Since I’m currently in NYC, you may think the Derek I’m referring to is the stud starting shortstop/MVP candidate for the Yankees. Actually the Derek I want to mention is one Derek Cianfrance, winner of the Chrysler Film Project competition announced at this year’s IFP Market. Some of you may remember his exceptional first feature, BROTHER TIED, winner of a 1998 Florida Film Festival Special Jury Award for Bold, Original Expression. He also won a cinematography award at the 2003 Sundance Film Festival for his work on QUATTRO NOZA, and contributed some photography to Jacob Septimus and Anthony Howard’s B.I.K.E., the highly acclaimed doc feature that had its East Coast Premiere and second US showing after Slamdance at last year’s FFF.
Back in ‘98 Derek was already talking about the next feature he was interested in doing, a project called BLUE VALENTINE. Well guess what? I think he can finally get started! On the strength of his terrific short film that he produced specifically for the contest—LATELY THERE HAVE BEEN MANY MISUNDERSTANDINGS—the man has won himself a one million dollar production deal from Chrysler and Silverwood Films. The five finalists had to use a Chrysler car in their films (like the BMW shorts a couple of years ago), and though they were all pretty entertaining, Derek’s was clearly the cream of the crop. So major congratulations to a talented filmmaker and nice guy. Hopefully while we wait for the feature, more people will get a chance to see the short than just the contest judges and the few dozen in the audience at the Market screening of the finalists on Tuesday afternoon.
After a quick 2-day turnaround back in Orlando, I headed out to NYC for this year’s 28th annual IFP Market. This is now 11 in row for me. Easing the cultural whiplash I generally get from the transition of watching 25 - 30 mostly accomplished and finished features up in Toronto to some narrative and doc shorts and dozens of doc feature works-in-progress, the IFP thankfully scheduled a Sunday morning screening of THE LAST KING OF SCOTLAND in preparation for the panel at the Puck building later in the day. Though the screening was free to both DGA and IFP members, I guess people didn’t notice the invite in the IFP e-mail blast since there was only about 15 of us in the theater. What a shame—this is a superb historical drama inspired by real events, and Forest Whitaker’s performance as Idi Amin, the terrifying yet charming leader of Uganda in the 1970’s, will certainly be talked about come awards time. The panel with Whitaker, director Kevin Macdonald (TOUCHING THE VOID) and co-lead James McAvoy, was titled “Passport Required” and went into great depth about the film’s production and the logistics of shooting in a foreign country. Too bad more people didn’t see the film prior to attending.
Once again the Market seems to have less projects than the year before and a greater concentration on meetings for the filmmakers and panels, yet there are still a number of familiar names with new projects that bear checking out. Things I’m interested in viewing either in the Angelika or in the video library if necessary include: EMILE NORMAN - BY HIS OWN DESIGN, a film about an artist produced by Michael Tucker and Jill Eikenberry (of “LA Law” fame); SECRECY, a film about classified secrets by Robb Moss (THE SAME RIVER TWICE); THE TEAM, which deals with a soccer team that recruits the homeless, and is directed by James Marsh (THE KING, WISCONSIN DEATH TRIP); ADOPT ME, MICHAEL JORDAN, from Susan Motamed, producer of ENRON: THE SMARTEST GUYS IN THE ROOM; THE AXE IN THE ATTIC by Lucia Small (MY FATHER THE GENIUS); BLAST, the new work from FFF Grand Jury Prize winner Paul Devlin (POWER TRIP); FREEHELD, a new film from FFF veteran Cynthia Wade (SHELTER DOGS); JUMP!, a film by Helen Hood Scheer, producer of Arlene Donnely’s FFF faves NAKED STATES and POSITIVELY NAKED; THE TOY MOVIE, from 2006 FFF award winner Dori Berinstein (SHOWBUSINESS: A SEASON TO REMEMBER); WAITING FOR ARMAGEDDON, a film listed as being directed by Franco Sacchi but will actually be made with FFF award winners Kate Davis and David Heilbroner (PUCKER UP, SOUTHERN COMFORT) as well; and even a couple of narrative shorts including KUBUKU RIDES (THIS IS IT), directed by Steppenwolf Theater Company’s Terry Kinney (“Oz” and Tim McCann’s RUNAWAY), and THE SHOVEL, starring Oscar nominee David Strathairn and Tim Guinee from SWEETLAND.
And these are just the titles where I’ve got some familiarity with the talent involved. I’m sure they’ll be a few surprises and discoveries along the way.
While celebrity sightings were slim at the Angelika during the IFP Market this year, at least I can say I lunched with Elvis at Katzs Deli. This post-Comeback Special period impersonator had it downthe gold leather jacket with fringes, the sideburns, the sunglasses, the sneer. Impressive. And of course its New York so no one even bats an eyelash.
