FilmStew.com

A Pair of Marijuana-Smuggling Uncles

2013-06-13T07:55:00.001-07:00

Fresh from a recent debut screening at LA's Dances With Films, the feature documentary Grounded is set to be seen next in the city where the filmmaker grew up hearing tales about the pair of profiled marijuana-smuggling brothers.

That would be Pittsburgh, making the Friday June 14th screening at the Pittsburgh Independent Film Festival extra special for director Sean Patrick Cromwell. His second documentary is all about Terry and Jimmy Dougherty, uncles who became involved in the 1970s in large-scale smuggling of marijuana from Colombia to Florida.

As Cromwell recently explained to Chartiers Valley Patch, his latest film is the equivalent of friendly family fire:

“I’m very close to my uncles, but it’s not one of those things where you ask about the drugs at Thanksgiving dinner,” he said. “You’d hear things. You’d be in a group of their peers and hear something intriguing, but no one ever had the whole story.”

Cromwell moved from the Pittsburgh area to Los Angeles in 1993 and has since worked as a production assistant and key grip on everything from Unsolved Mysteries to Scrubs to The Hangover films. Grounded features interviews with his uncles as well as with some of the DEA and FBI agents who worked the case. Should be a lively post-screening Q&A.

Cromwell's first documentary feature, Bike Lane, examined LA's burgeoning bicycle culture. His cinematographer for Grounded, Andrew Rawson, currently shoots the ABC-TV comedy Cougar Town while producer Liz Newman is someone he met via Scrubs.

[Grounded]

Attack of the Blue-Collar Zombies

2013-06-08T07:44:00.001-07:00

The title - Dead Man Working - is killer. And the premise of L.E. Salas' movie, screening Saturday June 8th at the New Jersey International Film Festival, is even better.

As Salas explained to The Record reporter Jim Beckerman, he got the idea for this send-up while working as an assistant director in Los Angeles. On someone else's zombie flick:

"I thought, these zombies are taking jobs away from models and pin-up girls," he recalls. "That’s the moment I said, ‘Wow, that is a really good premise for a film. What if zombies came and took blue-collar jobs away? They would be the perfect workers. They wouldn’t need health care because they’re already dead. They wouldn’t need the things we give to our lowest workers.’ "

It gets better. In another stroke of working-dead genius, Salas decided it would be fun to have Noam Chomsky chime in as a talking head. He pitched the idea to Chomsky and the seer went for it, leading to a half-hour interview session at MIT.

Salas has been screening his film at various festivals this spring and summer. Future engagements include the Philadelphia Independent Film Festival at the end of the month.

[Dead Man Working]

An Elvis Presley Double Whammy

2013-06-07T06:06:00.009-07:00

Chances are you've never seen an Elvis Presley impersonator quite like Danny Frasier.

Despite being born with fetal syndrome and having his deformed legs amputated at the age of three, Frasier is today an energetic Presley tribute artist. He is also, as such, the subject of Carey Rayburn's short documentary Walk a Mile, set to hit the festival circuit in a few months.

This is actually one of two current Presley-focused projects for Rayburn, who works under the banner Outlaw Film Productions. Over the past ten years, he also put together the feature-length documentary 816, all about the day Presley died (August 16th, 1977).

Rayburn interviewed 500+ Elvis fans for that one and is hoping to debut the film at this summer's Sidewalk Film Festival, which runs August 23rd-25th in Birmingham, Alabama. Shake, rattle and roll the digital film!

Both Rayburn and Frasier are based in "The Yellowhammer State."

[Danny Frasier]

Indie Drama Star a Dead Ringer for Young Ryan Gosling

2013-06-01T21:58:00.000-07:00

When Coldwater debuted at SXSW, the first wave of reviewers compared leading man P.J. Boudousqué to a young Ryan Gosling. That trend has continued into this weekend's inaugural Cinema at the Edge film festival at the Edgemar Center for the Arts in Santa Monica, where the movie screened May 31st and shows again Sunday June 2nd.

The Gosling buzz should hit a new high when Coldwater makes its international debut later this month in Paris at the Champs-Elysées Film Festival. Not to mention provide Web fuel for the PJ Boudousqué Fan Club fire.

The Fan Club website isn't much to look at yet. Still, considering the focus of its idolatry has only made one unreleased film, it's impressive that someone has already launched it.

Gosling is of course Canadian, hailing from London, Ontario. And there is a strong (nearby) Canadian connection to Coldwater as well. The co-writer, Mark Penney, is from Oakville, a suburb of Toronto, and had moved back there at one point when prospects of the movie getting made were non-existent. But Joe Bilotta, a private financier, ponied up the $500,000, and most of the movie was shot at a campsite in Malibu.

The underlying inspiration for Coldwater is a serious one: the real-life abuse and killing of juvenile delinquents at closed off wilderness rehabilitation encampments. The personal story of New Orleans native Boudousqué is also compelling. He had abandoned hopes of making it as an actor in LA and was headed back home. But before doing so, he made time for one final audition in Venice.

