"It's not true that life is one damn thing after another; it is one damn thing over and over."
Edna St. Vincent Millay (1892 - 1950)
US Poet
"The unexamined life is not worth living."
Socrates (469 BC - 399 BC)
in Plato, Dialogues, Apology
Greek Philosopher
"Life is just a mirror, and what you see out there, you must first see inside of you."
Wally "Famous" Amos (1936 - )
U.S. Businessman
"Education's purpose is to replace an empty mind with an open one."
Malcolm Forbes (1919 - 1990)
US art collector, author, & publisher
"Every reader finds himself. The writer's work is merely a kind of optical instrument that makes it possible for the reader to discern what, without this book, he would perhaps never have seen in himself."
Marcel Proust (1871 - 1922)
French Novelist
We judge ourselves by what we feel capable of doing, while others judge us by what we have already done.
— Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807 - 1882)
"If only we'd stop trying to be happy we could have a pretty good time."
Edith Wharton (1862 - 1937)
"I don't know what your destiny will be, but one thing I do know: the only ones among you who will be really happy are those who have sought and found how to serve."
Albert Schweitzer (1875 - 1965)
In the December 24, 1973 issue of Newsweek, film critic Pauline Kael (1919 - 2001) said, "In the arts, the critic is the only independent source of information. The rest is advertising." In reality, with all of the swag that is thrown in the paths of critics, even their opinions are suspect in the contemporary film market. But, many films thrive or die at the mercy of the media. So, odd bedfellows are filmmakers and media critics.
"It is just the little touches after the average man would quit that make the master's fame."
Orison Swett Marden (1850 - 1924)
"He who pursues fame at the risk of losing his self is not a scholar."
Chuang-tzu (369 BC - 286 BC
"You can't find any true closeness in Hollywood, because everybody does the fake closeness so well."
U.S. Actress, Carrie Fisher (1956 - )
"Hollywood is a place where they'll pay you a thousand dollars for a kiss and fifty cents for your soul."
Marilyn Monroe (1926 - 1962)
"The only "ism" Hollywood believes in is plagiarism."
Dorothy Parker (1893 - 1967)
"I'm mad as hell and I'm not going to take it anymore."
Howard Beale, NETWORk (1976)
"To deny our own impulses is to deny the very thing that makes us human."
Andy and Larry Wachowski, The Matrix, 1999
"There's a difference between knowing the Path and walking the Path."
Andy and Larry Wachowski, The Matrix, 1999
"Art enables us to find ourselves and lose ourselves at the same time."
Thomas Merton (1915 - 1968)
U.S. Trappist Monk
"Somewhere along the line of development we discover who we really are, and then we make our real decision for which we are responsible."
Eleanor Roosevelt (1884 - 1962)
U.S. First Lady
"Man is what he believes."
Anton Chekhov (1860 - 1904)
Russian Playwright
"The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes but in having new eyes."
Marcel Proust (1871 - 1922)
French Novelist
The 2006 Tribeca Film Festival announced the line-up for its Short Film Competitions. The program includes 76 shorts selected from among 2,150 submissions. Appearing in this year's short narrative films are actors David Straitharn, Henry Winkler, Sandra Bernhardt, and Jeffrey Tambor. Documentary subjects include Don Cheadle, Elvis Costello, Allen Toussaint and Roseanne Cash.
Synopses, cast and crew credits and press contacts for the short films announced can be viewed in the press section of the Tribeca Film Festival website www.tribecafilmfestival.org
Akeelah and the Bee, directed and written by Doug Atchison (U.S.A.) - New York Premiere. A Lionsgate Release. Akeelah is a precocious 11-year-old from south Los Angeles with a gift for words. Despite her mother's objections, she enters several spelling contests, and with the support of a special tutor and the entire neighborhood, she earns a spot at the Scripps National Spelling Bee. This uplifting film stars Angela Bassett, Laurence Fishburne, Curtis Armstrong, and Keke Palmer.
Al Franken: God Spoke, a documentary directed by Christine Hegedus and Nick Doob (U.S.A.) - New York Premiere. This hilarious doc about one man's unceasing battle against the Right tracks Al Franken's transformation from mild-mannered comedy writer to full-on political player. Featuring appearances by Ann Coulter, Michael Moore, Al Gore, John Kerry, and Henry Kissinger.