The Market definitely had more activity at the Puck Building for panels and meetings than at the Angelika for screenings. Though attendance seemed to pick up on Wednesday afternoon, perhaps due to new projects from familiar directors, gone are the days of being shut out of screenings and being assaulted by filmmakers with promotional gimmicks as soon as they recognized the color of your badge. Its always an adjustment to go from seeing accomplished, full-length features at the Toronto Film Festival to trailers and clips of dozens of docs in various stages of readiness just a couple of days later. Despite this aesthetic whiplash and the usual shortcomings of the Angelika—including lack of a functional Up escalator, technical difficulties galore, late starts of films, and a leaking ceiling over the escalator (but hey! the popcorn and soda were free)there were many promising projects to see and talented filmmakers to meet and encourage.
Certain themes emerged over the week: abuses of the government; the struggles of living in poverty; female empowerment and women who have made a difference in their communities and their countries; mental illness; terminal diseases and living with disabilities; political activism; the performance arts, and baseball. Perhaps its a coincidence with the great Wild Card races and the perpetual Yankees/Red Sox horserace going on in Major League Baseball right now, but there were four (!) baseball projects in the works—SPACEMAN: A BASEBALL ODYSSEY, about counter-culture pitcher Bill Lee; KOKO-YAKYU: HIGH SCHOOL BASEBALL, about the National Championship tournament in Japan; BAD BOYS OF SUMMER, about the San Quentin prison baseball team (that gets to all their games at home); and WHOS ON FIRST, about Greece having to field a baseball team for the 2004 Olympics in Athens despite no experience whatsoever when the country was awarded the Summer Games. Another sports film that had considerable buzz and is ready to go out into the festival world now is Josh Aronsons BULLRIDER. NASCAR fans should rejoice over this new film from the director of SOUND AND FURY as it focuses on all the good ol boys that participate in the incredibly dangerous bull riding World Championship tour.
The other doc feature that opened some eyes (and moistened a few as well) is SO MUCH SO FAST, the new film from Steven Ascher and Jeanne Jordan, the creators of the Sundance award-winning TROUBLESOME CREEK: A MIDWESTERN. This rich and moving work focuses on a family dealing with a 29-year-old brother whos been diagnosed with the nerve disorder ALS (Lou Gehrigs disease), and the race against time to do something about it. Every year at the Market theres one or two films that are a sure thing, such as NEVERLAND in 2003 or THREE OF HEARTS in 2004SO MUCH SO FAST is this years standout for me.
There were of course, many other titles by both name and first-time directors whose films progress well be following in the coming months: AUTUMNS EYES by Paola Mendoza, co-creator and star of ON THE OUTS; THE CANDIDATE, the charming look at feisty 94-year-old Granny Ds run for the Senate in New Hampshire by Marlo Poras (MAIS AMERICA); A LION IN THE HOUSE, the PBS-bound series focusing on families with children stricken with cancer by Steven Bognar (PICTURE DAY) and Julia Reichert (SEEING RED, UNION MAIDS); OFF THE GRID: LIFE ON THE MESA by Jeremy and Randy Stulberg (THE EDUCATION OF SHELBY KNOX), about a small group of drifters, veterans, and freedom-seekers living in a remote part of New Mexico; IMAGINING PEACE by Lisa Gossels (THE CHILDREN OF CHABANNES), a fascinating look at the Middle East crisis through the eyes of teenage girls from both Israel and Palestine that attend a 3-week summer camp in New Jersey; GONE TO TEXAS: THE LIVES OF FORREST CARTER by Marco Ricci, the wild story of the best-selling author of The Outlaw Josey Wales and The Education of Little Tree who was a Cherokee hero of New Age Wisdom. But twelve years after his death its discovered that he was also Asa Carter, head of the KKK in Alabama and speech writer for George Wallace; and new films by both co-directors of TWO TOWNS OF JASPER, Whitney Dows exploration of Haiti and its most famous band, SEPTENTRIONAL, and Marco Williams FREEDOM DREAMS, a portrait of Patrick Critton, a black militant, revolutionary, and terrorist.
Laughs were far and few between, but there were a couple of films which had the audience cracking up and potentially could be winners: GARY AND THE ROMANS by Ted Gesing is in the AMERICAN MOVIE vein and introduces us to a deluded Tampa billboard magnate and his Brazilian body-building leading actress as they attempt to make a promo reel for the toga epic of his dreams; and GIRLS ROCK! by Arne Johnson and Shane King packed em in for this very entertaining peek at a rock n roll camp for girls ages 8 18 in Portland, Oregon.