Judging from this recent Instagram photo taken in Palm Springs (Boudousqué is the one on the right), the actor also has what it takes to give Gosling a run for his six-pack abs money.

[Coldwater]

A Decade Later, Virginia Filmmaker Finally Gets to Share Drunk Writer Drama

2013-05-27T08:12:00.002-07:00

Sometimes, there's no better way to convey the grassroots nature of an indie film production than the name(s) of the establishment(s) where said production is premiering.

Small Fish, Small Pond was largely shot at Hoang's Grill & Sushi Bar in Falls Church, Virginia. So that's where the 85-minute film premiered April 27th. But hold on, there's more. Since the filmmakers also made use of Florida-themed venue Clare and Don's Beach Shack, an encore screening is taking place at that off-Multiplex location tomorrow, May 28th.

Small Fish, Small Pond is the latest effort of Mark Byrne, a local multi-hyphenate who goes by the company name of Absurd Productions Pictures (APP). Brian M. Dean stars as Eagle Thorenten, a Charles Bukowski wannabe whose unpublished novel finds an audience after the author is discovered dead outside of Pal's Bar. The movie seeks to find out more about this mysterious figure by interviewing his wife, agent and various bar hounds.

This was the first screenplay ever written by Byrne, more than a decade ago. As he explains in his company bio, he finally got to it after a typically circuitous path:

Next for APP was a massive undertaking: a feature-length film noir. Byrne wrote a new screenplay and Taste of Desperation was cast, shot and edited over the next six years. Veteran Ed Wood regular Conrad Brooks plays a lead role as the Landlord, and well known pop artist Clark Fox plays a Thug.

The film won 1st Place at the 2010 The Indie Gathering in the Feature Film Drama Crime Category. While an unforgettable joy to create and perform, Taste of Desperation was exhausting and left APP to consider shorter pieces for the immediate future.

Brooks is a fascinating figure, as Byrne went on to highlight in Conrad Brooks Recollects, a bonus feature on the DVD for APP's 2011 42-minute thriller Forbidden Room. After coming to Hollywood in the late 1940s, Brooks hung out on sets, in bars and beyond with the likes of James Stewart, John Wayne, Marlon Brando and Clint Eastwood.

Popping up as a co-star in Byrne's latest is Belfast, Northern Ireland native Barry McEvoy. Right around the time that the APP boss was completing that first screenplay, McEvoy wrote and starred in the wacky 2001 Barry Levinson comedy An Everlasting Piece.

A Goofier Bunch of MAD Men

2013-05-23T05:25:00.004-07:00

Per an update this week from Detroit-based filmmaker Alan Bernstein, a feature documentary about the history of iconic MAD magazine is moving forward - slowly.

When We Went MAD! is aiming to be completed some time this year, with about 40 interviews and highlights from the 60-year-old publication's long, colorful history. Bernstein is also hoping along the way to snag a few well-known celebrities like Stephen Colbert and Howard Stern.

MAD currently comes out on a bi-monthly basis, for a yearly subscription rate of $19.99. Bernstein has wanted to do a documentary about MAD for a long time and very much regrets that one of his interview targets, illustrator Bob Clarke, recently passed away.

But he was able to visit the offices of MAD earlier this spring for planning purposes and recently told Metromode contributor Constance Crump that he still believes in the power of the publication's content:

"It's still being published. Kids are still reading it… and it still has the same effect on them as it did on us. As long as there are advertisers who are trying to sell us a bunch of lies, there'll be place for MAD," Bernstein points out.

Just how big a MAD fan is Bernstein? His production company - Potrzebie Pictures - is named after a recurring gag in the magazine's pages, where the Polish word would be inserted for no good reason into a particular comic strip or narrative blurb. When We Were MAD! 's budget includes a little over $50,000 raised via Kickstarter.

[When We Went MAD!]

Seattle Set to Exclaim a Big 'Hooray!' for Hillywood

2013-05-18T08:07:00.001-07:00

It's quite a switch from the projects co-directors Leah Warshawski and Christopher Tower usually make for Microsoft. But on May 29th, at the Seattle International Film Festival, the pair will complete a thrilling documentary journey.

Finding Hillywood, which began shooting in 2008, is all about an ongoing traveling film festival in Rwanda. By means of an inflatable screen, citizens in rural areas are given free access to inspiring, diverting cinema.

What makes the upcoming world premiere screening so special is that Warshawski and Tower were able to raise funds for the oldest member of the dedicated Hillywood festival crew to travel to Seattle to join them. Ayuub Kasasa Mago, a father of four, first got drawn into filmmaking as a location scout for The Last King of Scotland. His personal struggles with the legacy of his country's genocide, which claimed his own mother, frame the documentary.

