Industry

  • AFI Celebrates 50th Anniversary Commencement with Honorees Carol Burnett, Marshall Herskovitz and Edward Zwick

    [caption id="attachment_22586" align="aligncenter" width="1200"]AFI 2017 Honorary Degree recipients Marshall Herskovitz, Carol Burnett and Edward Zwick AFI 2017 Honorary Degree recipients Marshall Herskovitz, Carol Burnett and Edward Zwick[/caption] The American Film Institute (AFI) held a historic AFI Conservatory Commencement at the TCL Chinese Theatre in Hollywood on Monday, June 5, 2017.  The date of the event marked the 50th Anniversary of the Institute’s formation in 1967, with its honorees – the AFI Class of 2017, as well as Honorary Degree recipients Carol Burnett, Marshall Herskovitz (AFI Class of 1975) and Edward Zwick (AFI Class of 1975) – spanning the past, present and future of the art form. [caption id="attachment_22587" align="aligncenter" width="1196"]AFI Board of Directors Chair Robert A. Daly; President & CEO Bob Gazzale; President Emerita Jean Picker Firstenberg; Founding Director George Stevens, Jr.; Board of Trustees Chair Sir Howard Stringer AFI Board of Directors Chair Robert A. Daly; President & CEO Bob Gazzale; President Emerita Jean Picker Firstenberg; Founding Director George Stevens, Jr.; Board of Trustees Chair Sir Howard Stringer[/caption] In celebration of the Anniversary, AFI Founding Director George Stevens, Jr., joined AFI President Emerita Jean Picker Firstenberg and current AFI President and CEO Bob Gazzale — bringing together all three presidents from AFI’s history. Joining them and the AFI Class of 2017 were Sir Howard Stringer, AFI Board of Trustees Chair, and Robert A. Daly, AFI Board of Directors Chair. “Fifty years ago, Gregory Peck and I announced the creation of the American Film Institute, with high aspiration and great hopes,” said Stevens. “Its mission was to advance and elevate the art of film, and one central idea was to create a Center for Advanced Film Studies [known today as the AFI Conservatory], a bridge for young people from learning to make films to becoming professional filmmakers. You, the graduates of 2017, are a fulfillment of that dream.” [caption id="attachment_22591" align="aligncenter" width="1200"]AFI Class of 2017 AFI Class of 2017[/caption] The Commencement honorees — including this year’s AFI Conservatory graduates, the world’s newest filmmakers — underscored the spirit of the Anniversary, as 2017 also marks the 50th birthday of THE CAROL BURNETT SHOW, and Herskovitz and Zwick are both prominent alumni of the Conservatory. A Doctorate of Fine Arts honoris causa was conferred upon Burnett by special guest Kristin Chenoweth, and Doctorates of Communication Arts honoris causa were conferred upon Herskovitz and Zwick by Firstenberg. All three Honorary Degree recipients shared words of wisdom with the Class of 2017. Chenoweth sang a refrain from Burnett’s trademark closing song, “I’m So Glad We Had This Time Together.” Burnett began her comments with her trademark “Tarzan yell” and urged Fellows to “make great art,” while adding, “Nothing is impossible if you believe hard enough, and you work hard enough.” Herskovitz and Zwick shared anecdotes from their longtime creative collaboration, which began at the AFI Conservatory, and which Herskovitz described as “an extraordinary partnership — and the longest living partnership in Hollywood today.” “Leaving here you are not alone,” said Zwick, stressing the uniquely collaborative nature of the Conservatory program. “Your classmates will be there to serve as a living reminder of who you are and what you dream of.” As heard in remarks throughout the event, the AFI Conservatory program has a deep history of propelling alumni to success and acclaim ­— including, most recently, Patty Jenkins (AFI Class of 2000), whose WONDER WOMAN had the biggest box-office opening for a female director ever.

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  • 13 Indie Films Selected for 2017 Sundance Institute Directors and Screenwriters Labs

    Cesar Cervantes and Vincent Reyna on the set of "Hot Clip" at the 2016 Directors Lab. © 2016 Sundance Institute | Photo by Brandon Cruz.

    Thirteen new independent feature projects from Cuba, Chile, Kenya, the UK and the U.S. have been selected for the 2017 Sundance Institute Directors and Screenwriters Labs

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  • Sundance Institute Selects 11 Artists with VR and Emerging Media Storytelling Projects for New Frontier Story Lab

    [caption id="attachment_13653" align="aligncenter" width="1200"]Sundance Institute Sundance Institute[/caption] Sundance Institute has selected six projects for the annual New Frontier Story Lab, which supports independent artists working at the cutting-edge convergence of film, art, media, live performance and technology. The New Frontier Story Lab is a week-long intensive that empowers creatives with individualized story sessions, conversations about key artistic, design and technology issues and case study presentations from experts in diverse related disciplines. Past participants include Roger Ross Williams, Yung Jake, Chris Milk, Hasan Minhaj, Tommy Pallotta, Navid and Vassiliki Khonsari, Karim Ben Khelifa, Tracy Fullerton and Yasmin Elayat. The Lab takes place May 17-22 at the Sundance Resort in Utah, under the guidance of Sundance Institute Feature Film Program Founding Director Michelle Satter and Kamal Sinclair, Director of New Frontier Lab Programs. Sinclair said, “Our New Frontier Story Lab brings accomplished Fellows together to experiment with their projects as they continue to break new ground and challenge the ever-evolving medium. Interactions at the Lab empower these emerging new media creators, explore different styles of storytelling and new ways of engaging audiences through experiential art.”

    Meet the creative teams and projects selected for the 2017 Sundance Institute New Frontier Story Lab:

