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Written by Erin Trahan | Posted by: Anonymous
Email news to news@newenglandfilm.com.
This Month
Does the wrap of March Madness leave you craving midnight
movie madness? At the Coolidge
Corner Theatre in Brookline you can even sing along – to R. Kelly (April
4th) or Michael Jackson (April 5th). Be ready for hidden
props and strangers who know every word and every move, thanks to
Thriller video postings on YouTube (and those unsettling dancing lizard
ads).
Perhaps you’ll be rolling into the midnight show after the
2-6 pm gathering of Peter Kelley’s Screenplay Lit for Actors, in Boston
April 5-6. (He also teaches a feature film actors’ lab April 26-27.) “I want
you to be able to recognize the characteristics of a strong screenplay, to see
what makes it strong — and to understand the role of the actor in work written
for the screen, and how it differs from work written for the stage,” wrote
Kelley in an email blast from
CP Casting.
The 48 Hour Film Project once again comes to Boston
on April 4-6 where nearly 100 teams will be attempting to write, direct and edit
a short film in one weekend. All the films completed will screen at the
Kendall Square Cinema in Cambridge, MA on April 8, 9, 10 and 15th. For
more see the Boston 48 Hour Film
Project website.
Lots of locals are featured in the first-ever
Lowell Film Festival, April 4-5.
NewEnglandFilm.com didn’t know Bette Davis had Lowell roots til we read
this.
The Martha’s Vineyard Film Society invited Bill
Haney to comment after a screening of his documentary, The Price of Sugar,
on April 5th, at 7:30 pm. The even is co-presented with "Fish Farm For Haiti
Project" and all proceeds go to this charitable cause. For more
information visit
www.mvfilmsociety.com.
The Dhamma Brothers, a doc by MA-based filmmaker
Jenny
Phillips, will open at the Cinema Village on April 11th in New York
City, followed by a limited release in select cities nationwide.
Every year the Coolidge Corner Theatre honors a film master
with the Coolidge Award. (Last year NewEnglandFilm.com learned
How to
be a Master Editor from Thelma Schoonmaker, Coolidge Award winner 2007!)
This year British producer Jeremy Thomas will be celebrated April 16-17,
with a tribute, screenings, and panel discussions. Thomas collaborated with
Bernardo Bertolucci on The Last Emperor, which won nine Academy Awards in
1988. For a thorough seasoning of his record, click
here.
Ana’s Time, a short film written and directed by MIT
alum (now Brooklyn-based) filmmaker, Alice Cox, will premiere at the
Atlanta Film Festival on April 16th. Cox and crew shot the film in
Cambridge and Somerville in fall 2005, including scenes at 1369 coffee shop,
Toscannini’s, PA’s Lounge, and People’s Republik bar.
Been waiting for the
Providence College
Student Film Festival? It’s on April 21st.
The
Tribeca Film Festival runs April 23rd-May 4th. Tip of the
hat to those representing New England: Zombie Gets a Date (Newton, MA);
God’s Beach (North Haven, ME); and Tale of Two Bondage Models
(Providence, RI).
Film and video projects by students at the School of the
Museum of Fine Arts will screen at the
MFA, Boston on April 24th (undergrads) and April 30th
(grads). Admission is free.
Also at the MFA this month: The Other Side of the
Mirror: Bob Dylan at the Newport Folk Festival, the most recent documentary
by Harvard’s film production society founder Murray Lerner, as well as
his first Newport documentary, Festival! (winner of the Academy Award
for Best Documentary in 1967).
Filmmakers must be versed in all visual trades, no? So it
may be relevant to hear graphic designer Stefan Sagmeister reflect on
Things I have learned in my life so far (also his book title), April 25,
6:30 pm at ICA Boston.
Documentaries of “discovery” will screen throughout April
at locations across RI. It’s the third annual
Roving Eye Documentary Film Festival
and producing director Adam Short writes, “We have films from across the
globe, including a great series of award winning docs out of China’s prestigious
Guangzhou Documentary Film Festival.” Many screenings include discussion.
The Artists’ Exchange 2nd Annual Short Film Festival,
slated for this month, has been cancelled. “Rest assured that all submission
fees will be returned within the next two weeks. We apologize for any
inconvenience,” writes operations manager Christina Mealey.
Lionel Mark Smith as Larry in Larry (The
Actor).
The Independent Film Festival of Boston (IFFBoston)
will be held April 23-29 and features 96 films. NewEnglandFilm.com spoke to one
of 12 directors of Twelve, premiering this month. We also heard an
update from Brett Portanova. His film Larry (The Actor) has
undergone some major retooling since we heard from he and film partner Eric
Poydar in
2005. Portanova describes the film as “a mofaux doc about a struggling
black actor at the end of his rope.”
Portanova and Poydar dedicated the film to Lionel Mark
Smith, who
passed away last month. The three met on the set of David Mamet’s State
and Main, shot in MA in 2000. Smith (who produced Larry as well
as played the lead) “saw the film just before picture lock, was extremely proud
of it, and was excited and looking forward to it creating a dialogue among
like-minded viewers,” wrote Portanova.
Saddened by his friend and colleague’s death, Poydar
reflected, “Lonnie used to leave us messages on our voicemail during the whole
process…this kept us fired up for the project and sure that we were on course.
