Sydney Levine

“Sneak Preview” Public Screening Series at Central Park & The Highline

The Toronto International Film Festival®’s Industry Programmes continue to develop and support the film industry, both at home and around the world, through innovative networking and career-development initiatives. The 2011 TIFF Industry programming lineup presents diverse sessions that explore the worlds of gaming, international co-production, costume design, soundtracks and music scoring, and provides a forum for provocative conversations about complex issues including funding, VOD distribution models, and the burgeoning Chinese film industry. The Festival welcomes industry professionals from around the world including filmmakers Bruce McDonald (Hard Core Logo II), Morgan Spurlock (Comic-Con: Episode IV – A Fan's Hope), Nick Broomfield (Sarah Palin – You Betcha!), Michael Dowse (Goon); producer Ted Hope (Dark Horse, Martha Marcy May Marlene); Relativity Media CEO Ryan Kavanaugh; and musician Jason Collett, and presents a special look at Fortissimo Films’ storied and successful 20-year history with chairman Michael Werner.

Sunrise, the film is an international social media experiment about Child Trafficking in India.

Introduction by Peter Belsito, Guest BloggerThe below piece (really feels like a diary entry) by a filmmaker of our acquaintance introduces an interesting and worthy project attempting to raise funds over the internet. This indie feature, a dramatic film, is going through a process now that is becoming more established and useful in our indie world.What is the main problem today? As Ted Hope, profiled recently in this blog, eloquently said, "the rules for funding have fundamentally changed". Basically as we see it more and more films are coming on line every day and funding sources have not kept up (i.e. have not been increasing).What to do? How to get these things made? Our filmmakers, always an enterprising bunch, have correctly touched upon the internet's 'community aspect', the ability to reach a large number of (sympathetic) people and also to reach 'your demographic', i.e. the ones who should will and want to help you create your vision, 'your' people. They get involved now and will also form the core of your future viewing audience. Getting them involved (i.e. by giving money at this early stage in whatever amounts) is an excellent thing. We also think that while this is a good thing, it is not ever easy. If you want easy take a holiday in Afghanistan now - because film is never easy - just kidding of course but you get my point. Lastly, I can't wait to see the limo bikini drivers film (again just kidding) but I understand perfectly how that harebrained film concept motivated our high minded filmmaker David. His odyssey begins below. We will revisit his efforts as time passes and that way will have a ground level view on this interesting DIY film project.