    Belle of the Ball Rosie Haber and Silas Howard Belle of the Ball is an interactive VR experience, blurring the lines between documentary and fiction. Collaboratively created with queer and trans houseless youth in New York City, take the journey they face every day as they turn to the streets for resources, survival, and friendship. As day turns into night, you fall into the arms of your chosen family at an underground drag ball. 3D glitter never looked so good. Silas Howard is an award-winning director and writer for feature and documentary film, music video, web series and television. Howard’s career took off in 2001, when his first feature film, By Hook or By Crook premiered at the Sundance Film Festival, ultimately winning five Best Feature awards across the festival circuit. Recent television credits include Transparent, This Is Us, The Fosters, Faking It and Hudson Valley Ballers. This summer he’ll direct his third feature, A Kid Like Jake, starring Claire Danes, Jim Parsons and Octavia Spencer. On June 21, 2017  Showtime will release his latest feature documentary on six trans and gender nonconforming activists, titled More Than T. Rosie Haber is an aesthetically minded writer and director. They took home the audience award at LA Film Festival and the New Orleans Film Festival and were nominated for a 2017 GLAAD award for their digital doc series New Deep South—the third episode of which premiered at 2017 Tribeca Film Festival. Haber has also been a recipient of a National Endowment for the Arts grant, and a fellow at both Yaddo and MacDowell artist colonies. They are a writer on the upcoming film adaptation of the classic transgender novel Stone Butch Blues. The Incident VR Series (Dinner Party, Eps 1) Charlotte Stoudt and Laura Wexler The Incident is a VR anthology series that immersively dramatizes true-life unexplained mysteries. Inspired by Rod Serling’s Twilight Zone, each 10-15 minute episode provides a thrill ride into the supernatural; a gripping emotional story; and an exploration of the often unacknowledged social, psychological, or political tensions that inform the Incident’s central mystery. Episode One, “Dinner Party,” is based on the true story of Betty and Barney Hill, an interracial couple who reported America’s first nationally known UFO abduction incident in 1961. Laura Wexler is a writer and producer whose writing credits include Pandora’s Box, in development at Amazon Studios; the nonfiction book, Fire in a Canebrake: The Last Mass Lynching in America (Scribner); and journalism pieces published in The New York Times, The Washington Post, and elsewhere. Producing credits include The Stoop Storytelling Series, a live show and podcast featuring “ordinary” people telling the extraordinary true tales of their lives. Charlotte Stoudt is a writer-producer currently on Showtime’s Homeland. She has worked extensively as a dramaturg, developing new plays at venues including The Kennedy Center, Baltimore’s Center Stage, the Ojai Playwrights Festival and BAM. Holding a doctorate from Oxford University, she has written on the arts for the Village Voice, Variety, Los Angeles Times and National Public Radio. T3511 Heather Dewey-Hagborg and Toshiaki Ozawa T3511 is a post-genomic true love story of a biohacker’s growing relationship to an anonymous donor. Told through an immersive living sculptural installation, T3511 draws the viewer into an emerging world of ubiquitous genomic sequencing, biobanking, and commodification of human biological materials. Heather Dewey-Hagborg is a transdisciplinary artist and educator who is interested in art as research and critical practice. She has shown work internationally at events and venues including the World Economic Forum, Shenzhen Urbanism and Architecture Bienniale, the New Museum, and PS1 MOMA. Her work has been widely discussed in the media, from the New York Times and the BBC to TED and Wired. She is an Assistant Professor of Art and Technology Studies at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and a 2016 Creative Capital award grantee in the area of Emerging Fields. Toshiaki Ozawa’s history at Sundance includes lighting and cinematography for films Angela (1995), I Shot Andy Warhol (1996), Buffalo 66 (1998), America Psycho (2000), Closer (2001),  On_Line (2002), Personal Velocity (2002), Leonard Cohen: I’m Your Man (2006), Patti Smith: Dream of Life (2008). A 2004 effort with Vincent Gallo and Chloe Sevigny, The Brown Bunny, simultaneously made Cahiers du Cinema’s yearly top 10 and was named worst film in Cannes’s history by Roger Ebert. Ozawa’s 2015 collaboration with Laurie Anderson, Heart of a Dog, was shortlisted for the Academy Awards. Past artist and photographer collaborators include: Matthew Barney, Mike and Doug Starn, Richard Avedon, Albert Watson, Bruce Weber, Mario Testino, Leandro Katz, Isaac Julien, Mario Sorrenti, Terry Richardson, Enrique Badulescu, Anthony Cotsifas, Rankin, Santiago & Mauricio, Barnaby Roper, Toni Dove, Luke DuBois, and Marina Zurkow. Counterpoint Griffin Frazen In a time when technology is creating extraordinary extensions of human capabilities, the boundaries of private space have never been more vulnerable to penetration. Counterpoint is a narrative virtual reality film about a military drone operator who develops a perversely intimate relationship with his target. Griffin Frazen is a designer and director. He holds a master’s degree in architectural design from Princeton University. He won an Emmy in 2015 for outstanding main title design for Manhattan. Over the last three years, Frazen has worked as an independent director and designer for a range of mediums, at a variety of scales, including music videos, concerts, web and interactive projects. Currently, he is working with Here Be Dragons and SITU Research. A Ritual of Exile: Blood Speaks Poulomi Basu and Debra Anderson A Ritual of Exile: Blood Speaks is a transmedia activism and WebVR project that investigates the causes and consequences of normalized violence against women perpetrated under the guise of tradition. Focused on the ritual of Chaupadi in Nepal, viewers experience the brutal exile of women forced to live in isolation during their menstrual periods and following childbirth. Poulomi Basu is a storyteller, transmedia artist and women’s rights activist, whose work documents the role of women in isolated communities and conflict zones. Poulomi’s ongoing work, A Ritual Of Exile, won the FotoEvidence Book Award 2017, Magnum Emergency Fund 2016, and was a W.Eugene Smith Finalist 2016. Her book, Centralia, is currently shortlisted for the MACK First Book Award and will be displayed in Photo London 2017. Additionally the Magnum Foundation also awarded her the What Works 2016 Human Right Fellow grant and she was nominee for the FOAM Paul Huff award in 2017 and 2015. She won the Firecracker 2nd place in 2015 for Mothers of ISIS Fighters which is due for an exhibition on Poetics of War and Secrecy in Oxford 2017. Debra Anderson is a VR producer, director and entrepreneur who made her Cinematic VR debut in 2015 with In\Formation, a documentary in VR about VR featuring pioneers in the medium. She is currently co-creating and producing A Ritual of Exile: Blood Speaks, a WebVR storyworld that investigates normalized violence against women through the lens of Chaupadi, an illegal religious practice in Nepal. Debra is Co-founder and Chief Strategy Officer at Datavized, a software company building a 3D publishing platform for collaborative creation and distribution of immersive content on the web. Anderson founded and organizes the Women in VR Meetup in New York, designed and instructs the first Digital Development: WebVR course at Parsons School of Design, and has produced WebVR works for The National Film Board of Canada and Mozilla Corporation. Inside a Mind at War Sutu and Charles Henden “When you sign up for the military you know that you might witness death, but you never receive any training to learn how to cope with it,” explained American-Iraq War Veteran Scott England. This immersive virtual reality project explores the banality and horrors of war and England’s battle with mental illness through hand-drawn illustrations of places based on his memories. Sutu is an Australian artist exploring the intersection of creativity, technological innovation and social justice.  Over the last decade, he pioneered new technologies for telling stories in new ways. Through his work with Big hART, Australia’s leading arts and social Justice organization, he has directed community development projects including Neomad – the Gold Ledger, an award-winning comic book that is currently optioned to become animated series. He is the founder of EyeJack, an Augmented Reality art publishing company. Sutu has been commissioned to create immersive VR experiences for Doctor Strange and Google. His work has won Webby, FWA, ATOM, Ledger and JMAF awards and he was a nominee for the 2015 Eisner and Future of Storytelling Awards. Charles Henden is a creative engineer with a passion for bringing interactive worlds to life. With a career stretching from licensed movie titles on the Nintendo Wii to real-time sports simulations on the PlayStation 4, nothing has excited Charles more than his current work with the emerging potential of VR, AR and Mixed Reality platforms. Amelia Winger-Bearskin (Creative Observer) Amelia Winger-Bearskin will attend this year’s Lab as Creative Observer; she’ll reflect on the learnings generated over the week and share those reflections through Sundance Institute’s website, newsletter and social platforms. Winger-Bearskin is an artist, creative director and organizer who develops cultural communities at the intersection of art, technology and advocacy. She founded and directed the DBRS Innovation Labs, co-founded VRSalon.org and the Stupid Hackathon, and her project credits include Imagination Codes and #Drowning.  

