We arrived on Thursday on the Sundance Express Airliner. First seats in first class, all on an aisle row seat one behind the other: Rena Ronson of UTA (read Indiewire article on “making the grade at UTA” Here, Tom Ortenberg, CEO of Open Road and Board of Directors Film Independent, Peter Schlessel of Focus Features, and in cabin class Tony Safford, Evp, of acquisitions at 20th Century Fox and his wife Julie. Arriving late, I missed the Sundance press conference. But you can read all about it and all of Day One on the Sundance blog Here. We were also too late to pick up our registration and so our Opening Night looked like it would begin with the annual Indiewire Chili party hosted by Rose McGowan, director of her directorial debut, the short, Dawn. But before braving the cold walk up the hill, we stopped in at the Yarrow Bar to check in on our flat mate Peggy Johnson, Executive Director of The Loft, Tucson’s non-profit, independent arthouse theater.
As always, the best part of our traveling on the film circuit is seeing old and dear friends: Laurie Ann Schag, VP of Independent Documentary Association whose Sundance node is Here , Susan Margolin, Cinedigm President in charge of Docurama and Special Acquisitions, Jillian Slonin missing her husband Larry Kardish, Senior Curator Emeritus of Film, The Museum of Modern Art, New York who was in India on the jury at the Pune International Film Festival, Telefilm Canada’s Sr. Advisor, Festivals and Industry Promotion, Brigitte Hubmann, excited about this years Arthouse Convergence and the possibility of streaming films on new platforms.
While there, we also saw Sony Pictures Classics’s Michael Barker and Dylan Leiner going tete a tete very intensely. They were the first to make a deal here, acquiring opening night film Whiplash U.S. rights (according to Toh, “reportedly for around $3 million, however after Sony Pictures Worldwide Acquisitions Group had already picked up many foreign territories before the festival”.) Those territories are reported as Canada, Germany and Australia. Parlux has Hungary rights. Writer/ director Damien Chazelle’s prize winning short at last year’s Sundance came back with a feature length film of it this time produced by Jason Blum and financed by Bold Films, (Isa: Sierra Affinity) proving once again, Shorts are In The Air! Miles Teller plays a school drummer with potential who strives for perfection under the tutelage of a ruthless band conductor. This was a Sundance supported project which received 2013 Cinereach Project at Sundance Institute Grant, a Sundance Screenwriting Mentorship as well.
A propos of shorts and Sundance, the Somali pirate film, a U.S.-Somalia-Kenya coproduction, (Isa: Altitude Film, U.S. Producer Rep: Wme) Fishing Without Nets’ filmmakers met Vice Films at Sundance 2012 after they saw the short film, Fishing Without Nets, which led them to producing the feature version as Vice Films’ first fictional feature.
So Sundance is definitely the place for shorts. At the next day’s International Filmmakers Lunch we met another short filmmaker whose short Love, Love, Love about Russian female stereotypes is a must see. More in tomorrow’s Day 2 Sundance Journal.
As always, the best part of our traveling on the film circuit is seeing old and dear friends: Laurie Ann Schag, VP of Independent Documentary Association whose Sundance node is Here , Susan Margolin, Cinedigm President in charge of Docurama and Special Acquisitions, Jillian Slonin missing her husband Larry Kardish, Senior Curator Emeritus of Film, The Museum of Modern Art, New York who was in India on the jury at the Pune International Film Festival, Telefilm Canada’s Sr. Advisor, Festivals and Industry Promotion, Brigitte Hubmann, excited about this years Arthouse Convergence and the possibility of streaming films on new platforms.
While there, we also saw Sony Pictures Classics’s Michael Barker and Dylan Leiner going tete a tete very intensely. They were the first to make a deal here, acquiring opening night film Whiplash U.S. rights (according to Toh, “reportedly for around $3 million, however after Sony Pictures Worldwide Acquisitions Group had already picked up many foreign territories before the festival”.) Those territories are reported as Canada, Germany and Australia. Parlux has Hungary rights. Writer/ director Damien Chazelle’s prize winning short at last year’s Sundance came back with a feature length film of it this time produced by Jason Blum and financed by Bold Films, (Isa: Sierra Affinity) proving once again, Shorts are In The Air! Miles Teller plays a school drummer with potential who strives for perfection under the tutelage of a ruthless band conductor. This was a Sundance supported project which received 2013 Cinereach Project at Sundance Institute Grant, a Sundance Screenwriting Mentorship as well.
A propos of shorts and Sundance, the Somali pirate film, a U.S.-Somalia-Kenya coproduction, (Isa: Altitude Film, U.S. Producer Rep: Wme) Fishing Without Nets’ filmmakers met Vice Films at Sundance 2012 after they saw the short film, Fishing Without Nets, which led them to producing the feature version as Vice Films’ first fictional feature.
So Sundance is definitely the place for shorts. At the next day’s International Filmmakers Lunch we met another short filmmaker whose short Love, Love, Love about Russian female stereotypes is a must see. More in tomorrow’s Day 2 Sundance Journal.
