort, in Salt Lake City, and in Ogden, Utah, the Festival is a core program of the Sundance Institute, a nonprofit cultural organization founded by Robert Redford in 1981.

Presenting 125 dramatic and documentary feature–length films in nine distinct categories and over 70 short films each year, the Sundance Film Festival has introduced American audiences to some of the most innovative films of the past two decades. The official website of the Sundance Film Festival, www.sundance.org shares the Festival experience beyond the streets of Park City with a global audience through the streaming of short films, filmmaker interviews, and current news and box office information.

Sundance Institute:
Dedicated year–round to the development of artists of independent vision and to the exhibition of their new work, Sundance Institute celebrates its 25th anniversary in 2006. Founded by Robert Redford in 1981, the Institute has grown into an internationally recognized resource for thousands of independent artists through its Film Festival and artistic development programs for filmmakers, screenwriters, composers, playwrights and theatre artists. The original values of independence, creative risk–taking, and discovery continue to define and guide the work of Sundance Institute, both with U.S. artists and, increasingly, with artists from other regions of the world.

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January 15, 2007

S07: Cold with a chance of colder

Well, if it was below 0c overnight Friday in Santa Monica, why shouldn't it be freezing up high up in the hillocks of Utah? [Full disclosure: Chicago is all about the purity of driven slush at this moment.] Here's a link for up-to-the-minute weather reports for those who are about to chill.

Posted by Ray Pride at 07:01 PM | Comments (0)

S07: Swag the dog: no more heavy bags full of useless merchandise

A few days before Sundance and information is still king and Indie® is but a peasant: while sorting through a couple hundred emails about things other than the movies being shown in Park City, this "But How Do You REALLY Feel About Sponsorship and Swag?" entry stands up and salutes: the inauguration of the kinda-sorta anti-swag swaghouse. (Not all sentences are claimed to have been ever spoken aloud.) " GIFTING LOUNGE CONGRATULATES DIRECTORS AT THE SUNDANCE FILM FESTIVAL. "For the FIRST TIME EVER, there will be a brand new way of gifting at the Sundance Film Festival. The Winter Warm Up Retreat invites filmmakers and their casts to come and enjoy the lounge while viewing new products that are being showcased. The Directors in the competition category will be congratulated for their achievements and gifted exclusively with high-end products. All attending press and celebs will have access to various products and services that will be offered on Luxestar. This is not your typical swag house. No more heavy bags full of useless merchandise, no more oversized clothing or oddly colored promotional items. Throughout the year we have spoken with celebrities and other VIP’s about their feelings on the new IRS restrictions and backlash that comes with receiving decadent items in public. After hearing the responses, the Luxestar Card was created... The enormous success of last years['] Self Magazine lounge, has urged us to step it up and offer every celebrity who visits the Luxestar Lounge one item only. The Platinum Luxestar Card. In addition to new products," there's a flipside, "The Freedom Campaign will [also] showcase the campaign for [Myanmar house-arrest prisoner of conscience] Aung San Suu Kyi and introduce Hollywood's famed actors and actresses [to] the cause in Burma. All [attendees] will receive a signature Freedom Campaign t-shirt and trailer for [a] soon to be finished... documentary... [T]he Luxestar Card gives celebrities the chance to select their own swag in the privacy of their own home. Representatives will... guide guests through the LuxeStar website and even assist them in ordering items on the spot. They simply log on and pick their favorite size, color, style and have it shipped... For our high end products [and] services, taxes then become the responsibility of the celebrity only for what they select and not for what they are given. The celebrity also becomes a unique user [of] the Luxestar website offering them goods year round through the use of their LuxeStar card... [S]ponsors include BlackBerry®, C Magazine, Jaeger Le Couture, Monarchy Collection, Lolly Lu, [and] Snow Queen Vodka... Specialty cocktails will be provided [at a] Hollywood Happy Hour at the end of each day." [Footnote: Snow Queen vodka is a Kazakh product, distilled five times for reasons unspecified.]

