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Written by Erin Trahan | Posted by: Anonymous
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This Just In
Martin Scorcese begins shooting the film
Ashcliffe, starring Leonardo DiCaprio, the first week of March in
Taunton, MA. Grant Wilfley Casting
has been seeking extras to play mental institution staff and Holocaust camp
survivors.
The Swift River Group, founded in 2006, wants to
develop a
fully-functioning regional film and television studio system and training
institute at the historic Strathmore Paper Mill located in Turners Falls,
MA. Swift River Studios, a state-of-the-art film and digital media production facility
will include two sound stages, two multi-camera broadcast stages, a recording studio, multiple insert stages, and post-production suites.
Plans of the founder John Anctil (also the owner of Fastlights) don’t end there —
the group also foresees a production company,
film fund, film festival, and educational institute.
Meanwhile, filmmaker Dennis
Hurley is rallying constituents on behalf of the Weymouth, MA Movie
Studio project. He recently sent a mass email asking friends to express their
support to Governor Deval Patrick. State Representative Ronald Mariano
is also behind the cause as the site under the discussion, the former South
Weymouth Naval Air Station, would benefit his district. As well, a
separate group of producers has its sites on building a soundstage in Plymouth,
MA.
The studio race is on, because on February 7th, Rhode
Island legislators held a news conference on the State House steps, announcing
plans to bring a film production studio to the Ocean State. If you think big
studio dollars are immune to New England state borders, think again. At the
close of his message, Hurley nudges, “If you are not a resident of Massachusetts
I ask that you still please contact the Governor’s office to show that this
studio will have an affect on business and tourism.” For more extensive
reporting, check out what the
Boston Globe and
WBZTV had to say.
You may remember Hurley from The Albino Code, his
spoof on The DaVinci Code. He is the new director of film at Improv
Boston, where he will help develop viral videos, film screenings, contests,
and IB’s online video presence. In fact, introduce yourself (by way of a funny
one-minute monologue) at Improv Boston’s call for actors and performers, March
15-16. Details.
Berkshires-based independent filmmaker Marc Maurino
will be presenting free in-depth seminars about low budget filmmaking for
aspiring filmmakers. March 3rd focuses on production; March 31st
concentrates on post-production. Seminars take place from 7-10 pm at the
Lichtenstein Center for the Arts in Pittsfield, MA. Direct RSVPs to
marc@whitelightfilmworks.com
or Megan Whilden at the Pittsfield Office of Cultural Development, (413)
499-9348.
ICA Boston will be “Reflecting Spectacle: Life as
Art” with a panel of artists who are breaking the boundaries between reality,
TV, and the Internet on March 4th at 6:30 pm.
Tim Jackson, director of Radical
Jesters, a documentary about pranksters, performers,
and provocateurs is among the panelists. Jackson can also be spotted hosting a
new feature on the Coolidge Corner’s website, At the Coolidge. Online
now is a
conversation with Federico Muchnik, program director for BU’s
Center for Digital Imaging.
The next New Hampshire Filmmaker Roundtable,
presented by the New Hampshire Film and Television Office, will take place on
March 5th 2008 from 12-3 pm at Keene State College in Keene, NH. A tour of the
new $3.3 million Media Arts Building included in the event. RSVP by via e-mail
at film@nh.gov.
A scene from Kabul Transit.
[Click to enlarge]
David Edwards, a Williams College anthropology
professor, will answer questions after a screening of his documentary Kabul
Transit on March 10th at 7 pm at
Images Cinema in Williamstown, MA.
Last month NewEnglandFilm.com touted Images Cinema’s
Animal, Vegetable, Cinema: A Food Film and Potluck Series. This month we
learned that Slow Food Boston
is hosting a similar festival for the first time. Catch screenings of
Eat at Bill’s: Life in the
Monterey Market on March 9th, or The Real Dirt on Farmer John on April 13th. Both show at 4
pm at the Theodore Parker Church in West Roxbury, MA.
Filmmaker Debra Longo will be present with
Racing Against The Clock,
a documentary about five competitive female athletes between the ages of 50 and
82, on March 12th at 7 pm at the Scandinavian Living Center in West Newton. The
event is free and public is welcome.
Brattleboro, VT is home to the
2008 Women’s Film Festival,
March 14-23. The line-up includes 30 films from 11 countries, “most made by
women, all of them about women — as activists, as political figures, artists,
mothers, and sometimes all four at once!” New England-made Run Granny Run,
Making Trouble, and
Olive Pierce will screen.
