tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-348738692024-02-08T10:11:48.633-05:00The Film Panel NotetakerMiss a panel discussion? Don't worry! We took notes for you.
<p>
The Film Panel Notetaker is a fun and informative educational resource for everyone from film professionals to cinephiles where notes are shared from film panel discussions, filmmaker Q and As, and more.</p>The Film Panel Notetakerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14731916101376900657noreply@blogger.comBlogger435125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34873869.post-25433348022003986632010-03-22T19:36:00.000-04:002010-03-22T19:36:26.502-04:00Moved to WordPressIn case you have stumbled upon The Film Panel Notetaker through blogger.com or blogspot.com, we have officially migrated to WordPress. You can get to us by going to either http://thefilmpanelnotetaker.com/ or http://www.thefilmpanelnotetaker.com.The Film Panel Notetakerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14731916101376900657noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34873869.post-49858438036634578892010-03-10T09:09:00.001-05:002010-03-10T09:10:24.896-05:00Panel Etiquette Tips<a href="http://filmmakermagazine.com/news/2010/03/how-to-sit-on-a-panel/">Filmmaker Magazine</a> editor Scott Macaulay points to an excellent article by Mark Suster of the "Both Sides of the Table" blog about etiquette for panelists and moderators during panel discussions. Check it out <a href="http://www.bothsidesofthetable.com/2010/03/03/making-the-most-out-of-sitting-on-panels/#more-2046">here</a>.<br />
<br />
For those of you who will be attending SXSW in Austin, Scott will be on a panel called "<a href="http://my.sxsw.com/events/event/11">Anatomy of a Release; From Conception Through Exhibition"</a> on Monday, March 15 at 12:30pm.The Film Panel Notetakerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14731916101376900657noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34873869.post-85636907720320730182010-03-05T10:20:00.001-05:002010-03-08T12:11:35.727-05:00UnionDocs Presents Inductive Thread at MoMA's Documentary Fortnight<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><b><a href="http://www.uniondocs.org/">UnionDocs</a></b><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"> Presents Inductive Thread<o:p></o:p></b></div><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><b><a href="http://www.moma.org/explore/films">MoMA'</a></b><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">s </b><b><a href="http://www.moma.org/explore/film_festivals">Documentary Fortnight</a><o:p></o:p></b></div><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">February 20, 2010<o:p></o:p></b></div><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">New York, NY<o:p></o:p></b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">As a viewer of documentary film in the cinematic sense, I was deeply challenged, yet profoundly informed by a strange, yet entertaining two-part experimental nonfiction film and essay production called “Inductive Thread,” presented by Brooklyn nonprofit UnionDocs during MoMA’s Documentary Fortnight. Inductive Thread combined short works that engaged multiple subjects and diverse aesthetic approaches to documentary arts. The key to this performance was “collaboration.” While each piece was directed by one or two people, it was the group of collaborators as a whole who nurtured each project from beginning to end, and each project was thread together to create one performance as a whole, hence its title, “Inductive Thread.”</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">The first part touched on the history of UnionDocs, its rotating body of participants, and their collaborative exploration of topics as diverse as the death of payphones and the popularity of currywurst. The second part was an investigation of myth in contemporary society. The excerpt from a larger ongoing project shared many inspirations, including the experimental laboratory of the Bauhaus and the collection of short but revelatory essays within <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roland_Barthes">Roland Barthes</a>' classic 1957 text <u><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Mythologies-Roland-Barthes/dp/0374521506">Mythologies</a></u>. </div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">Participating in the presentation were UnionDocs founders Christopher Allen, Executive Director; Jesse Shapins, Kara Oehler, and Johanna Linsley; along UnionDocs programmer, Steve Holmgren, and several other UnionDocs Collaborative participants. The following are highlights from the presentation.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Inductive Thread Part 1 – Presentation About UnionDocs<o:p></o:p></b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">MoMA Film’s Sally Berger introduced the presentation bringing out Allen, who went over some background of UnionDocs, and Linsley, who described what would be taking place in both parts of the program. UnionDocs’ mission is to present a broad range of innovative and thought-provoking nonfiction projects to the general public while cultivating specialized opportunities in learning and critical discourse. It also creates collaboration for media makers and curators. The organization uses a broad definition of the word “documentary” taking an interdisciplinary approach encouraging the production of film, video, radio, written essay, photography, Internet and more. Linsley said they’ve had a big question as how to acknowledge the individual in group practices. They settled on the word 'collaborative' instead to describe their activities, after trying out 'collective,' which felt wrong, like visions of a faceless mass.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">The film presentation began with a very clever and funny mockumentary of sorts about UnionDocs titled “Time Capsule,” in which a time capsule is found in their building, which is actually a vacuum cleaner that apparently has never been changed in its five-year history. The vacuum bag is removed and dissected, revealing its unappealing contents made mostly of dried-up hair, dust, and other peculiar objects. A long piece of string that’s intertwined with the rest of the bag’s contents symbolizes the “Inductive Thread.”</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">Allen and Linsley continued by dividing the rest of Part 1 of the program into three parts (short videos were interspersed with each of the three parts) and I’ve provided a brief summation of each below: </div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;">1)<span style="font: normal normal normal 7pt/normal 'Times New Roman';"> </span>Assumptions:</div><div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-left: 1.0in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level2 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;">a.<span style="font: normal normal normal 7pt/normal 'Times New Roman';"> </span><span style="font-family: '\'times new roman\'';">It’s useful for curious and concerned friends and collaborators to gather to watch documentaries on a Sunday night, it is more interesting if it is open to the public.</span></div><div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-left: 1.0in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level2 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;">b.<span style="font: normal normal normal 7pt/normal 'Times New Roman';"> </span><span style="font-family: '\'times new roman\'';">Documentaries should be approached critically and the truths they claim should be questioned and debated. </span></div><div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-left: 1.0in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level2 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;">c.<span style="font: normal normal normal 7pt/normal 'Times New Roman';"> </span><span style="font-family: '\'times new roman\'';">Merely watching, listening and discussing might not be enough to satisfy the curiosity and concern, the foundation for the endeavor. The consumption of the stories must be matched by creative work in order to be more fully digested, and presenting should be matched by processing, usefully blurring the line between creators and their audience. </span></div><div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;">2)<span style="font: normal normal normal 7pt/normal 'Times New Roman';"> </span>Associations:</div><div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle">For this, UnionDocs made a series of projects with payphones for the Conflux festival in 2006. They were interested in using this to think about the public, private, and possibly occult implications of living in the city. UnionDocs also has a “living component” in that it has<span style="font-family: '\'times new roman\'';"> a lease on its </span>whole building. Allen said he’s left the living aspect out of the conversation until now, because of the associations it comes with. “UnionDocs is not and has never been a commune, the set of a reality TV show, or worse, an experimental documentary frat house,” he said. Instead, UnionDocs <span style="font-family: '\'times new roman\'';">a refuge from New York City’s distractions, an epicenter of activity for people who work days, have busy lives, and who can get things done and have a sense of continuity in their experience, if they are given the space. </span></div><div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;">3)<span style="font: normal normal normal 7pt/normal 'Times New Roman';"> </span>Renovations:</div><div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-family: '\'times new roman\'';">A better understanding of collaboration prompted the restructuring of UnionDocs and brought it closer to how it exists today. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-left: 1.0in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level2 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;">a.<span style="font: normal normal normal 7pt/normal 'Times New Roman';"> </span>Process:</div><div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-left: 1.0in; mso-add-space: auto;"><span style="font-family: '\'times new roman\'';">Collaboration requires openness to chance, structured communication, clearly defined separation of roles, dialogue and reflection, trust in your collaborators’ opinion and confidence in critique. Making lots of little inter-related pieces in a group creates a growing, somewhat unruly database of media that when brought together might make interesting results, such as their 20 hour-long radio shows for WKCR 89.9 FMNY. </span></div><div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-left: 1.0in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level2 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;"><span style="font-family: '\'times new roman\'';">b.<span style="font: normal normal normal 7pt/normal 'Times New Roman';"> </span></span>Problems:<span style="font-family: '\'times new roman\'';"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-left: 1.0in; mso-add-space: auto;"><span style="font-family: '\'times new roman\'';">Collaboration is frustrating. You can't always get what you want, but sometimes you spend more time on process and get less product. You need lots of structure and considerable time for dialogue and discussion. There’s the risk of individuals’ ideas being exploited by others under the cover of collaboration, which can devolve in marketing language. Personal motivations must also be examined. Working in a group can sometimes be a way to hide from oneself.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-left: 1.0in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level2 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;">c.<span style="font: normal normal normal 7pt/normal 'Times New Roman';"> </span>Benefits</div><div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-left: 1.5in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level3 lfo1; mso-text-indent-alt: -9.0pt; text-indent: -1.5in;"><span style="font: normal normal normal 7pt/normal 'Times New Roman';"> </span>i.<span style="font: normal normal normal 7pt/normal 'Times New Roman';"> </span><span style="font-family: '\'times new roman\'';">Unexpected results. </span></div><div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-left: 1.5in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level3 lfo1; mso-text-indent-alt: -9.0pt; text-indent: -1.5in;"><span style="font: normal normal normal 7pt/normal 'Times New Roman';"> </span>ii.<span style="font: normal normal normal 7pt/normal 'Times New Roman';"> </span><span style="font-family: '\'times new roman\'';">Valuable resources</span></div><div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpLast" style="margin-left: 1.5in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level3 lfo1; mso-text-indent-alt: -9.0pt; text-indent: -1.5in;"><span style="font: normal normal normal 7pt/normal 'Times New Roman';"> </span>iii.<span style="font: normal normal normal 7pt/normal 'Times New Roman';"> </span><span style="font-family: '\'times new roman\'';">Inter-subjectivity</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">To conclude Part 1, UnionDocs Programmer Steve Holmgren held a dialogue with Allen about the state of funding for the organization, and how last year at this time, they had none, but with the help of an emergency grant from the Experimental Television Center, Allen used what money they received to work with a consultant rethinking how the organization might work. Out of that came the UnionDocs Collaborative Program – a one to two-year program for emerging media producers, theorists, and curators. Holmgren continued to explain the program with clips of more short videos interspersed.<br style="mso-special-character: line-break;" /> <br style="mso-special-character: line-break;" /> </div><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Inductive Thread Part 2 – “Documenting Mythologies”<o:p></o:p></b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Tahoma, Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 12px;"><br />
</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal">For Part 2 of Inductive Thread, “Documenting Mythologies,” audio of people talking and other ambient sounds transitioned from one pair of speakers to the next. Collaborative project directors Jesse Shapins and Kara Oehler introduced Part 2 saying that the collaborative is documenting mythology in contemporary society. A dialogue between continued where they deconstructed the meaning of myth in relation to documentaries. Myth is usually thought to be fiction. Documentaries are concerned with facts. This paradox might be what attracts us to the idea of trying to document mythology. The rhetorical question was asked, “Haven't mythologies been documented for centuries?” Homer could be considered a classic documentarian. He gathered the oral traditions of the Greeks and consolidated them into fixed narratives. But that’s not the only way to define mythology. French author Roland Barthes was given as an example. In his book <u>Mythologies</u>, he talks about myth in a different way. </div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">Quotes from Barthes’ book followed such as, "I was at the time (between 1954 and 1956) trying to reflect regularly on some myths of French daily life. The starting point of these reflections was usually a feeling of frustration at the sight of the 'naturalness' with which newspapers, art and common sense constantly dress up reality. In short, I resented seeing Nature and History confused at every turn, and I wanted to track down, in the constant display of what-goes-without-saying, the ideological abuse which…in my view…is hidden there. Right from the start, the notion of myth seemed to me to explain these examples of the falsely obvious."</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">Barthes’ book is made up of short, surprising essays on topics you would have never considered thinking about as mythologies, as evidenced in the index with such topics as “The World of Wrestling,” “Operation Margarine,” “Toys,” “Wine,” Milk,” “Steak,” Chips,” “Plastic,” and more. Linsley said that “Plastic” was one of her favorite essays. Barthes gathered these topics by wandering through the streets of Paris. The book has the character of an author exploring the city with a heightened awareness. Paying attention to everything. Looking for new meanings in overlooked details of everyday life. </div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Tahoma, Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 12px;"><br />
</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal">Next to present were Joshua Gen Solondz and Jolene Pinder, who were asked, “What is the form of myth?” Going back and forth, they asked “Fact or Myth?” showing a series of slides on screen such as:</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">[Slide of Kitten + fountain]</div><div class="MsoNormal">Fact or Myth?</div><div class="MsoNormal">Adding a water element to your home adds circulation and flow.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">[Slide of Wedding fountain]</div><div class="MsoNormal">Fact or Myth?</div><div class="MsoNormal">Miniature fountains rank 7 out of 10 on a list of most popular wedding presents.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">This was followed by their short documentary, “Little Fountains.”</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">The next presenter was Tina Antolini, who was asked, “Do you know how language is created?” Tina said that language, at its root, is composed of sound. Noise that we channel into symbols—letters we string them together to communicate with one another. How did a mouthful of syllables come to add up to a word? – And who’s responsible when that meaning shifts? As babies, we learn our first words. “Mother” gets a woman, a feeling attached to it. For most of our lives, it retains much of the definition it had when we first pinned it to the woman who birthed us, fed us, cared for us. But other words assume new meanings—and come into them mysteriously. How did “dog”—once purely canine—become associated with a buddy or friend in certain circles? Or “awesome”—once reserved for qualities inspiring amazement—how has it come to imply a more general, even casual goodness? [Audio of the famous line “Whatever!” from the movie “Clueless” sounds]. Tina goes into the many associations of the word, “whatever.” Anything that sounds slangy will be associated with teenagers or street gangs or drug users, and especially things that are felt to be around the early to mid 1980s, they’ll say, people will say this is from Valley Girl talk. She also refers to the popular slang from Wayne’s World, “Not!”</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">Katia Maguire and Ben Brown are next asked, “Why do we believe in cause and effect?” With slides of political figures interspersed throughout, they said that cause and effect is something that even a country as great as ours cannot evade. A thorough understanding of our nation’s rich history has proved this to us. Our forefathers knew this, and put this into our country’s greatest document, the Constitution. However, we have to change the tone in Washington. The political gridlock needs to be broken. No one likes to sit in traffic all day. No one likes to hear that their Congressmen are squandering their hard earned tax dollars with partisan squabbles and petty arguments. Our children’s future is at stake. Let me tell you a story about a little girl I met in our country’s heartland. Her father off at war, her mother working two jobs to keep her home from being foreclosed and paying her skyrocketing health insurance bills. We cannot have any child left behind. We all make mistakes. I’m only human, and I never said I was perfect. I knew that this would be a hard road to travel, and at times, we may veer off the path, but it’s time to move forward. It’s time to move on as a nation. We must let this healing process begin. I’ve journeyed into the heartland of America, and I’ve spoken with real Americans, who all say the same thing. We need real change. But we also need to stick with our ideals, and our values as a nation. What we need is a leader bold enough, brave enough, with the courage to reach out, to touch the third rail, and to once and for all really deal with the challenging and critical issues of our time. </div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">This is followed by the short video, “3<sup>rd</sup> Rail,” which shows the view from inside the front subway car looking out onto the dark subway tracks with bright, distorted lights illuminating the way.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">Will Martin and Andres Almeida are next asked, “What sustains the myth that man is separate from nature?” They take photographs of the audience. A trumpet player is heard from in back of the audience.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">Shawn Wen and Hyatt Michael are next asked, “Does this mean all of our motivations are aesthetic?” A slide of the color “red” is shown. They say that red is just light. Red is light with wavelengths measuring 630 to 740 nanometers. Eve offered Adam red fruit. Together, they sinned. As her punishment, God decreed that she would bleed red. Oxygenated blood is red because of the presence of oxygenated hemoglobin. Red is the color of anger and passion, love and pain. The red-blooded young man, Cain, was caught red-handed spilling the blood of his brother Abel. If the wavelength were any longer, light could not be seen by the naked eye. Hence, infrared. Red stirs the blood. Hester Prynne sewed the red letter A onto her breast as a symbol of her illicit love. Red radiates at 480 to 405 teraherz. Red stop lights and red stop signs. Red warnings and red fire hydrants. Red inflames the bull’s temper. Red cars tend to get into more accidents. The beaches of Normandy were stained red by soldiers' blood. Red is a primary color.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">This is followed by the short video, “Hair is Alive,” which shows various strands of hair in water, doing funky wiggle waggles.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">Robbie Wilkins and Rahul Chadha are next asked, “What myths are hidden within friendship? They ask each other a series of questions such as, “how many co-workers have you ever worked with in your entire life?” “How many relatives do you have?” If you take everyone of these people or connections, “what would you tell them about yourself?”</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Audience Q and A<o:p></o:p></b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">Allen, Linsley, Holmgren and all the other participants totaling 16 people, went on stage and sat on UnionDocs’ signature red-cushioned benches to take questions from the audience. </div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">One question was, how much was the final product originally conceived as a multi-chapter performance? Allen said when everyone came on board last September; the intention was to create a collaborative project. They knew it would take some kind of form, just not exactly what. It would be a combination of individually produced works. They created a structure that collaborators responded to and were given assignments that went into a lot of different directions. They matched everyone up with a partner and gave them two or three myths, which they presented to the group, and the group voted which myth they thought was most interesting. There was always a sense that there would be some structure weaving the pieces together with a certain thematic conceptual framework. Later on in the Q and A, someone else on stage said that there was always a consistency in tone as the pieces evolved over the months they workshoped them together. Allen added that as a group and an organization, they have a deep interest in nonfiction, but they also have a lot of doubt about its ability to transmit reality or truth.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">And how does the collaboration experience now shape their future work as individuals? Making work is a process; a lot of hours go into it, one of the young ladies on stage answered. It’s pushing something until you’re nauseous. Having one person to share that burden 12 other people to let some air into it, it helps a lot…to allow people to put their fingerprints on it. Another lad on stage added that even if you’re working by yourself, you’re influences by other people’s work, which is a kind of collaboration, too.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">One woman in the audience said she was intrigued by the fact that they used Roland Barthes’ work as a departure point. How did the engagement of his work evolve over time as they were making these documentaries? Secondly, she asked if Chris could elaborate on UnionDocs’ doubt of nonfiction conveying reality. One gentleman on the panel said he found at the beginning the reading to be very inaccessible and frustrating. It was open to interpretation, and everyone had a different entry point to their pieces based on their understanding or frustration of the reading as an exercise. Another person added that in choosing Barthes, they felt there was something unique and particular about the ambiguity of all of his writings. It wasn’t a didactic theoretical text, it was something you could come back to again and again and always discover new layers. Essays as a genre are short pieces that allow themselves to open up. For the second question about their doubt of nonfiction conveying reality, Allen said it’s a combination of presenting work and having Q and As with filmmakers in the space, people getting the details of their representation, and trying to study this person that is the documentary filmmaker from a presenting point of view.</div>The Film Panel Notetakerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14731916101376900657noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34873869.post-74541000755357269162010-02-24T09:00:00.036-05:002010-02-24T10:27:00.263-05:00One-on-One Q&A with Kimberly Reed, Director - "Prodigal Sons"<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-align: center; text-autospace: none;"><b><span style="font-family: Times; font-size: 16pt;">One-on-One Q and A with Kimberly Reed – Director, “Prodigal Sons"</span></b></div><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-align: center; text-autospace: none;"><br />
