New York-based LGBTQ+ film festival NewFest has debuted the lineup for its 35th festival, which is set to run from Oct. 12 to Oct. 24.
A slew of the festival’s centerpiece films include Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi and Jimmy Chin’s “Nyad,” which will tell the story of Diana Nyad, starring Annette Bening and Jodie Foster. Hirokazu Kore-eda’s Cannes award-winner “Monster” will receive its New York City premiere while the world premiere of “The Aggressives’s” follow-up “Beyond The Aggressives: 25 Years Later” will be sported.
Emma Fidel’s documentary “Queen of New York” will spotlight Marti Cummings’ journey to become the first non-binary candidate elected to New York City Council, serving as the New York centerpiece, as narrated by Billy Porter.
As previously announced, George C. Wolfe’s “Rustin” will open the festival while Andrew Haigh’s “All of Us Strangers” will close.
Additionally, the festival will hold advanced screenings of...
A slew of the festival’s centerpiece films include Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi and Jimmy Chin’s “Nyad,” which will tell the story of Diana Nyad, starring Annette Bening and Jodie Foster. Hirokazu Kore-eda’s Cannes award-winner “Monster” will receive its New York City premiere while the world premiere of “The Aggressives’s” follow-up “Beyond The Aggressives: 25 Years Later” will be sported.
Emma Fidel’s documentary “Queen of New York” will spotlight Marti Cummings’ journey to become the first non-binary candidate elected to New York City Council, serving as the New York centerpiece, as narrated by Billy Porter.
As previously announced, George C. Wolfe’s “Rustin” will open the festival while Andrew Haigh’s “All of Us Strangers” will close.
Additionally, the festival will hold advanced screenings of...
- 9/13/2023
- by McKinley Franklin
- Variety Film + TV
Leading New York City LGBTQ+ film festival NewFest has unveiled its 2023 lineup featuring a slew of highly anticipated fall releases for films and TV.
The festival, which runs October 12 to 22 in-person and virtually until October 24, boasts over 130 films from 26 countries. The New York premiere of Netflix’s historical film “Rustin” will open the 35th edition of the festival, with Andrew Haigh’s “All of Us Strangers” closing out the lineup. The U.S. Centerpiece film is confirmed to be “Nyad,” featuring the true story of Diana Nyad who swam from Cuba to Florida. The festival’s International Centerpiece film is the New York City premiere of Hirokazu Kore-eda’s “Monster,” which won Best Screenplay and the Queer Palm at the 2023 Cannes Film Festival.
“May December” director Todd Haynes will receive the 2023 NewFest Queer Visionary Award on October 19, followed by a special screening of the latest drama starring Julianne Moore and Natalie Portman,...
The festival, which runs October 12 to 22 in-person and virtually until October 24, boasts over 130 films from 26 countries. The New York premiere of Netflix’s historical film “Rustin” will open the 35th edition of the festival, with Andrew Haigh’s “All of Us Strangers” closing out the lineup. The U.S. Centerpiece film is confirmed to be “Nyad,” featuring the true story of Diana Nyad who swam from Cuba to Florida. The festival’s International Centerpiece film is the New York City premiere of Hirokazu Kore-eda’s “Monster,” which won Best Screenplay and the Queer Palm at the 2023 Cannes Film Festival.
“May December” director Todd Haynes will receive the 2023 NewFest Queer Visionary Award on October 19, followed by a special screening of the latest drama starring Julianne Moore and Natalie Portman,...
- 9/13/2023
- by Samantha Bergeson
- Indiewire
A couple months after spotlighting the world’s greatest actress, the Criterion Channel have taken a logical next step towards America’s greatest actress. May (or: next week) will bring an eleven-film celebration of Jennifer Jason Leigh, highlights including Verhoeven’s Flesh + Blood, Miami Blues, Alan Rudolph’s Mrs. Parker, her directorial debut The Anniversary Party, and Synecdoche, New York, and a special introduction from Leigh. Another actor’s showcase localizes directorial collaborations: Jimmy Stewart’s time with Anthony Mann, an eight-title series boasting the likes of Winchester ’73 and The Man from Laramie. Two more: a survey of ’80s Asian-American cinema (Chan Is Missing being the best-known) and 14 movies by Seijun Suzuki.
That would be enough for one month (or two), but No Bears and Cette maison will have their streaming premieres, while Criterion Editions offers the Infernal Affairs trilogy (plus its packed set), Days of Heaven, and the aforementioned Chan Is Missing.
That would be enough for one month (or two), but No Bears and Cette maison will have their streaming premieres, while Criterion Editions offers the Infernal Affairs trilogy (plus its packed set), Days of Heaven, and the aforementioned Chan Is Missing.
- 4/20/2023
- by Nick Newman
- The Film Stage
Jonathan Caouette, director of the award-winning autobiographical documentary “Tarnation,” is seeking donations to help cover the expenses of serious medical issues.
Friends of Caouette, including Marie Therese Guirgis, Stephen Winter, Brian Kates, John Cameron Mitchell and Gus Van Sant have helped organize a GoFundMe to help gather donations.
Caouette updated the fundraiser Monday stating that he is nearing a diagnosis of an underlying cause and is awaiting Mri results.
“Over the last several years Jonathan’s health has taken a very bad turn. He’s had a very serious and devastating infection that’s compromised all of his teeth, as well as several other serious and worrying chronic illnesses,” wrote Guirgis in the GoFundMe.
“Jonathan has spent the last few years in and out of the hospital, seen countless doctors, and received a great deal of medical treatment. Besides the excruciating physical pain and accompanying mental anguish, the loss of...
Friends of Caouette, including Marie Therese Guirgis, Stephen Winter, Brian Kates, John Cameron Mitchell and Gus Van Sant have helped organize a GoFundMe to help gather donations.
Caouette updated the fundraiser Monday stating that he is nearing a diagnosis of an underlying cause and is awaiting Mri results.
“Over the last several years Jonathan’s health has taken a very bad turn. He’s had a very serious and devastating infection that’s compromised all of his teeth, as well as several other serious and worrying chronic illnesses,” wrote Guirgis in the GoFundMe.