Black Sun, a documentary directed by Gary Tarn (U.K.) - New York Premiere. Where there is no vision, does the artist perish? In this haunting, original first-person narrative, NYC-based French painter and filmmaker Hugues de Montalembert, who lost his sight after a mugger threw paint thinner in his eyes, narrates his journey into sudden blindness and out of despair, as composer-turned-filmmaker Gary Tarn's mesmerizing web of sounds and images recreates the world from his point of view.
Brothers of the Head, directed by Louis Pepe and Keith Fulton, written by Tony Grisoni (U.K.) - New York Premiere. An IFC Release. London, 1975. Conjoined twins with a creepy, crypto-erotic bond take the burgeoning glam/punk scene by storm in this eerie mockumentary-style adaptation of Brian Aldiss' novel. Luke and Harry Treadway deliver searing performances as two very different parts of one fatally compromised whole, and the film and its music will stick with you for days.
Close to Home (Karov La Bayit), directed and written by Dalia Hager and Vidi Bilu (Israel) - New York Premiere. In this critically acclaimed study of Israeli women and compulsory military service, two diametrically opposed women are thrown together on patrol in Jerusalem: Mirit is respectful of her military superiors, while Smadar barely conceals her desires for rebellion. When a bomb explodes, the two reconcile their differences, and a tenuous friendship is forged.
Eden, directed and written by Michael Hofmann (Germany) - North American Premiere. In this charming culinary comedy, Gregor is a distinguished chef who specializes in aphrodisiac dishes but can't seem to work his sensual magic on women. When the portly chef meets the delectable but married Eve, he gets a taste of true love. But can their shared gastronomical passions turn into something more substantial?
Hanging Garden (Kuutyuu Teien), directed and written by Toshiaki Toyoda (Japan) - New York Premiere. Meet the Kyobashis, a model suburban Japanese family. Or are they? In director Toshiaki Toyoda's skillful examination of contemporary domestic malaise, a mother's plan for the perfect family initially seems to be working, but we soon learn that her perceived perfection is a lie that each family member chooses to believe at the expense of reality.
The Heart of the Game, a documentary directed and written by Ward Serrill (U.S.A.) - New York Premiere. A Miramax Release. In the tradition of Hoop Dreams, this heart-pounding documentary about girls, race, and basketball follows a talented if occasionally self-destructive teenage star and her coach over the course of six years as she, her team, and her coach suffer crushing defeats and soaring victories on and off the court.
Kill Gil (Volume 1), a documentary directed by Gil Rossellini (Italy) - New York Premiere. Gil Rossellini (son of Italian filmmaker Roberto and brother of actress Isabella) documents his battle with a rare and devastating bacterial infection, which made him a paraplegic. Shot in a charmingly low-tech, off-the-cuff manner, Kill Gil (Volume 1) conveys a tremendous sense of hope and perseverance, while avoiding pat feelings of pity and morbidity. In English.
loudQUIETloud, a documentary directed by Steven Cantor and Matthew Galkin (U.S.A.) - New York Premiere. The Pixies reunite 12 years after their inauspicious split and set out to re-conquer the world, and their own demons. This dazzling concert doc eschews rock-god clichés and goes straight to the heart of four people who need music-and one another-more than they ever knew.
Madeinusa, directed and written by Claudia Llosa (Peru, Spain) - New York Premiere. The title heroine of this stunning debut work lives in a remote Andean village where, every Easter weekend, the villagers live sinfully without fear of celestial reprisal. When our ostensible hero blows into town from the big city and meets the heroine, what could spin into a classic fairy-tale takes a surreal, satisfying turn. I saw this film at Sundance in January 2006 and it was extraordinary!
The Sacred Family (La Sagrada Familia), directed and written by Sebastián Campos (Chile) - New York Premiere. In this keenly observed debut feature, architecture student Marco brings Sofia, his new and impulsive girlfriend, home to meet his parents over Easter weekend. Sofia's flirtatious, manipulative ways soon crack the veneer of Marco's bourgeois family, turning the entire household upside-down.
The Shutka Book of Records, a documentary directed by Aleksandar Manic (Serbia and Montenegro) - New York Premiere. In the Balkan town of Shutka, the Romani (Gypsy) population is thriving and everyone is considered a champion at something. This droll film introduces us to a variety of Shutka's colorful, comically self-assured champions, from the boxer and the lovemaker to the grave robber and the vampire hunter.
Sound of the Soul, a documentary directed by Stephen Olsson (U.S.A.) - New York Premiere. In a world where religions often drive people apart, Sound of the Soul offers a joyfully welcome reminder that spirituality can also bring us together. The film explores Morocco's historic heritage of tolerance, and showcases a stunning array of brilliant musicians at the Fez Festival of World Sacred Music, whose profound expressions of love and longing are unforgettable.