Posted by Ray Pride at 01:52 PM | Comments (0)

January 14, 2007

Counterindietuitive: IFC's Evan Shapiro speaks

Will IFC's acronym become as distant a memory as what AT&T really stands for the in 21st century? [Indie fuckin' controversies®?] Reports AP's David Bauder,"For much of its life, the Independent Film Channel was essentially content to show independent films. That wasn't enough for Evan Shapiro. Since taking over as general manager two years ago, he's sought to establish IFC as a haven for free speech, a network that relishes taking on controversial issues. His slogan for IFC is "TV, Uncut." "If cable does what broadcast cannot, IFC needs to do what cable does not," said Shapiro... One example is the recent documentary, This Film is Not Yet Rated, that explores the politics behind Hollywood's movie ratings system. [Shapiro] reasoned that "if we don't do this, we don't deserve to be the Independent Film Channel." IFC is also financing and showing series. "I think we attract far more libertarians than any other classification," Shapiro said. "Mavericks, independents, libertarians the stay-out-of-my-business mentality." It took a marketer," Bauder touts, "to understand that IFC, which began operating in 1994 and is seen in a little more than 1/3 of the nation's television homes, hadn't done enough to distinguish itself from rivals like Sundance and Bravo... "Evan has earned his indie cred and earned respect within the industry by the films that he's putting his money behind," [indieWIRE's Eugene] Hernandez said. "At the end of the day, it comes down to the projects." ... "It's not enough to just have a lot of films on your network," Shapiro said. "You have to curate it.' ... "One in 10 Americans tell the other nine what to do... and I'd rather talk to the one than the nine. I'd rather make Napoleon Dynamite than King Kong." [The press release is at the jump.]

IFC CONTINUES ORIGINAL PROGRAMMING MOMENTUM WITH NEW SLATE OF SCRIPTED PROJECTS

Network Announces Pilot ZO2 and Deals in Development for Pornopolis,
Elevated and Bad Habits

IFC’s Hit Series The Minor Accomplishments of Jackie Woodman and
The Business Renewed for Second Seasons Premiering August 2007

New York, NY, January 10, 2007 – The Independent Film Channel (IFC), the first and largest network dedicated to independent film, reaffirmed its commitment to expand the network’s slate of original scripted programming with today’s announcement of a pilot project and multiple deals in development. The network has ordered a pilot for a new comedy, ZO2 from MarkMark Productions (Parco P.I.), as well as an extensive list of script orders for projects including, Pornopolis, Elevated and Bad Habits. In addition, IFC announced that its two hit series, The Minor Accomplishments of Jackie Woodman and The Business are returning to the network for a second season in August 2007.

“IFC is focused on, and committed to, developing our original programming slate with unique content that aligns with the network’s uncut, uncensored environment,” said Evan Shapiro, IFC’s Executive Vice President and General Manager. “We are beyond pleased with the critical-acclaim received from the first season of Minor Accomplishments and The Business and we look forward to continuing the momentum with more serial programming this year.”

“It is very gratifying to see that our vision for original production is attracting key talent in the creative community and we're confident that our upcoming slate is going to yield outstanding television for the network,” added Debbie DeMontreux, IFC’s Vice President of Original Programming. “Minor Accomplishments and The Business are solid programming anchors that clearly resonate with our audience, and we’re very excited to bring them back for a second season. The deals we have in development are compelling projects that also embody the spirit of IFC and apply that raw, edgy entertainment that differentiates IFC’s programming within the television landscape.”

Today’s announcement builds on a successful year of original programming for IFC. In August 2006, the network debuted season one of The Minor Accomplishments of Jackie Woodman and The Business, both of which received overwhelming critical acclaim. IFC also released an ambitious slate of original documentaries and launched its first-ever theatrical release nationwide with its controversial documentary This Film Is Not Yet Rated, the breakthrough film from Oscar-nominated director Kirby Dick that offers an unprecedented investigation into the MPAA film ratings system and its profound impact on American culture. The film will make its network debut on IFC in March 2007. Additional projects scheduled for 2007 include original documentaries: The Bridge, a provocative, unflinching account of the suicides at San Francisco’s Golden Gate Bridge; Indie Sex, a documentary trilogy that explores the controversial, titillating and complicated topic of sex in cinema; Does Your Soul Have a Cold?, a compassionate look into the recent emergence of antidepressants in Japan; Darkon, follows the real-life adventures of an unusual group of weekend "warrior knights," fantasy role-playing gamers whose live-action "battleground" is modern-day Baltimore. In addition, the network will debut season two of The Henry Rollins Show, kicking off with a one-hour special, Henry Rollins: Uncut from Tel Aviv, documenting Rollins' two-night performance in the Israeli city, premiering April 13.