</div><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-align: center; text-autospace: none;"><span style="font-family: Times; font-size: 16pt;">Opens February 26 at </span><a href="http://cinemavillage.com/"><span style="color: #382076; font-family: Times; font-size: 16pt;">Cinema Village</span></a><span style="font-family: Times; font-size: 16pt;"> in New York via </span><a href="http://www.firstrunfeatures.com/"><span style="color: #0028e5; font-family: Times; font-size: 16pt;">First Run Features</span></a><span style="font-family: Times; font-size: 16pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://thefilmpanelnotetaker.com/uploaded_images/Prodigal-Sons-766880.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://thefilmpanelnotetaker.com/uploaded_images/Prodigal-Sons-766660.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><a href="http://www.prodigalsonsfilm.com/"><span style="color: #382076; font-family: Times; font-size: 16pt;">“Prodigal Sons”</span></a><span style="font-family: Times; font-size: 16pt;"> is a compelling family portrait and personal documentary told from the point of view of its director, </span><a href="http://www.prodigalsonsfilm.com/drupal/creative-team"><span style="color: #382076; font-family: Times; font-size: 16pt;">Kimberly Reed</span></a><span style="font-family: Times; font-size: 16pt;">, a transgendered woman who works as magazine editor in New York and goes back to her hometown in Montana for her 20</span><sup><span style="font-family: Times; font-size: 13pt;">th</span></sup><span style="font-family: Times; font-size: 16pt;"> high school reunion. While on her trip, she is reunited with her estranged older adopted brother Marc, who at the age of 21 suffered a brain injury after a car accident. Kimberly is the middle child of three, the oldest being Marc, and her youngest gay brother, Todd. Kimberly grew up as Paul and was the captain of the high school football team and was voted most likely to succeed. In the film, Kimberly tries to mend her relationship with brother Marc, who seems to come to accept her, but a breakdown with Marc ensues, and it gets harder and harder for them to reconcile, that is until a whopper of a revelation occurs as to whom Marc’s true grandparents were (I don’t want to give it away). Reed does an incredible job showing the complex dynamic between her and Marc and their family, which goes through several more ups and downs throughout the rest of the film. I sat down with Kimberly for the following One-on-One Q&A, where we talked about everything from her filmmaking choices, the emotional impact of the film on her, Marc and her family, to the reaction of others who have seen it in the LGBT community…and Kim also let me indulge my daytime television bug by asking her about the transgendered character of </span><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zoe_(All_My_Children)"><span style="color: #0028e5; font-family: Times; font-size: 16pt;">Zarf</span></a><span style="font-family: Times; font-size: 16pt;"> on </span><a href="http://abc.go.com/shows/all-my-children"><span style="color: #0028e5; font-family: Times; font-size: 16pt;">"All My Children"</span></a><span style="font-family: Times; font-size: 16pt;"> a few years ago. What I learned from watching the film and talking with Kim was that the issue of being transgendered recedes from the identity one has within his or her own family, no matter what the genetic makeup.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><b><span style="font-family: Times; font-size: 16pt;">TFPN: In "Prodigal Sons," you infuse your family’s super 8mm home movies of when you were young children, and then later when you and your brothers made your own films. Who shot the earlier footage when you were younger? Did that prompt your interest in making movies later on in life?</span></b><span style="font-family: Times; font-size: 16pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><span style="font-family: Times; font-size: 16pt;">Reed: My dad shot the earlier home movies. He was always an early adopter. He was always the guy who had the super 8MM camera. Then he transitioned to video and was first on the block to have this two-piece video deck with a massive camera on his shoulder tethered to a VCR on his hip.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><b><span style="font-family: Times; font-size: 16pt;">TFPN: What was your father’s profession?</span></b><span style="font-family: Times; font-size: 16pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><span style="font-family: Times; font-size: 16pt;">Reed: He was an ophthalmologist. I often wonder if my fascination with understanding the world through vision, if you define being an ophthalmologist roughly enough, it kind of started to sound like being a filmmaker. I was fascinated with my dad’s job and how the eye works, but what really made me a filmmaker was experiencing films by being totally transported to a different place emotionally and sometimes even physically. Fairly early on, I was gathering all the kids in the neighborhood and coming up with these scripts and telling everybody what to do. The reason you didn’t see me in any of those later films was because I was behind the camera.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><b><span style="font-family: Times; font-size: 16pt;">TFPN: So it was your brothers you directed in those films?</span></b><span style="font-family: Times; font-size: 16pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><span style="font-family: Times; font-size: 16pt;">Reed: Yes. You can also see me trying to work out some gender issues pretty early on by forcing my younger brother to play the part of the girl. I knew that stuff was going on with me. There’s a reason I chose him and not Marc. I was in such denial of it at that age that I was so afraid of it that it would somehow magically transport me or I'd grow out of it. That’s what I wanted. I was afraid of the power it had and I knew from society that you’re not supposed to do that. I think a lot of people can relate to that. I did it vicariously through my younger brother.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><b><span style="font-family: Times; font-size: 16pt;">TFPN: Did Marc know you were going to be filming him for your documentary before you both came back to Montana for the reunion? What was his initial reaction? Was he hesitant or cooperative?</span></b><span style="font-family: Times; font-size: 16pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><span style="font-family: Times; font-size: 16pt;">Reed: Yes, he knew. I think you can tell from the early films he always wanted to be in the limelight. Sometimes that was him just being a troublemaker, doing crazy stuff that nobody else would do. I’ve kind of wondered if he had a limelight gene, and if he did, I think he got it [from the surprise relationship that Marc discovers that is revealed in “Prodigal Sons.”]<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><b><span style="font-family: Times; font-size: 16pt;">TFPN: By turning the camera on Marc and going down this path, do you think it in any way might have provoked him to have his outbursts, or would that have happened anyway?</span></b><span style="font-family: Times; font-size: 16pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><span style="font-family: Times; font-size: 16pt;">Reed: Marc has explosive anger. It’s really interesting, because some people think the camera would make it worse, and some people think the camera would lessen the impact of it. I actually think in almost all cases where you see that, the camera didn’t matter because nobody knew it was on. There’s a scene on Christmas that nobody knew the camera was on, for instance. In that respect, I think the camera really did disappear. I think that it would be naïve to assume that the camera would ever disappear totally. I think if you’re ever going to be close to having a camera disappear, I can’t imagine getting closer than a really intimate family environment where everybody supports the making of the film. They’re used to me and others shooting and everybody’s on board. You’ve got a very open family that’s willing to share their story, warts and all. I think it’s my sense of Marc and almost all people that if the camera is on, it would lesson your anger not increase it. The decision to use (the footage) is also interesting. To that, I would say nobody wanted this film made more than Marc. Nobody. There were times when I was really questioning whether or not I should include some really rough footage. I took Marc as my guide. I took his advice. I followed his lead as to whether or not to show that. There’s a line in the film I really love when Marc says simply, “I don’t know about you, but the truth is the truth.” I learned a lot from Marc from that line, because I was in a situation where I was really hiding from my past in a lot of ways. His advice to me in that situation was “get over it!” It’s just the truth. It happened, deal with it. That’s how Marc feels in some of these explosive moments where we’re seeing warts and all. His response is bracingly honest and really refreshing. His actions may be hard for some people to interpret, because he has different principles, but I think some of those principles are bracingly honest.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><b><span style="font-family: Times; font-size: 16pt;">TFPN: You seemed to have learned more because of that than you expected when you were going into making the film.</span></b><span style="font-family: Times; font-size: 16pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><span style="font-family: Times; font-size: 16pt;">Reed: Absolutely. I had no idea we were going to get into all these family issues, and issues of sibling rivalry. It had always been there, but I had no idea it was really going to take over as much as it did. But probably a good portion of that was wishful thinking that it wouldn’t. You follow it where it goes. You follow your life where it goes, kind of in the same way you follow film where it goes.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><b><span style="font-family: Times; font-size: 16pt;">TFPN: What has the reaction been by the LGBT community, in particular by those who are transgendered? Has anyone been impacted by the film?</span></b><span style="font-family: Times; font-size: 16pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><span style="font-family: Times; font-size: 16pt;">Reed: I love the answer to that question because we’ve had almost completely uniform, positive reaction. We just had a story in </span><a href="http://www.details.com/culture-trends/critical-eye/201001/kimberly-reed-transgender-documentary-prodigal-sons"><span style="color: #0028e5; font-family: Times; font-size: 16pt;">Details</span></a><span style="font-family: Times; font-size: 16pt;"> Magazine, which is really getting the word out, and also recently in Jezebel. I hear from trans people whom I think were empowered and reassured by my story because they think, “Wow, I can do this!” I hear from the families of trans people. Before we even started editing I told somebody at Sundance the story of this and she said, “I’m so glad you told me that, because I’ve been freaking out because the day before I came to Sundance, I found out that my brother is going to be my sister. And my head has been spinning the whole time. I’ve spent the last three days with you and had no idea this was going on with you and it’s really reassuring that you can just share your story.” Even before you make your film, talking about it can reassure people, because a lot of people don’t quite know how to talk about it and hopefully our film will open up that discussion. I think an important element that I hear again and again from people is that, and this is always what I had in mind for the film, the way that the film confronts transgendered issues is important perhaps more because of how little it says about being transgendered, but about how willing the film is to let other things take over. I hear from people time and time again, “thank you for not letting that be the only issue.”<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><b><span style="font-family: Times; font-size: 16pt;">TFPN: I found the main through line of the film to be more about your relationship with Marc than your coming out to your family and friends.</span></b><span style="font-family: Times; font-size: 16pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><span style="font-family: Times; font-size: 16pt;">Reed: Absolutely. That understatement, number one, represents my life. It’s very important, but is it the only thing? No. It’s an aspect of who I am. To replicate that standing in the film, I think it’s important to let the topic recede in importance. As a storyteller, too, once you take it off the table, it’s also a lot of fun to put it back on the table. If you ask me, that’s the best way to affect social change is to put people in the shoes of somebody else and then let them forget that they’re in their shoes. Hopefully that happens with my character in the film. Hopefully it happens with Marc’s character in the film. I think he goes through a lot of issues with having a head injury and mental illness that people find very hard to imagine. If people can watch this film and feel like they really feel Marc, they know what makes him happy and what he’s frustrated by. I would be really happy to hear people have that response. I could have started with this side of the equation about people who have these kinds of head injuries and mental illness or with gender issues. This film is really just about family. It’s about siblings and family relationships and we’re all looking for love and want to be loved. In families, that’s such a big part of that currency that everybody is trading and it’s hard because there’s a lot of old pain and even hate sometimes. I think at the end of the day (these issues) operate metaphorically in the film…that thing that creates sibling rivalry. Sometimes I hear, “I was that sister who was envied by the other one.” I think if you have a sibling, you can understand sibling rivalry. In the end, it’s a film about family and love and how as we grow older, our identities change, not often as starkly as Marc’s or mine, but our identities change. We always have to renegotiate who we are within our families.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><b><span style="font-family: Times; font-size: 16pt;">TFPN: Do you think that LGBT people, particularly those who are transgendered, are properly represented in the media such as film and television? Are they being represented as stereotypes? Can you think of any examples of transgendered people who are being properly represented?</span></b><span style="font-family: Times; font-size: 16pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><span style="font-family: Times; font-size: 16pt;">Reed: A big motivation for me making this film was to give a real representation of someone who is trans and to go back to reactions we heard from people. That’s what people appreciate, whether you’re trans or a family member or a friend of a person who is trans, I think it’s really important to show everything else but that issue. That’s where the humanity lies. A lot of times I feel the transgendered issue is where gay issues were in the 1960s and earlier. I didn’t want to make the transgendered version of “Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner?” In LGB cinema and media in general, the “T” has yet to really undergo that. I hope that our film takes a step toward that.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><b><span style="font-family: Times; font-size: 16pt;">TFPN: Were you ever aware that there was a transgendered character on the daytime serial drama “All My Children” a few years ago?</span></b><span style="font-family: Times; font-size: 16pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><span style="font-family: Times; font-size: 16pt;">Reed: Was the character’s name Cricket?<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><b><span style="font-family: Times; font-size: 16pt;">TFPN: No, actually the character was Zarf/Zoe (Jeffrey Carlson), a male to female transgendered rock star who was in love with Erica Kane’s (Susan Lucci) lesbian daughter Bianca (Eden Regal).</span></b><span style="font-family: Times; font-size: 16pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><span style="font-family: Times; font-size: 16pt;">Reed: No, I didn’t. When was it?<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><b><span style="font-family: Times; font-size: 16pt;">TFPN: I think it was in 2007. I watched it and was blown away by it, but I can’t say 100% how realistic it was or not, but I was moved by it. So I was wondering if you had ever seen any of it.</span></b><span style="font-family: Times; font-size: 16pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><span style="font-family: Times; font-size: 16pt;">Reed: No, but I ought to now. I thought you were going to tell me that people tell me I look like one of the characters on the show.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><b><span style="font-family: Times; font-size: 16pt;">TFPN: People used to tell you that?</span></b><span style="font-family: Times; font-size: 16pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><span style="font-family: Times; font-size: 16pt;">Reed: Yeah, it was Cricket, but I don’t think it was "All My Children." [Editor’s Note: If anyone does know what show Cricket was on, please leave it in the Comments.]<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><b><span style="font-family: Times; font-size: 16pt;">TFPN: I don’t remember a Cricket.</span></b><span style="font-family: Times; font-size: 16pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><span style="font-family: Times; font-size: 16pt;">Reed: It was probably in the mid-1990s. You would know.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><b><span style="font-family: Times; font-size: 16pt;">TFPN: Well, that’s not even really my show. My show’s "One Life to Live," which is on after AMC, but I occasionally watch it and when they had that storyline on, I found it fascinating. I don’t think it had ever been done before where they had a contract character that was transgendered in a major plotline.</span></b><span style="font-family: Times; font-size: 16pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><span style="font-family: Times; font-size: 16pt;">Reed: The more stories like that, the better. One of the best reactions I ever had to the film that just floored me was when someone came up to me after a screening and said, “I think I fell in love with your brother Marc.” I love that, because Marc does some pretty intense things, which are hard to digest. The fact that you can go through that and experience it in the film, which is arguably more intense than in real life…and the fact that you can go through that and still see this other side of Marc that’s really sensitive and sentimental that’s terribly connected to our family and our past. I’m almost more proud of the fact that people can affiliate themselves more with Marc than they can with me. The thing about head injuries, the number of people coming back from Iraq and Afghanistan with head injuries…there are going to be so many people dealing with this, questioning where this explosive anger comes from? This is not the person who went off to war. At the end of the day, it’s just about humanity, whether we’re L or G or B or T or this or that. To hear Albert Maysles talk [at Stranger Than Fiction’s presentation of </span><a href="http://thefilmpanelnotetaker.com/2010/01/stranger-than-fiction-running-fence.html"><span style="color: #0028e5; font-family: Times; font-size: 16pt;">“Running Fence”</span></a><span style="font-family: Times; font-size: 16pt;"> on January 19] about the humanity in which he approaches his filmmaking and the compassion that he feels for his film subjects, which so comes through in his films, that is what I’m interested in.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div></div>The Film Panel Notetakerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14731916101376900657noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34873869.post-9448701652594124442010-02-17T13:00:00.000-05:002010-02-17T13:00:53.348-05:00UnionDocs Presents Inductive Thread at MoMA's Documentary Fortnight<!--StartFragment--> <br />
<div class="MsoNormal">This Saturday at 8pm, UnionDocs will present <a href="http://www.moma.org/visit/calendar/film_screenings/8787">Inductive Thread</a>, a shorts program panel discussion as part of MoMA's Documentary Fortnight.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">Produced by the Brooklyn nonprofit UnionDocs, this two-part program combines short works that engage multiple subjects and diverse aesthetic approaches to documentary arts. The first part touches on the history of the organization, its rotating body of participants, and their collaborative exploration of topics as diverse as the death of payphones and the popularity of currywurst. The second is an investigation of myth in contemporary society. This excerpt from a larger ongoing project shares many inspirations, including the experimental laboratory of the Bauhaus and the collection of short but revelatory essays within Roland Barthes's classic 1957 text Mythologies. Presentations by UnionDocs founders Christopher Allen, Executive Director; Jesse Shapins, Kara Oehler, and Johanna Linsley; UnionDocs programmer, Steve Holmgren, and UnionDocs Collaborative participants.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><a href="http://www.licspace.org/">The Space</a>, which will host an afterparty with music from The Hungry March Band and more, is a not for profit corporation in the Long Island City area committed to the use of 'Underutilized Property in the Name of Art'. Dedicated to maintaining the artistic heritage of Long Island City, and providing a foundation for the future of a thriving community of artists and the arts.</div><!--EndFragment-->The Film Panel Notetakerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14731916101376900657noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34873869.post-9169054628694593612010-02-10T16:35:00.004-05:002010-02-10T16:49:11.588-05:00Putting My Winter Book Reading to Good Use in Woodstock<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">I am so excited to be returning to Woodstock, New York, this weekend, not for the </span><a href="http://woodstockfilmfestival.com/"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Woodstock Film Festival</span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">, but rather for the </span><a href="http://www.woodstockwritersfestival.com/"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Woodstock Writers Festival</span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">, a "Celebration of the Memoir." The festival will include workshops, fetes, readings, panels, moveable feasts and more with many of today's best-selling authors including Ruth Reichl, Susan Orlean, Julie Powell, Susan Richards, and Laura Shaine Cunningham, just to name a few.</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Woodstock Writers Festival Executive Director (and The Film Panel Notetaker's </span><a href="http://thefilmpanelnotetaker.com/2009/10/frankel-my-dear-she-really-gives-damn.html"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">favorite film panel moderator of all time</span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">) </span><a href="http://www.marthafrankel.com/"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Martha Frankel</span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"> invited me as one of the lucky scholars to attend the inaugural festival. I was so delighted by the offer, I couldn't pass it up. I also couldn't go without first reading some of the memoirs by the authors who will be in attendance.</span></span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">* Since mid-November, I've read the following books, all of which I highly recommend, my favorite being </span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Hats and Eyeglasses...</span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">seriously :)</span></span></span></span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span><br />
<div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">•</span><span style="font: normal normal normal 7pt/normal 'Times New Roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Julie and Julia: My Year of Cooking Dangerously</span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"> by Julie Powell</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; mso-pagination: none; tab-stops: 11.0pt .5in; text-autospace: none; text-indent: -.5in;"><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">•</span><span style="font: normal normal normal 7pt/normal 'Times New Roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Hats and Eyeglasses </span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">by Martha Frankel</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></div></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; mso-pagination: none; tab-stops: 11.0pt .5in; text-autospace: none; text-indent: -.5in;"><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">•</span><span style="font: normal normal normal 7pt/normal 'Times New Roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">The Orchid Thief</span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"> by Susan Orlean</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></div></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; mso-pagination: none; tab-stops: 11.0pt .5in; text-autospace: none; text-indent: -.5in;"><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">•</span><span style="font: normal normal normal 7pt/normal 'Times New Roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Foreskin's Lament</span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"> by Shalom Auslander</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></div></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; mso-pagination: none; tab-stops: 11.0pt .5in; text-autospace: none; text-indent: -.5in;"><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">•</span><span style="font: normal normal normal 7pt/normal 'Times New Roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Pride of Family</span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"> by Carole Ione</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span></div></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">While a writers festival celebrating the memoir might seems like a bit a departure for me, I have been toying with the idea of writing a memoir, if not in novelization form, then perhaps as a short. Whatever I end up doing, I am sure I will get much inspiration from the Woodstock Writers Festival, and look very forward to attending and meeting all of these great writers.</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">* All of the above mentioned books can be purchased on Amazon.com by clicking on the widgets below:</span><br />
<br />
<iframe align="left" frameborder="0" marginheight="0" marginwidth="0" scrolling="no" src="http://rcm.amazon.com/e/cm?t=thefilpannot-20&o=1&p=8&l=bpl&asins=031604251X&fc1=000000&IS2=1&lt1=_blank&m=amazon&lc1=0000FF&bc1=000000&bg1=FFFFFF&f=ifr" style="align: left; height: 245px; padding-right: 10px; padding-top: 5px; width: 131px;"></iframe><iframe align="left" frameborder="0" marginheight="0" marginwidth="0" scrolling="no" src="http://rcm.amazon.com/e/cm?t=thefilpannot-20&o=1&p=8&l=bpl&asins=B002PJ4FY6&fc1=000000&IS2=1&lt1=_blank&m=amazon&lc1=0000FF&bc1=000000&bg1=FFFFFF&f=ifr" style="align: left; height: 245px; padding-right: 10px; padding-top: 5px; width: 131px;"></iframe><iframe align="left" frameborder="0" marginheight="0" marginwidth="0" scrolling="no" src="http://rcm.amazon.com/e/cm?t=thefilpannot-20&o=1&p=8&l=bpl&asins=044900371X&fc1=000000&IS2=1&lt1=_blank&m=amazon&lc1=0000FF&bc1=000000&bg1=FFFFFF&f=ifr" style="align: left; height: 245px; padding-right: 10px; padding-top: 5px; width: 131px;"></iframe><iframe align="left" frameborder="0" marginheight="0" marginwidth="0" scrolling="no" src="http://rcm.amazon.com/e/cm?t=thefilpannot-20&o=1&p=8&l=bpl&asins=1594483337&fc1=000000&IS2=1&lt1=_blank&m=amazon&lc1=0000FF&bc1=000000&bg1=FFFFFF&f=ifr" style="align: left; height: 245px; padding-right: 10px; padding-top: 5px; width: 131px;"></iframe><iframe align="left" frameborder="0" marginheight="0" marginwidth="0" scrolling="no" src="http://rcm.amazon.com/e/cm?t=thefilpannot-20&o=1&p=8&l=bpl&asins=0767918444&fc1=000000&IS2=1&lt1=_blank&m=amazon&lc1=0000FF&bc1=000000&bg1=FFFFFF&f=ifr" style="align: left; height: 245px; padding-right: 10px; padding-top: 5px; width: 131px;"></iframe>The Film Panel Notetakerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14731916101376900657noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34873869.post-80459803549141482542010-02-09T12:14:00.000-05:002010-02-09T12:14:38.506-05:00Stranger Than Fiction - "The Cove" - Feb. 8, 2010<!--StartFragment--> <br />