The final day of screenings also brought reduced hours in the Video Library. While it was previously publicized that the library would be open until 8:30 nightly, Thursday mornings mailbox memo announced a 4:00 PM closing time. Its bad enough they eliminated Friday availability for the first time in years, but this abrupt change in policy was met with a lot of frustration. The IFP needs to do better and at least give its supporters enough lead time to maximize their schedule. Is that to much to ask?
I did make a discovery though. For some reason, there were three films in the library that were not listed in the program, all quite interesting doc feature works-in-progress: HOW SWEET THE SOUND, a film about the musical legends The Blind Boys of Alabama produced by Heidi Ewing (SHELTER DOGS); HEATWAVE AN UNNATURAL DISASTER, a film by Judith Helfand (BLUE VINYL) about poverty in Chicago and the one week in July where over 700 people died heat-related deaths; and THE LORD OF LIGHT by Diane Bernard, the bizarre story of Barry Geller, who in 1979 began production on a science fiction film and came up with the idea for a sci-fi theme park with designs by Marvel comics great Jack Kirby. After his financial ruin brought on by a sleazy business partner, somehow his writings end up being used by the CIA to rescue hostages in Iran. I kid you not!
Following in the tradition of Enzians Marketing Director, Shannon Lacek, and her fascination with odd names of businesses in Toronto, heres a couple of favorites to close with from the Big Apple: A Salt & Battery (a fish n chips joint) and Burp Castle (it had to be a bar).
No, but they definitely eat fowl! Im up in NYC for the 27th annual IFP Market (formerly known as the IFFM or Independent Feature Film Market but since theres only docs and shorts here the name change makes more sense). The first elevator ride I take up to the apartment Im crashing at has two other riders. Instead of How you doing? the first words I hear are Do squirrels eat meat? This is immediately followed by cause we didnt think so but we just passed one chowin down on a dead parakeet! Um, how do you respond to that? I think I said something to the effect that New Yorks the only place Ive ever seen black squirrels, so nothing would surprise me. These young guys were a little freaked out.
Day one of the Market for those of us attending for the screenings and panels- only officially starts Monday, but registration begins Sunday. A nice change this year is the video library opening from 1 8:30 PM on Sunday (thanks Bob Hawk!), giving us all a little jump on the week. I took advantage of this opportunity by previewing a good chunk of the Doc shorts including YESTERDAY IN RWANDA, a moving portrait of a young woman/genocide survivor living in Toronto who carries on but can never forget what has happened to her family and her people. The film was directed by Davina Pardo, creator of BIRDLINGS TWO, the quirky and personal doc that preceded PUCKER UP: THE FINE ART OF WHISTLING at the 2005 Florida Film Festival (FFF).
On the negative side, apparently Apple didnt come through with the same type of sponsorship as in the past, so there are no computers in the hospitality area for filmmakers and industry to check e-mail. This is quite the inconvenience that hopefully can be rectified next year.
I ran into a well-groomed though raspy-voiced Gill Holland at the Filmmaker Welcome Reception at Lotus, and he broke the news of his upcoming wedding next weekcongratulations and the best of luck! Gill produced Tim Kirkmans LOGGERHEADS (Audience Award for Best Narrative Feature, FFF 2005) and the Midnight Shorts sensation, THE TOZER SHOW: BOMBS AND BLUEBALLS, and is readying four new titles for this years festival circuit along with signing a new female artist to his record label. He also introduced me to Paola Mendoza, co-creator and one of the three lead actresses in Lori Silverbush and Michael Skolniks ON THE OUTS (Special Jury Prize, FFF 2005). Paola is here with AUTUMNS EYES, a similarly themed doc feature work-in-progress about a three-year-old girl whose teenage mom is in jail in Jersey City.
Later that night I hit the Brian Jonestown Massacre set at the Bowery Ballroom and unfortunately DIG! turns out to be completely accurate in its portrayal of bandleader Anton as a flaming a-hole. When they actually played the band sounded greatbut there was way too much audience baiting, guitar tuning, band member abuse, whining about his equipment getting stolen, etc, to ruin what should have been a memorable show. The bonus though was that I got to meet Jim Jarmusch, who happens to be a big BJM fan. He was happy to hear that BROKEN FLOWERS was off to a monster start in its exclusive Orlando opening at Enzian, and that the theater has played almost all of his films. And even STRANGER THAN PARADISE just screened recently as part of the Sundance Channel Film Series. Having been present at the films groundbreaking premiere at the 1984 Telluride Film Festival, it was nice to finally greet one of our coolest and most talented filmmakers.
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