• 2011 Tribeca Film Festival: One on One with director Eva Mulvad of The Good Life

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    [caption id="attachment_1252" align="alignnone" width="373"] The Good Life (Det lette liv)[/caption]

    The Good Life premiered at the 2011 Tribeca Film Festival. Directed by Eva Mulvad, the film documents “How do you cope with being broke after having lived a life of luxury and privilege? This is the fundamental question facing spoiled Anne Mette and her mother, a once-rich family now living off a small pension and struggling to adapt to their new situation in a coastal Portuguese hamlet. A Grey Gardens for the current financial era, The Good Life is a character study at turns touching and frustrating, but ultimately poignant.“

    Interview with director Eva Mulvad of “The Good Life”

     

     

    VIMOOZ: What brought you to make this documentary?
    EM: I did Enemies of Happiness (a documentary following the first Afghan woman to enter parliament), and it was very successful, and I thought I would use that space of success to create another film. I was interested in having a novel and complex charcater rather than a topic-driven or journalistic subject. I heard a radio piece about Mette and Anne Beckmann, and I was drawn into their universe– they had a unique, royal way of speaking. I contacted the woman who did the radio piece and she introduced me to them.

    VIMOOZ: Were they on board right away to make the film or did they take some persuading?
    EM: It only took five minutes to persuade them– they were on board right away. They are more open in a decadent way, rather than being protective like some wealthy people can be. They also understood that there would be not so beautiful parts in the film about them. There are difficult things that they deal with in the film, especially the daughter.

    VIMOOZ: How long did the film take to make?
    EM: Three years altogether. It was three months of shooting– visiting from Copenhagen to shoot in Portugal.

    VIMOOZ: How was this production experience different from other documentaries you’ve made?
    EM: This production was different in terms of getting into their rhythm. When you go abroad to shoot, it’s a lot of work, but with them, they don’t work, so I had to negotiate with them and deal with my own impatience. Most people in modern society are used to efficiency– work before pleasure, but for them it’s the other way around. These women challenge the mentality of work in our society, so it was a challenge.

    VIMOOZ: Did you enjoy shooting in Portugal? Was it interesting to film in the Beckmann villa (where they used to live)?
    EM: Portugal is beautiful, and the people are friendly and very educated. It was a pleasure, especially since I was coming from Afghanistan. But it was tough to be with them. It’s difficult to be with people who are stuck in a situation, and it’s hard to help them, since Portugal also has a lot of unemployment.
    Yes, we went to the villa, which is now offices, and it was very interesting to see it.

    VIMOOZ: Were you trying to make a certain statement with this film about the economic state of Europe and much of the world, or were you simply exploring these individuals?
    EM: Money and economics are interesting aspects of their story– these women reflect on a broader perspective in Europe and here in the US. We were all born into a wealthy life and society, and we took it for granted. And that’s what happened to them. You can look at the film as a simple moral of taking the present for granted, and not feeling entitled to have wealth.
    VIMOOZ: Is this your first time having a film at Tribeca? How do you feel being here?
    EM: Yes, and it’s so nice to be here– both the festival and the city. It’s all so interesting, and there are so many people to meet.

    VIMOOZ: How has the film been received in Europe?
    EM: It’s in the theatres; it’s done incredibly well, which is unusual for a documentary film. It’s a one of a kind story, people get drawn to it because of the unique characters. And people can take different things from it, which was my ambition. It can meet you on different levels: money, family, upbringing, etc.

    VIMOOZ: What other festivals has it been to/ which is it going to?
    EM: It was at the IDFA (International Documentary Film Festival) in Amsterdam, and at Copenhagen Docs. It’s going to San Francisco, Tel Aviv, London, all over.

    VIMOOZ: Any new projects?
    EM: I just finished two projects, but I’m on maternity leave, so I’ll start something new in August.

    [caption id="attachment_1253" align="alignnone" width="560"]Director Eva Mulvad[/caption]

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  • One-One with the Filmmakers & Stars of taut legal drama “Puncture”

    The film “Puncture” is a smart, wonderfully grown-up and wound tight courtroom drama-slash-political thriller, driven in part by a tour de force performance from Chris Evans playing hot-shot and hot-headed, drug-addled attorney Mark Weiss. The film also boasts the steady, balancing hand of co-director and co-star Mark Kassan. Mark co-directs with his brother Adam. (They formerly brought the unusual and beautifully well-acted “Bernard and Doris,” starring Susan Sarandon, to HBO recently.)

    I sat down with Chris Evans, the brothers Kassan, and the lovely Vinessa Shaw, who plays the film’s heart beat and literal face of the movie’s subject- the terrifying fact that front-care and ER healthcare workers were once infected by AIDs and Hepatitis C on a daily basis  by accidental needle stabs. When an engineer develops a non-reusable needle that is literally “accident-proof,” the movie heats up as law partners Paul Danziger (Mark Kassan) and Mike Weiss (Chris Evans) take on the case to battle the largest manufacturer of plastic needles in the world. Billed as a “David & Goliath legal drama,” the film world premiered at the 2011 Tribeca Film Festival.

     

    VIMOOZ: Mark and Adam, how did the script come to you both?

    Mark: Paul Danziger (one of the real-life lawyers)  sent it to us. We had done this movie “Bernard and Doris,” also about a true story,  and it was kind of a complicated story, and we made it independently, and Adam and I wanted to take the currency from that, and find something that we really believed in, and that we could own, both from a production and a creative standpoint. The character was amazing, and it was a great window into an issue that we cared about. And then it took a year to get the script right.

    Adam: We had Chris Lopada, who is a friend of ours (whom they’d worked with before), who is a great, unsentimental writer, work on the script for about a year. And then we meet with Chris Evans, and convinced him to do it….

    Chris: They just got me drunk!

    Adam: Yeah! (laughs)…And then we got Vinessa (Shaw) attached. We got so lucky with this cast.

    VIMOOZ: Chris, How important is it to you to do films like this, that have such an important social message?

    Chris: Well, the social message is like the icing on the cake. For me, it’s a bit more about the selfish motivation. On bigger movies, it’s such a different feeling, you shoot at almost like a snail’s pace. On this, the pace was incredible, we would knock out giant scenes, 6, 7 8 pages a day. And you go home, and you’re not sitting in you’re trailer all day, so you can say, you know, “I was an actor today.” I got my hands dirty. And it just felt so…satisfying.

    VIMOOZ: This was such a great role for you, Chris:

    Chris: Well, it was really the directors. They have to spoon feed the story to the audience. I mean, I’ve read some great scripts, and they come out terrible. But they created the pace, the tempo. Acting is a very small piece in the movie puzzle. At the end of the day, the actors could take your performance and make it great, or make it terrible.