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><b><a href="http://www.thecovemovie.com/">“The Cove”</a><o:p></o:p></b></div><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Q&A with Louie Psihoyos and Fisher Stevens<o:p></o:p></b></div><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><a href="http://stfdocs.com/">Stranger Than Fiction</a><o:p></o:p></b></div><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">February 8, 2010<o:p></o:p></b></div><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><a href="http://www.ifccenter.com/">IFC Center</a><o:p></o:p></b></div><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">New York, NY<o:p></o:p></b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://thefilmpanelnotetaker.com/uploaded_images/STF-Cove-Pic-778481.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://thefilmpanelnotetaker.com/uploaded_images/STF-Cove-Pic-778465.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">(L to R: Thom Powers, Louie Psihoyas & Fisher Stevens. Photo by Brian Geldin)</span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Stranger Than Fiction continued its string of screenings this season of 2010 Academy-Award nominated documentaries Monday night with “The Cove.” (STF recently screened Oscar contender </span><a href="http://thefilmpanelnotetaker.com/2010/01/stranger-than-fiction-which-way-home.html"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">“Which Way Home”</span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"> and is also scheduled to show “Food, Inc.” on Feb. 17). “The Cove” is a thriller about a small group of environmental activists including director Louie Psihoyas himself and the original “Flipper” dolphin trainer Rick O’Barry, who lead an expedition to expose the atrocious slaughter of dolphins in a Japanese village using hidden surveillance equipment. The film also points out the harmful levels of mercury in the ocean that not only affects sea life, but people who eat it, namely for sushi. Psihoyas successfully weaves a narrative in a highly entertaining and informative manner, while introducing us to unique characters, both heroes (O’Barry for instance) and villains (a man they call “Private Space.”) After the credits rolled, the audience gave Psihoyas a standing ovation and Thom Powers led a discussion with him and producer Fisher Stevens. They even had some exciting news to announce about the film’s distribution in Japan.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Given the fraught circumstances and conditions Psihoyos and his crew endured in Japan, Powers noted that “The Cove” screened at the Tokyo Film Festival this year, but it wasn’t an easy endeavor. Stevens said they submitted the film seven times to the festival. The theme of the festival was “green,” but they kept getting rejected. Rick O’Barry told them they had to get it into the festival. At a screening in Nantucket, they asked if anyone there knew how they could get their film played at Tokyo, and Ben Stiller raised his hand in the audience saying he could help. Through Stiller, they got it into Alejondro Inarritu's hands, since he was the president of the Tokyo jury. He saw the film and persuaded the festival to take it “with incredible caveats of changing and blurring certain scenes,” he said. “That’s what really helped our journey in Japan.” Psihoyos said when he went to Tokyo, there were three arrest warrants for him: trespassing, conspiracy to obstruct commerce, and photographing undercover cops without their permission. He brought his lawyer just in case he’d be arrested, but luckily he didn’t get arrested. “It was the most amazing screening I had ever been to,” Psihoyas said. “In the audience were all the bad guys” including the infamous “Private Space,” the mayor of Taiji, and the fisherman. They were there to watch to the film to see if they could find anything litigious to keep it from going further to the Japanese population.</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Psihoyas paused to announce his news that “The Cove” now has a Japanese distributor, Medallion. The audience applaused. The film will open theatrically in Japan this April, then will go onto DVD about three months before the September dolphin slaughter season. He equated this journey and struggle finally coming to fruition in Japan as "</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small; font-weight: bold;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">gaiatsu"</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium; font-weight: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"> meaning outside pressure that creates inside pressure for change. He said the most social change since World War II has happened through gaiatsu.</span></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Did they recruit locals from Japan in the making of the film, asked someone in the audience? Psihoyas said that they did, but they were way in the background. This film has given permission for other Japanese people to speak out. It’s helped them to break through the glass ceiling. Beforehand, the press was not covering it. They received more coverage during the Tokyo Film Festival than “Avatar.” He beckoned back to the earlier news of the Japanese distribution being extremely important.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">As someone who’s produced other films, what was it that stood out for Stevens about “The Cove,” Powers asked. Stevens said he’d met Psihoyas while scuba diving. He loves the ocean and the environment, which he feels has been abused and he saw an opportunity after seeing the footage that this film would wake people up. Besides that, he saw an entertaining thriller. They both also had mercury poisoning from eating a lot of sushi. Stevens recommended that everyone get their levels checked. Powers joked that actors have used that excuse to get out of Broadway plays. Stevens added that when he got to meet and know O’Barry, he saw the passion he has for his work, besides the importance of saving the dolphins.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Powers asked what’s happening with O’Barry nowadays. “He’ll be my date for the Oscars,” Psihoyas said, adding that O’Barry has had a visceral response to everything and has been going back to the cove by himself. “We’re trying to give the ocean a voice with this film,” he said, which is the true value of getting these awards. The important reason to win the Oscar for him is because it’s one of the most watched shows in Japan.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Will sales of the film go toward any of their causes, asked another person in the audience? Psihoyas said they have about $2.4 million in loans, which they’ll put into making another ocean movie. He’s also been using some of his own money to pay Japanese organizations to do websites and financing other people’s operations for community outreach. Stevens added that the box office receipts here in the U.S. was “really bad” considering all the press the film got, because people were afraid to see “the dolphin slaughter movie” no matter how much they tried to sell it as a thriller. It became depressing to them. There was a stigma about it that they hope will be lifted by marketing and selling it differently. It’s not just about the slaughter of the dolphins, it’s about much more. There’s only about 90 seconds of it in the whole film. Psihoyas said they considered every frame. “They say most documentaries are abandoned, not finished,” he said. “We finished it.”</span></div><!--EndFragment-->The Film Panel Notetakerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14731916101376900657noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34873869.post-935111529694280592010-02-09T09:14:00.000-05:002010-02-09T09:14:19.431-05:00Union Docs - Documentary Distribution and Access - Feb. 7, 2010<!--StartFragment--> <br />
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-align: center; text-autospace: none;"><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-family: Verdana; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;"><a href="http://www.uniondocs.org/">Union Docs</a><o:p></o:p></span></b></div><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-align: center; text-autospace: none;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-family: Verdana; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">Documentary Distribution and Access<o:p></o:p></span></b></div><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-align: center; text-autospace: none;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-family: Verdana; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">February 7, 2010<o:p></o:p></span></b></div><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-align: center; text-autospace: none;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-family: Verdana; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">Brooklyn, NY<o:p></o:p></span></b></div><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-align: center; text-autospace: none;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-family: Verdana; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">Guest Blogger: <a href="http://www.uniondocs.org/people/#ColinBeckett">Colin Beckett</a><o:p></o:p></span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-family: Verdana; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">“It is like running a treadmill and never going fast enough," filmmaker <a href="http://www.carnivalesquefilms.com/about_us.html">Ashley Sabin</a> said of her efforts to bring her low-budget documentary to audiences at Union Docs' February 7th panel, Documentary Distribution and Access.</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Lucida Grande"; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-family: Verdana; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">With two moderators and seven guests, there are a lot of names to keep straight, so I'll do us both a favor and start with introductions. <a href="http://www.uniondocs.org/people/#SteveHolmgren">Steve Holmgren</a>, who assembled and moderated the panel, is the programmer at Union Docs. He has also worked at HDNet, Cactus Three, and a variety of festivals. Todd Sklar, Holmgren's co-moderator, started <a href="http://www.rangelifeentertainment.com/">Range Life Entertainment</a>, a company that tours small films around the country in a van, screening mostly at colleges. It is probably worth noting that that both his company and the feature comedy he directed share their name with Pavement songs. <a href="http://www.filmmakingstuff.com/2009/11/movie-distribution-interview-with-richard-abramowitz/">Richard Abramowitz</a> has worked as a distributor and producer for over 30 years. He founded Abramorama in 2002, which distributed <i>Anvil!</i> and <i>We Live in Public,</i> among others. Over the past two decades, Jim Browne has programmed work at the majority of New York's film institutions. Prior to founding Argot Pictures in 2005, he was the Director of Theatrical Distribution at Plexifilm. Caitlin Boyle's grassroots distribution company <a href="http://www.filmsprout.org/">Film Sprout</a> connects documentaries with unconventional venues like union halls, restaurants, and public libraries. Ashley Sabin got into distribution as a means of making her own work self-sufficient, and in the past year has started acquiring other people's films for release. <a href="http://www.reversalfilms.com/?tag=nicholas-jayanty">Nicholas Jayanty</a> co-founded Reversal Films in 2007 with friends in Austin, TX after they noticed major gaps in the city's film finance and distribution structures. Andrew Mer runs the Content Acquisitions Department at <a href="http://www.snagfilms.com/">SnagFilms</a>, an AOL-backed online distributor geared towards thinning the "distribution bottleneck" that forms after major commercial festivals like Sundance. The only non-distributor on the panel was <a href="http://www.nyfcc.com/members.php?member=18">Dennis Lim</a>, who edited the Village Voice's film section before their arts pages were bowdlerized by New Times. He has since founded <a href="http://www.movingimagesource.us/">Moving Image Source,</a> the critical writing appendage of the Museum of the Moving Image.</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Lucida Grande"; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-family: Verdana; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">Holmgren's first question-- "can you make a living as a documentary filmmaker?"-- provided the premise on which the rest of the afternoon was based. The answer was unanimous: unless you're extraordinarily lucky, you cannot without getting deeply involved in your film's distribution. It is easy to point to the obvious bias informing the responses -- most of these people are unconventional distributors -- but it seems commonsensical. With more independent distributors vanishing every year, and fewer lenders willing to take the surefire loss promised by film investment, the future of theatrically released, mid-budget films is, to put it optimistically, uncertain. As Jim Browne argued, the old model, wherein you pay for your film as you make it, and expect to recoup upon its sale at a festival, is no longer much more than a fantasy. "You might as well play the lotto," he said.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-family: Verdana; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">Everyone concurred that at this point, small filmmakers and producers have to take on roles that they had traditionally left to others. Distribution, marketing, and, as Jayanty suggested, even advertising are quickly becoming the producers' responsibilities. This means apportioning both time and money in advance. Browne recommended that producers include distribution costs in their initial budget outlays, setting aside the money to fund unusual distribution tactics like the kind of tours that Sklar puts together with Range Life. Caitlin Boyle said directors should expect to stay with a movie beyond its appearance at festivals, allowing themselves between two and five years to deal with distribution and marketing before moving on to other projects. Lim noted that critics and journalists faced similar problems. Writing had once "felt like a career," but these days it seems more like a passion pursued alongside comparatively lucrative work like programming and teaching.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-family: Verdana; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">As disheartening as that sounds, the panelists all saw an upside: it is now easier than ever to get your film seen. Of course online distribution is the simplest way to cast a broad net, whether with paying video-on-demand services like GreenCine or iTunes, or free ones like Mer's SnagFilms. But the quality of streaming video is still not ideal, and nature of this set-up is such that, even taking into account the money you save on travel, and prints or DVDs, it is quite hard to break even. On the internet, you are also competing for increasingly distracted audiences. Ashley Sabin bemoaned the distance online distribution creates: your film is given a greater number of potential viewers than in the past, but you cannot directly interact with them like you can with the people who show up at theaters or community screenings. And Mer, the panel's greatest advocate for online distribution, admitted that despite the advances made in recent years, the format still has a long way to go. Until it is as easy for your parents or grandparents to watch a movie on the internet, it cannot fully compete with theatrical or broadcast releases. Online should for now, he said, be considered "one piece of the puzzle.”<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-family: Verdana; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">It has become harder to find conventional distributors willing to bring small docs to increasingly conservative movie houses. Even if you're able to get booked, fewer and fewer people are willing to pay to see movies in the theater, partially thanks to the online schemes described above. But there are still ways to get small documentaries screened in public spaces. Omnibus programming, like Sklar's, is one way around the problem. The publicity-minded Jayanty formulated it as "marketing conversations rather than products." Another possibility is adding a live component to screenings, something audiences could not see at home -- "gimmicks" is how Abramowitz bluntly put it. He helped make <i>Anvil! The Story of Anvil</i> a success by bringing the band depicted in the movie on tour with it, during which they turned a profit on merch sales. With Film Sprout, Boyle seeks out communities interested in the topics dealt with by a particular film, even if they do not traditionally program films. She was able to place <i>Pray the Devil Back To Hell</i>, a film about the women-driven peace movement in Liberia, on 500 screens by appealing to feminist groups, human rights organizations, and Liberian community centers across the country. "You need to be honest about your audience," she said, cautioning against Hollywood-style grabs for the widest possible audience. Others on the panel echoed her sentiment. Sklar pointed out that "having access to an audience doesn't mean it's the right one." Abramowitz mentioned that he prefers working with small docs because the audience is so "easily defined."<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-family: Verdana; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">That sentiment suggests the weakness inherent to this model. It is perhaps outside of the purview of this weekend's panel, but I would have a liked a little more discussion about how we can sustain a wider public conversation around non-fiction films. Targeted distribution like Film Sprout's is an exciting way to bring films to people already interested in them, or in the issues they raise, but they do not contribute to a larger cultural dialogue. Documentary has never had a mass audience, but there used to be a coalition that could keep an eye on the genre's full spectrum, from social issue films to more essayistic or poetic projects. It is hard to understand why you would make a film if the only people who are going to see it are the ones already crouched in your bunker.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-family: Verdana; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">While these sorts of live events and targeted screenings might bring in local news coverage, Sklar was quick to note that they make it no easier to get actual reviews. With fewer critics on staff at smaller papers, opening anywhere other than New York or LA means that a film might screen for months before any critical pieces appear. Dennis Lim seemed a little baffled as to why he was invited, but he provided a valuable perspective from the other end of the distribution chain. He would like nothing more, he said, than to highlight undistributed and overlooked films in festival coverage, or even standalone pieces, but news outlets are only interested in writing that pertains to the "newsworthy," in other words films that have already garnered a substantial amount of attention.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-family: Verdana; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">The panel provided a broad overview of the distribution options available to small filmmakers without shying away from specifics. Although the outlook may appear bleak to those hoping to sustain a career in independent documentary production, the seven panelists agreed it was easier than ever to get a film in front of attentive eyeballs. This is, however, of primary benefit to audiences -- an economically and geographically wider segment of the population now has access to these films. But it can start to sound an awful lot like the smug crowing one used to hear about the democratization of the music industry. Without a viable means for artists to live off their work, the creation of art is left to the independently wealthy. I hope that as the distribution tactics discussed this afternoon continue to evolve, they create as much room for the production of work as they have for its consumption.<o:p></o:p></span></div><!--EndFragment-->The Film Panel Notetakerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14731916101376900657noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34873869.post-71247057881563085852010-02-05T10:27:00.002-05:002010-02-05T10:29:06.521-05:00Stranger Than Fiction - A Night with Ross McElwee - Feb. 2, 2010<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande'; font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 11px;"><br />
</span></span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><b>A Night with Ross McElwee</b></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><b>“Charleen” and “Backyard”</b></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://stfdocs.com/"><b>Stranger Than Fiction</b></a></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><b>February 2, 2010</b></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.ifccenter.com/"><b>IFC Center</b></a></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><b>New York, NY</b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><o:p><br />
<iframe align="left" frameborder="0" marginheight="0" marginwidth="0" scrolling="no" src="http://rcm.amazon.com/e/cm?t=thefilpannot-20&o=1&p=8&l=bpl&asins=B000B5XPK6&fc1=000000&IS2=1&lt1=_blank&m=amazon&lc1=0000FF&bc1=000000&bg1=FFFFFF&f=ifr" style="align: left; height: 245px; padding-right: 10px; padding-top: 5px; width: 131px;"></iframe>Ross McElwee, perhaps most noted for his films “<a href="http://rossmcelwee.com/shermansmarch.html">Sherman’s March,”</a> <a href="http://rossmcelwee.com/timeindefinite.html">“Time Indefinite,”</a> and <a href="http://rossmcelwee.com/brightleaves.html">“Bright Leaves”</a> presented two lesser-seen gems Tuesday night during Stranger Than Fiction – <a href="http://rossmcelwee.com/charleen.html">“Charleen”</a> (starring the outspoken Southern poetry teacher Charleen who later appears again in “Sherman’s March”) and <a href="http://rossmcelwee.com/backyard.html">“Backyard”</a> (McElwee’s first attempt at an autobiographical documentary focusing on his family’s home in the South). Thom Powers led a Q&A with McElwee after each film screened, and beforehand noted that the evening’s presentation was dedicated in the memory of award-winning documentary editor <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/01/nyregion/01schmeer.html?emc=eta1">Karen Schmeer</a>, who had been killed in a hit-and-run car accident last week in New York’s Upper West Side.</o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><b>“Charleen” Q&A</b></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">Powers noted that “Charleen” was a student project of McElwee’s when he was attending graduate school at MIT in the 1970s. Among McElwee’s teacher were documentary veterans <a href="http://www.richardleacock.com/">Richard Leacock</a> (<a href="http://www.richardleacock.com/#14876/Primary">“Primary”</a>) and <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ed_Pincus">Ed Pincus </a>(<a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0157539/">“Diaries”</a>). With all that inspiration, what gave him the courage to make films about people who aren’t well known, Powers asked? McElwee said that Leacock believed in the first part of his career that one should make films about people who achieved a lot in their lives such as John F. Kennedy. McElwee and other of his contemporaries thought that one can find the same sort of heroicism in everyday life and those people have to have some sort of “star” quality, “which Charleen clearly has, even in a crudely shot piece that I did for my senior thesis at MIT. You can still see that she somehow takes over the film in a way.” Regarding the MIT program, it was highly unstructured and was just in its infancy when he went there. They were given sync sound cameras. “Charleen” in particular was shot in 16mm, and he also used a Nagra tape recorder. He recalls it being terrifying and liberating, giving him the freedom to do very unstructured film.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">Having finished “Charleen,” what was his takeaway from the experience and what did he do between making this film and “Backyard,” Powers asked? McElwee said the two films were shot very close together within a year, but he didn’t have the money to process the print. The sync sound camera rig was the most expensive thing. In between “Charleen” and “Backyard,” he and <a href="http://michelnegroponte.com/">Michel Negroponte</a> shot a film called <a href="http://rossmcelwee.com/spacecoast.html">“Space Coast.”</a> He was very pleased that he made “Charleen,” which was a learning film for him, but on a more profound level, this kind of filmmaking where he was always behind the camera asking other people to tell their stories, made him a little uncomfortable, so he decided largely through Ed Pincus’s example, doing autobiographies was a positive direction to go in, even though he was a little reticent to do it then. More to the point, there were possibilities that he hadn’t seen before with subjective writing an almost fictional shape to nonfiction. Journalistic writing to could possibly be applied to cinema vérité footage. Also, he cut his crew down from two to one, because it allowed a kind of intimacy. “Charleen” was a film he loved making, but he was still working out ideas of how he should shape his films. “Backyard” was a sketch for what would become a style he was more comfortable with and which he invested his artistic inclinations in his filmmaking, which is exemplified in “Sherman’s March.”</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">Lastly, Powers asked if Charleen is still alive today. McElwee said she’s “very much alive and if you ask her that question, she’d hit you over the head.”</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><b>“Backyard” Q&A</b></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">Powers asked if McElwee’s father (a surgeon) ever accepted him as being a filmmaker? McElwee said he’s very grateful that his father came to the premiere of “Sherman’s March.” His father didn’t really understand what he was doing in the film, but when he heard people in the audience laughing, he started laughing and turned to him and whispered, “I never knew you were so funny.” After a while, his father realized he found a way to make films that suited him and also could find an audience at least on a small scale.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">In “Sherman’s March,” McElwee appears on screen fumbling in the weeds, almost like a Buster Keaton-type character. How much of that was he consciously cultivating an on-screen persona, Powers asked? McElwee said he was cultivating an on-screen persona of a doofus fellow who’s trying to execute one task, but constantly being distracted, which in a way is him.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">Powers said when “Sherman’s March” came out, the idea of being a one-man band was more uncommon than it is today. People have talked about McElwee’s films as an observer walking through life and he actually cares a lot about formal qualities of filmmaking, such as the role that light and shadow plays. McElwee said while those things are important to him, he’s not always on top of those technical aspects. In “Backyard,” he was carrying a huge Nagra recorder and a heavy 16mm camera and dealing with a microphone. While he wasn’t the only person to do this at the time, this approach to making films really placed demands on a filmmaker. He hoped that he could continue to be conscious about composition. For instance, in the scene in “Backyard” where his father hands him a measuring tape in the backyard to put up the volleyball net, he has to deal with multiple elements from making sure the sound is recording to having the correct exposure on the camera while also composing the shot. He said he finally found the right composition towards the end of the shot with the lawnmower in the background and the microphone in the foreground. While this is important to him, it’s a compromise when you elect to do a film on your own.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">Powers said there seemed to be a novelty to the moment during the scene in “Backyard” where the busboys are working in the kitchen at the country club and they speak to the fact the camera is there. How much has changes since then? McElwee said the world has changed tremendously. You have to get permissions and be more conscious of whatever’s being shot, as it can end up on YouTube. There was none of that back then. People were so relaxed. He said he thinks it’s going to continue to be hard for people to go into public spaces to make documentaries now compared to the freedom he enjoyed in the late 1970s and early 1980s.