Taking Father Home (Bei Ya Zi De Nan Hai), directed by Ying Liang, written by Ying Liang and Peng Shan (China) - New York Premiere. Filled with bitterness and a thirst for revenge, a 17-year-old boy leaves his rural Chinese village to seek out the father who abandoned him 6 years earlier. But once the boy arrives in the big city of Zigong, the long-awaited encounter with his father leads him to make a dramatic decision. In Mandarin.
Viva Zapatero!, a documentary directed and written by Sabina Guzzanti (Italy) - New York Premiere. When Italian comedienne Guzzanti's satirical TV show was canceled after Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi's media corporation filed a 20-million-euro lawsuit, she got serious, sort of. Following in the footsteps of Michael Moore (only far more talented at imitating her target), Guzzanti exposes the seedy underbelly of Berlusconi's Right-wing regime in this viciously funny work.
Wah-Wah directed and written by Richard E. Grant (U.K.) - New York Premiere. A Roadside Attractions Release. Partially based on childhood of this first-time director (and well-known actor) in British-controlled Swaziland, Wah-Wah paints a picture of colonialism on the wane and frames it with the story of a boy's awakening to the wider world. Starring Gabriel Byrne, Miranda Richardson, and Emily Watson.
Word Play, a documentary directed by Patrick Creadon (U.S.A.) - New York Premiere. An IFC Release. Tag along with Will Shortz, the legendary crossword editor of the New York Times, as he and his fellow word enthusiasts construct the newspaper's brainteasers and the annual American Crossword Tournament, which Shortz founded. Also featuring interviews with crossword-puzzle devotees Bill Clinton, Bob Dole, Jon Stewart, Ken Burns, the Indigo Girls, and others. Co-presented by the New York Times.
Barren Lives (Vidas Secas), directed and written by Nelson Pereira dos Santos (Brazil, 1963). A newly-struck copy of a classic early film by Pereira dos Santos, whose Brasilia 18% is premiering at the Festival. Adapted from a novel by Graciliano Ramos, the film follows a ranch hand and his family, who are forced off their land in the early 40's by a severe drought and social injustice, and head off in search of work and a better life.
Big Combo, directed by Joseph H. Lewis, written by Philip Yordan (U.S.A., 1955) - World Premiere Restoration. The UCLA Film & Television Archive's new restoration of this memorably nasty film noir is especially good news since it was shot by the master of noir lighting, John Alton, and the prints available in recent years didn't do justice to his art. Cornel Wilde, Richard Conte, Brian Donlevy, and Lee Van Cleef give standout performances in this cult classic. Burning Patience (Ardiente Paciencia), directed and written by Antonio Skármeta (Portugal and Germany, 1983) - North American Premiere Revival. A postman's life is forever changed when Pablo Neruda, the famous Chilean poet and diplomat, is exiled to the postman's remote village. Writer/director Skarmeta's charming, sexy, and largely overlooked film was the original screen adaptation of his own popular novella, which was also the basis for the 1994 film, Il Postino. In Spanish
Fair Wind to Java, directed by Joseph Kane, written by Richard Tregaskis (U.S.A.) World Premiere Restoration. This 1953 South Seas adventure, starring Fred MacMurray and Vera Ralston, is the essence of Republic Pictures' "B" movie style, and it's been lovingly restored to its TruColor glory by the UCLA Film and Television Archive. Climaxing with a volcanic explosion that must be seen to be disbelieved, it's the ultimate Saturday matinee experience. Introduced by Martin Scorsese.
On the Bowery, directed by Lionel Rogosin, written by Richard Bagley and Lionel Rogosin (U.S.A., 1957). World Premiere Restoration. On the heels of its lovely restoration of Lionel Rogosin's Come Back, Africa (1960), which premiered at TFF last year, the Cineteca di Bologna has just finished restoring Rogosin's first film, the Oscar©-nominated documentary about the harsh and often shocking realities of life on what in the '50s was New York's Skid Row. Prix de Beauté, directed by Augusto Genina, written by René Clair and G.W. Pabst (France). As her final starring role, the legendary Louise Brooks plays a typist who wins a beauty contest in this French-shot feature. We are screening the rare silent version, which is somewhat different from the sound version that is usually shown. Preceded by Giovani Pastrone's one-reeler, The Fall of Troy (1911). Both films with live piano accompaniment by Donald Sosin and live translation of French and Italian intertitles.