I’ll never forget one of the first messages Lonnie ever left for us — Eric and
I were driving home from a meeting where our DP agreed to shoot the film — we
had just sent Lonnie the final draft of the script, and were anxious/terrified
awaiting his response, until we heard his deep voice on the message, ‘Got the
script…I loved it. I loved the hell out of it.’” More at
www.larrythemovie.com.
Boston producer/director Mike Pecci wrote to say
that he and Ian McFarland are codirecting a music video for MTV2 for the
Grammy winning metal band Mesuggah. “It’s a high concept piece with extremely
heavy production design very much like the film The Cell,” wrote Pecci.
He also expressed difficulty booking crew, given the recent Boston production
boom. Read more about them
here.
Anyone else having trouble finding crew?
Tell NewEnglandFilm.com your
story . . .
At the close of April, see
the White River Independent Film
Festival in White River, VT.
Coming Soon
The Cloud Place’s teen film curators are seeking
films 20 minutes or less made by teens ages 13-19.
Submit for the
May 16th screening by April 28th.
Bongo & Okapi by Maine Master Dahlov
Ipcar.
Beginning in May and running through January 2009,
The Maine Masters series — video portraits of some of Maine’s most
distinguished visual artists — will be broadcast on a new television series,
Open Air, on Portland’s WPME-TV, channel 35. The show will air the first
Saturday of each month at 10:30 pm. The series includes portraits of painter
Dahlov Ipcar, photographer Olive Pierce, and sculptor Clark Fitz-Gerald, to name
a few.
Open Air is seeking additional shows about
Maine or by Maine filmmakers. Interested? Contact WPME program coordinator Meg
Dion at
mdion@ourmaine.com.
The next New Hampshire Filmmaker Roundtable,
presented by the New Hampshire Film and Television Office, will take place June
11th from 12-3 pm at Red River Theatres in Concord. BYOL (Bring Your Own
Lunch)!
New England college students and recent grads,
send your films
to the New England Student Film Festival by June 15th.
The Provincetown International Film Festival
celebrates 10 years, June 18-22.
Festival leaders just named Quentin Tarantino (Pulp Fiction, Kill Bill)
the 2008 Filmmaker on the Edge. All 10 of the previous Filmmaker on the Edge
Award recipients: John Waters, Christine Vachon, Ted Hope, James Schamus, Gus
Van Sant, Todd Haynes, Jim Jarmusch, Mary Harron, Gregg Araki, and Todd Solondz
have been invited to participate in the anniversary celebration.
The Rhode Island International Film Festival is
calling for screenplay entries (all
genres, written after 2005) for its 12th annual festival, which takes place
August 5-10, 2008 in Providence, RI. Deadline is July 1st.
KidsEye Summer Filmmaking Camp, for youth ages 8-17 will take place July
7-11 in Kingston, RI.
The Connecticut Commission on Culture and Tourism
and state Office for Workforce Competitiveness are
planning a seminar in July to train high school, vocational school and
college students to work on film crews. Time and location TBD.
Director Mark Lewis recently finished Bay State
Blues, a feature that he says, “chronicles the 24 hour period that leads up
to the implosion of couple’s marriage in Massachusetts farm country.” It was
shot throughout Western and Central MA. Find out more
www.baystateblues.net.
Plenty of time to
send submissions to the 4th
annual Boston Bike Film Festival – not due till September 20th.
Held Over
Tom Adams of Williamsburg, MA picked up a Telly
Award for Establishing a Local Historic District – an educational video
produced with The Massachusetts Historical Commission. Learn more about Adams
at www.ReelifeProductions.com.
He also works as the studio manager for South Hadley Community Television.
RI documentary filmmaker Rocco Michaluk won the PBS
Independent Lens Online Film Festival for Translate, about the New
England transgendered community. Translate can be seen
here.
Alix Flood has taken distribution matters into her
own hands. Her ensemble comedy, A Totally Minor Motion Picture, screened
at the Newport International Film Festival in 2004. Now, viewers can
download a copy for just
$1.99. But that’s not all. Flood has issued a manifesto, credo, and motto (yes,
all three!) on behalf of indie filmmakers and audiences. And she is seeking
great films to join her distribution revolution. So flood her with your films .
. . or help her reach her goal of one million downloads.
Rule Broadcast Systems of Watertown, MA announced
new partnerships with Apple and Avid Technology. According to Rule, prior to
these partnerships they supported — via rental or long-term lease — both Avid
and Apple systems as part of Rule’s rental business. The new partnerships allow
Rule to sell and integrate these systems.
The full line of each vendor’s postproduction products,
such as Apple’s MacPro, MacBookPro, Xserve, Xsan, Final Cut Pro Studio, Final
Cut Server, and Avid’s Media Composer HD, Symphony Nitris, Unity ISIS, as well
as all Deko Broadcast, On Air Graphics systems, and more will be available.
Visit www.rule.com.
Blue Sky Studios, which specialize in digital
animation and employs 300, is seeking an $8 million low-interest loan from the
state of CT to help it relocate from White Plains, NY to Greenwich, CT.
More.
Waltham, MA-based Center for Independent Documentary
was awarded a $65,000 grant from the
Massachusetts Cultural Council for "Refocusing the Lens." The program will
provide skills training and workforce development for the state’s film community
and a national film conference in Boston. Collaborators include Filmmakers
Collaborative, The Color of Film, WGBH, Central Productions, the LEF Foundation,
the Massachusetts Production Coalition, and IATSE 481.
Screenings, festivals, meetings and other events at at www.NewEnglandFilm.com/events/