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  • Native American Filmmakers, Erin Lau and Shaandiin Tome Selected for 2017 Sundance Institute Native Filmmakers Lab

    [caption id="attachment_13653" align="aligncenter" width="1200"]Sundance Institute Sundance Institute[/caption] Two Native American filmmakers, Erin Lau (Native Hawaiian) and Shaandiin Tome (Diné), have been selected to participate in the 2017 Sundance Institute Native Filmmakers Lab. The Lab takes place May 14 to 19 in Santa Fe, NM. During the Lab, Fellows work with a cast, crew, and supervising producer to shoot workshop versions of scenes from their short films under the expert creative mentorship of Program alumni and other established industry professionals and Program staff. The Lab encourages Fellows to hone their storytelling and technical skills in a hands-on and supportive environment. After the Lab they will receive targeted support from supervising producers, grants to fund the production of their short films and will attend the annual Native Forum at the January 2018 Sundance Film Festival for ongoing support on their projects. N. Bird Runningwater (Cheyenne/Mescalero Apache), director of the Institute’s Native American and Indigenous Program, said, “We welcome Erin and Shaandiin to the Sundance Institute family and look forward to watching them create and collaborate with the advisors in this unique space. Supporting Native and Indigenous storytellers is crucial to the Institute’s mission and has helped launch the careers of some of the most innovative Native storytellers working today.” Three generations of Native artists have been supported since the founding of the Institute, with the goal of identifying and further uplifting Indigenous voices of the fourth generation within film and culture. The Native Program has built and sustained a unique support cycle for Indigenous artists through grants, labs, mentorships, fellowships, the platform of Sundance Film Festival, and screenings in Native communities to inspire new generations of storytellers. The Institute has established a rich legacy of commitment to Native filmmaking, supporting more than 300 Native and Indigenous filmmakers over the years, including Taika Waititi (Te Whānau-ā-Apanui), Chris Eyre (Cheyenne/Arapaho), Sterlin Harjo (Seminole/Muskogee), Billy Luther (Diné/Hopi/Laguna Pueblo), Andrew Okpeaha MacLean (Iñupiaq), Aurora Guerrero (Xicana), Sydney Freeland (Diné), Blake Pickens (Chickasaw), Ciara Lacy (Kanaka Maoli),Razelle Benally (Oglala Lakota/Dine) and Lyle Mitchell Corbine Jr. (Bad River Band of the Lake Superior Tribe). The filmmakers serving as Creative Advisors for this year’s Native Lab include: Andrew Ahn (Spa Night), Bernardo Britto (Yearbook), Sydney Freeland (Diné) (Drunktown’s Finest; Deidra & Laney Rob a Train) and Blackhorse Lowe (Diné) (Shimasani; 5th World; Chasing the Light). Artists and projects selected for the 2017 Native Filmmakers Lab: The Moon and the Night Erin Lau (Native Hawaiian) Set in rural Hawai’i, a teen is forced to confront her ex-convict father after he enters her beloved pet in a dogfight. Native Hawaiian Filmmaker Erin Lau received her bachelor’s degree in film production from the Academy for Creative Media at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa (UH) in 2014. During her time there, she wrote and directed several shorts, including Little Girl’s War Cry. The script, which focused on domestic violence against women and children, was selected out of a 1,000+ submissions by the Film Raro Competition to be one of six fully funded and produced films in the Cook Islands. Once completed, the film went on to win the 2013 Eurocinema Student Film Award and has screened around the world including festivals located in New Zealand, France, Guam, Fiji and Canada. Erin also crafted a short documentary titled, Ka Pua (The Flower), which focused on the life of her great grandmother who, until her death at the age of 94, cared for her mentally handicapped granddaughter. She is currently pursuing her MFA in Film Directing at Chapman University’s Dodge College of the Arts and will graduate in Spring of 2018. Mud (Hastl’ishnii) Shaandiin Tome (Diné) On the last day of her life, a woman struggles to accept the extent to which her life has been affected by addiction. Shandiin Tome graduated cum laude from the University of New Mexico with a BFA in Film and Digital Media Production. She is an alumna of the 2016 Sundance Full Circle Fellowship. As an aspiring new filmmaker, her experience ranges working in small roles to key positions in major motion pictures, documentaries and independent films. In the past year, Tome resided in Los Angeles, working on several productions and learning more about independent film by interning with Sundance Institute. She currently lives in Albuquerque, aiming to bring resonating imagery in convergence with story while illustrating her perspective as a Diné woman.

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  • Julie Perini Wins 2017 Oregon Media Arts Fellowship to Fund ‘The Story of Butch Lesbian Freedom Fighter rita bo brown’

    Julie Perini Julie Perini has been selected by The Northwest Film Center, Oregon Arts Commission, and Portland Film Office as the winner of the 2017 Oregon Media Arts Fellowship (OMAF). Julie Perini is a Portland-based media who works in experimental and documentary film and video, installations, and live events. Originally from Poughkeepie, NY, she has been exploring her immediate surroundings with cameras since age 15 when she discovered a VHS camcorder in her parent’s suburban home. Perini’s work often explores the areas between fact and fiction, the staged and improvised, and the personal and political, often in response to social movements happening locally and globally. Perini’s work has exhibited and screened internationally at such venues as the Centre Pompidou-Metz (France), Artists’ Television Access (San Francisco), Visible Evidence XX (Stockholm), The Horse Hospital (London), Cornell Cinema (Ithaca, NY), Microscope Gallery (New York City), among others. She has been awarded artist residencies at Yaddo, Signal Fire, Kimmel Harding Nelson Center, and Djerassi Resident Artists Program and is currently employed as an Associate Professor in the School of Art + Design at Portland State University. She has received grants and fellowships in support of her work from the New York Foundation for the Arts, the New York State Council on the Arts, The Regional Arts and Culture Council, the Oregon Arts Commission, and The Precipice Fund. The $5,500 Fellowship award will go towards funding The Gentleman Bank Robber: The Story of Butch Lesbian Freedom Fighter rita bo brown, a feature-length documentary that tells the story of bo brown, a white working-class butch from Klamath Falls, Oregon who was a member of the revolutionary George Jackson Brigade, an underground, militant revolutionary prison abolitionist group based in Seattle, Washington in the 1970s. As a member of the George Jackson Brigade, bo became known as “The Gentleman Bank Robber” for combing her butch style of dress with a polite way of demanding funds from bank tellers, one of the ways the Brigade funded its militant activities to protest military aggression, injustice, and exploitation. The Oregon Media Arts Fellowship supports filmmakers who have demonstrated an ongoing commitment to the media arts. Jurors reviewed 42 submissions from applicants throughout the state, weighing artistic merit, the potential of the proposed activity to advance the artist’s work, and the feasibility of the projects proposed. The Fellowship is funded by the Oregon Arts Commission and the Portland Film Office and administered by Northwest Film. The application deadline for the 2018 Oregon Media Arts Fellowships is January 1, 2018

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  • Montclair Film Announces Student Winners of 2017 Emerging Filmmaker Competition

    Stephen Colbert and Steve Carell Montclair Film Festival Montclair Film announced the winners of the 2017 Emerging Filmmaker Competition (EFC), a program that screens work by students in grades 4-12 from the Tri-State Area and beyond.  This year, over 90 films were submitted in three categories: Cinemaniacs (grades 4-6), Storytellers (grades 7-9), and Visionaries (grades 10-12). Winning films were selected by a group of educators and industry professionals, and all winning films will be screened at the Montclair Film Festival’s EFC Showcase on Saturday, April 29, at 11:00 a.m. at the Wellmont Theater in Montclair, NJ. Montclair Film has also selected 15 students from across the area to participate in the Montclair Film Festival’s Junior Jury. The jurors will review a selection of films, meet with industry professionals to learn about the process of jury deliberation, adjudicate, and select a winning film for the festival’s Junior Jury Award, to be given on Saturday, May 6th, 2017. The Montclair Film Festival, in conjunction with the Montclair Special Education Parents Advisory Council (SEPAC), will also be featuring two Sensory Friendly screenings for families this year. Sensory friendly screenings feature lowered sound, raised house lights, and the freedom for young people with sensory sensitivities to move, speak, and view films in a friendly, judgement-free environment. This year’s screenings will be INTO THE WHO KNOWS!, screening Sunday, April 30 at 11:00 a.m. at the Clairidge (suggested for children ages 6 and up), and SWIM TEAM on Friday, May 5 at 4:30 p.m. at the Bellevue (suggested for ages 12 and up). The Montclair Film Festival will also feature a public art reception on Saturday, May 6 at 2:00 p.m. at the Investors Bank Film & Media Center, showcasing a collaborative student Air/Water Art Installation, co-presented by the Montclair Cooperative School that focuses on this year’s Community Climate Action Campaign. The piece, featuring thousands of re-purposed plastic bottles and mixed materials, will be on display throughout the Montclair Film Festival on the rear façade of the building, located at 505 Bloomfield Avenue. The reception is free and open to the public. “As our Education programs continue to grow, we’re incredibly proud of these students, both as filmmakers and film lovers,” said Montclair Film Education Director Sue Hollenberg. “We remain dedicated to creating meaningful experiences for students of all ages, and the diversity and reach of these programs are a demonstration of our commitment to teaching the art of film. We congratulate all of our students on their outstanding work.”