“Jonathan has spent the last few years in and out of the hospital, seen countless doctors, and received a great deal of medical treatment. Besides the excruciating physical pain and accompanying mental anguish, the loss of...
- 4/19/2023
- by Sophia Scorziello
- Variety Film + TV
Audible, Inc., today announced the star-studded cast of its upcoming Audible Original scripted podcast, The Space Within. The thrilling and emotionally-grounded eight episode scripted sci-fi mystery will be executive produced and performed by Academy Award-Winning actress Jessica Chastain, who will be joined by Emmy winner Bobby Cannavale, Academy Award-winner Ellen Burstyn, Michael Stuhlbarg, Shea Whigham, and Carmen Ejogo.
The producers are Topic Studios, in association with Freckle Films, Solaris Productions, and Ramble Road. Written by Greg O’Connor & Josh Fagin, and directed by Stephen Winter, The Space Within will premiere exclusively from Audible on June 15, 2023.
The Audible Original will follow Dr. Madeline Wyle (Chastain), an internationally acclaimed psychiatrist specializing in trauma and Ptsd. When she discovers a string of patients with the same, seemingly supernatural, repressed memories, she is forced to risk her reputation and career to confront the possibility that the memories of alien abduction might be real.
“The Space...
The producers are Topic Studios, in association with Freckle Films, Solaris Productions, and Ramble Road. Written by Greg O’Connor & Josh Fagin, and directed by Stephen Winter, The Space Within will premiere exclusively from Audible on June 15, 2023.
The Audible Original will follow Dr. Madeline Wyle (Chastain), an internationally acclaimed psychiatrist specializing in trauma and Ptsd. When she discovers a string of patients with the same, seemingly supernatural, repressed memories, she is forced to risk her reputation and career to confront the possibility that the memories of alien abduction might be real.
“The Space...
- 4/18/2023
- by Editorial Desk
- GlamSham
Jessica Chastain is getting behind the mic to lead the upcoming Audible sci-fi thriller.
Premiering June 15, The Space Within features Chastain as Dr. Madeline Wyle, an acclaimed Ptsd and trauma psychiatrist who begins treating multiple patients who all seemingly have repressed memories of alien abductions. Wyle, according to Audible’s description of the project, must put her reputation and career at risk to get to the bottom of the memories and consider whether the abductions were indeed real.
The eight-episode series is the fourth — and first fiction work — coming from Audible’s four-project development and production deal with Spotlight producer Topic Studios. Previous projects included The Messenger, a series from the journalist Shiv Malik about his friendship with and later betrayal by a man who claimed to have been a former spokesperson for al-Qaida; American Isis, from journalist Trevor Aaronson about an American man who traveled to Syria to become...
Premiering June 15, The Space Within features Chastain as Dr. Madeline Wyle, an acclaimed Ptsd and trauma psychiatrist who begins treating multiple patients who all seemingly have repressed memories of alien abductions. Wyle, according to Audible’s description of the project, must put her reputation and career at risk to get to the bottom of the memories and consider whether the abductions were indeed real.
The eight-episode series is the fourth — and first fiction work — coming from Audible’s four-project development and production deal with Spotlight producer Topic Studios. Previous projects included The Messenger, a series from the journalist Shiv Malik about his friendship with and later betrayal by a man who claimed to have been a former spokesperson for al-Qaida; American Isis, from journalist Trevor Aaronson about an American man who traveled to Syria to become...
- 4/17/2023
- by J. Clara Chan
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Jonathan Caouette, the director whose breakthrough experimental personal doc Tarnation (2004) has proved both tremendously influential but never really matched in terms of formal inventiveness and emotional intensity, is facing significant health challenges, and friends and supporters have launched a GoFundMe to help. Marie Therese Guirgis, Stephen Winter, Brian Kates, John Cameron Mitchell, and Gus Van Sant are behind the fundraiser, which is currently just over midway to its $60,000 goal. Treatment is occurring abroad, and funds raised will go towards “crucial surgeries and medical care, his outstanding medical bills, and his living expenses while he undergoes this long and delicate process […]
The post GoFundMe Launches to Support Tarnation Director Jonathan Caouette’s Medical Expenses first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.
The post GoFundMe Launches to Support Tarnation Director Jonathan Caouette’s Medical Expenses first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.
- 2/11/2023
- by Scott Macaulay
- Filmmaker Magazine - Blog
Jonathan Caouette, the director whose breakthrough experimental personal doc Tarnation (2004) has proved both tremendously influential but never really matched in terms of formal inventiveness and emotional intensity, is facing significant health challenges, and friends and supporters have launched a GoFundMe to help. Marie Therese Guirgis, Stephen Winter, Brian Kates, John Cameron Mitchell, and Gus Van Sant are behind the fundraiser, which is currently just over midway to its $60,000 goal. Treatment is occurring abroad, and funds raised will go towards “crucial surgeries and medical care, his outstanding medical bills, and his living expenses while he undergoes this long and delicate process […]
The post GoFundMe Launches to Support Tarnation Director Jonathan Caouette’s Medical Expenses first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.
The post GoFundMe Launches to Support Tarnation Director Jonathan Caouette’s Medical Expenses first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.
- 2/11/2023
- by Scott Macaulay
- Filmmaker Magazine-Director Interviews
Jonathan Caouette, the visionary documentarian behind movie memoir “Tarnation,” is currently seeking donations for medical treatment.
In a GoFundMe page set up by producers Marie Therese Guirgis, John Cameron Mitchell, Gus Van Sant, and Stephen Winter, Caouette’s chronic condition has been detailed.
“Over the last several years Jonathan’s health has taken a very bad turn,” Guirgis wrote. “He’s had a very serious and devastating infection that’s compromised all of his teeth, as well as several other serious and worrying chronic illnesses. Jonathan has spent the last few years in and out of the hospital, seen countless doctors, and received a great deal of medical treatment. Besides the excruciating physical pain and accompanying mental anguish, the loss of Jonathan’s teeth and the brutal infection in his mouth has meant that he’s been unable to work or even really leave the house. He’s had to...
In a GoFundMe page set up by producers Marie Therese Guirgis, John Cameron Mitchell, Gus Van Sant, and Stephen Winter, Caouette’s chronic condition has been detailed.
