FILM SOCIETY CINEMA
FILM SOCIETY CINEMA
FILM SOCIETY CINEMA
FILM SOCIETY CINEMA
FILM SOCIETY CINEMA
FILM SOCIETY CINEMA
FILM SOCIETY CINEMA
FILM SOCIETY CINEMA
January 2011
January 2011 Filmmaker News & Notes
In early December, the Sundance Film Festival announced its lineups. Among the Bay Area films in Documentary Competition are the following: Tiffany Shlain's Connected is described by Sundance as a "stream-of-consciousness ride through the interconnectedness of humankind, nature, progress and morality at the dawn of the 21st century." Yoav Potash's Crime After Crime looks at the case of Debbie Peagler, a domestic violence survivor who was jailed for her involvement in the brutal murder of her abuser. Jennifer Siebel Newsom's Miss Representation connects the dots between the media's limited representation of women with their under-representation in positions of power. David Weissman's We Were Here looks back at the the arrival and impact of AIDS in San Francisco. Part of the New Frontier section, Lynn Hershman Leeson's ! Women Art Revolution reveals how the Feminist Art Movement transformed the art and culture of our times. Non-Bay Area-specific projects fiscally sponsored by the San Francisco Film Society in competition include two Dramatic entries: Circumstance (by director/screenwriter Maryam Keshavarz) and HERE (by director Braden King). SFFS/Film Arts Foundation Documentary Grant finalist Göran Olsson's The Blackpower Mixtape 1967-1975 plays in World Competition. The complete competition rosters, a total of 46 films, can be found at the Sundance website.
Sarah Entine's documentary Read Me Differently was selected for a 2010 CINE Golden Eagle Award. In 2011, WGBH in Boston plans to broadcast the film. This personal documentary explores how undiagnosed dyslexia and ADHD have impacted three generations in her family.
Always My Son, a short video produced and directed by Vivian Kleiman and edited by Robert Arnold, is now on YouTube. It had over 2,400 hits in the first 24 hours after going live. Always My Son tells the story of Ed, a Latino former Marine from East San Jose and his journey from rejection to acceptance of his gay teenaged son.
Marcia Jarmel and Ken Schneider's film Speaking in Tongues was broadcast on PBS in 139 markets; it was the first PBS program ever to be made available online in three languages (Spanish, Chinese, and English). To date, more than 1,000 educators and advocates are using the film across the country, and 112 communities have screened the film in public forums, conferences, public libraries, and film festivals.
Good Cat In Screenland, a documentary by Richard Cohen, is now available on DVD. Lured by the prospects of redevelopment, two entrepreneurs from Communist China acquire a bankrupt historic show business hotel in Culver City, California. They soon find themselves at odds over ownership. With grit, elegance and generous humor, Good Cat In Screenland documents the rebirth of the topsy-turvy Culver Hotel – best known for lodging the Munchkins during the production of MGM’s classic 1938 film The Wizard of Oz.
Ken Paul Rosenthal's documentary Crooked Beauty won "Best of Fest" at both the 9th International Super 8 Film Festival in Hungary and the Human Dignity Film Festival in Sonoma. He presented the film at the US Social Forum, Alternatives Mental Health Conference, and the Berkeley Social Justice Symposium. The Fall leg of his North American tour brought screenings and workshops to community centers, schools and hospitals across Canada, Massachusetts, and NYC.
Barbara Klutinis' film Stepping into the Stream, about women and fly fishing, has won awards at the Hatch Film Festival in Bozeman, Montana (Hybridlife Award), the LA All Sports Film Festival in Los Angeles (third place Short Docs), the Secret City Film Festival in Oak Ridge, Tennessee (2nd place documentary) and the Yosemite Film Festival (El Capitan Film Award for Environmental Film). It has also screened at the following festivals: Twin Rivers, South Dakota, Louisville, Southern Winds, St. John's International Women's Festival in Newfoundland, Directors Circle Festival of Shorts, Rivers Edge, and Southern Appalachia.
Following its world premiere at the Los Angeles Film Festival this Summer, directors Chris Metzler and Lev Anderson's documentary Everyday Sunshine: The Story of Fishbone has gone on to screen at 20+ film festivals including the Mill Valley Film Festival and also the SF DocFest where it won the the Audience Award. The filmmakers also recently received a $10,000 public engagement and outreach grant from California Council for the Humanities (CCH) to be utilized when the film is released theatrically and other alternative methods next Summer. Narrated by iconic actor Laurence Fishburne, the film tells the compelling story of the musical group Fishbone and the social and cultural forces that gave rise to this pioneering Black punk rock band from South Central-Los Angeles.
Filmmaker Chris Ohlson is involved with two films that are making their television premieres on back-to-back nights on the Sundance Channel in November. The Overbrook Brothers, which Ohlson produced, had its World Premiere at the 2009 SXSW 2009 Film Festival and it will air on November 10th, while Lovers Of Hate, a film he Co-Produced that premiered in the U.S. Dramatic Competition at the 2010 Sundance Film Festival, airs on November 9th on the cable station.