    2017 EMERGING FILMMAKER COMPETITION WINNERS

    Cinemaniacs (Grades 4-6) Grand Prize Narrative GREAT AUNT’S DISGUISE Hanmer Elementary Liv Hammer Cora Tinker Edie Carson Grand Prize Comedy HOW TO MAKE A FILM FOR DUMMIES The Pingry School Jordan Miller Vared Shmuler Jenna Hauser Meher Khan Storytellers (Grades 7-9) Grand Prize Comedy & Grand Prize Narrative SOCK MONSTER Middletown High School South Victoria Pater Courtney Voehl Olivia Parauda Cassidy Anontucci Milla Shinder Erik Pedersen Special Jury Prize Comedy BULLFROG Union Catholic Regional High School Zachary Reichgut Grand Prize Experimental IMPERCEPTIBLE Montclair Kimberley Academy Luke Gardiner Grand Prize Documentary PROJECT IDENTITY South Orange Middle School Alex Ferrandiz Sam Cohen Lucia Garritano Robin Kalderen Ray Feinleib Visionaries (Grades 10-12) Grand Prize Comedy TINY Middletown High School South Matt King Special Jury Prize Comedy (tie) THE INDUBITABLE MOLLY DAVIS Montclair Kimberly Academy Lily Jones Special Jury Prize Comedy (tie) PLANET OF THE DOGS Montclair High School Owen Plofker Grand Prize Experimental 1600 Middletown High School South Charlotte Larish Lisa Merola Maria Dragone Sage Levine Special Jury Prize Experimental THE SEARCH FOR HAPPINESS Columbia High School Jacob Hirsch Grand Prize Narrative PERSONAL SPACE Montclair High School Lucia Ledesma Aidan Champeau Jake Weinberg Lilli Herrick Jacob Manthy Petra Fox Jake Diamond Special Jury Prize Narrative (tie) BLACK & WHITE REVENGE Montville Township High School David Champion Jeff Gallup Heather Giudice Samantha Grossman Alec Grossman Jack Motherway Paul Riccio Veronica Tullo Special Jury Prize Narrative (Tie) FIND Morristown High School Kylee Strasser Grand Prize Documentary & Social Impact XENOPHOBIA The Hudson School Sean Riller-Miltner Special Jury Prize Documentary LOVE SHOULDN’T HURT Montclair High School Blythe Bahramipour Special Jury Prize Social Impact BEHIND CLOSED DOORS Passaic County Technical Institute Tiffany Cano Special Jury Prize Social Impact THE HURDLE Passaic County Technical Institute Tyrese Watkins THE 2017 JUNIOR JURY Abby Berberian, Bridgewater Raritan High School Aidan Champeau, Montclair High School David Chun, Millburn Alison Cottingham, Montclair Kimberley Academy Tyrell Dickerson, Academy 360 Soula Garcia, Bloomfield High School Hank Greenberg, Montclair High School Jackson Healey, Middletown High School South Kianni, Keys, Newark Academy Reymond Lamb, Montclair High School Noah Levine, Livingston High Daniel Mathis, Montclair High School Gabrielle Narcisse, Kent Place School Sophia Raines, West Orange High School Kayleen Silva, Ridgefield Park

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  • Film Independent Selects 10 Indie Filmmakers for 2017 Documentary Lab + Launches Fiscal Sponsorship Program

    [caption id="attachment_21677" align="aligncenter" width="1200"]Brooklyn/Alaska, Erica Sterne Brooklyn/Alaska, Erica Sterne[/caption] 10 filmmakers and six projects have been selected for Film Independent’s 2017 Documentary Lab.  The 2017 Doc Lab is a five-week intensive program designed to support filmmakers who are currently in post-production on their feature-length documentaries. “We’re thrilled to bring together this group of talented filmmakers for the seventh year of our Documentary Lab and provide them with career support and mentorship that will help elevate their unique visions and fully realize the potential of their stories,” said Kushner. This year’s Documentary Lab Advisors and Guest Speakers include Jennifer Arnold (Tig, A Small Act); Nels Bangerter (Editor, Cameraperson); Peter Broderick (President, Paradigm Consulting); Greg Finton (Editor, He Named Me Malala); Keith Fulton (The Bad Kids); Simon Kilmurry (Executive Director, International Documentary Association); Peter Nicks (The Force); Lou Pepe (The Bad Kids); and Chris Perez (Partner, Donaldson + Callif LLP). The organization also launched its new Fiscal Sponsorship Program, open to all types of eligible projects at every stage including documentary and fiction films and interactive media. Fiscal sponsorship is a legal arrangement between a 501(c)3 and an independent artist that gives them the eligibility to apply for grants and solicit tax-deductible donations for their project. “In response to what our members have told us they need, we’re happy to deepen our support by offering Fiscal Sponsorship, helping filmmakers gain access to new sources of project funding,” said Jennifer Kushner, Director of Artist Development. The 2017 Documentary Lab projects and Fellows are: Brooklyn/Alaska, Erica Sterne – director/producer Teenage boys from tough Brooklyn neighborhoods discover the natural world on an unlikely adventure through the remote Alaskan wilderness and are transformed by the physical and emotional challenges encountered along the way. Minding the Gap, Bing Liu – director/producer, Diane Quon – producer Bing, a 25-year-old Chinese-American skateboarder and filmmaker, returns to his hometown and reconnects with two skateboarders: Keire, an African-American 17-year-old and Zack, a white 23-year-old, who all share a history of childhood trauma. Over the next three years, their freewheeling lives unravel as they figure out who they hope to be. Shadow of His Wings, Lucas Habte – director/producer, Isidore Bethel – producer/editor Hoping to understand his Ethiopian father’s history of forced migration, an American filmmaker moves to Addis Ababa and falls in love with a young man who soon must flee homophobic death threats at home to become France’s first LGBT refugee from Ethiopia. A Taste of Sky, Michael Lei – director/producer In the dizzying heights of Bolivia’s capital of La Paz a gastronomical revolution is offering the possibility of hope to the country’s impoverished youth. We follow the trials and tribulations of GUSTU, the innovative cooking school and world-class restaurant of South America’s poorest country. A Woman’s Work, Yu Gu – director, Elizabeth Ai – producer Football and feminism collide in this feature documentary that follows three former NFL cheerleaders as they battle against their former teams and the NFL to reverse 50 years of illegal employment practices. Waiting for Kate…(female is not a genre) Amy Goldstein – director/producer, Anouchka van Riel –producer Waiting for Kate…(female is not a genre) takes us on the roller coaster of contemporary pop stardom, with an unprecedented inside look at the euphoric highs and destructive lows on the cutting edge of today’s music industry. image via Brooklyn/Alaska, Erica Sterne

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  • Film Independent Renew Agreement for IFC to Air Film Independent Spirit Awards through 2020

      FILM INDEPENDENT SPIRIT AWARDS Film Independent and IFC have renewed their exclusive agreement for IFC to telecast the annual Film Independent Spirit Awards in the U.S. through 2020. This year’s event airs live on IFC on Saturday, February 25 at 2 pm PT/5 pm ET.  The show will be co-hosted by Nick Kroll (Loving, Sing, The League, Kroll Show) and John Mulaney (Oh, Hello On Broadway, Documentary Now!, Saturday Night Live). IFC began airing the Spirit Awards in 1994. “IFC is the perfect home for the Film Independent Spirit Awards. They’re smart, irreverent, funny, and just crazy enough to do a live broadcast from a tent on a beach in February,” said Film Independent President Josh Welsh. “We’re thrilled to be renewing with them and look forward to making mischief together for three more years.” “The Film Independent Spirit Awards provide an important platform for emerging independent voices, celebrating the industry’s best and brightest.” said Jennifer Caserta, president of IFC. “It’s a true privilege for IFC to remain the broadcast home for the Film Independent Spirit Awards and we are pleased to continue our longstanding and successful relationship.” 2017 marks the 32nd year of the awards that celebrate the best in independent film, which have aired on IFC for more than two decades. Joel Gallen of Tenth Planet Productions returns for his third year as executive producer, producer Shawn Davis returns for his 15th show. Danielle Federico and Andrew Schaff will be co-producing the awards.