Following are descriptions of IFC’s upcoming scripted projects:

ZO2 -- (pilot)
A loosely scripted improvisational half-hour comedy, ZO2 follows one band with a dual identity: a real-life heavy metal rock band by night (“ZO2”) that also moonlights as a kids' birthday band by day (“Z Brothers”). The series is based on the real stories of the New York City-based band’s three rockers and the dual lives they lead. The pilot episode will explore the conflicts and comedy inherent in juggling these two lifestyles. Z02 is produced by MarkMark Productions.

Pornopolis
A one-hour dramatic script that chronicles the life of a seemingly average LA-based suburban family, however the parents happen to run a porn empire. Writers include Randy Barbato and Fenton Bailey for World of Wonder Productions (Inside Deep Throat) with Laura Cahill (Hysterical Blindness).

Elevated
A half-hour script for a workplace comedy set in a governmental counter-terrorism agency. Elevated is written by Jason Reich (The Daily Show).

Bad Habits
A one-hour dramatic script based on a group of people each struggling with various addictions from alcoholism to drug abuse to sex addiction. Written by Gary Lennon (.45, Blackout, Drunks).

Series Renewals:

The Minor Accomplishments of Jackie Woodman, Season 2 (comedy; 8 episodes; ½ hour)
This comedy series created by, written by and starring Laura Kightlinger (writer – Will and Grace, Roseanne) is an uncomfortable, herky-jerky romp through today's Hollywood. Season two takes off right where the last season left off: Jackie Woodman (Kightlinger) and her best friend Tara Wentzel (Nicholle Tom) are still in search of their talents, some recognition, a purpose and a hangover-proof martini. The not-so-dynamic duo find themselves in a whole new array of circumstances… Will Jackie and Tara find what they’re looking for at an industry-wide film market? At a nightclub where Jackie’s mother’s country-western band is playing? In the pocket of Tara’s boss’s nephew’s jacket? In a café that Jackie used to frequent until it was overrun by narcissistic young mothers and their breast-feeding infants? As they seek the answers, Jackie and Tara will continue to blow opportunities...shatter illusions...slightly increase the pool of common suffering...and disappoint those who believe in them...all with the best of intentions, the worst of judgment and an utter lack of interpersonal skills. The Minor Accomplishments of Jackie Woodman is created by and starring Laura Kightlinger, written by David Punch and Laura
Kightlinger; Executive Produced by Randy Barbato and Fenton Bailey for World of Wonder Productions, Laura Kightlinger and David Punch, and Adam and Mark Kassen of Kassen Bros Productions; Consulting Producers: Jeremy S. Kramer and Hugh Davidson.

The Business, Season 2 (comedy; 8 episodes; ½ hour)
The Business, season two, follows the same ensemble cast of characters from season one on another misadventure in indie film-land. Having just received critical and commercial success with the release of their indie-horror film, “House of Fear,” the founders of the production company Vic’s Flicks are unsure of how to deal with their newfound and unfamiliar success. The Business stars and is executive produced by Kathleen Robertson, directed by Phil Price and produced by Brandi-Ann Milbradt, both of Philms Pictures Inc.

About IFC Television
The Independent Film Channel (IFC) is the first and most widely distributed network dedicated to independent film 24 hours a day, uncut, uncensored and commercial-free.

The network is part of IFC Companies -- the only brand to operate in every area of independent film to include television, production, financing, distribution, digital, on-demand and exhibition. IFC Companies uses its unique cross-platform position to broaden the audience of independent film and to provide independent filmmakers with a strong voice. IFC Companies is a division of Rainbow Media Holdings, LLC.

About Rainbow Media Holdings LLC
Rainbow Media Holdings LLC is a subsidiary of Cablevision Systems Corporation (NYSE: CVC). Rainbow Media creates and manages some of the country's most compelling and dynamic entertainment brands including popular national and regional television channels AMC, fuse, The Independent Film Channel (IFC), WE tv, and two FSN affiliated regional sports networks managed by Rainbow Sports Networks. The company also manages Mag Rack and sportskool, two original on-demand networks; VOOM HD Networks, the largest and most diverse suite of high definition channels available anywhere; IFC Entertainment, its film distribution, production and exhibition division; Rainbow Advertising Sales Corporation, its advertising sales division; and Rainbow Network Communications, its full service network programming origination and distribution company.

