The 31st edition of IFP’s Independent Film Week (formerly known as the IFP Market and prior to that the IFFM or Independent Feature Film Market) wrapped today and provided some great opportunities to meet and listen to some masterful directors and industry heavyweights as well as getting a look at dozens of new documentary and narrative feature projects in various stages of completion. Some films may actually be ready for the Spring 2010 festival circuit (including the Florida Film Festival of course), but the majority of them will take another year or two to get completed. Still, it’s a great opportunity to see what will be coming down the pike, provide valuable encouragement to these talented filmmakers just beginning their journeys, and network like crazy. And what a treat to get to meet Producer Peter Saraf of Big Beach Films (LITTLE MISS SUNSHINE); Oscar-winning Director Barbara Kopple (HARLAN COUNTY USA, SHUT UP & SING); Robert Downey Sr., director of the late 60s/early 70s counter-culture classics PUTNEY SWOPE, GREASERS PALACE, and POUND, films that I cut my indie/art house teeth on and went on to program at New College in the mid 70s; and the wonderful Mira Nair (MONSOON WEDDING, THE NAMESAKE, the upcoming AMELIA), whose films have been playing Enzian, the South Asian Film Festival, and the FFF for the past two decades.
Connections to both Enzian and the Florida Film Festival ran deep in many of the Documentary Works-in-Progress features here, and it was great to finally meet some of the filmmakers or see them again and find out what they’re up to. Among the familiar names and faces with brand new projects were: actress/director/writer/producer/FSU grad Amy Seimetz with her freaky CITY ON A HILL; cinematographer Edward Marritz (MAYA LIN: A STRONG CLEAR VISION and YOUNG @ HEART) with BRING PRESCENCE: STORYTIME WITH MURRAY AND PAUL; JULIA BACHA (ENCOUNTER POINT, which Enzian helped qualify for the Oscars) with BUDRUS HAS A HAMMER; Jennie Livingston (PARIS IS BURNING, WHO’S THE TOP?) with EARTH CAMP ONE; SCOTT HAMILTON KENNEDY (double FFF award winner and Oscar nom for THE GARDEN) with FAME HIGH; Mark Kitchell (BERKELEY IN THE SIXTIES) with A FIERCE GREEN FIRE; Kristi Jacobson and Lori Silverbush (FFF narrative award-winner ON THE OUTS) with HUNGRY IN AMERICA; former FFF juror and Oscar-nominated director Daniel Anker (SCOTTSBORO: AN AMERICAN TRAGEDY) with ICEBOUND; Cecilia Peck (co-director of SHUT UP & SING) with THE LINOR DOCUMENTARY PROJECT; Robert Downey’s LOTTE LENYA: THE WIDOW WEILL; Owsley Brown III (NIGHT WALTZ: THE MUSIC OF PAUL BOWLES) with MIRACLE ON THE OHIO: A LOUISVILLE ORCHESTRA STORY; David Teague (editor of Cynthia Wade’s FREEHELD, which Enzian helped qualify for the Oscars) with OUR HOUSE; Andrew Shea (FFF favorite THE CORNDOG MAN from many years ago) with PORTRAIT OF WALLY; Nina Davenport (FFF Grand Jury winner OPERATION FILMMAKER) with the tentatively titled SEQUEL TO ALWAYS A BRIDESMAID; Ezra Bookstein (DP on SMILE ‘TIL IT HURTS: THE UP WITH PEOPLE STORY) with SHOWTIME!; and Marlo Poras (FFF award-winner MAI’S AMERICA) with her UNTITLED CHINA PROJECT (THE MASUO SISTERS?).
