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Industry News January 2008

1 Jan , 2008  

Written by Cameron Bonsey | Posted by:

Boston Society of Film Critics will host its first-ever awards ceremony, Sundance welcomes another crew of New England filmmakers, and Lowe Road Productions starts closing in on Romeo, thanks to collaboration between filmmaker moms... A report of news & happenings in the local industry for January 2008.

This Just In

Actors Mick Hoegen and Fran Richmond, co-chairs of the Boston AFTRA/SAG Independent Film Committee (a sub-committee of the Boston AFTRA/SAG Organizing Committee) will take questions on breaking into the indie film scene as an actor at a free discussion on January 8th, 7 pm, at the Borders book store in Providence Place.   Hosted by Toni Pennacchia of spoileralertradio.com and Adam Short, RIIFF’s producing director.   

Michael Steinberg emailed to ask NewEnglandFilm.com if we knew about “a website that lists the major movies being filmed at any given moment in the Greater Boston/NE area.”  Keeping track of such things is not something we have the woman-power for at this moment, especially since we’d want current specs for the entire region.  So in the absence of a Boston Film Office we called Nick Paleolegos at the Massachusetts Film Office.  He called back to explain, “We don’t ask filmmakers to provide us with their call sheets on a daily basis, even if we did, we would not likely to post it on the website.”  Production office phone numbers are kept confidential, unless companies authorize a release, he added.  Paleologos wants to assure that productions can “get in, do their work, get their 12 hour days done on schedule and on budget.”  NewEnglandFilm.com publisher Michele Meek suggests trying www.IMDB.com for advanced searches for location and release date, “Each film has a forum where you can often find where they’ve been spotted.” 

Speaking of the Massachusetts Film Office, now calling itself MFO on occasion, a wrap party will be held to celebrate the state’s record-breaking year of production on January 5th at 7pm at the Park Plaza in Boston.  Visit www.mafilm.org for tickets. 

Stuck with your doc? Short of money? The Independent’s Documentary Doctor, Fernanda Rossi, is coming to Boston on January 11 with her signature workshops on understanding the art of story structure and how to create effective fundraising trailers. For more information, go to her website.

IMAGINE Magazine will honor the following "Imaginnaires" (so called because “they are dedicated, insightful, and generous of themselves and their resources, which they use to serve our industry”):  Roger Lyons, director of commercial production for BZ Productions; William J. Murphy, Rhode Island Speaker of the House; Don Packer, editor and co-owner of Engine Room postproduction house; Carolyn Pickman, CSA, of CP Casting; and Ernest Thompson, Academy Award winning writer (On Golden Pond).  The New Year’s Celebration Awards Gala takes place at 7 pm on January 8th at the Regattabar at the Charles Hotel.  Visit www.imaginenews.com for details. 

The Maine Film & Video Association (MFVA) will host its winter meeting at 5 pm on January 10th at WPXT Studios in Westbrook Maine.  The meeting includes a panel discussion on broadcast distribution with Cynthia Fenneman (president of American Public Television), Louise Rosen (of Louise Rosen Ltd., specializing in international distribution of non-fiction, social and cultural documentaries), and Doug Finck (general manager of WPXT).  Everyone welcome, $5 for non-members.  Members admitted free.  Check out www.mainefilm.com.  

Nutmeg Pictures will offer a sneak-preview of Film Camp at the Stratford Theatre in Stratford, CT on Jan 12th at 1 pm and 4 pm.   Tickets are $6 and can be reserved by calling (203) 345-6167.  NewEnglandFilm.com contributor (and Film Camp director) Garret C. Maynard hosts a one-day seminar on how to make a film on February 16th at Norwalk Community College from 1-3 pm. 

Are you looking for original music for your latest film project?  Bob McKillop, Maine songwriter and self-described meddler in all things folk music announced the launch of www.mainefolkmusic.com for January 16th. The site, like the music networking group McKillop organizes, is meant to provide a resource to connect local folk singer and songwriters with members of related industries.  The website will offer news, reviews, profiles, special content, and calendar information about the regional folk music goings-on.   

The Boston Jewish Film Festival and the Museum of Fine Arts (MFA) film program will screen Danieil Anker’s documentary about the American film industry’s response to the horrors of Nazi Germany, Imaginary Witness: Hollywood and the Holocaust, January 2-17.  On January 2nd, Thomas Doherty (professor of American Studies at Brandeis University and recent author of Hollywood’s Censor: Joseph I. Breen and the Production Code Administration) will field questions.  Filmmaker Daniel Anker will be present on January 10th.  Visit www.mfa.org/film.   

If you miss Thomas Doherty at the MFA, catch him at Harvard Film Archive, during its program, Vice vs. Virtue in Pre-Code Hollywood, a selection of American cinema released just before the 1934 production code censored “unwholesome” onscreen behavior.  He introduces Call Her Savage (US, 1932), a cautionary tale about a Texas debutante (Clara Bow) gone bad on January 18th at 7 pm.  

The Harvard Film Archive also hosts Mysterious Objects: Apichatpong Weerasethakul, a series of films by the Thai director, January 19-25.  The program includes earlier work, a number of short films, and his feature Blissfully Yours.  Weerasethakul will be present for the January 19th 7 pm screening of Blissfully Yours.   