“Over the last several years Jonathan’s health has taken a very bad turn,” Guirgis wrote. “He’s had a very serious and devastating infection that’s compromised all of his teeth, as well as several other serious and worrying chronic illnesses. Jonathan has spent the last few years in and out of the hospital, seen countless doctors, and received a great deal of medical treatment. Besides the excruciating physical pain and accompanying mental anguish, the loss of Jonathan’s teeth and the brutal infection in his mouth has meant that he’s been unable to work or even really leave the house. He’s had to...
- 2/7/2023
- by Samantha Bergeson
- Indiewire
Next month’s Criterion Channel selection is here, and as 2021 winds down further cements their status as our single greatest streaming service. Off the top I took note of their eight-film Jia Zhangke retro as well as the streaming premieres of Center Stage and Malni. And, yes, Margaret has been on HBO Max for a while, but we can hope Criterion Channel’s addition—as part of the 63(!)-film “New York Stories”—opens doors to a more deserving home-video treatment.
Aki Kaurismäki’s Finland Trilogy, Bruno Dumont’s Joan of Arc duology, and Criterion’s editions of Irma Vep and Flowers of Shanghai also mark major inclusions—just a few years ago the thought of Hou’s masterpiece streaming in HD was absurd.
I could implore you not to sleep on The Hottest August and Point Blank and Variety and In the Cut or, look, so many Ernst Lubitsch movies,...
Aki Kaurismäki’s Finland Trilogy, Bruno Dumont’s Joan of Arc duology, and Criterion’s editions of Irma Vep and Flowers of Shanghai also mark major inclusions—just a few years ago the thought of Hou’s masterpiece streaming in HD was absurd.
I could implore you not to sleep on The Hottest August and Point Blank and Variety and In the Cut or, look, so many Ernst Lubitsch movies,...
- 8/25/2021
- by Leonard Pearce
- The Film Stage
Film industry veteran Bobbi Thompson (who created the concept of Producer Rep while installing William Morris Agency with her brand of independent film representation), is creating an Andy Warhol inspired, site specific visual arts center combining arthouse cinema, gallery and studio space.
A weekend-long Pop Up Art & Movie show at Bergamot Station launches the nonprofit with a group show titled Brain States, featuring artwork from Dtla’s Ecf Art Centers, Project Onward of Chicago, Il. And Little City Center for the Arts in Palatine Il.
Opening Night's Reception, free to all on Saturday December 5th 6pm-8pm, honors the directors of these three Arts Centers dedicated to advancing the work of artists of exceptional talents living with cognitive and developmental disabilities.
The evening concludes with a screening at 8:00 pm of the controversial “Jason and Shirley," recently acquired by Moma. Filmmaker Stephen Winter will be on hand for a Q&A led by Pitzer College Professor of Media Studies and film critic Alexandra Juhasz who is also an expert on feminist cinema.
Known for nurturing the careers of James Cameron, Tim Burton, Ang Lee, Gus van Sant and Trey Parker, Bobbi Thompson championed the films of maverick talents like Robert Altman , Stephan Elliott, and John Cameron Mitchell, Bobbi states, “When I have a clear vision of what is the best in each artist and their work,” says Thompson, “I want you see what I see -- and to respond to it actively. I am excited to continue to present radical cinema, 2-D art created by some of the most extraordinary creative minds today, and I hope you will come to build your contemporary collection.
Right now I’m working on all the last details for the show. I cannot believe I am really doing this, but here it all is and people are being incredibly generous with time and goods, actually donating money on my nonprofit site and being very encouraging about the concept. Tomorrow I am meeting at the gallery to go over tasks for installation and at the reception with some of my volunteers who have been introduced to me from three programs that provide transition-to-employment skills training for young adults living with autism and other brain-based difference. They are all emerging artists themselves.”
Gallery hours on Sunday are 11:30-5pm. Sunday’s Matinee screening begins at 2pm.
Visit www.joyfactorygallery.com for information on ticketing for the screening.
A weekend-long Pop Up Art & Movie show at Bergamot Station launches the nonprofit with a group show titled Brain States, featuring artwork from Dtla’s Ecf Art Centers, Project Onward of Chicago, Il. And Little City Center for the Arts in Palatine Il.
Opening Night's Reception, free to all on Saturday December 5th 6pm-8pm, honors the directors of these three Arts Centers dedicated to advancing the work of artists of exceptional talents living with cognitive and developmental disabilities.
The evening concludes with a screening at 8:00 pm of the controversial “Jason and Shirley," recently acquired by Moma. Filmmaker Stephen Winter will be on hand for a Q&A led by Pitzer College Professor of Media Studies and film critic Alexandra Juhasz who is also an expert on feminist cinema.
Known for nurturing the careers of James Cameron, Tim Burton, Ang Lee, Gus van Sant and Trey Parker, Bobbi Thompson championed the films of maverick talents like Robert Altman , Stephan Elliott, and John Cameron Mitchell, Bobbi states, “When I have a clear vision of what is the best in each artist and their work,” says Thompson, “I want you see what I see -- and to respond to it actively. I am excited to continue to present radical cinema, 2-D art created by some of the most extraordinary creative minds today, and I hope you will come to build your contemporary collection.
Right now I’m working on all the last details for the show. I cannot believe I am really doing this, but here it all is and people are being incredibly generous with time and goods, actually donating money on my nonprofit site and being very encouraging about the concept. Tomorrow I am meeting at the gallery to go over tasks for installation and at the reception with some of my volunteers who have been introduced to me from three programs that provide transition-to-employment skills training for young adults living with autism and other brain-based difference. They are all emerging artists themselves.”
Gallery hours on Sunday are 11:30-5pm. Sunday’s Matinee screening begins at 2pm.
Visit www.joyfactorygallery.com for information on ticketing for the screening.