Posted by Ray Pride at 03:07 PM | Comments (0)

January 11, 2007

Indie® returns Sunday afternoon

Oh, WiFi. oh travel delays... A CRICKET IS A PROPHET WITHOUT A NATION and only the most modest of sandwich boards (with no subsidy from Lyndon LaRo*che, unlike this stalwart fella):

Posted by Ray Pride at 09:45 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

January 08, 2007

Lettting the scat out of the bag: Borat's boys speak

In the January issue of the WGAW's monthly, Written By, John Koch and Borat co-writers Peter Baynham, Dan Mazer, Sacha Baron Cohen, and Anthony “Ant” Hines exchange over 5,000 words about how to write for the kamikaze Kazakh and a "new and exciting art form." "Mazer, Baynham, and Hines constitute a small inner circle of writers with comedy carte blanche when it comes to writing with Cohen, a versatile performer and writer his team compares to Peter Sellers, Buster Keaton, and John Cleese... The Borat team obliged our request to publicly expose the fact that their work is written. It is ironic that a film so often referred to by the media as unscripted has writers writing on preproduction, during production, on location, postproduction, and even scripting original Borat bits for each of Cohen's many television appearances. This... the first time they've spoken in-depth about their writing process." Dan Mazer: "The film is quite pioneering and different, and I think we're going to start to see lots of imitators now. What's interesting is it's taken us eight years to refine the art of doing it and knowing how to do it. It's an incredibly difficult and unique skill, the actual writing of it.... We've helped craft what I think is this new and exciting art form." Koch: "Sacha, what is it about these co-writers that you need for your process to work? What are their skills, what are their attributes?" Sacha Baron Cohen: I mean, what's clearly obvious is they're incredibly attractive. You've got Dan, who's darker and swarthier. You've got Peter, who's got everything that a middle-age woman can provide... And Ant-40, virile, and aerodynamic [i.e., shaved head]." ... Dan Mazer: "The weird thing is, we have incredibly serious discussions about incredibly stupid things. Like, can we bring a shit down to a dinner table? We debated that for an hour." ... Ant Hines: "I'd say the unsung hero in this production is Jason Alper, the costume guy who provided that shit. He has a credit on the movie: FECES PROVIDED BY JASON ALPER." [Much, much more at the link.]

Posted by Ray Pride at 08:40 PM | Comments (0)

January 05, 2007

Embalming 2006: a long list, plus footnotes

A 2006 wrap-up is here; there are brief notes on a lot of movies I liked. As always, I've found a few worthies I overlooked before filing, since I'm not one to keep a pile of index cards held fast with a fat postal rubber band along the year's screening path. (You'll find the addenda and corrigenda at the bottom of the jump.) First, four piquant, contrarian comments I've gotten from filmmakers I know.

The Fountain: “How can you not love a movie that comes across as a collaboration between Atom Egoyan and Peter Greenaway in a love song to Rachel Weisz’s vagina?”

Notes on a Scandal: “Don’t even suggest it’s camp. It’s a brilliant depiction of someone who’s been in the closet all their life, the hatred, the self-hatred that Judi Dench captures perfectly, the schizophrenia, really, because that kind of life is the absolute definition of ‘schizoid.’”

The Queen: "Delicacy that reviewers do not appreciate. So civil, so genteel, so barbed, so embodied. There are too many haters, self-loathers, in the murk [that surrounds] you guys."

Dreamgirls: “Inherently, it's just mediocre material to begin with, and Condon's greatest flaw -- though some perceive it as virtue -- is his faithfulness to the original show. Even Fosse re-imagined Cabaret, which in its stage incarnation, was pretty thrilling on its own, but he had the gall and talent to reinterpret and triumph. [The rest of this comment, plus footnotes, below.]