Kaj Wilson announced her departure from the Boston Jewish Film Festival.  She has served as the artistic director since 1995 and programmed 12 of the 19 Boston Jewish Film Festivals (the festival was founded in 1989).   

Wilson, and several previously mentioned members of the regional film production, exhibition, and academic communities received commendations from The Boston Society of Film Critics at its annual meeting December 9th.  Others commended include Nick Paleologos, Thomas Doherty, Rhonda Moskowitz (filmmaker, organizer of Connect the Docs, and recent contributor to NewEnglandFilm.com), and Steve Samuels, Boston-based producer (Michael Clayton, In the Valley of Elah, Running with Scissors).  The group also announced its first-ever awards ceremony, to be held at the Brattle Theatre on January 20th.  For a complete list of all Boston Society of Film Critic winners, click here.

Several persons with New England ties will participate in the 2008 Sundance festivities, January 17-27: 

Writer/director John Magary (graduate of Williams College) was selected for the Sundance Screenwriting Lab for Blood Abundance, or The Half-Life of Antoinette, a retelling of the chaotic life of Antoinette Dawson as she raises seven children in New Orleans.  Also chosen for the lab:  Alicia Erian for Hammer and Anvil, about an idealistic American who agrees to do the favor of a lifetime for a Salvadoran immigrant.  Erian is a short story writer and author of the 2005 novel Towelhead, which Alan Ball made into a film to be released in 2008.  Erian is currently the Newhouse visiting professor of creative writing at Wellesley College. 

Jake Mahaffy, co-founder of Handcranked Film Projects collaborative in Boston, was named one of 12 finalists for the 2008 Sundance/NHK International Filmmakers Award.  One emerging film director from Europe, Latin America, the United States and Japan is selected by members of an international jury to support them in realizing their next projects. The four winners receive a $10,000 award and a guarantee from NHK to acquire the Japanese television broadcast rights upon completion of their project. In Mahaffy’s film, Free In Deed, a man’s attempt to perform a miracle fails and results in the death of a young boy.  Free In Deed was developed at the 2006 Sundance Institute Filmmaker Lab.  Read about his past Sundance success here.  Visit Handcranked here

Boston-based Robb Moss is hard at work with Peter Galison to finish their documentary, Secrecy — about government production of secret knowledge —  for a world premiere at Sundance.  Moss has been to Sundance before with The Same River Twice.  He will also serve on a panel, “Sundance:  A Work in Progress.”  Take a peek at www.secrecyfilm.com.

Director Katrina Browne will accompany Traces of the Trade:  A Story from the Deep North for a Sundance world premiere.  Her personal documentary (co-directed by Alla Kovgan and Jude Ray) confronts the violent heritage of the largest slave-trading family in early America. 

And this month NewEnglandFilm.com interviews two New England natives who screen their short, The Execution of Solomon Harris at Sundance.  Check it out.  

If you were accepted into Sundance but not mentioned here, feel free to drop us a line at news@newenglandfilm.com and tell us about your project!   

The Rhode Island International Film Festival is calling for shorts as well as feature-length films and videos produced after 2004 to screen at its August 5-10, 2008 festival.  The early deadline is January 15th and has a reduced entry fee.   

Cambridge Community Television (CCTV)’s has extended its deadline for the Free Speech Shorts Video Festival to January 30th.  CCTV is looking for videos of 10 minutes or less that explore First Amendment ideals of free speech by people in Cambridge and the Greater Boston area. Details at www.cctvcambridge.org/freespeechshorts

IFFBoston 2008 is calling for entries.  The extended deadline is January 31st.  Submit at www.iffboston.org/2008/entries.php

You have until February 22nd to submit films to the 10th Annual Provincetown International Film Festival

The Artists’ Exchange of Cranston, RI announced the 2nd Annual Artists’ Exchange Short Film Festival, to be held in Cranston April 25-26.  Short films of all genres must be submitted by March 1st.  Rhode Island Film Collaborative will assist in programming and running this year’s festival.  Filmmakers can email the.artists.exchange.filmfest@gmail.com for an application. Or contact Christina Mealey, operations manager, at (401) 490-9475.

Coming Soon


Lowe Streeter and daughter Sophie (photo by Dawn Greene).[Click to enlarge]

After four years of shooting and a nationwide search for an editor, Lorna Lowe Streeter’s Lowe Road Productions began postproduction on Romeo in August 2007.  The documentary follows one man’s work to rehabilitate batterers in Boston.  Lowe Streeter hired Sally Wu Chou (Country Boys, Run, Granny Run) to give her a “pair of fresh eyes” and to help her draw out a strong story from her 60 plus hours of footage.  They soon outgrew their digs at the Film Posse, and moved the operation to Lowe Streeter’s house.  She says the move made sense now that her daughter is in preschool. "So now instead of working alongside other indies at the Posse (Alberta Chu, Monica Navarro, Brittany Huckabee, Courtney Hayes, Tracy Strain, and Randall McLowry), our officemates are multiple Barbies and a crew of Ugly Dolls.”  