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">While he lives in the North, the South seems to be the place McElwee always continues to go to in his films. When he goes back to the South, does he feel like a Southerner or Northerner, Powers asked? McElwee said while he’s made his home in the North where he’s supported by his teaching gig and has also raised money from various sources such as WGBH in Boston, there’s part of him that has a strong connection to the South. He loves going back there and being with his family. In “Backyard,” he said you could especially see some of the ambivalence he had toward the way things were down there. That bothered him for a while, and had a lot to do with his decisions to make his life in the North, but things aren’t like that anymore, as things have loosened up for racial relationships. “I think you gain some perspective on where you came from when you go to a different place,” he said.</div>The Film Panel Notetakerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14731916101376900657noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34873869.post-65312390930082726522010-01-31T13:52:00.000-05:002010-01-31T13:52:48.506-05:00"Off and Running" Opening Weekend Q&A - Jan. 30, 2010<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><b><a href="http://offandrunningthefilm.com/index.html">“Off and Running”</a></b></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><b>Opening Weekend Theatrical Release</b></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><b>Q&A after 4:05pm screening with Director <a href="http://offandrunningthefilm.com/credits.html">Nicole Opper</a> and others</b></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><b>January 30, 2010</b></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><b><a href="http://www.ifccenter.com/">IFC Center</a></b></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><b>New York, NY</b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://thefilmpanelnotetaker.com/uploaded_images/O&R-Q&A-pic-742472.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="http://thefilmpanelnotetaker.com/uploaded_images/O&R-Q&A-pic-742466.jpg" width="200" /></a></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">(L to R: Rita Taddonio, Nicole Opper & Sharese Bullock. Photo by Brian Geldin.)</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">It has been over a year since Nicole Opper’s documentary “Off and Running" was brought to my attention. I had first learned of it through <a href="http://www.mediarights.org/docuclub">DocuClub</a>, where Opper screened a work-in-progress version, but I couldn’t make it to that screening. A few months later, I was excited to learn that it would premiere at the Tribeca Film Festival, but because of my own publicist duties on another film, Danae Elon’s <a href="http://www.partlyprivate-thefilm.com/">“Partly Private”</a> (which also coincidentally showed a work-in-progress at DocuClub) that was premiering there, my schedule was full, and therefore I missed “Off and Running” again. Now with the theatrical release of the film at IFC Center this week, I finally got my chance to watch this wonderful film. I asked Opper after the screening how much her film had changed since she screened her rough cut at DocuClub. She told me that the changes were pretty radical. “Being there that evening felt a little messy, loud and complicated,” she said. <a href="http://www.documentarydoctor.com/">Fernanda Rossi</a> was the moderator asking a lot of questions asking for their vote, which was split 50/50.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Where it became really useful for Opper was when people would call or write to her independently with notes and feedback, which was worked into future cuts. There were entire scenes that were cut and the chronology changed quite a bit, focusing it more with Avery’s voiceover. And by the way, Opper's new fantastic boots she wore to the screening yesterday only cost $50, marked down from $165. I love it when filmmakers reveal these things, ie. “Burma VJ” co-editor Thomas Papapetros’ <a href="http://thefilmpanelnotetaker.com/2010/01/nonfiction-films-gets-their-due-at.html">reason</a> for the film’s lucky winning streak as revealed to me after this year’s Cinema Eye Honors…Keep’em coming :)</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">In "Off and Running," Opper shows a complex and layered story of Avery, an African-American high school student and track & field champion in Brooklyn, adopted by two white Jewish lesbian moms with two other adopted multi-ethnic brothers. Avery seems to have a very happy life, but wants to meet her biological mother. When she finally discovers her roots, her attempts to reach out to her birth mother don't go as planned, and Opper sensitively shows Avery's heartbreak and struggle as she comes of age.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">The Q&A with Opper along with producer Sharese Bullock was moderated by Rita Taddonio, Director of <a href="http://www.spence-chapin.org/post-adoption-services/c0_post_adoption_services.php">Spence-Chapin's Adoption Resource Center</a>, one of the many organizations that "Off and Running" has teamed up with to bring awareness of adoption. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Avery, who was at a track meet that day, couldn’t make it to the Q&A, but was there at the sold-out Opening Night screening the night before. Before asking questions, Taddanio said the reason she loved the film is that it shows how a group of people who aren’t biologically related can be a family, being bonded by love and commitment, growing pains, laughter and sadness and have that intimate relationship that makes a family. It was also realistic to her in its portrayal of struggle for identity and showing other people’s stories, not just Avery’s, but her brother and her friends, too. She added that those who are adopted cannot be classified, as some people search for their biological families, and some do not.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> Some</span> who search have a great reunion, and some are disappointed. Some relationships are rocky, and others are great. Every adoptee she knows wants to know information on where they came from.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">Taddonio’s first question to Opper was, what made her choose this topic and what challenges, if any, were there in making the film? Opper said she didn’t begin with the topic of adoption. When she met Avery a few years earlier, she was teaching a class in filmmaking that Avery was in. They had talked a lot, and she was struck by Avery’s charisma and willingness to open up. Bullock answered, saying that working around a 16-year-old’s schedule that every parent of a teenager can understand is keeping up with the changes. One of the incidental changes was how Avery’s hair kept changing, which was a challenge in the editing process, but more seriously, a bigger challenge as a producer was sticking to the collaboration in the toughest times listening to some really painful moments for everybody involved, sitting inside and outside of that experience.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“We think it’s challenging, but it’s her (Avery’s) life,” Bullock said.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">From the audience, the questions of what the timeframe of shooting was, and what exactly did Opper envision the story would become, were asked. Opper said she filmed Avery from the ages of 16 through 19, and she was surprised at every turn. When she began filming, she saw that things weren’t all peachy and they talked a lot. At the same time, she was just getting to know about Avery’s family background. In the beginning, she saw a portrait of a multi-ethnic family and didn’t quite know what the conflict would be, but she imagined that it would be about the discrimination they would face as a family, but that didn’t become the focus.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It turned into something more complicated. </div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">In the film, there’s a long stretch of time between filming where we don’t see some of Avery's personal struggles and isolation, so a question posed by someone in the audience was, what happened to Avery during that time? Bullock said they relied on their practice as media educators, and not just filmmakers, to tell Avery’s story and to be aware of all boundaries and sensitivities. While Avery wasn’t there at this screening to speak for herself, Bullock said that Avery has said in many screenings before that her involvement in the project is part of her development. This journey of telling her story is part of getting through those tougher times. The question for any teenager coming of age is, how does the filmmaker play the support role, but also respect the journey? Opper added that while they didn’t film during that break, she had been in touch with Avery by phone every once in a while, and Avery also had a huge support network from her friends to her track team members and others.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">Taddanio asked if they could elaborate on what some of things that might have got Avery through her journey? Bullock said it was due in fact to Opper’s existing relationship with Avery, because she was her teacher first before she documented her life, and there was a trust. Avery’s vulnerability and sense of self unfolded for all of them. </div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">The final question that was more of a comment and opinion rather than a question raised by a man in the audience that caused a bit of a stir from the rest of the audience. He said he was troubled with the issue of privacy, and how could Avery who was only a teenager at the time, give her consent to allow them to intrude on her intimate family life? Doesn’t this present an ethical question, he asked. Opper said it was a conversation she had with Avery all the time, because it mattered deeply to her. Bullock said she appreciated this man’s comments and his point of view, but from their perspective as filmmakers as well as Avery and her family, this film was made to help other families like their own. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The audience clapped. “That’s the greater value of this opportunity,” Bullock said. Taddanio added that this is a very thoughtful film and there are a lot of courageous people out there who are willing to tell their stories so younger adopted people who are going through this search for identity will be able to discuss it. “We’re grateful to you and to the family and their courage,” Taddonio said.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">“Off & Running” continues to play at IFC Center throughout the rest of this week, and is slated to air on the PBS Series, “POV” later this year.</div><!--EndFragment-->The Film Panel Notetakerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14731916101376900657noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34873869.post-514069653872652532010-01-25T09:17:00.000-05:002010-01-25T09:17:33.746-05:00Pledge to "Ghosts of Zion" on IndieGoGoActor turned filmmaker Michael Stever's feature film in pre-production, Ghosts of Zion, is fundraising on IndieGoGo.com. To pledge, please click on the widget below.<br />
<br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; color: #303030; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"></span><br />
<div style="font-size: 14px; font-weight: normal; font: normal normal normal 14px/normal Verdana, Arial, Tahoma, sans-serif; margin-bottom: 5px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 5px;">‘Ghosts Of Zion’ is a ‘cautionary tale’ about a young, newly married Mormon couple who both bring some secrets to their marriage which they’ve chosen to keep from the other. It’s very much a ’Pandora’s Box’ story, in that of course the ‘Box’ gets cracked open and all Hell breaks loose. However, it’s much more. It’s also the story of a woman’s desperate pursuit of God & salvation, in addition to being a blisteringly honest look at our country’s various religious sub-divisions, and how they’re often breeding grounds for segregation, violence & fear.<br />
</div><div style="font-size: 14px; font-weight: normal; font: normal normal normal 14px/normal Verdana, Arial, Tahoma, sans-serif; margin-bottom: 5px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 5px;">The short teaser (as seen on the IndieGoGo fundraiser page), ‘Ghosts Of Zion’ came to fruition via a ‘challenge’ issued by esteemed composer Michael Nyman to up and coming filmmakers. His challenge was to put motion to his music. Stever did, and the word of mouth has been amazing. In addition, it was not only featured on ‘Shooting People,’ but made it onto their Leader Board.<br />
</div><div style="font-size: 14px; font-weight: normal; font: normal normal normal 14px/normal Verdana, Arial, Tahoma, sans-serif; margin-bottom: 5px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 5px;">And so "Ghosts of Zion" continues its search for funding, & Associate Producerships.<br />
Make no mistake, ‘Ghosts Of Zion’ has all the makings to be a true ‘Sleeper Hit.’ View the materials, then please donate <span class="caps" style="color: #303030;">TODAY</span>!<br />
</div><br />
<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;"><iframe frameborder="1" height="390px" scrolling="no" src="http://www.indiegogo.com/project/widget/2353?a=202" width="220px"></iframe><br />
</div>The Film Panel Notetakerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14731916101376900657noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34873869.post-88343010647773165802010-01-20T16:09:00.000-05:002010-01-20T16:09:37.592-05:00Stranger Than Fiction - "Running Fence" - January 19, 2010<!--StartFragment--> <br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.mayslesfilms.com/companypages/films/films/runningfence.htm"><b>“Running Fence”</b></a><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://stfdocs.com/"><b>Stranger Than Fiction</b></a><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><b>January 19, 2010</b><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.ifccenter.com/"><b>IFC Center</b></a><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><b>New York, NY</b><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://thefilmpanelnotetaker.com/uploaded_images/STF-Maysles-1-747702.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="http://thefilmpanelnotetaker.com/uploaded_images/STF-Maysles-1-747694.jpg" width="200" /></a><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"><b>Stranger Than Fiction's Thom Powers and "Running Fence" co-director Albert Maysles. Photo by Brian Geldin.</b></span><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><o:p>Fresh off last week’s <a href="http://thefilmpanelnotetaker.com/2010/01/nonfiction-films-gets-their-due-at.html">Cinema Eye Honors,</a> Thom Powers presented this week at Stranger Than Fiction David and Albert Maysles’ and Charlotte Zwerin’s 1978 documentary “Running Fence.” Albert Maysles, who was also at last week’s Cinema Eye Honors presenting an award, appeared at Stranger Than Fiction Tuesday night to speak after the screening of “Running Fence,” which was a beautiful portrait of artists Christo’s and the late Jeanne-Claude's white nylon fabric that stretched along 24 ½ miles of the California Pacific coastline that, like their last project The Gates in New York City, was originally met with opposition and skepticism by residents and local government, but their persistence paid off, and their art was displayed and gorgeously filmed by the legendary Maysles brothers.</o:p><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">Before asking questions, Powers noted how he saw in the credits the names of people who are doing such great work such as Robert Kenner (Food, Inc.) and Bruce Sinofsky (Brother’s Keeper). Maysles said he could understand why they’re making such good movies and while just watching again “Running Fence” on the screen there at Stranger Than Fiction, it reminded him why it is that he keeps doing it. “I’m 82 years old and I got 10 or 12 projects that I’d like to get going,” Maysles said. He recognizes the importance that so much is missing in mass media – “good people, doing good things…documentary has the power to capture that very directly, very deeply, and very truthfully.”<br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">Thom’s first question to Maysles was, what his and his brother David’s origins were with Christo and Jeanne-Claude (as “Running Fence” was just one of many collaborations together). Maysles said around 1962 or '63 when he and his brother were making documentaries in France, they were doing something different by filming with cameras that didn’t need a tripod. It was a whole new thing called “direct cinema.” The French government invited them to Lyon where they met a guy who was designing a new camera, who they brought to Paris with them to show their first film, “Showman.” The guy brought two people along, Christo and Jeanne-Claude. “They were not just people working with a canvas, but they were out in the real world where art was made up of what’s actually going on,” Maysles said. It was perfect subject matter for the Maysles’ films. It did take a while for a film project to come along. Their first project together would be “Valley Curtain.”<br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">Powers asked Maysles while watching the film again that night; did he have any memories of that period? Maysles said he thinks back to the words of Spinoza who said "All things excellent are as difficult as they are rare," <span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times; font-size: medium;">which describes the nature of this project. He also was thinking about David (who passed away in 1987) and Jeanne-Claude (who passed away last November). “They’re gone, but there they are on the screen,” he said.</span></span><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">While watching Albert’s (and Antonio Ferrera’s) more recent film, “The Gates,” which is the only Christo and Jeanne-Claude project he’s seen in person, it had almost more meaning to him watching it on film than seeing The Gates in person. Maysles said, “That’s the strength of documentary,” Maysles said. “If the camerawork is good, it sees more than you would as a normal person. The viewer is given a better position to know what took place than having been there.” (For my 2007 film review and notes from the Antonio Ferrera Q&A at Silverdocs, go <a href="http://thefilmpanelnotetaker.com/2007/06/silverdocs-2007-gates-companion-notes.html">here</a>.)<br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">In visualizing “Running Fence,” how were they thinking through how to film it, Powers asked. Were they being conscious about their approach or more instinctive? Maysles said that each moment was instinctive. There was always something to be filmed, and a lot that shouldn’t be either, but they wanted to make sure they got the essentials.<br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">A question from the audience to Maysles was where did they get the money to fund their film projects? “I don’t remember,” Maysles answered, generating a laugh from the audience. He remembered that some of his films like “Salesman” and “Grey Gardens” they paid for all by themselves. Powers interjected, asking if in the 1970s, they supplemented their films by making television commercials. “Thank g-d we don’t do that anymore,” Maysles replied. But it would have been tough without going with that income. He said he’d love to do another commercial someday if they allowed him to do them the way he likes to do them. He said he has an idea for a commercial for Kleenex where he’d go to a hospital where a woman is about to give birth. He’d start filming the moment the infant is being handed over to the mother. “It’s got to be a moment where there’s tears on her cheeks and she reaches for a Kleenex,” he said. Powers joked, “We may be able to arrange that.” (Referring to his expecting wife Raphaela sitting nearby).<br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">Another member of the audience asked Maysles if he could clarify what he meant earlier as to which moments shouldn’t be filmed. Maysles said that he’s been making a film ("In Transit") about people that he meets on trains where there’s a story about to happen when they get off the train. (Maysles previously discussed this same scenario in some <a href="http://thefilmpanelnotetaker.com/2007/06/sundance-at-bam-maysles-film-program.html">notes</a> I took in 2007 when he spoke at BAM). He was about to film this woman who had a difficult story of a child that she couldn’t come to tell and be identified. He had to get it without offending her, so he filmed her hands. On the other hand, he said it’s so important not to go in the other direction and be so careful that you don’t get much value. It’s a matter of good taste and respect. He’s found over the years he’s filmed people with their vulnerabilities just as well as things that are positive traits done with love and understanding.<br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">On being asked how he’s able to seem so invisible behind the camera while shooting his films, Maysles said that he’s been asked many times how he gets so close to the hearts and minds of the people he’s filming. “It’s because I have my heart and mind with them,” he said. His mother used to tell him that there’s good in everybody. With documentaries, that bridge can be gapped with good material that goes directly to the experience that people are having.<br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">Lastly, Maysles talked about his Maysles Film Institute in Harlem. He said his original purpose to have it in Harlem was so that his four children would have enough space to have their own apartments and all be in the same neighborhood. One of the three buildings they were in houses the film company and a 60-seat movie theater. Unlike anywhere else in New York, they exclusively show documentaries. They also teach kids in the neighborhood how to make their own films. He added that only a few weeks earlier the most exciting moment in his life occurred when the kids showed their films to an audience and during the Q&A, one of the questions to them was if any of them are planning to make a career out of filmmaking, and everyone of them raised their hand.<br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><iframe align="left" frameborder="0" marginheight="0" marginwidth="0" scrolling="no" src="http://rcm.amazon.com/e/cm?t=thefilpannot-20&o=1&p=8&l=bpl&asins=B0001OGUWW&fc1=000000&IS2=1&lt1=_blank&m=amazon&lc1=0000FF&bc1=000000&bg1=FFFFFF&f=ifr" style="align: left; height: 245px; padding-right: 10px; padding-top: 5px; width: 131px;"></iframe><br />
</div><!--EndFragment-->The Film Panel Notetakerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14731916101376900657noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34873869.post-30381174242766040782010-01-16T15:43:00.003-05:002010-02-02T10:23:29.419-05:00Nonfiction Films Get Their Due at Cinema Eye Honors<span style="color: #222222; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', 'Lucida Grande', Helvetica, Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px;"></span><br />
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', 'Lucida Grande', Helvetica, Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px;"></span><br />
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', 'Lucida Grande', Helvetica, Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px;"></span><br />
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', 'Lucida Grande', Helvetica, Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px;"><div class="column span-8 last" style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; float: left; font-family: inherit; font-size: 12px; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; width: 310px;"><div class="bottombar" style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: 12px; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><div class="textwidget" style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: 12px; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><div class="ceh-logo-circle" style="-webkit-background-clip: initial; -webkit-background-origin: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-color: initial; background-image: url(http://www.cinemaeyehonors2010.com/wp-content/themes/gridline_magazine/images/ceh-circle.png); background-position: 50% 50%; background-repeat: no-repeat; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; display: block; font-family: inherit; font-size: 12px; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; height: 138px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-align: center; vertical-align: baseline;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div></div></div></div></span><br />
<div style="font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Cambria; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; font-weight: bold; line-height: 18px;">***FEBRUARY 2, 2010 UPDATE: As of this morning, Cinema Eye Winners "Burma VJ," "The Cove," and "Food, Inc" received Academy Award nominations for Best Documentary Feature. Congratulations and good luck to all!</span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><br />
</span><br />
<span style="font-size: medium;">The stellar third annual <a href="http://www.cinemaeyehonors2010.com/">Cinema Eye Honors for Nonfiction Filmmaking</a>, produced by founding sponsor <a href="http://www.indiepixfilms.com/">Indiepix</a>, came back to the <a href="http://thetimescenter.com/">TimesCenter</a> in New York City with a new co-hostess, <a href="http://www.awalkintothesea.com/team/esther.html">Esther Robinson</a>, along with co-host and Cinema Eye veteran <a href="http://edendale.typepad.com/">AJ Schnack</a>, who delighted us mid-way through the ceremony with an audience participation Mad Lib. Always the charmer, about half-way through the show, Schnack carried in a bucket of Kentucky Grilled Chicken after showing a clip of the nominated<a href="http://www.foodincmovie.com/"> Food Inc.</a>, where a woman reveals the horrible conditions of chicken coup where chickens are overfed for mass-consumption. At the beginning of the show, during a pre-taped introduction, <a href="http://stfdocs.com/">Stranger Than Fiction</a>’s Thom Powers hilariously expounded on the glorious nominees, while preggers wife Raphaela Neihausen goes into labor. Lots of humor abounded throughout the ceremony, keeping things running fresh and smooth. While an occasional long-winded acceptance speech may have slowed things down a little, overall, the third outing of the Cinema Eye Honors was one of the best so far. It is superbly wonderful that there is an awards show of this caliber like no other recognizing nonfiction filmmaking, with such presenters as Albert Maysles, Barbara Kopple, Amir Bar-Lev, Carl Deal, Tia Lessin, Doug Block and more.</span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Cambria; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 14.0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br />
</span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Cambria; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Top prizes went to <a href="http://www.thecovemovie.com/">“The Cove”</a> for Outstanding Achievement in Nonfiction Feature Filmmaking and <a href="http://www.octobercountryfilm.com/">“October Country”</a> for Outstanding Achievement in a Debut Feature Film. </span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Cambria; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 14.0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br />