    Mark: I remember one scene specifically, the withdrawal scene, and Adam and I had a different about that, about what that would be like. And Chris was like, “Well, I called a bunch of people that have been through this. Was it opiate withdrawals, or this type, or that type of withdrawals?” and he read us off a list of what people’s experiences were. So we were like, well, that’s true. It could be that way. So Chris made the scene, and took it to a much more interesting level than we would have imagined. Because he really based it in reality.

    VIMOOZ: How does it work for you two,  Adam and Mark, working together as co-directors?

    Mark: Well, we had to sit in front of a DGA panel before we did the movie to get a co-directing credit. They are very strict about giving co-directing credits. A lot of times split it up, like one takes camera, but we didn’t. It’s very organic, and we worked together, and put it together as best we can. And we dealt with decisions as they came up.

    Adam: And we’re different, and so if one of us responded more to another person (actor) we were like, great, talk to them. And we have the same creative tastes. We like 98-percent of the same things.

    Chris: They share the same brain, they really do. I was nervous at first. Now I’m like, I only have to go back to one director? It was great, from the rehearsal process, to the shooting itself….It just made me feel so safe. It was great, it was a fantastic experience.

    Vinessa: It’s like they were mom and dad. They may have differing opinions, but share the same core purpose and meaning. Some of the scenes I was in with Mark in them, and then Adam would take over a little bit. Mark was really soft in his approach,  and would come close and talk, and Adam was straight forward and blunt, which also helped me. Both of their styles really helped me.

    VIMOOZ: Adam’s character does a lot of drugs in this movie!

    Chris: Mike’s an amazingly dynamic charismatic person (to play). He’s a functioning drug addict who also just crushes at his job, he does it so well. From what I learned, a lot of people didn’t know that Mike Weiss was such a heavy drug addict. People I talked to say, you know, he had an ego, he could be a little bit crass at times, but he was just brilliant.

    Adam: We love movies like “Requiem For A Dream,” but, in some films, it’s almost like (it can be)  drug porn, and we didn’t want to do that. We wanted it to be, okay, it’s here, it’s in his life, he does drugs, it kind of creeps up you, how much he’s (using the drugs). Rather than showcasing it. We made it so you never see a needle actually going in.

    Chris: I think the less you show, the more it’s, I don’t know, more interesting.

    VIMOOZ: Do you see the film as a real advocacy tool?

    Adam: We try to be careful. I mean, it’s a movie first, it’s about entertainment. But, we connected to it, and just by having this conversation about it. We’ve spent a lot of time in hospitals over the past year and  a half, and these needles are all over the place (the non-sticking, “good” needles) because of that case. And they still need to be in a lot more. And overseas, it’s a huge thing. It’s just not talked about. You hear about HIV and hepatitis spread in Africa by unprotected sex, but not that people are getting them from reused needles. The hope  is, in small part, it can start a conversation, maybe get people to do something.

    Mark: It’s also worth mentioning that Paul Danziger, you know, after he had seen the movie, he’ll say, “are people curious about the needle, about the issue?” and we’ll say, “Yes, they are very committed to the issue.”  It is their hope that there will be foundations (springing up for this) and it will have a global effect.

    Vinessa: I have two friends that are nurses. Both of them told me they had been stuck by needles multiple times (in their careers.) It’s commonplace, and it’s very dangerous.

    Adam: You have this injury that you can prevent. Frontline health care workers are rarely spoken about. They’re such an important part of the healthcare industry.

    Mark:  We are so focused on the “macro,” The bills, the healthcare issues.  But-you hope this just sheds a little bit of a window and some light on these conversations that take place, that affect so many people’s livelihoods.

    VIMOOZ: Your character is kind of the lynchpin of the film, as you’re representing the face of the issue:

    Vinessa:  It was actually just talking with Adam, and realizing that she really was the catalyst and heart of the film.

    Mark: You needed to fall in love with Vinessa’s character, and then you had to make her look sick. She was a victim, but the hope was that she wasn’t (made to look) victimized. Vinessa really made that happen.

    Adam: We were worried she would be way too gorgeous!

    Mark: It’s really hard to explain how amazing it was to have this cast. We didn’t have a weak link. Every single person who came in, from Roxanne Hope to Tess Harper, these amazing professionals. I mean, we felt honored. We couldn’t believe they showed up. I’m a theatre geek, and we had Kate Burton for a day! And nobody treated like an independent film. They came to play. We just lucked out.

    [caption id="attachment_1249" align="alignnone" width="418"]Director: Adam Kassen[/caption]

    [caption id="attachment_1250" align="alignnone" width="393"]Director: Mark Kassen [/caption]

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  • Seattle International Film Festival Announces Galas, Tributes, Special Events for 2011

    The 37th Seattle International Film Festival announced the galas, tribute events and special presentations for this year’s Festival. The 25 day event, which runs from May 19 through June 12, will feature 441 films (257 features, 184 shorts) – including 96 feature and short premieres and a Festival record 74 countries represented – with screenings at venues throughout Seattle, Renton, Everett and Kirkland.

    “This year’s Festival will feature one of the largest and most diverse programs that we have ever put together in our 37 year history, highlighting the best in cinema from around the world,” said SIFF Artistic Director Carl Spence. “There’s something for everyone as audiences will have a wide range of films and events to choose from including evenings with our special guests Ewan McGregor, Warren Miller, and Al Pacino as well as our strong line-up of films in competition and a record number of countries represented which all combine to make this one of the leading international film festivals.”

    Galas

    The Festival begins Thursday, May 19 with the annual Opening Night Gala and a screening of The First Grader (UK/Kenya, National Geographic Entertainment), directed by Justin Chadwick, which tells the remarkable story of an 84-year-old Kenyan villager determined to seize his last chance to get the education he could never afford. The screening is at Seattle Center’s McCaw Hall, with the Opening Night Gala reception at Seattle Center’s Exhibition Hall immediately following the screening.

    The Centerpiece Gala will be Saturday, June 4 and feature a screening of Service Entrance (France, Strand Releasing), directed by Philippe Le Gauy, a comedy about a Parisian stockbroker whose life is turned upside down when an exuberant Spanish maid moves into the servants’ quarters above, at the Egyptian Theatre, with the Centerpiece Gala reception at Seattle’s Daughters of the American Revolution Hall immediately following the screening.

    The Festival will conclude on Sunday, June 12 with the Closing Night Gala a screening of the groundbreaking documentary Life in a Day (UK, National Geographic Entertainment), directed by Kevin Macdonald, which brilliantly weaves footage submitted by thousands of contributors from around the world to catalog the events of a single day, into a spellbinding mosaic masterpiece. The screening is at the Cinerama Theatre, with the Closing Night Gala reception at the Pan Pacific Hotel immediately following the screening.

    Tributes

    SIFF 2011 will also feature plenty of star power, with tributes to honor Ewan McGregor and Warren Miller and a special, one night only event with Al Pacino scheduled.

    In recognition of his illustrious career, Ewan McGregor will receive this years’ Golden Space Needle Award for Outstanding Achievement in Acting at a special tribute event featuring a screening of his new film, Beginners (USA), on Sunday, May 22 at the Egyptian Theatre.

