NewFest! NewBlog: Winter Benefit, 2nd Annual LGBT Local Shorts Showcase, Director Q&As, & more!


WEEKEND PLANS

We've been preparing for it for months but the big day is finally here: NewFest's WINTER BENEFIT is THIS Sunday! With cocktails, hors d’oeuvres, & a lot of really cool items up for auction, the night promises to be one to remember. Also worth noting: The 2nd ANNUAL NEWFEST LGBT LOCAL SHORTS SHOWCASE is taking place at the IFC Center in just over one week! As usual, all the details are below. Rounding out this week's blog: four more Q&A sessions with directors, reminders about 2008 submissions and NewDraft: NewFest's Screenplay Competition & Reading Series, and information about the latest LGBT DVD & theatrical releases!

WINTER BENEFIT - THIS WEEKEND!



HK Lounge
405 West 39th Street
(at 9th Ave)

Sunday, December 9
6:30-9:00PM

Admission:
$65 General
$50 NewFest 2008 Member Discount
For information on NewFest 2008 Membership levels, please click here.

Purchase Tickets Now!
The cut-off for purchasing tickets is Sunday, 12/9 at NOON.

Featuring a silent auction of unique items perfect for the holiday season, cocktails, hors d’oeuvres, & music by DJ Lina! Complimentary Hangar 1 Vodka from 6:30-8:00PM!

Bid on auction items including theater tickets, signed TV & movie memorabilia, travel packages, photography, artwork, and more!

Proceeds from The 8th Annual NewFest Winter Benefit support our programming, which includes NewFest 2008: The 20th Anniversary New York Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, & Transgender Film Festival (June 5-15, 2008), NewFest at the IFC Center, NewFest@BAM, and NewFest & OP.Lynx Filmmaker's Brunch Series.

Benefit Sponsors: A&E Indie Films, Hangar 1 Vodka.


THE 2ND ANNUAL NEWFEST LGBT LOCAL SHORTS SHOWCASE - MONDAY, 12/17



NewFest at the IFC Center highlights the variety and versatility of the short film, and the talents of local filmmakers, in a specially curated program of short films/videos by LGBT metropolitan NYC-based filmmakers. NewFest members receive discounted admission to this series.

MONDAY, DECEMBER 17th
screening time TBA (check website for details)


THE PROGRAM (94 min):


Team Queen
Directed by Leah Meyerhoff
USA, 2006, 4 min, Video
A gender-bending post-punk rock-n-roll prom.


Lesbians: The Music Video
Directed by Laura Terruso
USA, 2006, 4 min, Video
A music video honoring the lovely lesbians of the world.


Commitment Ceremony
Directed by Erin Greenwell & Julie Goldman
USA, 2007, 5 min, Video
A humorous music video on the same-sex marriage debate.


Jinx!
Directed by Adam Baran
USA, 2007, 11 min, Video
A bitter rivalry between two second grade girls spirals out of control.


Bro Crush
Directed by Felix Endara
USA, 2006, 4 min, Video
A rite of passage for FTMs that also doubles as a loving gesture: learning how to tie a tie.


Mormor's Visit
Directed by Casper Andreas
A young man living in NYC is surprised by a visit from his lovable Swedish grandmother.


The Best Men
Directed by Tony Wei
USA, 2006, 12 min, Video
Moments before his best friend's wedding, Peter gets one last chance to rekindle mutual feelings long suppressed but not abandoned.


The Process
Directed by David B Kagan
USA, 2004, 20 min, Video
The lengths to which one man will go to quell his loneliness.


Doorman
Directed by Etienne Kallos
USA, 2006, 18 min, Video
A deeply closeted Latino doorman of a NYC apartment building unravels emotionally when seduced by a privileged college kid living in the building.

Ticketing:
General admission tickets to the IFC Center are $11.
NewFest at the IFC Center tickets are $8 for NewFest
members with member cards and for seniors.
Tickets are available at the IFC Center box office the
day of the show, and advance tickets are
available online at www.ifccenter.com.

Directions:
The IFC Center is located at: 323 Avenue of the Americas (at West 3rd Street).

For more information about the IFC Center, please visit their website.
For more information about NewFest@IFC Center, please visit our website.


DIRECTOR Q&A

In celebration of their films playing at the IFC Center on 12/17 (see above), NewFest is proud to present four brief Q&A sessions with the directors behind the movies:

Leah Meyerhoff

FILM TITLE: Team Queen
DIRECTOR: Leah Meyerhoff

Please introduce yourself: Your name, occupation if not a full-time filmmaker, and where you are based.
My name is Leah Meyerhoff and I am a full-time filmmaker based in New York.