- 11/25/2015
- by Sydney Levine
- Sydney's Buzz
Holliday Heart: Winter Reimagines the Peripheral Flotsam and Jetsam of Famed Interview
The nagging obscurity of Shirley Clarke’s famed 1967 documentary Portrait of Jason remains a notable absence on many lists noting the best examples of the format, a title only recently made available within the Us in late 2014. An unforgettable portrait of a gay black hustler named Jason Holliday interviewed by the famed documentarian (who had previously won on Oscar for Robert Frost: a Lover’s Quarrel with the World in 1963) over one twelve hour period in 1966, it’s a case study representative of the limitations humans have in being able to completely understand another’s experiences based on social demarcations of race, gender, class, etc. Director Stephen Winter reimagines what went on between takes during the famed interview that transpired in the Chelsea hotel, dramatizing some of the salacious hypotheses surrounding the source film, such as Clarke...
The nagging obscurity of Shirley Clarke’s famed 1967 documentary Portrait of Jason remains a notable absence on many lists noting the best examples of the format, a title only recently made available within the Us in late 2014. An unforgettable portrait of a gay black hustler named Jason Holliday interviewed by the famed documentarian (who had previously won on Oscar for Robert Frost: a Lover’s Quarrel with the World in 1963) over one twelve hour period in 1966, it’s a case study representative of the limitations humans have in being able to completely understand another’s experiences based on social demarcations of race, gender, class, etc. Director Stephen Winter reimagines what went on between takes during the famed interview that transpired in the Chelsea hotel, dramatizing some of the salacious hypotheses surrounding the source film, such as Clarke...
- 10/23/2015
- by Nicholas Bell
- IONCINEMA.com
Since founding Milestone Films in 1990, the husband and wife team of Dennis Doros and Amy Heller have been restoring and distributing some of the most significant and overlooked titles in the American independent cannon. Ornette: Made in America, one of four feature films in their “Project Shirley” Shirley Clarke collection, is wrapping up a week long run at Spectacle today, as part of a celebration of Ornette Coleman. Filmmaker spoke to Doros about the acquisition and restoration process behind Clarke’s characteristically singular documentary, as well as Milestone’s recent objection to Stephen Winter’s Jason and Shirley, which liberally re-imagines the set of Portrait of […]...
- 7/23/2015
- by Sarah Salovaara
- Filmmaker Magazine - Blog
Since founding Milestone Films in 1990, the husband and wife team of Dennis Doros and Amy Heller have been restoring and distributing some of the most significant and overlooked titles in the American independent cannon. Ornette: Made in America, one of four feature films in their “Project Shirley” Shirley Clarke collection, is wrapping up a week long run at Spectacle today, as part of a celebration of Ornette Coleman. Filmmaker spoke to Doros about the acquisition and restoration process behind Clarke’s characteristically singular documentary, as well as Milestone’s recent objection to Stephen Winter’s Jason and Shirley, which liberally re-imagines the set of Portrait of […]...
- 7/23/2015
- by Sarah Salovaara
- Filmmaker Magazine-Director Interviews
Read More: The Wisdom of Jason Holliday: 10 Quotes From Shirley Clarke's 'Portrait of Jason,' the Original Viral Star In 1966, legendary underground filmmaker Shirley Clarke invited the exuberant New York street hustler Jason Holliday to her Manhattan apartment and filmed him telling colorful stories from his life over the course of a 12-hour shoot. The resulting one-man odyssey, "Portrait of Jason," finds the alternately hilarious and tragic figure proudly explaining his lifestyle while growing increasingly intoxicated. A radical, progressive look at an openly gay metropolitan figure both ahead of his time and trapped by it, "Portrait of Jason" was warmly received but only found broader acclaim decades later, when a restored version was released in 2013. Now, filmmaker Stephen Winter has revisited the project with "Jason and Shirley," a freewheeling, comedic look at the rambunctious "Portrait of Jason" production that imagines the...
- 7/10/2015
- by Eric Kohn
- Indiewire
Milestone Film & Video is one of the finest and most well-established U.S. distributor of docs and arthouse features. They have such great films like the classic "I am Cuba" and have been working on compiling all they can on the filmmaker Shirley Clarke ("The Connection") whose film in the 60s, "The Cool World," made me one of her avid fans forever. Their film, "Portrait of Jason," also by Clarke, premiered at Idfa 2014, the premium doc festival in the world and I was lucky enough to see it at the American Film Festival in Wroclaw, Poland. Its clarity and humanity moved me so much that I feel obliged to publish this here. When Amy Heller and Dennis Doros of Milestone speak the way they do in the following blog, I listen. Since the film "Jason and Shirley" just premiered at BAMcinemaFest and Frameline Film Festival, both wonderful events, I think it is important for everyone to know what they have to say. "In 25 years, we have never weighed in on anyone else's film (except to recommend those we love), but Dennis and I felt the need to go on the record about Stephen Winter's new feature Jason and Shirley."
'Jason and Shirley': The Cruelty and Irresponsibility of 'Satire'
by Amy Heller
In the twenty-five years that we have been running Milestone Films, we have never before reviewed or commented publicly on anyone else’s film—except to recommend it. But we have now encountered a new feature film that purports to “satirize” a film and a filmmaker we represent and have spent years researching. While we are absolute believers in freedom of speech and artistic expression and do not dispute that the producers, writers and stars of Jason and Shirley have every right to make their “re-vision” of the making of Shirley Clarke’s great documentary "Portrait of Jason," we feel we must go on the record about the film’s inaccurate and simplistic portrayals of a brilliant filmmaker and her charismatic subject.
Director Stephen Winter (and co-writers Sarah Schulman and Jack Waters) have created a fictitious drama that imagines what might have happened on December 3, 1966 when Shirley Clarke spent twelve hours with Jason Holliday, Carl Lee, Jeri Sopanen, Jim Hubbard and Bob Fiore shooting "Portrait of Jason." The filmmakers claim the right to re-imagine the events that took place in that Hotel Chelsea apartment, but they fail to understand something that Shirley Clarke knew and conveyed in all her films: the need for integrity.
Clarke’s first feature, "The Connection," a fiction film based partly on real people, has enormous respect for all its characters, an understanding of humanity, and a love for cinema. Shirley knew that a genuine artist values inner truth, whether the film is a documentary or a dramatic feature. And of course, Shirley did not use real names. She knew that when you use real people’s names and identities, you need to seek and explore the truth in all its complexities. Ornette: Made in America, a film that she and Ornette Coleman were very proud to create, is an example of Clarke’s quest for meaning and authenticity.