    A special tribute dinner for Mr. McGregor and 75 guests will take place immediately following the screening and interview at Prava Studios and will be prepared by James Beard Award-winning chef, Thierry Rautureau of Rover’s and Luc Restaurants in Seattle. Tickets for the dinner are $250, which includes reserved seating to the tribute event, and are available for purchase at SIFF.net.

    Special retrospective screenings of Moulin Rouge! andPeter Greenaway’s The Pillow Book, and the Seattle premiere of another of Mr. McGregor’s new films, David Mackenzie’s Perfect Sense,will also be featured at the Festival.

    Warren Miller, an industry legend whose name has been synonymous with action sports films for over 60 years, will be honored with the Festival’s Golden Space Needle for Lifetime Achievement on Wednesday, June 8 at Benaroya Hall.

    In conjunction with the Seattle Theatre Group, SIFF will also welcome one of cinema’s most riveting stars, Al Pacino, for a special, one night only, event to discuss his passion for acting and directing, up close and personal, at the Paramount Theatre on Saturday, June 11.

    Feature Premieres

    World Premieres: A Lot Like You (USA), August (USA), Do You See Colors When You Close Your Eyes? (USA), Holy Rollers: The True Story of Card Counting Christians (USA), Lys (Germany), Sushi: The Global Catch (USA), The Darkest Matter (USA)

    North America Premieres: Above Us Only Sky (Germany), Absent (Argentina), Almanya (Germany), Angel of Evil (Italy), Backyard (Iceland), Bicycle, Spoon, Apple (Spain), Blinding (Canada), Bruce Lee, My Brother (Hong Kong), Every Song is About Me (Spain), Flying Fish (Sri Lanka), Heading West (Netherlands), Johan Primero (Netherlands), Killing Bono (UK), King of Devil’s Island (Norway), The Mountain (Norway), Nobody (Greece), Our Home (Brazil), Qarantina (Iraq), Red Eagle (Thailand), Revenge: A Love Story (Hong Kong), Rosario (Philippines), Sevdah for Karim (Bosnia-Herzegovina), Spud (South Africa), Third Star (UK), A Thousand Fools (Spain), Yellow Sea (South Korea)

    U.S. Premieres: The Cashier Who Liked Gambling (Italy), Ex (Hong Kong), Fathers & Sons (Canada), Finisterrae (Spain), Funkytown (Canada, Quebec), The Intruder (Thailand), Late Autumn (South Korea), Norwegian Wood (Japan), Oliver Sherman (Canada), Por El Camino (Brazil), Princess (Finland), Rene Goes To Hollywood (Georgia), Red Eyes (Chile), Silent Sonata (Slovenia), Snow White (France), A Thousand Times Stronger (Sweden), Trigger (Canada), The Whisperer in Darkness (USA), We Are the Night (Germany)

    In addition to the above listed feature premieres, this year’s Festival will also include 44 short film premieres.

    Pathways

    New to this years’ Festival, SIFF has developed ten Pathways to help moviegoers find the film and experience that suites their moods. Instead of using traditional categories, SIFF Pathways easily connect the audience with films by organizing them into areas that help answer the question “what sort of film do I feel like seeing tonight?”

    2011 Festival Pathways:

    Love Me, Do!   Romance and love in all its forms, pleasures, and idiosyncrasies.

    Make Me Laugh   Films that make you chuckle and tickle your funny bone.

    Thrill Me   Suspense, thrills, and action. Films with a faster pace that might also surprise you when you least expect it.

    Creative Streak   The exploration of artistic endeavors from all disciplines: literature, film, art, dance, and performance.

    Open My Eyes   Revealing films and documentaries revolving around history, politics, and contemporary events from around the world.

    Sci-Fi and Beyond   Science, technology, environment, the future-and beyond.

    Take Me Away   Be prepared to be taken to another place – from exotic far-off lands to vibrant experiences outside of everyday life.

    Spellbinding Stories   Mesmerizing dramas and documentaries that explore thought-provoking questions, realities, and topics.

    To the Extreme   Explore the outer limits with films that go beyond the edge.

    Face the Music   Films that intersect the world of music on all fronts: from biopics and concert films, to musicals and live events.

    Special Presentations & Parties

    This year’s Festival will feature 5 special presentation screenings: The Importance of Being Earnest (Dir. Brian Bedford, United Kingdom); Mysteries of Lisbon (Dir. Raul Ruiz, Portugal); Norwegian Wood (Dir. Tran Anh Hung, Japan); Tornado Alley (Dir. Sean Casey, USA); and The White Meadows (Dir. Mohammad Rasoulof, Iran). Two additional films will be presented with after-parties. The New American Cinema Party will feature a screening of The Future (Dir. Miranda July, USA) on May 21 at the Pacific Place Cinemas. The Gay-la party will feature a screening of August (Dir. Eldar Rapaport, USA) on Thursday, June 9 at the Egyptian Theatre. Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me (Dir. Jay Roach, USA), which had its US debut as the closing night film of SIFF in 1999 will be shown as a free outdoor evening screening at Juanita Beach Park on Saturday, May 28.

    Competitions & Awards

    New Directors Competition   Festival programmers select 10 films remarkable for their original concept, striking style and overall excellence. To be eligible films must be a director’s first or second feature and without U.S. distribution at the time of their selection.

    2011 Entrees: Absent (Dir. Marco Berger, Argentina); Almanya (Dir. Yasemin Samdereli, Germany); Artificial Paradises (Dir. Yulene Olaizola, Mexico); Belle Epine (Dir. Rebecca Zlotowski, France); Cairo 678 (Dir. Mohamed Diab, Egypt); Every Song is About Me (Dir. Jonas Trueba, Spain); Flying Fish (Dir. Sanjeewa Pushpakumara, Sri Lanka); Gandu (Dir. Q – Kaushik Mukherjee, India); The Most Important Thing in Life is Not Being Dead (Dirs. Olivier Pictel, Pablo Martin Torrado, Mark Recuenco, Switzerland); Por El Camino (Dir. Charly Braun, Brazil)

    Documentary Competition   Festival programmers select 10 films that are unscripted and uncut, the world is a resource of unexpected, informative, and altogether exciting storytelling. Documentary filmmakers have, for years, brought these untold stories to life and introduced us to a vast number of fascinating topics we may have never known existed-let alone known were so fascinating.

