Early Selection: Honeymooner




Desperate to be married, Fran was supposed to be on his honeymoon. Instead he's single and slouching around London, entrenched in a bro-mance with his two best friends. At 29, Fran was sure he'd offered his fiancée everything, but she rejected his heart and his two-bedroom flat in Kentish Town, and called it all off four weeks before their wedding. Fran is convinced that she'll see the error of her ways...until he bumps into her with her new boyfriend, and any dreams he might have had of reconciliation are dashed. He has no choice but to move on and try to meet someone new.


Meanwhile, his sometimes neurotic best friends, Ben and Jon, are suffering the opposite of Fran's predicament - their girlfriends are mad about them, but the guys appear lukewarm about their girls and are forever on the lookout for someone else. Whether trawling for talent at a Rabbi's house, being mistaken as part of a gay couple or negotiating advances from his lovelorn neighbour upstairs, Fran's search for salvation draws him ever closer to home as he navigates the hardest two weeks of his life. Honeymooner stars an extraordinary cast of emerging British talent: Gerard Kearns (Shameless, Looking for Eric, The Mark of Cain), Daisy Haggard (Man Stroke Woman, Green Wing, Psychoville), Chris Coghill (24 Hour Party People), Al Weaver (Marie Antoinette, Me and Orson Welles) and Wunmi Mosaku (Womb, Moses Jones). Honeymooner is an Austen-with-a-twist journey through love and loss - and the picking yourself back up part in-between. It's a story for any romantic or cynic who ever thought they had love (all) figured out.

Savannah Film Festival announces honorees and gala screenings


Acclaimed actors Liam Neeson, Sir Ian McKellen and Isabella Rossellini will be honored as part of the 13th Annual Savannah Film Festival, which will take place Oct. 30 to Nov. 6. McKellen will receive a Lifetime Achievement Award on Nov. 4, Neeson will receive an Achievement in Cinema Award on Nov. 2 and Rossellini will receive a similar award on Nov. 5.



With more than a month to go, the Savannah Film Festival is currently scheduled to host Academy Award-nominated actress Virginia Madsen, who will present the documentary “I Know a Woman Like That,” directed by her mother Elaine Madsen, who will also be in attendance; Ed Burns, showing his new film “Nice Guy Johnny;” writer/director Neil LaBute, who will participate in a workshop; Zach Gilford, who will attend a screening of his film “The River Why” and Tony Goldwyn who will be attending a gala screening of his latest directorial effort “Conviction.”

Other gala special screenings this year will include Darren Aronofsky’s “Black Swan,” Danny Boyle’s “127 Hours,” Doug Liman’s “Fair Game,” Mike Leigh’s “Another Year,” Nigel Cole’s “Made in Dagenham” and Derek Cianfrance’s “Blue Valentine.”


This will be the first year the Savannah Film Festival will present films in Digital Cinema Projection.


For more information, visit scad.edu/filmfest.

A Loss In The Film Community




Longtime editor partner of Quentin Tarantino dies: Vanity Fair


Bollywood Gay film banned in India: Just Out


Sawyer leaves Lost to join the cast of Mission Impossible: The Examiner


Another Amy Fisher film???  Seriously???:  The Hollywood Gossip


Triangle Home Movie Day: Wake My NC

SEEN O' The Day: Jungle Fever



Remember this 1991 film by Spike Lee?  It was a controversial film and certainly ahead of its time.  The dicussion of interracial relationships in the 20th century became a national debate.  Take a look at the clip below about perceptions of race and dating back in the 90's...




Early Selection: Bunny & The Bull




An extraordinary visual feast from the director of THE MIGHTY BOOSH, featuring the crème-de-la-crème of British comedy talent, including Noel Fielding, Julian Barrett and Richard Ayoade, BUNNY AND THE BULL follows Stephen (Ed Hogg) and Bunny (Simon Farnaby) as they leave the dull routine of life in England behind and embark on an extraordinary odyssey where imagination is the only limit.

Journeying from the industrial wastelands of Silesia to the bull fields of Andalusia, their adventures brings them into contact with a Polish dog farmer (Julian Barratt), a moustachioed matador (Noel Fielding) and a hot-tempered crab waitress (Veronica Echegui) who soon tests how far their friendship really goes...



34th Margaret Mead Film & Video Festival




Are you going to the NY area and can't make it to Cucalorus?  Looking to go to another film festival instead?  Check out MMFVF!


The 34th Margaret Mead Film & Video Festival will screen an outstanding selection of titles culled from more than 1,000 submissions. Highlighting exceptional story-telling, the Mead Festival continues to evolve beyond ethnographic filmmaking and screens an array of innovative films that represent the best in documentary, animation, experimental nonfiction, and archival footage. The festival is also a unique showcase for films that illuminate the complexity and diversity of peoples and cultures around the world and continues to sets itself apart with post-screening discussions that include visiting filmmakers, film subjects, and experts.



Films that will have U.S. premieres at the Mead Festival and feature the filmmakers in person following the screenings include

Roscoe Holcomb. John Cohen uses intimate footage as well as interviews with family and community members to trace the life of this seminal banjo player’s early years. Roscoe was featured in Cohen’s first film The High Lonesome Sound, which will also be shown during the festival. (world premiere). Cohen will also play live music with his band the Dust Busters at the after-screening discussion.

Eisenwurzen: Das Musical (A Mountain Musical). Filmmaker Eva Eckert tells the humorous and fascinating story of how the Austrian tradition of yodeling is carried on in the warbling of an aging population.

The Electric Mind. Nadav Harel’s film is an intimate portrait of an octogenarian widow, a middle-aged artist, and a pre-teen girl looking for relief from their brain disorders through cutting edge technologies and “awake” brain surgeries.

My Beautiful Dacia. On a road trip from communism to capitalism, filmmakers Stefan Constantinescu and Julio Soto follow different generations of Romanians with one common love: the Dacia car.