The River, directed by Jean Renoir, written by Rumer Godden and Jean Renoir (India, U.S.A.). A not-to-be-missed screening of a recent restoration, which returns one of the most memorable and lovely color films of all time to its original glow. A group of English colonials on the banks of the Ganges gradually succumb to India's eternal perspectives. Renoir's images flow with the same languor as the metaphorical river. In English.
Tribute to Nam June Paik, A collection of work by Korea-born, New York-based video art pioneer Nam June Paik, who died in January. Presented in collaboration with the Nam June Paik Studio, Electronic Arts Intermix, and John Hanhardt, Senior Curator of the Film and Media Arts department at the Guggenheim Museum.
"The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes but in having new eyes."
Marcel Proust (1871 - 1922)
French Novelist
"There is always something new out of Africa."
Pliny the Elder (23 AD - 79 AD)
Roman Scholar & Scientist
"No man is an Island, entire of itself;
every man is a piece of the Continent, a part of the main."
John Donne (1572 - 1631)
English Poet & Clergyman Meditation XVII
"The weak can never forgive. Forgiveness is the attribute of the strong."
Mahatma Gandhi (1869 - 1948)
Assassinated Indian Leader
"There are two ways of exerting one's strength: one is pushing down, the other is pulling up."
Booker T. Washington (1856 - 1915)
U.S. Educator
"For one human being to love another; that is perhaps the most difficult of all our tasks, the ultimate, the last test and proof, the work for which all other work is but preparation."
Rainer Maria Rilke 1875 - 1926)
German Lyric Poet
"No human thing is of serious importance."
Plato (427 BC - 347 BC)
Greek Philosopher
Well, he's off to find his future in the bright lights. After 19 years, (yes, I know he's only 18 but there was the nine months getting ready) of wondering, worrying, watching and praying that he'd grow up happy, healthy and excited about his life ... it's hard to let him go. It's absolutely bizarre not to be picking him up, taking him here, there and everywhere, nagging him about what he's not doing. I hardly know what to do with myself!
"Small children give you headache. Big children give you heartache."
Russian Proverb
"Children pay little attention to their parent's teachings, but reproduce their characters faithfully."
Mason Cooley (1927 - )
U.S. Aphorist
"All your sanity and wits they will all vanish
I promise, it's just a matter of time."
Gogol Bordello Start Wearing Purple
Gypsy Punk Band
"I paint self-portraits because I am so often alone, because I am the person I know best."
Frida Kahlo (1907 - 1954)
Mexican Painter
"Perfection of moral virtue does not wholly take away the passions, but regulates them."
Saint Thomas Aquinas (1225 - 1274)
Italian Theologian
David Hudson over at GreenCineDaily pointed me to the terrific interviews over on IndieWIRE. They've contacted all of the Sundance directors via email and gave them a series of questions. Some of the responses are quite intriguing. FLANNEL PAJAMAS director Jeff Lipsky gave a detailed interview. According to IndieWIRE, Lipsky says, "The four filmmakers who have most influenced me are John Cassavetes (for whom I worked for five years and was a friend for eighteen), Ingmar Bergman, Woody Allen, and Mike Leigh. These four men have consistently demonstrated a love for language, a propensity for exploring the human condition as it can be and is experienced almost anywhere in the world, and are the only filmmakers who conjure up and are inspired by multi-dimensional female characters, strong women, fragile women, fearless women, real women." No wonder I like this guy.
COME EARLY MORNING director Joey Lauren Adams says her greatest influences include, "Bruce Beresford's TENDER MERCIES was the template for the film. I showed it to everyone involved. I've always admired its achievement in telling a story in the most simple and honest way. The combination of Horton Foote's writing, the acting, the production design, the cinematography, the music and the sound design all lend to this. Also, URBAN COWBOY had a huge influence. It seemed to me the actors were never commenting on the people they were portraying, instead, they were just being. It was so important that the film not be a caricature of Southern culture, but instead an honest view of very real people and places."
"It is only to the individual that a soul is given."
Albert Einstein (1879 - 1955)
U.S. Physicist
"Don't be humble, you're not that great."
Golda Meir (1898 - 1978)
Israeli Prime Minister
"While we have the gift of life, it seems to me that only tragedy is to allow part of us to die - whether it is our spirit, our creativity, or our glorious uniqueness."
Gilda Radner (1946 - 1989)
American Comedianne
"The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes but in having new eyes."