Boston
Cinema Census includes a line-up of 10 multi-genre films by regional
filmmakers. On March 14th at 9:30 pm the Brattle Theatre will screen (not
necessarily in order): Mysterieuse by Samantha Olschan; Full
Stop Hilltop by David Baeumler; Pearlswig by Jesse Kreitzer; Where
is Estel by Jared Katsiane; Frontrunner by John MacDonnell;
Scatterbrain by Jean-Paul DiSciscio; Hanna’s Ride by Anne Loyer;
The Beautiful by Peter Pizzi; and The Cambridge Companion by Ethan
Goldhammer.
Sometimes even the PhD crowd gets a chance to make movies.
Boston University professor of biology, Les Kaufman, served as a
scientific advisor on Darwin’s Nightmare, about the overpopulation of the
highly edible Nile Perch. He’ll speak when the film screens as part of the
Coolidge Corner Theatre’s Science
on Screen series, at 7 pm on March 17th.
Lazlo Pearlman brings his short film to
CineMental this month.
[Click to enlarge]
Aliza Shapiro and James Nadeau, organizers of
CineMental, think London performance
artist Lazlo Pearlman is a genius. That’s why they invited the “GenderBent, GenderQueer,
female-to-male trrrranny burlesque, vaudeville, fetish and cabaret performer,
song stylist, director and teacher” to present his one-man show and short film
Unhung Heroes to Brattle Theatre-goers on March 19th at 9:30
pm.
Emerson alum Jeremy Kasten returns to Boston to
premiere his re-make, The Wizard of Gore at
Boston Underground Film
Festival, running March 20-23. Other highlights of this self-described
“edgy” fest include a New England student shorts program on March 21st.
Vermont’s
Green Mountain Film Festival
takes place March 21-30 in Montpelier. The Vermont filmmakers include Ed Pincus
(Axe in Attic) Bess O’Brien (Shout
it Out: The Voices Project Movie – a Preview), and Bill Simmon (Digital
Pamphleteer).
Video
Underground in Jamaica Plain, MA is looking for short film submissions
for their March Thursday night film screenings. VU is particularly fond of
“experimental/visceral works.”
Last summer NewEnglandFilm.com got to
know Martha’s Island filmmakers
Liz Witham and KenWentworth. Witham and fellow
Islander Nancy Aronie announced the DVD release (film-truth.com) of A
Certain Kind of Beauty, which chronicles Aronie’s son Dan’s experiences
living with Multiple Sclerosis over a six-year period. The film made its world
premiere as one of two American films selected for Docs RX: A World of
Documentaries on Global Health chaired by President Jimmy Carter at
Silverdocs. If you prefer big screens, see it at Dana Hall in Wellesley, MA on
March 28th, 7:30 pm.
Congratulations to the recipients of Women in Film and
Video/New England’s 2008 Image Awards for Vision and Excellence:
Natatcha Estebanez, director of The Blue Diner and WGBH producer (honored posthumously);
Jocelyn Glatzer, producer of the Academy Award-nominated film
My
Country My Country; Joyce Kulhawik, arts and entertainment anchor for
WBZ-TV; and
Susi
Walsh, director of the Center for Independent Documentary. In past years,
WIFV/NE has marked the biannual event with a gala affair. This year the
celebration includes a one-day film festival at the Brattle Theatre,
presentations of awards, and a VIP cocktail party at NOIR at the Charles Hotel.
Funds raised at this event help keep the organization running year round.
Attend
from 12 noon to 12 midnight on Saturday March 29th.
This year Women in Film & Video/New England ((WIFV/NE) joins
forces with the Lesley University Writing for Stage & Screen MFA Program to
co-sponsor WIFV/NE’s Sixth Annual Screenwriting Competition.
Entries must be authored or co-authored by a woman and/or feature a woman or
women in prominent roles. Los Angeles-based screenwriter Kate Boutilier (The
Rugrats, The Wild Thornberrys) will judge the top three scripts. The grand
prizewinner will receive a $200 cash award in addition to a script reading by a
prominent agent. Get your scripts in by March 15th. For details and
application, click here. Read about
last year’s winner, Mary Conroy,
here.
Randy Steinberg writes this month about the student
award winners from the 2008 Redstone Film Festival at Boston University. In
addition to teaching and screenwriting, Steinberg accepted a newly created
position as BU’s motion picture industry coordinator. As the MPIC, Steinberg
acts as a liaison between film festivals, industry, and BU film students, with
the hopes of getting more student work seen. If you want to know more about BU
student work, contact Steinberg at mpic@bu.edu.