    2011 Entrees: An African Election (Dir. Jarreth Merz, Ghana); Bicycle, Spoon, Apple (Dir. Carles Bosch, Spain); The Green Wave (Dir. Ali Samadi Ahadi, Germany); Hot Coffee (Dir. Susan Saladoff, USA); Marathon Boy (Dir. Gemma Atwal, India); PressPausePlay (Dirs. David Dworsky, Victor Köhler, Sweden); Red Eyes (Dirs., Juan Pablo Sallato, Ismael Larrain, Juan Ignacio Sabatini, Chile); Rothstein’s First Assignment (Dir. Richard Knox Robinson, USA); Sushi: The Global Catch (Dir. Mark  Hall, USA); To Be Heard (Dirs. Amy Sultan, Roland Legiardi-Laura, Deborah Shaffer, Edwin Martinez, USA)

    SIFF Shorts Competition  All short films shown at the Festival are eligible for both the Golden Space Needle Audience Award and Jury Award. Shorts Competition jurors will choose winners in the Narrative, Animation, and Documentary categories.

    WaveMaker Award for Excellence in Youth Filmmaking   Sponsored in part by Adobe Youth Voices and presented to one filmmaker, 18 years old or younger, from the FutureWave program, whose talents celebrate the creative possibilities of film. All FutureWave films shown at the Festival are eligible for the award.

    FIPRESCI Jury Award   Selected by the International Federation of Film Critics from 10 films from the New American Cinema section.

    2011 Entrees: August (Dir. Eldar Rapaport, USA), Black, White and Blues (Dir. Mario Van Peebles, USA), Codependent Lesbian Space Alien Seeks Same (Dir. Madeleine Olnek, USA), Gun Hill Road (Dir. Rashaad Ernesto Green, USA), Jess + Moss (Dir. Clay Jeter, USA), Letters From the Big Man (Dir. Christopher Munch, USA),Love (Dir. William Eubank, USA),Natural Selection (Dir. Robbie Pickering, USA), On the Ice (Dir. Andrew Okpeaha MacLean, USA), Roadie (Dir. Michael Cuesta, USA)

    Golden Space Needle Awards   Given in five categories (Best Film, Best Documentary, Best Director, Best Actor, Best Short Film) as voted by festival audiences. Awards are presented on Sunday, June 12 at the Space Needle.

    Venues

    SIFF venues in Renton, Everett and Kirkland will each have their own Opening Night festivities as well. Renton Opening Night is Friday, May 20 and will feature a screening of Black, White and Blues (2010). Everett Opening Night is Thursday, May 26 and will feature a screening of Young Goethe in Love (2010). Kirkland Opening Night is Thursday, June 2 and will feature the latest filmby award-winning director David Pinillos, Bon Appétit (2010).

    Seattle: Admiral Theatre, Benaroya Hall, Cinerama Theatre, Egyptian Theatre, Harvard Exit, Majestic Bay Theatres, McCaw Hall, Neptune Theatre, Pacific Place Cinemas, Pacific Science Center IMAX, Paramount Theatre, SIFF Cinema, SIFF Film Center, SIFF Lounge at boom noodle, The Triple Door

    Everett: Everett Performing Arts Center

    Kirkland: Kirkland Performance Center, Juanita Beach Park

    Renton: Renton IKEA Performing Arts Center

    [via SIFF]

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  • 2011 Tribeca Film Festival Winners; She Monkeys, Bombay Beach Win Top Jury Awards

    [caption id="attachment_1245" align="alignnone" width="560"]Pamela and Benny Parrish in Bombay Beach[/caption]

    The 10th annual Tribeca Film Festival announced the winners of its competition categories tonight at a ceremony hosted at the W Union Square in New York City. The Festival runs through May 1, 2011 including screenings of all winning films.

    Following are the 2011 winners:


    World NARRATIVE COMPETITION CATEGORIES:

    The Founders Award for Best Narrative Feature – She Monkeys (Apflickorna), directed by Lisa Aschan, written by Josefine Adolfsson and Lisa Aschan (Sweden).

    Best Actor in a Narrative Feature Film – Ramadhan “Shami” Bizimana as Yvan in Grey Matter (Matière Grise), directed and written by Kivu Ruhorahoza (Rwanda, Australia).

     

    Best Actress in a Narrative Feature Film – Carice van Houten as Ingrid Jonker in Black Butterflies, directed by Paula van der Oest, written by Greg Latter (Germany, Netherlands, South Africa).

    Best Cinematography in a Narrative Feature Film – Luisa Tillinger, Artificial Paradises (Paraisos Artificiales) (Mexico).

    Best Screenplay for a Narrative Feature Film – Jannicke Systad Jabobsen, Turn Me On, Goddammit (Få meg på, for faen) (Norway).

    BEST NEW NARRATIVE DIRECTOR:

    Best New Narrative Director – Park Jungbum, writer and director of Journals of Musan (Musan Il-gi) (South Korea).

    Special Jury Mention – Kivu Ruhorahoza, writer and director of Grey Matter (Matière  Grise).


    World DOCUMENTARY COMPETITION CATEGORIES:

    Best Documentary Feature – Bombay Beach, directed by Alma Har’el (USA, Israel).

    Best Editing in a Documentary Feature – Purcell Carson, Semper Fi: Always Faithful (USA).

     

    BEST NEW DOCUMENTARY DIRECTOR COMPETITION:

    Best New Documentary Director – Pablo Croce for Like Water, (USA).

    Special Jury Mention – Michael Collins, director of Give Up Tomorrow (UK, USA).

    Short Film Competition Categories:

    Best Narrative Short – Man and Boy, directed by David Leon and Marcus McSweeney, written by David Leon and Rashid Rasaq (UK).

    Special Jury Mention – The Terms, written and directed by Jason LaMotte (UK)

    Best Documentary Short – Incident in New Baghdad, written and directed by James Spione (US).

    Special Jury Mention – Guru, written and directed by Jonathan VanBallenberghe (USA).


    Student Visionary Award – Rooms, written and directed by Joanna Jurewicz (USA).

    Special Jury Mention: Eva – Working Title, written and directed by Dor Fadlon (Israel)


    TRIBECA (ONLINE) FILM FESTIVAL CATEGORIES:
    The 2011 Tribeca (Online) Film Festival winners were voted on by visitors to tribecafilm.com.


    Tribeca (Online) Film Festival Best Feature Film: Donor Unknown, directed and written by Jerry Rothwell (UK).

    Tribeca (Online) Film Festival Best Short Film: Dungeon Master, directed by Shiloh & Rider Strong (UK).


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  • Christophe Honoré’s film, Les Bien-aimés, (The Beloved) to close 2011 Cannes Film Festival

    Christophe Honoré’s film, Les Bien-aimés,  (The Beloved), will be close the 64th Cannes Film Festival, on Sunday May 22, 2011, following the award ceremony.

