One week to go and I'm in full on festival mode... Just this week, after lots of help and support from our friends at Picturehouse Films (THANK YOU!), we were able to confirm Robert Altman to attend the 2006 Sarasota Film Festival to recieve an award at our Tribute Dinner and to present his latest work, A Prairie Home Companion, as our Closing Night Film. I am so thrilled... I have been a life-long admirer of Mr. Altman's work, and this is going to be one amazing festival.

I would have given my eye teeth to host Werner Herzog or Robert Towne or Robert Altman at our festival, but to host all three men in the same festival is truly an embarassment of riches. Mr. Herzog is recieving a 14 film documentary retrospective, Mr. Towne a screening of his latest film Ask The Dust, and of course, Mr. Altman will present A Prairie Home Companion as the Closing Night Film. Then there are Mary Harron and Michael Cuesta, Kelly Reichardt, Susan Seidelman, Goran Dukic and on and on-- so many amazing directors will be attending. The best part for me will be moderating the Q&A's with these amazing artists and sharing their ideas with our audiences, and having a dialogue with them about their tremendous work.

Add to this Chevy Chase, Paula Wagner, William H Macy, Felicity Huffman, Allison Janney, Joe Pantoliano, Jeremy Renner, Sally Kellerman-- what a year.

One week to Opening Night and Funny Money... more soon!

On Thursday March 9, about 400 press and guests gathered at the gorgeous The Long Boat Key Club and Resort here in Sarasota, FL for the announcement of our 2006 Sarasota Film Festival lineup. As I mentioned before, the city loves its film festival; Friday's newspapers had us above the fold on Page 1, and the local excitement has been palpable since we announced. Why, you ask? Well. This year's line up of films and talent is really pretty exciting, if I do say so myself; there is something for everyone, and I am really proud of what we've accomplished. What's that, you say? 185 films, 105 features from 19 countries with 35 premieres of one sort or another. And you wondered why I haven't been religious with the blogging... The Back Row Manifesto proudly presents the films and programs of the 2006 Sarasota Film Festival.

First and foremost, in a program of truly exciting screenings and events, I am really most excited to talk about Werner Herzog. This year, Werner Herzog will attend the Sarasota Film Festival and pick up our World Cinema Master Award at our World Cinema Celebration on April 5th. In addition, we will also be hosting An Evening With Werner Herzog, where Werner will screen his classic film Little Dieter Needs To Fly and we will take a (first time ever!) sneak peek at scenes from his upcoming fiction film, Rescue Dawn (which was based on Little Dieter). The highlight for me has been putting together a 14 film retrospective of Werner's non-fiction films, a project I have been working on for months and months.

MAN AGAINST NATURE: THE NON-FICTION FILMS OF WERNER HERZOG

No artist has represented the powerful conflict between mankind and the natural world with more insight and daring than Werner Herzog. As part of our salute to Mr. Herzog’s career, the Sarasota Film Festival is honored to present an extensive retrospective of his non-fiction filmmaking.

Echoes From A Sombre Empire (1990)
Fata Morgana (1970)
The Great Ecstasy of Woodcarver Steiner (1974)
Grizzly Man (2005)
How Much Wood Would a Woodchuck Chuck (1976)
La Soufrière (1977)
Land of Silence and Darkness (1971)
Lessons of Darkness (1992)
Little Dieter Needs To Fly (1997)
My Best Fiend (1999)
Werner Herzog Eats His Shoe(1980, Directed by Les Blank)
Wheel of Time (2003)
The White Diamond (2004)
The Wild Blue Yonder (2005)

Werner Herzog will receive the 2006 World Cinema Master Award

The Competitions

For the second year, we're featuring three competitions; Best Narrative Feature, Best Documentary Feature, and Independent Visions Competition. I think we have some great films in this line-up, and I am hopeful that we can properly honor celebrate this tremendous work at our festival.