All this plus looks at films about industrial music pioneer Genesis P-Orridge of Throbbing Gristle and Psychic TV fame (THE BALLAD OF GENESIS AND LADY JAYE), the McDonald’s scalding coffee legal case (HOT COFFEE), the best damn brass ensemble w/ drums band (8 brothers under the tutelage of Sun Ra vet and father Phil Cochran) you’ve never heard of, HYPNOTIC, elderly sex workers in Mexico (LA MUNECA FEA) (THE UGLY DOLL), kids learning magic (MAGIC CAMP), NY underground legend Beth B’s NEW BURLESQUE, a new film about the bee colony crisis, QUEEN OF THE SUN, from Taggart Siegel (THE REAL DIRT ON FARMER JOHN), the flipside of TV’s “Big Love” with an expose of the hidden world of polygamy and exiled teenage boys (SONS OF PERDITION), and a dramatic feature from the UK about punk rock legend Ian Dury (SEX & DRUGS & ROCK & ROLL). Can’t wait for that one as well as many of these others…
Other than some frustrations over video library availability (or lack thereof opening weekend), and the mailbox issue for both industry (none provided any more) and filmmakers (did they even know they had them?), IFP’s Independent Film Week, market or not, seems as vital as ever. Now if they could only get those damned water fountains working in the hallway outside the screening rooms…c’mon, it’s two years already!
The 30th anniversary of the IFP was celebrated this week with the latest edition of Independent Film Week, formerly known as the IFP Market and before that the IFFM (Independent Feature Film Market). A number of changes besides the name of the event were evident right off the bat, the largest being the new location—after years in residence at the Angelika Theater and Puck Building on the edge of the Village and Soho, the IFP has taken their act to Chelsea and the Fashion Institute of Technology (F.I.T.) on 28th St. between 7th and 8th Avenues. So gone were the afternoon lunch sojourns across Houston to Katz’ s Deli (sigh)), as well as the technical issues and subway noise so prevalent at the Angelika (yea!). The IFP did use the far superior Chelsea Cinemas for some of their “Showcase” screenings, but the majority of the projects had to be seen in either the video library or in their 1/2 hour work-in-progress slot in one of three classrooms (“microcinemas”) set up with 18 - 32 chairs and a 50” plasma screen. Once you got used to it, it wasn’t so bad, and the chairs were certainly much more comfortable than the Angelika as well.
Regrettably, the dozen or so Doc shorts and full-length rough cuts of Doc features that were part of the program last year were also history. But despite the increased emphasis on development meetings for the filmmakers and panels, there were still over 130 different projects (by my count) that had anywhere from a 2 minute trailer to over 20 minutes of footage that could be previewed. These would include the Doc features works-in-progress, the UK Film Council showcase, the Perspective Canada showcase, the NextGen NYC short film screenings (selected from a number of local colleges), the Independent Filmmaker Labs “Sneak Preview” screenings (both Doc and Narrative), the Nokia Short Film screenings, and a couple of special screenings of full features like IFC’s MEDICINE FOR MELANCHOLY for Opening Night (which I really liked in Toronto last week) and the acclaimed new doc, TRINIDAD, as an alumni screening.
Another nice touch was getting Kevin Smith for the opening Sunday late afternoon “break-out-the-big-guns” slot that was filled by the cast of THE LAST KING OF SCOTLAND and John Sayles and Maggie Renzi the last couple of years. Smith’s “a Conversation With…” was a hoot, consistently funny, informative and profanity laced. While taking questions from the crowd of mostly fresh young filmmakers, he touched on a number of subjects, including his latest project, RED STATE, a story so dark and with so many unsympathetic characters that even the Weinsteins won’t give him money for it. He did say it will test his mettle as a filmmaker after 8 comedies and he seemed genuinely excited at the prospect. Other topics that came up included Bob & Harvey, being pigeonholed as an artist, meeting Ben Affleck and how he ended up co-executive producing GOOD WILL HUNTING after reading it on the crapper, his rationale for buying a Dodge Neon with his CLERKS profits, and how to cast a porn star.