Nel Giardino dei Suoni (In the Garden of Sounds ). Nicola Bellucci tells the extraordinary story of Wolfgang Fasser, a blind musician and therapist who uses sound to initiate dialogues with severely handicapped children, helping them uncover ways to express themselves and find a place in a world not designed for them.

Tankograd. Directed by Boris Bertram, the film tells the story of Chelyabinsk , Russia . Once the site of a top-secret Cold War atomic bomb factory, the town is now the most radioactively polluted city in the world. But it’s also the unlikely hometown of a unique cultural institution: the vibrant, inspiring Chelyabinsk Contemporary Dance Theatre.


Special Presentation

The festival will feature a special presentation of the Museum’s collection of original glass lantern slides, some of which were recently rediscovered in the home of a former Museum library archivist. In the 19th century, these unique slides formed the foundation of a popular series of lectures conducted by Albert Bickmore, the Museum’s founder. With over 40,000 original glass lantern slides in the Museum Library’s collection, the breadth of subjects includes landscapes, scientific specimens, and expedition photography. Many were painstakingly hand-painted, and each is a stunning work of art.


WHEN Thursday–Sunday, November 11–14, 2010


WHERE Samuel J. and Ethel LeFrak Theater, Kaufmann Theater, Linder Theater, and People Center


American Museum of Natural History , Central Park West at 79th Street

TICKETS Tickets can be purchased by phone at 212-769-5200, online at amnh.org/mead, or at any of the American Museum of Natural History admission desks. For more information or to request a schedule by mail, the public should call 212-769-5305.



URL amnh.org/mead

Early Selection: brilliantlove

The Cucalorus Film Festival is underway and the early selection process has already completed! NCIndieSeen will feature one film from one of the many to be screened at this festival starting Nov. 11-14th! Take a look at this film recently screened at The Tribeca Film Festival...






Also known as "The Orgasm Diaries"

Sex becomes art and art becomes life for Manchester and Noon, two lovers who hole up in a garage apartment to practice their love while the rest of the world falls away. With their emotional and erotic needs so fully met, the two rarely have reason to engage with the outside world, and only scarcely consider what other needs they might have, like food, money, and plans for the future.


Noon is a taxidermist who trains her eye on the beauty of dead birds while Manchester the photographer documents their affair, creating highly charged and wonderfully erotic photographs. There is no artificiality in his work, only a couple of cheap instant cameras and Noon's willing participation.


Manchester's images catch the eye of a wealthy stranger, and soon a path is laid out that removes him from the cocooned environment of the garage apartment. What follows is the casual destruction of an idyllic world, Manchester and Noon being shaken from a beautiful dream where sex and ice pops were more than enough.


Each character in brilliantlove represents an aspect of erotology, the study of sexual love and lovemaking. Each character, too, is drawn to the relationship between Manchester and Noon, desirous as they are to find and identify the real thing.



Got A Case Of The Mondays?



Oscar hopeful films annouced in early selections of the Cucalorus Film Festival: Star News


Wall Street remake tops out at the box office: LA Times


James Cameron voted most powerful man in cinema...really??: Sify


Jacksonville native wraps up his film "The Complex" in NC: ENC Today


Mark Ruffalo plays The Hulk??: Gather

RECUT: The Matrix

Who knew that The Matrix was really a love story.  Remember the woman in the red dress?

Take a look at the clip below:

CFF: Day Five



Today is Friday and it is now Day Cinco of the Charlotte Film Festival!  If you're in town, fee free to check it out!  Below are a list of films to be screened.  Some are shorts and some are narratives.  You can catch the screening at the Regal Park Terrace 6 or EpiCentre Theaters in Charlotte, NC. 

The film festival after party is located at Kalu on 505 East Sixth Street in Charlotte, NC.  The festivities begin at 9:30 p.m.

Tonights screenings are:


Shorts Block
Catch up on 6 short films!





Toxic Oranges* - A Wall Street Fairy Tale

A homeless orange seller on Wall Street obtains short lived success and fame after inventing a clever credit system for his clients – until the system collapses because of an unfortunate problem with his orange supply.




earthwork  (Best Narrative Feature Award Winner)

 

In 1994, real-life crop artist Stan Herd travelled from Kansas to New York City to create a massive environmental artwork on land owned by Donald Trump. In an effort to show his unique perspective to a larger urban audience, Stan unexpectedly encounters the true meaning of his art and its ultimate last rewards.



"earthwork" movie trailer one - Rebel from Chris Ordal on Vimeo.


Shooting Beauty (Award Winning Documentary)




The story of an aspiring fashion photographer whose life is changed when she discovers true beauty hidden inside a facility for people living with extreme disabilities.



SHOOTING BEAUTY trailer from George Kachadorian on Vimeo.



12 Paces Without A Head (Mecklenburg Connection)




The 14th century on the North and Baltic seas … Having fun, sparking chaos and kicking up a riot have long been the way of life for high-sea pirates Klaus Störtebeker and Gödeke Michels. Endless maritime conquests have lent Störtebeker the reputation of a rebel and a revolutionary, and to his loyal troops of sea pirates he is a living legend. But the constant fighting and battling with those loathed “moneybags” of the Hanse, the medieval trade union, has worn down the once invincible buccaneers and their bold crew. When Störtebeker is seriously wounded in a battle to capture a ship, the legendary pirate begins to question whether this life holds a future for him, and when he ends up falling in love with the beautiful and feisty Bille, who evokes in him dreams of a quiet life on land, he is finally forced to face his future: What now Störtebeker? Guerrilla or gardener? A fight with Michels, the flaming full-blooded pirate is inevitable, until the discovery of a secret wonder weapon lifts their spirits and reignites their bond – but the mighty Hanse has also stocked up on its weapons and so the final battle nears …