What initially attracted you to filmmaking? How many films have you made?
I am drawn to filmmaking as a way to express myself creatively while potentially having a social impact on the outside world. I have made half a dozen short films and music videos, and am currently in pre-production on my first feature.

Did you go to film school? If so, where?
I studied film theory in undergrad at Brown University and film production in grad school at NYU.

Please describe your film in 1-2 short sentences.
Team Queen is a gender-bending, fire-breathing, tassel-twirling music video for queer-post-punk rockers Triple Creme starring the best of New York burlesque.

Where did the idea for your film come from?
I have always wondered what the high school prom would be like if the cheerleaders were drag queens, the punks breathed fire, and Murray Hill was the school principal.

What was the biggest challenge you faced in making your film?
Preventing a catfight between Scarlet Sinclair and Scotty the Blue Bunny.

The first LGBT film I ever saw was:
My Own Private Idaho

My top three all-time favorite films are:
Masculin Feminin, A Real Young Girl, Wild Tigers I Have Known

The one LGBT film that has had the biggest impact on me is:
High Art

Laura Terruso


FILM TITLE: Lesbians: The Music Video
 DIRECTOR: Laura Terruso

Please introduce yourself: Your name, occupation if not a full-time filmmaker, and where you are based.
My name is Laura Terruso and I am a writer, filmmaker and performer based in New York City. I also work as the program coordinator of NYU's Center for Media, Culture and History and the Center for Religion and Media.

What initially attracted you to filmmaking? How many films have you made?
For me, filmmaking is about self-expression and activism. It allows you to reach so many people and this is something I find very exciting. I work in comedy and what I love about the genre is that it empowers the filmmaker to take something painful or upsetting and turn it into something interesting, creative and hopefully hilarious. I've made three films thus far-- all comedies. I first wrote and produced the short "His Name is Cosmo." Since then I've directed a music video for a song called "Lesbians" written and performed by Clay Drinko. And most recently, I wrote, performed and directed a short called "Castrato Di Matteo's Audition Tape."

Did you go to film school? If so, where?
I went to school for journalism at NYU and studied documentary. I wrote "His Name is Cosmo" while working as a news writer for a local TV station in Long Island. I made the film with two very talented NYU film school grads: Nicole Opper, the director and Jacob Okada, the cinematographer. I learned so much about narrative filmmaking from being on the set with them. Making the film provided a huge creative outlet for me and I was hooked.

The first film I have memories of watching as a child was:
Mary Poppins.

My top three all-time favorite films are:
Annie Hall, Being John Malkovitch and Nights of Cabiria

The one LGBT film that has had the biggest impact on me is:
But I'm a Cheerleader

Erin Greenwell & Julie Goldman


FILM TITLE: Commitment Ceremony
DIRECTOR: Erin Greenwell & Julie Goldman

Please introduce yourself: Your name, occupation if not a full-time filmmaker, and where you are based.
EG: Erin Greenwell director and editor Brooklyn
JG: Julie Goldman. Co-director, Writer (song CO-Written with Jason Blanche) Co-Star.

What initially attracted you to filmmaking? How many films have you made?
EG: Doing a living history presentation on Butch Cassady and not getting beat up for it. Tons of shorts, including Commitment Ceremony, a featurette 21, and a feature Big Dreams in Little Hope (MOM).

JG: Mel Brooks, Initially attracted to me the entirety of Entertainment. Blazing Saddles. I have been lots of shorts, and co starred in my first feature with Erin Greenwell and her film Big Dreams In Little Hope.

Please describe your film in 1-2 short sentences.
EG: Music video about Julie Goldman's right to get more than commitment ceremon-ied!

JG: Music Video that explores the rediculous-ness that GLBT can't get legally married.

Where did the idea for your film come from?
EG: Julie performed the song and I begged her to co-direct the music video with me.

JG: I wrote the song to perform in my stand up act - and it became more and more important while planning my own wedding. And then Erin approached me about doing it as a film. And I said "HELLS YEAH."

The first film I have memories of watching as a child was:

EG: Some Like it Hot
JG: History of The World Part 1.

The first LGBT film I ever saw was:
EG: "Personal Best"
JG:"Claire of the Moon"

Adam Baran

FILM TITLE: Jinx!
DIRECTOR: Adam Baran

Please introduce yourself: Your name, occupation if not a full-time filmmaker, and where you are based.
My name is Adam Baran, and I wrote and directed "Jinx!", a hilarious short screening in the "Women on the Verge" program at NewFest. I currently live in New York City where I work as an assistant, and I'm also a staff writer for BUTT Magazine.

What initially attracted you to filmmaking? How many films have you made?
The first moment I knew I wanted to be a filmmaker was when I was home sick one day when I was about eleven years old. My mom rented Strangers On A Train by Alfred Hitchcock. I couldn't stop thinking about the merry-go-round sequence at the end. I knew I wanted to be a filmmaker after that.