Now, post-Memorial Day, this Rwandan of Tutsi descent - who, once, because of all the war and destruction struggled with drug and alcohol addiction - will bask in the glow of an appreciative SIFF crowd. From a recent Rwandan article penned by a friend and colleague:

If you were to say that Ayuub is one of the pillars of Rwandan cinema, you would not be far from the truth. He’s one of the few who has done everything in cinema and done it well. He’s been director, location manager and even an actor. He’s been doing it for ten good years.

The Seattle scenario gets better. Thanks to the upcoming fundraised trip from Africa to the Pacific Northwest, Mago will also get to present Fora, a seven-minute short he directed and stars in. It tells the tale of a father who learns a valuable lesson from his sons and will play in tandem with Finding Hillywood.

One of the people lucky enough to have already seen Finding Hillywood is Phil Alden Robinson, the writer-director of Field of Dreams. He raves: "Finding Hillywood gives me goose bumps. In an era of mega-budgets and special effects, here’s a fascinating, compelling and universal story about the power of… story. It reminds me of why some of us became filmmakers, and why all of us became film lovers."

In other words, borrowing from one of Robinson's most famous creative legacies and applying it to the hilly terrain of Rwanda: 'If you inflate it, they will come.'

[Finding Hillywood]

A 'Most Moving' Look at Mental Illness

2013-05-12T10:09:00.002-07:00

What better setting for a documentary about mental illness, six years in the making, than a screening at the 2013 American Psychiatric Conference?

Hidden Pictures, by Delaney Ruston, premiered in late March at the Conference on Global Mental Health in London. Since then, it has screened at the United Nations in India (May 3rd) and at the Seattle True Independent Film Festival (May 5th), where it won the prize for Most Moving Documentary. The American Psychiatric Conference showing will take place May 21st at the Moscone Convention Center in San Francisco.

Left, right and center in today's news headlines are echoes of the sorry state of how this country cares for its mentally ill. Compounded by the fact that for reasons both documented and speculated, there are more such individuals in the U.S. of A it seems than ever before. The filmmaker has a direct family connection to this topic:

Ruston grew up under the shadow of her dad’s illness, schizophrenia. While reconnecting with him after years of estrangement (as seen in the award winning PBS documentary Unlisted: A Story of Schizophrenia), Ruston became interested in the experiences of other families around the globe.

How are people accepted or rejected? What is mental health care like? Given that the WHO estimates that 450 million people worldwide have a mental illness, why do we rarely hear about their lives? Ruston takes us on her journey to answer these questions, uncovering personal stories in India, China, South Africa, France and the US. What emerges are scenes of profound frustration, moments of true compassion, and haunting insights. The journey ends by exploring the force of change that individuals are bringing about, including actress Glenn Close’s movement to fight stigma.

Ruston is a Stanford-trained physician who pursued film in the Bay Area while completing her internal medicine residency and a Fellowship at the University of California, SF. Many more screenings of her latest documentary are at press time being finalized.

[Hidden Pictures]

Duluth is Horrible Set to Premiere in... Duluth

2013-05-09T22:15:00.003-07:00

It's in the can. And on June 11th, in Duluth, Minnesota, folks will finally get to see what all the fuss was about.

As writer-director Vincent Gargiulo points out, the 7:30 p.m. and 8:30 p.m. world premiere screenings next month are "a great opportunity to say hello or kick me in the nards." He also, given all the press coverage that was generated by the title Duluth is Horrible, rightly expects a sellout.

Here's how Gargiulo describes his short film:

The film is a series of vignettes chronicling a few lonely people in Duluth, MN searching for a connection in a bleak winter. There is no specific plot in its 17 minutes but some of the short vignettes connect loosely.

Scenes include the aftermath of a breakup from both sides, an older zookeeper on a online date, a Redditor complaining about his cat, a karaoke scene, a disillusioned Sex Chat girl, five people dressed as Carmen Miranda, a call from Enterprise Rent-a-Car and a little Disney magic thrown in for good measure. It will be the most personal and “dramatic” of my work. That said, I just have to throw in a few absurdist touches.

For those who can't wait, there's a DVD for sale right now for $11.00. Should be quite the event in Duluth on June 11th.

[Duluth is Horrible]

We're Not in Aberdeen Territory Anymore?

2013-05-04T08:04:00.002-07:00

A very special guest will be speaking at the Sunday May 5th stage performance of The Wizard of Oz at the Sioux Empire Community Theatre in Sioux Falls, South Dakota.

Carey Graeber is a past president of New Work Women in Film and Television and a documentary filmmaker whose work has appeared on PBS, MSNBC and Detroit's local NBC affiliate. She's currently working on a new project called Rediscovering Dorothy.

Through various interviews, the film retraces the critical importance to The Wizard of Oz narrative of both author L. Frank Baum's experiences as a newspaper editor in Dakota's Aberdeen Territory and the accomplishments and advice of his mother-in-law Matilda Joslyn Gage (pictured). Along with urging her son-in-law to write down the stories he liked to tell rapt young audiences, Gage is also acknowledged as having created the foundation for radical feminist thought.