Under the catchy slogan “Mecklenburg Connection” the Charlotte Regional Film Commission and the FilmlocationMV, both founded to support film teams in their regions, have a contracted partnership since 2009 to exchange more than experience in the movie business. The Charlotte Film Festival and the filmkunstfest Mecklenburg-Vorpommern in the German regional Capital Schwerin do exchange presentations of films made in the respective partner region. This year Klaus Störtebeker, who is said to have walked 12 paces after his head had chopped off, in order to save his crew from death, is the German side’s ambassador of the Mecklenburg Connection



House



How to describe Nobuhiko Obayashi’s indescribable 1977 movie House (Hausu)? As a psychedelic ghost tale? A stream-of-consciousness bedtime story? An episode of Scooby-Doo as directed by Mario Bava? Any of the above will do for this hallucinatory head trip about a schoolgirl who travels with six classmates to her ailing aunt’s creaky country home and comes face-to-face with evil spirits, a demonic house cat, a bloodthirsty piano, and other ghoulish visions, all realized by Obayashi via a series of mattes, animation, and collage effects. Equal parts absurd and nightmarish, House might have been beamed to Earth from some other planet. (Janus Films)







Failing Better Now



Mia’s wish for her 30th birthday is to get a new lease on life. It’s about time! Just fired and kicked out of her apartment Mia convinces here perfect sister Anna to let her pet sit Bernard, her sister’s beloved cat. When Bernard goes missing Mia begins a search of the East Village where she meets and falls for an aspiring rock star.




Failing Better Now TRAILER from Keren Atzmon on Vimeo.

Cucalorus Film Festival



Get yer Cucalorus Passes while they're hot!


Passes are on sale for the 2010 festival. Check out our newest pass - the Jibasorus - you get five tickets for only $40! We have a limited number of passes so get them now before they run out!



What’s playing this year at Cucalorus?

As always the best films of the year are playing at Cucalorus. If you're a fan of comedy, drama, suspense, or documentary, we've got it. We added over 30 films to the list just this week. Follow the link above to read about the great films coming your way in November.



Cucalorus "prefest" at Nutt Street Comedy Room

Have you wanted to go to Cucalorus but never quite known how to start? Take us for a test drive! Cucalorus hosts a screening of the documentary 'I am Comic' at the Nutt Street Comedy Room on Thursday, October 7th. Tickets at the door.



Paysage honors Cucalorus at Week of WOW

Paysage has tapped Cucalorus to honor during their Week of WOW. Take the opportunity to support your favorite film fest in style and educate yourself with a selection of cooking, design, and floral classes, or dive into trunk shows, a luncheon, and an evening cocktail party. October 5-7 at Lumina Station.



Read the New York Times review of ‘Enter the Void’

New York Times film critic Manohla Dargis ponders the "mellowing" of French filmmaker Gaspar Noe in her review of his latest film ‘Enter the Void’. Be ready to snatch up your ticket for the Cucalorus screening when they're released in October, meanwhile find out what all the fuss is about with this French "psychedelic melodrama."



Cinematique and Cucalorus Collaborate

Cinematique and Cucalorus present the critically acclaimed Australian film, 'Animal Kingdom', taking audiences into the terrifying Melbourne underworld, where tensions are on the brink of exploding between felons and renegade cops. The New York Times calls the film, the "Australian answer to Goodfellas, minus the wise-guy humor." November 1-3 at Thalian Hall.



Questions, comments and love songs can be emailed to: development@cucalorus.org


"One of the Top Ten Film Festivals in the United States" -- Brooks Institute



"One of the 25 Coolest Film Festivals" -- MovieMaker Magazine

Inhale



Every day, rising Santa Fe District Attorney Paul Chaney (Dermot Mulroney) and his wife, Diane (Diane Kruger), wait for word that there’s a donor for their daughter, Chloe. Diagnosed with a rare degenerative condition, Chloe is on a long list to receive a double lung transplant. As her health worsens, Paul becomes desperate to save his young child…so desperate that he’ll risk everything to organize an operation.




When Paul learns of a Dr. Novarro who performs illegal transplants in Juarez, Mexico, he heads south in a frantic search for the only man who may be able to save Chloe. But after arriving, he realizes Dr. Novarro’s medical ring runs deeper into a criminal underworld than he realized and people are not who they seem to be. With his career, family and his daughter’s life on the line, Paul finds himself at a critical crossroads, left to decide what is really “right” in this world.



Produced by Michelle Chydzik and Nathalie Marciano of 26 Films, INHALE was written by Walter A. Doty, John Clafin and Christian Escario, and features original music by James Newton Howard.


Hatchet 2



In Theaters unrated and uncut on October 1st nationwide!




Adam Green's Hatchet II picks up at the exact moment that 2006's Hatchet ends, wherein the quiet but hot-tempered Marybeth (Danielle Harris) is in a small boat in the Louisiana swamps, screaming for her life as she tries to free herself from the clutches of the deformed, swamp-dwelling killer Victor Crowley (Kane Hodder). Crowley has murdered Marybeth's family and other fellow vacationers who had come together on a tourist excursion in the swamplands outside of New Orleans.




Marybeth escapes from Crowley and manages to make it back to civilization, where she once again encounters voodoo shop proprietor Reverend Zombie (Tony Todd), who had helped to arrange Marybeth and company's earlier, ill-fated tour of the area. To help Marybeth and also serve his own secret agenda, Reverend Zombie recruits a hardened pack of hunters to head back into the swamp to seek revenge on Victor Crowley.



CFF: Day Four

La Isla

In July 2005 a huge explosion in the Guatemalan capital leads to the discovery of a historic archive of Guatemala’s national police. On the grounds of today’s police academy once stood the Island, the secret prison of the notorious Policia Nacional squads. Aided by an extraordinary visual and emotional interaction, the film traces the story of a tragedy of inconceivable atrocities. It is also the story of a young generation of archive workers willing to free their society from the stranglehold of its own history.



La isla- Archives of a tragedy from iskacine on Vimeo.