Though the Market is dominated by first-time directors, I was excited to see quite a few familiar names, old friends, Enzian and Florida Film Festival veterans, and filmmakers of note with brand new projects (that all need financial help to be fully realized of course). Doug Block (51 BIRCH STREET, HOME PAGE) poignantly turns his camera on his family once again in ALMOST GONE, this time concentrating on his daughter in her last year at home before she leaves for college. Gill Holland (FLOW, WERE THE WORLD MINE) is one of the producers on Michael Sladek’s CON ARTIST, an outrageous look at the ridiculously famous “business artist” Mark Kostabi. Susan Kaplan (THREE OF HEARTS: A POSTMODERN FAMILY) is chronicling a small group of dedicated individuals who are trying to shut down the country’s oldest nuclear powerplant in FALLOUT. Brian M. Cassidy and Melanie Shatzky (GOD PROVIDES) turn their cameras on the elderly residents of an assisted living facility in the poetic and disturbing THE PATRON SAINTS. Peter Friedman (DEATH BY DESIGN, SILVERLAKE LIFE) documents yet another brilliant reinvention of Voltaire in CARSEN’S CANDIDE: THE BEST OF ALL POSSIBLE SHOWS. Academy Award nominee Laura Poitras (MY COUNTRY, MY COUNTRY and FLAG WARS) is working on a film about Al-Qaeda called RELEASE. And Oscar nominee and recent FFF juror Daniel Anker (SCOTTSBORO: AN AMERICAN TRAGEDY, IMAGINARY WITNESS: HOLLYWOOD AND THE HOLOCAUST) turns his camera on one of our greatest living directors in SIDNEY LUMET: THE MORAL LENS.
And that’s just scratching the surface of the offerings this week, the majority of which won’t actually be finished for another year or two. But what Independent Film Week does successfully do for programmers like myself is provide great opportunities to network, meet the filmmakers face to face, and get a little taste of what’s going to be coming down the pike in the months (and probably) years to come.
In all my years living in the city during the 1980’s, and all my visits back to NYC and IFFM/IFP Market business trips, I saw something on Thursday morning that was an absolute first. Heading down to the Angelika Theaters and Puck Building about 10 AM for the last day of Market screenings and video library time, I was walking on Bond street between Bowery and Lafayette. On the side of the street, right next to the sidewalk, a man was roasting a whole, very large, pig. Not on a spit mind you, but the pig was laid out stomach side down on some type of metal rack, and this guy was stoking the flames of the logs or coals underneath. Amazing…only in New York! Whether or not it came with fries and slaw is another matter…
As far as the Market goes, it was another good year for docs with a lot of potential and more of my fellow festival programmers seemed to be in attendance this time around. The Angelika itself was in better shape than usual, with no leaky ceilings and an “Up” escalator that worked the whole time—what a nice concept. The projection and sound (can’t do anything about the subway rumblings so that always becomes part of the soundtrack) were improved from last year, and only Tuesday seemed to have some screenings coming off (as much as 30 minutes) late due to the ripple effect of one problem earlier in the day. Disappointingly, the venue did not provide complimentary popcorn and soft drinks as in the past, but maybe this was a sponsorship issue of some kind.
After narrative feature screenings got the boot a couple of years ago, it was the narrative shorts’ turn to vanish this year. Again, a little disappointing but not a major shocker. What was a bit disheartening was that there were only 6 doc shorts to screen in the whole Market, after at least a dozen last year (many of them quite good as evidenced by 3 playing in the 2007 Florida Film Festival: MAN UP, FRIDAYS AT THE FARM, and MURIEL). Apparently this was due to a lack of submissions in the category, something that probably needs to be addressed. Perhaps it was the residual effect from dropping narrative shorts or perhaps the screening fees are too high—whatever the reason, if you’re only going to screen docs for the companies participating in the Market, then an ample selection of doc shorts should be part of that programming.
The IFP could’ve used another long table in the Puck building area where some of the panels and Meet the Programmers meetings were held; you know, the room with the filmmaker mailboxes. The one display table for film and call-for-entry postcards, magazines, sponsor materials, etc. was inadequate and an absolute mess most of the time.