</span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Cambria; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">So what does it take to win a Cinema Eye Honor, you might ask? <a href="http://burmavjmovie.com/">“Burma VJ” </a>co-editor Thomas Papapetros told me exclusively at one of the after parties, “I got crapped on by a bird and won!” Not once, not twice, not even just three times, but a total of four times did Papapetros get a present from the sky on four different occasions, sealing “Burma VJ”s many festival wins. The first time he was crapped on by a bird was in Amsterdam during IDFA, and the film took home the top prize. The second time was in Copenhagen during CPH:DOX, and the film won. The third time he was actually home in Denmark, but he won an editing award at Sundance that same day. And finally, he got his latest gift in New York, before receiving his latest accomplishment, Outstanding Achievement in Editing at the Cinema Eye Honors. I guess getting crapped on by a bird is good luck after all, as they say, but in all seriousness, “Burma VJ” deservedly received all of its accolades on its own merit.</span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Cambria; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 14.0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br />
</span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Cambria; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">For the past two incarnations of the Cinema Eye Honors, Thom Powers had moderated roundtable discussions with some of the nominated filmmakers. This year instead of a panel, Thom conducted a brief Q&A with Cinema Eye Legacy Award honoree, “Sherman’s March,” by filmmaker <a href="http://rossmcelwee.com/">Ross McElwee.</a> Barbara Kopple introduced McElwee saying that in <a href="http://rossmcelwee.com/shermansmarch.html">“Sherman’s March,”</a> McElwee’s very outspoken, passionate, and direct friend Charleen decided she was the perfect woman for him, and they would grow old together and told him to shut the camera off saying “this is not about art, it’s about your life.” Kopple said that personally nailed it for her as what McElwee is all about and how much art he puts into his life being so honest and real, a pure filmmaker. Later on, Powers pointed out that McElwee will be at Stranger Than Fiction on February 2 showing two films, “Charleen” and “Backyard.” (I know where I’ll be that night.)</span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Cambria; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 14.0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br />
</span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Cambria; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">For the Q&A, Powers said he was shocked to read about “Sherman’s March” that for a two and a half hour film, McElwee only shot 25 hours of footage, which by today’s standards is something a filmmaker might accomplish in 2 days…has McElwee’s discipline changed at all moving from film to video and what was it like shooting so little footage? McElwee said he grew up shooting 16mm film. With the discipline it enforces as a crew of one person, he had to develop a way of shooting very little film. After his last film completed in 2004, he finally made the decision to switch to digital video. He said the easiest thing to do, especially for young filmmakers, is to overshoot everything. Powers next mentioned a scene in the film where McElwee’s father asks him how certain things that he shot would be useful for the film. “What’s remarkable about ‘Sherman’s March’…is that it was such a landmark film for opening up this kind of personal documentary,” Powers said. As McElwee was making it, what did he think was going to be useful, how was he choosing what to film? McElwee said that you might get the impression that it’s about nothing but him searching for a woman, but the challenge to him was to weave together several different themes and keep them into some sort of equilibrium moving forward. It’s a matter of developing a kind of intuition, thinking this might be amusing, it might turn up to be funny or poignant. It’s developing a set of radar. Spontaneity is important. </span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Cambria; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 14.0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br />
</span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Cambria; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">The following is complete list of last night’s Cinema Eye Honorees:</span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Cambria; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 14.0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br />
</span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Cambria; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Outstanding Achievement in Nonfiction Feature Filmmaking: “The Cove,” directed by Louie Psihoyos, produced by Paula DuPre Pesman and Fisher Stevens</span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Cambria; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 14.0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br />
</span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Cambria; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Outstanding Achievement in a Debut Feature Film:</span><span style="font: normal normal normal 12px/normal 'Lucida Grande';"><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span><span style="font-size: medium;">“October Country, directed by Michael Palmieri and Donal Mosher</span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Cambria; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 14.0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br />
</span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Cambria; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Outstanding Achievement in Direction:</span><span style="font: normal normal normal 12px/normal 'Lucida Grande';"><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span><span style="font-size: medium;">Agnes Varda, “The Beaches of Agnes”</span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Cambria; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 14.0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br />
</span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Cambria; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Outstanding Achievement in Production:</span><span style="font: normal normal normal 12px/normal 'Lucida Grande';"><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span><span style="font-size: medium;">Paula DuPre Pressman and Fisher Stevens, “The Cove”</span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Cambria; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 14.0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br />
</span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Cambria; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Outstanding Achievement in Cinematography:</span><span style="font: normal normal normal 12px/normal 'Lucida Grande';"><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span><span style="font-size: medium;">Brook Aitken for “The Cove”</span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Cambria; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 14.0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br />
</span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Cambria; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Outstanding Achievement in Editing:</span><span style="font: normal normal normal 12px/normal 'Lucida Grande';"><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span><span style="font-size: medium;">Janus Billeskov-Jansen and Thomas Papapetros for “Burma VJ”</span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Cambria; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 14.0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br />
</span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Cambria; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Outstanding Achievement in Grapic Design and Animation:</span><span style="font: normal normal normal 12px/normal 'Lucida Grande';"><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span><span style="font-size: medium;">Tie: Big Star for “Food, Inc” and “RIP - Remix Manifesto”</span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Cambria; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 14.0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br />
</span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Cambria; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Outstanding Achievement in Original Music Score:</span><span style="font: normal normal normal 12px/normal 'Lucida Grande';"><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span><span style="font-size: medium;">“October Country”: Danny Grody, Donal Mosher, Michael Palmieri and Kenric Taylor</span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Cambria; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 14.0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br />
</span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Cambria; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Outstanding Achievement in an International Feature:</span><span style="font: normal normal normal 12px/normal 'Lucida Grande';"><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span><span style="font-size: medium;">“Burma VJ,” directed by Anders Ostergard, produced by Lise-Lense Moeller</span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Cambria; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 14.0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br />
</span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Cambria; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Audience Choice Prize:</span><span style="font: normal normal normal 12px/normal 'Lucida Grande';"><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span><span style="font-size: medium;">“The September Issue,” directed by RJ Cutler</span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Cambria; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 14.0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br />
</span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Cambria; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Spotlight Award:</span><span style="font: normal normal normal 12px/normal 'Lucida Grande';"><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span><span style="font-size: medium;">“Beetle Queen Conquers Tokyo,” directed by Jessica Oreck</span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Cambria; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 14.0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br />
</span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Cambria; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Cinema Eye Legacy Award:</span><span style="font: normal normal normal 12px/normal 'Lucida Grande';"><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span><span style="font-size: medium;">“Sherman’s March, directed by Ross McElwee</span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Cambria; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br />
</span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Cambria; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><iframe align="left" frameborder="0" marginheight="0" marginwidth="0" scrolling="no" src="http://rcm.amazon.com/e/cm?t=thefilpannot-20&o=1&p=8&l=bpl&asins=B0027BOL4G&fc1=000000&IS2=1&lt1=_blank&m=amazon&lc1=0000FF&bc1=000000&bg1=FFFFFF&f=ifr" style="align: left; height: 245px; padding-right: 10px; padding-top: 5px; width: 131px;"></iframe><iframe align="left" frameborder="0" marginheight="0" marginwidth="0" scrolling="no" src="http://rcm.amazon.com/e/cm?t=thefilpannot-20&o=1&p=8&l=bpl&asins=B002PLMJ74&fc1=000000&IS2=1&lt1=_blank&m=amazon&lc1=0000FF&bc1=000000&bg1=FFFFFF&f=ifr" style="align: left; height: 245px; padding-right: 10px; padding-top: 5px; width: 131px;"></iframe><iframe align="left" frameborder="0" marginheight="0" marginwidth="0" scrolling="no" src="http://rcm.amazon.com/e/cm?t=thefilpannot-20&o=1&p=8&l=bpl&asins=B0030H16W6&fc1=000000&IS2=1&lt1=_blank&m=amazon&lc1=0000FF&bc1=000000&bg1=FFFFFF&f=ifr" style="align: left; height: 245px; padding-right: 10px; padding-top: 5px; width: 131px;"></iframe><iframe align="left" frameborder="0" marginheight="0" marginwidth="0" scrolling="no" src="http://rcm.amazon.com/e/cm?t=thefilpannot-20&o=1&p=8&l=bpl&asins=B002QQ8HAG&fc1=000000&IS2=1&lt1=_blank&m=amazon&lc1=0000FF&bc1=000000&bg1=FFFFFF&f=ifr" style="align: left; height: 245px; padding-right: 10px; padding-top: 5px; width: 131px;"></iframe><iframe align="left" frameborder="0" marginheight="0" marginwidth="0" scrolling="no" src="http://rcm.amazon.com/e/cm?t=thefilpannot-20&o=1&p=8&l=bpl&asins=B0001ADAS8&fc1=000000&IS2=1&lt1=_blank&m=amazon&lc1=0000FF&bc1=000000&bg1=FFFFFF&f=ifr" style="align: left; height: 245px; padding-right: 10px; padding-top: 5px; width: 131px;"></iframe><iframe align="left" frameborder="0" marginheight="0" marginwidth="0" scrolling="no" src="http://rcm.amazon.com/e/cm?t=thefilpannot-20&o=1&p=8&l=bpl&asins=B002S7FDOG&fc1=000000&IS2=1&lt1=_blank&m=amazon&lc1=0000FF&bc1=000000&bg1=FFFFFF&f=ifr" style="align: left; height: 245px; padding-right: 10px; padding-top: 5px; width: 131px;"></iframe><br />
</span></div><div><span style="font-family: Cambria; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 12px;"><br />
</span></span></div>The Film Panel Notetakerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14731916101376900657noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34873869.post-23067634968369591172010-01-15T11:46:00.000-05:002010-01-15T11:46:53.738-05:00Thanks for your pledges so far on IndieGoGoThanks to <a href="http://HeaveHoMovie.com/">HeaveHoMovie.com</a> and Anonymous for their pledges to The Film Panel Notetaker on IndieGoGo. To make yours, please visit the following widget :)<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;"><iframe frameborder="1" height="220px" scrolling="no" src="http://www.indiegogo.com/project/widget/2675?a=202&tagline_len=38&title_len=24&version=std&widget_h=220&widget_w=300" width="300px"></iframe><br />
</div>The Film Panel Notetakerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14731916101376900657noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34873869.post-26574021682335451042010-01-15T10:35:00.001-05:002010-01-15T10:41:05.021-05:00Stranger Than Fiction - "Snowblind" - January 12, 2010<div style="text-align: center;"><iframe frameborder="1" height="210px" scrolling="no" src="http://www.indiegogo.com/project/widget/2675?a=202&tagline_len=38&title_len=24&version=std&widget_h=210&widget_w=290" width="290px"></iframe><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><div style="text-align: auto;"><br />
</div></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://tiff.net/filmsandschedules/films/snowblind">“Snowblind”</a><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://stfdocs.com/">Stranger Than Fiction</a><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">January 12, 2010<br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.ifccenter.com/">IFC Center</a><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">New York, NY<br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://thefilmpanelnotetaker.com/uploaded_images/STF-Snowblind-Pic-704349.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="http://thefilmpanelnotetaker.com/uploaded_images/STF-Snowblind-Pic-704339.jpg" width="200" /></a><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Stranger Than Fiction's Thom Powers and "Snowblind" Director Vikram Jayanti. Photo by Brian Geldin.</span><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><o:p> <iframe align="left" frameborder="0" marginheight="0" marginwidth="0" scrolling="no" src="http://rcm.amazon.com/e/cm?t=thefilpannot-20&o=1&p=8&l=bpl&asins=B0007VY5K8&fc1=000000&IS2=1&lt1=_blank&m=amazon&lc1=0000FF&bc1=000000&bg1=FFFFFF&f=ifr" style="align: left; height: 245px; padding-right: 10px; padding-top: 5px; width: 131px;"></iframe>Tuesday saw the official opening of the new season of Stranger Than Fiction with an appropriately snowy-titled screening of <a href="http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0419683">Vikram Jayanti’s</a> ("Game Over - Kasparov and the Machine") “Snowblind,” which Thom Powers noted during the post-screening Q&A was their most controversial film yet. Reason being, he received protests via email from animal rights advocates about the content of the film, that being the racing of dogs in Alaska’s famous 1,000-mile-plus dog sledding race, the <a href="http://www.iditarod.com/">Iditarod</a>. But the protests didn’t stop Powers from showing the film on Tuesday. In fact, he told me when the film premiered at the Toronto Film Festival last year, he received no protests at all. In “Snowblind,” Jayanti takes us on the incredible journey of 23-year-old Rachel Scdoris of Oregon, who is legally blind, and is preparing to go on her third Itidarod. When she finally embarks on her sled with her dogs across the bleak Alaskan wilderness, what ensues is a remarkable and dramatic narrative. We see Rachel as a perky young woman with spirit and determination, despite her disability, which never seems to hinder her. She does get help along the way with another “musher” named Joe, who according to the race’s rules, must go with her just to lead her, but can never physically help her, and she doesn’t ever really seem to need it, except perhaps when her dogs get stuck. With not only patience, but also love, Rachel gets through any obstacle, but it gets harder and harder along the way, and the film successfully ensnares us in its suspense. There are so many twists and turns and highs and lows in the film, none of which I will reveal here, because you will just have to discover them on your own when and if you get a chance to see it yourself. Therefore, any discussion of these particular plateaus in the film that were discussed during the Q&A have been purposely left out of my notes below, which highlight more of the inner workings of the production and psychology behind the characters and director’s choices.</o:p><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">Powers began by asking Jayanti what got him involved with wanting to make this film, and what was it like working in these extreme conditions? Jokingly, Jayanti replied that he’d seen "March of the Penguins" and "Grizzly Man" and “if crazy Werner could do it, I could add to my muster if I do it in mid-winter.” He said the amazing thing about shooting in the cold weather, the camera’s batteries would drain in about three minutes, so they all had to carry spare batteries inside their clothing. They had enough money to do a rehearsal trip the year before the actual shoot. He wanted to find out what it would be like. Walking around in the snow in minus 45-degree weather, they would get really tired, really quickly, and thought to lie down for a minute…“and that’s how you die.” They worked out really quickly that they should always stand at the side of each other, never being out of site. The whole experience to him seemed sort of spiritual, and they always felt the claw of death coming up from underneath the snow.<br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">Powers then explained that “Snowblind” turned out to be the most controversial film that Stranger Than Fiction has ever shown, because he’d been receiving emails everyday from people who are against the Iditarod. Had Jayanti and Rachel also experienced some of this? Jayanti said he remembered that someone in Oregon came over to check all 105 of Rachel’s dogs and told him that it’s amazing that these dogs could live to be about 19 and 20 years old, where most people’s pet dogs only till about eight. Jayanti said he doesn’t have a particular opinion about the rights and wrongs of mushing, but he said the dogs do seem to live longer and love running. “I don’t know whether to judge it or not,” he said.<br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">Jayanti said Rachel is a very private person and he had less luck getting inside of her than the other people who work with her. He began thinking the reason she did the Iditarod was so she can get as far away from people as she possibly can. <br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">Powers asked Jayanti about his thoughts on Rachel’s relationship in the film with her father. “I get sued a lot when I make a film,” Jayanti replied, so he confined himself to saying that in a universal position, all adolescents at the cusp in believing that their father is a “g-d and a dick,” he thinks it was very difficult for her to become fully independent. He said she’s 23 and he really shouldn’t call her an adolescent, but in many ways because of her disability, has kept her adolescent, therefore it was a difficult relationship. He does know for a fact that the minute she made enough money from endorsements after her first Iditarod, she built a house on the huge lot that they live on in a trailer and put her father in the house and she stayed in the trailer.<br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">A question from the audience was if Rachel has any relationships outside of her own family, to which Jayanti said that she has a bunch of friends in Oregon, but he doesn’t know if she has a romantic relationship. He doesn’t really go too deeply into people’s personal lives. He’s more interested in their public lives. She attracts a lot of attention, so she meets a lot of people and is really charming and lovely, and you also get to see her at her worst during certain moments [which I won’t reveal] during the race. <br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">Given her privacy, what has been Rachel’s reaction to the film, Powers asked. Jayanti said he thinks she is too professional to tell him what she really thinks. He suspects that she may think that he was unfair about the dogs. It was her father’s idea that maybe she should mix English Pointers with Huskies, which she kind of sticks with, but almost no one else in mushing does that anymore. He thinks she feels he was unfair about the role that the dog breeding played.<br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">Powers said it was an interesting dynamic in the film the interviews Jayanti ask Rachel along the race. Was that something he imagined from the beginning would be a component or did it just come out that way? Jayanti said he went into doing this film with the fantasy that she had this tremendous darkness inside of her that she could only exorcize in the great wilds of Alaska, and when you bring in any pre-conceived fantasy in the making of a film, you’re always going to be wrong. For a long time, he was always sort of trying to crack her open to admit that it was hell being blindish and being caught between her father and hell by being hated by so many people in the mushing community because they feel she’s a danger to other mushers. He thought she would give it up. He thought this would be a very interesting dog film to make. She resisted that for a long time, so he kept pushing. He realized that she was not going to give it up, and he was chasing the wrong story. He’d completely forgotten that she was doing the most incredible things. A lot of the stuff he pushed, he regrets. He cut a first version of the film, which was much darker and realized that the film didn’t like her at all, so he took a couple of months off and he came back to re-cut it to get back in some sense of admiration and affection for her. He did want her to step outside the zone of denial and admit that this fantasy she had of winning the race was not a real fantasy and unrealistic.<br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">From the audience, someone asked Jayanti if he’s given much thought to using the film as a teaching tool and to raise awareness of disabilities. He said that Rachel herself does a lot of work and speaks to high schools, and he hopes his film can become a part of that. He said this is the first time in a long time that he doesn’t own the film, Discovery owns it. He suspects that they will be far more reticent about distributing it, because he imagines they’ll be far more pressured then Powers was from the animal rights community.<br />
</div>The Film Panel Notetakerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14731916101376900657noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34873869.post-87181316995090220872010-01-09T23:05:00.011-05:002010-01-15T10:39:24.283-05:00"Waiting For Armageddon" Interfaith Roundtable<div style="text-align: center;"><iframe frameborder="1" height="215px" scrolling="no" src="http://www.indiegogo.com/project/widget/2675?a=202&tagline_len=38&title_len=24&version=std&widget_h=215&widget_w=300" width="300px"></iframe><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;"><div style="text-align: auto;"><br />
</div>"Waiting For Armageddon" Interfaith Roundtable<br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;">Berman Jewish Policy Archives at NYU, New York, NY<br />
January 7, 2010<br />
</div><br />
<a href="http://thefilmpanelnotetaker.com/uploaded_images/Picture-3-748414.png" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" src="http://thefilmpanelnotetaker.com/uploaded_images/Picture-3-748315.png" style="cursor: pointer; display: block; height: 320px; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; width: 217px;" /></a>On Thursday, I attended a panel in anticipation of First Run Features’ theatrical release this weekend of “<a href="http://www.waitingforarmageddon.com/">Waiting for Armageddon</a>,” a documentary by award-winning filmmakers, David Heilbroner, Kate Davis and Franco Sacchi. For a little background, Brian described the panel’s premise <a href="http://thefilmpanelnotetaker.com/2009/12/roundtable-to-discuss-interfaith-issues.html">here</a>, and the New York Times just posted a great <a href="http://movies.nytimes.com/2010/01/08/movies/08waiting.html?scp=1&sq=waiting%20for%20armageddon&st=cse">review</a> of the film.<br />
<br />
The discussion provided an eye-opening, fascinating glimpse into a very powerful, popular and potentially dangerous Evangelical belief system, and the political and social implications it might have for people of other faiths. I have been thinking of the subjects raised that evening, and have found myself wanting to discuss them with everyone that I come across. I am certainly enticed to see the whole film and learn more.<br />
<br />
I am glad to note that the discussion was surprisingly civil considering the broad spectrum of panelists from across the theological world and the controversial topics that were addressed. The participants were as follows:<br />
<br />
<span style="font-weight: bold;">Kate Davis</span>, filmmaker<br />
<span style="font-weight: bold;">Rabbi Justus Baird</span>, Director of the Center for Multifaith Education, Auburn Theological Seminary<br />
<span style="font-weight: bold;">David Elcott</span>, Taub Professor at NYU and Interreligious Affairs Director of the American Jewish Committee<br />
<span style="font-weight: bold;">Galen Guengerich</span>, Senior Minister of All Souls Unitarian Church<br />
<span style="font-weight: bold;">Paul de Vries,</span> President of the New York Divinity School and Evangelical Christian<br />
<span style="font-weight: bold;">Franco Sacchi</span>, filmmaker<br />
<span style="font-weight: bold;">David Heilbroner</span>, filmmaker<br />
<br />
And the moderator was <span style="font-weight: bold;">Michelle Goldberg</span>, journalist and author, <a href="http://www.kingdomcoming.com/">Kingdom Coming: The Rise of Christian Nationalism </a>(MOD)<br />
<br />
I have to admit that I was unfamiliar with many of the theology-related terms brought up that evening but I tried my best to document the gist of the discussion below. I thought you might need to be helped along a little too, so I’ve put a couple definitions of terms from the evening at the very end of this write-up.<br />
<br />
The panel was organized around four short clips and began with filmmaker Kate Davis remarking that it was an exciting night for her because the roundtable proved that there can be intelligent, interfaith discussions about the issues raised in the film. There was also a brief explanation that the theology guiding the people in Waiting for Armageddon, which is Premillennial Dispensationalism* is only practiced by about ¼ of Evangelicals.<br />