    This represents, Honiore’s 2nd time participating in the Cannes Film Festival, the First time in Competition with Les chansons d’amour. This time Christophe Honore will be accompanied by his faithful musician Alex Beaupin and the film’s actors: Catherine Deneuve, Ludivine Sagnier, Chiara Mastroiani, Milos Forman, Louis Garrel, Michel Delpech and Paul Schneider.  “They embody characters that draw us into Prague of the sixties, London of the ’80s, the world of Sept. 11 and Paris of today in a singular, melancholy and romantic work of art.“

    Scripted by the director, the story takes place over two time periods. In the first, during the 1960s, Madeleine leaves Paris to join her new husband Jaromil in Prague. The arrival of Russian tanks in the city marks their separation and Madeleine returns to France. In the second, in the 90s, Madeleine’s daughter Véra falls in love in London with Henderson, who feels unable of loving her. Madeleine and Véra each play out their feminine roles at the end of the 20th century, albeit with slight stubbornness, without which they would simply give in. [screenbase]

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  • Tribeca Film Institute Announces 2011 Award Winners and Grantees for Programs

    The Tribeca Film Institute (TFI) today announced several program award winners and grantees at the TFI Awards Luncheon at Riverpark NYC during the 2011 Tribeca Film Festival, totaling $125,000 in funds.

    During the TFI Awards Ceremony at Riverpark NYC in Manhattan, the following Tribeca All Access Creative Promise winners were announced:

    TAA Creative Promise Award for Documentary
    Gideon’s Army

    Every day, more and more people are arrested, handcuffed, shoved into a squad car, and booked. Weeks turn into months and their only line of defense is in the hands of a public defender. “Gideon’s Army” asks, are public defenders up to the fight?
    Dawn Porter (Director)

    TAA Creative Promise Award for Narrative
    County Line

    A Southern town’s underbelly exposed when its sheriff tries to rid himself of a drug alliance with a family friend and investigate the deaths of his female informants. In the process, he must confront his son’s addiction to the drugs he’s allowed in his county.
    Tina Mabry (Director, Producer)
    Morgan R. Stiff (Producer, Screenwriter, Editor)
    Lee V. Stiff, (Producer, Executive Producer)

    TAA also extended its programming and support for alumni this year including $25,000 in grants and fellowships for past TAA projects in development or new works by program alumni. The following grants were announced today:

    Tribeca All Access Ontrack Grant Narrative
    When I Saw You
    Jordan, 1960s. An eccentric and unbounded boy runs away from home knowing full well his young mother will follow in this search for freedom.
    Annemarie Jacir (Director, Producer, Screenwriter)

    Tribeca All Access Ontrack Grant Documentary
    Untitled Gay Retiree Documentary
    Set against the backdrop of various LGBTQ-friendly communities, Untitled Gay Retiree Documentary captures the experiences of several LGBTQ seniors as they navigate the adventures, challenges and surprises of their “golden years.”
    PJ Raval (Director, Producer)
    Sara Giustini (Producer)           
    Kyle Henry (Editor)

    Tribeca All Access Trans Media Award Narrative
    Chinafornia
    America, 2018. Unable to pay the ten trillion dollars it owes to China, the U.S. comes up with a plan: it gives China the  state of California. ANIMATION
    Ellie Lee (Director, Screenwriter)
    Peter Dowd (Screenwriter)

    Tribeca All Access Trans Media Award Documentary
    Untitled Mu Xin Project (Working Title)
    In the sweep of China’s turbulent history, Mu Xin sacrificed everything for his art. Starting while he was illegally imprisoned, he transformed his experiences into a body of work merging East, West, classicism, modernism, terror and transcendence.
    He has avoided speaking of the horrors he has seen – until now.
    Francisco Bello (Director, Producer, Director of Photography)
    Tim Sternberg (Director, Producer, Editor)

    The TAA Adrienne Shelly Foundation Filmmaker Grant
    El Jardin
    El Jardin is a portrait of a cemetery in the drug heartland of México. Since the war on drugs began in 2007 it has claimed over 35,000 lives. The cemetery has doubled in size and the mausoleums have doubled in height.
    Natalia Almada (Director/Producer)

    The Games for Change Fellowship for TAA Alumni
    The Undocumented
    The Undocumented is a feature length documentary which chronicles Arizona’s deadly summer months, following Border Patrol agents who fight to prevent migrant deaths, medical investigators and the Mexican Consulate who work to identify migrants who die crossing the border, and Mexican families who struggle to accept the loss of loved ones.
    Marco Williams (Director)

    Audience Activation Grant
    The Ipo Boys (aka They Are All My Brothers)
    Several boys at a home for abandoned youth in Mexico rebuild their lives while contributing to the social enterprise that sustains them: world-renowned French artisan goat cheese. DOCUMENTARY
    Nicole Opper (Director, Producer)

    The Latin America Media Arts Fund also announced four winners to support innovative film and video artists who are living or working in Mexico, Central and South America. The awards announced today included:

    The Battle for Land (Columbia)    , Directed by Juan Mejia– The Battle for Land delves deep into the complexities of mass displacement pushing us past prevailing ideas where displacement is seen as an aberration of war, and progressively revealing a more intricate and terrifying picture. It is above all a journey deep into the heart of uprooting and the dark side of progress.

    Cocaine Prison  (Bolivia), Directed by Violeta Ayala– Trying to establish a cocaine business inside Bolivia’s craziest prison an unlikely friendship develops, between two ‘little fish’, a young ambitious trafficker and a middle-aged cocaine worker fighting for release, personifying the country’s love affair with cocaine.

    Toys (Mexico), Directed by Alba Mora-Roca– Toys explores how a family’s peculiar love for toys helps children overcome the effects of violence in Mexico. It follows a Mexican-Japanese family who, having gathered the largest toy collection in Latin America, travels north to do workshops with victims of the violence generated by fighting drug cartels.

    When Two Worlds Collide (Peru), Directed by Taira Akbar and Heidi Brandenburg– An indigenous leader forced into exile and facing 20 years in prison for resisting the environmental ruin of Amazonian lands by big business. Refusing to surrender he continues his quest, shedding light on conflicting visions shaping the fate of the Amazon and the climate future of our world.

    Four additional grantees of the TFI Documentary Fund were also announced through the backing of NY-based Insurgent Media. Insurgent Media was founded by Andrew Karsch, Erik Gordon and Fisher Stevens and is a central innovator in the production and distribution of thought-provoking filmed content. The recipients announced today include:

    Teenage, Directed by Matt Wolf and written by Jon Savage– Teenage is an unconventional historical film about youth culture based on an acclaimed book by the punk author Jon Savage. The film examines the invention of modern teenagers in wartime America with profiles of extraordinary adolescents.

    Of Monsters and Men    , Directed by Morgan Matthews– Of Monsters and Men is a fascinating and touching portrait of men who are obsessed with monsters and their adventures to find them.

    Smash & Grab: The Story of the Pink Panthers, Directed by Havana Marking and Producer by Mike Lerner– Smash & Grab: The Story of the Pink Panthers, in their own words, the most successful jewel thieves of all time take you into their world: the post-Milosovic Balkans, the modern diamond trade and a 21st Century crime gang.