- 1/22/2014
- by Sydney Levine
- Sydney's Buzz
Today I finally felt like I was hitting my stride. I found a parking place on the street this early Sunday morning and made my 8:30am screening of What They Don't Talk About When They Talk About Love which takes place in a special school for the mute, deaf and blind in Indonesia. A series of love stories told with a gentleness most easily summarized by one of its characters, Boys love what they see and girls love what they hear. The film is a sweet look — not always innocent — at love inside this special school, told with a narrative style and rhythm dictated by its actors being mostly blind, deaf or mute. Kiril Razlogov, Artistic Director of the Moscow Film Festival, and I had a great long talk about Russia, the new Ministry of Culture and how film fits into its political system and what is happening today with Russian films as we walked to the Glbt annual brunch at the Grub Steak (I can no longer recall who sponsors this I have been going to it for such a long time) I had thought it started at 10am but at 10:30am the line to get in was down the block and no one was going in until 11am, so we made our own party greeting those in line whom we knew. It was great to see Marie from Wolfe Releasing along with her colleague and to hear about the great response they have been getting internationally to their online movies. Kiril and she discussed Russian films and digital delivery. She is still deciding whether to go to Berlin as she is so busy at the home office. I looked for Jenny Olsen whom I always see there if no where else but she was not there yet. We visited with a few other friends and acquaintances and then Kiril and I parted ways as he went to see a film (he's concentrating on seeing the U.S. Films and I'm concentrating on international and particularly Latino and Eastern European films). I went to interview director Sebastian Silva whose Old Cats was in Sundance 2009 and The Maid which won the Dramatic Jury Award here in 2011 and whose film Crystal Fairy so impressed me this year. I will write about this wonderful interview after I have seen the second film he has here, Magic Magic, produced by Frida Torresblanco and Christine Vachon. My discussion after the interview with producer rep and publicist, Stephen Raphael of Required Viewing, who also happens to have been born in Chile, about the film's producers, Fabula, the company of Pablo and Claude Lorrain (No, Tony Manero) and the line producer who also line produced Il Futuro, the Chile-Italian coproduction film I also saw today verged on the weird for the number of coincidences and inter-relationships. The oddest coincidence was that while Stephen was awaiting his two Chilean clients to arrive at Sundance from Santiago, his luggage was lost and they discovered it had been sent mistakenly to Santiago! Between films I went to parties: UCLA / The Wrap party where I did not see Teri Schwartz, Dean of the UCLA film school or Sharon Waxman of The Wrap, Texas Party, but I was unable to squeeze in the Ida cocktail to which Laurie Ann Schag of Netflix and the the Ida Treasurer invited me as I had to run back to the Holiday Village to see The World According to Dick Cheney, a 110 minute life saga of this man who ran our government into the ground as told by himself, a man unable to think of a single fault in his own character when asked the question along with other questions about himself, all of which he could answer with a flawless alacrity – except for that one. He could only conclude that his only fault was not being able to name one. I went to see the Serbian film Circles at the urging of my friend Geno Lechner who played the wife of the protagonist. The fault of this film was in identifying characters 12 years after a horrible incident that took place among the characters which determined the story. I still do not know who was who and yet I understood the relevance of the story very much, especially because I was just in Sarajevo for the Festival and Talent Campus this summer and loved it so very much. This played out the tragedy of a man whose good deed in saving a Muslim cigarette vendor in Croatia during the Serbian Croatia War created circles of greater import like a stone which is dropped in the water. Finally, I changed my mind from seeing Wajma to going with the flow and seeing Escape from Tomorrow which is receiving lots of press because of possible copyright infringement of Walt Disney's IP. This surreal comedy of a man going insane at Disneyland or Disney World left me feeling dizzy and surreal myself. I think it is good as a work of art but without any commercial potential. I think, like the Barbie Doll enactment of the Karen Carpenter Story so many years ago, Sundance may be the only chance for anyone to see this film. With that as my finale for the evening, I drove home feeling disoriented to meet a depressed Harlan who had been unable to procure any tickets for the evening screenings. For having done a full day's work without a flaw, the evening's films and lack thereof left the two of us out of sorts. Oh well, there's always tomorrow, but I'm already undecided about whether to attend Acme PR's inaugural breakfast or go to see The Lifeguard. I've had enough docs on political issues and so will skip 99% The Occupy Wall Street Collaborative Film. There is always so much to do that no matter what you choose, you wonder if you should be somewhere else; that is the dilemma of these festivals with so many choices! See you tomorrow!
- 1/21/2013
- by Sydney Levine
- Sydney's Buzz
On Tuesday, January 17, Marjan Safinia was elected as Ida's new Board President. The other officers were re-elected to their current positions: Adam Chapnick as Vice-President, Moises Velez as Secretary, and Laurie Ann Schag as Treasurer.
Marjan Safinia is an Iranian documentary filmmaker. Her feature debut, Seeds, premiered as the Opening Night Film at SilverDocs and played at over 50 international film festivals. The film was broadcast in the Us, UK, New Zealand, Jamaica and across the Arab world. Her first film, But You Speak Such Good English (UK), premiered at ...