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  • 11 Indie Filmmakers Awarded “Filmed in NC” Grants

    Cucalorus Film Foundation Eleven indie filmmakers have been awarded “Filmed in NC” grants, an initiative to support indie filmmakers in North Carolina. The grants are funded by the NC Film Office and awarded through the Cucalorus Film Foundation.  The eleven projects awarded range from narrative features to short docs and were chosen from 59 submissions. Embracing the diversity of the film industry, the “Filmed in NC” Grants are supporting five female directors, three projects from African American filmmakers, and one genderqueer filmmaker. Filmmakers will present a portion of their ongoing work at the 23rd annual Cucalorus Film Festival, taking place November 8 to 12, 2017. Grant recipients are: Alex Nomick for Sweet Nothing, a narrative about a college student struggling with his sexuality; Alicia Inshiradu for What The River Knows, a short chronicling the six months of a young married couple’s tragic life; Anna R. Jones for Chairman Jones – An Improbable Leader, a documentary about North Carolina’s first African American school board chairman; Anthony Reynolds for Times Like Dying, a feature about a vengeful farming family; Brendan & Jeremy Smyth for Mohmmed, a poetic look into forgotten refugees; Christopher Baker for Sarah’s Big Day, about a girl and her imaginary friend; Joanne Hock for Martin Hill: Camera Man, a documentary about an obsessed hoarder of filmmaking tools; Katina Parker for A Love Supreme: Black, Queer and Christian in The South, documenting the journey to reconcile Black Queer Christians with their families; Laura Hart McKinny for Extraordinary Ventures, a story of employment of teens and adults on the autism spectrum; Molly Lewis for Paradise: Downhill Skateboarding, about the downhill skateboarding culture of Western North Carolina; Ricky Kelly for Black Beach/White Beach: A Tale of Two Beaches, about the racial tensions that arise in Myrtle Beach during two national bike festivals every spring.

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  • 8 Female Filmmakers Selected for 2017 AFI Conservatory Directing Workshop for Women

    [caption id="attachment_20475" align="aligncenter" width="1200"]AFI 2016 Honorary Degree recipient Rita Moreno AFI 2016 Honorary Degree recipient Rita Moreno[/caption] The AFI Conservatory Directing Workshop for Women (DWW) — AFI’s filmmaker training program committed to increasing the number of women working as directors and showrunners in film and television — has revealed the eight participants for 2017–2018.   Following a recent kick-off event on the AFI Campus with DWW’s 2017 Distinguished Artist, filmmaker Paul Feig (BRIDESMAIDS, GHOSTBUSTERS, SPY and a four-time Emmy® nominee for TV’s THE OFFICE), the Class of 2018 will embark on a year of mentorship, collaboration and creation to make a short film or series — all in preparation for professional success in narrative directing. Feig, a longtime champion of female creators through his film and television work and his production banner Feigco Entertainment, fielded questions from the incoming DWW participants in an intimate meet-and-greet on Friday, February 3, on campus. “To meet with this amazingly impassioned group of diverse, talented filmmakers is a dream come true,” said Feig. “I salute the AFI for their strong support of female storytellers. We need their voices more than ever.” The DWW Class of 2018 filmmakers are: Beth de Araújo, Georgia Fu, Milena Govich, Tiffany Johnson, Katrelle Kindred, Nancy Mejía, Gandja Monteiro and Lorraine Nicholson. BETH DE ARAÚJO A dual citizen in the U.S. and Brazil, Beth de Araújo was born in San Francisco to a Chinese-American mother and a Brazilian father. She acquired a soccer scholarship to UC Berkeley, where she studied institutions, behavior and poetry, graduating with a BA in Sociology. She also spent a semester abroad at Hong Kong University creating an independent study focused on gender, sexuality and religion. She discovered she wanted to be a storyteller, leading her to acquire her MFA in Screenwriting at the AFI Conservatory. Her most recent screenplay, “I Want to Marry a Creative Jewish Girl,” based on her Gawker essay, won Best Screenplay Runner-up in the HollyShorts 2016 Screenplay Competition. Her latest short film as director/writer, INITIATION, premiered in September 2016 at the Oscar®-qualifying Los Angeles Shorts Film Festival. Currently, de Araújo is a staff writer/associate producer on a new one-hour comedy anthology series for Lifetime Movie Network, MY CRAZY SEX, which will premiere in early 2017. She will also make her TV directorial debut on two episodes of the series. GEORGIA FU Georgia Fu was born in Taipei, Taiwan, but immigrated to California with her parents when she was two years old. She found cinema as a way into understanding American culture, and ever since has had an avid passion for seeing life through the lens of film. For her undergraduate degree, she attended New York University’s (NYU) Tisch School of the Arts for Cinema Studies with a minor in East Asian Studies. In college, she gained valuable film experience working for the production company ThinkFilm and producer Barbara De Fina (GOODFELLAS). After college, she spent more than a year in Taiwan taking on the important task of relearning her native language, Chinese, at National Taiwan University. After Taiwan she was able to continue her passion for moving around the world, living in Paris and Hong Kong, while working at the photo desk at the International Herald Tribune. After her stint in journalism, she returned to her love of film by pursing her graduate degree at NYU’s Tisch Asia in Singapore. While at Tisch Asia, she made the short film GIGANTIC (2012), which screened at the Slamdance Film Festival and Chicago International Film Festival, where it was nominated for the Gold Hugo Award for Best Short Film. Her latest project, her Taiwan-shot NYU grad thesis film MISS WORLD, is currently in post-production. Fu is also completing a photo project on incarceration under the guidance of the VII Photo Masterclass in Berlin. In addition to her own films, she has often worked as either editor or assistant director on countless productions around the world, in places as varied as Prague, Los Angeles, China, Japan, the Philippines, Taiwan, Indonesia, Macau and Hong Kong. MILENA GOVICH Milena