Coming Soon
Director/producer Mark Region just finished shooting
his first feature After Last Season,
a drama/thriller about a group of medical students who experience tragedy. New
England actors Jason Kulas (Old Man), Peggy McClellan (The Bronx is Burning), and Scott Winters
(Mystic River) play three of the main characters. Region shot the film on 35mm
in Lowell, MA and in Salem, NH.
LaMont T. Cain of The Reserve Entertainment Group reports
that he optioned the script My Name is Anna Busch, by Malden, MA writers
Diana Dell and Carol Dingle. Cain reports that he is currently
developing People’s Choice, a project based on the friendship between
Brooklyn Dodgers legends Pee Wee Reese and Jackie Robinson.
The next meeting of the
Maine Film and Video Association is
scheduled for April 1st, 5 pm, at Frontier Café in Brunswick, ME and features a
panel discussion on “Marketing Your Business.”
The Boston Jewish Film Festival is accepting
entries for its 20th annual Festival November
5-16, 2008.
Paris Kiely, of Lowell, MA wants to connect with a
documentary filmmaker who would be likewise inspired by her mother’s story of
stroke and recovery. E-mail her at
pkkiely@aol.com.
Held Over
Former Northeastern University football star-turned
filmmaker Byron Hurt
www.bhurt.com has been racking up accolades for his cultural critique of
masculinity in hip hop, Beyond Beats and Rhymes. The Chicago Tribune
named it one of
2007’s 10 Most Compelling TV Documentaries. It was also named one of
the
Top 10 Hip Hop Odyssey Films of 2007.
The Maine Film Office joins the ranks of area
state film offices (like NH) with the decision to use
Reel Scout to assist with locations
management. The Film Office also posted its preliminary counts of 2007
Maine-based media projects made for national or international audiences: 12
catalog (photographic) projects; two commercial photographic (non-catalog)
projects; 12 documentary features; 29 dramatic features; 16 film commercial
projects; one industrial film; one music video; 24 TV documentary (series
segment) projects; three TV dramatic projects and two web projects. To get an
even better sense of what’s going on, the Maine Department of Economic and
Community Development (DECD) selected ECONorthwest of Portland, OR to research
the economic impacts of Maine’s media-production industry and to make
recommendations on how to expand and improve the industry.
Bluefoot Entertainment,
located in West Hartford, CT, works collaboratively with ESPN to produce
segments and features for entities such as the National Football League, Major
League Baseball, FIFA and NASCAR among others. Bluefoot was recently honored a
bronze award in the sports opener and titles category as well as the silver
award in the editing: promo spot category at the New York Festivals 2008
International TV Broadcasting Awards.
Bill Millios of Back Lot Films and Marc
Vadeboncoeur of Goodheart Media Services (both based in NH) are hosting
three extensive seminars for independent filmmakers: Producing, Marketing, and
Screening Your Digital Film (April 5-6), Advanced Field Production: Creating A
Great Scene (April 12th), and Advanced Post Production: Editing & DVD Authoring
(April 13th). Workshops run from 10 am-6 pm at Back Lot Films’ production
studio in Manchester, NH. Details at www.digitalfilmmakingworkshops.com.
Alex Karpovsky premieres his second feature,
Woodpecker, at SXSW in March. The IFF’s Adam Roffman produced. The
film comes to Boston in April. Get a sneak
peek.
Joan Quinn Eastman founder of the former Mass Media
Alliance wrote to say, “Isn’t it great to see everyone buzzing about the
industry in ways only imagined a few short years ago?” She recently interviewed
several movers and shakers for WBZ, where she has worked for the past six years
in one of the many roles as a media contractor.
Check
it out.
Rhode Island International Film Festival received a
$2,000 grant from the RI State Council on the Arts to help fund the annual RI
Student Film Festival.
Jeff Daniel Silva’s latest experimental documentary,
Balkan Rhapsodies
has screened in four international cities and two continents. The US debut was
held in February at MoMA’s NY Documentary Fortnights. While Silva was working
on the film, he told
NewEnglandFilm.com: “I began shooting interviews of people in Serbia and in
Kosovo asking them questions about life. There’s a personal and also a
political quotient to the film that I am currently struggling to balance…”
Screenings, festivals, meetings and other events at at www.NewEnglandFilm.com/events/