<br />
<span style="font-weight: bold;">MOD: What role does Israel play in this theology?</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-weight: bold;">Guengerich:</span> The people featured in the film believe in the literal interpretation and absolute inerror of the Bible, but if you try to interpret it without any historical metaphor it can be highly problematic, especially for Israel. <span style="font-style: italic;">(Editor’s note: Evangelicals believe that all Jews must return to Israel as a precondition for Christ’s Second Coming.)</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-weight: bold;">MOD: To put it another way, is this alliance beneficial for the Jews?</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-weight: bold;">Baird:</span> It’s good and really bad at the same time. In my understanding, dispensationalism leaves room for G-d’s covenant with the Jews. There is a respect for the historical relationship between G-d and the Jews and that Jews may be able to be resurrected without conversion. On the other hand, as a Rabbi, I think that good theology doesn’t instrumentalize other people.<br />
<br />
<span style="font-weight: bold;">Sacchi: </span>The people we met during the filming believed that Jews had to convert or they will die.<br />
<br />
<span style="font-weight: bold;">Elcott: </span>This is not a strictly Evangelical belief. I think that all three monotheistic religions instrumentalize other people so I’d frame it differently. All of these religions were obsessed with Messianism at various points, so it’s not surprising that it’s coming up for Christians now. The rise of Shi’ite Islam is also related to string Messianic fervor. Each religion uses others toward their own Messianic redemption. The interesting thing is that it’s all focused on the same place: Israel. <span style="font-weight: bold;"><br />
<br />
MOD: The Tribulation* entails great horrors for much of humankind, so why do the people in the film look forward to it?</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-weight: bold;">Guengerich:</span> Have you been to the movies lately? The human fascination with violence is pervasive and in this case, it’s violence sanctioned by G-d. It will be the ultimate battle between good and evil, and it’s fundamentally human. In the film, some people take a perverse delight in specific aspects of this, like the “bridles of horses.” <span style="font-style: italic;">(Note: a belief that battles of the Tribulation will cause blood to cover the earth as high as a horse’s bridle.)</span> What gives them permission is that G-d gave this revelation that must be followed.<br />
<span style="font-weight: bold;"><br />
MOD: Is there any part of the Evangelical community that is trying to actively bring this period on?</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-weight: bold;">de Vries:</span> There is a small minority who are but we try to civilize them. I encourage everyone to read the Book of Revelation and get a real sense of it. Someone like Ahmadinejad is dangerous because he is a Muslim Messianic and he wants to bring on the end of days. But there is NO HINT in Jesus’s teachings that we need to immanentize the eschaton.*<br />
<br />
<span style="font-weight: bold;">Elcott: </span>But that goes against the trend of Western society, which is to make things happen through action and activism. In Michael Chabon’s new book he talks about a 10,000 year clock and then realizes that his children can’t even imagine 30 years down the road. When you look at the disaster films, they aren’t about something that’s going to happen off in the distant future—its 2012. There is something in our culture that’s saying the world is going to change dramatically soon or something’s got to happen.<br />
<span style="font-weight: bold;"><br />
MOD: Isn’t there something fatalistic about all of this?</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-weight: bold;">Baird:</span> As an antidote to this kind of extreme theology, we recently brought theology students to Israel to Har Megiddo where Armageddon is supposed to occur, to show that in order to lead people into the future they must talk to those on the other side. Jewish students need to understand the rapture from a Christian perspective. The Jewish Talmud* is full of disagreements. The scholar Hillel often came out on top of those debates because he was kind and thoughtful and listened to the other side first. It is our responsibility as religious leaders to respectfully listen to each other and not wish for each other’s destruction.<br />
<br />
<span style="font-weight: bold;">de Vries:</span> 72% of Evangelicals say that we must do more to help the environment. Every Evangelical believes that the world will be over, but we have to be faithful now so we need to take care of G-d’s earth.<br />
<br />
<span style="font-weight: bold;">Heilbroner: </span>I just want to give a little context of the clips we’re showing tonight. These give you a sense of some of the issues in the film, but it’s really the story of the Evangelicals we met and their trip to Israel. However, the clip we’ve been discussing really underlines one issue: Demanding that your version of your religion is absolutely right has very dangerous political implications.<br />
<br />
<span style="font-weight: bold;">Guengerich: </span>The U.S. and Israel are secular states. In the U.S., twice as many people believe in the Virgin birth as believe in evolution, and these ideas are diametrically opposed. People and countries have a choice about which philosophy to employ, and the U.S. and Israel go by a secular agenda rather than a religious one.<br />
<span style="font-weight: bold;"><br />
Elcott: </span>That is technically true but in my opinion it a realistic appraisal. The U.S. went to war with Iraq against Islam. There are definite policy implications of Christianity. Israel is not secular—it is confessional. I am Jewish and I recite a prayer three times a day that basically says “I’m right, and you’re wrong” and in Islam they believe people must submit themselves to their god. It’s not that Americans want another world war, but there is a cost to fighting evil. In World War 2 it cost 50 million lives. My point is that it’s dangerous to say “It’s not us, it’s them.”<br />
<br />
<span style="font-weight: bold;">Sacchi: </span>It’s important to look at where religious and “modern” intersect. They can co-exist within boundaries. This way of reading the Bible is actually modern—to interpret the Bible so literally—like a manual to be read in a rational way. This is not a traditionally religious approach.<br />
<br />
<span style="font-weight: bold;">de Vries:</span> Modernism has definitely affected Fundamentalists to approach the Bible like a chemistry textbook. I don’t think G-d interrupts the flow of nature—He <span style="font-style: italic;">made</span> it. He made the Virgin birth as part of it. We use the term “natural causes” to leave the big questions outside of the lab. I invented the term “methodological naturalism.” Once we take our lab coats off, then we can ponder the things we studied as part of a bigger picture.<br />
<br />
<span style="font-weight: bold;">Baird:</span> It’s dangerous territory when we tell people how to read their own religious texts. It’s our job as human beings to make sense of our own experiences through our religious inheritance. It’s not just Evangelicals who have been affected by modernity.<br />
<br />
<span style="font-weight: bold;">Elcott: </span>I became involved in civil rights because I felt G-d commanded me to do so. I’m not prepared to allow people to hurt others in the name of G-d. I’m willing to say that as a human, there’s a huge chasm between me and G-d. I, too, have fundamental beliefs and I’ve fought others over them. I’m not distant from someone who is fighting on faith-based beliefs. As I said before, it’s dangerous to say “It’s not us, it’s them.”<br />
<br />
<span style="font-weight: bold;">Davis:</span> That’s why we made the film. The intersection of religion and politics is at the core of the way people spoke to us—whether small-town, Midwestern families or educated theologians. We act out of our spiritual selves in the decisions we make. It’s not a clean line. In the film, someone says, “The separation of church and state is a joke.” We really need to understand that worldview.<br />
<span style="font-weight: bold;"><br />
MOD: The fictional </span><a href="http://www.leftbehind.com/" style="font-weight: bold;">Left Behind</a><span style="font-weight: bold;"> series about the end of days has sold 70 million copies. In the video game based on the novels, you form Christian militias to kill global peacekeepers and the Secretary General of the U.N. is the Antichrist. </span><span style="font-style: italic;">(Editor’s note: SERIOUSLY?!) </span><span style="font-weight: bold;">What are the implications of this theology for a 2-state solution in Israel?</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-weight: bold;">Sacchi:</span> That’s one of the things I took away from making this film. Whenever I hear the Secretary General of the UN on TV now, I wonder if millions of Americans think that the Antichrist is on TV. The people we featured see <span style="font-style: italic;">everything</span> through this lens.<br />
<br />
<span style="font-weight: bold;">Elcott: </span>In 1917, the British Cabinet approved a Jewish state in the Balfour Declaration because they were Evangelical Christians. But they’re not alone—it’s not just Evangelicals preventing peace in the Middle East. It’s Muslims and Jews, too, each for their own reasons.<br />
<br />
<span style="font-weight: bold;">Baird: </span>David earlier highlighted the question: How do people who believe different things differently duke it out in the public square without killing each other?<br />
<br />
<span style="font-weight: bold;">Guengerich: </span>In a modern constitutional democracy, you can form your convictions based on religious views, but arguing public policy must be done on terms that are fair and understandable to everyone. In this country, the Constitution trumps religious texts. We need to demand that religious people make arguments other than “My G-d told me so.”<br />
<br />
<span style="font-weight: bold;">de Vries:</span> The Constitution is wonderful, but it doesn’t trump scripture. There are Evangelicals who respect human rights and the Palestinian people as equal players in the Middle East. Although 100 million believe that the Rapture and Tribulation will happen, only a tiny minority wants to force it. <span style="font-style: italic;">(Editor’s note: The moderator attempted to press Mr. de Vries by asking how Evangelicals can coexist with the Constitution as American citizens, but he evaded the answer.)</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-weight: bold;">Audience question: </span><span style="font-weight: bold;">Where do we draw the line between tolerance of other religions and intolerance of certain religious behaviors?</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-weight: bold;">Elcott: </span>Anything that kills, destroys, or dehumanizes in the name of religion is intolerable. I’ll never give up on G-d, but I’ll give up on that religion. I’ll fight it tooth and nail. Back to the idea of religious beliefs dictating policy, Sarah Palin was recently explaining her support of the Jewish settlements in the West Bank because, she said that more Jews will be coming to Israel and they’ll need a place to go. This is not actually consistent with immigration numbers. She is referring to the Evangelical belief that Jews must return to Israel to hasten Jesus Christ’s return to earth. It’s faith-based policy.<br />
<br />
<span style="font-weight: bold;">Audience question (to de Vries):</span> <span style="font-weight: bold;">I am a gay Jew. How can you use religion as a discriminatory tool?</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-weight: bold;">de Vries:</span> <span style="font-weight: bold;"></span> Evangelical means “good news.” The scriptures that we accept as authority provide instructions for how to live a godly life. But no one has the right to judge or condemn you. You won’t hear that from most Evangelicals.<br />
<br />
-------<br />
<span style="font-weight: bold;">*DEFINITIONS:</span><br />
<span style="font-weight: bold;"><br />
Premillennial Dispensationalism: </span>One form of Evangelical belief about the end of days that teaches that second coming of Christ will take place in two phases. In the first phase, Jesus will bring both dead and living believers to heaven to save them from the coming 7 years of tribulation, or basically mass death and destruction of earth and all of the nonbelievers on it. After the tribulation, they believe that Jesus will again return to Earth (phase 2) to set up his kingdom. At this time, he will reign from as king from earthly Jerusalem for 1000 years, after which he will resurrect and judge “unbelievers.” According to many Christians, this version of events refutes the Biblical teaching on the resurrection in which they believe that all of the believers and non-believers will be resurrected and judged at the same time.<br />
<br />
<span style="font-weight: bold;">Tribulation:</span> A period of 7 years referred to in the Bible where massively destructive war and suffering will occur on earth before Jesus Christ returns to rule. Different Christians believe that the Tribulation will occur at different times, either before or after Christ saves all of the true believers from earth.<br />
<br />
<span style="font-weight: bold;">Immanentize the Eschaton: </span>To trigger the apocalypse or end of the world by creating mass chaos and; destruction on earth<br />
<br />
<span style="font-weight: bold;">Talmud: </span>The Talmud is a central text of mainstream Judaism, in the form of a record of rabbinic discussions pertaining to Jewish law, ethics, customs and history. (Wikipedia)Liz Nordhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11370267468241998599noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34873869.post-25105712687465197192010-01-07T16:59:00.003-05:002010-02-02T10:19:15.079-05:00Stranger Than Fiction - "Which Way Home" - January 5, 2010<div style="text-align: center;"><iframe frameborder="1" height="215px" scrolling="no" src="http://www.indiegogo.com/project/widget/2675?a=202&tagline_len=38&title_len=24&version=std&widget_h=215&widget_w=300" width="300px"></iframe></div><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.stfdocs.com/">Stranger Than Fiction</a></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.whichwayhome.net/">“Which Way Home”</a></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">IFC Center</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">New York, NY</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">January 5, 2010</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://thefilmpanelnotetaker.com/uploaded_images/Which-Way-Home-STF-Pic-764880.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="http://thefilmpanelnotetaker.com/uploaded_images/Which-Way-Home-STF-Pic-764863.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Stranger Than Fiction's Thom Powers and "Which Way Home Director" Rebecca Cammisa. Photo by Brian Geldin.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
<b>***FEBRUARY 2, 2010 UPDATE: As of this morning, "Which Way Home" received an Academy Award nomination for Best Documentary Feature. Congratulations, Rebecca!</b><br />
<br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">For its Winter 2010 pre-season, Stranger Than Fiction presented the Academy Award ® shortlisted documentary feature “Which Way Home.” Director Rebecca Cammisa (“Sister Helen”) spoke after the screening for a Q&A, led by Stranger Than Fiction’s Thom Powers. “Which Way Home” shows the harrowing stories of migrant children taking treacherous journeys on top of freight trains through Mexico in hopes of entering the United States for a better life. Cammisa’s fly-on-the-wall approach is both captivating and heartbreaking, and brings to light a most serious issue. The Q&A after the screening was very captivating as well, because it brought out answers as to how she and her crew were able to capture these images under dangerous circumstances, and also raised ethical issues as documentary filmmakers, such as where do you draw the line when it comes to helping these children?</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">Powers began by asking Cammisa what made her choose the subject matter for the film, to which she replied that a friend of hers from acting school called her to tell her about an article about the issue of children trying to find their parents in the U.S. She had no idea this even existed, so she started researching it, because she thought it would make for an incredible film. </div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">Powers pointed out that much of the film take place on the edge of the law, where these kids are already at risk, and now she was putting both herself and her crew at crew at risk…were they doing this as an official capacity or were they flying under the radar, and did they ever run into problems with the authorities? She said because the story is about kids jumping onto trains to get into the U.S., it was hers and her crew’s job to show that. They would get permission, and it would fall through, but they had to proceed anyway. They had support, but when support was withdrawn, the job was to continue anyway. </div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">To be a 14-year-old kid going on these trains is one thing, but to be an adult carrying a camera and gear must have made them feel even more vulnerable…what did that feel like, Powers asked. She said it wasn’t fun. It’s wasn’t as if they had a ticket and a seat or that someone would watch their stuff when they got off. For example, if the two boys Kevin and Fito had decided to get off the train to get something to eat, it meant they had to jump off with them and take their gear and film the action, and as soon as they wanted to get back on a train, they had to get back on with them. They didn’t have much time to eat or drink themselves, so once they got back onto the trains, so sometime the kids would share their food.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">Powers then opened the questions up to the audience. The first question was, who amongst the crew would conduct the interviews? She said there were four people in the crew including a driver, herself, a cameraman, and sound person. She also shot. They would discuss what she wanted to know and what the interviews would be. Her Spanish wasn’t as intricate as some of the others. Sometimes the cameraman would function as a field producer. They had to keep it to such a small crew, because of the budget.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">Recalling a scene in the film where two small children, a boy and a girl named Freddy and Olga are introduced, Cammisa’s photojournalist friend Alan in the audience asked if it ever crossed her mind if she would or could help them? She said that the first thing that kept them safe while making this film was understanding their role and not stepping beyond it, because the situation of smuggling children down there is a criminal network. Everyone’s part of making money off of it. She and crew wanted to spend more time with Olga and Freddy, but they were in the company of smugglers, therefore they had to be extremely careful about how they behaved. If Olga and Freddy had said to them, “Please help us,” that would be one thing. But they weren’t. But if you start stepping in, you them become a smuggler, and if something happens to these children on the road, you are at fault. On the issue of giving the children money, Cammisa said that if people had seen them giving out money, they could have taken the kids for hostage. You really have to know your place and be extremely careful, especially because these were children, not adults. They did their best to be ethical.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">The next question from the audience was if by them having cameras, did it alter their relationship with the children at all, making them show off to the camera or alter their behavior? Cammisa said they constantly made the children aware how dangerous this was. When you show up with your camera, it could be an added incentive, but these children started on their trips days before they arrived and in different countries than in Mexico where they met them. The children’s need to come really had nothing to do them being there. They were going to go anyway, and asked then to stop scaring them, because they were going to go, and were not going back from where they came from. She doesn’t think that the camera propelled them forward. They were very clear to the children, telling them they were there to observe them, not to feed them, pay for them, or transport them. They understood that they were there just to go for the ride. </div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">The final question was, how many days did she and crew spend with the children? She said they ended up with 240 hours of footage. The film took six and a half years to make, of which they only filmed for five and a half months, within which there were never two months in a row. There was a lot of starting and stopping. And her three-month editing window once the film was shot was very problematic, but she said her editors did an amazing job.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">Cammisa concluded by saying that people can go onto the film’s website to make donations to shelters that comfort and aid immigrants at http://www.whichwayhome.net/takeaction.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><iframe align="left" frameborder="0" marginheight="0" marginwidth="0" scrolling="no" src="http://rcm.amazon.com/e/cm?t=thefilpannot-20&o=1&p=8&l=bpl&asins=B00061QJKI&fc1=000000&IS2=1&lt1=_blank&m=amazon&lc1=0000FF&bc1=000000&bg1=FFFFFF&f=ifr" style="align: left; height: 245px; padding-right: 10px; padding-top: 5px; width: 131px;"></iframe></div><br />
<div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div>The Film Panel Notetakerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14731916101376900657noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34873869.post-14699673051159572642010-01-03T12:22:00.000-05:002010-01-03T12:22:43.507-05:00Pledge your support for The Film Panel Notetaker on IndieGoGo<iframe src="http://www.indiegogo.com/project/widget/2675?account_id=202&tagline_len=37&title_len=23&version=std&widget_h=220&widget_w=310" width="310px" height="220px" frameborder="1" scrolling="no"></iframe>The Film Panel Notetakerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14731916101376900657noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34873869.post-80072187643810826852009-12-24T11:13:00.001-05:002009-12-24T11:20:40.229-05:00Roundtable to Discuss Interfaith Issues in Documentary, "Waiting For Armageddon"</div><div class="MsoNormal">In conjunction with <a href="http://firstrunfeatures.com/">First Run Features’ </a>January 8, 2010 theatrical release at New York’s Cinema Village of <a href="http://www.waitingforarmageddon.com/">“Waiting for Armageddon,”</a> a documentary by award-winning filmmakers, David Heilbroner, Kate Davis and Franco Sacchi, a special interfaith round table discussion will be held on January 7 from 6:30pm-8:00pm at the Puck Building’s Rudin Auditorium (295 Lafayette Street).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The discussion is free and open to the public, though seating is limited. RSVP to Pamela Cohn at pfunknmrk at yahoo dot com.<br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">The event is being co-hosted by the Berman Jewish Policy Archives at NYU and the Research Center on Leadership in Action at NYU’s Wagner Center and outreach funder, The Fledgling Fund will host a reception with support from the Foundation for Jewish Culture.<br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">During the roundtable, brief clips of the film will be shown followed by a panel discussion moderated by Michelle Goldberg, journalist and author, Kingdom Coming: The Rise of Christian Nationalism and The Means of Reproduction: Sex, Power and the Future of the World. Other panelists include David M. Elcott, Taub Professor of Practice and Public Service and Leadership, Robert F. Wagner Graduate School of Public Service, Richard Cizik, past President of the National Association of Evangelicals, and Rabbi Justus N. Baird, Director of the Center for Multifaith Education at Auburn Theological Seminary in New York City.<br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">A Note from Filmmaker David Heilbroner: "In the past forty years, the Evangelical belief system known as "Armageddon theology" has become a powerful political force in America—a theology which requires, among other things, the destruction of the Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem and global warfare before Jesus can usher in a new, perfect world. To many non-Evangelicals, it appears as if this theology has been used to embrace and even justify war in the Middle East and an unquestioning support for the nation of Israel, all in the name of fulfilling Bible prophesy. With religious extremism and intolerance fueling so many international conflicts, frank discussion of these issues will hopefully help create a deeper understanding of the dangers inherent in pursuing political goals under a banner of religion, and ideally serve as a cautionary lesson to those who feel that "all is justified" when they pursue their God's plan."<br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><a href="http://echo.bluehornet.com/ct/3242662:1663818553:m:1:76946940:A8CAF19EB28146706AD4828D79326F35"><span style="color: windowtext; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">Read David Heilbroner’s recent post on THE HUFFINGTON POST</span></a>.<br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">“Waiting for Armageddon” explores the culture of 50 million American Evangelicals who believe that Bible prophecy dictates the future of mankind and that Israel and the Jewish people play pivotal roles in ensuring Christ’s return. The film raises questions regarding how this theology shapes U.S.- Middle East relations and how it may even encourage an international holy war. Using intimate portraits and archival footage to explore how literal belief in Biblical prophecy exerts a dangerous influence on U.S. relations in the Middle East, “Waiting for Armageddon” tells its story through the eyes of three evangelical families who are certain that upon Christ's Second Coming they will be “raptured” or lifted into the skies to join Christ while the rest of humanity suffers for seven years during “The Tribulation.”<br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">The film then follows a Christian Study Tour group to Israel – among the tens of thousands of Evangelicals who pour into the Holy Land each year. A controversial, potentially explosive relationship between Christian Evangelicals, Jews, and Muslims emerges.<br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">Directors Kate Davis, David Heilbroner and Franco Sacchi have been making award-winning documentaries for 15 years. Davis won more than 25 awards for “Southern Comfort,” including the Grand Jury Prize at Sundance, and she also won an Emmy for Outstanding Directing for Nonfiction Programming for “Jockey.” Heilbroner has made over a dozen films on social justice issues, and Franco Sacchi's recent film “This is Nollywood” was released worldwide.<br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">Other Films from First Run Features:<br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><iframe align="left" frameborder="0" marginheight="0" marginwidth="0" scrolling="no" src="http://rcm.amazon.com/e/cm?t=thefilpannot-20&o=1&p=8&l=bpl&asins=B001CP1UN8&fc1=000000&IS2=1&lt1=_blank&m=amazon&lc1=0000FF&bc1=000000&bg1=FFFFFF&f=ifr" style="align: left; height: 245px; padding-right: 10px; padding-top: 5px; width: 131px;"></iframe><iframe align="left" frameborder="0" marginheight="0" marginwidth="0" scrolling="no" src="http://rcm.amazon.com/e/cm?t=thefilpannot-20&o=1&p=8&l=bpl&asins=B0010YSDBI&fc1=000000&IS2=1&lt1=_blank&m=amazon&lc1=0000FF&bc1=000000&bg1=FFFFFF&f=ifr" style="align: left; height: 245px; padding-right: 10px; padding-top: 5px; width: 131px;"></iframe><iframe align="left" frameborder="0" marginheight="0" marginwidth="0" scrolling="no" src="http://rcm.amazon.com/e/cm?t=thefilpannot-20&o=1&p=8&l=bpl&asins=B000VAHR64&fc1=000000&IS2=1&lt1=_blank&m=amazon&lc1=0000FF&bc1=000000&bg1=FFFFFF&f=ifr" style="align: left; height: 245px; padding-right: 10px; padding-top: 5px; width: 131px;"></iframe><br />