The music in Dreamgirls, to be blunt, is a mediocre synthesis of Broadway and faux '60s pastiche pop, but resembles nothing from which it supposedly honors. So what's left are some earnest, and at times transcendent performers rising above the songs. It reminds me sorely of Streisand in the 70s, circa A Star is Born, and her "idea" of what rock music was supposed to sound like. Condon, who I like as a writer, and as a director, is blinded by his task -- his big chance -- and subverts any chance of dramatic potency or urgency. The movie is like a parade of iconography for those "in the know" or for the uninitiated who stare at fashion photo spreads and think it's so innovative and original, And even for the most base pandering gay taste, did he have to celebrate visions of "Mahogany" and "Valley of the Dolls" with such reverence? The joy of those films is their sincere idiocy of vision… Remember, everyone, “Deena Jones,” dressed and posed exactly like Diana Ross, with Beyonce losing 20 pounds to look like Diana Ross, and toning down her own "big" voice, to mimic what modern audiences think sounds like Diana Ross: it's not Diana Ross. The character is nothing without our reference to Diana Ross, yet it completely misses out on what Diana Ross was about, which was a genius pop singer who broke the race barrier, and with a singular sound, and she was also a terrific instinctive actress. Just watch Lady Sings the Blues. There's more depth in that fantasy biography, from her (and Richard Pryor's) performance, then this roman a clef Motown fiction. Also, I have to humbly disagree with your, and many other's opinion on Jennifer Hudson. Her singing was terrific, no doubt, but her performance is generic. Prior to seeing the film, I read with great optimism of comparisons to Streisand's debut in Funny Girl, or Bette Midler in The Rose, or Garland in Cukor's Star is Born (interesting no one ever mentioned Ross in Lady Sings the Blues) -- these are iconic defining performances, rare triumphs of personality and empathy not only through character, but song, audiences hungered for (and got) more from them, but I can't imagine Hudson doing anything else, or wanting to see her in anything else. On CD, or in concert yes, perhaps, but on film, no. Back to Condon, he obviously loves musicals, but at the same time feels the need to make an "excuse" musical -- in other words, force the characters and situations into what seems like a logical reason to sing. He doesn't have the analytical or political weight, or dark humor, of Dennis Potter, to make this conceit something more than a "reason" Yes, he did that infuriatingly, yet superficially successfully, in Chicago, but here was an opportunity to create, at least, a genuine pop opera about a very complex era (which was what the stage show was in ambition -- it was mostly sung-through.) Eddie Murphy was great, and they at least he got some character arc. But Condon, and the material, never give him the chance to be Diana Ross and Richard Pryor. And that's a shame. Like the very thing they criticize early in the film, black music, if not the experience, is sanitized for the masses. And you know I wanted to love this film. And I am glad it is successful, because it will mean more musicals. Someone will get it right.”

FOOTNOTE: from a couple days distance, a fistful of titles overlooked in an already long list.

The Descent, Neil Marshall. Deliverance with alpha-female spelunkers instead of macho men, set in caverns rather than on an endangered river, Neil Marshall’s intense, bloody, emotionally viscid film was a neatly elegant bite of malicious terror. The claustrophobia’s almost unbearable at points, with women crawling through tight, unforgiving runnels, returning to the womb of Mother Earth. (The thought is more amusing than useful.) Even with a malign appreciation of the abrupt nastiness, Marshall does not neglect character bits and banter, to the point of an early part of the movie being given oven to EXPP—Extreme Pajama Partying.

Changing Times, André Téchiné. A 2004 production only released in the U.S. this year shows the 63-year-old French writer-director still to be a fluid, fluent filmmaker, seems most adept at finding the heartbeat, not only of the drama being enacted in any particular scene of his films, but of his characters’ deepest confusions and convictions.

This Film is Not Yet Rated, Kirby Dick. Maybe I overlooked this fine provocation about free speech disguised as a lampoon of the MPAA rating system because my recording of a swell interview with Mr. Dick turned out garbled, to my great disappointment.

The Devil and Daniel Johnston, Jeff Feuerzeig. A 2005 production only released this year.

The Pusher Triology, Nicolas Winding Refn. Again, older movies only just released widely in the US, which I saw on the Magnolia box set, forgetting that this mass of Danish gangster grit had been released, at least to Landmark Theatres.

Idlewild, Bryan Barber. Universal didn't preview this before my deadlines, and I wound up seeing it a few weeks later; I didn't write about it at length, but there are generous splashes of style and heart in Barber's work that genuinely elevates it above, not only the rock video genre it got compared to, but a lot of contemporary American moviemaking.