From the movie project's website:

Matilda Joslyn Gage (1826-1898) was as significant in the National Women's Suffrage Association (NWSA) and the first wave movement as Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony. The tree shared decades of activism, leadership and camaraderie, but Gage had a more revolutionary grasp of complex issues than either Stanton or Anthony...

The rift between the suffrage leaders never healed. And although Gage was the youngest, she died before Stanton and Anthony. After Gage's death, her contributions were minimized and ignored. The official biographies, memoirs and reminiscences relegated her to the footnotes.

Aberdeen native Graeber is partnered on Rediscovering Dorothy with writer Mona Kanin, with whom she has worked before, executive producer Alexis Alexanian and Matilda Joslyn Gage Foundation director Sally Roesch Wagner. The teaser for the film is tantalizing and suggests the project will make a big splash when completed.

Ahead of this Sunday's talk, Graeber spoke with Argus Leader columnist Jill Callison, explaining that instead of a documentary, Rediscovering Dorothy may actually wind up being some sort of enhanced experience for tablets and e-readers. Read that article here.

[Rediscovering Dorothy]

World's Oldest Student Television Station Bags Musical Award

2013-04-30T10:59:00.001-07:00

To go along with the diploma Martin Heron recently earned from Glasgow University, there is now also this very sweet post-graduate memento.

Heron's slick five-minute short A Musical GUSTravaganza recently nabbed a Best Video to Music prize at UK's National Student Television Association Awards (NASTA). Featuring performers from Glasgow University Student Television (GUST), the video has cast members lip-synching various bits from famous musicals. Many of the works highlighted date from after 1964, which is when GUST - the world's oldest student television outlet - first hit the airwaves.

Heron told his local paper the Paisley Express that his award-winning project had a Yuletide spark:

“The idea for this video actually stemmed from a short film I made before, where it was people singing along to well-known Christmas songs,” he said. “The film proved popular so I thought of ways I could carry that on and came up with the idea of musicals."

"GUST includes a lot of very talented actors and singers and it was great how enthusiastic they were to be involved."

Heron's prize was one of three won this year at NASTA by GUST. Last year, the Glasgow University station claimed for Best Comedy with Spooning.

[GUST]

Khmer Rouge Child Soldier Lives Happily Ever After

2013-04-27T09:53:00.004-07:00

The Gardner Documentary Group tandem at the heart of Lost Child: Sayon's Journey is an extremely impressive one.

Director-producer Janet Gardner has worked previously for NBC News and CBS News, as well as done print journalism stints for Cleveland's Plain Dealer and the New York Times. Cinematographer Kevin Cloutier meanwhile is a four-time Emmy Award winner with credits such as 60 Minutes and Bill Moyers Journal.

On Tuesday April 30th, Gardner will be back in her native Princeton, NJ for a free screening of Lost Child at the local public library. Joining her for the Q&A will be Rutgers University anthropology professor Alex Hinton and co-producer Sopheap Theam. The documentary's central subject, Sayon Soeun, was abducted at age six and put into servitude as a member of Cambodia's Khmer Rouge.

From the film's official website:

Painful questions persist concerning the years Sayon Soeun spent under the brutal Khmer Rouge regime. After more than 35 years, he recently made contact with five brothers and a sister he assumed were dead. They say that they are sure he is their brother "Yon."

Sayon will follow these clues to Cambodia where he searches for the truth about a family he barely remembers and comes to term with his own experiences as a witness to genocide. The above picture is all that Sayon had left from his family in Cambodia.

The best part about all this is that Sayon now lives, happily, in Lowell, Massachusetts with the aforementioned Theam and four dogs. Another wonderful testament to the indomitable strength of the human spirit.

[The Gardner Documentary Group]

Previously on FilmStew:
Cambodia's Forgotten Killing Field

Dee Snider's Son Gets Mugged on His Way to Tribeca

2013-04-22T20:22:00.006-07:00

The most interesting aspect of Cody Blue Snider's dark comedic short Fool's Day is nowhere to be found on the movie's Tribeca Film Festival page. For that, readers must turn to a nearby Patch site.

Just a few weeks ago, Cody Blue was mugged as he headed out of a New York City location with his final digital film print in hand on a hard drive in his backpack. The thieves got away with his phone and almost, as well, his wallet.

But as Cody Blue told Three Village Patch, there's no way he was going to surrender his latest artistic work:

“Have you ever had anything that doesn’t feel real? You go into autopilot,” Snider said in an interview with Patch. “I was just glad I didn’t get stabbed.”

Fool's Day, about an elementary school prank gone horribly wrong, was actually written by two sons of Twisted Sister rocker (and executive producer) Dee Snider - Cody Blue and Shane. It played April 18th and 21st, and is scheduled to screen twice more at Tribeca on April 24th and 28th.

Snider's second short was made with the help of some 2012 Kickstarter funding.

[Fool's Day]

Stripping Down the Stereotype of 'The Wealthy Jew'

2013-04-20T07:34:00.003-07:00

The tagline for the Toronto Jewish Film Festival is pretty cheeky: 'Film. It's What Jews Do Best.' But on Sunday, April 21st, that will be trumped by the title of one the event's 2013 entries.