Govich is a director, actress, singer and musician. On Broadway, she performed in “Cabaret” at Studio 54, “Boys From Syracuse” and “Good Vibrations.” On television, she acted in starring roles on FINDING CARTER (MTV), LAW & ORDER (NBC) and CONVICTION (NBC), and recurred on a number of others, most notably RESCUE ME (FX). On film, she starred opposite Steve Guttenberg in A NOVEL ROMANCE (2011) and opposite Method Man in #LUCKY NUMBER (2015). She has regularly performed onstage in the popular For the Record performance series in Los Angeles. Govich has mentored with more than a dozen established film and television directors. She made her first official foray into directing this past year with the short film TEMPORARY. A native of Norman, OK, she graduated valedictorian from her high school and went on to graduate valedictorian from the University of Central Oklahoma with a double major in Pre-Med and Vocal Performance, as well as minors in Dance and Violin. She is currently developing TV and film projects with her husband and producing partner, writer David Cornue. TIFFANY JOHNSON Hailing straight out of Compton, Tiffany Johnson is a filmmaker and storyteller. Since graduating from film school, she has worked for several TV and film production companies such as CBS, Overbrook Entertainment and Film Independent, and has assisted Academy Award®-winning producer Peggy Rajski. For the past few years, she has freelanced as a producer on numerous live television award shows. Her credits include MTV Movie Awards, MTV Video Music Awards, NAACP Image Awards, People’s Choice Awards and the Primetime Emmys®. In 2014, she directed her second short film, LADYLIKE. A collaboration with creative partner Nicholas P. Williams, LADYLIKE screened at multiple festivals including the San Francisco Black Film Festival, the Lower East Side Film Festival and the Diversity in Cannes showcase, where she won the Director’s Choice Award. Johnson continues to develop her own projects, including the feature-film version of LADYLIKE. She is currently in post-production on her latest short film, DEAD GAY FICTIONAL. KATRELLE KINDRED A native of South Los Angeles, Katrelle Kindred is an award-winning director, writer and producer. After teaching English Language Arts in Compton, CA, Kindred completed her graduate studies in Film Production at USC’s School of Cinematic Arts. Her short film, SON SHINE (2013), played dozens of film festivals across the country, winning several awards including Best Narrative at the Humboldt International Film Festival; the San Francisco Black Film Festival’s Ava Montague Award; and Best Actor at the Los Angeles Women’s International Film Festival. Her producing work includes 2015’s Student Academy Award Gold winner LOOKING AT THE STARS, and THE BIG CHOP (2016), which was optioned to HBO. In the future, Kindred would like to continue creating honest stories that focus on global, social issues and on people often unheard. NANCY MEJÍA Nancy Mejía is a director/writer from Los Angeles, CA. A first-generation Salvadoran American, she endeavors to explore and share original portrayals of diverse, overlooked communities. She was awarded the 2014 Latino Film Fund Seed Grant and 2015 Latino Screenwriting Project Fellowship, a lab organized with consulting support from the Sundance Institute. Her short, MATEO (2014), about a Latino teen’s fraught relationship with his abusive father, aired on El Rey Network in celebration of Hispanic Heritage Month. Her dramatic screenplay “Jennifer’s Tigers” — a coming-of-age story following a relationship between an African-American girl and a Caucasian girl in the mid-20th-century American South — was a 2014 quarterfinalist for the Academy Nicholl Fellowship in Screenwriting and selected as part of the National Association of Latino Independent Producers’ 2015 Diverse Women in Media Residency Lab. Recently, she was a finalist for the 2016-18 ABC-Disney Directing Program. For the past year, she has been in development with MiTú network working on a scripted teen drama series. Currently, she is co-creating a supernatural comedy-horror series, DARK WOLF GANG. GANDJA MONTEIRO Gandja Monteiro is a director, writer and producer based in Los Angeles and São Paulo. Raised between New York’s Lower East Side and Brazil, she has been making films since she was 17 and traveling the world since she was just three months old. This early exposure to such vast cultures instilled a curiosity that has always inspired and informed her work. Since graduating in film from NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts, she has directed work in more than a dozen countries, four continents and eight languages. Her narrative short ALMOST EVERY DAY (2009) won international visibility in festivals such as Tribeca and Palm Springs, and went on to be shortlisted for the Academy Awards®. Monteiro has directed commercials and branded content for industry heavy-hitters such as Nike, Adidas, Coca-Cola, AT&T, Chevrolet and Smirnoff, among others. She recently wrapped production on her first TV project, an hour-long episode for HBO’s documentary series YOUTH, produced by Prodigo Films. LORRAINE NICHOLSON Director/writer Lorraine Nicholson most recently completed her third short film, LIFE BOAT. Nicholson’s first short, THE INSTANT MESSAGE, explores teenage sexuality in the internet age. Her second short, THIS MAGIC MOMENT, depicts the unconventional love between a movie star and her stalker. Additional writing and directing credits include R.I.P., an eight-episode web series on Blumhouse’s CrypTV, which champions new voices in filmmaking. Additionally, Nicholson brought her fresh perspective to up-and-coming artist Hana’s music video for “Clay,” and to a trio of stop-motion videos she co-directed for Grammy®-nominated artist Tommy Trash’s “Luv U Giv” EP. She also worked as a staff writer on Bret Easton Ellis’ series THE DELETED. Nicholson has honed her filmmaking skills working as an actress for 10 years. Her wide range of credits include the feature films CLICK (2006) with Adam Sandler, SOUL SURFER (2011) with Helen Hunt and Bobcat Goldthwait’s WORLD’S GREATEST DAD (2009). Born and raised in Los Angeles, Nicholson graduated from Brown University in 2012. The 2017 DWW Showcase for this year’s graduating class of participants, who began their work in the program last year, will take place on April 18, 2017, at the DGA Theater in Los Angeles.