    Don’t Stop Believin’: Everyman’s Journey, Directed by Ramona Diaz – Don’t Stop Believin’: Everyman’s Journey follows the real life rock-n-roll fairy tale story of Filipino Arnel Pineda, who was plucked from You Tube to become the front man for iconic American rock band, Journey, thereby becoming the latest performer to go from the Internet to real life celebrity. 

    During this year’s Tribeca Film Festival (April 20-May 1), TFI filmmakers from programs including Tribeca All Access and the TFI Sloan Filmmaker Fund, participated in one-on-one industry meetings on Tuesday, April 26 and Wednesday, April 27 to network with film industry executives, potential investors, development executives, producers and agents.

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  • A Tribe Called Quest Documentary Announces Theatrical Release Dates

    Michael Rapaport’s documentary on hip-hop legends A Tribe Called Quest, “Beats, Rhymes & Life: The Travels of A Tribe Called Quest” will first open July 8 in New York City and Los Angeles and then on to  another 32 cities reports Billboard.

    “Beats, Rhymes & Life” will play San Francisco, Chicago and Washington, D.C., on its second week, San Diego, Boston, Philadelphia, Minneapolis and Atlanta beginning July 22.  The screening run wraps on August 12 when it premieres in 10 cities, among them New Orleans, Indianapolis and Pittsburgh.

    Having forged a 20-year run as one of the most innovative and influential hip-hop bands of all time, A Tribe Called Quest has kept a generation hungry for more of its groundbreaking music since the group’s much-publicized breakup in 1998. The band shaped a unique sound by wedding jazz-infused musicscapes to Afrocentric rhymes espousing unity and community. Its music became the anthem for cool and broke down barriers for people who had never before connected with hip-hop. In spite of unparalleled artistic success, however, the group encountered pitfalls that eventually caused its tumultuous breakup.

    Beats, Rhymes & Life, the feature directorial debut of acclaimed actor Michael Rapaport, documents the inner workings and behind-the-scenes drama that follow the band even today and explores what’s next for a group many claim are the pioneers of alternative rap. Rapaport’s passion for his subjects allows them to open up to the camera, resulting in a remarkably honest, emotional portrait that does justice to this seminal band.    [ 2011 Sundance Film Festival ]

    “Beats, Rhymes & Life” had its world premiere earlier this year at the 2011 Sundance Film Festival and is currently screening at the 2011 Tribeca Film Festival.

    Here is the theatrical release schedule for “Beats, Rhymes & Life: The Travels of A Tribe Called Quest”:



    7/8 



    NEW YORK 

    Sunshine 

    Empire 

    Magic Johnson 



    LOS ANGELES 

    Arclight Hollywood 

    Century City 15 

    Criterion Santa Monica 



    7/15 



    SAN FRANCISCO 

    Metreon 

    Kabuki 



    CHICAGO 

    Century Centre 

    River East 

    CineArts Evanston 



    WASHINGTON, DC 

    E-Street 

    Georgetown 

    Bethesda Row 

    Shirlington 

    Magic Johnson 



    7/22 



    SAN DIEGO 

    Hillcrest 



    BOSTON 

    Kendall Square 

    Boston Commons 

    Embassy Waltham 



    PHILADELPHIA 

    Ritz 5 

    Ritz Center Voorhees 



    MINNEAPOLIS 

    Uptown 



    ATLANTA 

    Midtown 

    Phipps Plaza 



    SAN FRANCISCO – ADD ONS 

    Shattuck 

    Century Mountain View 

    Marin Sausalito 

    CineArts Santana Row San Jose 



    7/29 



    DALLAS 

    Angelika 

    Angelika Plano



    HOUSTON 

    Edwards Greenway 



    AUSTIN 

    Violet Crown 

    Arbor 



    SEATTLE 

    Pacific Place 

    Metro 

    Lincoln Square Bellevue 



    PORTLAND 

    Cinema 21 



    MILWAUKEE 

    Oriental 



    DETROIT 

    Uptown Birmingham 



    8/5 



    PHOENIX 

    Tempe Marketplace 



    MADISON 

    Sundancen Cinemas 



    MIAMI 

    Regal South Beach 



    ST. LOUIS 

    Tivoli 



    CLEVELAND 

    Cedar Lee 



    CINCINNATI 

    Esquire



    HONOLULU 

    Kahala 



    8/12 



    SAN ANTONIO 

    Bijou 

    AMC Huebner 



    COLUMBUS 

    Gateway 

    AMC Lennox 



    DAYTON 

    Neon Movies 



    KANSAS CITY 

    Palace 

    AMC Studio Olathe 



    SALT LAKE CITY 

    Broadway 



    INDIANAPOLIS 

    Keystone Art 



    PITTSBURGH 

    Regent 



    NEW ORLEANS 

    Canal Place 

    Elmwood 



    CHARLOTTE 

    Manor 



    RALEIGH-CHAPEL HILL 

    Colony Raleigh 

    Chelsea Chapel Hill

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  • Darren Aronofsky, director of The Wrestler and Black Swan, to chair International Jury for 2011 Venice International Film Festival

    [caption id="attachment_1239" align="alignnone" width="560"]Director, Darren Aronofsky on the set of THE WRESTLER[/caption]

    Oscar nominated American director, producer and screenwriter Darren Aronofsky (director/screenwriter  of the opening film of the 67th Venice Film Festival, Black Swan, and winner of the 2008 Golden Lion for The Wrestler) will be the president of the International Jury for the Competition at the 68th Venice International Film Festival (August 31 – September 10 2011). The International Jury will award the Golden Lion and the other official prizes.

    Darren Aronofsky recently directed Black Swan, which upon its release established a new box office record for Fox Searchlight Pictures, received 5 Oscar nominations including best director and best picture and 4 Golden Globe Award nominations. Black Swan swept the Independent Spirit Award winning best feature, best director, best female lead and best cinematography.

    Leading actress Natalie Portman’s performance in Black Swan, won her the Oscar as Best Actress, the Golden Globe, the BAFTA, the Independent Spirit Award, the Screen Actors Guild Award and prizes from the major associations of film critics.

    For his earlier work The Wrestler (2008), Aronofsky was awarded the Golden Lion at the 65th Venice International Film Festival, and later won the Independent Spirit Award for best feature. Leading actor Mickey Rourke won the Golden Globe, the BAFTA and the Independent Spirit Award, as well as an Oscar nomination, and prizes from all the major associations of film critics.

    Darren Aronofsky made his debut in 1998 with p, earning the prize of best director at the Sundance Film Festival and best screenplay at the Independent Spirit Awards. His second film, Requiem for a Dream, from the novel by Hubert Selby Jr. was presented at Cannes in 2000, and later won wide international recognition, including an Oscar nomination for Ellen Burstyn as best actress.

    In 2006 Aronofsky participated in the Competition at the 63rd Venice International Film Festival with The Fountain, a romantic and psychedelic science fiction film starring Hugh Jackman and Rachel Weisz.