After screening in the U.S. for the past few months, Jews and Money finally shows in Montreal-born director Lewis Cohen's home-country of Canada tomorrow night at 5:15 p.m. (with the filmmaker in attendance). The movie uses as its starting point the horrific 2006 Paris kidnapping, torture and murder of cell phone salesman Ilan Halimi, and the admission by the leader of the gang responsible for these heinous acts that the 23-year-old victim was targeted because "all Jews are rich."

Among the experts interviewed in the film is University of Toronto professor Derek Penslar. Cohen's film was most recently screened Wednesday at the San Francisco Jewish Community Center, prompting a nice write-up in New York's The Jewish Daily Forward:

Cohen mentioned [during the San Francisco Jewish Film Festival Q&A] that it was difficult to get the Parisian Jewish community to open up to him. He also said that the only reason a couple of young men from the housing projects would agree to speak to him on film was because he wasn’t from the French media.

The filmmaker clearly prevailed against such challenges, creating a complex yet cohesive narrative. Even those already familiar with the Halimi case and with the history of anti-Semitism come away emotionally rattled by how Cohen managed to put it all together.

Following this weekend's Toronto debut, Jews and Money is scheduled to be shown on Canadian television.

[Jews and Money]

Massachusetts High School Yields Strange, Surprising Encounter

2013-04-17T23:01:00.003-07:00

This one is hard to believe. But it happened Tuesday April 16th at Lowell High School in Lowell, MA.

Per a report in the Lowell Sun by Pete McQuaid, Cambodian filmmaker Kalyanee Mam was there to screen her 2013 Sundance award-winning documentary A River Changes Course. At the end of the presentation, a 19-year-old student in the class asked a schoolmate what the visitor's name was again, then exclaimed that he knew her. He sure does.

The student, Mohammed Alasadi, was featured along with his Iraqi family in Mam's 2009 documentary Between Earth and Sky. She filmed them in Egypt a year earlier and had not seen them since.

From McQuaid's article:

"I was shocked," said Mam. "He just came up to me saying, 'Kalyanee? It's me, Saoud's brother.' It's such a small world." She reunited with his family after school Tuesday, a surprise to her considering she had no idea they now live in Lowell.

Mam spent time with Mohammed's parents and two sisters. Older brother Saoud, a painter featured prominently in Between Earth and Sky, is currently studying in New York. Mam plans to meet up with him there when her film tour takes her to Manhattan.

The Alasadi family settled in Lowell just eight months ago after stints back in Iraq and then Jordan. During that same interim, Mam was also the cinematographer for the Oscar-winning 2010 documentary Inside Job, about the Wall Street financial crisis.

Texas Student Tells the Story of His Childhood Friend, Killed by a Drunk Driver

2013-04-13T09:37:00.001-07:00

At first, the title 1:36 slightly baffles. Is this a reference to one minute and 36 seconds, perhaps within the context of an athletic event such as track and field? Is it an indication that we are about to watch a very short short?

None of the above. 1:36 is a 24-minute documentary by Texas Christian University senior Caten Hyde. Screening Monday April 15th at Houston's WorldFest, the movie is titled to chillingly remind one and all of the exact time the early-morning 911 call came in to the Sheriff's department of Harris County, Texas. At that moment, on June 25th, 2011, the life of 20-year-old Aaron Pennywell had just been cruelly extinguished by the reckless actions of 38-year-old Michael Giacona, a DWI offender back on the road with three times the legal limit of alcohol coursing through his veins.

Hyde's film has been accepted at several other festivals. One can only imagine how emotional some of the Q&As could be, as the tragedy of drunk driving is one that now touches so many.

He has received some nice initial local media coverage from the Fort Worth Star-Telegram and Houston public radio. Per the newspaper article, here is a reminder of why the subsequent criminal investigation, lack of eyewitnesses and minimal prison time for Giacona made national headlines:

Court-at-law Judge Michael Fields ordered Giacona, as part of his probation, to wear a giant sign that read, "I killed Aaron Coy Pennywell while driving drunk," on four consecutive Saturdays. Giacona served one Saturday before the judge waived the sentence because of threats made against him.

Pennywell's parents have become active anti-drunk driving campaigners and are currently pursuing a wrongful death civil suit against Giacona. Via Facebook earlier this month, Hyde revealed that veteran CBS News anchor-correspondent Bob Schieffer has watched the film and is sending along a letter with his thoughts.

The film premiered March 16th in Houston at the Cypress United Methodist Church. RIP.

Update - 04/24/13: Hyde's film was awarded a "Platinum Remi" at WorldFest Houston for Biographical Film. The award was accepted by Kae Pennywell, Aaron's mother. 1:36 previously won a Rellie Award from the Glen Rose Neo-Relix Film Festival.

