FILM SOCIETY CINEMA
FILM SOCIETY CINEMA
FILM SOCIETY CINEMA
FILM SOCIETY CINEMA
FILM SOCIETY CINEMA
FILM SOCIETY CINEMA
FILM SOCIETY CINEMA
FILM SOCIETY CINEMA
October 2010
October 2010 Filmmaker News & Notes
SFFS-sponsored filmmaker Yoav Potash recently released a timely new trailer for his film Crime After Crime, which focuses on current California Attorney General candidate Steve Cooley’s role in the liberation case of Debbie Peagler. Despite signing a 2005 agreement to release Peagler from controversial manslaughter charges that resulted in nearly 27 years of incarceration, Cooley revoked his decision a year later, igniting a firestorm of criticism and sparking a grassroots support movement for Peagler’s release.
Jesse Vile’s film Perpetual Burn: The Story of Jason Becker—a recent addition to the Film Society’s roster of fiscally-sponsored films—is an exciting journey into the world of a Bay Area rock legend with a paralyzing terminal illness who still composes music with his eyes. Vile is currently inviting participation in the project with a fundraising campaign hosted at indiegogo.com/JasonBeckerMovie.
Three SFFS fiscally-sponsored projects were awarded CineReach summer cycle Grants. Maryam Keshavarz was awarded for her project Circumstance, Jamie Meltzer for Informant, and Robinson Devor for an as-yet untitled film about Sarah Jane Moore, the woman who attempted to assassinate president Gerald Ford.
Director Laura J. Lukitsch’s film Beard Club, a documentary about the social politics of facial hair entitled, had its world premiere at the Hot Springs Documentary Film Festival in October. Prior to the premiere, the film had a sneak peek at the Temescal Street Cinema series in Oakland and screened at a conference in England. In September, Laura also launched an event and webisode series for her new documentary Mind the Gap, which focuses on sustainable urban transport.
John Antonelli and Will Parrinello’s short Global Focus VII: The New Environmentalists screened with Shira and Yoav Potash’s film Food Stamped at the Mill Valley Film Festival. Parrinello’s short documentary Mustang: Journey of Transformation was released on World Peace Day by iTunes and Shorts International. Narrated by Richard Gere, the film tells the remarkable story of a Tibetan culture pulled back from the brink of extinction through the restoration of its most sacred sites.
Acclaimed nonprofit arts organization New York Women in Film and Television showed Gemma Cubero’s fiscally-sponsored documentary Ella es el Matador in New York on September 30. The film, moderated at the event by Salvadoran director and editor Paula Heredia, tells the remarkable story of pioneering female matadors Maripaz Vega and Eva Florencia.
Mary Kerr's documentary about underground artists and poets during the Beat Era, San Francisco's Wild History Groove, was selected for screening at the Docutah International Film Festival in Utah. A second screening took place in September at Agder University in Norway.
The SFFS-sponsored film Bamako Chic: Threads of Power, Color and Culture earned a ranking as a top-three finalist in LinkTV's ViewChange online film contest, a competition which focuses on works that best represent United Nations Millennium Development Goals. Maureen Gosling and Maxine Downs’s film was judged by a panel comprised of Wim Wenders, Danny Glover, Gael García Bernal and others, and also included votes from the public.
Marcia Jarmel and Ken Schneider’s documentary Speaking in Tongues—the winner of the Audience Award at the 2009 San Francisco International Film Festival—premiered on KQED on Sunday, September 26. This compelling film traces the experiences of four public school students over an academic year in a winning effort to reveal the complexities of bilingual education.
The Trust, an emotionally-complex documentary by three fiscally-sponsored filmmakers—Tamara Perkins, Jesse Dana and Diana J. Brodie—screened at a fundraising event at Oakland’s Asian Cultural Center on Thursday, October 14. The film profiles the lives of four men recently united with their families after decades of incarceration and offers a poignant take on second chances.