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  • EARTHWORK, the true story of real-life crop artist Stan Herd opens in NY on April 29 and LA on May 20

    EARTHWORK, a film by Chris Ordal, and winner over 20 film festival awards, will open in New York at Angelika Film Center on April 29 and in Los Angeles at the Laemmle Music Hall on May 20.

    EARTHWORK is the true story of real-life crop artist Stan Herd (played by Oscar nominee and Spirit Award Winner for “Winter’s Bone” John Hawkes, in his first starring role), told through a single episode of his life.   In 1994, Stan traveled from Kansas to New York City and risked everything to create a massive environmental artwork on land owned by Donald Trump. The multi-acre piece was made from soil, rock, plants and vegetation near an underground railway tunnel. Stan recruited a number of homeless individuals living in the tunnel as his crew. Over the months it took to complete the earthwork, Stan dealt with the difficulties of bringing his unique, rural art form to an urban canvas and the many costs exacted upon his life. In an effort to show his unique perspective to a larger audience, Stan unexpectedly encountered the true meaning of his art and it’s ultimate, lasting rewards.

    Shot almost entirely in rural Kansas (with a one-day shoot in New York City) on a minimal budget, EARTHWORK is Chris Ordal’s feature film debut.  Ordal, a University of Kansas alum, was taken by Stan Herd’s dedication to his temporary art and found it the perfect story to tell through film, a permanent art form.  “It was important to me that my first feature capture a story that needed to be told via the cinema.  Stan Herd’s art is temporary, eventually returning to the earth after it has lived its life.  EARTHWORK is an attempt to share the beauty and truth that Stan creates with an audience through a medium that can last forever.  Stan has to get people into a helicopter or a tall building in order for them to see his work, so getting his art on the big screen finally allows audiences to experience his art and discover his incredible story.”

    The filmmakers were very determined to exemplify the spirit of Stan Herd throughout production, and thanks to an amazing and supportive crew, EARTHWORK was a production as “green” as the story it told.

    with Laura Kirk (Jan Herd); James McDaniel (Lone Wolf); Zach Grenier (Mayor); Chris Bachand (Ryan); Brandon Glad (Cage) and Sam Greenlee (El-Trac)
    {youtube}5Cz7Ke4UZqc{/youtube}

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  • Tribeca Film Festival: One-on-One with “Treatment” Co-Directors and Star Steven Schardt and Sean Nelson

    What if you are a struggling screenwriter that needs a real break? What if your favorite A-list star just checked into rehab, and you decide all you need to do to pitch him your movie is get yourself duly check-in there? Sean Nelson and Steven Schardt co-direct Treatment, this sweetly wry and generationally pitch-perfect tale of friendship, creative delusion and celebrity obsession. Starring Josh Leonard, Sean Nelson, Ross Partridge, Jessica Makinson and Brie Larson, from a script conceived by Schardt and written by Nelson, Vimooz.com had the luck to sit down the film’s two directors (and writer/star!) – Steven Schardt and Sean Nelson. You can see the film at the 2011 Tribeca Film Festival this week on Friday, April 29th at the AMC Loews Village at 4 pm.

    Vimooz.com: Was Leonard based on anyone you know personally, or a type? How did the script come about?

    Steven Schardt: You know, I was finishing up this script that I was working on about Werner Erhard, the founder of EST.(Which now exists as the Landmark Forum today)  He was a fantastic, very charismatic figure, but he essentially sold….nothing. You would just go, get locked in a room with 250 strangers for a weekend. It was highly controlled. You would just go, pay, and get this experience. And I was a little tired of working on this script, and I went to the gym. I picked up “People” magazine, and there was Brittany Spears on the cover.

    I had met Sean (Nelson, a star of “Treatment” who plays Leonard) working on some of Lynn Shelton’s movies, and he was down shooting “The Freebie” with Katie Duplass, and he stayed with me for two weeks. And I was, again, taken up by writing another script. I told Sean about the idea. The executive producers had purchased a hotel in West Hollywood that they were renovating, and I was staying in a little bungalow there. Sean and I stayed there, and pretty much hung out every day, and we had a pretty good treatment by the end of it.

    Then we just kept working on it two or three months before shooting began, and I had approached Josh (Leonard) at Sundance, and said “I have something for you,” and Josh signed on. When we were in pre-production in Los Angeles, Sean started writing sides for audition, they were just hilarious.  We had attempted to do it as a  total improv, and there was a lot of improv in the final film, but the sides that he was writing were just so good. He just kept writing four or five weeks before production

    Vimooz.com: Did he love it off the bat?

    SS: Yeah, I think the idea was very clear, you know, you ‘re really able to see a movie happening that way.

    Vimooz.com: At what point did Brie Larson get attached?

    SS: She got attached about a month before we started shooting. Josh had worked with her, and she came over to read, and she was great. She often gets cast in youngish roles this was something were (the character) of Frannie has a kind of native intelligence.

    Vimooz.com: How much improv did you use? Your actors really know comedy well…

    SS: We had an incredibly ambitious schedule, eighteen days of shooting, we would basically come in, set up a scene, and in that time-have a slight rehearsal, there were some script changes, we would improvise some things, and we would get what was on-script, as well. The best day, my favorite day on the shoot, was with (musician) Robyn Hitchcock…

    Vimooz.com: He was fantastic…

    SS: We had asked him to play the “professional Brit,” you know, someone who can con you and make their way through, and be charming in some way, just because they have a British accent. You know, like he’s one of these “guys” that Leonard has, because he thinks that’s really cool. But (Robyn’s character) probably just came to LA to be a bass player for the Doors or something, and it never panned out, so he just stuck around Hollywood. There is so much material that did not even make it in (with Robyn Hitchcock) We kept shooting. We had a camera where we can only shoot twelve-minute takes at a time, and we just kept shooting these twelve minute takes! And Robyn is such a skilled improviser. We talked a lot on the phone about the role, He was very interested, and thinking up new ideas to do…There are just boundless takes. There’s hours of it! So I’m really looking forward to the DVD extras.

    Vimooz.com:  What films did you reference personally and for the actors on this film?

    SS: I think tonally, “Withnail and I.” We wanted it to feel slack and funny and wry. But I think we ended with something a little broader in the beginning, but when he just take the turn, it gets darker.

    Vimooz.com: It was a bold choice.

    SS: Yes, if it was remade as a studio movie, it would definitely go the other way.

    Vimooz.com: You also play with celebrity obsession, of course…

    SS: Ross (Ross Partridge, who plays hilariously self-absorbed movie star Gregg D in the film ) was amazing. When we were talking about his role on the phone, we were talking about he was preparing. And he was doing so much work, taping (himself in character,) sending them to me.

    Vimooz.com: You had a small budget. What did you shoot with?

    SS: We shot with a Canon 7D. And we had two cameras running, which we had learned from being on Lynn’s sets. I’m normally working as a producer (He produced “Humpday,”the MTV web series “$5 Cover”, “The Oregonian,” and “Sister, Sister” -with Mark Duplass and Emily Blunt), so it’s just so great to be here at Tribeca as a director.