Skateland

Charismatic Ritchie Wheeler, brother and sister Brent and Michelle, and wise-cracking lady’s man Kenny share a seemingly complacent existence. Their summer of alcohol-induced idling cannot console the collapse of their tumultuous home lives amid the closing of their hometown hangout, the local roller rink. Set in the brutal but beautiful vastness of East Texas during the early 1980s.



AND....


The Award Winning Narrative will be announced today!  Stay tuned!

White Irish Drinkers


It’s early autumn of 1975 in Brooklyn and 18 year-old Brian Leary (Nick Thurston) is killing time, pulling off petty crimes with his street tough older brother Danny (Geoff Wigdor), whom he both idolizes and fears. They both live with their parents, Paddy (Stephen Lang), a longshoreman, and his long suffering wife, Margaret (Karen Allen) who puts up with Paddy’s drinking and abusive behavior, especially to her and Danny . Though Paddy has never been physically abusive to Brian, every time he sees his brother’s suffering, his heart breaks a little more.

Brian works for Whitey (Peter Riegert) at the failing Lafayette movie theater. Owing money to local mobsters, Whitey calls in a favor to an old friend who works with The Rolling Stones. They come up with a deal to have the Stones play at Whitey’s theater for one night only before their gig at Madison Square Garden and Brian is put in charge with getting the word out to everyone in the neighborhood. In the twists and turns that follow on that fateful night of the concert, both brothers must reexamine their dreams, and make decisions that will change their lives forever.




WOODSTOCK FILM FESTIVAL SCREENING SCHEDULE:


Friday, October 1st at 9:45pm- Upstate Films II Rhinebeck

Sunday, October 3rd at 3:45pm- Upstate Films Woodstock



CFF: Day Three


Both screenings will take place at Regal Park Terrace 6 in Charlotte, NC.  Check the film festival website http://www.charlottefilmfestival.org/ for details:



Died Young, Stay Pretty






A candid look at the underground poster culture in North America. This unique documentary examines the creative spirit that drives these indie graphic artists. They pick through the dregs of America’s schizophrenic culture and piece them back together. What you end up with is a caricature of the black and bloated heart that pulses greed through the US economy. The artists push further into the pulp to grab the attention of passersby, plastering art that’s both vulgar and intensely visceral onto the gnarled surfaces of the urban landscape. The film gives us intimate look at some of the giants of this modern subculture. Outside of their own circle, they’re virtually unknown. But within their ranks they make up an army of bare knuckle brawlers, publicly arguing the aesthetic merits of octopus imagery and hairy 70s porn stars. They’ve created their own visual language for describing the spotty underbelly of western civilization and they’re not shy about throwing it in the face of polite society. Along the way, they manage to create posters that are strikingly obscene, unflinchingly blasphemous and often quite beautiful. Yaghoobian shows these artists for what they are: the vivisectionists of America’s morbidly obese consumer culture.











Dogtooth






A hyper-stylized mixture of physical violence and verbal comedy, Dogtooth is a darkly funny look at three teenagers confined to their parents’ isolated country estate and kept under strict rule and regimen — an inscrutable scenario that suggests a warped experiment in social conditioning and control. Terrorized into submission by their father, the children spend their days devising their own games and learning an invented vocabulary (a salt shaker is a “telephone,” an armchair is “the sea”) — until a trusted outsider, brought in to satisfy the son’s libidinal urges, starts offering forbidden VHS tapes in return for sexual favors.



Hamptons International Film Festival


The HAMPTONS INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL is proud to announce its “Conversations With…” series along with The Golden Starfish Short Films in this year’s Competition. Now in its 18th year, The 2010 Hamptons International Film Festival runs from Thursday, October 7th through Monday, October 11th (including Columbus Day weekend) in East Hampton with additional venues in Southampton, Sag Harbor and Montauk. Festival headquarters are located at the beautiful c/o The Maidstone Hotel on Main Street in East Hampton.


The festival also announces the addition of the US premiere of Max Winkler's CEREMONY to the Spotlight Section. The comedy, starring Uma Thurman, Lee Pace and Michael Angarano, was shot on Long Island.

The Hamptons International Film Festival is proud to continue its popular “Conversation With…” series with Isabella Rossellini who will be attending the Festival to exhibit new episodes of her Sundance Channel short series, "Seduce Me", which is the follow up to her previous series, entitled "Green Porno".


Montauk resident Julian Schnabel will be attending the festival for both his “Conversation With…,” and for the US premiere of his new film MIRAL from The Weinstein Company which stars Freida Pinto, Willem Dafoe and Hiam Abbas.


James Franco will be attending the festival for both his “Conversation With…” and for his screening of Danny Boyle's new film 127 HOURS from Fox Searchlight, and for the East Coast Premiere screening of his competition short film THE CLERK”S TALE.


Stanley Tucci is attending the Festival as this year's Mentor for the Hamptons' signature Breakthrough Performers Program, which is a collaboration with European Film Promotion’s Shooting Stars initiative, highlighting the work of up and coming young actors. He will also take part in a “Conversation With…” where he will be recognized with an Outstanding Achievement in Acting Award.

The Golden Starfish Awards short film competition represents the finest achievements of the year in short form filmmaking. The winner will be announced at the awards ceremony on Sunday, Oct. 10 and will be awarded $1,000 in cash and will qualify for consideration at the 2010 Academy Awards.


”Our “Conversation With..” series will be one of the hot tickets of the festival again this year. To be able to sit back and listen to such distinguished guests as Schnabel, Franco, Tucci and Rossellini discuss their crafts is one of the things that really make our festival special,” states Director of Programming David Nugent. “We are excited to present such a great collection of short films from both emerging filmmakers, and distinct voices such as Neil LaBute, Cynthia Wade and Bill Plympton” adds Short’s Programmer, Cullen Gallegher.