Best Narrative Feature Competition

Beowulf & Grendel
Director: Sturla Gunnarsson

The Death of Mr. Lazarescu
Director: Cristi Puiu

Kilomètre Zéro
Director: Hiner Saleem

Mary
Director: Abel Ferrara

Old Joy
Director: Kelly Reichardt

Somersault
Director: Cate Shortland

Twelve and Holding
Director: Michael Cuesta

Best Documentary Feature

51 Birch Street
Director: Doug Block

American Blackout
Director: Ian Inaba

Black Sun
Director: Gary Tarn

Clear Cut: The Story of Philomath, OR
Director: Peter Richardson

Huldufólk 102 (World Premiere)
Director: Nisha Inalsingh

Rank
Director: John Hyams

What Remains
Dir: Steven Cantor

Independent Visions Competition

Cocaine Angel
Director: Michael Tully

Find Love
Director: Erica Dunton

The Guatemalan Handshake
Director: Todd Rohal

Our Very Own
Director: Cameron Watson

Somebodies
Director: Hadji

Sweet Land
Director: Ali Selim

Three Dollars
Director: Robert Connolly

Wild Tigers I Have Known
Director: Cam Archer

Opening Night
This year, the festival is Opening with the East Coast premiere of Leslie Greif's Funny Money which stars Chevy Chase in a performance that should re-establish him as one of America's top funnymen, Penelope Ann Miller, Christopher McDonald and many more. Chevy Chase, Penelope Ann Miller, and Christopher McDonald will all be attending the screening at The Van Wezel Performing Arts Center for 1,736 film goers and the after party for about 1,000 or so, held in the gorgeous palazzo of the Ringling Museum Of Art on March 31st. In addition, I just found out that Gene Simmons of KISS will be bringing his crew from the A&E reality show Family Jewels to the Opening Night party, and as a Michigan boy, I have already put in my request for Detroit Rock City. It is going to be a fun evening.

Chevy Chase and Penelope Ann Miller in Funny Money

Closing Night
This year is the first year the Sarasota FF has ever had a Closing Night Film! In previous years, when the fest was scheduled in late January/early February, we always had to compete with the Super Bowl (a huge bummer). Now, with our new dates, we are thrilled to be announce that we will be hosting the East Coast Premiere of Robert Altman's A Prairie Home Companion. I can't divulge who is attending the screening quite yet, but let me just say that if all of our i's get dotted and t's crossed in the coming few days, there will be a big announcement on this front (fingers crossed). Regardless, a tremendous movie and I am so excited to share it with our community. I am not only a huge Robert Altman fan, but I love Garrison Keillor's radio program as well. What would Sunday be without This American Life and A Prairie Home Companion? Public radio is HOT!

Garrison Keillor, Meryl Streep, and Lindsay Lohan in A Prairie Home Companion

The Regal Cinemas Filmmakers Tribute, April 8th, 2006

The Regal Cinemas Filmmakers Tribute dinner is our festival's big gala; 850 people enjoy a four course meal at the Long Boat Key Club. This year, we have an amazing line-up of honorees, all of whom we are thrilled to have as our guests. This year's Filmmaker's Tributees are:

Ms. Paula Wagner receiving our 2006 Excellence in Producing Award
Ms. Felicity Huffman receiving our 2006 Breakthrough Performer Award
Mr. Robert Towne receiving our 2006 Filmmaker Award
Mr. William H Macy receiving our 2006 Career Achievement Award

and we may be annoucing more in the coming days. We're deeply honored these amazing artists will be joining us for what should be a powerhouse night. I have to say, Robert Towne is one of my all-time heroes, and I can't believe I get to host both he and Werner Herzog in the same festival. But William H Macy and Felicity Huffman, and Paula Wagner? Sort of unreal to me.

Robert Towne, William H Macy, Felicity Huffman, Paula Wagner

Saturday night features two events, as the Tribute Dinner followed by our Late Night Wrap party, which this year features a Mission Impossible 3 theme and will feature a live performance by Brazilian Girls (whose debut record has basically been the soundtrack of the SFF offices for the past three months).

Brazilian Girls

Speaking of music, we are bringing back the Independent Visions celebration this year. After last year's three show juggernaut, this year, we're celebrating Queer Cinema with the U.S. Festival premiere of Lesli Klainberg and Lisa Ades' Fabulous! The Story of Queer Cinema, Alex Hinton's history of queer hip hop Pick Up The Mic with a performance by punk rock drag cabaret superstars Kiki and Herb and rappers Aggracyst, JenRo, Juba Kalamka, Katastrophe from Pick Up The Mic. It all takes place on Thursday April 6th.

Be Afraid, Be Very Afraid: Kiki and Herb

There are so many other things to talk about. We're showing the amazing A Lion In The House twice, and donating 50% of all proceeds to filmmaker Julia Reichert and the other 50% to the Sarasota Wellness Community, a local charity that benefits cancer patients. I am hopeful we can raise some serious cash for both.

In addition, we have a cool SFF Classics program this year, including new 35mm prints of Spirit of The Beehive and Black Orpheus (if you can't get to the Film Forum, bring the Film Forum to you!), as well as a screening of William A. Seiter's Skinner's Dress Suit from 1926, the first movie ever shown in Sarasota.

And on and on and on... I'll post more as we draw closer. I am really excited. I know this may be the longest post ever, but with SXSW going on, it is tough to get the word out there. Might as well DIY, no? Full list of films below. I hope that you can join us this year for some Sun, Cinema, and Celebration!

Tonight is the night! After MONTHS of hard work, we are announcing the Sarasota Film Festival line-up tonight and I have to say, I am really proud of this year's festival program. Not only do we have some amazing artists and their work coming to the festival, but I have been able to work with a great team of people down here to make it all happen. I know it is a little bit self-congratulatory to use this space to pat myself on the back, but hey, after working on this line-up since September, maybe a little trumpeting is in order. Stay tuned for more details and hopefully some pictures from the press launch itself. The announcement is always a big event here in town as sponsors, press and film fans, about 400 people total, attend the press announcement. Sarasota is SERIOUS about its film festival, and that is why this is such a great festival for which to work and why Sarasota such a great community for filmmakers to visit.