</div><!--EndFragment-->The Film Panel Notetakerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14731916101376900657noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34873869.post-88259917196401014092009-12-16T14:07:00.005-05:002009-12-16T14:29:27.115-05:00Tribeca Cinemas Presents Docs on the Shortlist<div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">If you’re in New York on January 8</span><sup><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">th</span></sup><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> and 9th and you haven’t yet seen any of the feature documentaries on the Academy Award® Shortlist, you will have the chance to see six of them when “<a href="http://www.tribecacinemas.com/">Tribeca Cinemas</a> Presents: Docs on the Shortlist” hosted by <a href="http://www.tribecafilminstitute.org/">Tribeca Film Institute</a>’s <a href="http://www.tribecafilminstitute.org/documentary/about/17275484.html">Gucci Tribeca Documentary Fund</a>. Of the six films screenings, I have seen <a href="http://whichwayhome.net/">“Which Way Home,”</a> a beautiful and heartbreaking film by Rebecca Cammisa that premiered at the 2009 <a href="http://www.tribecafilm.com/festival/">Tribeca Film Festival</a>. Rebecca will be doing a Q&A after the screening. And you may recall <a href="http://www.thefilmpanelnotetaker.com/2008/04/tribeca-film-festival-behind-screens.html">A.M. Peters’ notes</a> from the <a href="http://www.underourskin.com/">“Under Our Skin”</a> screening and panel discussion during the 2008 Tribeca Film Festival. It was one of our most popular posts of that year, and is also one of the six films showing in the Shortlist series. Please take the opportunity to go see all of these films if you can. You’ll be in the “know” come Oscar time. For more information on this series, see below press release.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><p class="MsoNormal"><img src="http://www.thefilmpanelnotetaker.com/uploaded_images/docwhichwayhomerez-700921.jpg" border="0" alt="" style="display: block; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 180px; " /></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:x-small;">"Which Way Home" - Photo Courtesy of Tribeca Film Festival.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Tahoma, serif; ">December 16, 2009 – New York, NY - Tribeca Cinemas announces the return of the two-day series “Tribeca Cinemas Presents:<b> </b>Docs on the Shortlist.” Curated by the Tribeca Film Festival programming team, the series offers filmgoers the opportunity to see a selection of the documentary contenders shortlisted for the nomination for Best Feature Documentary for the 82nd Academy Awards®. Docs on the Shortlist is hosted by the Tribeca Film Institute’s Gucci Tribeca Documentary Fund, which offers finishing funds to documentaries of social significance.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family:Calibri;font-size:15.0pt;">Launching on Friday, January 8, and continuing Saturday, January 9, the two-day series brings together filmmakers who have been involved with previous editions of the Tribeca Film Festival to screen their new documentary films, which are currently being recognized by the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences. Six of the 15 documentaries under consideration for nomination will be screened; the films in the series are: <i>The Cove</i>, <i>Food, Inc.</i>, <i>Living in Emergency, Soundtrack for a Revolution, Under Our Skin</i>, and <i>Which Way Home.</i></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Tahoma;mso-bidi-font-family:Tahoma;">“We are always looking for ways Tribeca can further support our filmmakers and this series highlights our commitment to documentary film,” said Nancy Schafer of Tribeca Enterprises. “We are looking forward to bringing some of the documentaries the Academy has recognized to our neighborhood.”</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Tahoma;mso-bidi-font-family:Tahoma;">Submissions for the Gucci Tribeca Documentary Fund, offering finishing funds of $100,000 for 2010, close on January 11, 2010. <a href="http://www.tribecafilminstitute.org/documentary"><span style=" text-decoration:none;text-underline:nonecolor:#19366C;">www.tribecafilminstitute.org/documentary</span></a></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family:Tahoma;mso-bidi-font-family:Tahoma;">Tickets</span></b><span style="font-family:Tahoma;mso-bidi-font-family:Tahoma;">: Tickets go on sale December 16, 2009. Admission for each film screening is $10 for regular tickets; $8 for members of the Guilds (PGA, DGA, WGA and SAG), members of BAFTA East Coast, DocuClub, IDA, IFP, and/or Shooting People with a valid membership card and full-time students with current I.D.; free for Academy Members.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family:Tahoma;mso-bidi-font-family:Tahoma;">Public Information:</span></b></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:12.0pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align: none;text-autospace:none"><span style="font-family:Tahoma;mso-bidi-font-family:Tahoma;">Tribeca Cinemas, 54 Varick Street (corner of Laight), New York, NY 10013<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:12.0pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align: none;text-autospace:none"><span style="font-family:Tahoma;mso-bidi-font-family:Tahoma;">The public may call 212/941.2001 for further information. Visit us on the Web at <a href="http://www.tribecafilm.com/docseries"><span style="text-decoration:none;text-underline:nonecolor:#19366C;">www.tribecafilm.com/docseries</span></a><o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:12.0pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align: none;text-autospace:none"><span style="font-family:Tahoma;mso-bidi-font-family:Tahoma;">Subway: A, C, E – Canal Street/6 Avenue; 1 – Canal Street/Varick Street<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:12.0pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align: none;text-autospace:none"><b><span style="font-family:Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family:Calibri;font-size:15.0pt;">SCREENING SCHEDULE</span></b><span style="font-family:Tahoma;mso-bidi-font-family:Tahoma;"><o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:12.0pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align: none;text-autospace:none"><span style="font-family:Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family:Calibri;font-size:15.0pt;"> <b>Friday January 8</b></span><span style="font-family:Tahoma;mso-bidi-font-family:Tahoma;"><o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:12.0pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align: none;text-autospace:none"><b><span style="font-family:Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family:Calibri;font-size:15.0pt;"> 6:30pm</span></b><span style="font-family: Tahoma;mso-bidi-font-family:Tahoma;"><o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:12.0pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align: none;text-autospace:none"><b><span style="font-family:Calibri;mso-bidi-font-family:Calibri;">Which Way Home</span></b><span style="font-family:Calibri;mso-bidi-font-family:Calibri;">, <i>directed by Rebecca Cammisa</i></span><span style="font-family: Tahoma;mso-bidi-font-family:Tahoma;"><o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:12.0pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align: none;text-autospace:none"><span style="font-family:Calibri;mso-bidi-font-family:Calibri;">Running time: 82 minutes</span><span style="font-family:Tahoma; mso-bidi-font-family:Tahoma;"><o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:12.0pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align: none;text-autospace:none"><i><span style="font-family:Calibri;mso-bidi-font-family:Calibri;">Director Rebecca Cammisa will be in attendance for a post-screening discussion.</span></i><span style="font-family:Tahoma;mso-bidi-font-family:Tahoma;"><o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:12.0pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align: none;text-autospace:none"><span style="font-family:Calibri;mso-bidi-font-family:Calibri;">As the United States continues to build a wall between itself and Mexico, <i>Which Way Home</i> shows the personal side of immigration through the eyes of children who face harrowing dangers with enormous courage and resourcefulness as they endeavor to make it to the United States.</span><span style="font-family:Tahoma;mso-bidi-font-family:Tahoma;"><o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:12.0pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align: none;text-autospace:none"><span style="font-family:Calibri;mso-bidi-font-family:Calibri;">The film follows several unaccompanied child migrants as they journey through Mexico en route to the U.S. on a freight train they call “The Beast .“ Director Rebecca Cammisa (<i>Sister Helen</i>) tracks the stories of children like Olga and Freddy, nine-year old Hondurans who are desperately trying to reach their families in Minnesota, and Jose, a ten-year-old El Salvadoran who has been abandoned by smugglers and ends up alone in a Mexican detention center; and focuses on Kevin, a canny, streetwise 14-year-old Honduran whose mother hopes that he will reach New York City and send money back to his family. These are stories of hope and courage, disappointment and sorrow. They are the ones you never hear about – the invisible ones.</span><span style="font-family:Tahoma;mso-bidi-font-family:Tahoma;"><o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:12.0pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align: none;text-autospace:none"><span style="font-family:Tahoma;mso-bidi-font-family:Tahoma;">Courtesy of HBO. World Premiered at Tribeca Film Festival.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:12.0pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align: none;text-autospace:none"><span style="font-family:Tahoma;mso-bidi-font-family:Tahoma;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:12.0pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align: none;text-autospace:none"><b><span style="font-family:Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family:Calibri;font-size:15.0pt;">9:00pm</span></b><span style="font-family:Tahoma; mso-bidi-font-family:Tahoma;"><o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:12.0pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align: none;text-autospace:none"><b><span style="font-family:Tahoma;mso-bidi-font-family:Tahoma;">Food, Inc.</span></b><span style="font-family:Tahoma;mso-bidi-font-family:Tahoma;">, directed by Robert Kenner<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:12.0pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align: none;text-autospace:none"><span style="font-family:Tahoma;mso-bidi-font-family:Tahoma;">Running time: 93 minutes<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:8.0pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align: none;text-autospace:none"><span style="font-family:Tahoma;mso-bidi-font-family:Tahoma;">In Food, Inc., filmmaker Robert Kenner lifts the veil on our nation's food industry, exposing the highly mechanized underbelly that's been hidden from the American consumer with the consent of our government's regulatory agencies, USDA and FDA. Our nation's food supply is now controlled by a handful of corporations that often put profit ahead of consumer health, the livelihood of the American farmer, the safety of workers, and our own environment. We have bigger-breasted chickens, the perfect pork chop, insecticide-resistant soybean seeds, even tomatoes that won't go bad, but we also have new strains of e coli – the harmful bacteria that causes illness for an estimated 73,000 Americans annually. We are riddled with widespread obesity, particularly among children, and an epidemic level of diabetes among adults.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:8.0pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align: none;text-autospace:none"><span style="font-family:Tahoma;mso-bidi-font-family:Tahoma;">Featuring interviews with such experts as Eric Schlosser (Fast Food Nation), Michael Pollan (The Omnivore's Dilemma) along with forward thinking social entrepreneurs like Stonyfield Farms' Gary Hirshberg and Polyface Farms' Joe Salatin, Food, Inc. reveals surprising – and often shocking – truths about what we eat, how it's produced, who we have become as a nation, and where we are going from here.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:8.0pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align: none;text-autospace:none"><span style="font-family:Tahoma;mso-bidi-font-family:Tahoma;">Courtesy of Magnolia Pictures. World Premiered at Toronto International Film Festival.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:8.0pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align: none;text-autospace:none"><span style="font-family:Tahoma;mso-bidi-font-family:Tahoma;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:8.0pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align: none;text-autospace:none"><b><span style="font-family:Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family:Calibri;font-size:15.0pt;">Saturday January 9</span></b><span style="font-family:Tahoma;mso-bidi-font-family:Tahoma;"><o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:12.0pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align: none;text-autospace:none"><b><span style="font-family:Tahoma;mso-bidi-font-family:Tahoma;"> <u>1:00pm</u></span></b><span style="font-family:Tahoma; mso-bidi-font-family:Tahoma;"><o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:12.0pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align: none;text-autospace:none"><b><span style="font-family:Tahoma;mso-bidi-font-family:Tahoma;">Living in Emergency</span></b><span style="font-family:Tahoma; mso-bidi-font-family:Tahoma;">, directed by Mark Hopkins<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:12.0pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align: none;text-autospace:none"><span style="font-family:Tahoma;mso-bidi-font-family:Tahoma;">Running time: 93 minutes<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:12.0pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align: none;text-autospace:none"><span style="font-family:Tahoma;mso-bidi-font-family:Tahoma;">Bosnia. Rwanda. Kosovo. Sierra Leone. Pakistan. Just a few of the world’s humanitarian and political crises in the past years. Whether the result of war or nature, these disasters devastate populations and cripple health systems. Despite the immense dangers and difficulties of the work, one organization, Doctors Without Borders, has continuously intervened at these frontlines of overwhelming human need.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:12.0pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align: none;text-autospace:none"><span style="font-family:Tahoma;mso-bidi-font-family:Tahoma;">Set in war-torn Congo and post-conflict Liberia, Living in Emergency interweaves the stories of four<span style="color:#193B68;"> </span>volunteers with Doctors Without Borders as they struggle to provide emergency medical care under the<span style="color:#193B68;"> </span>most extreme conditions.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:12.0pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align: none;text-autospace:none"><span style="font-family:Tahoma;mso-bidi-font-family:Tahoma;">Two volunteers are new recruits: a 26 year-old Australian doctor stranded in a remote bush clinic and an<span style="color:#193B68;"> </span>American surgeon struggling to cope under the load of emergency cases in a shattered capital city. Two<span style="color:#193B68;"> </span>others are experienced field hands: a dynamic Head of Mission, valiantly trying to keep morale high and<span style="color:#193B68;"> </span>tensions under control, and an exhausted veteran, who has seen too much horror and wants out.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:12.0pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align: none;text-autospace:none"><span style="font-family:Tahoma;mso-bidi-font-family:Tahoma;">Amidst the chaos, each volunteer must confront the severe challenges of the work, the tough choices, and the limits of their own idealism.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:12.0pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align: none;text-autospace:none"><span style="font-family:Tahoma;mso-bidi-font-family:Tahoma;">World Premiered at Venice Film Festival.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:12.0pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align: none;text-autospace:none"><b><span style="font-family:Tahoma;mso-bidi-font-family:Tahoma;"> </span></b><span style="font-family:Tahoma;mso-bidi-font-family:Tahoma;"><o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:12.0pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align: none;text-autospace:none"><b><u><span style="font-family:Tahoma;mso-bidi-font-family:Tahoma;">3:30pm</span></u></b><span style="font-family:Tahoma;mso-bidi-font-family:Tahoma;"><o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:12.0pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align: none;text-autospace:none"><b><span style="font-family:Tahoma;mso-bidi-font-family:Tahoma;">Soundtrack for a Revolution</span></b><span style="font-family:Tahoma; mso-bidi-font-family:Tahoma;">, directed Bill Guttentag and Dan Sturman<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:12.0pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align: none;text-autospace:none"><span style="font-family:Tahoma;mso-bidi-font-family:Tahoma;">Running time: 81 minutes<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:12.0pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align: none;text-autospace:none"><span style="font-family:Tahoma;mso-bidi-font-family:Tahoma;"> SOUNDTRACK FOR A REVOLUTION tells the story of the American civil rights movement through its powerful music -the freedom songs protesters sang on picket lines, in mass meetings, in paddy wagons, and in jail cells as they fought for justice and equality.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:12.0pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align: none;text-autospace:none"><span style="font-family:Tahoma;mso-bidi-font-family:Tahoma;">The film features new performances of the freedom songs by top artists, including John Legend, Joss Stone, Wyclef Jean, and The Roots; riveting archival footage; and interviews with civil rights foot soldiers and leaders, including Congressman John Lewis, Harry Belafonte, Julian Bond, and Ambassador Andrew Young.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:12.0pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align: none;text-autospace:none"><span style="font-family:Tahoma;mso-bidi-font-family:Tahoma;">The freedom songs evolved from slave chants, from the labor movement, and especially from the black church. The music enabled blacks to sing words they could not say, and it was crucial in helping the protesters as they faced down brutal aggression with dignity and non-violence. The infectious energy of the songs swept people up and empowered them to fight for their rights.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:12.0pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align: none;text-autospace:none"><span style="font-family:Tahoma;mso-bidi-font-family:Tahoma;">SOUNDTRACK FOR A REVOLUTION celebrates the vitality of this music. Directed by Bill Guttentag and Dan Sturman (Nanking), and executive produced by Danny Glover, SOUNDTRACK FOR A REVOLUTION is a vibrant blend of heart-wrenching interviews, dramatic images, and thrilling contemporary performances -- a film of significance, energy, and power.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:12.0pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align: none;text-autospace:none"><span style="font-family:Tahoma;mso-bidi-font-family:Tahoma;">World Premiered at Tribeca Film Festival.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:12.0pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align: none;text-autospace:none"><span style="font-family:Tahoma;mso-bidi-font-family:Tahoma;"> <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:12.0pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align: none;text-autospace:none"><b><u><span style="font-family:Tahoma;mso-bidi-font-family:Tahoma;">6:00pm</span></u></b><span style="font-family:Tahoma;mso-bidi-font-family:Tahoma;"><o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:12.0pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align: none;text-autospace:none"><b><span style="font-family:Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family:Calibri;font-size:15.0pt;">The Cove, </span></b><i><span style="font-family:Calibri;mso-bidi-font-family:Calibri;font-size:15.0pt;">directed by Louie Psihoyos</span></i><span style="font-family:Tahoma;mso-bidi-font-family:Tahoma;"><o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:12.0pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align: none;text-autospace:none"><span style="font-family:Tahoma;mso-bidi-font-family:Tahoma;">Running time: 92 minutes<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:12.0pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align: none;text-autospace:none"><i><span style="font-family:Calibri;mso-bidi-font-family:Calibri;">Director Louie Psihoyos will be in attendance for a post-screening discussion.</span></i><span style="font-family:Tahoma;mso-bidi-font-family:Tahoma;"><o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:12.0pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align: none;text-autospace:none"><span style="font-family:Tahoma;mso-bidi-font-family:Tahoma;">In the 1960's, Richard O'Barry was the world’s leading authority on dolphin training, working on the set of the popular television program Flipper. Day in and day out, O'Barry kept the dolphins working and television audiences smiling. But one day, that all came to an end. The Cove, directed by Louie Psihoyos, tells the amazing true story of how Psihoyos, O'Barry and an elite team of activists, filmmakers and freedivers embarked on a covert mission to penetrate a hidden cove in Japan, shining light on a dark and deadly secret. The mysteries they uncovered were only the tip of the iceberg.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:12.0pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align: none;text-autospace:none"><span style="font-family:Tahoma;mso-bidi-font-family:Tahoma;">Courtesy of Roadside Attractions. World Premiered at Sundance Film Festival.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:12.0pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align: none;text-autospace:none"><b><span style="font-family:Tahoma;mso-bidi-font-family:Tahoma;"> </span></b><span style="font-family:Tahoma;mso-bidi-font-family:Tahoma;"><o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:12.0pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align: none;text-autospace:none"><b><u><span style="font-family:Tahoma;mso-bidi-font-family:Tahoma;">8:30pm</span></u></b><span style="font-family:Tahoma;mso-bidi-font-family:Tahoma;"><o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:12.0pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align: none;text-autospace:none"><b><span style="font-family:Tahoma;mso-bidi-font-family:Tahoma;">Under Our Skin</span></b><span style="font-family:Tahoma;mso-bidi-font-family:Tahoma;">, directed by Andy Abrahams Wilson<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:12.0pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align: none;text-autospace:none"><span style="font-family:Tahoma;mso-bidi-font-family:Tahoma;">Running time: 103 minutes<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:12.0pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align: none;text-autospace:none"><span style="font-family:Tahoma;mso-bidi-font-family:Tahoma;"> </span><span style="font-family:Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family:Calibri;font-size:15.0pt;">A gripping tale of microbes, medicine and money, <i>Under Our Skin</i> exposes the hidden story of Lyme disease, one of the most controversial and fastest growing epidemics of our time.</span><span style="font-family:Tahoma;mso-bidi-font-family:Tahoma;"><o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:12.0pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align: none;text-autospace:none"><span style="font-family:Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family:Calibri;font-size:15.0pt;">Each year thousands go undiagnosed or misdiagnosed, told that their symptoms are "all in their head." Following the stories of patients and physicians fighting for their lives and livelihoods, the film brings into focus a haunting picture of the healthcare system and a medical establishment all too willing to put profits ahead of patients.</span><span style="font-family:Tahoma;mso-bidi-font-family:Tahoma;"><o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:8.0pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align: none;text-autospace:none"><span style="font-family:Tahoma;mso-bidi-font-family:Tahoma;">World Premiered at Tribeca Film Festival.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p> <!--EndFragment-->The Film Panel Notetakerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14731916101376900657noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34873869.post-25321335654779698162009-12-15T12:32:00.004-05:002009-12-15T22:01:44.239-05:00Harmony & Me @ the Dryden Theatre, December 4, 2009<center><p><img src="http://i103.photobucket.com/albums/m131/dotsetloops/filmpanelnotetaker/byington-corrigan-healy.jpg"><br><b>L-R: Jim Healy, Bob Byington, and Kevin Corrigan</p><i>Harmony & Me</i><br>December 4, 2009 at 8:00pm<br>Dryden Theatre, Rochester, New York</p>Featuring:<br>Jim Healy, Assistant Curator, Dryden Theatre<br>Bob Byington, Director, <i>Harmony & Me</i><br>Kevin Corrigan, co-star, <i>Harmony & Me</i></center></p></b><br /><p align="justify">Following the screening of <i>Harmony & Me</i> at the Woodstock Film Festival, producer and co-star Kristen Tucker mentioned that Bob Byington was inspired to title the movie after listening to Elton John's "Harmony" over and over again.</p><br /><center><img src="http://s103.photobucket.com/albums/m131/dotsetloops/filmpanelnotetaker/harmony-woodstock.jpg"><br>Kristen Tucker, Justin Rice, Kevin Corrigan<br>at the Woodstock Film Festival</p></center><br /><p align="justify">Byington made an attempt to clear the song for use in the movie. "I was convinced when we made the movie, we had to get the Elton John song in order for it to work. I told Justin [Rice] when we hired him, 'We gotta get that Elton John song, it's really hard to get!', and Justin was like, 'Okay, okay, good!' To get that song, you'd have to sell your foot, basically. The quote we got was $250,000, which is more than what the movie cost. We had to accept that at some point, that wasn't a reality."