Film-wise there were plenty of things to look forward to besides those titles I previously discussed in my last blog, though it may be months, or in some cases years, before they come to fruition. Popular themes for the docs included post-Katrina life for hurricane survivors, artistic creation, films about the director’s father, health care both here and abroad, the political process, racial issues, and Africa stories. Some films I’m especially looking forward to seeing a completed cut of are: Caroline Suh’s FRONTRUNNERS; about a student government election at the country’s most competitive high school (fellow indieWIRE blogger Michael Tully is credited as the Music Consultant so you know the score is hip at least!); Clayton Brown and Monica Ross’ THE ATOM SMASHERS, in which a bunch of American physicists race against time and the rest of the world to find the so-called God particle, or the legendary subatomic “Higgs boson,” Virginia Williams’ FRONTRUNNER, about a woman running for President in (of all places) Afghanistan; GRAMERCY STORIES from Joyce Chopra (remember SMOOTH TALK, the film that put Laura Dern on the map?), about a foster care resiednce for gay and transgender boys; JOURNEY THROUGH AN INVISIBLE WALL from filmmakers Rick Minnich and Matt Sweetwood (HOMEMADE HILLBILLY JAM), in which Minnich investigates his father’s curious case of long-term amnesia after a fairly innocuous, yet ultimately life-changing auto accident; Rick Goldsmith and Judith Ehrlich’s THE MOST DANGEROUS MAN IN AMERICA: DANIEL ELLSBERG AND THE PENTAGON PAPERS, a highly relevant and infuriating look at the most famous whistleblower of all time from the director of the Oscar-nominated TELL THE TRUTH AND RUN: GEORGE SELDES AND THE AMERICAN PRESS; and P STAR’S REDEMPTION from Gabriel Noble (AUTUMN’S EYES), which follows 4+ years in the life of a 9-year-old Puerto Rican rapper with the weight of her family’s well-being on her little shoulders. Throw in a couple of provocative subjects like the only residence in the country that houses over 50 convicted sex offenders and rapists in PREDATOR HOUSE, and the expose and community silence about rabbis accused of molesting young boys in THE EVIL TONGUE (the Jewish HAND OF GOD?), and you can see there’s plenty of non-fiction features coming down the pike that should be worth waiting for.
Now it’s back to my own bed (those weary travellers who did both Toronto and NY know exactly what I’m talking about) and a return to reportedly rainy Orlando…
It’s always such an odd transition to go almost immediately from the Toronto Film Festival to the IFP Market in NYC. After watching two dozen films in less than a week’s time—many of them with distribution, most of them quite accomplished (at least technically), and all of them finished—it’s somewhat jarring yet also reaffirming in an indie mission kind of way to see so many docs in rough cut and work-in-progress form and be able to talk to the filmmakers.
One thing you won’t see however, is anything narrative, as they not only removed features from the lineup a couple of years ago but have also done away with narrative shorts as of this year. God knows we see plenty during the Florida Film Festival selection process, but it was still kind of nice when the IFP was choosing some cream-of-the-crop titles for us programmers to check out.
So the emphasis is clearly on the No Borders industry meetings, the panels, and docs, docs, and more docs. And quite a few have caught my eye early on based on either subject matter or talent involved with the project having played Florida in the past or at least submitted something of extremely high quality even if we were unable to program it. Roger Weisberg (the Oscar-nominated SOUND AND FURY) is back with CRITICAL CONDITION, an intimate look at the health care problem and the lives of some uninsured Americans. Richard Gere’s brother David, his partner Peter, and their two adopted children, are the subjects of Tom Keegan’s OUT IN INDIA: A FAMILY’S JOURNEY, as they leave LA for almost a year to fight AIDS (and gay prejudice) in India with art therapy. Jeffrey Schwartz’s SPINE TINGLER! THE WILLIAM CASTLE STORY is a most entertaining slice of cinema history as it traces the life and career of the king of the gimmicks and the man responsible for many of the great “B” horror films of the 1960’s. Awesome clips and interviews with the likes of John Waters (who idolized him), Roger Corman, Joe Dante, and Diane Baker help make this one a lock to be hitting the festival circuit next year. Bet those prints of STRAIGHT JACKET, HOUSE ON THE HAUNTED HILL, HOMICIDAL, and THE TINGLER will start getting a workout as well.