As previously announced last week, the fest will open with the US Premiere of the Sony Pictures Classics BARNEY’S VERSION. The Festival's Southampton venue will kick off the following night with Tom Hooper's THE KINGS SPEECH. The US premiere of THE DEBT, featuring 2010 HIFF Rising Star Jessica Chastain, is the Centerpiece Film of the festival and HIFF alum Darren Aronofksy's chilling thriller BLACK SWAN is the Closing Film for the Festival.

For more information about the 2010 Festival, and to become a member, please visit the website at http://www.hamptonsfilmfest.org/

PROFESSOR


A rabbi with a Ph.D. and a Glock teaches the children of Iowa.



"features big ideas and occasional gunfire... Holstein comes across so vividly and genuinely... feels like an argument for a certain kind of cinematic purity."


- Peter Gutierrez, TribecaFilm.com


"Excellent!"


- Chicago Reader

The third film in Daniel Kraus' WORK Series, a set of independent documentaries designed to create an on-going record of the American worker.

"Endlessly intriguing...three films chronicling ordinary Americans at their rather extraordinary jobs. Their tiles are self-explanatory and deceptively simple — Sheriff, Musician and Kraus’s latest, Professor. The films, meanwhile, are anything but."


- Movieline



A college education has become part of the American dream. But what are we learning and who is teaching us?

For nearly four decades, Rabbi Jay Holstein has been one of the University of Iowa’s most popular professors. With a foul mouth, a raunchy sense of humor, and a piercing brilliance, Holstein uses massive 500-student lectures to turn inside-out the most fundamental assumptions on topics as divergent as sex, suicide, and the Holocaust. His courses, including “Quest for Human Destiny,” have become the stuff of campus legend, and between firing a Glock and running 10 miles per day, the 69-year-old Holstein spends his office hours wrestling with students over animal experimentation, alcohol use, and homosexuality.

Following the internationally acclaimed cinéma vérité of Sheriff and Musician, Professor tackles intellectual labor and in doing so grapples with some of life’s greatest and most elemental enigmas.



Check out a preview of the film here:

SCAD announces 2010 Savannah Film Festival competition films and jurors


The Savannah College of Art and Design has announced the competition film lineup and jurors for its 13th annual Savannah Film Festival, scheduled for Oct. 30-Nov. 6 in historic downtown Savannah.


Competition Films (for a complete list of all competition films, please contact ashearer@scad.edu)


Competitions will be held in the categories of narrative features, documentary features, professional shorts, animated shorts and student entries.

This year’s films in competition come from almost a dozen different countries including Cambodia, Japan, Brazil, Germany, Australia, the United Kingdom and Uzbekistan.

Among the 35 films in competition are:


• Academy Award-nominated filmmaker Bill Plympton’s animated short, “The Cow Who Wanted to be a Hamburger” about a cow seduced by advertising and led down the path of butchers and carnivores.


• Emmy Award-nominated MTV animator Patrick Smith’s musical short, “Masks,” a “Fantasia”-like animated interpretation of the music of rock musician Karl von Kries.


• “Dressed,” the inspirational story of fashion designer Nary Manivong, who defied the odds of a broken childhood and homelessness to follow his dream of showing his collection at New York's Fashion Week.


• “Quadrangle,” a compelling documentary about two middle-class couples, encouraged by the free-love zeitgeist of the '60s and '70s, who find a way out of their disappointing marriages by striking up an unusual four-way love affair.


• “Night Catches Us,” a feature film starring Anthony Mackie of “The Hurt Locker,” is about one man in 1976 dealing with the aftermath of the black power movement.


• “The Kid,” starring Rupert Friend of “Young Victoria,” is an adaptation of the best-selling memoir of the same name about a young man, beaten and bullied at home, who becomes caught up in the criminal underworld of London, where he was known as “The Kid.”

Competition Jurors

The jurors for this year’s Film Festival include:

• James Foley, director, “Glengarry Glen Ross,” “At Close Range,” TV’s “Twin Peaks”

• Lisa Gillian, head of production and development for Red Om Films, Julia Roberts’ production company

• Lynn Hirshfeld, Participant Media’s senior vice president of publishing, involved in production of “The Kite Runner,” “Charlie Wilson’s War,” “Good Night and Good Luck,” “An Inconvenient Truth”

• Alicia Lipinski, vice president of development at Headlong Entertainment

• Stephen Nathan, executive producer for the television series, “Bones.” Emmy nominee for writing “Tracey Takes On…” Produced “Laverne & Shirley,” “Everybody Loves Raymond” and “Joan of Arcadia”

• Amy Robinson, producer, “Julie & Julia,” “After Hours.” Actress, “Mean Streets”

• Kaila York, founder of Headlong Entertainment, a literary management and film production company



For more information on the films in competition, visit www.scad.edu/filmfest.
Further information about the Savannah Film Festival, including special screenings and guests, is forthcoming.

ABOUT THE SAVANNAH FILM FESTIVAL

Featuring the best in independent and innovative film from around the world, the Savannah Film Festival presents a full range of cinematic creativity from both award-winning professionals and emerging student filmmakers, bringing world-renowned filmmakers, producers, actors and journalists, as well as other film enthusiasts, to SCAD and Savannah for eight days of feature films, lectures, workshops, panels and competition films from a range of genres.



Highlights of the festival include intimate “coffee talks” with film professionals, Q & A panels, lectures and special screenings.

Last year’s Savannah Film Festival previewed award-winning films prior to their release, including “The Hurt Locker,” “Precious,” “Up in the Air,” “The White Ribbon,” “An Education” and “The Men Who Stare at Goats,” among others. The Festival played host to Woody Harrelson, Ben Foster, Jeremy Renner, Hugh Dancy, Emmy Rossum and Patricia Clarkson.

Past festival guests and honorees include John Waters, John Sayles, James Franco, James Ivory, Jeff Daniels, Alec Baldwin, Peter Bart, Roger Ebert, Terrence Malick, Sydney Pollack, the Redgrave siblings (Vanessa, Lynn and Corin), Malcolm McDowell and Milos Forman, among others.