We at Milestone are now in the seventh year of “Project Shirley,” our ongoing commitment to learn everything about Clarke as a director, an artist and a person. With the cooperation of the Wisconsin Center for Film and Theater and the Clarke estate, we have digitized nearly one hundred of her features, short films, outtakes, unfinished projects, home movies, and experimental films and videos. We have gone through thousands of pages of letters, contracts, and Shirley’s diaries. We have interviewed and talked to dozens of people who knew and worked with her.
We have heard wonderful stories, tragic stories, and stories of such real pain that they are almost unbearable. Shirley Clarke was a sister, wife, mother, dancer, lover, filmmaker, editor, teacher, and yes, for a sad period, a junkie. It wasn’t intended, but along the way we fell in love with Shirley and came to feel that we owed it to her to create a portrait of a real woman and an artist. Shirley’s daughter Wendy Clarke and her extended family have supported our efforts every step of the way, encouraging us to reveal what is true, for better or worse. We have shared our discoveries with the world in theaters, on television, on DVD and Blu-Ray, in lectures — and in our exhaustive press kits (available on our website, free for everyone).
We have strived for the highest levels of accuracy, knowing that critics, academics, bloggers, and the general public deserve and depend on our research. We corroborated all the oral histories we conducted using primary sources, including original letters, interviews, and contracts. Finally, we asked people who knew Shirley to check and proof all our work. We have shared this research with every filmmaker, scholar and critic who has asked us for information.
So it was truly agonizing for us to watch Stephen Winter’s "Jason and Shirley," a film that is bad cinema and worse ethics—that cynically appropriates and parodies the identities of real people, stereotyping and humiliating them and doing disservice to their memory. The filmmakers may call it an homage, but their complete lack of research and their numerous factual errors and falsehoods have betrayed everyone who was involved in making "Portrait of Jason."
Winter and his team call their film an “imagination” of the night (although they stage the filming during the day) of December 3, when Shirley Clarke shot "Portrait of Jason." But interestingly, they only use the real names of those participants who have died: Clarke, Jason Holliday and Carl Lee (perhaps because you cannot libel the dead). They did not interview the people who were on the set that long night and who are still around—filmmakers Bob Fiore and Jim Hubbard.
They also chose not to work with Shirley’s daughter, artist and filmmaker Wendy Clarke, whom they never bothered to contact (and go out of their way to mock in the film). Jason and Shirley even features a title card in the closing credits thanking Wendy, implying that she has given her approval for the film. In truth, Wendy’s response, when she finally saw Jason and Shirley, was: “I don’t want people seeing this film to think there is any truth to it. This film tells nasty lies and is a parasitic attempt to gain prominence from true genius.”
Similarly, the filmmakers never asked us at Milestone for access to the reams of documents we have discovered from the making of "Portrait of Jason." Instead, they preferred to pretend to know what happened, to create their own “Shirley Clarke,” “Carl Lee,” and “Jason Holliday,” rather than try to create honest and respectful portraits of these very real people.
Lazy filmmakers make bad movies and "Jason and Shirley" is false, flaccid, and boring—unforgivable cinematic sins. Perhaps its most egregious and painful crime is taking the strong, brilliant woman that Shirley Clarke truly was and portraying her as a lumpy, platitude-spouting Jewish hausfrau—an inept cineaste who doesn’t know what she is doing and eventually needs her boyfriend to “save” the film for her. In service of their alleged investigation into race relations (a topic Shirley explored far better with her powerful and intelligent films "The Connection," "The Cool World," "Portrait of Jason" and "Ornette: Made in America"), they reduced her to a sexist cliché—the little woman—and a tedious cliché at that.
Shirley Clarke was wild, creative, brilliant, graceful, challenging, incredibly stylish, vibrant, and alive with the possibilities of life. At home at the center of many creative circles in New York City and around the world, she was adored by countless admirers—despite (or sometimes because of) her faults and failings. And Shirley is still loved by those who remember her—the people who worked on her films, her friends, her family, and the audiences who are rediscovering her great films. She was incredibly special. The misshapen caricature of Clarke in Jason and Shirley insults and trivializes a great artist and pioneer.
We also find “Jason” in Winter’s film to be a one-dimensional and disrespectful distortion of the very complicated man who was born Aaron Payne in 1924. Jason Holliday’s life was difficult in many ways—as a gay black man he experienced police harassment, poverty, family rejection, imprisonment, painful self-doubt, and innumerable varieties of personal and institutional racism. But he was also vibrantly an original, a self-invented diva, a survivor, and a raconteur of the first order who was the inspiration for his own cinematic Portrait. Shirley decided to make her film in order to explore this extraordinary Scheherazade’s 1001 stories—and the fragile line between his reminiscences and his inventions.
And truly, it is not easy to tell what was real and what was not in Jason’s life. In his “Autobiography” (reprinted in Milestone’s press kit), Holliday talked about appearing on Broadway in “Carmen Jones,” “Finian’s Rainbow,” and “Green Pastures” and about performing his nightclub act in Greenwich Village. And while much of his narrative may seem improbable, the Trenton Historical Society found newspaper articles from the 1950s corroborating Jason’s claim that he was a performer at New York’s Salle de Champagne. So did he study acting with Charles Laughton and dance with Martha Graham and Katherine Dunham? We may never know. But the man who spun those marvelous yarns was not the alternately maniacal and weepy loser in "Jason and Shirley."
Here are just a few of the other things that are obviously, carelessly and offensively wrong in "Jason and Shirley":
In the very beginning, there is a title card stating that the filmmakers were denied access to the outtakes of "Portrait of Jason." These recordings were available for all to hear at the Wisconsin Center for Film and Theater Research, where all of Shirley’s archives can be found—or by contacting Milestone. In fact, all the outtakes (30 minutes of audio) were released on November 11, 2014 as a bonus features on Milestone’s DVD and Blu-Ray of the film. That was six months before "Jason and Shirley" was completed.