Marcel Proust (1871 - 1922)
French Novelist
"It is when power is wedded to chronic fear that it becomes formidable."
Eric Hoffer (1902 - 1983)
Longshoreman and Philosopher The Passionate State of Mind, 1954
"Death is not the worst that can happen to men."
Plato (427 BC - 347 BC)
Greek Philosopher & Author
It's my father's birthday today so the quotes are for him. He and my grandmother (his mother) are certainly the two most influential people in my life. They were both teachers -- he in the military, she in a one-room schoolhouse in rural Wisconsin. I've always tried to please them, to be like them.
One of my favorite stories about my father occurred while I was in junior high school. He was putting a closet in our bedroom (my sister Sandy and I shared a room). It required knocking out a wall. While he was working, he noticed a flaw in one the original construction. Whomever had built the house had mismeasured one of the beams. There was at least a half inch gap that had been filled with a lathe shim. He pointed at the cobbled repair. "Do you see that?" he said. I nodded, waiting for a some sort of negative comment.
"That's a nice repair!" he said. "You know, Cyn, everyone makes mistakes. The question isn't whether or not you'll make mistakes in your work or your life. The question is, how will you fix them."
"My grandfather once told me that there are two kinds of people: those who work and those who take the credit. He told me to try to be in the first group; there was less competition there."
Indira Gandhi (1917 - 1984)
Indian Politician, granddaughter of Mahatma
"I have never been especially impressed by the heroics of people who are convinced they are about to change the world. I am more awed by those who struggle to make one small difference after another."
Ellen Goodman (1941 - )
U.S. Journalist & Author
"Everything I say is a lie. I am telling the truth."
Kurt Godel (1006 - 1978)
Godel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid
Godel's Incompleteness Theorem; any formal system that attempts to capture all the truths in its finite set of axioms and rules is doomed to render some theorems undeclarable. For example, if the first statement above is true, the second statement must be false. This line of unreasonable reasoning led to the mathematical concept of recursive functions including the most famous of recursives: the Mandelbrot Set, aka Fractals.
"What lies behind us and what lies ahead of us are tiny matters compared to what lives within us."
Henry David Thoreau (1817 - 1862)
U.S. Author
"I have never been especially impressed by the heroics of people who are convinced they are about to change the world. I am more awed by those who struggle to make one small difference after another."
Ellen Goodman (1941 - )
U.S. Author
"Only those who will risk going too far can possibly find out how far one can go."
T. S. Eliot (1888 - 1965)
U.S. Dramatist & Critic (British born)
"There are sadistic scientists who hurry to hunt down errors instead of establishing the truth."
Marie Curie (1867 - 1934)
French Chemist & Physicist
"Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results."
Albert Einstein (1879 - 1955)
U.S. Physicist
"It's a shallow life that doesn't give a person a few scars."
Garrison Keillor (7 Aug 1942 - )
U.S. Author & Humorist
"Once a newspaper touches a story, the facts are lost forever, even to the protagonists."
Norman Mailer (1923 - )
U.S. Author
"Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man's character, give him power."
Abraham Lincoln (1809 - 1865)
U.S. President
"[Time is] the most valuable thing a man can spend."
Theophrastus (300 BC - 287 BC)
Greek Humorist, Botanist & Naturalist
"Anatomy is destiny."
Sigmund Freud (1856 - 1939)
Austrian Psychologist
"Americans worship creativity the way they worship physical beauty -- as a way of enjoying elitism without guilt: God did it."
Florence King (1936 - )
U.S. Author
"The writer operates at a peculiar crossroads where time and place and eternity somehow meet. His problem is to find that location."
Flannery O'Connor (1925 - 1964)
U.S. Fiction Author
By Cyndi Greening. Phoenix, Arizona USA (Cinema Minima) -- While I was in college (the second time), I had the lead role in a play based on the writings of Flannery O'Connor. Based on O'Connor's REVELATION, I played a narrow-minded, righteous, bigoted country woman who gets her comeuppance in a pickup truck stalled in the crossroads.
I didn't know much about the southern communities of which Ms. O'Connor wrote but I certainly understood the rigidity of rural, small-town America. It was both flattering and horrifying to have people tell me how wonderful I was in the role (I wasn't that old, at the time). Today, I was looking for writing inspiration because, tomorrow, I'm starting a new screenplay that I plan to produce independently. I'm planning to blog about it in some detail. Let's see if I can find that "peculiar, eternal crossroads" for this film.
"Death is not the worst that can happen to men."
Plato (427 BC - 347 BC)
Greek Philosopher