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In the News

Government support for the New England film industry continues to be rocky. Connecticut has pulled the plug on the Southeastern Connecticut Film Office, due to budget cuts and a structural reorganization. The office closed November 14. The Connecticut Film, Video & Media Office is still up and running.

But not all news is bad. In a press conference on Monday, November 24, Providence Mayor announced the establishment of a Cultural Arts Department, including a Film Commission staffed by volunteers. And United States Senator Olympia Snowe of Maine has been honored by the Directors Guild of America (DGA) for her efforts as one of the prime sponsors of proposed legislation for federal tax incentives for filming inside the U.S. (as opposed to, say, Canada).

Motorists stopping in at visitor centers throughout Vermont can feast their eyes on the Film Location’s new location map, "Made in Vermont." The large maps on Vermont will use photos stills from movies to indicate which films were shot at various locations throughout the state. Featured films include "Beetlejuice," "Funny Farm," "Cider House Rules," "What Lies Beneath," and "The Trouble With Harry." The ribbon-cutting ceremony was Tuesday, November 25.

After 56 days of shooting, principal photography on HBO’s "Empire Falls" wrapped on Thursday, November 20, finishing up with a scene calling for stunt people floating downstream. The film, which required footage of three separate seasons, employed much of the state’s film industry in some capacity for the duration of the shoot. The Maine Film Office staff spent countless months bringing the shoot to Maine, doing some preliminary scouting not long after the book came out and starting pre-production efforts in earnest early this spring. The film is not scheduled to air until 2005, and the filmmakers may return to the production headquarters they set up in Waterville to get some pick-up shots here and there.

"Mona Lisa Smiles," the new Julia Roberts movie, opens December 19. Set in Wellesley, the film was shot in Massachusetts and Connecticut last year.

"Project Rebirth" a project chronicling the rebirth of Ground Zero after 9/11 and chronicling the lives of those most affected, shot for a day in New Haven, Connecticut, on the Yale campus.

John Ratzenberger (postman Cliff on Cheers) visited Vermont to film at Johnson’s Woolen Mills, granite memorial producer Rock of Ages, and the area’s maple industry for his Travel Channel series "Made in America." Produced by Termite Art Productions, the series will show intimate portraits of America’s workers. The series is set to premiere January 6.

Filmmaker Alice Stone spent November 1 and 2 shooting the trailer for a feature-length independent film based on a controversial off-leash dog run in Boston’s South End. The narrative film tells of the unlikely coalition that formed between the mostly gay dog owners and a group of Puerto Rican skate punks. Currently titled "Dog Eat Dog," it evokes the feel of life in the city, with groups of very different people trying to get along despite differing perspectives. The film will use subjective camera perspectives to incorporate this theme visually. Perspectives filmed for the trailer include doggie-cam and skateboard cam. The trailer was filmed with Moody Street Pictures, with a grant from the LEF Foundation.

Edgewood Studios in Rutland, Vermont, has had a flurry of activity. Director Neil Kinsella just wrapped "Landslide," one of what Edgewood calls its "family-disaster" movies. Greedy developers build some condos in a high-landslide-risk area. A torn family must deal with catastrophe when the development is buried — and the family’s rifts are healed in the process. Vincent Spano, Alexandra Paul (of "Baywatch"), and Robert Pine star. The film, which began shooting in October and employed about 70 people, will air on PAX TV next summer. The studio also recently played host earlier this fall to Timothy Daly’s "Bereft," about a young widow’s attempts to begin her life again, and just finished post-production of Shawn Sweeney’s "Most People Our Age Are Already Dead," about elderly strangers in a nursing home.

With one film in post-production and one in pre-production, Boston-area filmmaker Garth Donovan is up to his neck in projects. The first, filmed under the working title "Samantha" details the struggles of a female ex-hockey player, was shot in and around Boston over the past year. The other will shoot in Boston early next year. Called "Gabby Knowles has Entered the Room," the film tells the chat room adventures of a psychosomatic sufferer and sex addict. But wait, there’s more: Donovan’s "Everyone’s Got One," a gritty, low-budget reworking of Martin Scorsese’s "King of Comedy," has recently been licensed for distribution by FilmThreat DVD. The film was shot in Groton, Massachusetts. Whereas Scorsese’s twisted comedy takes as its starting point the idea that everyone thinks they’re funny, in Donovan’s film everyone thinks they’re a screenwriter. (At this point, I think it appropriate to mention that I have two completed screenplays and one in process. Any takers?)