     

     

     



    Interview with “Treatment’s’ Sean Nelson:


    Vimooz.com:  Can you tell us how you developed the script with Steve?


    Sean Nelson:  It’s funny, because Steven had originally asked if I wanted to be in this movie he was going to make with Josh Leonard. And I said yes, right away. The idea was-screenwriter checks into rehab to pitch movie to movie star.

    We were at the Independent Spirit Awards when Steven told me about it (Sean had just starred in Lynn Shelton’s “My Effortless Brilliance” and Steve was there with “Hump Day.”) And I asked him if he wanted help fleshing it out, and he said yes. So, back in Seattle, we got down to it pretty quickly, and worked pretty hard on it for awhile. My impulse as a writer was to diminish my role, because I didn’t want it to be like I was writing myself a part. For the longest time we’d just call the characters Josh and Sean, because I couldn’t think of any others! At the eleventh hour, we just used our last names. But there is a lot of the Nelson character that is based on me and my sort of complicated friendships that I have with the guys I’ve been friends with in my life. There always is an element of competition, and there always is an element of power struggle. I do not now, or did ever have a trust fund, but we thought it would be really funny…in this sort of fantasy situation, where you have this, “Boom, I have it!” (The $10 grand Leonard needs to check into rehab) It was just the shortest distance, so we could get the sort of farce elements of the film going. It’s not reality based, exactly. I was talking to my oldest friend about the differences between Nelson and myself. I would never have stood up to Leonard, I stand up for myself when it’s important, but I’m shy of that kind of direct confrontation.

    Vimooz.com: How did you meet Lynn Shelton? What is your acting & writing background?

    SN: Well, when I was younger, I wanted to be an actor. And I got into NYU, the Tisch School of the Arts, studying at Playwrights Horizons. And I just had this sort of sense that I had made this huge mistake by specializing so early, because I sensed that I wasn’t ready to do it. And I saw a couple of films around that time, that made me think, “There’s nothing in this training that I’m starting to get, or going to get, that’s going to make me ready, or able, to do the kind of work I’m seeing that’s blowing my mind. I’m thinking primarily of, well, River Phoenix in “My Own Private Idaho,” that came out two weeks into my first term at NYU, and I just thought, “I could never reveal myself that way.” Talent aside, there was something else about it, he (River) was so very bold in that performance. The idea that this character was so vulnerable, that every time conflict arises, he falls asleep! I loved it. I love the Shakespeare stuff in it. What I saw was this sense that I didn’t know how to be young. I never felt that I was a part of a generation, or my classmates , I just didn’t ever get it, at all. Rock-n-roll, it seemed forbidding, because it was “cool.” I moved to Seattle very much to learn how to be young, and it was great for me. The fact that there was eighteen and nineteen-year old kids my age, renting their own apartments, working at minimum-wage jobs. They were having fun! But I thought that dropping out of college was volunteering for homelessness, because that’s what I’d always been told. And I was really scared, at first. But they were like, “This is how we live!”  

    The other end of the spectrum was “Barton Fink,” which came out around the same time. It was so controlled, so cerebral, yet so funny. The mastery of it! On a writing level, on an acting level, and on a filmmaking level. Again, it was so forbidding. It was like, “You’re never going to do that! You’re never going to get to that!” Certainly not this way. (Being at NYU.) So, I wound up becoming a musician (as front man of the Seattle band Harvey Danger) for almost fifteen years. Almost accidentally. I moved to Seattle, got in band, and I had never done that before. But it just made a lot more sense to me, somehow, then pursuing the life of an actor, which I still don’t quite have the nerve to pursue, really! Lynn knew my music, and I had a radio show at KEXP in Seattle, and I’m somewhat visible there (in Seattle), so she knew about me. And she just sort of had me on the brain. And she asked me to help her with the music for her first film, “We Go Way Back,” as a kind of de-facto music supervisor. But we worked on the music for that, but I was there when she and Michelle were editing it, and she asked for my thoughts, and my notes, and I gave her my thoughts and notes about certain things, and they were meaningful to her. Which I was very flattered by. And, so, we just kind of became…really good friends. When it came time for her to do another movie, she wanted to do it much differently than she had done “We Go Way Back,” and she’d been inspired by Joe Swanberg and Mark Duplass, and the way they make these movies that are really cheap, low-budget, tiny crew, with a small cast, and improvised. She then asked me to be the sort of fixed point around which she made this movie- which became “My Effortless Brilliance.” Which was, truly, one of the greatest experiences of my life, if not THE great one. Because I’d been a performer all my life, and a big part of it, to be discovered. Really, you are waiting for people to see you. And to have someone say, not only do I want YOU to be in it, but I want it to be about you, and I want you to create the character with me. It’s just, like, an absolute dream. It couldn’t have been the more perfect thing to say to me! (laughs). I will always be incredibly grateful to Lynn, and we’re really good friends. It was just a peak experience for me.

    Vimooz.com: Well what about now? Would you like to professionally pursue acting?

    SN: I would love to. I love doing it. I’ve been in about six or seven movies in the last couple of years They’re all small, they get seen at festivals. Most all have gotten released. But all of them have come from directors who know me, or know of me, and call me and ask me to do it.

    Vimooz.com: I don’t think that’s cheating! It’s a huge compliment.

    SN: Yeah! It’s the best way to do it. I feel like I have a little niche that I know how to do. I could probably do a lot more than that. I do have a little training, and I have a lot more ambition in that way. But, the truth of the matter is, I don’t know how to do it. I have remained willfully ignorant of that stuff- getting an agent, going to auditions, all of that.

    Vimooz.com: I think that’s going to change after people see “Treatment!” Thank you both so much, and congratulations on “Treatment!”

    [caption id="attachment_1235" align="alignnone" width="560"]Steven Schardt and Sean Nelson[/caption]

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  • SING YOUR SONG, Harry Belafonte new documentary, will close 2011 Maryland Film Festival

    SING YOUR SONG, the new documentary about the life of actor/activist/singer Harry Belafonte, will close 2011 Maryland Film Festival, on May 8.

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  • Documentary on world’s only comedic, singing, yodeling lesbian twin sisters opens in NYC on May 13

    The Topp Twins: Untouchable a documentary by Leanne Pooley opens in NYC at Cinema Village on May 13, 2011.  Winner of numerous awards, including Best Feature Documentary at New York’s NewFest 2010, Freedom Award at 2010 Outfest,  and the Cadillac People’s Choice Award at the Toronto International Film Festival 2009  ‘The Topp Twins: Untouchable Girls’ tells the story of the world’s only comedic, singing, yodeling lesbian twin sisters, Lynda and Jools Topp, whose political activism and unique brand of entertainment has helped change New Zealand’s social landscape. In the process they have become well-loved cultural icons.

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