Posted by Ray Pride at 04:29 PM | Comments (0)

January 04, 2007

London to Brighton: FT sez most promising director

Who's the most promising new director in the world? The FT's Nigel Andrews picks London to Brighton director Paul Andrew Williams. [T]he idea that an accolade for the most promising director of 2006 could go to a Briton almost defies plausibility... Yet Paul Andrew Williams’s London to Brighton”divided critics between those who called it brilliant and those who called it brilliant-with-a- few-faults. It has pace, wit, style, conviction. As a gangster thriller it doesn’t try to be lovable: it presents its hoodlums as nasty thugs, not endearing mockneys. Ray Winstone is nowhere in sight... [An earlier] film won him a brief deal with Fox Searchlight... It was a year-long contract but Williams quit after 7 months (“The deal consisted of one 25-minute meeting...”) Back in Britain on [the dole, he wrote the screenplay for] London to Brighton in three days and filmed it for £80,000.

There was nothing glamorous about the shoot: 18-hour days battling with costs and weather, during which Williams, who had deferred his directing fee, went on collecting [unemployment]... Soon the man who never went to film school was having his first feature applauded by Sir Sean Connery and others at the Edinburgh Film Festival, where London to Brighton collected the Most Promising New Director award... [T]he very fact there is a new filmmaker from Britain for the world to take interest in is a little miracle, even a minor apocalypse." [More bio and a note of the 32-year-old Portsmouth-born director's likeness to the Scott brothers.]

Posted by Ray Pride at 01:24 PM | Comments (0)

January 03, 2007

Just more enjoyment of the whiskey: David Lynch

In NY Times' Sunday Styles section, Alex Williams takes some dictation from David Lynch, who's got a movie—Inland Empire—and a book—"Catching the Big Fish: Meditation, Consciousness, and Creativity”—to thump. It's best just to listen to this man. "To be a grown-up and to do what you want to do is the most beautiful thing,” [Mr. Lynch] said, his gray-flecked hair pomaded into what looked like a tangle of swaying prairie grass. “But this doesn’t happen for most people. Sadly, they have to make ends meet.” Lynch believes his experience with Transcendental Meditation could be shared by others. “If you were a burglar, you’d become a much better burglar,” he added. “But after a while, you would probably say, well, wait a minute. You would probably have compassion for people you were burglarizing. You might even bring some stuff back... I heard Charles Bukowski started meditation late in his life... He was an angry, angry guy, but he apparently loved meditation.” Of course, just as meditation never got Mr. Lynch over a taste for the macabre, it never quenched Mr. Bukowski’s famous thirst for whiskey. “Well, maybe in time, it would have,” Mr. Lynch said with a smile. “In the meantime — just more enjoyment of the whiskey.”

Posted by Ray Pride at 11:05 AM | Comments (0)

Prairie Home confidence: Keillor recounts

"Altman seemed so frail when I met up with him. I said: 'Are you sure you really want to do this?' Garrison Keillor recalls in the Guardian as Prairie Home Companion opens in the UK. I had seen him walk gingerly across the floor, arms slightly out, as if he were on a tightrope, an assistant close behind him, and I felt sorry for an old man facing the long uphill march of a movie and wondered if maybe he'd just as soon sit in a sunny garden in Malibu and do the crossword. He didn't wonder about that at all. "I want to go out with my boots on," he said. "I don't want to sit around and wait for it. I want to be missing in action." He seemed to thrive on work and got stronger through five weeks of shooting, winding up with an all-nighter at Mickey's Diner in Saint Paul, Minnesota, shooting an interior scene and then a Hopperesque exterior with Kevin emerging, lighting a smoke, and crossing the rain-soaked street. When the movie wrapped, Altman retired to his editing room on West 56th Street in New York, and a month later he called everybody to come see the rough cut. He loved sitting in that little screening room in the West Village and watching the thing over and over with other people. When he was working, he was in heaven. He had figured out how to live without regrets." [More at the link; pic source.]