In addition to Wu Chou’s master editing, Lowe Streeter has found an underlying value to their collaboration.  “We are both moms of three-year olds, so she gets it when I need to dash off for three o’clock pick-ups…I’m able to commiserate with her over sleepless nights and the ups and downs of potty training,” she says.  Lowe Streeter acknowledges that not all filmmaker-moms have the support they need.  “I have met so many moms who have felt it necessary to put projects on hold due to the demands motherhood puts on us, both time and energy-wise.  It’s hard.  Period.  But with some creative problem-solving and support, it can be done.  I think Sally and I are showing that moms don’t have to choose between our kids and our careers.”  She hopes to finish Romeo by Summer 2008.  Learn more at www.loweroadproductions.com

White Light Filmworks, a Berkshires-based independent film production company, concluded principal photography for the narrative short film All in the Game in December.  All in the Game is about a homicide detective who forms a friendship with a suspect in a robbery and murder case.  Writer/director/producer Marc Maurino shot at locations in Pittsfield and Lenox, including various apartments, city streets, and at the Pittsfield Brew Works on Depot Street.  Maurino’s first three films were also shot in the Berkshires, and his last film, Trigger Finger, premiered at the Berkshire International Film Festival in May of 2006.  Pittsfield native Grant Haywood and Shakespeare and Company’s Elizabeth Aspenlieder, both of whom appeared in Trigger Finger, also have feature roles in this production.  Maurino is also currently planning a series of free filmmaking seminars for local youth and filmmakers interested in building a film career.  Learn more at www.whitelightfilmworks.com.  

LifeFinder Films announced that it has wrapped shooting on Untitled Batwa Pygmy Project, a documentary that explores the challenges and complications of foreign aid, told through the eyes of a young medical student volunteering at a health clinic in Southwestern Uganda.  Director Matthew Amenta, producer Ted Reilly and the star of the film, medical student David Grew, all grew up in West Hartford, CT.  The producers are planning a festival release this spring.  Visit www.lifefinderfilms.com. 

CinemaSalem in cooperation with Film North, Inc. will present a Five Minute Festival on May 1st at CinemaSalem.  The festival competition is free and is open to college and high school students living in Essex County.   Videos of five minutes or less, any genres, all subjects.  More on submitting here

The New Hampshire Film and Television Office is launching a statewide high school short film festival with the inaugural fest slated for May 17th in Concord.  A web-based resource for students and their teachers will provide filmmaking tips, articles, and suggested exercises to introduce students to the fundamental and aesthetic principles of motion picture production.  The festival is open to students currently enrolled in a New Hampshire public or private high school (grades 9-12).  Submissions will be accepted until March 14th. Find out more at www.nhstudentfilm.com.  

The New Haven Underground Film Festival (NHUFF) is accepting submissions now through June 1st.   

Boston’s Velveteen Films announced that it will shoot a feature, Hickory Nation, on the North Shore in fall 2008.  Aimee Teegarden (Friday Night Lights) will star.  The film is written by Velveteen’s Rebecca Cook (Shooting Livien) and is to be produced by Amy Slotnick (Frida, Serindipity) and Jeff Kalligheri, who’s Boston-based Dolce Vita Productions will serve as production support on the film.  This is where you find more.

Held Over

Director and actor Albert M. Chan screened a rough cut of his latest film, Fate Scores, on December 19th at MIT.  "It’s always great to see how an audience reacts the first time you screen a film," Chan wrote to NewEnglandFilm.com. "We received some really constructive feedback which I’ll review with the editor, Aaron Howland, as we move toward a final cut of the film."  The final version will also include an original score by composer Christian Coleman that features piano, violin, viola, marimba, and voice.  Chan describes the film as a “thoughtful look at the seemingly random interactions between ten strangers that eventually culminate into something extraordinary.”  Visit www.fatescores.com

Arnon Z. Shorr recently moved to the Baltimore area with his wife, Talia Landau.  Previously, he had been living and making movies in Cambridge, Stoughton and Waltham, MA.  His first Baltimore-made film, Widow’s Meal, won the audience award of The Jewish Film Challenge, a national competition in which filmmakers are given six days to write, cast, shoot, edit and submit a short film with three pre-determined Jewish elements.  "Before we started, I hardly knew anyone around here," wrote Shorr, "as a result of this production, I’ve met actors, writers, technicians, and fellow film enthusiasts from all over the region – there is more film in Baltimore than people realize."  The film will be screened at the Madison (WI) Jewish Film Festival in October, in the final round of competition for the Jewish Film Challenge. 

The first annual Rhode Island International Film Festival (RIIFF) Horror Screenplay Contest announced its winners and established the contest as an annual event.  Dickinson M. Upson of Rehoboth, MA took home the Grand Prize for The Companion, about a woman who tries in vain to escape the ghosts of her past by hiring a mysterious overnight companion for her invalid brother.  The story takes place on Martha’s Vineyard. 

Screenings, festivals, meetings and other events at at www.NewEnglandFilm.com/events/


Screenings, festivals, meetings and other events at at www.NewEnglandFilm.com/events/

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