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  • INTERVIEW: Joel Potrykus – The New King of Underground Cinema

    [caption id="attachment_18175" align="aligncenter" width="1000"]Joel Potrykus Joel Potrykus[/caption] Whether his characters are doing stand-up comedy, eating spaghetti in fancy hotels, or devoting their lives to conjuring the Devil himself, Grand Rapids native and filmmaker Joel Potrykus has no trouble making sure it gets really, really weird. Through three features, including last year’s critically acclaimed Buzzard, Potrykus has given audiences a peek at a certain kind of American that is rarely encountered on the average day. Like one of Austin’s wanderers in Slacker who’s read one too many Bret Easton Ellis novel, Potrykus captures a certain shocking, toxic masculinity that’s as subversively hilarious as it is alarmingly relevant. I had a chance to talk to Joel about his latest film, The Alchemist Cookbook, about a forest-dweller named Sean who really wants to get possessed by Satan. Josef: Your previous films, Buzzard and Ape, have flirted with elements of horror, but your most recent work, The Alchemist Cookbook, is the closest thing you’ve ever made to a genre film. At what point did you realize you were capable of tackling something that may have required a lot more precision in execution than some of your previous work? On the other hand, do you think your previous work has always had a pacing and tone that feels unrehearsed but is, in fact, extremely precise? Joel: Buzzard was very precise. Every tiny exchange between characters and prop was thought over for months and months. Sometimes, the more you prep, the more it looks improvised. With Cookbook I certainly wasn’t setting out to make a horror movie. It was black magic and a demon, but I still would never call it horror. I’m just trying to make movies that I would want to see. I’d want to see Cookbook even if I hadn’t directed it. I’m definitely not here to impose a political agenda on you or your films, but with more noticeable diversity campaigns online (#OscarsSoWhite for instance), did you make a conscious decision to cast people of color in the two lead roles, or was that something that came to you naturally during writing and pre-production? It was a choice from the start. I didn’t want to get pegged as the guy making movies about angry white guys in the suburbs. So I intentionally brought this one out into the woods with black guys. There were so many great movies I loved growing up that focused on black characters and rarely did they get the chance to mess around with the Devil and chemistry, even. I never want to tell a story that is predictable or cliched in any way at all. Ty Hickson, who plays Sean, said he’s never been offered a role like this. He was just as excited as I was to shake things up. Another really striking aspect of this film is its subtle comments on the nature of mental illness and how sometimes it can feel like you’re being possessed by some kind of invading force. The way it’s portrayed in the film seems like it came from a very personal place. Exploring mental illness through horror has surfaced to the mainstream in a big but ultimately disappointing way this year, with films like Lights Out seeming more exploitative than empathetic. How did you maintain that balance between entertainment, empathy, and realism in your portrayal of Sean’s mental state as it fluctuates throughout the film? My goodness, was Lights Out a disappointment. Love the short, but it’s a simple concept stretched way too far. To be honest, the movie is about a mental illness that overcame my grandfather when I was a kid. That type of paranoia is a lot scarier to the person suffering than it is to us. Most people could never imagine the waking nightmare of schizophrenia. I’ll never make a film about just one thing, or a film that lives in one mood or tone. Our everyday lives are full of drama, humor, and even horror. This type of mental illness is a straight up horror most of the time. It was important to try to get inside Sean’s head. The camera never strays from his perspective for a reason. I want the audience to question everything. [caption id="attachment_16518" align="aligncenter" width="1000"]The Alchemist Cookbook The Alchemist Cookbook[/caption] Moving away from the thematics of the film and more into technical aspects, what was it like shooting on an Alexa? If I’m not mistaken Buzzard was shot on a Mark III so this is a huge step up in terms of the range of images you’re able to capture. I noticed a lot more night scenes in this film that were confidently lit using dim candles, campfires, and other sources of natural or visible lighting. For the first week I hated the Alexa. It was heavy, bulky, and slowed my process down. But DP Adam J. Minnick is about the only guy I’d trust to see the scene the same as I do. So I was totally confident. The only artificial light used were blasting into the trailer in order to maintain consistent daylight effect throughout the long shooting day. Otherwise, all exteriors are natural light, which is important to Adam and me. I never want my movies to look like a movie. At night, in the woods, it’s dark. Really dark. I wanted no fake blasting full moon. I wanted the audience to strain to see things. We actually darkened night scenes to make them even blacker. I can imagine that you and the actor who played Sean, Ty Hickman, got very close over the course of this production. Tell me a bit about the casting process, and what it was like to spend all that time focusing mostly on one actor. Specifically, did it ever cross your mind to cast someone who was right for the role as well as being someone you wouldn’t mind spending a month alone in the woods with? Personality is important to me. Ty first got my attention after a scene in Gimme the Loot when he leaves a basement and hits a punching bag on the way out. One of the first things I asked him about is whether or not that was scripted. It wasn’t. He said, “who wouldn’t punch that?” Exactly. That’s the kind of actor I want to work with. Someone with instincts. On Cookbook I’d let the scene play out as scripted, then just let the camera linger and see what Ty would do. It threw him off for the first day or two, but once he understood that I was messing with him a little, he got into it. Those are my favorite moments – the unscripted ones, where I’m surprised. Even better if the actor can surprise himself. I hate sticking to the page and feeling like it’s a construction site. I want mistakes and surprises. Touching again on the intimacy of it all, how big was your crew on a day-to-day basis, and what was the lodging situation like while on-set? I remember you going dark on Facebook pretty much the entire time you were shooting, and I was scared you guys had run into a Blair Witch Project scenario. I wish we’d run into a real life witch or demon. Total bummer that those woods weren’t actually haunted. This was our biggest crew – around 20, I’d say. Not my usual style. Most of us crashed in a huge 10 room house that acted as our production headquarters, and a few stayed with friendly residents in Allegan, Michigan, where we filmed. I’m stoked to someday go back to the old set and look for the “pay up” tree and some props we hid around the woods. What was your relationship like with horror films growing up and into your adulthood? One of my favorite things about Sean is that he so desperately wants to be possessed by the Devil, while most characters in scary movies do everything they can to avoid such a fate. Was there any part of you that wrote that character with the meta elements in mind? Yeah, it’s rare to see a character actively pursuing evil. The original Evil Dead inspired me to make films at an early age. I’ve always been obsessed with horror and it’ll always be present in my work one way or another. An American Werewolf in London may be my favorite movie ever. Its tonal shifts are perfect. Just last night I watched Halloween III and the shitty new Ouija movie. [caption id="attachment_18176" align="aligncenter" width="1000"]The Alchemist Cookbook The Alchemist Cookbook[/caption] During our last interview I remember you talking briefly about the spaghetti scene in Buzzard, which has since become something of a legend amongst indie film buffs. But it seems like you just love to film people eating. Is there something that you feel is captured when the audience watches a character eat that can’t be conveyed any other way, or am I reading far too much into what’s ultimately just a nifty coincidence? Eating is one of the most private things we do. It’s something we need to do and something we love to do. I’m fascinated by watching people eating when they think no one is watching. I’m a sloppy eater, with no manners. I never really consciously thought that I need an eating scene in my movies, they just appear on the page. But some of my favorite scenes are when a character eats – I want to join Zack and Jack at the table during that Italian feast in Down by Law. I read somewhere that you’re currently not going to divulge whether or not the possum in the film is real. That’s fine! My only question is, whether or not it was real, that scene could not have been easy to shoot. Was it a scene that you had already planned out in your head or was it something you knew you’d have to figure out down the line? Well, magic happened and we got the shot in the first take. The evil spirits of cinema were on my side that night. I watched in fascination as the camera rolled. I’d like to know a little bit about your life as a teacher, and how your own experiences inform your lessons, or if any students have come to you as fans of your work and if that can actually help establish a connection with them without necessarily having to “prove yourself.” I try not to talk about myself or own work much, but generally students know who I am and sometimes ask direct questions about my movies. I think it lends some credibility to watch me talk about it in class. I like to cut through the textbooks and get to the reality of the industry, especially the indie world which is in constant motion. It’s great to expose film students to work that I consider important, like Aguirre, 8 1/2, Gummo, or even Wendy and Lucy. I also think it’s just as important to learn from others’ mistakes, so occasionally we dive into Birdemic or bad commercials. [caption id="attachment_18177" align="aligncenter" width="1000"]The Alchemist Cookbook The Alchemist Cookbook[/caption] You’re obviously responsible for launching Joshua Burge’s career, and he went from Buzzard to The Revenant in just a year’s time. Have you guys stayed in regular contact since making the film? I know if there’s anyone who’s going to keep his head from getting too big it’s going to be you. Well, I wouldn’t say I’m responsible for launching his career. And if I am, then he’s responsible for launching my career. It’s a total blast to see him get the recognition he deserves. The dude’s just got it. Hoping we work together on the next one. He still lives only a few minutes away from me, so I see him whenever he’s not in a far off land acting with the big shots. He’s still just Josh to me. Lastly, I feel almost obligated to ask what you’re working on next since that’s the question that ends most interviews, but I’d really like to know what your day-to-day is like when you aren’t actively working on a movie. A lot of aspiring directors forget to account for the downtime in between projects, and I’m curious how you keep your mind active when you aren’t talking to producers or actors or reading over budgets and rewriting drafts. I’m always working on at least one feature script. I’ve got three finished right now, but focusing on one to shoot next summer. Just looking for the money, as usual. Normally, I start my day looking at emails and Facebook in bed, oatmeal breakfast, then get to writing for a few hours, lunch, grade papers, read a chapter or two from whatever stuffy film theory book I’m into at the moment on my bus ride to the university, teach for a couple hours, watch some Howard Stern clips on YouTube, write for a little longer, dinner, watch an episode of Shark Tank, write, end the night with a movie in my office. I get set in my routines. **The Alchemist Cookbook is available for purchase on any website where movies are sold, including a pay-what-you-want option on BitTorrent** https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2IFqOBquZjU

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  • Ten Narrative Film Projects Selected for 2016 IFP Filmmaker Labs