In "Jason and Shirley," “Jason” has never previously visited “Shirley’s” apartment and knows nothing about her. In reality, they had been friends for many years and Jason would often visit her apartment. The film states that the cinematographer on Portrait of Jason had worked on Clarke’s other two features. Actually, the film was Jeri Sopanen’s first job with her. Further, absolutely no crew member had an issue about working on "Portrait of Jason," as the new film portrays.
In the film “Shirley” says, “See that horrible painting on the wall? My daughter painted that… I have a daughter who is a terrible artist.” Fact: in several video interviews with Shirley (including one released as a bonus feature on Ornette: Made In America, which also came out last November) and in many of her letters and diaries, Clarke talked about how extremely proud she was of her daughter Wendy and her art. Mother and daughter worked happily together for years on many projects including the legendary Tee Pee Video Space Troupe. Wendy’s fine art, textiles, and video work have received critical praise for nearly 50 years. It was needlessly and maliciously hurtful for the filmmakers to include a line that is so obviously false and unkind.
In the film, “Shirley” says her maiden name was Bermberg. She was born Shirley Brimberg.
There is an Academy Award® statue for "Robert Frost: A Lover’s Quarrel With the World" in “Shirley’s” apartment and the other characters repeatedly mock her for it. The film did win an Oscar®, but although she received directing credit, Shirley had been fired from the final edit and producer Robert Hughes picked up the award. (You can see this on YouTube at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zOS70Tqsz7U)
“Shirley” asks “Jason” to go up on the roof of the Hotel Chelsea with her to talk. In reality, her apartment was famously on the roof.
In the film, “Shirley” is unable to finish Portrait of Jason and tells everybody to go home and “Carl Lee” comes in to take over the film and save it. This is ludicrous, wrong and misogynistic. Clarke was a consummate film professional and all her collaborators attest to her skill and drive.
The film ends with a title card stating that Shirley died in New York (which is simply incorrect) and that Carl Lee died of a heroin overdose. Tragically, Lee died of AIDS and this information is in the Milestone press kit.
Another title card indicates that when Jason Holliday died that there were no friends or family listed in his one obituary. In truth, the Trentonian on July 31, 1998 wrote that two sisters, six nieces and two nephews survived him. We found the relatives when doing our research.
The filmmakers have labeled "Jason and Shirley" a satirical work of fiction. We are just not sure who or what they claim to be satirizing. The film is not ironic, humorous, sardonic or tongue-in-cheek. We can only surmise that they are deliberately parodying the idea of cinematic integrity.
On behalf of Milestone, Wendy Clarke, and Shirley Clarke’s extended family and friends, we respectfully ask film fans not to base their appraisal of Clarke and her filmmaking on the unkind depictions in "Jason and Shirley."
Yours in cinema,
Amy Heller and Dennis Doros
Milestone Films...
'Jason and Shirley': The Cruelty and Irresponsibility of 'Satire'
by Amy Heller
In the twenty-five years that we have been running Milestone Films, we have never before reviewed or commented publicly on anyone else’s film—except to recommend it. But we have now encountered a new feature film that purports to “satirize” a film and a filmmaker we represent and have spent years researching. While we are absolute believers in freedom of speech and artistic expression and do not dispute that the producers, writers and stars of Jason and Shirley have every right to make their “re-vision” of the making of Shirley Clarke’s great documentary "Portrait of Jason," we feel we must go on the record about the film’s inaccurate and simplistic portrayals of a brilliant filmmaker and her charismatic subject.
Director Stephen Winter (and co-writers Sarah Schulman and Jack Waters) have created a fictitious drama that imagines what might have happened on December 3, 1966 when Shirley Clarke spent twelve hours with Jason Holliday, Carl Lee, Jeri Sopanen, Jim Hubbard and Bob Fiore shooting "Portrait of Jason." The filmmakers claim the right to re-imagine the events that took place in that Hotel Chelsea apartment, but they fail to understand something that Shirley Clarke knew and conveyed in all her films: the need for integrity.
Clarke’s first feature, "The Connection," a fiction film based partly on real people, has enormous respect for all its characters, an understanding of humanity, and a love for cinema. Shirley knew that a genuine artist values inner truth, whether the film is a documentary or a dramatic feature. And of course, Shirley did not use real names. She knew that when you use real people’s names and identities, you need to seek and explore the truth in all its complexities. Ornette: Made in America, a film that she and Ornette Coleman were very proud to create, is an example of Clarke’s quest for meaning and authenticity.
We at Milestone are now in the seventh year of “Project Shirley,” our ongoing commitment to learn everything about Clarke as a director, an artist and a person. With the cooperation of the Wisconsin Center for Film and Theater and the Clarke estate, we have digitized nearly one hundred of her features, short films, outtakes, unfinished projects, home movies, and experimental films and videos. We have gone through thousands of pages of letters, contracts, and Shirley’s diaries. We have interviewed and talked to dozens of people who knew and worked with her.
We have heard wonderful stories, tragic stories, and stories of such real pain that they are almost unbearable. Shirley Clarke was a sister, wife, mother, dancer, lover, filmmaker, editor, teacher, and yes, for a sad period, a junkie. It wasn’t intended, but along the way we fell in love with Shirley and came to feel that we owed it to her to create a portrait of a real woman and an artist. Shirley’s daughter Wendy Clarke and her extended family have supported our efforts every step of the way, encouraging us to reveal what is true, for better or worse. We have shared our discoveries with the world in theaters, on television, on DVD and Blu-Ray, in lectures — and in our exhaustive press kits (available on our website, free for everyone).
We have strived for the highest levels of accuracy, knowing that critics, academics, bloggers, and the general public deserve and depend on our research. We corroborated all the oral histories we conducted using primary sources, including original letters, interviews, and contracts. Finally, we asked people who knew Shirley to check and proof all our work. We have shared this research with every filmmaker, scholar and critic who has asked us for information.
So it was truly agonizing for us to watch Stephen Winter’s "Jason and Shirley," a film that is bad cinema and worse ethics—that cynically appropriates and parodies the identities of real people, stereotyping and humiliating them and doing disservice to their memory. The filmmakers may call it an homage, but their complete lack of research and their numerous factual errors and falsehoods have betrayed everyone who was involved in making "Portrait of Jason."