Passes to the Savannah Film Festival will be available for purchase through the SCAD box office, 216 E. Broughton St., online at www.scadboxoffice.com or by phone at 912.525.5050.

PLEASE NOTE: THESE TICKET OUTLETS ARE NOT OPEN YET. FURTHER INFORMATION ON TICKET AVAILABILITY IS FORTHCOMING.



Individual tickets to screenings and workshops will be available through the SCAD box office beginning Friday, October 1 at 10 a.m. Morning and afternoon screenings and panels will be $5 for the general public; $3 for students, seniors and military; and free for SCAD students, faculty and staff with a valid SCAD ID.



The price for tickets to the evening screenings will be $10 for the general public and $5 for SCAD students, faculty and staff with a valid SCAD ID.



The Savannah Film Festival schedule is subject to change.

CFF: Day Two


CPCC Showcase:

The Charlotte Film Festival presents a collection of short films by Students, Faculty, and Friends of the Central Piedmont Community College’s Film & Video Program.




STUDENT Films:

The Few, by James Seilaff (Group O production)

Moments , by Andrey Solodyankin (Group O Production)

Children Play Games, by Andrew Olas

Simulation, by Andrew McGary

Where I End and You Begin, Aaron Barnet

FACULTY Films:

Between Dreams, John Errington

My Dinner with Sasquatch, Chris Pittman

9 LivesL: Masterless Film As a Teaching Tool, George Cochran

Metaphor: Just A Few Minutes for 2010 Art Show, George Cochran

FRIENDS of CPCC

A Story trailer by Rohit Gupta, Director

Just Mercy trailer by Jeffrey Gator Henry, Director



AND the premeire of...







Vengeance

In the latest from the director of EXILED and MAD DETECTIVE a French chef swears revenge after a violent attack on his daughter’s family in Hong Kong, during which her husband and her two children are murdered. To help him find the killers, he hires three local hit-men working for the mafia. (IFC Films)

CFF: Day One

Today is opening night of the Charlotte Film Festival!  Tonight's films are Soundtrack For A Revolution and Night Catches Us.  Both films will be screened at the Regal Park Terrace in Charlotte, NC.  It's not too late to get tickets for this event! 





Soundtrack for a Revolution

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. 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.










Night Catches Us

Marcus (Anthony Mackie, “The Hurt Locker,” “Brother to Brother”) returns to the Philadelphia neighborhood where he came of age during the Black Power movement. Protecting a dangerous secret in a struggle against the revolution he once embraced Marcus rediscovers a forbidden love, Patricia (Kerry Washington, “Ray,” “Lift”)


Film Artists Ban Together for Twenty-One Day Competition



The Project Twenty-One (P21) Film Competition, held October 1-3 of this year in Philadelphia’s International House, is a unique opportunity for independent filmmakers to compete against each other and create the best possible short film with limited resources and three weeks to complete it. As well, it is an opportunity for the filmmakers to be a part of a festival that not only encourages quality shorts, but to have filmmakers from around the New Jersey/Philadelphia area to network with each other and build a working relationship.


New Jersey based film production company, Justice Productions, headed by Doug Seidel of Monroe Township, NJ, took advantage of the marketing opportunities P21 opened to their filmmakers in 2009 with the J-Vlog, a video diary depicting 3-4 minute clips from each of the twenty-one production days, beginning with the kickoff event, to the writing process, production meetings, filming, editing, to the official drop off. The company’s perseverance and dedication to market their film was well received by the festival runners, filmmaking peers and area press alike, garnering them the Best Achievement in Marketing for their film ‘The Journal’s Paragon.’

This year, however, Justice has every intention to take their marketing ventures a step further with their film ‘Lovebytes.’ Along with the continuation of their J-Vlog, Justice has assembled other teams competing in this years P21 festival for an adventure serial to market not only themselves, but in a joint effort as well with three other teams taking part in this years competition.

“Naturally, I jumped at the opportunity, not only because of the marketing opportunity but also because I have wanted to work with these other teams for a while now,” says Wedge Wegman of Sickening Thud, another team partaking in the festival, “that's what makes [Philadelphia] so different. We're all working in our own companies, trying to produce films that attract the attention of the world, yet we're all able to support each other. We help each other to succeed, knowing that when we need help there will be someone willing.”

Working with Justice on this marketing venture are Philadelphia’s Sickening Thud, lead by Wegman, Philagape Productions, lead by Chris Pierdomenico,Drop the Hat, lead by Jason Heffner, and Toxic Avengers lead by Dave Bullis.

"I started thinking of the best way to get the word out about our film to the independent artist community,” says Doug Seidel, team leader of Justice Productions, “It is much easier to market when you aren't the only one doing it, all the meanwhile spreading the word about our films and helping out our community of Indie filmmakers. I have never met a group of filmmakers as friendly, talented and willing to look at the big picture as I have met at the Project Twenty1 film competition."

"Before I did ProjectTwenty1 for the first time in 2008, I honestly believed that I was one of only a handful of filmmakers in the area,” adds Chris Pierdomenico of team Philagape Productions, “However, over the last year, my involvement in this competition has made the following very clear: Philadelphia and its surrounding areas has an absolutely amazing, warm and closely-knit independent filmmaking community that I am proud to call myself a part of. I think that this marketing effort reinforces this idea. Justice is known for their innovative marketing, and I'm honored that my team was asked to be a part of that.”

The serial itself will feature Doug Seidel and fellow Justice Productions member Ray Willis as their superhero alter egos, the Duo of Justice, search for Project Twenty-1, which has been stolen. Along the way, the duo encounters trials and foes in the form of the other production teams participating.

For more information, visit Justice Productions on the web and follow theirbehind the scenes adventures.

For information on the Project Twenty-One Filmmaking Competition, including screening times and ticket prices, visit projecttwenty1.com.

RECUT: Mary Poppins

Who knew this would be one of the scariest movies of all time?  Hide your children!  Scary Mary is coming!