In the meantime, one of our filmmakers made a couple of announcements of his own yesterday, so I can say how excited we are to be hosting the Southeast premieres of Michael Tully's Cocaine Angel

and Todd Rohal's The Guatemalan Handshake

both of which will be appearing in our Independent Visions Competition.

I promise not to use this blog for shameless self-promotion, but tomorrow I will go a little more in-depth into the festival line-up and talk about some of my own personal highlights in putting it together. I usually like to use this space for writing about film and my own experience as a film viewer, but I have been so far down the rabbit hole in terms of programming, my own experience has been engulfed in the work required. Obviously, I have not been able to talk about the festival on here, so I have been really holding back (hence the paucity in posting) and I think I can live with a couple of posts about the festival itself. Until tomorrow...

I’m new to this liveblogging phenomenon, but from what I understand it involves posting updates to a single blog entry during an event, keeping the reader abreast of the author’s impressions as the event unfolds. So, in an effort to keep up with what the hip kids are doing nowadays ( or in a shameless batting of the eyelashes at The Reeler ), I thought I would unwind from an arduously intense day by liveblogging a DVD. After all, now that Wellspring is gone and everyone seems to agree that this is the future of foreign film distribution, I better start to think of seeing films like this in my bedroom, laptop in hand, as an event! Buy your stocks now, people!

Tonight, I’ll be drawing from the top of the ol’ Netflix pile; Chantal Ackerman’s La Captive. Let’s hit the play button and begin, shall we? Oh, and duh: SPOILERS!

A Scene from Chantal Ackerman's La Captive, or so I believe, as I haven't watched it yet

The #1 Freudian Slip of Oscar Night goes to....

"I was so happy for Reese Witherspoon... I love her. But I was really glad to see Philip Semen Hoffmore win."
-- Tennis Star Serena Williams on E!, upon entering the Vanity Fair party.

I know that everyone is basking in their Spirit Awards/ Academy Awards weekend media frenzy, where the annual rites of naming artists winners and losers and best of the year will continue alongside the secondary cottage industry of criticizing the clothes and hair and make up of attending celebrities. And no matter what I could possibly say, this monolithic distraction, and one in which I certainly participate, will march ever forward, unhindered by objections of irrelevance raised by many Americans who haven't even seen most of the nominees. I'll admit, I love movies and I like to watch them celebrated, to see people whose work I admire recieve the recognition they so truly deserve. Case in point: I am thrilled that Robert Altman will be receiving an honorary Oscar tonight. It is the one moment to which I am truly looking forward and I am hopeful that the montage of his work turns some heads and maybe gets people unfamiliar with him to check out his best work.

That said, there is certainly a dark side to all of this. Lately, I can't help but notice the incredible upswing in entertainment passing itself off as legitimate news. I actually watched a local news anchor here in FL host a round table on the 10:00pm news last week where the topic of discussion was whether or not Paula Abdul was drunk or high on American Idol this past week.

Ok, there is certainly room in society for this type of thing, but as the news rooms of American are used more and more for the purposes of promoting corporate synergy, things just seem to have become more blatantly obvious and so dumbed down. You hear campaign managers for political candidates bemoaning the lack of time on newscasts for the presentation of legitimately important news items, but now that local news has put aside all pretense of bringing us newsworthy information and has become a marketing vehicle for reality TV shows (gotta keep those ratings up!), who is talking in depth about local politics, national issues, or complicated international relations?

It is certainly not the cable news networks, who are as guilty of the crime of irrelevance as the local networks. Think I making too much of nothing? Try this doozy of a story, where CNN actually spent over a minute discussing Starbucks' brave, daring attempt to launch a line of breakfast sandwiches. You've got to be fucking kidding me.

And That's The Way It WAS... Where have all the newsmen gone?

All of this is old news and I know, I know, no one cares and I am a part of the problem, writing about and helping promote movies. Hell, even a film like Goodnight, And Good Luck. illustrates the point for us, showing Edward R. Murrow interviewing Liberace. This is not a new story. Yeah, I know. But let's all try a little experiment, shall we? Tonight, after the Oscars or tomorrow when you wake up and watch your favorite irrelevant network morning show, count the number of times the Oscars are discussed, then count how many times anyone discusses the growing religious violence in Iraq, the president's trip to Afghanistan, India, and Pakistan or the supposed plan that was leaked to the press about how the U.S. military in planning to withdraw from Iraq just in time for congressional campaign season. I know, I know... BORING LIBERAL! yeah, yeah.

Anyway. I'll be watching for Altman tonight, but my mind is elsewhere these days. I just don't know where we're headed as a culture. There is no seriousness. There is a hateful dismissal of complex ideas. Intellectuals, thinkers, and artists have been fully marginalized. I don't know how to participate in a society where I share so little with my fellow citizens. What to do...