Winter and his team call their film an “imagination” of the night (although they stage the filming during the day) of December 3, when Shirley Clarke shot "Portrait of Jason." But interestingly, they only use the real names of those participants who have died: Clarke, Jason Holliday and Carl Lee (perhaps because you cannot libel the dead). They did not interview the people who were on the set that long night and who are still around—filmmakers Bob Fiore and Jim Hubbard.
They also chose not to work with Shirley’s daughter, artist and filmmaker Wendy Clarke, whom they never bothered to contact (and go out of their way to mock in the film). Jason and Shirley even features a title card in the closing credits thanking Wendy, implying that she has given her approval for the film. In truth, Wendy’s response, when she finally saw Jason and Shirley, was: “I don’t want people seeing this film to think there is any truth to it. This film tells nasty lies and is a parasitic attempt to gain prominence from true genius.”
Similarly, the filmmakers never asked us at Milestone for access to the reams of documents we have discovered from the making of "Portrait of Jason." Instead, they preferred to pretend to know what happened, to create their own “Shirley Clarke,” “Carl Lee,” and “Jason Holliday,” rather than try to create honest and respectful portraits of these very real people.
Lazy filmmakers make bad movies and "Jason and Shirley" is false, flaccid, and boring—unforgivable cinematic sins. Perhaps its most egregious and painful crime is taking the strong, brilliant woman that Shirley Clarke truly was and portraying her as a lumpy, platitude-spouting Jewish hausfrau—an inept cineaste who doesn’t know what she is doing and eventually needs her boyfriend to “save” the film for her. In service of their alleged investigation into race relations (a topic Shirley explored far better with her powerful and intelligent films "The Connection," "The Cool World," "Portrait of Jason" and "Ornette: Made in America"), they reduced her to a sexist cliché—the little woman—and a tedious cliché at that.
Shirley Clarke was wild, creative, brilliant, graceful, challenging, incredibly stylish, vibrant, and alive with the possibilities of life. At home at the center of many creative circles in New York City and around the world, she was adored by countless admirers—despite (or sometimes because of) her faults and failings. And Shirley is still loved by those who remember her—the people who worked on her films, her friends, her family, and the audiences who are rediscovering her great films. She was incredibly special. The misshapen caricature of Clarke in Jason and Shirley insults and trivializes a great artist and pioneer.
We also find “Jason” in Winter’s film to be a one-dimensional and disrespectful distortion of the very complicated man who was born Aaron Payne in 1924. Jason Holliday’s life was difficult in many ways—as a gay black man he experienced police harassment, poverty, family rejection, imprisonment, painful self-doubt, and innumerable varieties of personal and institutional racism. But he was also vibrantly an original, a self-invented diva, a survivor, and a raconteur of the first order who was the inspiration for his own cinematic Portrait. Shirley decided to make her film in order to explore this extraordinary Scheherazade’s 1001 stories—and the fragile line between his reminiscences and his inventions.
And truly, it is not easy to tell what was real and what was not in Jason’s life. In his “Autobiography” (reprinted in Milestone’s press kit), Holliday talked about appearing on Broadway in “Carmen Jones,” “Finian’s Rainbow,” and “Green Pastures” and about performing his nightclub act in Greenwich Village. And while much of his narrative may seem improbable, the Trenton Historical Society found newspaper articles from the 1950s corroborating Jason’s claim that he was a performer at New York’s Salle de Champagne. So did he study acting with Charles Laughton and dance with Martha Graham and Katherine Dunham? We may never know. But the man who spun those marvelous yarns was not the alternately maniacal and weepy loser in "Jason and Shirley."
Here are just a few of the other things that are obviously, carelessly and offensively wrong in "Jason and Shirley":
In the very beginning, there is a title card stating that the filmmakers were denied access to the outtakes of "Portrait of Jason." These recordings were available for all to hear at the Wisconsin Center for Film and Theater Research, where all of Shirley’s archives can be found—or by contacting Milestone. In fact, all the outtakes (30 minutes of audio) were released on November 11, 2014 as a bonus features on Milestone’s DVD and Blu-Ray of the film. That was six months before "Jason and Shirley" was completed.
In "Jason and Shirley," “Jason” has never previously visited “Shirley’s” apartment and knows nothing about her. In reality, they had been friends for many years and Jason would often visit her apartment. The film states that the cinematographer on Portrait of Jason had worked on Clarke’s other two features. Actually, the film was Jeri Sopanen’s first job with her. Further, absolutely no crew member had an issue about working on "Portrait of Jason," as the new film portrays.
In the film “Shirley” says, “See that horrible painting on the wall? My daughter painted that… I have a daughter who is a terrible artist.” Fact: in several video interviews with Shirley (including one released as a bonus feature on Ornette: Made In America, which also came out last November) and in many of her letters and diaries, Clarke talked about how extremely proud she was of her daughter Wendy and her art. Mother and daughter worked happily together for years on many projects including the legendary Tee Pee Video Space Troupe. Wendy’s fine art, textiles, and video work have received critical praise for nearly 50 years. It was needlessly and maliciously hurtful for the filmmakers to include a line that is so obviously false and unkind.
In the film, “Shirley” says her maiden name was Bermberg. She was born Shirley Brimberg.
There is an Academy Award® statue for "Robert Frost: A Lover’s Quarrel With the World" in “Shirley’s” apartment and the other characters repeatedly mock her for it. The film did win an Oscar®, but although she received directing credit, Shirley had been fired from the final edit and producer Robert Hughes picked up the award. (You can see this on YouTube at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zOS70Tqsz7U)
“Shirley” asks “Jason” to go up on the roof of the Hotel Chelsea with her to talk. In reality, her apartment was famously on the roof.
In the film, “Shirley” is unable to finish Portrait of Jason and tells everybody to go home and “Carl Lee” comes in to take over the film and save it. This is ludicrous, wrong and misogynistic. Clarke was a consummate film professional and all her collaborators attest to her skill and drive.
The film ends with a title card stating that Shirley died in New York (which is simply incorrect) and that Carl Lee died of a heroin overdose. Tragically, Lee died of AIDS and this information is in the Milestone press kit.