Petty Cash


Dirty Job Films and Reign Supreme Entertainment is proud to announce the addition of International film actress Bai Ling to the cast of Petty Cash. Bai Ling ( Crank: High Voltage, Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow , Anna and the King and ABCTV's Lost) will play Coco, a lonely sad soul who falls in a circle of violence. She will shoot her scenes at the end of September.



Petty Cash is written and directed by Ross Bigley, (president of Milwaukee Independent Film Society, festival director of Milwaukee Short Film Festival) Produced by Janet K. Beasley (How High, Modus Operandi), Shaylse Dominique (How High, Modus Operandi), Craig McCarthy and Timothy J. Lonsdale (Pushing Daisies, Charmed, Species) The film also stars Cyn Dulay (Satanic Panic, Baggage), Nathaniel Ross (Flawed, New Day) and Edy Cullen (The Violinist, Incest Death Squad 2)



Petty Cash will premiere October 30th.



Bai Ling Mini Biography: Born in the Szechwan province of China in 1966, Ling Bai began her show business career when she was in grade school with the school choir. When she was 14, she enlisted in the Chinese People's Liberation Army where she spent three years in a performance troop entertaining soldiers stationed in Tibet. After her service, Ling became a performer in a local theater in Beijing where she eventually became involved in the pro-Democracy protests in Tiananmen Square in 1989. As a result of her involvement, Ling emigrated to the USA in 1991 where she soon found work in the Hollywood acting industry with her first English-language role as a villain in The Crow (1994). From then on, Ling found steady work in playing various character roles from the villainous Miss East in Wild Wild West (1999) to a Chinese interpreter in Oliver Stone's Nixon (1995) to a part in Anna and the King (1999), in which she was forced to cut her long hair short for the role. Her appearance in the controversial Red Corner (1997) in playing a pragmatic Chinese People's lawyer jeopardizes her returns to her homeland every year since the film's release.



her IMDB link:

http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000499/


More info on the film:

http://www.dirtyjobfilms.com/index.php?content=productions

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1711493/

Indie Poster Culture Comes To Charlotte




The 5th annual Charlotte Film Festival has been very fortunate to team up with numerous film sponsors to bring amazing films to the Charlotte region. AIGA Charlotte has been instrumental in teaming up with CFF to bring “Died Young, Stayed Pretty” that will play at Regal Park Terrace on Wednesday, September 22nd at 7 PM.

A candid look at the underground poster culture in North America. This unique documentary examines the creative spirit that drives these indie graphic artists. They pick through the dregs of America’s schizophrenic culture and piece them back together. What you end up with is a caricature of the black and bloated heart that pulses greed through the US economy. The artists push further into the pulp to grab the attention of passersby, plastering art that’s both vulgar and intensely visceral onto the gnarled surfaces of the urban landscape. The film gives us intimate look at some of the giants of this modern subculture. Outside of their own circle, they’re virtually unknown. But within their ranks they make up an army of bare knuckle brawlers, publicly arguing the aesthetic merits of octopus imagery and hairy 70s porn stars. They’ve created their own visual language for describing the spotty underbelly of western civilization and they’re not shy about throwing it in the face of polite society.

Along the way, they manage to create posters that are strikingly obscene, unflinchingly blasphemous and often quite beautiful. Yaghoobian shows these artists for what they are: the vivisectionists of America’s morbidly obese consumer culture. The film also has a North Carolina tie in by including work from poster designer Ron Liberti from Carborro NC. This documentary is a film that AIGA Charlotte has wanted to bring to the region for a while now. “AIGA Charlotte is thrilled to be a part of the 5th Annual Charlotte Film Festival. When we first initiated the partnership with CFF, our organization had been pursuing a film about rock posters for over a year but had no luck getting it booked. Through this union of creative forces, a screening of Died Young Stayed Pretty is becoming a reality.

This event is something we could not have accomplished without CFF's help and support. Plus, we are already lining up more exciting films to screen with CFF in the coming months. In the words of Humphrey Bogart, "I think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship.” –AIGA Charlotte.



AIGA Charlotte was founded in 2000 as a chapter of the oldest and largest membership association for  professionals engaged in the discipline, practice, and culture of designing. Nationally, AIGA now represents 20,000 designers through 65 national chapters and over 200 student groups.

Barry Munday



An unexpected dismemberment and a one-night-stand paternity suit set the stage for off-key comedy Barry Monday, the closing night feature film for this year’s Charlotte Film Festival.  Title character Barry (played by Patrick Wilson), a self-titled ladies’ man, wakes up in the hospital after being attacked in a movie theater to find that he is missing his “family jewels.”

Soon after, he is served paternity papers from Ginger (Judy Greer), a spectacle-clad, eternally pessimistic woman he can’t even remember. As Barry realizes that this may be his only chance to become a father, he discovers that it takes more than testicles to be a man. As the film’s tagline suggests, “It’s what’s missing that makes them complete.”


The film, which premiered this year at SXSW and has since gained widespread acclaim, is based on the 2003 novel Life is a Strange Place by Frank Turner Hollon. First-time director Chris D’Arienzo teams up with a cast of farce superstars, including Malcom McDowell, Chloë Sevigny, Cybill Shepherd and Shea Whigham. The film is scheduled for wide release on Oct. 1.


Barry Munday is one of more than 60 films that will be showcased at this year’s Film Festival. The Fifth Annual Charlotte Film Festival will be held Sept. 20-26 at two locations – EpiCentre Theaters and Regal Park Terrace, both in Charlotte.


Barry Munday will screen at 8:00 p.m. on Sunday, Sept. 26 at EpiCentre Theaters. For tickets, see http://www.charlottefilmfestival.org/2010/barry-munday-closing-night-film or visit the EpiCentre Box Office.