    2016 IFP Filmmaker Labs Ten narratives have been selected for the 2016 IFP Filmmaker Labs, IFP’s annual yearlong fellowship for first-time feature directors. The creative teams of the selected films are currently attending the first week’s sessions – The Time Warner Foundation Completion Labs – taking place May 23-27th in New York City. The IFP Narrative Filmmaker Labs are the only labs that support first-time feature directors with projects in post-production as they complete, market and distribute their films. The Labs provide filmmakers with the technical, creative and strategic tools necessary to launch their films and careers. Now entering its twelfth year with over 100+ first-feature filmmakers supported, the community of Labs alumni is comprised of some of the most exciting and critically-acclaimed artists working today across film, television, new media and VR; these include multi-hyphenate creators such as Amy Seimetz (“The Girlfriend Experience”), Alex Karpovsky (“Girls”), David Lowery (PETE’S DRAGON), Dee Rees (BESSIE), Andrew Dosunmu (MOTHER OF GEORGE), Tim Sutton (DARK NIGHT), Jennifer Phang (ADVANTAGEOUS), and Terence Nance (AN OVERSIMPLIFICATION OF HER BEAUTY). Recent 2015 IFP Labs Fellows have been already making their mark on the festival circuit. Just this year, THE ARBALEST won SXSW’s Narrative Grand Jury Prize and DONALD CRIED received distribution from The Orchard. Of the ten selected projects, seven have already premiered at top festivals including SXSW, Tribeca, Los Angeles Film Festival, Slamdance and Bentonville and two fellows are shooting new projects this summer. “To highlight and support diverse stories and storytellers has always been the mission of the IFP Labs and of IFP as a whole,” says Joana Vicente, Executive Director of IFP and the Made in NY Media Center. “This year’s Narrative Lab Fellows are a perfect example of this, and the boundless creativity and diversity in their work is evident in just how wide-ranging these films’ settings are: from Kyiv, Ukraine, to the Alaskan fish canneries, to right here in Brooklyn’s Borough Park neighborhood.” Under the artistic direction of IFP Head of Programming Amy Dotson and Program Manager and Producer Zach Mandinach, the supervising 2016 Narrative Lab leaders include Jon Reiss, director/producer and author (BOMB IT!; Think Outside the Box Office), Susan Stover, producer (WELCOME TO THE DOLLHOUSE; HIGH ART; HAPPY ACCIDENTS); Pierce Varous, producer (ALWAYS SHINE; H.) and founder of Nice Dissolve; Scott Macaulay, Filmmaker Magazine’s Editor-in-Chief and producer (JULIEN-DONKEY BOY). Individual Workshop Leaders include composer Keegan Dewitt (I’LL SEE YOU IN MY DREAMS; QUEEN OF EARTH), film editors Sabine Hoffman (MAGGIE’S PLAN; THE BALLAD OF JACK AND ROSE), Lee Percy (MARIA FULL OF GRACE; BOYS DON’T CRY), Jennifer Ruff (A WOMAN, A PART; GLASS CHIN),) and Marc Vives (MUSEUM HOURS; I USED TO BE DARKER), marketing experts Adam Kersh (Brigade Marketing) and Nick Camacho (Oscilloscope Laboratories), producers Anne Carey (THE DIARY OF A TEENAGE GIRL; THE SAVAGES), Mollye Asher (SONGS MY BROTHERS TAUGHT ME), Jodi Redmond (THE WITCH), and Darren Dean (TANGERINE), festival programmers Tom Hall (Montclair Film Festival) and Dan Nuxoll (Rooftop Films), and fellow filmmakers Ingrid Jungermann (WOMEN WHO KILL), Leah Meyerhoff (I BELIEVE IN UNICORNS), and Takeshi Fukunaga (OUT OF MY HAND). In addition to lead support from the Time Warner Foundation, additional support for the IFP Filmmaker Labs includes grants from The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, Ford Foundation, Hollywood Foreign Press Association, New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, New York State Council on the Arts, and SAGIndie. Lab partners include The Adrienne Shelly Foundation, BMI, and Rooftop Films. The selected narrative projects for the 2016 IFP Filmmaker Labs and their attending Lab Fellows are: ALASKA IS A DRAG An aspiring superstar’s diva fabulous dreams are hard fought working at a fish cannery in Alaska. He dreams of escaping the monotony of fish guts and fist fights, but in the meantime, out of necessity he has learned to fight and is scouted by the local boxing coach and a new boy moves to town and wants to be his sparring partner. Shaz Bennett (Director, Writer, Producer), Jean-Pierre Caner (Producer, Consulting Editor). Los Angeles, CA. A BAD IDEA GONE WRONG A comedy about two would-­be thieves who accidentally arm the alarm system and have to break out of the house they just broke into. When they discover an unexpected housesitter, they suddenly have to deal with a hostage situation, double crosses, and discoveries that make their difficult escape even more dubious. Jason Headley (Director, Writer), Tim Fender (Editor). San Francisco, CA. COLD NOVEMBER A 12-year-old girl being raised within a matriarchal household is taken through the right of passage of killing a deer for the first time. Expectations dissolve into chaos, and Florence finds herself alone, relying on instinct and training to follow through with her decisions and pull herself together while simultaneously living through the aftermath of a recent family trauma. Karl Jacob (Director, Writer, Producer), Pete Ohs (Editor). Hibbing, MN. DAYVEON Dayveon is a twelve-year-old boy who is coming to terms with the death of his older brother. Torn between a loving sister who has become his sole caretaker and the sense of camaraderie offered by his local gang, he’s forced to make decisions that threaten to rob him of his innocence. Amman Abbasi (Director, Writer, Producer), Steven Reneau (Writer, Producer). Little Rock, AR. HEARTLOCK A convict realizes his best shot at escaping is to master the art of “ducking,” a specialized form of prison manipulation in which an inmate befriends a flawed guard for the purposes of blackmail. He targets a tough-as-nails female guard with an underlying vulnerability. However, it doesn’t take long for his plan to hit a snag: he falls in love with her. Jon Kauffman (Director, Writer), Chris Cummings (Writer), Dominic Laperriere (Editor). New York, NY. JULIA BLUE Julia, a bright university student, is preparing for a life abroad when she meets English, a damaged soldier returning from the war zone in eastern Ukraine. An unexpected romance sparks between the two, as Julia and English fall deeply for each other. From metropolitan Kyiv to a remote Carpathian village, Julia and English must decide if they are ready to build a future together in a homeland that is slowly being torn apart. Roxy Toporowych (Director, Writer), Nilou Safinya (Producer), Ben Kim (Editor). Brooklyn, NY. THE MISSING SUN After a solar flare powers down her remote community, Alma discovers her husband Terry comatose. Pursuing a series of bizarre clues, she soon believes Terry is astral traveling to reunite with his deceased ex-wife. Determined to bring him back, Alma seeks helps from Terry’s estranged, psychedelic son and from the leader of a new-age religion who believes the sun-storm may signal the end-times. Brennan Vance (Director, Writer, Producer, DP, Editor), James Christenson (Producer). Minneapolis, MN. POOR JANE Jane and Henry are in a loving marriage. Another man humiliates Henry at a Christmas party and Jane decides she no longer loves him. The following morning Jane tells Henry she’s going to Target, but instead checks into a hotel and stops answering her phone. Jane spends the holidays drinking, having impulsive encounters with men and contemplating whether or not she wants to remain married. Katie Orr (Director, Writer), Alex Orr (Producer), David Swinburne (Co-Producer). Atlanta, GA. SOLACE When her father dies, Sole, 17, numbs her emotions with food. She unwillingly lives with her estranged grandmother. Desperate to escape her grandmother’s controlling love and illicit relationship with the pastor, Sole enters a forbidden friendship with the rebellious teenage neighbors. Juggling these relationships spirals Sole out of control with food but it ultimately forces her to confront her pain. Tchaiko Omawale (Director, Writer, Producer), Eileen Cabling (Associate Producer), Amanda Griffin (Editor). Los Angeles, CA. UNTITLED HASIDIC FILM Given unprecedented access to New York’s Orthodox Jewish community, the film is a story of faith and fatherhood – performed entirely in Yiddish. Joshua Z Weinstein (Director, Writer, Producer, DP), Daniel Finkelman (Producer), Danelle Eliav (Co-Producer), Royce Brown (Co-Producer). Brooklyn, NY.

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