Another title card indicates that when Jason Holliday died that there were no friends or family listed in his one obituary. In truth, the Trentonian on July 31, 1998 wrote that two sisters, six nieces and two nephews survived him. We found the relatives when doing our research.
The filmmakers have labeled "Jason and Shirley" a satirical work of fiction. We are just not sure who or what they claim to be satirizing. The film is not ironic, humorous, sardonic or tongue-in-cheek. We can only surmise that they are deliberately parodying the idea of cinematic integrity.
On behalf of Milestone, Wendy Clarke, and Shirley Clarke’s extended family and friends, we respectfully ask film fans not to base their appraisal of Clarke and her filmmaking on the unkind depictions in "Jason and Shirley."
Yours in cinema,
Amy Heller and Dennis Doros
Milestone Films...
- 6/23/2015
- by Sydney Levine
- Sydney's Buzz
“Free love? That’s the only love I can afford!” Stephen Winter’s Jason and Shirley is no mere behind-the-scenes reenactment of the circumstances that would add up to Shirley Clarke’s seminal 1967 Portrait of Jason, but rather a full-bore interrogation of what Clarke’s documentary cost its participants during shooting. To those ends, the film’s rendition of gay hustler Jason Holliday (portrayed here by Jack Waters) is remarkable: it sketches out Jason’s dreams and nightmares in brazenly emotional flights of inward fancy, made all the more jarring by Waters’ unflinching, body-pressurized performance. As Clarke, writer Sarah Schulman gives off an uncanny with-it […]...
- 6/17/2015
- by Steve Macfarlane
- Filmmaker Magazine - Blog
“Free love? That’s the only love I can afford!” Stephen Winter’s Jason and Shirley is no mere behind-the-scenes reenactment of the circumstances that would add up to Shirley Clarke’s seminal 1967 Portrait of Jason, but rather a full-bore interrogation of what Clarke’s documentary cost its participants during shooting. To those ends, the film’s rendition of gay hustler Jason Holliday (portrayed here by Jack Waters) is remarkable: it sketches out Jason’s dreams and nightmares in brazenly emotional flights of inward fancy, made all the more jarring by Waters’ unflinching, body-pressurized performance. As Clarke, writer Sarah Schulman gives off an uncanny with-it […]...
- 6/17/2015
- by Steve Macfarlane
- Filmmaker Magazine-Director Interviews
We're rounding up reviews, interviews, clips and trailers for films screening at this year's BAMcinemaFest: Alex Ross Perry's Queen of Earth, James Ponsoldt's The End of the Tour, Sean Baker's Tangerine, Stephen Winter's Jason and Shirley, Nathan Silver's Stinking Heaven, Sebastián Silva's Nasty Baby, Todd Rohal's Uncle Kent 2, Jennifer Phang's Advantageous, Kris Swanberg's Unexpected, Patrick Wang's The Grief of Others, Les Blank's A Poem Is a Naked Person, Jem Cohen's Counting, Larry Clark's Kids—and more. » - David Hudson...
- 6/17/2015
- Fandor: Keyframe
We're rounding up reviews, interviews, clips and trailers for films screening at this year's BAMcinemaFest: Alex Ross Perry's Queen of Earth, James Ponsoldt's The End of the Tour, Sean Baker's Tangerine, Stephen Winter's Jason and Shirley, Nathan Silver's Stinking Heaven, Sebastián Silva's Nasty Baby, Todd Rohal's Uncle Kent 2, Jennifer Phang's Advantageous, Kris Swanberg's Unexpected, Patrick Wang's The Grief of Others, Les Blank's A Poem Is a Naked Person, Jem Cohen's Counting, Larry Clark's Kids—and more. » - David Hudson...
- 6/17/2015
- Keyframe
While a lot of hot-blooded men were probably rocking on their heels waiting to see Christina Hendricks play a stripper in Gilles Paquet-Brenner.s upcoming mystery thriller Dark Places, her role was recently changed once the film went into production. The waiting game to see who filled the role hasn.t lasted long, as Exclusive Media announced in Toronto that actress Drea de Matteo will be filling the role. Or drilling the pole, as it were. While she.s well-known for her TV work, de Matteo hasn.t had a role in a film with this much buzz going for it since she starred in Stephen Winter and Xan Cassavetes' segment in 2009.s New York, I Love You, and if that doesn.t count, then it.s probably 2001.s Swordfish. Or maybe 2005.s Assault on Precinct 13. Either way, we.ve been lucky that de Matteo keeps landing great...
- 9/6/2013
- cinemablend.com
Chicago – For film lovers unable to attend international film festivals, “Paris, je t’aime” provided an irresistible glimpse at world cinema. Eighteen celebrated filmmakers were each recruited to make a short subject set in the City of Love, thus allowing audiences to view the same town from different cultural perspectives. Some shorts worked better than others, but the resounding majority of them were utterly captivating.
It’s great to see this cinematic experiment continue with “New York, I Love You,” despite the fact that it isn’t anywhere near as artistically stimulating or dramatically satisfying as its predecessor. There’s only ten filmmakers this time, excluding Randy Balsmeyer, who handles the transitions. While “Paris” included Gus Van Sant, Alfonso Cuaron and the Coen brothers, “New York” offers directors like Shekhar Kapur (“Elizabeth”), Allen Hughes (“The Book of Eli”) and Brett Ratner (“Rush Hour”), whose very name inspires derisive laughter amongst film purists.
It’s great to see this cinematic experiment continue with “New York, I Love You,” despite the fact that it isn’t anywhere near as artistically stimulating or dramatically satisfying as its predecessor. There’s only ten filmmakers this time, excluding Randy Balsmeyer, who handles the transitions. While “Paris” included Gus Van Sant, Alfonso Cuaron and the Coen brothers, “New York” offers directors like Shekhar Kapur (“Elizabeth”), Allen Hughes (“The Book of Eli”) and Brett Ratner (“Rush Hour”), whose very name inspires derisive laughter amongst film purists.
- 2/5/2010
- by adam@hollywoodchicago.com (Adam Fendelman)
- HollywoodChicago.com
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