The producer of 39 POUNDS OF LOVE (Hilla Medalia), the 2005 Best Documentary winner in the Israeli “Oscars,” has AFTER THE STORM, a post-Katrina film (there’s a bunch as you might expect) about a group of NY artists helping some New Orleans kids stage a production of the Broadway musical, “Once on This Island.” Producer Gill Holland brings a couple of new and enticing projects to the Market: James Rasin’s BEAUTIFUL DARLING, about Warhol superstar Candy Darling, star of both WOMEN IN REVOLT and FLESH, two staples of the New College Film Series back in my mid-seventies college programming days. Buzz is also good on Drew Denicola’s NATURAL SOUL BROTHER, a film about the African Americans that broke the color barrier in the 1950’s and invented the late-night radio DJ.
Three FFF veterans also have brand new projects here, though in various stages of completion. Mitch McCabe, director of the short film SEPTEMBER 5:10 PM from a few years back, brings MY MOTHER’S BEAUTY CREAM, a look at the absurdity of aging hysteria, even as the filmmaker herself (daughter of a plastic surgeon) turns 40. MIchael Chandler, winner of last year’s Grand Jury Award for Best Doc Feature, KNEE DEEP (first seen at the 2006 IFP Market by the way), has a new film with the rather unwieldy (and tongue-in-cheek) title, GREEDY TRIAL LAWYERS: WILL WE MISS THEM WHEN THEY’RE GONE? And Dori Berinstein, director of SHOWBUSINESS: THE ROAD TO BROADWAY, winner of the 2006 FFF Grand Jury Award for Best Doc Feature, showed an amusing clip from GOTTA DANCE. The film follows a group of old folks (who still have a lot of spunk) as they try out for the New Jersey Nets new Senior Dance Squad. Adam Zucker (the acclaimed GREENSBORO: CLOSER TO THE TRUTH) is the editor on the project—nicely done and a definite crowd pleaser.
Though the technical snafus seemed to be at an all-time high (not to mention the opening night film fiasco when hundreds of people, including those that RSVP’d like yours truly, were turned away from the screening of A GUIDE TO RECOGNIZING YOUR SAINTS), the quality of both projects and panels at this year’s IFP Market seemed better than ever.
I did feel sorry for the filmmakers though. The Angelika has always had issues, including the constant rumble and sound from the subway system and a broken escalator or two. Subway noise was as annoying as ever and we were spared any escalator malfunctions, but the projection and ability to stay on schedule was another matter entirely. Most screenings were starting at least 10 minutes late, which threw off the ability to properly time moving from theater to theater (a common strategy at the Market). Theater # 1 had framing issues, with subtitles on the right side of the screen getting cut off. Theater # 4 had terrible video sound for virtually everything, and apparently management wasn’t allowing anyone to make the adjustments to correct the problem. Early on they were turning down the house lights and starting the films before the filmmakers even had a chance to make any intro remarks, and during one director’s post-film Q & A they actually started the tech rehearsal for the next scheduled film. After the first day they no longer provided free soda and popcorn for Market-goers, which was such a nice amenity last year. And I’m still annoyed that the video library shuts down at 2:00 PM for “breakdown” on the final day when you’re trying to play catch up on “buzz” titles and they’re still having screenings all day at the Angelika.