[1:36]

Vermont Students Pick Up Where Paul Newman, Joanne Woodward Left Off

2013-04-09T20:48:00.000-07:00

Premiering Wednesday April 10th at the Latchis Theatre in Brattleboro, Vermont, Northern Borders has a couple of names that are immediately recognizable: Bruce Dern and Genevieve Bujold.

But the biggest stars of Jay Craven's latest adaptation of a Frank Howard Mosher novel are arguably the 34 students who helped keep the budget under $500,000. For this movie, Craven - a tenured professor of film at Marlboro College - created a semester-long intensive called "Movies from Malboro." The initiative rounded up students not just from Malboro but more than a dozen other Vermont colleges and dropped them into the start-to-finish Northern Borders mix.

From a report in the Brattleboro Reformer:

"This is independent filmmaking to the extreme," said Jean M. King, a Wellesley College graduate who served as assistant to the director, last March.

Craven couldn't be more pleased with the results. The students pulled their weight, overcame their lack of experience with passion and grit and got the job done. In the process, many advanced their careers. Craven said 18 of the students have found some kind of film and media industry work since working on Northern Borders.

The plan with this long-gestating project was initially to have Jake Eberts produce and real-life superstar couple Paul Newman and Joanne Woodward star as the cantankerous grandparents. In the film, the arrival of the pair's 10-year-old grandson throws everything into even more exacerbated turmoil.

The Vermont filmmaker told Reformer reporter Jon Potter that Northern Borders was not just the best moviemaking experience of his career, but also his top-ranked brush with education. It's as if the indomitable spirit of Newman and Woodward was guiding the entire, reborn operation.

Following tomorrow night's debut, Northern Borders will move on to the Bellows Falls Opera House (April 11th), Montpelier (April 12th), Burlington (April 13th) and Lyndonville (April 14th). The Sunday showing is priced to support the film production program of the company co-founded by Craven and Bess O'Brien and encompasses an optional $80.00 pre-show reception.

[Photo courtesy: Kingdom County Productions]

For Ithaca College Student, Not Quite an Orwellian Nightmare

2013-04-06T09:01:00.002-07:00

Among the 11 shorts screening today at the Lewiston Auburn Film Festival's first-ever student competition is Ambert Thibault's The End.

However, Thibault - a sophomore at Ithaca College - will not be in attendance in Lewiston, Maine to gauge audience reaction to her movie about university students inhabiting an Orwellian nightmare. It turns out that she was already committed, on this very same weekend, to volunteering as an intern at her school's Finger Lakes Environmental Film Festival.

Per a recent Thibault blog item:

Being in a film festival and interning for a film festival at the same time is so weird. Just got called by the Sun Journal inquiring to interview me about my film and was just thinking I need to follow up with the musician I need to interview for the Finger Lakes Environmental Film Festival. It is truly very strange to be on both sides of the playing field...

But I realized something. I now know first-hand how the people I interview for FLEFF feel prior to an interview. This is invaluable information and will definitely inform how I approach people.

In the subsequently published Sun Journal interview, Thibault explains that in her stead today at the non-Ithaca event will be friends and family. Based on her interview, it appears she does not have a real-life "big brother." Just a movie riffing on George Orwell's celebrated view of the term and some unique duplicity today as she puts in some extra hours at the Ithaca end.

Michigan Indie Gets Hacked

2013-03-31T06:48:00.000-07:00

There's an unusual headline blaring across the website for Michigan psychological drama The House That Jack Broke. It reads: "Our Regular Website Will Be Back Up and Running Soon!"

That's because for some unknown reason, a hacker recently decided to play havoc with the online assets of the film, written and directed by John W. Bosley. Everything was fine when the movie debuted February 16th in Coleman, MI. But the day after a second screening March 14th in Royal Oak, it all suddenly went haywire:

A hacker crashed every site pertaining to film and-or film productions located on the production’s server, leaving only one non-film-related site still up and running. Each time the webmaster fixed the sites or switched servers, the hacker returned. With only a week in between the Detroit and Lansing premieres, the hacker seemed to be intentionally targeting the ticket sales and promotion of the film specifically for the final premiere in Michigan’s capital.

"It was very clear that the hacker spent a considerable amount of time setting up the exact time to launch their attacks against our site," Bosley said. "They were watching our marketing on social media so that they would know exactly when our new servers went online and when our sites were able to start selling tickets again. Someone wasn't happy about our success with our film production and wanted to make sure that we didn't gain momentum, but their attack only strengthened our resolve."

Bosley used the power of online "Demand-It" campaigns for his trio of Michigan screenings (that final, above-referenced Lansing one took place March 21st). Since the film is set in Maine, he is now looking at taking it there next. He has also been contacted by a Los Angeles screening series.

It's entirely unclear why a hacker would be so concerned with a grassroots, Michigan independent film about a couple whose relationship becomes strained by an FBI investigation into a recent murder. A personal vendetta perhaps?

Update - 03/31/13: We heard after publication from Mr. Bosley, who offers some intriguing details in response to FilmStew 's questions:

"On the law enforcement front, we are pursuing that issue this week. We were bouncing back this week from our constant marketing and had not found the time yet to file an official police report."