Posted by Ray Pride at 11:04 AM | Comments (0)

January 02, 2007

Denby on demand: two views

With New Yorker staff writer David Denby's epic epistle from the left coast, "Big Pictures," one is moved to revisit how Daniel A. Brennan greeted Denby's 2004 second memoir. "Denby is the sort of memoirist who believes that every personal action must be revealed and examined, no matter how repellent (or mundane). Thus, fourteen pages into "American Sucker"... we are treated to Denby’s brief-but-harrowing addiction to Internet pornography. Denby being Denby, this revelation is naturally accompanied by a disquisition on how Plato, Hegel, and Nietzsche might judge these activities, which is either comically self-important or one of the most ingenious meta-commentaries on masturbation we’ve come across in some time. Then, on page 53, Denby informs us of his inability to fall asleep without a cocktail of Xanax and NyQuil, the latter described as a “slimy, licorice-tasting liquid that provided an instant of nausea”... Incidents of impotence, acts of adultery, and even an extensive paragraph on his upset stomach and the successful treatment thereof (Tums and a bowel movement, if you’re scoring at home) follow on with depressing regularity. THE SPANKING-NEW NEW YORKER finds Denby holding a video-capable iPod in his hot little fist and spasms of information come naturally:

"The device was as elegant as an old cigarette case and not much larger than a child’s palm. I was holding a video iPod, poised at the frontier of a new digital age, a new platform for movies, a new convenience that will annihilate old paradigms... If you are sitting down, the natural place for an iPod is in your lap; that way, your arms don’t get tired. At that distance, however, I couldn’t focus on the image. So I rested the iPod on my stomach. And there it sat, riding up and down every time I took a breath.... In a theatre, you submit to a screen; you want to be mastered by it, not struggle to get cozy with it. Of course, no one will ever be forced to look at movies on a pipsqueak display—at home, most grownups will look at downloaded films on a computer screen, or they’ll transfer them to a big flat-screen TV. Yet the video iPod and other handheld devices are being sold as movie-exhibition spaces, and they certainly will function that way for kids. According to home-entertainment specialists I spoke to in Hollywood, many kids are “platform agnostic”—that is, they will look at movies on any screen at all, large or small. Most kids don’t have bellies, and they can pretzel their limbs into almost any shape they want, so they can get comfortable with a handheld device; they can also take it onto a school bus, down the street, into bed, cuddling it under the covers after lights-out." El donde Conde nasties! [7,700 more words of unbidden intimacy trickle along at the link.}

Posted by Ray Pride at 06:56 PM | Comments (0)

When Mammon met the muse: branding the arts

In the FT, Christopher Guest's big brother Anthony Haden-Guest sounds a familiar gong but in a less snitty fashion than Sundance previewers may adopt in the next couple of weeks: "The Art Basel Miami Beach fair had not yet opened but the convention centre was humming. The commercial carapace that encases it, as it increasingly encases the entire art world, was being put in place. In the recent past, commercial sponsorships of cultural events were usually matters of what was not yet called branding. A manufacturer of cigarettes, say, or motorcars would fund an “artistic” TV programme or an opera season, hoping that customers... might even choose them over some more philistine brand... [T]he art world has become such a generator of wealth—doing... £6bn-£8bn worth of business annually—that many businesses form symbiotic relationships with the art world and with fairs in particular." Miami's Art Basel, writes Haden-Guest, is logically linked to local hotels and restaurants. "But the fair’s very success has caused problems... A walk into the Collectors Lounge at Miami Basel required a VIP pass and was a giddying experience. The central space was hung with translucent lilac drapes. Along one wall ran a bar with glowing orange panels. People were strolling around, holding catalogues and champagne flutes. A booth housed Cipriani, once best known for Harry’s Bar in Venice... A young woman offered me a Bellini and a tote bag containing a beach towel. What were they selling? A local real-estate development. Another real-estate company... was walled with photographs of their developments. “We own the Miami skyline,” a young woman told me. OK. But what were they doing at an art fair? “This is a wonderful place for us to showcase our properties."... Other spaces were occupied by Bulgari... in the final year of a 3-year sponsorship, and the mammoth art insurers, Axa. Three others were occupied by BMW, which supplied the VIP cars, by NetJets, and by the fair’s principal sponsor, the Swiss bank, UBS... The UBS lounge opened on to the Collectors Lounge at Miami Basel and was a great deal larger. It was filled with creamy light. There were glass bowls of tangerines and lemons on Lucite tables and fleshy lilies that smelled a bit like raw potatoes." [More at the link.]

Posted by Ray Pride at 01:49 PM | Comments (0)