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 10, while Lovers Of Hate, a film he coproduced that premiered in the U.S. Dramatic Competition at the 2010 Sundance Film Festival, airs on November 9 on the cable station.
SFFS-sponsored filmmaker Yoav Potash recently released a timely new trailer for his film Crime After Crime, which focuses on current California Attorney General candidate Steve Cooley’s role in the liberation case of Debbie Peagler. Despite signing a 2005 agreement to release Peagler from controversial manslaughter charges that resulted in nearly 27 years of incarceration, Cooley revoked his decision a year later, igniting a firestorm of criticism and sparking a grassroots support movement for Peagler’s release.
Jesse Vile’s film Perpetual Burn: The Story of Jason Becker—a recent addition to the Film Society’s roster of fiscally-sponsored films—is an exciting journey into the world of a Bay Area rock legend with a paralyzing terminal illness who still composes music with his eyes. Vile is currently inviting participation in the project with a fundraising campaign hosted at indiegogo.com/JasonBeckerMovie.
Three SFFS fiscally-sponsored projects were awarded CineReach summer cycle Grants. Maryam Keshavarz was awarded for her project Circumstance, Jamie Meltzer for Informant, and Robinson Devor for an as-yet untitled film about Sarah Jane Moore, the woman who attempted to assassinate president Gerald Ford.
Director Laura J. Lukitsch’s film Beard Club, a documentary about the social politics of facial hair entitled, had its world premiere at the Hot Springs Documentary Film Festival in October. Prior to the premiere, the film had a sneak peek at the Temescal Street Cinema series in Oakland and screened at a conference in England. In September, Laura also launched an event and webisode series for her new documentary Mind the Gap, which focuses on sustainable urban transport.
John Antonelli and Will Parrinello’s short Global Focus VII: The New Environmentalists screened with Shira and Yoav Potash’s film Food Stamped at the Mill Valley Film Festival. Parrinello’s short documentary Mustang: Journey of Transformation was released on World Peace Day by iTunes and Shorts International. Narrated by Richard Gere, the film tells the remarkable story of a Tibetan culture pulled back from the brink of extinction through the restoration of its most sacred sites.
Acclaimed nonprofit arts organization New York Women in Film and Television showed Gemma Cubero’s fiscally-sponsored documentary Ella es el Matador in New York on September 30. The film, moderated at the event by Salvadoran director and editor Paula Heredia, tells the remarkable story of pioneering female matadors Maripaz Vega and Eva Florencia.
Mary Kerr's documentary about underground artists and poets during the Beat Era, San Francisco's Wild History Groove, was selected for screening at the Docutah International Film Festival in Utah. A second screening took place in September at Agder University in Norway.
The SFFS-sponsored film Bamako Chic: Threads of Power, Color and Culture earned a ranking as a top-three finalist in LinkTV's ViewChange online film contest, a competition which focuses on works that best represent United Nations Millennium Development Goals. Maureen Gosling and Maxine Downs’s film was judged by a panel comprised of Wim Wenders, Danny Glover, Gael García Bernal and others, and also included votes from the public.
Marcia Jarmel and Ken Schneider’s documentary Speaking in Tongues—the winner of the Audience Award at the 2009 San Francisco International Film Festival—premiered on KQED on Sunday, September 26. This compelling film traces the experiences of four public school students over an academic year in a winning effort to reveal the complexities of bilingual education.
The Trust, an emotionally-complex documentary by three fiscally-sponsored filmmakers—Tamara Perkins, Jesse Dana and Diana J. Brodie—screened at a fundraising event at Oakland’s Asian Cultural Center on Thursday, October 14. The film profiles the lives of four men recently united with their families after decades of incarceration and offers a poignant take on second chances.
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 10, while Lovers Of Hate, a film he coproduced that premiered in the U.S. Dramatic Competition at the 2010 Sundance Film Festival, airs on November 9 on the cable station.