I've made two shorts so far. My first short "Love and Deaf" screened at NewFest in 2004 and was released on DVD compilations in North America, France, Germany and Switzerland. It premiered on Here! TV in the US and Pink TV in France in 2006.

Did you go to film school? If so, where?
I went to film school as an undergrad at New York University's Tisch School of the Arts, but that's not to say I'd recommend it to anyone. I remember one of my writing teachers telling me I would be limiting myself if I wrote about gay characters and themes. I thought about her when I was introducing "Love and Deaf" in front of 1,500 people at the Castro Theatre in San Francisco, during the Frameline Festival.

Please describe your film in 1-2 short sentences.
When Eleanor, a mousey second grader finds herself "jinxed" by a bully named Rachel, she's unable to speak until someone says her name. Eleanor sets off on a madcap quest to free herself from Rachel's curse before the 3:00 school bell rings, seeking help from a crazy math teacher, a deranged abstract artist, and a clueless father - with disastrous results.

Where did the idea for your film come from?
I was always the arty gay boy who was more into playing hand-clapping games and making lanyard bracelets with the girls than playing sports with the boys. I wanted to try and explore and exaggerate some of the more absurd aspects of my own childhood. Plus my friends still "jinx" me when we both speak at the same time, and so one of them did it one day and I instantly had the idea for the film.

What was the most satisfying aspect in making your film?
Having the chance to work with the incredibly talented young actors, especially the two leads Cassie Blair and Spenser Carrion Leigh who were hilarious and totally on-point throughout the production. I had been really nervous about the challenge of working with kids, but it couldn't have turned out any better than it did.

The first LGBT film I ever saw was:
Does Mannequin count? Come on, Meshach Taylor? That's gotta count.

My top three all-time favorite films are:
Videodrome, Desperate Living, Whatever Happened to Baby Jane?

The one LGBT film that has had the biggest impact on me is:
Shortbus. It really affected me like no other film ever has. I was really emotional for about a week or so after.

Check back next week for the rest of our Q&A sessions with this month's directors!



NEWDRAFT



We are pleased to announce that NewDraft: NewFest's Screenplay Competition & Reading Series in now accepting submissions. Submit your screenplay now for a chance to have a staged reading produced by NewFest - our past readings have all either been completed or are currently in production: Another Gay Movie, Another Gay Movie 2: Gays Gone Wild, and Were the World Mine (formerly Fairies). For submission guidelines and entry forms, please visit the SUBMISSIONS page at newfest.org.


CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS

Submissions are now being accepted for programming consideration in NewFest 2008: The 20th Anniversary New York LGBT Film Festival! For submission guidelines and entry forms, please visit the SUBMISSIONS page at newfest.org.


COMING SOON TO DVD: INDIE SEX

From the directors of Fabulous! The Story of Queer Cinema (2006) comes...



Indie Sex by award-winning filmmakers Lisa Ades and Lesli Klainberg
explores how films have provided a forum to discover society’s deepest and
darkest sexual fantasies played out on the big screen. Divided into three parts –
Indie Sex: Censored, Indie Sex: Teens and Indie Sex: Extremes – the series
delves into sex in movies through innovative verite footage, provocative film
clips and compelling on-camera interviews with some of the industry’s
leading actors, writers and directors.

For information on pre-ordering the film through Amazon.com, click here.

IN THEATERS: LOOKING FOR CHEYENNE


Looking for Cheyenne
(Oublier Cheyenne)
Directed by Valerie Minetto

In Valerie Minetto’s fascinating drama, two women find it’s not so easy to
let go of love. When Cheyenne loses her job and can’t afford to pay her bills,
she decides to permanently forgo the demands of modern society and escape
 the city for the simpler rustic comforts of the country. In so doing, however, she must
leave her lover, Sonia. Despite the distance and their separation, Sonia can’t force
 herself to forget Cheyenne and Cheyenne can’t forget their love. Can Cheyenne
sacrifice her principles for her heart? Looking for Cheyenne offers a thoughtful
reflection on the end of a lesbian relationship and the limits of love.
(NewFest 2006 - selection)

Looking for Cheyenne opens in a limited run on Friday, December 7th.

For more information, visit the IMDb page here.


FEEDBACK

Got a question for NewFest? Want to talk about a movie you just saw? Bored? Send us a message (or an e-mail at newfest_blogs@yahoo.com) and we'll print it here! Just make sure to say "okay to print".

Take care, film lovers!


Dexter Lombardo,
Festival Assistant, NewFest

Posted by Basil on 08 December 2007


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