In an effort to raise finishing funds, SFFS-sponsored animator Mauricio Baiocchi recently launched a website for his live action puppetry film Cicada Princess at cicadaprincess.com. The small, Berkeley-based puppetry studio hopes to continue producing films in this lost medium and to offer puppetry workshops to children and local artists.
In early December, the Sundance Film Festival announced its lineups. Among the Bay Area films in Documentary Competition are the following: Tiffany Shlain's Connected is described by Sundance as a "stream-of-consciousness ride through the interconnectedness of humankind, nature, progress and morality at the dawn of the 21st century." Yoav Potash's Crime After Crime looks at the case of Debbie Peagler, a domestic violence survivor who was jailed for her involvement in the brutal murder of her abuser. Jennifer Siebel Newsom's Miss Representation connects the dots between the media's limited representation of women with their under-representation in positions of power. David Weissman's We Were Here looks back at the the arrival and impact of AIDS in San Francisco. Part of the New Frontier section, Lynn Hershman Leeson's ! Women Art Revolution reveals how the Feminist Art Movement transformed the art and culture of our times. Non-Bay Area-specific projects fiscally sponsored by the San Francisco Film Society in competition include two Dramatic entries: Circumstance (by director/screenwriter Maryam Keshavarz) and HERE (by director Braden King). SFFS/Film Arts Foundation Documentary Grant finalist Göran Olsson's The Blackpower Mixtape 1967-1975 plays in World Competition. The complete competition rosters, a total of 46 films, can be found at the Sundance website.
Sarah Entine's documentary Read Me Differently was selected for a 2010 CINE Golden Eagle Award. In 2011, WGBH in Boston plans to broadcast the film. This personal documentary explores how undiagnosed dyslexia and ADHD have impacted three generations in her family.
Always My Son, a short video produced and directed by Vivian Kleiman and edited by Robert Arnold, is now on YouTube. It had over 2,400 hits in the first 24 hours after going live. Always My Son tells the story of Ed, a Latino former Marine from East San Jose and his journey from rejection to acceptance of his gay teenaged son.
Marcia Jarmel and Ken Schneider's film Speaking in Tongues was broadcast on PBS in 139 markets; it was the first PBS program ever to be made available online in three languages (Spanish, Chinese, and English). To date, more than 1,000 educators and advocates are using the film across the country, and 112 communities have screened the film in public forums, conferences, public libraries, and film festivals.
Good Cat In Screenland, a documentary by Richard Cohen, is now available on DVD. Lured by the prospects of redevelopment, two entrepreneurs from Communist China acquire a bankrupt historic show business hotel in Culver City, California. They soon find themselves at odds over ownership. With grit, elegance and generous humor, Good Cat In Screenland documents the rebirth of the topsy-turvy Culver Hotel – best known for lodging the Munchkins during the production of MGM’s classic 1938 film The Wizard of Oz.
Ken Paul Rosenthal's documentary Crooked Beauty won "Best of Fest" at both the 9th International Super 8 Film Festival in Hungary and the Human Dignity Film Festival in Sonoma. He presented the film at the US Social Forum, Alternatives Mental Health Conference, and the Berkeley Social Justice Symposium. The Fall leg of his North American tour brought screenings and workshops to community centers, schools and hospitals across Canada, Massachusetts, and NYC.
Barbara Klutinis' film Stepping into the Stream, about women and fly fishing, has won awards at the Hatch Film Festival in Bozeman, Montana (Hybridlife Award), the LA All Sports Film Festival in Los Angeles (third place Short Docs), the Secret City Film Festival in Oak Ridge, Tennessee (2nd place documentary) and the Yosemite Film Festival (El Capitan Film Award for Environmental Film). It has also screened at the following festivals: Twin Rivers, South Dakota, Louisville, Southern Winds, St. John's International Women's Festival in Newfoundland, Directors Circle Festival of Shorts, Rivers Edge, and Southern Appalachia.
Following its world premiere at the Los Angeles Film Festival this Summer, directors Chris Metzler and Lev Anderson's documentary Everyday Sunshine: The Story of Fishbone has gone on to screen at 20+ film festivals including the Mill Valley Film Festival and also the SF DocFest where it won the the Audience Award. The filmmakers also recently received a $10,000 public engagement and outreach grant from California Council for the Humanities (CCH) to be utilized when the film is released theatrically and other alternative methods next Summer. Narrated by iconic actor Laurence Fishburne, the film tells the compelling story of the musical group Fishbone and the social and cultural forces that gave rise to this pioneering Black punk rock band from South Central-Los Angeles.
Filmmaker Chris Ohlson is involved with two films that are making their television premieres on back-to-back nights on the Sundance Channel in November. The Overbrook Brothers, which Ohlson produced, had its World Premiere at the 2009 SXSW 2009 Film Festival and it will air on November 10th, while Lovers Of Hate, a film he Co-Produced that premiered in the U.S. Dramatic Competition at the 2010 Sundance Film Festival, airs on November 9th on the cable station.
In an effort to raise finishing funds, SFFS-sponsored animator Mauricio Baiocchi recently launched a website for his live action puppetry film Cicada Princess at cicadaprincess.com. The small, Berkeley-based puppetry studio hopes to continue producing films in this lost medium and to offer puppetry workshops to children and local artists.