"From the information we've received, we believe the hacker may be another filmmaker (possibly one located in Michigan). I was told by another filmmaker and an artist who has a website that when they went public on promoting their material online and gaining attention, that both their competition hacked their sites. I'm concerned that this might be a trend developing and these people need to understand that it is an illegal practice to hack someone's site."

"We are looking into Phase Two of our exhibition of the film and have decided to do a three-day weekend online exhibition for people to see. Our concern is that film festival runs or even touring it in other states on our own slows the process down too much. We have too many people in different places that all want to see it and the best way to get it to them as fast as possible is online."

"But the hacker issue still concerns us, so we will be exhibiting the film on Vimeo, where we believe it will have the best security."

[The House That Jack Broke]

Documentary Celebrates the Glory of Early Kubrick

2013-03-25T18:02:00.000-07:00

At LACMA in Los Angeles, an acclaimed exhibit dedicated to the entire oeuvre of Stanley Kubrick continues through the end of June. Meanwhile, this weekend in Lakewood, Ohio, lucky patrons of the local library will get a more focused Kubrick master class.

Anatomy of a Film is unusual, to say the least. The documentary frames a repeat of the 1957 World War I film Paths of Glory with enhanced multimedia materials, and more.

From the official description:

Unlike the commentaries that often accompany the DVD release of films, the method used here is not simply a voice speaking casually over a silent version of the film as it runs in actual screen time. The technique of this new form is the use of all the tools at the filmmaker’s disposal; scripted narration, interviews, photographs, documents, slow-motion, freeze frames, clip rewinds and image comparison to examine the film’s structure, methodology and themes.

The editorial approach is to let the film play with full visual and aural continuity so that its story line can be followed. The narration and commentary intervene to illustrate artistry and technique, or to put the film in historical, social and industry context. An introduction by Kirk Douglas and commentary by producer James B. Harris and Richard Anderson, who played a leading role, augment the treatment. With a projected running time of 125 minutes, it is divided into three chapters or sequences.

Co-producer Charles Moore is a native of Lakewood, adding extra meaning to the Saturday March 30th screening. The documentary was written, directed and is narrated by David Spodak, an adjunct faculty member at Columbia College Chicago. He hopes to make more thorough cinematic explorations of this nature in the future.

[Anatomy of a Film]

Chilly Flick Gets Warm Idaho Reception

2013-03-18T22:52:00.002-07:00

It's funny how a film festival can make a low-budget film shoot sound a lot more glamorous than it actually was. At the just-completed 2013 Sun Valley Film Festival, Craters of the Moon world premiered and went on to win the $1,000 Gem State Award for best reflecting the "beauty and diversity" of the state of Idaho.

As opposed to how the filmmakers put it on their official website: surviving 12 days and nights of shooting "in the brutal, sub-zero weather of the winter desert." The $25,000 indie feature, about a couple stranded in middle of nowhere, was written and directed by Jesse Millward. Only a small portion of the psychological thriller was shot in the National Park of the title, the rest in surrounding areas.

One of the funniest Craters website materials is the archived link to a local NPR interview that reminds just how long the movie has been gestating. At one point during the conversation, the host marvels at a strange new website called "Kickstarter."

Similarly, the film's Twitter account at press time is frozen in early 2011 time and, like Roger and Molly's car, desperately needs to be moved forward. But it's all part of the local color for this snowbound independent thriller.

[Craters of the Moon]

Tonight in Suffern, Many Moments of Sound for Victims of 1972 Munich Olympics Terrorism

2013-03-16T08:57:00.002-07:00

After two years of diligent work, Joe Allen finally gets to share tonight his documentary about efforts to get the IOC to remember the victims of terrorism at the 1972 Summer Olympics in Munich.

20 Million Minutes premieres at SUNY Rockland Community College in Suffern, New York, not far from the area Jewish Community Center that spearheaded attempts to have a minute of silence for the "Munich 11" at the opening ceremonies of the 2012 Summer Olympics in London. Although the campaign was unsuccessful, the documentary stands as a great testament to this sentiment. Allen will be there tonight, as will Munich widow Ankie Spitzer.

In a recent interview with Nyack News & Views, Allen outlined the details of his project: two trips to Israel; one visit to London; 45 interview subjects; and a grassroots movement:

The [online] petition garnered 111,929 signatures [...] It was supported by President Barack Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, and was the catalyst that sparked more than 10,000 articles and awakened governing bodies in the United States, Israel, Great Britain, Germany, Italy, Australia to name a few. [...]

“One of the amazing things was to meet and deliver the petition personally to Jacques Rogge, then President of the IOC. He may not have agreed to do the minute of silence but we got a chance to tell him that people all over the world thought he was wrong” explained Allen.

The documentary is scheduled to screen again in West Nyack on April 10th as part of the JCC Film Festival.