Marjan Safinia is an Iranian documentary filmmaker. Her feature debut, Seeds, premiered as the Opening Night Film at SilverDocs and played at over 50 international film festivals. The film was broadcast in the Us, UK, New Zealand, Jamaica and across the Arab world. Her first film, But You Speak Such Good English (UK), premiered at ...
- 1/19/2012
- by IDA Editorial Staff
- International Documentary Association
From the opening title announcing this documentary as a production of cinembargo films, "Great Day in Havana" won over the audience at its world premiere at the Santa Barbara International Film Festival with its revelations about a city and people that few Americans are intimately familiar with.
A natural for cable, video, fests and limited theatrical engagements where there are audiences for such fare, "Havana" is an unabashed cinematic valentine to the artists and residents of the city, with some pointed commentary about U.S. policy toward the communist country. Structured around a "magical day" with 11 artists, in which the various neighborhoods of the city are illuminated in the process, "Havana" was years in the making and includes liberal use of producer-director Casey Stoll's still photographs in evocative montages.
First-time filmmakers Laurie Ann Schag and Stoll are native Californians who have abundant appreciation for Cuban culture and have visited the country many times. Schag is a multilingual journalist with her own entertainment marketing and production firm, and Stoll has had his photographs of Cuba published in major daily newspapers and exhibited his work in Los Angeles, San Francisco and Havana.
From participants worrying about tourism disrupting the prominence placed on art for art's sake to those who know that for many Cubans "to leave the island is a dream," "Havana" touches on the city's history in the 1990s, including such seemingly divergent trends as a marked rise in prostitution and a society where in general "women are strong." Meanwhile, the Cold War never really ended and the city has "less stimulation," but the arts and artists are encouraged and supported by the populace. The movie does not dig deeply into political issues that have been hashed out much more dramatically in major news events, though art and everyday reality often merge, and the country's depressed economy and unfriendly superpower neighbor are favorite topics.
Among those Havana artists profiled are musician-composer Carlos Alfonso, painter Israel del Monte, sculptor Asela Diaz, actor Jorge Perugorria, singers Ele Valdes and Carlos Varela and performance artist Tania Bruguera. The filmmakers explore Old Havana, the Malecon seawall and lesser-known barrios of the city, while the outstanding soundtrack features musical contributions by Varela, Isaac Delgado, Pablo Milanes, Company Segundo and salsa group Los Van Van, described as a "daily chronicle" of all things Cuban.
GREAT DAY IN HAVANA
cinembargo films
Producer-directors: Laurie Ann Schag, Casey Stoll
Cinematography-sound: Erika Andersen, Abel Chapa, Edward Lucero, Casey Stoll, Rafael Solis, Lauria Ann Schag
Editors: Laurie Ann Schag, Casey Stoll
Narrator: Yareli Arizmendi
Color/stereo
Running time -- 84 minutes
No MPAA rating...
A natural for cable, video, fests and limited theatrical engagements where there are audiences for such fare, "Havana" is an unabashed cinematic valentine to the artists and residents of the city, with some pointed commentary about U.S. policy toward the communist country. Structured around a "magical day" with 11 artists, in which the various neighborhoods of the city are illuminated in the process, "Havana" was years in the making and includes liberal use of producer-director Casey Stoll's still photographs in evocative montages.
First-time filmmakers Laurie Ann Schag and Stoll are native Californians who have abundant appreciation for Cuban culture and have visited the country many times. Schag is a multilingual journalist with her own entertainment marketing and production firm, and Stoll has had his photographs of Cuba published in major daily newspapers and exhibited his work in Los Angeles, San Francisco and Havana.
From participants worrying about tourism disrupting the prominence placed on art for art's sake to those who know that for many Cubans "to leave the island is a dream," "Havana" touches on the city's history in the 1990s, including such seemingly divergent trends as a marked rise in prostitution and a society where in general "women are strong." Meanwhile, the Cold War never really ended and the city has "less stimulation," but the arts and artists are encouraged and supported by the populace. The movie does not dig deeply into political issues that have been hashed out much more dramatically in major news events, though art and everyday reality often merge, and the country's depressed economy and unfriendly superpower neighbor are favorite topics.
Among those Havana artists profiled are musician-composer Carlos Alfonso, painter Israel del Monte, sculptor Asela Diaz, actor Jorge Perugorria, singers Ele Valdes and Carlos Varela and performance artist Tania Bruguera. The filmmakers explore Old Havana, the Malecon seawall and lesser-known barrios of the city, while the outstanding soundtrack features musical contributions by Varela, Isaac Delgado, Pablo Milanes, Company Segundo and salsa group Los Van Van, described as a "daily chronicle" of all things Cuban.
GREAT DAY IN HAVANA
cinembargo films
Producer-directors: Laurie Ann Schag, Casey Stoll
Cinematography-sound: Erika Andersen, Abel Chapa, Edward Lucero, Casey Stoll, Rafael Solis, Lauria Ann Schag
Editors: Laurie Ann Schag, Casey Stoll
Narrator: Yareli Arizmendi
Color/stereo
Running time -- 84 minutes
No MPAA rating...
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