The Charlotte Film Festival is a partner of Indie Film Force, a non-profit organization featuring and debuting groundbreaking independent films. For more information about this year’s festival, special events and screenings contact Brandon Falls at 704-807-0435, or pr@CharlotteFilmFestivl.org. Visit The Charlotte Film Festival on Facebook and on Twitter @CLTFilmFest, or find out more at charlottefilmfestival.org.


North Carolina's History Documented in Upcoming CFF Film



Greek Americans are as woven into Charlotte’s fabric as the oak trees that line its streets. In a special presentation, The Fifth Annual Charlotte Film Festival is proud to present “Hometown Stories: The Greek Americans of Charlotte.”

This inspiring documentary explores the numerous contributions Greeks have made in Charlotte over the last 100 years. The Emmy Award winning story highlights their deep roots winding back to the turn of the 20th century when Charlotte was barely on the map. The Greeks – known now for festivals, food and civic contributions – survived poverty, foreign occupations, and war. Working together they managed to bring a wealth of culture and community to their new home: America.

The film is one of many produced at WTVI, Charlotte’s award-winning public television station that has provided education and entertainment for 45 years. This year, the station also is co-sponsoring “A Long and Winding Road,” another film with Carolina roots.

“A Long and Winding Road” encapsulates the story of the Blue Ridge Parkway, the National Park Service’s most visited treasure. Surprisingly, the 469-mile parkway was not initially welcomed by the settlers of the North Carolina and Virginia mountains. And this controversial documentary reveals the stunning secret deal that shaped the route of the Parkway and changed lives and American society in unexpected ways.

Never Let Me Go



NEVER LET ME GO directed by Mark Romanek (One Hour Photo), is based on the highly acclaimed, bestselling novel by Kazuo Ishiguro and adapted for the screen by Alex Garland (Sunshine, 28 Days Later).


The film stars Oscar® nominee Keira Knightley (Pride & Prejudice, Atonement), BAFTA winner and Oscar® nominee Carey Mulligan (An Education) and BAFTA TV award winner Andrew Garfield (Boy A, Red Riding).


NEVER LET ME GO is a remarkable story of love, loss and hidden truths. Kathy (Mulligan), Tommy (Garfield) and Ruth (Knightley) spend their childhood at Hailsham, a seemingly idyllic English boarding school where they discover a dark and haunting secret about their future. As they leave the shelter of the school behind and draw inexorably closer to the devastating fate that awaits them as adults, they must also confront the deep feelings of love, jealousy and betrayal that threaten to pull them apart. Twentieth Century Fox will release the film on 21st January 2011.


NEW DOCUMENTARY FUND FROM TRIBECA FILM INSTITUTE



The Tribeca Film Institute (TFI) today announced its new TFI Documentary Fund, presented by HBO, which will provide more than $100,000 in fellowships and grants for engaging, character-driven documentaries. As the not-for-profit Institute enters its tenth year, it will award more than $500,000 in filmmaker support grants throughout 2011. Submissions are currently open.



In addition to the TFI Documentary Fund, presented by HBO -which will provide select filmmakers with financial support, supervision and guidance- TFI will continue to administer grants through three highly successful existing funds, and expand the industry-lauded Tribeca All Access program to include grants to all participating filmmakers. The Gucci Tribeca Documentary Fund provides finishing grants totaling $100,000 to feature-length documentaries that highlight and humanize topics of social significance. The TFI Sloan Filmmaker Fund will award up to $140,000 to support compelling narrative filmmaking that explores scientific, mathematic and technological themes. The Tribeca All Access Program will continue cultivating relationships between filmmakers from traditionally underrepresented communities and film industry executives, and provide each 2011 participant with $10,000 in order to maximize the program’s impact. And, the TFI Latin America Media Arts Fund will support innovative film and video artists working in narrative or documentary film and living in Mexico, Central and South America.


“For nearly a decade Tribeca Film Institute has been discovering and developing emerging independent filmmakers,” said Tribeca Film Institute Board Co-Chair Jane Rosenthal. “We are privileged to be able to continue to nurture diverse and authentic stories and for the first time provide over a half a million dollars in funding, offering storytellers at every level the opportunity to advance their work.”


“Through the generous support of our partners, including the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation who has been with us since our founding, new partners like HBO, and returning supporters, including Gucci, Bloomberg, Time Warner, and Moviecity, we have been able to provide talented filmmakers with funding and professional guidance over the past ten years,” said Beth Janson, Artistic Director of TFI. “We are excited to expand the reach and depth of our programming to support individual artists in the field.”


All submissions open today, with an early deadline of Nov. 8, 2010 and final submission deadline of Dec. 8, 2010. For rules and regulations, visit www.tribecafilminstitute.org.

Guess The Screenplay...

INT. BOB'S ROOM - NIGHT




Bob opens the door, Charlotte's standing there trying to



look casual, she's happy to see him (she's put some pants on



and flip flops instead of her dumb looking Ugg boots).



She knocks into a low table, bumping her knee as she comes



in.



Bob pours some cold sake, smoothly.



Bob and Charlotte watch La Dolce Vita with Japanese subtitles



on the TV.



BOB



Hans was very attentive to you.



CHARLOTTE



I think he kind of liked me...Is



that so hard to imagine?



BOB



No, its easy.



CHARLOTTE



How'd a Japanese guy get a name like



Hans?


BOB



I don't know.


CUT TO:

Anita Ekberg holds the kitten on T.V.


 

CUT TO:


Charlotte gets up to pour more sake.


She picks up and looks at a prescription bottle on his night



stand and reads the label : Lipitor.


CHARLOTTE



Do you remember when we met at the



bar? ...You were wearing a tuxedo.


BOB



But the first time I saw you was in



the elevator.


CHARLOTTE



Really?

BOB



Yeah, you don't remember?


 
She shrugs.

CHARLOTTE



Did I scowl at you?


 
BOB



No, you smiled.


 
CHARLOTTE



I don't remember.

BOB



I know, I kind of blend in here.




HINT: In 2003 it won an Independent Spirit Award for Best Screenplay



Still not sure??? Here's the answer