[20 Million Minutes]

A Confluence of Firsts in St. Albans

2013-03-12T19:31:00.000-07:00

Among the winners at this past weekend's St. Albans Film Festival in the UK was short film Gracious Awakenings. Which is entirely appropriate, because at what was the first edition of this city event, this was also Ben Jacobs' narrative-short directing debut.

But that's not part of the story that is going to garner headlines elsewhere. Per an article in The Independent, it is the budget of photographer Jacobs' film that catches the eye. Here's how the filmmaker summarized the cash outlay needed for his tale of a man who inexplicably wakes up naked in the countryside:

"The £10 [$13.03 U.S.] covered a jar of jam - a prop for the film - a four-pack of beer for our mates who were helping us, and the petrol to get to the location.”

Making it all the sweeter is the fact that Jacobs is a native of St. Albans. So out of the gate, with a ten-pound note and lots of help, he lands the Special Mention (runner-up) prize in the Short Film category. That's some solid grassroots work in a town largely associated on the cinematic front with the great Stanley Kubrick. Jacobs has previously made a number of promos and music videos.

[Benji Photography]

Amplifying Some Very Wise Ira Glass Advice

2013-03-10T13:34:00.003-07:00

The short film Still Life, currently available for paid viewing and download at TwistFlix.com, could have easily turned out differently. If not for some advice about storytelling from This American Life public radio host Ira Glass.

“Originally, the main character of Martin was very angry and defensive,” writer-director Chris Esper tells FilmStew. “He didn't have any redeeming qualities. Then, when I was in school one day, my motion graphics teacher showed my class a kinetic typography piece.”

A protagonist finding his way

That 2011 piece is based on something Glass first told an interviewer in 2009; it's all about the “creativity gap” at the beginning of an artist's career. As the radio maestro explains, though an individual's taste may already be "killer," it naturally takes time for a person's finished artistic products to catch up to the vision. Glass confesses that he himself “took longer to figure out how to do this than anyone I've ever met.”

The Glass quote is title-carded in full at the beginning of Still Life and informs the drama of photo student Martin (Tim Bonavita) taking in feedback and beginning to find his way as an artist. “I think it was the passion in Glass's voice that intrigued me,” explains Esper, who graduated from the New England Institute of Technology last fall. “So I went back and rewrote Still Life from scratch and the character changed along with it. I even got permission from Glass's company to use the quote. So, the quote really helped in the end.”

Esper, working as an assistant cameraman

The short also benefits from some melodic piano soundtrack music provided by Ryan Campos , a very clever title (given the name of Glass's beloved weekly program) and crisp black and white cinematography by Mark Phillips. "Martin sees things very black and white,” notes Esper. “He doesn't think that he's growing or anything, he thinks he has to be either bad or good.”

“That's also why the flashback scene is in color, because as a child things are happy all the time,” he adds. “Martin is very much based on myself... I'm always nostalgic of my childhood because I think as kids, we aren't told when something we do, creatively, is bad. Anything we did was amazing and this is why sometimes when we enter the "real world" of being an artist, we are hindered and taken aback by being critiqued, because we grew up thinking we could do no wrong.”

Still Life has not screened at any competitive film festivals. However, after showing the short through some local filmmaker showcases, Esper was put on to TwistFlix by a friend. “It went live last month,” Esper says (at $1.99 to view, $3.99 to download). “I sent the film in, not thinking anything of it. That very night, I got an e-mail from the head of the company and he really liked Still Life and asked if I'd be interested in distributing it. Of course, I said yes.”

Esper says he is currently at work on a comedy short as well as the script for his first feature-length project. He also continues to direct music videos and freelance on other projects. Purchase Still Life here.

[Chris Esper]

A Long Walk Through Switzerland

2013-03-07T00:29:00.005-08:00

For first-time Ottawa filmmaker Neeko Paluzzi, the mid-life crisis came long before he hit his forties.

Five years after planting a letter to his future self in Switzerland, Paluzzi returned last spring to begin the journey of retrieving it. He had it all mapped out.

But fate immediately intervened, and the result - Wanderweg, premiering Thursday March 7th at Ottawa's Mayfair Theatre - is very different from what this Master's of Communications student first envisioned. From his Director's Statement:

I returned to Switzerland on May 3rd, 2012 (a day after my twenty-fourth birthday) with nothing more than a pair of hiking boots, a backpack and a camera. What I was physically carrying with me, however, did not equal the emotional baggage. After only a day of walking and filming, I found myself experiencing a debilitating mental and physical breakdown.

I locked myself in a hotel room for two days, hoping I could return to my filming schedule. I could not. After five years of waiting to return, the first few days of filming Wanderweg were among the most difficult of my life. In that moment, I thought I had failed. And then time past.

Paluzzi spent two months wandering across Switzerland and, somewhat improbably, managed to finagle sponsorship from Swiss Tourism. As he points out on his production blog, he is one of the few foreigners to have spent time in all 26 of the country's cantons - Switzerland's equivalent to a state or province.

[Wanderweg]