NewEnglandFilm.com

What’s Happening

The local independent film Solitaire is currently in pre-production.  The film is scheduled to star Jason Acuña, Dirk Benedict, Laura Bertram, Rae Dawn Chong, among others and has a listed budget of $250,000.  For more information, visit www.heybirdyproductions.com/SOLITAIRE/.  

Susan Sarandon is slated to narrate Jennifer Finocchio’s documentary This Child of Mine, filmed in Maine, California and Oregon and scheduled for a 2007 release.

An open casting call for the Disney film Dan in Real Life takes place in Providence, RI on December 2.  For more information, visit http://www.ldicasting.net.

Providence College hosts a Student Video Slam on December 6 in order to showcase the work of students.  For more information, visit http://www.providence.edu/Theatre/Video+Slam.htm.

The Artists’ Exchange Short Film Festival to be held on January 19-20 will be focusing on movies made by New England filmmakers. All categories are being accepted for movies under 30 minutes including music videos and trailers. Submission Deadline is December 29, 2006. For more information, visit http://www.artists-exchange.org.

Women in Film/Video New England hosts a screening of selected experimental works by local filmmaker Louise Bourque on December 14.  For more information visit http://www.womeninfilmvideo.org/programs.chicksmakeflicks.php.

What’s Happened

Over 200 of the State’s leading film and television professionals gathered at a Massachusetts Production Coalition sponsored event last month to participate in a panel discussion on impact of the Tax Incentive. The participants were also introduced to Richard Krezwick, the newly appointed head of the Massachusetts Sports and Entertainment Commission. The tax package is among the most aggressive in the nation and has Hollywood exploring numerous opportunities the state now can provide. With locally filmed projects such as Martin Scorsese’s The Departed, Ben Affleck-directed Gone Baby Gone, and The Game Plan, starring Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, Massachusetts is already seeing indications of a major increase in local production

The Midnight Chimes Productions short Miracle Hose won competition #19 and $1000 on NBC’s It’s Your Show.  For more information about Midnight Chimes, visit http://www.midnightchimesproductions.com/MCP/index.html or for the NBC series It’s Your Show, visit http://www.itsyourshowtv.com/.   You can watch Miracle Hose at http://www.itsyourshowtv.com/728.shtml.

Normal Adolescent Behavior, filmed partially in Rhode Island, has wrapped and is now in post-production.  The film directed by Beth Schacter and starring Amber Tamblyn, Ashton Holmes, Kelli Garner, and Daryl Sabara is scheduled for a summer 2007 release.

The audience of over 12,500 viewers at this year’s Boston Jewish Film Festival voted its favorites.  The Best Short Subject award went to Under the Roller Coaster, directed by Lila Place who grew up in Brookline, Massachusetts. For more information on winners, visit http://www.bjff.org/.

The New England Film and Video Festival announced its festival winners which included Butts Out by Sherief Elkatsha for Best Documentary Feature and Devotion by Tyler Horan for Best Narrative Independent Feature.  For more information on the festival, visit http://www.befva.org/.

What Will  Happen

Look forward to seeing the release of two projects being filmed in Connecticut: Reservation Road starring Mark Ruffalo and Jennifer Connelly (http://www.focusfeatures.com; reservationroadllc@gmail.com) with a scheduled release date of November 2007 and  the series The Bronx Is Burning (bronxresumes@aim.com) based on Jonathan Mahler’s book Ladies and Gentlemen, the Bronx Is Burning and scheduled to air on ESPN in July 2007.

In March, Bjort Productions, LLC (www.bjortproductions.com) will begin shooting their second feature film, The Joneses, (www.thejonesesmovie.net) a black comedy about two sets of neighbors whose friendly competition turns deadly.