<br /><p align="justify">Fortunately, Justin Rice is <a href="http://www.bishopallen.com/" target="new window">also a musician</a>. Surprisingly, Byington was completely unaware of this prior to hiring him. "Justin's musicianship, which I was ignorant about--and I'm not kidding--was an accident that we applied to what we did. The movie would've been very different (without Justin's talents), and I don't think as good. On the other hand, if we had deliberately hired him to 'Dance, monkey boy, DANCE!', I don't think the movie would've worked, either. It had to be accidental."<br /><p align="justify">Also in the film is curator Jim Healy's brother, Pat, who plays Harmony's boss. The following is part of the Q&A that took place following the screening.<br /><center><p><img src="http://i103.photobucket.com/albums/m131/dotsetloops/filmpanelnotetaker/byington-corrigan-1.jpg"></center></p><br /><p align="justify"><b>Healy</b>: I've been reading a lot of reviews that say that you don't stay in any one moment for too long. Is that by design, or did you find that in the cutting of this?<br /><p align="justify"><b>Byington</b>: The script is like that. The executive producer, Anish Savjani, seemed uneasy that the script seemed too short, and he made a real effort to make it more coherent. He wanted a better sense of what was going on. I didn't understand. I asked, "What do you mean you don't know what was going on?" If you write a script and get that type of feedback, it's pretty hard to hear. I wasn't too keen to hear it, but it was pretty important, and you really need people who really know how to tell you that stuff.<br /><p align="justify"><b>Healy</b>: Kevin, have you ever had your heart broken by being cut out of a film? Does it happen to you a lot?<br /><center><p><img src="http://i103.photobucket.com/albums/m131/dotsetloops/filmpanelnotetaker/corrigan.jpg"></p></center><br /><p align="justify"><b>Corrigan</b>: I've had whole movies that don't come out. But it reminds me of the first time I met Martin Scorsese. We were in the Brill Building, where he had an office at the time, and where he would edit his movies. He looked at my resume, and I had just done this movie called <i>The Lemon Sisters</i> with Diane Keaton. [Scorsese] pointed that out and said, "Oh, hey, they're editing that downstairs!" And I said, "Do you know that I'm in it?" He responded, "Acch! That reminds me of...", and he told this story about how two guys got cut out of <i>The King of Comedy</i>. Then he said, "Yeah, it happens!"<br /><p align="justify"><b>Healy</b>: Roger Ebert said that <i>Harmony & Me</i> made Austin look like not such a pretty place.<br /><p align="justify"><b>Byington</b>: I think he mentioned "unlovely". I like when he writes about movies, but the movie does tend to garner that type of review.<br /><p align="justify"><b>Healy</b>: So more than one critic said that Austin doesn't look pretty.<br /><p align="justify"><b>Byington</b>: I think <i>The Village Voice</i> singled it out and said it looked bad. Then I looked at the other reviews, and they said, "This movie doesn't look very good."<br /><p align="justify"><b>Healy</b>: So you're not planning on showing this to the City Council or the Chamber of Commerce anytime soon.<br /><p align="justify"><b>Byington</b>: We had a horrific screening at the Austin Film Festival. It had tons of technical problems, which makes me grateful to show it at a place where people care and pay attention to the way it looks. Which was not the case at the Austin Film Festival. That was really difficult for us.<br /><p align="justify"><b>Healy</b>: So it was especially unlovely looking. <br /><p align="justify"><b>Byington</b>: Yes. I came out for the Q&A, and I could tell that the audience genuinely felt sorry that we had such a cruddy movie. You could feel the audience's pity. It was crushing.<br /><p align="justify">For Byington, Austin is very convenient to work and live. Kevin Corrigan lives and works out of New York, and other actors come out from LA. "You can usually get people to come out for a weekend or a week." Later, Healy opened up questions to the audience.<br /><p align="justify"><b>Erin</b>: I saw this movie a couple of months ago at the Woodstock Film Festival. After the movie you (Corrigan) came up, Justin Rice came up, as well as Kristen Tucker. Someone asked how you (Byington) came up with the title <i>Harmony & Me</i>, and Kristen Tucker answered that you had been listening to a song by Elton John, and either the title or some song lyric stuck in your head. Do you think you could elaborate on that?<br /><p align="justify"><b>Byington</b>: Elton John did an album in the 1970s called <i>Goodbye Yellow Brick Road</i>, and the last song was called "Harmony". They were going to put it out as a single, but they never did. It has a very catchy quality, like a lot of songs on that album. I always loved that song, and he sings, "Harmony and Me" over and over again. I listened to that song a <i>lot</i> when I wrote that script.<br /><p align="justify"><b>Healy</b>: Was it important for you to cast Justin Rice, a musician?<br /><p align="justify"><b>Byington</b>: Justin really hit the idea of the character, demeanor wise. The fact that he was a musician was, believe it or not, incidental. It became a gigantic part of the movie. <br /><p align="justify"><b>Healy</b>: The music wasn't as big of a part in the movie <i>before</i> you cast him? <br /><p align="justify"><b>Byington</b>: No. The piano lessons were more of a structural idea. The wedding singer was a friend of mine, and the wedding scene was not scripted in the way it was eventually shot.<br /><p align="justify"><b>Q</b>: I kept thinking during the film that this might be a film John Cassavetes had made if he had a sense of humor. I was wondering if he at all was an influence on you?<br /><p align="justify"><b>Byington</b>: [Cassavetes] has a quality to his movies that are fresh and unrestrained. I marvel at watching a movie that's 45 years old, and still feels like you could feel it. Altman has the same quality with <i>Nashville</i>. It feels like the characters are going to come off the screen. I'm sort of inspired to get that...thing. <i>A Woman Under The Influence</i> was definitely an influence and an inspiration.<br /><p align="justify"><b>Corrigan</b>: I introduced this film once by reading a section of this book called <i>Cassavetes Directs</i>. I read a part of a book that attributed all these qualities to Cassavetes that I felt fit this film. It was a great introdution.<br /><p align="justify"><b>Q</b>: There are a lot of movies that seem to be like this, but it seemed like there were tons of jokes where the punchlines were missing, or maybe I didn't know the inside story.<br /><p align="justify"><b>Byington</b>: I think a lot of the punchlines were cut out. I read the script for <i>Rushmore</i>, and in the movie, they cut out every punchline in the script. Not that I deliberately learned that, but I loved that movie. I read the [<i>Rushmore</i>] script before I saw the movie. When I went back to the script after I saw it, I was like, "Huh! They pretty much cut out every single joke." I think it's to keep the flow. You don't want to try and be like, "Isn't this funny? Isn't that funny?"<br /><p align="justify">At the end of the Q&A, Bob Byington announced his next movie. He wrote it eight years ago, and initially tried to shoot it five years ago. It will star Tunde Adebimpe of TV on the Radio, and also appeared in <i>Rachel Getting Married</i>. Byington didn't divulge too much of the plot, besides the involvement of a German Shepard. He thanked the audience for staying and participating in the Q&A.<br /><p align="justify">"It helps my work."Erinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01642945873530730852noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34873869.post-57586834072679884232009-12-14T08:05:00.001-05:002009-12-14T08:05:01.774-05:00Guest blogger Leah Meyerhoff's Favorite Panels of 2009<div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">To launch The Film Panel Notetaker into a new year, we have opened a fundraiser on</span></span><a href="http://www.kickstarter.com/"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Kickstarter.com</span></span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">, which we hope you will visit and contribute to help us expand and grow our efforts to continue to bring you helpful notes and information from more film festivals and events in 2010. Our fundraiser is now live and you can start to contribute </span></span><a href="http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/tfpn/the-film-panel-notetaker"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">here</span></span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">. "Help us go, so you can be in the know!" Thank you very much, and happy holidays!</span></span></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><div><br /></div>The Film Panel Notetaker reached out to filmmakers, industry pros, and cinephiles to ask them what their favorite panel discussions and Q&As of 2009 were based on the following five questions:</span></span><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">1) Name of panel discussion or film where there was a Q&A<br />2) At which film festival, conference, theater, etc. did it take place?<br />3) Date (if you can recall)<br />4) Your affiliation (were you moderator, panelist, audience?)<br />5) Why did you like this particular panel or Q&A?</span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">Here's what filmmaker <a href="http://www.leahmeyerhoff.com/"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">Leah Meyerhoff</span></b> </a>("Twitch," "Team Queen," and her upcoming feature debut "Unicorns") had to say:</span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">1) Everyone Else Q&A<br />2) New York Film Festival<br />3) Oct 4th<br />4) audience<br />5) The Q&A for one of my favorite films at the festival was worth waiting around for. It was inspirational to hear how director Maren Ade stayed true to her vision and made a small performance-based films against all odds.<br /><br />1) T. C. Boyle and Mary Gaitskill<br />2) New Yorker Festival<br />3) Oct 16th<br />4) audience<br />5) It was interesting to hear how writers feel about watching their short stories get translated to the big screen.<br /><br />1) Casting for Indies Panel<br />2) IFP Industry Connect<br />3) Oct 22nd<br />4) panelist<br />5) This IFP event with casting directors Zoe Rotter and Jessica Kelly was one of the best panels I have been on in recent memory. Since I strongly believe that casting is 90% of directing, it is a subject that filmmakers can't afford to overlook. Both fun and educational, the panel sparked a lively discussion about the challenges of casting name actors versus the complexities of working with unknowns. Afterward, many audience members stuck around to continue the conversation well into the night.</span></span></div>The Film Panel Notetakerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14731916101376900657noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34873869.post-52086159043596502712009-12-14T07:50:00.000-05:002009-12-14T07:50:00.134-05:00Help us bring you more notes in 2010!<div style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/tfpn/the-film-panel-notetaker"><img border="0" src="http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/tfpn/the-film-panel-notetaker/widget/card.jpg" /></a></div><div><br /></div><div><a href="http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/tfpn/the-film-panel-notetaker"></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">To launch The Film Panel Notetaker into a new year, we have opened a fundraiser on</span><a href="http://www.kickstarter.com/"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Kickstarter.com</span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">, which we hope you will visit and contribute to help us expand and grow our efforts to continue to bring you helpful notes and information from more film festivals and events in 2010. Our fundraiser is now live and you can start to contribute </span><a href="http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/tfpn/the-film-panel-notetaker"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">here</span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">. "Help us go, so you can be in the know!" Thank you very much, and happy holidays!</span></div>The Film Panel Notetakerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14731916101376900657noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34873869.post-49349989650986487202009-12-14T07:42:00.003-05:002010-01-11T16:38:19.407-05:00Erin’s 5 Favorite Panel Discussions and Q&As of 2009<div><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><b><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: small;">To launch The Film Panel Notetaker into a new year, we have opened a fundraiser on </span><a href="http://www.kickstarter.com/"><span style="font-size: small;">Kickstarter.com</span></a><span style="font-size: small;">, which we hope you will visit and contribute to help us expand and grow our efforts to continue to bring you helpful notes and information from more film festivals and events in 2010. Our fundraiser is now live and you can start to contribute </span><a href="http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/tfpn/the-film-panel-notetaker"><span style="font-size: small;">here</span></a><span style="font-size: small;">. "Help us go, so you can be in the know!" Thank you very much, and happy holidays!</span></span></b><br />
</div><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><b><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: small;"></span></span>Erin’s 5 Favorite Panel Discussions and Q&As of 2009 (In No Particular Order):</b><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN"><o:p><a href="http://thefilmpanelnotetaker.com/2009/10/documentaries-then-now-woodstock-film.html"><b>Documentaries: Then & Now</b></a><b> - Woodstock Film Festival - October 4, 2009</b></o:p></span><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN"><o:p>What a fine assemblage of both legends and up-and-comers in the documentary field. Barbara Kopple and Leon Gast especially had some interesting insights about "the good old days": i.e., when documentaries were shot on Film.</o:p></span><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><a href="http://thefilmpanelnotetaker.com/2009/04/conversation-with-todd-haynes-and.html"><b>A Conversation With Todd Haynes and Richard Linklater</b></a><b> – SXSW Film Festival– March 17, 2009</b><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">To see these two giants of a bygone era of Independent Film sit on a stage and talk with one another was a one-of-a-kind opportunity. Too bad my microphone went dead and had to do the panel from memory!<br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><a href="http://thefilmpanelnotetaker.com/2009/11/andrew-bujalski-presents-beeswax-at.html"><b>Andrew Bujalski presents "Beeswax" at the Dryden Theatre</b></a><b> - November 7, 2009</b><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">Andrew's third trip to the Dryden Theatre was followed with a wonderful, in-depth conversation about "Beeswax" and how his career has evolved from the previous two movies.<br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN"><a href="http://thefilmpanelnotetaker.com/2009/10/music-in-film-panel-woodstock-film.html">Music in Film - Woodstock Film Festival</a> – October 3, 2009</span><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN">Although everybody had interesting insights to contribute, hearing Tom DiCillo expound on his experiences with making his movie on The Doors (as well as other experiences) made me put this one on my top five list.</span><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><a href="http://thefilmpanelnotetaker.com/2009/06/conversation-with-lynn-redgrave-rhfiff.html"><b>Conversation with Lynn Redgrave</b></a><b> – High Falls Film Festival – May 17, 2009</b><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">Lynn is an incredibly friendly woman, and shared a lot of very fascinating stories about her life and career. Definitely the High Point of this year's High Falls Festival.<br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><b><i>Honorable Mentions:</i></b><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><a href="http://thefilmpanelnotetaker.com/2009/03/self-distribution-not-all-by-yourself.html"><b>Self Distribution Not All By Yourself</b></a><b> - SXSW - March 15, 2009</b><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">This was a very resourceful panel about the many options the filmmaker has when it comes to self-distribution. Scott Macaulay did an incredible job bringing these people together.<br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><a href="http://thefilmpanelnotetaker.com/2009/03/incredible-shrinking-expanding-film.html"><b>The Incredible Shrinking (Expanding?) Film Critic Profession</b></a><b> – SXSW - March 14, 2009</b><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">The critics at the Woodstock Panel were a little more upbeat and optimistic about the future of the critic, but this was a very fascinating discussion with several generations of film critics.<br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">To read Brian's Top 5, click <a href="http://thefilmpanelnotetaker.com/2009/12/brians-top-5-favorite-panel-discussions.html">here</a>.<br />
</div></div>The Film Panel Notetakerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14731916101376900657noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34873869.post-67494040660155010182009-12-14T07:40:00.004-05:002009-12-14T10:59:05.756-05:00Brian's Top 5 Favorite Panel Discussions and Q&As of 2009<!--StartFragment--> <p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">To launch The Film Panel Notetaker into a new year, we have opened a fundraiser on </span><a href="http://www.kickstarter.com/"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Kickstarter.com</span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">, which we hope you will visit and contribute to help us expand and grow our efforts to continue to bring you helpful notes and information from more film festivals and events in 2010. Our fundraiser is now live and you can start to contribute </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><a href="http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/tfpn/the-film-panel-notetaker">here</a></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">. "Help us go, so you can be in the know!" Thank you very much, and happy holidays!</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><b>Reflections on 2009</b></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> In addition to all the great panel discussions and filmmaker Q&As we attended, 2009 was a very busy year for me personally. I got to moderate some discussions, program some of my own at the <a href="http://www.royalflushfestival.com/">Royal Flush Festival</a>, and was lucky enough to be involved with the publicity of some wonderful films including Danae Elon’s documentary <a href="http://partlyprivate-thefilm.com/">“Partly Private,”</a> which won the prize for Best New York Documentary at the Tribeca Film Festival, and <a href="http://jimjermanok.com/projects.php">“Em,”</a> which won the Producers Award for Jim Jermanok at the Brooklyn International Film Festival.</o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p>In February, I attended the World Premiere of Sujewa Ekanayake’s <a href="http://blogs.indiewire.com/tully/archives/indie_film_blogger_road_trip_a_lesson_in_ddiy_cinema">infamous</a>, yet endearing documentary, “<a href="http://www.thefilmpanelnotetaker.com/2009/02/indie-film-blogger-road-trip-at.html">Indie Film Blogger Road Trip</a>,” in which I was interviewed. Sujewa along with other indie film bloggers who appeared in the film attended the screening at Anthology Film Archives, where we spoke during a Q&A moderated by <a href="http://alsolikelife.com/shooting">Kevin Lee</a>. Also that month, I moderated a Q&A with David Teague and Greg King for their work-in-progress screening of <a href="http://www.thefilmpanelnotetaker.com/2009/02/moderating-next-docuclub-screening-our.html">“Our House”</a> at <a href="http://docuclub.org/">DocuClub</a>. Additionally, I moderated a panel discussion on <a href="http://www.thefilmpanelnotetaker.com/2009/04/moderating-networking-in-media-panel-at.html">Networking in Media</a> at Metropolitan College of New York, where contributing notetaker <a href="http://www.liznord.com/">Liz Nord</a> was one of the panelists.</o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p>And <a href="http://www.dinomonsterfilms.com/">Amy Peters</a>, Liz, and I got an exclusive sneak preview tour of the <a href="http://www.thefilmpanelnotetaker.com/2009/02/visiting-visual-arts-theater.html">SVA Theater</a> while it was undergoing major renovations. I got to later see the theater in its full glory during Tribeca and Newfest (where Kelly Deegan shined big time with her <a href="http://www.thefilmpanelnotetaker.com/2009/06/newfest-pop-star-on-ice-interviews-with.html">interview</a> with figure skater Johnny Weir and best pal Paris).</o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p>Also this year, I conducted some One-on-One Q&As with filmmakers <span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language:EN"><a href="http://www.thefilmpanelnotetaker.com/2009/02/one-on-one-q-hugo-perez-director.html">Hugo Perez</a>,</span><span lang="EN"> </span><a href="http://www.thefilmpanelnotetaker.com/2009/03/one-on-one-q-wirh-daryl-wein-director.html">Daryl Wein</a>, and <a href="http://www.thefilmpanelnotetaker.com/2009/11/one-on-one-q-rory-oconnor-battle-of.html">Rory O’ Connor</a>.</o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p>Before I go into my Top 5, I just want to take a moment to give a really special thanks to Erin Scherer, who contributed a ton of notes to The Film Panel Notetaker this year. She attended South by Southwest in Austin, Texas, as well as the High Falls Film Festival in Rochester, New York, and together, we both attended the Woodstock Film Festival in Woodstock, New York. She also interviewed a bunch of filmmakers including <a href="http://www.thefilmpanelnotetaker.com/2009/10/my-interview-with-andrew-bujalski.html">Andrew Bujalski</a>, <a href="http://www.thefilmpanelnotetaker.com/2009/03/one-on-one-q-ry-russo-young.html">Ry Russo-Young</a>, and <a href="http://www.thefilmpanelnotetaker.com/2009/04/one-on-one-q-kris-swanberg-directorco.html">Kris Swanberg</a> among others. Because Erin contributed so many of her own notes this year, I have given her the honor of coming up with her own Favorites list, which you can find <a href="http://www.thefilmpanelnotetaker.com/2009/12/erins-5-favorite-panel-discussions-and.html">here</a>.</o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><o:p><b>Brian’s Top 5 Favorite Panel Discussions and Q&As of 2009:</b></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><o:p><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal; "><b>#1: </b><a href="http://www.thefilmpanelnotetaker.com/2009/05/route-21-below-qew-not-bqe-to-hotdocs.html"><b>Route '21 Below' QEW (not BQE) to HotDocs</b></a><b> – May 8, 2009</b></span></b></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language:EN">To get to know the filmmakers of “21 Below” a few years earlier, and to see their film finally come to fruition during its HotDocs premiere in Toronto, which I attended with my mom only two hours away from our hometown of Buffalo, New York, the same town in which the film takes place, and then to see and hear the filmmakers talk about their film afterwords was a completely moving and enriching experience for me. I am very happy with all the great festival acclaim “21 Below” has received, and I hope it will be given the chance to have a theatrical release.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN"><b>#2: </b><a href="http://www.thefilmpanelnotetaker.com/2009/10/what-is-2b-in-future.html"><b>Woodstock Film Festival - Redesigning Humanity – The New Frontier</b></a><b> - October 2, 2009</b></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language:EN">The normal state of affairs at most film festival panels are a distribution panel here or a film journalism panel there and so on. But what about “transhumanism,” aka virtual human life? Put together a panel of the world’s leading experts on science, technology, and futurism matched with the World Premiere of the science fiction film “2B,” and you have what perhaps might be the most unique and interesting film panel discussion of the year.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN"><b>#3: </b><a href="http://www.thefilmpanelnotetaker.com/2009/06/state-of-movement-newfest-june-6-2009.html"><b>State of the Movement - NewFest</b></a><b> - June 6, 2009</b></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language:EN">NewFest gathered filmmakers and gay rights advocates to reflect on the current state of the LGBT movement and how it has progressed since Stonewall 40 years earlier. In a year where same sex couples are still not given rights to legally marry in most states, this panel was ever so timely and important.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><o:p><b> #4: </b><a href="http://www.thefilmpanelnotetaker.com/2009/06/silverdocs-defamation-june-19-2009.html"><b>Silverdocs - "Defamation"</b></a><b> - June 19, 2009</b></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p>While taking a controversial stance on anti-Semitism, Yoav Shamir’s documentary is very thought provoking and garnered many questions, comments and concerns from its audience at Silverdocs.</o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p><b>#5: All of the </b><a href="http://www.stfdocs.com/"><b>Stranger Than Fiction</b></a><b> Q&As I attended in the early part of the year including:</b></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p><a href="http://www.thefilmpanelnotetaker.com/2009/01/stranger-than-fiction-upstream-battle.html">"Upstream Battle"</a> - Jan. 13, 2009</o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p><a href="http://www.thefilmpanelnotetaker.com/2009/01/stranger-than-fiction-education-of.html">"The Education of Shelby Knox"</a> - Jan. 20, 2009</o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language:EN"><a href="http://www.thefilmpanelnotetaker.com/2009/02/stranger-than-fiction-must-read-after.html">"Must Read After My Death"</a> - Feb. 3, 2009<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language:EN"><a href="http://www.thefilmpanelnotetaker.com/2009/02/stranger-than-fiction-axe-in-attic-feb.html">"The Axe in the Attic" </a>- Feb. 10, 2009</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: bold; ">Honorable Mentions:</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language:EN">I was debating on whether I could even put this in my Top 5, since I programmed this panel myself, but I must at least give major kudos to the Docs Under Duress panel that <a href="http://www.stillinmotion.typepad.com/">Pamela Cohn</a> moderated at the Royal Flush Festival. Pamela really did her homework. She deeply cared about each filmmaker and their films, asked poignant questions, and received incredibly in-depth and informative responses. And the panel was followed by a pizza party in honor of panelist Ross Kaufman’s birthday :)</span></p><p class="MsoNormal">Special mention for <a href="http://www.rooftopfilms.com/">Rooftop Films</a> during <a href="http://www.thefilmpanelnotetaker.com/2009/09/notes-from-ifps-independent-filmmaker.html">IFP's Independent Filmmaker Week</a>. They held incredibly fun outdoor screenings and Q&As with the filmmakers, one at Solar One for "Burning in the Sun," and the other next to the Brooklyn Bridge for the IFP Filmmaker Lab Showcase.</p><p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language:EN">And finally, one panel that gets its own annual “Least Boring Panel Discussion” category is <a href="http://www.thefilmpanelnotetaker.com/2009/10/frankel-my-dear-she-really-gives-damn.html">Martha Frankel’s Actors Dialogue</a> at the Woodstock Film Festival.</span></p> <!--EndFragment-->The Film Panel Notetakerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14731916101376900657noreply@blogger.com1