OK, enough bitching. Despite it all, filmmakers were upbeat, the parties were fun, there were lots of good networking opportunities, and a host of worthy film projects that bear watching on their road to completion. I wouldn’t particularly say any trends stood out from the pack, though the usual themes of unlikely “sports” competitions, political and racial oppression, biographies of artists, and the post-Katrina experience all had a prescence. Of the (mostly completed) doc features in the Market, stand-outs included EMILE NORMAN - BY HIS OWN DESIGN, a lovely portrait of a great and innovative artist based in Big Sur that was directed by Will Parrinello and produced by Michael Tucker and Jill Eikenberry (of “L.A. Law” fame), both very nice and approachable and big participants throughout all five days of the Market; James Marsh’s THE TEAM, a fascinating doc from the director of THE KING and WISCONSIN DEATH TRIP about a soccer team from New York that travels to Austria for the first “Homeless World Cup Championship”—no shit!; and Steve Karras and Rose Lizarraga’s ABOUT FACE: THE STORY OF THE JEWISH REFUGEE SOLDIERS OF WW II, a thorough and moving film narrated by Peter Coyote and scored by John Cale, about the European Jews who after escaping the Nazis in their home countries, enlisted in the Allied Forces of the US and Great Britain. I also heard nice things about Luke Wolbach’s ROW HARD NO EXCUSES, about a two-man, 3000 mile rowing race, and Abigail Child’s ON THE DOWNLOW, about bisexual African American men living in Cleveland.
In the Doc Shorts category, Arturo Cabanas’ MAN UP is an intense, deceptively simple look at a military dad using tough love to prepare his teenage son for adulthood. The skillful mix of black and white and color photography adds to its impact. Richard Power Hoffman’s FRIDAYS AT THE FARM features striking time lapse photography of farm life in Pennsylvania in its hopeful exploration of a community supported organic farm and a family that decides to change its lifestyle.
The standout Narrative Short (besides Derek Cianfrance’s Chrysler Award winner) was Nicholas Child’s THE SHOVEL. Focusing on a hole in the ground, a suspicious neighbor, and a police investigation, this featured fine performances from David Strathairn and Tim Guinee and had a nasty twist ending.
But the meat of the Market now is definitely the Docs Works-In-Progress section, and quite a few projects here have my attention: Susan Motamed and Melanie Judd’s poignant ADOPT ME, MICHAEL JORDAN, about Ethiopian orphans getting adopted by American families; Paul Devlin’s scientific thriller, BLAST, about a team of scientists trying to launch a unique telescope that will provide insights into the origins of the universe and the beginnings of galaxies, and all of the provocative ideas that such an endeavor entails; Cynthia Wade’s FREEHELD, the moving and infuriating story of a New Jersey town that does not want to give pension benefits to the lesbian partner of a dying, honored police Lieutenant; Helen Hood-Scheer’s JUMP, a breathtaking and exciting doc about the Competitive Jump Rope world that goes way beyond the Double Dutch stuff we’re all familiar with; Michael Chandler’s KNEE DEEP, the bizarre story of a Maine dairy farmer who schemed to kill his Mom when she threatened to sell the business his father had promised him; Jeffrey Morgan’s LILLIE & LEANDER: A LEGACY OF VIOLENCE, a jaw-dropping investigation into a Pensacola family’s past and the mass murder of black men who happened to cross their property in the early 1900’s; Yoruba Richen’s PROMISED LAND, winner of the Fledgling Fund Award for Socially Conscious Docs, about black communities in South Africa trying to get their ancestral land back from the government; Franco Sacchi, Kate Davis, and David Heilbroner’s WAITING FOR ARMAGEDDON, a film about the growing section of the population that believes the Apocalypse is imminent and how these lunatics can have profound implications for the rest of us; Julie Checkoway’s Doc Work-in-Progress Completion Award winner, WAITING FOR HOCKNEY, an entertaining and humorous cliffhanger about an artist who believes he’s produced a revolutionary portarit of Marilyn and what happens after he shows it to David Hockney; and Christopher Wong’s WHATEVER IT TAKES, which follows the first year of an experimental high school in the South Bronx and the extraordinarily devoted principal who leads the way. These are but a few of the outstanding projects that will hopefully come to fruition in the coming months (or more likely years).
Syndicate this site